THE SCENE: 64 and rainy. Perfect for a heavy beatdown.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER: Uh…skipped?
WARM-O-RAMA:
Little of this and that.
THA THANG:
Grab two CMUs and head around to the back of the Senior Center. We will work under the portico while it pours rain.
Tabata cycles with CMU exercises. 4 rounds each exercise. 20 seconds work / 10 seconds rest. Four exercises (16 work rounds) was one Cycle. After Cycle 1, farmer carry to the end of the building and back. After Cycle 2, farmer carry to the end of the building and back, then rifle carry to the end of the building and back. After Cycle 3, farmer carry to the end of the building and back, rifle carry to the end of the building and back, then heavy lunge walk to the end and back.
MARY:
No time!
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Me and 3 of the best men I know
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
In our living room, we have a decorative sign which reads, “tune my heart to sing thy grace” – a line from the old hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” by Robert Robinson.
For more than a year, Emily and I have been praying a specific prayer – that God would make His will known to us in one area of our lives: children. Should our family grow? If so, through biological children? Adopt? Foster? We are asking and trying to patiently wait for that direction to be made clear to us.
But what does God’s voice sound like? Should we expect an audible voice? A flash of lightning? A vision in the clouds?
In the book of Jerimiah…starting in Chapter 7 the prophet is standing at the gate of a city and relaying God’s words to the the occupants. Part of the message is this, (speaking from God’s perspective), “I have spoken to you time and again, but you wouldn’t listen and I have called you but you wouldn’t answer” (vs 13). Later (vs 24), “(I gave) them this command, ‘Obey me, and then I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you”. Then, “Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention, but followed their own advice and their own stubborn, evil heart”. Another translation says, “but they harkened not, nor inclined their ear.”
I’ve recently enjoyed reading some meditations by a Hebrew scholar named Chaim Bentorah. He offers context for some words or phrases which, in the original language, may have a deeper/different meaning than what the word implies when translated into English. The Hebrew word from this passage which we translate as “inclined” is natah. Traced to its Semitic root, you find it is a musician’ term, used for the tightening of strings on an instrument to tune it. The Hebrew word for “ear” is ‘azan, which means ear – but also in the Semitic, it is a term used for a musical instrument. So, the idea of “inclining one’s ear” is really a word picture of tuning a musical instrument so that it is in harmony with other instruments.
“Hearing the voice of God” might be a matter of tuning the strings of your spirit or heart…so that you are in harmony with His mind and heart.
How do we tune our hearts?
Lynette Kittle offers these three strategies:
- By talking with God. Prayer helps to align our hearts with His. We can ask Him to create a pure heart within us and renew a steadfast spirit within us. Psalm 51:10
- By watching what we say – since our heart is where the words on your lips originate. Luke 6:45, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
- By choosing God’s ways over your ways. Disobedience is a sure sign of a hard heart that is not in harmony with His. Zechariah 7:12, “The Lord of Armies says this: ‘Make fair decisions. Show faithful love and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the resident alien or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’ 11 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they closed their ears so they could not hear. 12 They made their hearts like a rock so as not to obey the law or the words that the Lord of Armies had sent by his Spirit”
Maybe the way you come to know God’s will is by tuning your heart to be in harmony with His. Work at this by prayer, controlling your tongue, and living in obedience.
MOLESKIN:
Hat tips to Chaim Bentorah and Lynette Kittle
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Convergence Nov 7