The Big Diehl

God can also speak to us through divine revelation. This is when God shows us something directly in our spirit. I’ve see two types of divine revelation. One is when I am praying, seeking God’s face, and I hear (maybe “feel” is a better word-because its not audible for me) God say something in my heart. The second type is when someone else has heard something from God regarding my life. The latter should always be treated with extreme caution; unfortunately some people manipulate others by placing the words “God says that you need to . . .” in front of their own personal desires. But I believe both are totally valid.

I don’t get how some people don’t believe that God speaks through divine revelation today. Some people believe that God limits his communication with us only through the Bible (which is partly true, but that’s for later). That bugs the snot out of me. The entire book of Revelation was nothing more than a Divine Revelation to the apostle John. The conversion of Saul to Paul was certainly a divine revelation; in fact, the book of Acts is jam packed full of them!

I think that God speaks to us in this way a lot more than we realize. We are just too “loud” to realize it. We need to shut up in order to hear divine revelation more often. Not just audibly but quiet down in our spirits — staying focused on God and remaining moldable.

I was 16. I sat in Pizza Hut’s parking lot in my mom’s car. I wanted to apply for a job there, but I didn’t want to do it without God’s leading. So I made a deal with God. I said, “God, if someone comes out of that door in the next 5 seconds, then I’ll know that you want me to get a job here. 1 … 2 … 3 … 4 … 4 1/2 … 4 3/4 … 4 7/8…”

This is not an example of hearing God’s voice through circumstances. This is an example of “stupid.” When God speaks to us through circumstances, he doesn’t speak through circumstances that we set up. He speaks to us through divine situations.

One Bible example is Jonah. He disobeyed God and was running from Him. He had himself thrown off a ship in order to save the lives of everyone else on the boat. He expected to die. But then this whale came and swallowed Jonah. Jonah’s plan was to die; but his circumstance changed that. Through the circumstance he found his way back to God. (Read the short book of Jonah if you don’t know the story).

Hearing God’s voice through circumstances is a topic that must find balance between two pillars. Firstly, God certainly uses circumstances to guide us. Secondly, circumstances do not always indicate God’s plan. For example, bad things may be hindrances from Satan or a sign from God that we should stop. Both are possible, but the conclusions have opposite results. We make a big mistake if we look solely at our circumstances to hear from God, yet ignore the Bible, Godly counsel, and divine revelation.

I was walking into Wal-Mart today. As I was, I observed a father with two children in his shopping cart walk right past the Salvation Army donation bucket. There was no attendant at the bucket; no bell ringer. I heard the child say something. The father promptly stopped, backed back up several steps to the donation bucket, and told his small child, “You’re right! You’re absolutely right! We do need to put something in here.” He pulled out a few bills from his wallet. As he did, I heard him continue to teach his children, “Do you know why we need to do this? . . . ”

At that point I had entered the store and couldn’t have watched any more of the interaction without being rude. But I can only imagine that the father taught his children a valuable message about caring for others in need.

Those who God has blessed are blessed with the purpose of being a blessing to everyone else. Our blessings from God are for everyone else. It’s our job to take the blessing we have received and give it to those who have not. I’m not just speaking about money.

If you are a great swimmer - teach someone how to swim.
If you are blessed with a musical gift - use it at church.
If you have great thoughts - blog.
If you have the ability to smile - do it more often.

We are blessed to be a blessing!

On Thanksgiving Day I rode down to Kokomo, Indiana with my parents and grandma for Thanksgiving. My aunt lives in Kokomo. (I know what you’re thinking . . . Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama . . . down to Kokomo! We’ll get there fast and then we’ll take it slow…)

This Thanksgiving meal was great. I loved it. Turkey, mashed potatoes, my mom’s famous corn casserole, stuffing, rolls, butter molded in the shape of a turkey, etc. etc. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. We chillaxed there for awhile and headed back the same day. On Friday my sister, her husband, and their daughter were here visiting from Nashville. My brother and his wife came over as well. It was some good family time.

I am here at the car dealership’s waiting room again. When I arrived, the service representative greeted me at my car door and said, “Hey Adam, what’s going on?”

I don’t know this guy except for being here at the service department. I don’t know if he has a wife or girlfriend. I don’t know if he has children, where he lives, or if he goes to church. My only contact was a few days ago that I was here, and even then I had dealt with a different service rep most of the time. I’ve hardly talked with this guy. Yet for some reason, this guy knows my name!

Am I that unforgettable? I don’t think so. I think this guy has excellent interpersonal skills. He knows how to put the “wow” in a conversation. That’s how I felt when I walked away . . . “wow.” And all he did was remember my name.

I heard a concept the other day that I really like. It was in the context of an organization. The leader of the organization shared with me that when he assigns a task out to another staff member, he’ll wait a day or two, and then come to them and ask, “Do you own this?”

When you own something, you take care of the details. You think through the results of actions. You take responsibility for the entire job (or whatever). Nobody has to check up on you to see if you’ve remembered details.

I want to “own” things I’m responsible for. Of course there’s other things that I DON’T own, I’m just helping with. But the stuff where “the buck stops at Adam,” I want to “own” those things — in the sense of responsibility, not necessarily in task.

I hate lies. Sneaky ones, especially.

The sneaky lies are ones that might be, possibly, in a certain way, perhaps, if thought enough about, potentially, maybe could not be considered a lie at all. Sort of.

We have a name for this . . . its usually called deception. It’s sometimes called manipulation. Using these big words doesn’t change what it really is: a lie. But somehow I think we’ve blurred the line to make ourselves feel better about lying. We don’t lie… we just manipulate. That’s a sneaky lie. But still a lie.

Last week I was at an arts conference at Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana. One of the breakout sessions was specifically about worship. I was sitting at a table right next to an older lady about 65 years old. Granger Community Church is known for its progressive arts (i.e. their music rocks the house).

The session leader was discussing the types of songs to use in a service. He discussed hymns, and he said, “Hymns have rich lyrics. Don’t just throw away the hymns. But at the same time, never do a hymn without extreme caution and reservation.”

I happened to glance over to the notepad of the older woman next to me. She wrote something down. It was the only thing she wrote down during the entire session: “DON’T THROW AWAY THE HYMNS OF THE CHURCH!” She’s going to go back to her church and claim that Granger Community Church wants everyone to sing hymns. That’s not what he said. Not even close. But that’s what she heard.

How often do we hear selectively? Do you know people who hear selectively; only comprehending what they want to hear and ignoring stuff that they don’t like? I think we need to always listen to what people are really saying. A lot of times we just listen to what the words they said but we ignore what they are REALLY saying. It’s like if someone says, “Do you want to borrow my car?” they are not just offering their car, they are REALLY saying, “I trust you.”

So the blower on my car’s air conditioning system hasn’t been working. It started acting up when I was in Tulsa. But its worked less and less frequently, and its starting to get pretty cold so I wanted to get it fixed. So today I took it into the dealer to get it fixed.

So here I am sitting in the waiting room. Blogging. It’s pretty crowded in here, actually. There is this mother and young 3 year old daughter that came in a few minutes ago. The daughter said something, and the mother said, “Do you need to use the toilet?” The little girl said, “Yes” and then got a really funny look on her face. The mother replied, “Did you just go? Did you go in your pants?” The girl shook her head affirmatively. I laughed inside. Really hard. You have no idea.

As they were heading to the bathroom, the little girl took real wide steps; walking really funny – sort of like Joe Dirt in the movie. As the girl was leaving, she looked at a random woman in the waiting room and declared in a matter of fact tone, “I have wet pants.” The mother and daughter proceeded to the bathroom.

A few minutes later the mother and daughter came back into the waiting room and sat down. A moment’s silence was broken when the girl declared to the entire waiting room, “I couldn’t poop.”

Ah, a child’s trust and openness. At what point do we stop trusting people? At what point are we concerned about what other people think about us? I read a great quote last night, but I forget who said it:

When you’re 20, you’re worried about what other people think about you.
When you’re 40, you don’t care what other people think about you.
When you’re 60, you realize that people weren’t thinking about you anyhow.

I just tested a piece of equipment that didn’t work anymore. This thing has served my church for YEARS. Like 20 of them. And its dead now. So sad.