How do you tell the difference between the Holy Spirit giving you guidance and a stomach ache? This is a profound spiritual question that I have wrestled with on and off throughout my Christian life.
There have been times where I have sensed God’s leading and direction: A mysterious realization of Christ’s presence. There have been other times when I have sensed God to be silent. Awfully silent. Philosophers describe this as the problem of “divine hiddenness.”
Tanya Luhrmann explores “How God Becomes Real,” a fascinating look at how believers experience God, from the perspective of a secular anthropologist.
Here’s an absolute gem on the subject of prayer, from Andy Stanley.
The Backstory
I had two shots (spiritually speaking) to the solar plexus this week. First, Clarke Morledge posted a comment about listening to podcasts from a British apologetics website, and secondly I came across the above podcast by Andy Stanley.
“Stag at Sharkey’s” by George Bellows, 1909
Prior to Clarke’s comment, I knew very little about podcasts. I must confess to being a little jaded about every new technology—who has the time? These days nearly every website has RSS and/or podcast feeds. So what? But I figured if Clarke finds it useful I may as well figure out what all the hoopla is about.
After many, many hours (thanks Clarke!) of researching and resourcing I was able to boil down how podcasts and feeds work, how to get them on my iPad, and how to play podcasts in my car. (For those who spend hours in traffic good audio material is a welcome relief.) Again…so what? This is cool stuff, but I then found myself listening to hours of slow, please-get-to-the-point, mostly boring material. Until I hit upon Andy Stanley’s podcast.
Part of what we’re trying to do with this blog is encourage you to become an autodidactic disciple of Jesus Christ. Some of that involves sharing resources, and some of that involves tools. Look for a forthcoming video that can save you hours of stumbling and fumbling around, and get you painlessly into podcasts and RSS feeds.
In the meantime, meditate on the above message—it packs quite a punch. Enjoy!
Veracity 