[Pearls Ep 169: Answering atheism Tuesday.]
Have you noticed some people are remarkably successful with just one thing?
- Thomas Kinkade essentially painted the same cottage over and over.
- The script and co-stars may change but Jack Nicholson is always Jack Nicholson.
- Kenny G’s saxophone ballads…
We’re taking nothing away from those artists – they found their sweet spot and were smart enough to stick with it.
But they were all pikers compared to the master himself – the point-tailed twerp.
The pitchfork-packing-pervert has many tricks up his sleeve, most of them available 24-7 on tiktok, but his #1 schtick is to convince us that our experiences of the divine are just our imagination:
- God wasn’t really sending a message with that wildly unlikely, coincidental meeting – it was pure random chance.
- God isn’t really present in that little voice that has an uncanny way of telling us the truth, especially when we least want to hear it – that’s just psychobabble.
- Scripture isn’t really God’s living word – it is just the product of “evolutionary psychology.”
In fact, the red-faced-twit gets so much mileage out of his #1 con, that he morphed it into his #2 deception as well – convincing us to trust his voice, while not even believing it’s him. It’s that voice that says, “all this God stuff is just a bunch of superstition.” And that voice that says, “this is how it’s always going to be, get used to it.” And that voice that says, “you deserved to have that bad thing happen.”
The bottom line is that Jesus assures us, “my sheep know my voice,” and that galls the diabolical degenerate. He is determined to do whatever he can to disrupt us from trusting our ability to know God’s voice – that is his go-to tactic.
This is why we are always encouraging people to collect their “pearls.” Those moments in life when God has made Himself unmistakably known to us. Those moments should become part of our bedrock. Our touchstone.
A touchstone, to save you the web search, is a dark siliceous stone. Siliceous stones, like granite or quartz, are tough but also finely grained. You can then rub a soft, precious metal against it (like gold or silver) and assess the purity by the brightness of the markings left in the stone. In other words, the touchstone reveals the purity of something very precious.
When we start feeling far from the Lord, and the weight of the world and the enemy are weighing down on us, we can test those negative messages against our pearls; against what, deep down, we know to be the truth. That God exists and He desires the very best for us.
If you’re uncertain about whether you know God’s voice, below are some encouraging words from St. Therese of Lisieux. They are encouraging because they show that everyone “hears” God differently. The important thing is that we just keep listening, paying attention, trusting – and asking God to reveal His voice to us:
“I know and have experienced that ‘the Kingdom of God is within us,’ that our Master has no need of books or teacher to instruct a soul. The Teacher of teachers instructs without sound of words, and though I have never heard Him speak, yet I know He is within me, always guiding and inspiring me; and just when I need them, lights, hitherto unseen, break in upon me. As a rule, it is not during prayer that this happens, but in the midst of my daily duties.”
Easter blessings –
Steve and Karen Smith
Postscript: The Good Shepherd (John 10:1-10)
Jesus said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”
Although Jesus used this figure of speech, the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.
So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through Me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”