How do we hear God's voice?

Here is a great question! How do we hear God's voice? How do we know when God is talking to us? How do we recognize God's voice? Do we lay out a fleece and test God? How do we know?

I've been asking myself that question for years. The thing that frustrates me the most is when I hear people say, "God told me .... whatever." Did God verbally tell them? I don't think so. I don't think God has talked verbally to anyone in quite sometime. God gave us the Holy Spirit and his word. This is all we need to make a decision. This and, obviously, a relationship with Jesus.

The problem I have with people stating what I had mentioned above is, for new Christians or Non-Christians they get the attitude that either A) The person is wacky or B) They're doing something wrong because God is not talking to them. It also amazes me how many people have actually tested God through little assignments for God to complete. Let's say for example they're bowling and all of the sudden they are convicted about a certain situation. They tell God, "OK, if I get 3 strikes in a row then it's God's will." Honestly, do they really need to do that? What do you think God is thinking of that person? I'll tell you what I think he's thinking. I think God is saying, "Really, you need 3 strikes to know if it is my will or not? Honestly, maybe you should check my word again. What did I say? And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14:13-14"

What does all of this mean? It means if we are in his will, and we ask for anything that is in his will, we will receive it. If we are in his will, when we are not sure if the path we are about to follow is in his will, go to his word. His word will guide us with the help of the Holy Spirit. If you read your Bible daily, and study it continually, the Holy Spirit will give you the answers to all questions through his word. We don't need a verbal response from God because we have the Holy Spirit living in us giving us the interpretation.

Let us continue to walk in the light as Jesus is in the light and all confusion will disappear!

John 15:7

Children's Message

I just started, last Sunday, doing a Children's Message during the Sunday Morning service at church. This is going to be a great way to include the kids in on the service and, God willing, I will have a new message for 52 Sundays. I am going to have to start putting these messages on paper and maybe I'll have a better way of tracking what I talk about every week. Maybe I'll even post them here or on one of my other blogs. I started my first one last week with a torn and restored tissues talking about how, when we sin, it tears our relationship with God appart, but with Jesus, he can heal our realtionship. Please pray for me and this new venture that God has given me.

God is "always" in control!

Dan

1 Corinthians 10:24

First day on the ATC Blitz

Here I sit in my room after completing day one of the AutoTrader.com Blitz in Michigan. I am in Lansing, MI. Sitting in a not so great room in a Best Western hotel. The great news is that Terry and I (Terry is my partner in crime on the blitz this week) sold $500 on the first day of the blitz. The last time I was on a blitz, on the first day I didn't sell a thing so it's a step in the right direction.

Still, got a lot on my mind. Family, our house, my job, ventriloquism and what God's direction is with my life. I would love, one time, a slap in the face, you know, a with out a doubt sign of what God wants me to do. Anyone who reads this, I would like you to pray that God would do just that, give me an obvious sign of what he wants me to do. At this point, I'm will to do what ever it takes to do God's will. What it is and why is yet to be determined.

Titus 3:3

Blaine vs. Angel

Ok, here is the topic that's been going around for quite a while. Who is better, Criss Angel or David Blaine? Now this is an interesting question, especially since both Blaine and Angel have done so much for the magic community. Let's start alphabetically, we'll start with Criss Angel (and we can start alphabetically with the first or the last name since C is before D and A is before B).

Criss has just started to become a household name the last couple of years since his new series started to air on A&E called MINDFREAK. This has caught the attention of many people and is a great form of entertainment. What Criss does on his show actually raises the bar for magicians and really looks like he performs miracles on the show. Mind you, these are all tricks and, the majority of the time, Criss' life is never in danger. I'm not going to give up any secrets in this blog but just to say that magicians always use deception and illusion to perform so called, impossible feats. Criss is no exception. Since I know how a lot of what he does is done, I know this for fact. I really enjoyed his first season of MINDFREAK and was even interested in Criss before he was popular from his Broadway show. What I don't like is the way everyone always acts like Criss is going to die performing these stunts. His brother is the worst, and he's a bad actor. He knows Criss isn't in any danger yet, he is almost in tears every time Criss does a stunt.

Don't get me wrong, I like Criss. I like what he has done for the magic community and what he has done for entertainment in general. He is great to watch and people love him. If I could make any suggestions to Criss I would say this, "Criss stop praying to God in Jesus name and then, right after the pray, curse like a sailor. They just don't go together and, if you are a Christian, it's not a good witness."

Now let's move on to David Blaine, or as I like to call him, David Blaine. David is a Street Magician. As a matter of fact, he pretty much made Street Magic popular. Now for those of you who don't know what Street Magic is (and yes, every time I say Street Magic I will capitalize the S and the T) street magic is (OK, I lied) where a magician goes up to some stranger and either asks them if they want to see a trick or starts a conversation with them and shows them a trick. The cool thing about STREET MAGIC (how do you like that, all caps this time) is that there is no set up, it's not a controlled environment and, you have to be good or your going to hear about it.

David wasn't the first to start street magic, ever hear of Harry Anderson, you know, the judge off of Night Court? He was a street magician before he was an actor. As a matter of fact, maybe he should have stuck to street magic. He was OK in Night Court, but his career started going downhill after Steven King's IT. Anyway back to David, his monotone dialogue and uncomfortable pauses really adds to the illusion that he creates. David is a mysterious person, at least that how he looks on all of his specials. As I said with Criss, David also uses deception and illusion to be effective and make his trick look like more of a miracle on TV. The bottom line about this is that when you perform a trick live, human nature falls into play and when you hear someone describing what you just did it is almost always 10 times better than what you originally did. That being said, some editing is necessary since there is a rewind and record on the TV.

David does more of the actual stunt stuff like a 44 day fast. Not for me. Sitting in ice. Being suspended on a poll or trying to break the underwater hold your breath record. I, at first, got a little frustrated with David Blaine when he edited his show and always didn't show you the full effect, but then I realized, that's just good TV. Besides, Samatha Stevens was doing David Blaine / Criss Angel stuff long ago. The only difference was that they actually do the majority of what you see through deception and they have a live audience, also, I doubt either one of their mothers is named Endora.

Bottom line, Charisma is what made these two popular without a doubt. People just love to watch them and cheer for their success. I would like to see more of David Blaine, haven't seen him in a while and I wish Criss much success on Season 3 of MINDFREAK. Hope there's a season 4 and 5 as well. OH, to answer the question THE WINNER IS ..... US! I know it sounds like a cop out but really, their both entertaining and people love to watch them so I can't say anything other than that. They both have their PROS and CONS so let's just leave it at that. Love em both and let's not compare. Their both great entertainers. Hey, I'd take either one over David Copperfield, but that's another story for another day!

To find out more about Criss Angel go to http://www.crissangel.com/

To find out more about David Blaine go to http://www.davidblaine.com/

Video of Criss Angel thread trick

Video of David Blaine with Tyra Banks

1 Corinthians 2:9-10

Cavs win Eastern Conference

OK so it seems that I only talk about sports but this is news to brag about. When was the last time that we could say that the Cleveland Cavaliers won the Eastern Conference. Can you say NEVER. Now I'm not real impressed with the coaching that is going on with the Cavs but when you have players like LeBron, Boobie, Larry and Drew you can make up for some of the bad coaching.

One thing I would like to mention is the humbleness of LeBron. After game 5 (you know, the one that he scored 29 of the last 30 Cavs points in double overtime) an announcer asked LeBron if he knew he was THAT good. He said, " No I didn't, but I'm just blessed. I thank God for the talent that I have." Now that's an answer! None of this, "Yeah, I'm great!" It was nice to see him give God the credit for his talent. Like it or not, if you are talented in any area, it came from God.

Philippians 3:1-11