Ripping it out!..
// February 22nd, 2009 // My God
This process…”The Unplugging” I call it… is at times an excruciating process.
Several weeks ago we cut our cable TV back to 19! channels…
This week we are getting rid of the Xbox 360 and cut off the cable tv completely!!!
I determined several months back that I was not convinced that I could truly “hear” God. It often felt more like bad lip-reading than hearing. I talked to others about this perception and they assured me that I could hear from God but that it was an “imperfect science” so to speak.
I mulled it over and I have this whole thing about what I call “exception based religion” basically when we read something in the bible that seems to be pretty literal… and we cannot explain it… and we have no idea how to apply it… and we have never experienced it… we make an exception! we set it aside and determine that it obviously means something figurative or has a hidden meaning. We form our theory about what it means and add that “exception” into our doctrine and from now on… anything that vaguely calls upon that verse is easily handled. Thus our doctrine becomes dumbed down to near uselessness.. it becomes traditions and Pharisaical blather that is useless for improving our relationship with a God that we refuse to seek because we have finally “figured it all out”
Well I don’t buy it! I believe that if it doesn’t make sense… I need to explore it! so back to the “Hearing God” discussion… so almost everyone I have spoken to has told me that they believe they can “hear from God” but…” well It’s not like an audible voice… and I am not always sure if it is not me just thinking” in- fact I have experienced many that felt like they were speaking something that was from God for me only to attach a disclaimer “test it to see if it is from God… if not just disregard it”
Now I look back through all of history and the men and women that have heard from God, none of them even flinched about whether God spoke to them or not… in fact Samuel thought that someone, possibly the high priest was calling for him!
then there is Elijah!
1 Kings 19 (New King James Version)
God’s Revelation to Elijah
11 Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
13 So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
alright… To me… whether loud or quiet there is no mistaking when God is talking!… so if he is talking… and I cannot hear him… my assumption is that the problem is mine. not his!
so call me crazy… but I can only guess that I have filled my ears for so long with noise from TV, video games, movies,music…etc. that it is impossible to hear God unless he hits me with a hurricane! (an ironic observation seeing that has actually happened)
So Kimberly and I talked about it and… we ripped it out! the silence is deafening… and it is excruciating! but soon… we might hear from God.. and be changed forever!
Jason the bald guy
jasonthebaldguy.com






Once a year, during Lent, I do a media fast. I dont watch TV, listen to music, or get on the internet, and I limit my reading to only a few books.
Well, I do check my email, but I limit it to 15 minutes.
The idea is to stay away from entertainment media. So no comics, or novels, either.
After the 40 days or so of Lent comes Easter on Resurrection Sunday. It’s really an awesome experience.
I find this useful because culture it constantly screaming at us in many different ways. Often we make little compromises here and there and over time our conscience grows numb to certain things.
This help to “push the reset button”.
Also it becomes peaceful after a while and you get used to the quiet on the way to work, and learn how to listen to the Spirit.
For me this fast is a great thing because its a short term goal that I know I can do and it gets great results.
I have very similar frustrations with the exceptions that people make. I hope you hear something.
woo hoo! Im right with ya! I get so frusterated by the NOISE in my life, but Im the one who keeps turning up the volume. I realised a few weeks back that when my house was clean and quiet, the kid was happy and I had nothing to do, I flipped on the tv, the radio, a cd, the internet, the phone, texting, anything to kee me busy and not have any quiet time…then I wonder why I haven;t had time to spend reading the word or just reflecting on th good things in life…
I’m all with you on cutting of the TV, although, I’m not the autority on that in my household so I can just keep it turned OFF when it’s up to me..and when I have some empty time to fill,,,I cn choose NOT to make a call, or watch a show or check my email…but seems like those things always work they’re way back into my life and crudd up all my time… : )