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“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land –
not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord" (Amos 8:11).
 Researchers at Ball State University's Center for Media Design recently found that the total time spent with the media - watching television, DVD's or playing video games; listening to the radio, CD's, or MP3 players; spending time on the computer, Internet or sending/receiving email; talking on the telephone, cell phone, or texting; or reading books, magazines or newspapers - by the average American each day was a whopping 11.7 hours (nearly 1/2 of the day, or 2/3 of normal waking hours!). With the recent advent of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and a host of other online resources, that number is sure to grow in the days ahead.
In the midst of an emerging “iCulture” (iPods, iTunes, iPhones, etc.) that is literally saturated with noise, there are a growing number of men and women who are desperate to discern the still, small voice of God (cf. 1 Kings 19:12). They are eager to distinguish God’s voice from the multitude of competing cultural voices that constantly clamor for their attention, and they are increasingly dissatisfied with the poor substitutes so commonly offered by organized religion. So what does the Christian community have to offer to this new generation of spiritual seekers as they attemtp to discern God’s call in an age of unprecedented complexity and confusion? *See the attached resources, listed below, for a place to start. |
Spiritual Discernment |