Thunder or His Voice

On several occasions recorded in Scripture, God's voice broke audibly into the physical world — and the response of those present revealed everything about their spiritual tuning. When Paul was knocked to the ground on the Damascus road, his companions "saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of him who was speaking." (Acts 22:9) When a voice thundered from heaven over Jesus, "the crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him." (John 12:29) Same sound. Wildly different receptions. What we hear depends entirely on how we are listening — and who we have come to know. Jesus made this plain with a shepherd's image: "the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out… and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." (John 10:3-5) Recognition is the key. If Jesus is a stranger to us, his voice will always sound like thunder — background noise in a noisy world. But when we know him, his whisper cuts through everything. The invitation is simple: draw close enough that his voice becomes unmistakable. (Craig B). Open Bible – bit.ly/Act22v9, bit.ly/Joh12v29, bit.ly/Joh10v3-5