Teen Stuff



About this page
The Voice Of God      إقرأ "صوت الله" بالعربية
Restricted? Or Directed?      إقرأ "يقيدك؟ أم يقودك؟" بالعربية




About this page

This page is to reach out to our younger teenagers (11-15). The contents here are mostly rendered in a patient and thorough dialog style. It takes into consideration the full right of teenagers to express their views, and the conclusions are based on biblical hits that meet and attract the teens thought!

N.B.
Some of the items here are published as a series titled "Calm dialog with a roaring teen", in Aghsan, a non periodical publication, by Coptic youth bishopric addressing teens. The original dialogues are written in Arabic, and translated here into English with due variations.






  Calm talk with a roaring teen

The Voice Of God!

Published in Aghsan, November, December 19999, #10


I want to hear God's voice! All guys around talk on His behalf. But I want to hear Him, listen to Himself talking directly to me!

God speaks in many and various ways (Hebrews 1:1)
____________________

Give me an example?

Prayers!
____________________

Prayers?, in prayers it is I who speak not God!

That is why you fail to hear His voice in prayers, because YOU ONLY speak! You tell your Agbeya prayers in order, then you conclude by telling a list of your needs and questions.. That is all great and needed but not ENOUGH, Because you conclude your prayers without giving God a chance to speak! Prayers is a dialog, not a monolog, It is a two-party conversation: God and you.
____________________

Do you mean that If I give God a chance to speak in my prayers, I may hear His voice?

Certainly!

In my earrrs?

In your hearrrt!
____________________

(Disappointed) Is there another way to Hear god's voice?

Sure there is! Read the holy book! Come on, how do you read? (Luke 10:26) If you read seriously, with meditation, and a hope in understanding, you will hear the voice of God enlightening your mind.
____________________

I admit it. You manage to fill me with longing to hearing the voice of God with my heart in prayers, and with my mind in reading the holy book, but... er...Let me be frank, I feel you are escaping from my point! I am a human being who has physical senses, I want to hear the voice of God by my ears!!! Like Samuel, He listened to God's voice by his ears! Did not he?

(soothing smile) Well beloved one, I do not need to escape your point!    I can answer you with full confidence that:
YOU hear the voice of God by your ears!
____________________

(Jolted) Do I? with my ears?
WHEN? and HOW?


In the confession sessions!
When you sit before the priest,your father!
The voice of the priest is the voice of God into your ears!
____________________

(persistently) But Samuel heard the very voice of God, not the voice of the priest Ali!

(Silent smile)

Why do you smile?
____________________

Because when God spoke to Samuel, He used the voice of Ali, the priest! Let me ask you: Was Samuel well aware of the voice of Ali? His master and spiritual father?

Certainly, Samuel served God before Ali for years! (1 Samuel 3:1)

Then, how can you explain that Samuel believed that the voice he heard was Ali's voice? even for three times? inspite of Ali's denial each time??? Should not we then conclude that:
God called Samuel with the familiar voice of his spiritual father?
And... Do you think God did that absurdly? in vain? Or ,rather, each biblical word is written for our benefit, and for the edification of our learning???
____________________

(pondering)

Hey, what are you pondering on?

I am thinking how God does not deprive us of His soothing voice, and how we miss many chances to hear Him, and how we have to open our ears, our hearts, and our minds to His soothing voice!