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to the "Future Studies Page" Hearing God in a Noisy World: Prayer as Listening
by Timothy L. Owings
Below you will find a collection of information
about this book. Most of the information has been mined from the Smyth & Helwys web
page for the book (http://www.helwys.com/books/owings.html).
$16.00 Hardback
Online price $12.80
ISBN: 1-57312-175-4
144 pages
Publisher: Smyth & Helwys
In a world rapidly moving toward secularity, where violence and
tragedy have seemed to join forces with loneliness and relational abandonment, does God
still hear and answer prayer?
Hearing God in a Noisy World answers with a resounding,
"Yes!" Owings explains how to tune our hearts to hear God speaking in the
dynamic interrelationship between creation, scripture, the people of faith, and the
individual. Then he explores God's answers-"yes," "no,"
"wait," and silence- and our responses to them. These theological and practical
handles for understanding God's voice in prayer will guide anyone seeking meaningful
spiritual growth or coping with tragedy, illness, disability, or spiritual loneliness.
Written in an honest and straightforward manner, readers will take away a new and
exhilarating awareness of God’s presence and voice in their lives. It is also an
excellent resource for preaching or teaching about prayer.
Timothy L. Owings is Pastor of First Baptist Church, Augusta,
Georgia. A graduate of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky,
he has also served churches in Alabama and North Carolina. Owings is the host of
"Religion Today," a syndicated radio program on Georgia News Network and is the
author of A Cumulative Index to New Testament Greek Grammars.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Gardner Taylor
Acknowledgments
Introduction - The Listening Heart
Chapter 1. Speak to My Heart
Chapter 2. This Is My Father's World
Chapter 3. God's Word - Human Words
Chapter 4. People of God - Faithful People
Chapter 5. The Empowering Drama
Chapter 6. What Part of "No" Do You Not Understand?
Chapter 7. Is "Yes" God's Best?
Chapter 8. Unexpected Silence
Chapter 9. Later, Eventually, Sometime
Conclusion - Prayer and the Listening Heart
Forward from Hearing God in a Noisy World
Timothy Owings has given to all of us a stirring and sustaining
testimony of how faith in Christ can bolster us for the unforeseen, and often devastating,
experiences of life. It is beyond question that we poor, besieged humans, buffeted so
often by circumstances that seem cruel and inexplicable, need to learn from one another
how to meet these “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” This need to trade
example and encouragement is infinitely enhanced when the light of Christ is thrown on our
experience.
In this volume, Dr. Owings points us to the enduring strength found in the Scriptures. He
reminds us that in and through the accounts of the Bible, God speaks to us, not nearly so
judgmental as winsome and caring. Particularly helpful is his insistence that we respect
the wholeness of the Bible and not see it as a collection of isolated snippets.
When the author turns to prayer, the reader is able to see a reflection of how this
pastor-preacher has won his way through what might have been a shattering tragedy to a
firm, bright confidence that all of the Lord’s ways turn toward us with strength
sufficient for the living of our days in confidence and in victory. One leaves the
author’s treatment of prayer greatly strengthened and humbly grateful that one who
has passed through deep waters turns to the rest of us with the assurance that the
promises of God are enough, more than enough, to get us safely to the farther shore.
—Gardner Taylor
Brooklyn, NY
Reading as
Listening
An excerpt from Hearing God in a Noisy World
by Timothy L. Owings
A person who sits down with a Bible and begins to read it as a
novel from cover to cover is in for a major disappointment. Yes, I've known people who
have worked through the Bible from beginning to end. They deserve a medal! In all my years
of living within the pages of the Bible, I've never read "the whole thing" from
cover to cover. Nevertheless, I suppose I've read the Bible in its entirety several times
in the course of personal study and sermon preparation.
How then can a person read the Bible and, in the experience of reading, hear the voice of
God? Let's form an answer to that question around three words" text, plan, and
purpose. First, you need to purchase a contemporary text of the Bible. Many people die on
their third page of Bible reading, harpooned by the language of the King James Version. I
might as well say it now and be done with it: there is nothing sacred about the King James
Version of the Bible. It did not exist prior to 1611! What many people find holy about the
King James translation is its Shakespearean style, eloquent phrasing, and
"holy-sounding" language. For many, the King James Version is God's Word because
that's the text they heard read around the dinner table or from the pulpit. For others, a
beloved pastor preached from the King James Version and occasionally lambasted
"modern translations." Having said that, vast numbers of serious Christians
honestly believe that any version of the bible other than the King James is either wrong,
corrupt, or both.
Relax! Buy a contemporary translation of the Bible. Popular contemporary translations
include the New International Version, The New Revised Standard Version, the American
Standard Version, and the new Contemporary English Version. There is no perfect
translation. Translation is not an exact science and by necessity passes through fallible
human instruments. Buy a contemporary translation for reading purposes--read God's Word,
and listen for God's voice. You will find God speaking to you in profound ways when you
start reading God's Word in a contemporary translation. That was the genius of the King
James Version in the seventeenth century--people heard God's word in the language of their
day. That same dynamic works in our day when a listening heart picks up a contemporary
translation of the Bible and begins to read.
Second, develop a plan for reading the Bible. A good place to begin your reading is the
book at the center of the Bible, the Psalms. In fact, a simple plan for reading the Bible
is to go to the center and work your way out. Genesis (particularly the first eleven
chapters) and Revelation are considered by many to be the two most difficult books of the
Bible to understand. Read them last! Start in the Psalms, any one of them (there are 150).
There you will meet people who wrote of their soul's anguish, confusion, anger, and
celebration. Every human emotion can be found in the Psalms.
If you're wanting to read stories, start working through the Gospel of Luke and read the
life of Jesus. Luke contains some of Jesus' most remembered parables. From the Old
Testament, read the story of God's relationship with Abraham beginning in Genesis 12. Keep
reading and see what happened to his and Sarah's only child, Isaac. Don't stop. The
intriguing, dysfunctional relationships revealed in Isaac and Rebekah's marriage spill
over into their twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Turn to the New Testament and read one of
Paul's letters (Philippians and Ephesians would be a good start) or the Letter of James.
Listen and you'll be amazed at what God says to you through these human words.
Through it all, our purpose in reading is listening. Because of that, it's okay to begin
reading at a place in the Bible where human beings like yourself were listening for God's
voice as they faced the very difficulties you are facing now. When you discover the
Bible's ability to "scratch" your spiritual "itch," you will be hooked
on reading it and soon will find yourself asking, Why did I avoid this book for so long? |