Assurance

I Timothy 4 says Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

One of the best ways we can be an effective witness and example to our own family, children, and our spouse is to persevere and pay attention to the things we’ve learned and know to do.  In other words, if we constantly keep a watch on our own tongue, our own eyes, our own ears, and our own heart, our actions and attitudes will speak more loudly than any instruction we can give to our kids.

Sometimes, we preach to our kids, instruct our husband, and shake our finger at our families as we emphasize what they MUST do on any given day.  I suppose that’s the role of a mom.

But what if we preached to ourselves, instructed our hearts to trust in Him, and shook our finger at the enemy who whispers lies in our own ears?

Those who then hear us, when we speak to them, will hear the voice of a woman who is strong in her faith, established in who she is in Christ, and loving in her instruction for all.

Pay close attention.

Persevere.

Ensure salvation for your house.

To Pray

Colossian 1 says For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding...

Almost every day I hear of a friend in need.  Just this week, I heard of a friend who lost his job, another friend who was fearful about some news she’d heard, and yet another friend who lost her mom. That’s just a few things I heard in the course of a few days.

What do we do with the things we’ve heard about others?

In this verse, we are prompted to pray without ceasing for the things we hear about in others’ lives.

Why?

So that they can be filled with all good things like spiritual wisdom and understanding in their present circumstances.

Will our friends be helped if we don’t pray?

I don’t want to think about that, I just want to pray and believe on their behalf, and watch God answer.

Practice Peace

Philippians 4 says The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Yikes, could you tell others to copy what they’ve learned, received, and heard in you?

I could ask others to copy some things, but not all.  I wouldn’t want to be copied in some of my attitudes, I wouldn’t want my children to learn some the lies I believed as a child, and I certainly realize that on any given day if someone practiced what I did they might end up like me, discouraged and in despair by day’s end!

But the writer of this passages encourages his listeners to practice what they’ve seen and heard in him, and then God’s peace will follow.

This guy had learned the importance of hearing, believing, and responding to God’s word so well that he encouraged others to mimic him by doing the same.

We have children, we have people we guide in our jobs, and we have neighbors who watch us as we come and go.  And we certainly want God’s peace to rule over all.

The best thing we can do to be a witness, an effective one, is to hear and obey God’s word in us, so that others see, hear, and want to obey Him, too.

Grace to the Hearer

Eph 4:29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.

Wholesome means “health or moral well being.”

This directive in this verse says to only speak wholesome words, words that are of present good, words that offer grace.

I like the imagery here in the first part of the verse, where we are told to keep in check, to keep unwholesome words from proceeding out of our mouths.  I imagine all of these expletives, criticisms, complaints, and accusations that line up in the back of our mouths when we are upset, hurt, confused, or so wanting to retaliate, but…

That army lines up and starts to proceed out of our mouths, and we clamp our lips shut, swallow them down, and destroy them as they are digested, when we yield our body, soul and spirit to the Spirit that lives within us.

Unwholesome words that proceed or march out of our mouths into the ears of others are like poisonous darts.  They wound, and can even kill.  And we cannot stuff them back into once they’ve been let loose.

It’s hard to stop an army once it’s lined up and ready.  So I guess it’s our duty to keep the army from ever assembling in the first place.

Doers

Romans 2:13 for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.

Here again we are reminded of the importance of responding to what we hear in obedience to the Lord.

Wouldn’t it be silly to attend college, go on to graduate school and beyond, obtain degrees with honors because we were able to regurgitate all that we had heard…but then never put into practice one piece of that learning?

Some college graduates do just that, for various reasons.  But how sad it is to become so knowledgeable about a particular subject and yet useless in that field, because we have nowhere, no passion, no reason to use that knowledge for good!

It’s the same with the word of the Lord.  It’s not the hearing of it that saves us, it’s believing it and obeying it that does.

We can listen and hear our name or number called for an order of food that’s ready, a call to board a plane, or a job offer over the phone, but if we don’t respond to those calls we end up hungry, left behind, and without prosperity.

Otherwise...

Acts 28:

Go to this people and say, You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; And you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, And with their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes; Otherwise they might see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I would heal them.

That verse is sad, isn’t it?  The people in this passage are not experiencing healing because they are not hearing.

We can go to church and hear the word, but leave the building and not understand what we’ve heard.

We can hear the music and the praise, and even close our eyes and get lost in the  melodies, and yet never really hear the message of God’s glory and power.

If we do show up, hear and listen and obey what we hear, respond and repent and believe as we sing, then what will happen?

Jesus will heal us.

The Whole City

Acts 13:44 The next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord.

Wow, an entire city actually came together on the Sabbath day just to hear the word of the Lord.

We often have to have a special performance or guest, a prepared dinner, or wait for a holiday like Easter or Christmas to fill our churches.  And even then, people aren’t really arriving to hear the word of the Lord, they’re often showing up to be entertained or to experience some sort of comfort.

Church attendance is waning in many areas, and in part it’s because people have become embittered toward the Church because of judgment, piety, lack of truth being taught, and maybe…because the word of the Lord has become tainted with words of man attached to it.

Also, hearing the word of the Lord carries with it a big responsibility. Once we’ve heard, we are responsible then to respond…or not.

I’d love to see my own church full every Sunday, with people lining up outside to get in, from all over the city.  It’s what we all pray for, long for, and work for.

However, it’s not happening.  

And maybe it’s due in part to me, all of us as individuals, not sharing the personal word of the Lord when we’re out there…in the market place…where the people live.

Can't Stop Talking

In Acts 4, we read…

for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard. When they had threatened them further, they let them go (finding no basis on which to punish them) on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened...

The disciples were talking about Jesus, his mighty acts, his love, his healings, etc.  They had been with Jesus, walked with him, observe and experienced his power, and they were speaking about it.

It seems that we talk about whatever is real and happening in our lives at the moment, because that’s what is on our minds.  If our team is winning, we talk about sports.  If we feel bad, we talk about our ailment. If we just experienced a success, we want others to rejoice with us.

These guys were talking about Jesus.

If we’re not talking about Him, then maybe we haven’t been walking with him and experiencing him lately.

We can ask God to open our eyes to his goodness, mercy, and grace in our lives and to increase our awareness of his hand in everything we do.

And then, we can choose to glorify those things in our speech, so that others too hear, and believe.

The Stranger

John 10 says more about the shepherd and the sheep…

When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.

How do your kids recognize strangers when they’re little?  We tell them not to talk to strangers and not to get in the car with a stranger, but how do they know the person is a stranger?

They don’t recognize their face, they don’t recognize their voice, and they realize the person doesn’t belong to their family.

However, if a kid isn’t received, loved, cared for, by a loving family and a present mother, dad, and siblings, then they won’t discern the difference between family and strangers.

This is why it’s SO important to stay close to Jesus, stay in his Word, walk with others who love him and love others, and to obey his voice. 

It’s then and only then that when the voice of a stranger (i.e. our own selfish thoughts, or the voice of another inviting us into trouble), that we will then run away and turn away from that voice.

Your kids recognize strangers because they know your face well.

How well do you know the face of Jesus?  It’s written about in his Word, and it’s delightful to see it when you realize his great love for you.

And then you can rest in the fact that anything strange, foreboding, or dangerous will look so different that you will know…and you’ll look in HIS eyes and follow Him…instead of disappearing into dark…

Do You Know?

John 4: and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

It is one of the biggest joys in life to see your children mature and become adults and realize that what you’ve taught them is truth, as they begin to act on it out of their own choice, not because you’re standing over them as their parent.

We initially set what we believe on what we hear our parents say, what others say to us, and perhaps what we read about in books.  And we then decipher what is true and what is not true.  And that’s hard to do, without HIS guidance.

But as we walk with Jesus, commune with Him, read his Word, and follow his directives, and as we hear others talk of his goodness and the deeds he has done for them, we eventually have to mature and make a choice.

Are we going to believe Jesus for ourselves, or are we going to ride on the coattails of every person that walks by in pretty colors?

At some point, we have to choose to believe that which we’ve heard for ourselves, and know for a fact that Jesus indeed is the savior of the world.

When we do, we can then follow him with all of our hearts, and no longer be swept away by every wind that blows.

I Know Them

John 10 says,  My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.

What a great passage to read and believe!

One of the most peaceful paintings I’ve ever observed is that of a shepherd guiding his sheep out on a green pasture, rod and staff in hand, a pool of clear water nearby, on a blue clear day.

When we belong to Him we are his sheep, and we recognize his voice.  You know how we do?  When we choose to believe and accept Christ as our Savior, we are acknowledging him and he then takes us, cares for us, lead us, and instructs us into paths we must follow.  And no one, nothing…nada…can removes us from his hand.  What security that is!

I’ve heard it said, and I’ve said it myself, that it’s sometimes hard to distinguish God’s voice over the voices in our own heads.  And sometimes that’s true, until…we walk with him for years and years, we read his word and about his character, and we observe the workings of his spirit in our lives.  It’s then that we begin to recognize even the rocky paths we have to sometimes climb as being his leading up to a higher plain where more beauty awaits.

Listen for his voice of love and tenderness, and respond to that one.  He doesn’t accuse, he doesn’t berate, and he doesn’t condemn.  He’s the other voice calling to you, the one you need to listen to, the one that speaks only what his Father tells him to speak, that which leads you to a better place than the one where you currently are.

His Family

Luke 8 says He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”

Sometimes it’s so easy to tell what kids belong to what parents, isn’t it?  They walk like their dad, they speak like their mom, they’re funny and witty like their parents, etc.  Those who mimic their parents are easily recognized as being part of that particular family.

However, there are times when we observe a child’s behavior, or a teen’s rebellion, and wonder, “How can that be their kid?” because we know the parents would never approve of such nonsense.

We have to choose whether or not we want to be recognized as being part of HIS family.  He shares with us daily in his Word his heart and compassion for the dying world, his mercy and grace extended to us daily, and his authority to walk in freedom from chains that once held us…and so…

We have to make the choice to respond to those words by walking and acting out that which we’ve heard.

When we do, we will be associated with HIM, and will be recognized as belong to THAT family – the one who belongs to God.

It’s a huge responsibility, once we’ve heard the Word, to then obey and act it out, so that others see and exclaim, “I know who her Father is!  She loves just like He does!”

This is It

Luke 7 says, And he said to them in reply, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.

Here’s the place in the bible where simple evangelism (sharing the Good News of Jesus) is described in the most basic of terms, in the easiest of instructions.

Go.  We have to move, to seek, to find those who haven’t heard yet.  In other words, we need to be out among those with whom we work, those we smile at in the park, and those we greet in the restaurants, etc.

Tell.  It doesn’t have to be a sermon, some eloquent speech, or even a long planned out lecture – it just has to be your own stuff – what you’ve seen and heard – how you were set free – how you were healed – all of that personal freedom you’ve experienced.

Hear. You can’t have a story to tell if you haven’t heard anything to tell.  Continue to hear the Word preached, to hear the Spirit speak to your heart, to hear the good news of others, to hear of His goodness in their lives.

That’s it. 

Scurrying Around

They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed. (Mark 6)

People were talking.  They were talking about Jesus and the miracles he performed, and the authority by which he spoke.  People were being changed.  They were being healed, delivered, and set free.  People were listening to the chatter.  They wanted to find this Jesus, to touch him, to beg him, to find him.

I’ve witnessed that same sort of thing even nowadays.  Except, instead of Jesus appearing in different places, there are men/women who love God who are traveling about doing the same works of Jesus, healing the sick, setting people free, etc.  And sometimes people flock to these gatherings just so they can be touched or prayer for, by this “powerful” person.

I definitely believe God uses people to do the same works Jesus did on the earth.  That’s certainly biblical. 

However, running after a person instead of running after Jesus is downright dangerous.

If God urges us to attend a meeting or hear a person speak because He has something to give us there, that’s all fine and good.  But the truth is that Jesus resides in the heart of every believer, and He’s already touched us. All we have to do is believe.

Yes, ask people to pray with you.  Yes, go forward for prayer from those who believe and who will touch you in faith.

But ultimately, see Jesus, to touch him.  He’s ALWAYS present, and you don’t have to push through crowds, but only whisper his name…and He’s there.

Do You Have Ears?

Mark 4 tells the story of the sower and the seeds again, and ends with this passage:

Anyone who has ears to hear ought to hear.” He also told them, “Take care what you hear. The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, and still more will be given to you.

Have you ever heard someone talking but you weren’t really listening?  Our kids are masters at this, aren’t they?  We learn to “tune out” that which does not interest us, at a very early age.

Have you been the one talking and realized the person you’re talking to is not listening?  It’s easy to tell when their mind is elsewhere, and it’s maddening when you have to repeat yourself to be heard!

Jesus reminds his listeners to hear with their ears, and to be careful what they hear.

Why?

When our kids hear our instructions, they then have the responsibility and obligation to obey.  There’s no excuse.  When we hear our boss direct us on a project, we have to respond by adhering to his plans if we want success. 

When we hear the word of God, especially this story about the seed falling into the ground and the outcome of where it falls, we are warned here to respond to what we’ve heard by listening, receiving, and responding to the Word.

Which ground most accurately describes your heart?

Ask God to make the soil of your heart rich, so that when He speaks his words plant deeply and produce much fruit.

Among Thorns

An explanation of seed that fell among thorns (See Feb 10 devo)

The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.

There’s a reason why we are to read his word daily.  There’s a very good reason.

Daily life is hard, and sometimes we get thrown curve ball after curve ball, and some of those balls hit us square in the head and knock us flat.  This leaves a big bruise.  And we’re quite afraid to stand up and play anymore.

Then comes along an encouraging word that says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” only we’re afraid.  We cannot stand on our own.  And that fear overtakes us, that word never becomes a reality, and we stay on the bench while the rest of our team plays and scores, and wins the game.

This world, if we allow the worries and deceit of it to rule our minds, will choke out any good words that we hear. 

Jesus doesn’t want hard knocks to bruise us and wound us until we can no longer hit a home run.  He wants to give us peace, love, and joy, even when we’re hit hard.  

And the sooner we understand that, the sooner we will stand back up and catch the next curve ball instead of letting it knock us silly.

Rocky Ground

Explanation of the seed that fell on rocky soil (see Feb 10 devo)

The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

The seed, or word of truth, that we receive from hearing God’s message through the bible has to fall on good soil.  If the soil of our heart is rocky, uncleared, unlevel, and hard in spots, the word we hear won’t last long.

This happens when we hear a great verse and we are encouraged for a moment, but then when we go back to our daily lives where we’ve experienced hurt, abandonment, rejection, and perhaps all sorts of disappointment.  That word we've heard takes no root and the effectiveness of it is gone by nightfall.

We are wise if we clear the ground on which his seed falls.

When people buy a piece of land on which to build a house, they have someone clear it first.  The big rocks are removed, the brush is cleared, and the soil is prepared for the foundation to be laid – one that is level and smooth.

It’s no different with the soil of our hearts.  Ask Jesus to come and clear the way, prepare the soil, and make a place for his word to take root and grow.

The cool thing is that you don’t have to do this yourself.  You don’t have to “afford” someone else to do it, either.  

He does it for free.

Understand It

Explanation of the seed that fell to the side: (See Feb 10 devo)

When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.

What a powerful verse!  It’s not enough to just hear the Good News, we must understand it!  

With our hearts!

This means we must lean away from our own understanding with our minds, and lean into understanding with our hearts and trust Him.

If we hear the Good News and even make a confession of faith, but we never understand the heart of Jesus and his love for us, we will be easily discouraged, easily swayed, and easily turned away.

Seek to understand what it is you hear from his Word.  

God gives us wisdom and understanding as we search his Word, as it sinks deep into our souls, and becomes the reality by which we live and breathe.

Where Do You Fall?

These next few days, we’re going to look at the parable of the sower.  Maybe you’ve read it a hundred times.  Well here goes 101…

A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.  But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.  Whoever has ears, let them hear.

Jesus told stories to his listeners, and he expected them to hear and understand.

This is a quite picturesque story, one easy to imagine, that of a farmer sowing seed.

I can see the seed that fell and the birds ate it up.  I’ve been mowing before, and as soon as I cross the yard to the other side, birds land where I just mowed and look for seed. 

I can see the rocky ground, where the seed falls and just sits there, having no soft dirt in which to bury itself.  And can’t you imagine with me the hot sun beating down on a little seed that’s barely planted in a shallow area? It must be torture!.

I can visualize thorns that grow up around seed, because I too have had weeds in my own garden grow and try to choke out the beauty I’ve planted nearby.

I can also smile as I envision the good soil, where there is fruit ripening, flowers blooming, and crops growing in abundance.

Really hearing and listening to God’s word includes tasting it with our senses of imagining it, seeing it, experiencing the truth of it, and then getting it.

Are you listening? Are you hearing? 

Certain Things

Matthew 13:15

For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.

What a sad commentary.

A calloused heart in our physical body is not good – when our arteries harden – and the blood ceases to flow.  It means certain death.

Ears that can barely hear any more and eyes that are closed means a person is no longer aware of his surroundings or where he’s headed.  This means certain death.

Jesus notes that both of these conditions are not permanent, but rather a choice we can make.

We can choose to see, listen, and understand and turn…and he will heal us.

I find it interesting that he says we can understand.

There are many ways about God that I don’t understand at all with my mind, but it says here that I can understand with my heart.  That’s called trust.

It’s not a pleasant walk through life with a hard heart, closed eyes, and deaf ears, and all of these things sometimes happen slowly, gradually, as we harbor hurts, anger, and fear.

Let’s turn, and choose to hear the truth again, open our eyes to follow his paths, and turn our hearts toward leaning on Him and his ways, and not on our own understanding.

This means certain life!

Whoever

Matthew 11:15 Whoever has ears, let them hear.

What a funny statement.  We’ve all got ears.  But evidently, it’s possible to have hearing ears and not hear.

The dictionary defines hear as “to perceive with the ear the sound made by…”

Last weekend, my granddaughter Ayla (almost 2) was walking away from us, as we were getting ready to leave. Her mom, and my husband, and myself, all called to her to turn around and come to us.  She never looked, never acknowledged her name, and she kept on walking.  My husband had to run and get her, pick her up, and carry her to the car.

She has ears.  She could hear all of us.  But she didn’t perceive the urgency or the authority behind the ones who were calling her. That will come with training, discipline, and perhaps a failure or two.

Jesus has given us ears.  But we too sometimes keep walking the other way when he’s calling our name, because we don’t perceive his goodness and love when he calls.  We worry that he’s going to punish us, have harsh words for us, or lead us up a much too steep mountain where we might fall.  So we just keep walking away…

It would be better for us if we just listen, turn around, and walk into his arms.

Ayla will learn that it is better to obey than to suffer the consequences, as her parents train her to really hear and listen.

Imagine what would have happened had her loving grandfather not gone to rescue her, pick her up (even if she screamed) and brought her back to where she belonged?

Jesus loves us more than our earthly fathers…and grandfathers…and he’s calling.

The Wise Man

Matthew  7 includes a story I often sang about as a kid:

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

Jesus had a LOT to say, and lots of people listened.  In fact, lots of people listen today, to the word being preached, to what others are saying, and to their own thoughts as they assimilate what they hear.  But Jesus says hearing his words is not enough.

We must put them into practice.

If we do, our foundation will not fall, our house will not crumble.

If we don’t, our foundation will give way, and our house will crash.

The people were amazed at the authority with which Jesus spoke. 

We should be amazed at His authority as well, his sovereign power over our lives, and the promises he makes, IF we hear and obey his words.

This passage doesn’t say the rains won’t come.  In fact, it says the rains will fall.  But the difference is in the result after the rain falls.

I love this story, and I used to love the song, “The wise man built his house upon the sand…and the rain came a tumbling down…”

I want my house to stand firm, don’t you?