Wednesday, July
19, 2017
His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables
when you talk to the people?” He
replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom
of Heaven, but others are not. To those
who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have
an abundance of knowledge. But for those
who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken
away from them. That is why I use these
parables, For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or
understand. This fulfills the prophecy
of Isaiah that says,
‘When you hear what
I say, you will not understand.
When you see what I do, you will not comprehend.
For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear,
and they have closed their eyes—so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’
When you see what I do, you will not comprehend.
For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear,
and they have closed their eyes—so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’
“But blessed are
your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. I tell you the truth, many prophets and
righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but
they didn’t hear it. Matthew 13:10-17(NLT)
The
disciples wondered about Jesus’ methods; why didn’t he just come out and tell
the people all this important stuff plainly? I know how the disciples felt; I can hardly
stand it when someone plays catch
me if you can with their words.
Just stop all the hinting and cryptic inferences…just say what you
mean!!!
Now Jesus
did not say the Kingdom was hidden, as if His whole purpose was tricking us into
missing it. He was teaching the
disciples that attitude was everything.
God wants the heart – an open
heart, more than he wants anything else you’ve got. I imagine that’s because God knows if you
give him your heart, everything else will come with it.
That was
the whole point in a church strategy meeting I attended years ago. The church had a bus ministry that carried
kids to Sunday School. It was an
outreach ministry intended to build the church’s attendance. The pastor presented the strategy as: if we get the kids coming to church, their
parents might eventually come too.
Someone spoke up with a question:
Pastor, why don’t we win the
parents first? If they come, the parents
will bring the kids; and we won’t need those smelly busses!
Jesus used
parables – stories that told the truth, but were only understandable if your
heart was open to truth (so your ears and eyes could hold truth). But the truth is we humans are really good at
protecting what we want
to hold onto, rather than trusting God to give us something that’s far better. Jesus said understanding – really knowing the
truth deep-down, is only available by trusting God. And when you begin to trust, it becomes
easier to trust; that’s what opens your ears and eyes to understanding.
When it
comes to eyes seeing and ears hearing, it’s an open and shut case…of the heart.
For You Today
Want
to know God’s will…really? Open your
heart first; your eyes and ears will follow!
NOTES
No comments:
Post a Comment