BE LISTENING YOURSELF!

“How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. —Jeremiah 8:8

How many people in your local church are really disciples of Jesus Christ? These would be people who are growing and sharing their faith, being obedient to the Lord. I was with a church with about 100 people recently and I asked that question. The leadership told me, “Probably 10 and that is on the high side.” On top of that many people in this church were following TV personalities that are teaching false doctrine. That church is very fragmented.

There are many so called “teachers” of God’s, but all they are doing is repeating what someone else has told them. Their faith is not in the Word of God, but in the person who tells them what the Word of God says as they see it. Personally, I always point the person to the Word of God for them to check it out. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (II Timothy 2:15). That is the responsibility of every follower of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately for many who profess the Name of Jesus, they would rather let someone else do the work and not do it themselves. That is a dangerous place to be.

We are to “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (II Timothy 4:2-4). According to the verse above this is what was happening in Jeremiah’s day as well. The scribes were not handling the Word of God correctly and they believed themselves to be doing the right thing. How sad it is when people would rather believe the lies being shared with them instead of believing the truth!

How about You and I— are we checking out God’s Word for ourselves or are we having someone else do that for us and believing what they are saying? Oh that we would truly sit at the feet of Jesus and make sure what we are being told lines up with what He says. May it be so!

Thank You, Lord God Almighty, that You have left us Your Word and we do not have to be led astray. Help us to be sitting at the feet of Jesus to hear what He has to say and may we then check out what others say by what He has told us.