Faithful Listening

"A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to Him.” Luke 9:35

This Scripture was said after Jesus came up out of the water when John the Baptist baptized Him. This is God Himself speaking. He is telling the people who were gathered there to listen to Jesus.

I think we don't just need to listen, but faithfully listen. I did one of the lessons in a Sunday School book I got from work the other day. I wrote this quote down, "To ask God to speak to us through His Word is to offer up our lives in faithful listening." - Spring 2016 The Gospel Project S.S. Book

I read something on Facebook the other day that really disturbed me. Someone said that they don't read the Bible because it was written by men. I have written about this myself, once, because of a teaching I heard, but I do not think I accurately shared his views.

Let me explain. The Bible is indeed written by men. However, those men were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write what they did. Moses actually spent a lot of time with God, too. So, we know that he got direct words from God. 

The Old Testament shows us many things. We can learn from their mistakes, we can grow our faith, and learn about wisdom. The Old Testament is all fulfilled, because whether we realize it or not, Jesus is the main focus of it, just as He is the New Testament.

There is a 400 year gap between the Old Testament and New Testament. I guess God didn't speak to His people then, or either He didn't feel the need to capture it for us to learn from.

I believe we need to be reading our Bibles, because that's one way God speaks to us. It's "faithful listening" when we read the Bible. 

If this is an area you struggle with, that's ok. Start small. Read a Proverb a day. Start on October 1st, and just read each one on the same date. And by all means, please DO NOT try to read the King James Version. I know everyone says it's the closest to the original Greek and Hebrew, but it is really? It is translated by the way they spoke in England at the time. 

For example, "speaking in tongues" meant that a person can speak other languages besides English. I have learned more about that recently and part of it is the Holy Spirit praying to God on our behalf. While it is somewhat of another language, it's a prayer language, and "tongues" is just a weird way to describe it.

Anyway, reading our Bibles or "faithfully listening", helps us grow closer to God, learn life lessons, and grow our faith. Just like telling our stories can help others, this is a record of many stories that will help us.

God bless you today and always!