Listen and Live part 2
I think human beings, as a species, are pretty susceptible to outside forces. I'm not saying we're all gulibe, but we tend to (at the very least) believe what our five senses are telling us. For example (and I know most of you will probably find this weird) I've never tried coffee. Ever. Because I don't like the way it smells. And I trust my nose. So there are sayings like, "the proof of the pudding is in the eating." The idea that we have an idea of what's right, or true, and we'll know it when we see it, or hear it. But one big problem with human beings is that we set the bar really, really low. Especially when it comes to ourselves. There is NO condemnation like self condemnation. Because we're with ourselves all the time. I know exactly how low I can go. Cuz I was there with myself at rock bottom. I think a lot of the time we see ourselves as so much less than what we actually are. We see our own flaws, and blemishes. We see what we're NOT good at so much more clearly than what we ARE good at. And that's why Eve immediately and easily swallowed the lie that the serpent hissed into her ear. The lie that says, "You're not good enough, but if you try hard enough maybe someday you can become good enough." The lie that says you have to DO in order to BE. When the truth is, you don't do IN ORDER to be. You do BECAUSE you be. You give what you have. You live out of your abundance. And that's why Jesus (more or less) said, "Listen and live." He said the dead would hear His voice and they would live. Before the cross we were ALL dead in our trespasses and sins. Because Adam, our representative at the time, sinned and died. He ate of the wrong tree. The tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree of death. But Jesus came that we might have LIFE, and have it more abundantly. He came to give us something. A life filled with love. A life lived BY loving each other with the love that God loves us with. But faith comes from hearing. So its by LISTENING to that Word (again, Jesus... love) that we begin to live. Its by listening to that Word that we can walk by faith. I'm convinced that when Jesus was walking on the water and called Peter out there with Him, it was really the Word that Peter was walking on. I don't think the water had a whole lot to do with it. But I digress. My point is that when we hear something, it resonates with us. Either as the truth--which oftentimes seems too good to be true--or as a lie--which is sometimes easy to swallow because it matches up with our own twisted self-image. Now here's where I wanted to get to: Romans 10:16-17, "But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." I included verse 16 because it goes along beautifully with James 1:23-25, "For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." Basically, what you feed is what grows. What you listen to--either the world's report or the gospel, the Word of the Lord--defines your reality. If all you ever hear is the lie, you WILL believe it. BUT there IS a more excellent way. The voice of truth speaking from inside with every beat of God's heart in your chest. Saying, "I love you!"