He who has ears

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Matthew 11:15 ESV

This statement is repeated by Jesus many times in the Gospels and the Revelation. He uses this statement at the end of many of the lessons He teaches. It is obvious that Jesus uses this phrase to get the attention of His audience.

Using it at the end of a lesson forces the hearer to ask themselves; have I truly listened and heard what Jesus wanted me know? It has been said that the reason we have one mouth and two ears is because we need to listen twice as much as we speak. So often we say we want to learn, but we don’t listen as well as we should. This is what Jesus dealt with when He was addressing huge crowds. They were there to listen to what Jesus had to say, but all too often they didn’t hear what He had to say.

photo  ©2007  grafixtek, Flickr

Today we don’t hear Jesus lessons audibly, but we do hear them through the written word. We too are charged to hear what Jesus has to say to us. As we read His lessons we need to hear the core message that Jesus is trying to get across to us.

So today, let’s work hard on using the ears that God gave us to hear what He has to say to us through Jesus teachings. Let’s encourage others to be quiet and listen too.

© 2013 Leo J. Woodman

Jesus wept

John 11:35 Jesus wept. This is the shortest verse in the Bible. It certainly is not short on significance. Jesus is weeping at the loss of someone He loved dearly. The verse shows the depth of Jesus love for His friends. When we consider this verse we see Jesus love for the individual. We see Jesus, God in the flesh caring deeply for a single man.  Jesus came to show God's love for every person. As we think about this verse we can know that God has a deep and abiding love for everyone of us. So today, we can rest in the fact that we are truly loved by God the Father. So we can know He is keenly aware of every aspect of our lives. He knows our circumstances and is working in them. (C) 2013 Leo J. Woodman