Listening to One Voice

[This is the journal entry for my quiet time today.]

Look: “...they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” (John 10:5)

Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd Who will lead His people to good pasture (life with God). He speaks of the connection that exists between Himself and His redeemed disciples. They won’t listen to other voices, only to the voice of Christ. Christ’s Word is spoken through the Scriptures, the proclaimed Word, the Sacraments, and in the fellowship of Christ gathered around Word and Sacrament.

Lately, with vacation and general busy-ness, I haven’t spent the time in God’s Word, listening to Jesus, that I need to spend. There are a lot of voices blaring at me (and everyone else) every day: the Internet, radio, TV, etc. etc., not to mention the incessant whispers and cries of the devil, the world, and our sinful selves. And there’s always some new guru of some kind or another, almost all not overtly religious.

But I wonder, am I listening for the voice of Jesus in the midst of all of this noise?

Not enough in recent weeks!

Listen: I know that unless I remain connected to Jesus (unless I abide in Him, to use Jesus’ phrasing), I will begin to forget Jesus’ voice. I become susceptible to following other voices--including the voice of my own sinful nature--that lead me away from Jesus. I become prone to allowing my reasoning to become, not a tool in Jesus’ hands, but a means to do what I want to do. (“There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12)

I’ve become a bit lax in maintaining my quiet time in recent weeks. I’ve been busy. I’ve forgotten Luther’s sage statement that he was simply too busy to spend less than three hours a day in prayer. (And I’m sure that for Luther, prayer was always saturated in reading the Word, listening for the voice of the Good Shepherd.)

The problem is that if I, as one of Christ’s undershepherds, don’t take the time to listen for Christ’s voice, I can lead people astray. (After all, I can only reflect that which I focus on.) That hasn’t happened in these recent weeks, thank God! But, in listening to Jesus today, I am reawakened to the risk of it all.

Saint Paul warned the young pastor Timothy, “...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.” (2 Timothy 4:3).

In a hypermediated age, the time of “itching ears” of which Paul warns is a constant. (This is no slam on “the media.” I have no patience with people who use the media as a scapegoat for their own failures and those of society. Media are a neutral tool which can be used to convey any message. The problem isn’t “the media,” but the ideas we convey through them. And I say “we,” because in the Age of the Internet, everyone who has an account on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or whatever, is a media outlet.) People have “itching ears,” craving the “latest thing.” Earth-bound messaging is so pervasive that no one is immune from developing itching ears, even (or maybe especially) busy preachers who need to make important decisions each day yet fail to spend time in God’s Word each day.

Respond: Thank You, God, for this reminder from Jesus today. Luther is right in saying that, “We need to hear the Gospel every day, because we forget it every day.”

I know that this is true for me. It’s too easy for me to fall for following my own reasoning (Proverbs 14:12)  or my own heart (“The heart is deceitful above all things…” Jeremiah 17:19) Both are blind alleys!

And if pastors aren’t engaged in daily, vital relationships with you, we become “blind guides,” relying on our own schtick or the “wisdom” of the world rather than on You, Who alone remains true (“...Let God be true, and every human being a liar…” Romans 3:4)

Today, Lord, I have met You in Your Word and been richly blessed. Let me, like the sheep in Jesus’ vivid images of John 10, be one of Your sheep Who “come in and go out, and find pasture” (John 10:9) as I listen to Your voice each day.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen

[By the grace of God, I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Focusing on God's Wisdom, Using Our Brains

[Here are reflections on my quiet time with God earlier today.]

Look: “A discerning person keeps wisdom in view, but a fool’s eyes wander to the ends of the earth.” (Proverbs 17:24)

God’s wisdom imparted through Solomon seems here to say, “Keep your focus on wisdom.”

The reason for this seems straightforward to me: Wisdom comes from God. Proverbs 2:6 says, “the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

To be wise is to keep focused on the God revealed to all the world in Jesus, to see nothing and nobody as important as God Himself and to, consequently, follow Him. This gives deeper meaning to Proverbs 9:10: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

To follow some other path or to try following multiple paths to gain “wisdom” is foolishness, foolish because all other paths lead to separation, not only from wisdom, but also from the only One Who can supply life. “There is a way that appears to be right,” Proverbs 14:12 says, “but in the end it leads to death.”

I must narrow my focus onto the God Who shows Himself to us in Jesus. Jesus says: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

And He says that He is the single entry point by which we live wisely and eternally: “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.” (John 10:9)

Listen: It’s so easy for me to be distracted, God, by the noise and the self-congratulatory and false wisdom of the world...and of my own broken soul.

It’s so easy to convince myself that I don’t have time for quiet time with You, time spent hearing what You tell me in Your Word and in the silence as I pray in Jesus’ name.

Little “successes” in which I rely on my own resources delude me into thinking that I don’t need you.

Day after day without casting a look toward Jesus can develop into a daily habit that leaves me wandering far from you, like a lost sheep.

Relying on my own “wisdom,” my own thoughts, my own feelings, leads me away from You.

I’m sure that focusing on You doesn’t mean that I should choose stupidity. I still should read and gain knowledge. It was a man who disdained knowledge who told the apostle Paul as Paul proclaimed the good news of Jesus, “You are out of your mind, Paul!" Your great learning is driving you insane." (Acts 26:24)

Great learning won’t make a person crazy. And we need to pay heed to people with great learning, even those who may not follow the Savior in Whom I believe. “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” (Proverbs 11:14)

I loathe anti-intellectualism, the chosen ignorance of those who resent the learning of people who have spent their lives gaining useful knowledge and expertise in specific areas, whose knowledge and expertise could benefit us all. I am sure that You would not have given us brains if it was Your intention for us not to use them!

[This graphic contains a wise saying my father imparted to me more than once as I was growing up.]

It seems to me that what You are saying in Proverbs 17:24, Lord, is, “So cultivate your relationship with Me that, no matter how many voices you hear in a single day, You always will discern My wisdom. You’ll always know that the wisdom imparted to you by someone else is actually from Me. You will always hear My voice and so, know the right path.”

Jesus says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)

Respond: As You know, Lord, I’ve been ill the past several days. I thank You that You’ve given me the medical help I needed and the time to recover and heal. But I’ve also been lax about my quiet time. It’s unwise to ever “take a vacation” from You, too easy to cast my eyes on other things and be led down a sinkhole far from You.

Forgive my recent inattentiveness to You. Help me to keep my eyes on Jesus.

In His name I pray.

Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Trusting in Christ Alone

God got my attention during my quiet time with Him yesterday. I read Luke, chapter 13, and two verses leapt off the page at me. No mystery in that: "...the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).

Here's a little information on how I keep quiet time.

Here's my journal entry from yesterday:

Look: “‘Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will reply, “I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!”’” (Luke 13:26-27)

Jesus is asked, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” (v. 23). Jesus ignores the issue of numbers of people saved. He basically tells people, “Tend to your knitting.”

Our “knitting” is to “make every effort to enter through the narrow door” (v. 24). Jesus is that narrow door. Jesus says in John 10:9: “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent,” Jesus says in John 6:29.

In other words, our “work” is to trust in Jesus. He is the narrow way by whom we can be saved.

Jesus says at the judgment that there will be people who say, “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” They’ll be saying effectively, “We were in worship when Your name was proclaimed. We drank the wine of Holy Communion and ate the bread.”

“Yes,” Jesus is saying, “you may in fact have done those pious religious things. But I don’t know you.” There’s a difference between hanging around when the Word about Jesus is spoken and consuming the elements because it’s time to go up for Communion, on the one hand, and following Jesus, on the other.

The Small Catechism asks, “When is a person worthy to receive the Sacrament?” The answer: “Fasting and other outward disciplines are indeed good preparation, but people are truly worthy and well prepared who believe these words, ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’ But those who do not believe these words or who doubt them are unworthy and unprepared, for the words, ‘for you’ require truly believing hearts.”

Simply going through the motions, as the synagogue leader who condemned Jesus for doing an act of love--healing a woman afflicted by Satan on the sabbath day--did, is not belief in the God revealed in His Son, Jesus.

The question is whether we believe in Jesus rather than in our behaviors, be they going to church, receiving the Sacrament, or healing a person on “the right day.” Christians should worship regularly. They should receive Christ’s body and blood for the forgiveness of sins as often as they can. 

But those who follow Jesus aren’t just saved from something (condemnation), we are also saved for something: A life lived differently from the way it would otherwise be lived because we have been saved by Jesus, a life whose primary object isn't my personal fulfillment or enjoyment, but God's glory. (This, honestly, makes me uncomfortable.)

Jesus says in Matthew 3:8 (New Living Translation): “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.” People who have entered by the narrow way of faith in Jesus “bear the fruit of repentance.”

This is why it’s so important for me to turn to Jesus each day. My default mode dictates trusting in things like the world, myself, and my good works, all things that I can see right now, to validate my existence or to save me from myself--my sins, my death, my darkness. Under this way of thinking I become the subject of my salvation rather than the object of God’s salvation, given through Christ. 

I must learn that even my own salvation is not about me! 

“For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law” (Romans 3:28). “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:8-10) And Jesus says in John 5:24: “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”

Those who don’t trust in Jesus have no relationship with Jesus. Those who breezily “accept” the proclamation of their forgiveness and promise of forgiveness that comes from the body and blood of Jesus, given in, with, and under the bread and the wine, going through the religious motions without surrendering trust in Christ, have no relationship with Christ. They are not saved. Those who trust in Jesus, including entrusting their sin and sinful desires, who trust Jesus to wage war against their sins and trustingly renounce sin to embrace Christ, are saved. They enter via the narrow door.

Listen: You show me in this Word, Lord, the subtle ways in which I allow sin to have its way with me. I excuse my sin, effectively saying, “I’m only human.”

Your grace is all I need for life; I simply need to trust in Christ for Your grace to forgive my sins, save from death, and save me to live.

But I can’t thoughtlessly drag my sin into Your presence and expect You to bless me when I fail to listen to Your call to repent and to avoid temptation, which is to say Your call to trust in You.

When I depend on self-righteousness, self-indulgence, or any other worldly thing to save me from my sense of guilt, inadequacy, or disconnectedness, I’m following the wide streets of the world. You are Who I need. You alone!

Respond: Today, Lord, help me to resist temptation. Help me to follow and trust in Christ alone. In His name I pray. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]