Life-threatening Hearing Problems

Jesus, the most important Name in history posted a very important message via Luke, one of His chroniclers in Luke 8:18, to the effect that how you hear (an by extension read) the Bible will make the difference between heaven and hell for you!

There is an approximate correspondence between Jesus' parable in Luke 8: 4-18 and the New Testament's three main genres by way of how we should hear to the Word of God in order to benefit:

Genre One - The Gospels (Good News): The gospels chronicle the life and works of Jesus.

Genre Two - The Epistles (or Letters): To churches and individuals that focus on beginnings of the church, structures and clarification of doctrines

Genre Three - Revelations: That focus on Divine explanation of natural events, forecasts and warnings

Response as to Genre One - The Gospels (Good News): The major theme here is GOOD NEWS. Put PRECIOUS in the place of good, and you will notice that WAYSIDE is not the place for the WORD OF GOD. Jesus expects us to treasure the Good news (and I am by no means talking to my believing brothers and sisters here: I am rather coming to my brothers and sisters who still do not know what to do with the Word of God and who are still baffled at the wonder of Jesus, sometimes acknowledging, sometimes rubbishing it). The gospel by no means invites rubbishing: Being good and precious news, it demands treasuring.

How is it good news?
In Luke 4:18, Jesus assumes that He had come to meet the needs of people with certain kinds of needs. He defined them as the poor, and showed they consisted of the brokenhearted, the captives, the blind and the bruised. For them would be healing, deliverance, recovering of sight and liberation.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised”

If you have experienced any of the above literally, you will know that anybody that promises such remedy truly brings good news. And Jesus was talking about just literal poverty, but spiritual too.

1. We have all been brokenhearted by life’s unpredictability: Loved ones in their prime have been taken by disease, crime, aging and death; Hopes of better livelihoods have been shattered by divorce, dismissals and rejections, and we suppress a deep-seated horror at our own mortality! Jesus promises us ETERNAL LIFE that is also void of disease, crime and aging ad death! And He proved His capability by His resurrection from the dead! (John 3:16)
   
2. Being captives to the fear of death we time and again go against our better judgment to engage in petty or mega crimes ourselves just to ‘survive’. The Bible says we are captives to the fear of death because we are guilty. Somehow we are aware that life after death is damnation. Jesus promises us God’s forgiveness and therefore the deliverance from our evil nature and guilt.
   
3. Our spiritual blindness leaves us constantly at the mercy false messiahs who time and again prove to be fellow ‘blind men’. Jesus promises to be the light that shows and leads the way. With Him we know what to do in this life with such certainty as no one else can offer. We know where to step and what to avoid. Our blindness disappears when we have Him.
   
4. Many of us have actually suffered such physical and emotional bruises at the hands of fellow human beings, and our pain is deepened further by our feelings of helplessness. Jesus promises to free us from the crushing desires for revenge that seem to set lifelong agenda that holds us in bondage…
   
   How should we hear?
   We can learn the right reaction to good news as Jesus expects, from the shepherds to whom His birth was announced (Luke 2:15-19):
   i. The decided to go and see Him
   ii. They left what they were doing with haste
   iii. They came and found out or taste the event that was announced
   iv. The shared the news with others
   v. Mary treasured all that transpired
   
   Take heed how you hear: The whole universe is watching how you will react to the ultimate good news, the sacrifice that Jesus has made for you. Take my advice: Do not treat it as just one of those things you hear about. Keep it in your heart, ponder over it. Pursue it with haste! If you put it by the wayside, you will soon lose it and its meaning. The gospel benefits only those who take it as good news. If you do not jump at it in the way you well know how react to good news it will profit you nothing! Jump to it today. Your salvation is at hand!