24 And He was saying to them, “Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. 25 For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”  Mark 4:24-25

                I don’t like stepping on the scales.   The scales keeping telling me I’m putting too much food in my mouth.  Ouch!  I keep telling myself, “This can’t be right!”  In the end the scales are always right.  I’ve just been living in denial.  Maybe you have been there? 

                Jesus is discussing with His followers a principle of the Kingdom about hearing.  He is literally saying, “Look at what you hear.”  Now we can’t actually look at what we are hearing because words are sounds and they cannot be seen.  So, just what exactly is Jesus implying.  Jesus is saying we all need to examine our hearing process.  Because all the words and revelations the Father shares with us are placed on scales and measured.  Heaven knows what goes into our ears and the Lord expects a return on His investment. 

                 We have already admitted to ourselves that the scales do not lie… or least I did.  God’s scales do not lie either.  The Lord wants to us to pay close attention to our hearing/listening process because His daily bread to us is more valuable than our real food.  Even though God’s revelations can be difficult to understand at times, they are not impossible to grasp.  They simply require an investment of time and energy on our part.  God will never invite us to accomplish something that is impossible.  Sometimes He may hide the answers so that we will dig and appreciate the process.  These types of difficulties should only serve to spur us on to greater depths, not quit in frustration. 

                Let me share one more important truth with you.  There are heavenly truths and secrets awaiting the genuine seeker right now.  The Lord doesn’t want us to keep studying the saints of yesteryear at the cost of neglecting to seek His face.  There are fresh truths waiting to be released from heaven right now.  This is why the Lord gives us parables.  These little riddles sift out those with other agendas from the genuine seeker.  When we come to the Lord with our agendas and preconceived notions, then we will miss discovering a real relationship with the Lord. 

                I want to encourage you to begin seeking the Lord and expect to receive a fresh revelation from the Lord.  If you have seen the movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, then purpose to be more like Frodo, not Gandolf.    In the movie, the fellowship is trying to make their way to destroy the ring of power.  They reach a point where they have to go through a series of mines. The problem is that the door of the mine is locked and they can’t get inside. Gandolf doesn’t take the time to read the inscription on the door, and instead, he tries all the secret passwords that he knows. Of course, none of them work, so he sits down in frustration, giving up. But the simple hobbit Frodo reads the inscription and he sees that it’s a riddle. So Frodo solves the riddle and the solution to the riddle opens the door. 

                Approach the Lord with fresh eyes tomorrow.  There are no secret passwords to His presence.  He doesn’t want you to act religious with Him any longer.  He simply wants to you to pursue Him and experience a loving relationship with Him.  It is that simple.  He is waiting. 

Blessings,

Pastor