Sunday, April 29, 2007

Listening To Jesus' Voice

"Today's Devotion" For April 26, 2007

Read: John 10:22-30; Psalm 95

LISTENING TO JESUS' VOICE

"My sheep listen to My voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand." (John 10:27, 28)

Have you ever such clamoring as has been going on in the political sphere these days? Someone is always calling for someone's head, or shouting out their opposition to one position or another taken by the "other" party, or taking the final stand to end all stands against the worst possible corruption or some other "bad stuff" being committed by those elected to keep the country running. It's quite a din.

Each of the clamoring voices seeks to be the only voice heard. If someone doesn't agree with their position they are shouted down, berated, discounted, and ignored. I've noticed that the folks in some quarters seem bent on determining when a subject is closed and is no longer debatable - it's now a given and there's no room for disagreement, even if the disagreement is rational, provable, and documented. A recent series of polls by different organizations, showed that a position held by one political party, on which they were basing all their moves, was not supported by the public's responses to the polls - including from their own party. The mandate supposedly given them appears to not be supported by the facts of the polls.

I suppose we could discuss these clamoring voices 'ad infinitum.' They're all over the place and they want to be the only voices people hear and follow. While such clamoring goes on regularly in our world and is endorsed by the news media, another clamoring is also taking place that doesn't get much play, but has the power to destroy the world and every human being in it. That clamoring is the voice of those who seek to exclude God and His Word and Will from the public arena. Those clamoring voices seek to lead people to an alternative "religion," a religion of self, a religion of the community, a religion that puts human beings at the center of everything and seeks to put human wisdom on a pedestal - particularly the brand of wisdom espoused by the clamoring voices.

God's people face those clamoring voices shouting for our spiritual attention every day of our lives. They seek to deafen us to God's Word and His voice as it comes to us in the Word and Sacraments, the Means of Grace by which He touches us both spiritually and physically so that we can know by faith that He is present with us at all times and in all places. Jesus addresses this challenge to the faith of His redeemed, and reminds us that as our Good Shepherd, we are His sheep by faith, He has redeemed us to be His own forgiven people, and we know His voice, hear it and follow Him. He promises us that He will never let the clamoring voices take us away from Him nor will He allow them to keep us from heaven. We are secure in the arms of Jesus as we listen to His voice, hearing it above the clamoring of the world's voices that would take our attention away from Him. Listening to His voice, we are also moved to share that voice with others so they too may know His forgiveness, love, grace, mercy, and peace in their own lives, and know Jesus to eternal life.

Prayer: Father, this is a "noisy" world in which I'm living. Everyday, in myriad ways, I'm confronted and assailed by all the conflicting voices of the world which seek to lead me to embrace their "wisdom" and their "understanding" so that I will follow them. They don't wish me to disagree with them, and my courage is often tested when I know they're turning me off because I don't agree with what they're clamoring. Forgive me, Father, for all too often turning away from the confrontations which come when I follow Jesus and hear His voice over the clamoring voices in opposition to You and Your will for the world in Christ. Fill me with Your Spirit, Father, so that I may be able to always hear Your voice. Fill me with Your Spirit, Father, so that I may always be able to hear Jesus' voice, recognize it, and follow Him. Give me the courage to speak to others about Jesus, not as a clamoring voice insistent on having its way, but as a gentle, loving voice sharing a winsome testimony to Your love, forgiveness, and redemption of the world in Christ Jesus, my Lord, in Whose precious name I pray. Amen.
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--Pastor Boeck

Copyright © 2007 by Rev. Richard J. Boeck, Jr. All rights reserved.

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