Good morning: “Hear what you’re missing! Hear better and live better!” Commercials with tag lines like that are designed to convince people with hearing loss to seek treatment. Why would anyone hesitate? Hearing is an amazing gift from our loving God which enriches our lives. Hearing makes it possible to appreciate the whispered voice of a loved one, the melodic singing of birds, the crescendos of a heart-pounding symphony, and the warning wail of a siren. Still, many put off getting hearing help. They might deny that they have a problem. They tell themselves their hearing is fine. Rather than acknowledge the difficulty, they blame others for “mumbling.” Others may think there is nothing that can be done. They may resign themselves to the status quo. Yet once the objections are overcome and they are fitted with hearing aids, they are amazed at the improvement and sorry they didn’t get them sooner. How’s your hearing? Even if our physical hearing is perfect, all of us have suffered from spiritual hearing loss. It is not merely missing a few random pitches or sounds. By nature we are totally deaf to God’s voice. “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God” (Rom. 8:7). We want nothing to do with him. Our deafness is so profound that no TV commercial or logical argument could convince us to seek help. There was nothing we wanted to do about it or could do about it. But God in his love has done what no one else could. He heals. He says, “Listen, listen to me...Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live” (Is. 55:2-3). Through the divine power of his Word, he creates new spiritual hearing. Just like Jesus’ call, “Lazarus, come out!” opened the ears of a dead man, so his invitation to hear his Word works faith in us to listen! There is nothing sweeter to our ears than to hear that even though our self-centeredness, pride, hatred toward others, and misplaced priorities deserve eternal death, Jesus came to take our guilt upon himself and give us his righteousness. It’s music to our ears when Scripture says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:12). Not only does the Word work the hearing, it continually preserves and sharpens it. Let’s take time for the Word today and look forward to hearing it tomorrow. By God’s grace, may we hear what we’re missing, hear better and live eternally! Yours in Christ, Pastor Our Sunday service is at 9 a.m. A brief Communion service will be held before Sunday school and adult Bible class. The Bible class will discuss what Jesus’ baptism and wilderness temptation mean to us. The Bd. of Education will meet briefly after Bible class.
