Ya Gotcher Your Ears On?

Mark 4:21-25 The parable of the lamp is all about hearing with discernment. It is understanding what it is that your hearing and then putting it into practice. Jesus, in telling His parables, always starts with things His hearers already know about and then moves them, using the same principles, into areas relating to kingdom truths. The reason that His parables were so often “hidden" is because many of His hearers were so convinced that they were right, and He was wrong that their understanding lights were just not on. Jesus tells His hearer; A person brings a light into a room for the purpose of seeing what is in the room, even finding lost articles. I suppose that perhaps his hearers were thinking something to the effect: “He sure has a keen grasp of the obvious.” They certainly understood the obvious part of His story. The problem was that they weren’t willing to carry the principles into areas that weren't so obvious. Jesus continues, “If you have ears to hear then listen.” When He says, “consider carefully what you hear." With the lights on, examine what is coming in, look for things that will build you or others up. Screen out the harmful ones. The light is the Word as seen through your relationship with Christ. The process does not just stop with the storage of the information into your mental database. The emphasis here is that of putting this information to use in our daily lives. Only as it is used is it really yours. And as it is used it earns interest. The more information that is stored and used the greater will be the ability to process even more.