A WARNING TO THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

SINCE WHEN  has it been necessary to call a meeting to decide if The WORD+ of GOD  is correct ?

LENTEN MEDITATION 13 ~ ~ ~ Take Heed... both What and How

Lenten Meditation 13
Take Heed… Both What and How
For The Year of Our LORD, 2.18.2007


Two warnings, two ways
The LORD JESUS CHRIST has given
to His+ people through His+ Word.

These are found in two places,
Mark 4:24 and Luke 8:18. It is a double warning.

Both instructive, these two warnings are surrounded by two parables, the same in both Mark and Luke, and both warnings are followed by yet another warning. This third warning, a dire one and a consequence of the first two, is also the same in both of the Gospel books. What was Our LORD’S important instruction to His+ people ?

HE+ told us to take heed what we hear
and to take heed how we hear.

Our LORD was instructing both the people and his disciples using the parable of the Sower Sowing the Seed. HE+ explains the deeper meaning of it to His+ disciples and tells them point blank that the seed is the Word of GOD. HE+ then follows the Seed Parable with another one: no-one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel basket. Thus, in the context of both of these parables, HE+ issues these warnings.

Take heed what we hear in regards

to the Word of GOD.
Take heed how we hear in regards

to the Word of GOD.

What and how are closely related, yet they mean two different things…both of which are important because HE+ said it. Our LORD made the distinction. Therefore, we ought to listen to the distinct message of both of those words.
~ ~ ~


If we take heed to what we hear, we are careful to listen and to keenly discriminate as to the content.

Is it the true Word of GOD ?
Is it the whole Word…
or just half of the entire statement?

Is it consistent with other Scriptures
about that subject?

Is the Scriptural statement one of many details
involved with that subject…
or is it a general summary
or a resulting condition of that issue?

Is what we hear in regards to the Word of GOD
an extrapolation of men’s thoughts about it…
or is it His+ pure Word and plain intent?
~ ~ ~

How we hear does not ascertain the content. Rather, it involves how much weight The Word of GOD brings to bear upon us. We determine the weight-load ourselves by how we receive the Word. How---in what manner--- do we receive it ? Let us consider this warning to us through the context of the parables of the Sower Sowing the Seed and Putting the Light under a Bushel Basket, the two parables surrounding those two warnings.

How we hear means:
do we lay His+ Word seriously to heart…
or do we casually hear it or read it ?

How we hear means:
are we simply accruing knowledge…
or learning how to live to please GOD
instead of ourselves, our friends, our families,
our cultures and nations ?

How we hear means:
are we listening to learn how to walk
worthy of The LORD and well-pleasing unto Him…
or are we mindful to walk well-pleasing unto the world
so that the world thinks we are worthy?

How we hear means:
we are interested in others who make a change
in their life-styles and philosophies
to bear witness to CHRIST…
yet we won’t lift a finger to separate from the world
or its ways, styles, and philosophies.

How we hear means:
are we complacent to watch others
sacrifice their all for CHRIST…
but we continue in our self-indulgences and comforts and
go on without a modicum of sacrifice
to further the Kingdom of GOD?
~ ~ ~

In the third warning in both Gospels, The LORD JESUS CHRIST tells us why we had better take strict heed to his first warnings:

for whosoever hath, it shall be given to him [Gk.];
and whosoever hath not,
it shall be taken from him
even that which he seemeth to have.

Just what is it that we “seem to have” ? We seem to have an understanding of Truth vs. error. We seem to have an understanding of Salvation and what it involves to keep it. We seem to have an understanding of what CHRIST did on the cross for us although we didn’t and don’t deserve it. We seem to have an understanding of Who GOD is.

Thus, it is certain that we had better take serious heed to
what and how we hear concerning the Word of GOD.

There is certainly ONE+ other Who+ is taking heed to it…

The ONE+ Who+ numbers every hair on our heads…

The ONE+ Who+ understands our thoughts afar off

and Who+ knows the words on our tongue…

The One+ Who+ knows the hearts of men.


If the Word of CHRIST is true, then we have much to lose.


JESUS said,

“The one rejecting ME+ and not receiving My+ Words has ONE that judges him: the Word that I have spoken,

the same will judge him in the Last Day.” John 12: 48

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Amen.