2-19-2020

Good Morning All, 

        2 Timothy 4:3; “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions”

    It is always amazing how people react to hearing what they do not want to hear.  Some young children will stick their fingers in their ears and make blathering noises to drown out what is being said.  I have had confirmation students who, when faced with facts they don’t want, will bring up a fact that has absolutely nothing to do with the topic.  Their goal is to confuse the situation.  When they become adults, their answer is to claim that they have a different set of facts to counter the other set of facts.

    One of my favorite quotes is, “sir you are entitled to your own opinions, but you are not entitled to your own facts.”  There is a lot or truth in that statement.  We often want to have our own truth, our own set of facts.  This is what Paul means when he talks about itching ears.  We hear the truth, but we filter it and hear what we want in the way that we want.  We do this because our sinful nature wants to have its own truth.

    Our sinful nature wants us to have a different set of facts.  It wants us to believe that we are better off hearing what we want to hear.  It wants to tell us that our truth, whatever that is, however it changes, is the best truth.  Of course, this is also why we end up lost, hurt, lonely, and in a state of hopelessness.  When our ears itch and filter God’s truth and try to spin the “facts” to lead us astray, that is how the world and our sinful nature tries to control us.

     This is why it is so critical that we listen closely to God’s voice, to his Word.  The world will tell us to worry about only our self.  God calls upon us to love our neighbor.  The world tells us that everything is ours to take yet God created us to take care of creation, to have dominion not domination.  Our life is better when we live according to God’s will.  This is not because of some enforced law but because we, like any other created thing, are best fit to serve the purpose for which we were designed.  God created us to worship and praise him, to love one another and to take care of the creation.  We are most content when we live that life.  This is the rhythm which best suits us.  It is when we seek a different truth that we again have itching ears.

    So, as we look for truth, we know that the source of all truth is Jesus.  We know his word is true, his actions are true, we know his love for us is true.  We know his promise of salvation is true.  This is what we hold on to.  This is the truth that we need.  Our ears will still itch from time to time, but God’s truth will sound through if we have faith and faith comes through hearing God’s Word, the true Word.

Father of love and mercy, your Word is truth and it moves us to follow you, to trust in you, to live our lives holding onto the promise of salvation.  Keep us from itching ears.  Give us the faith and the courage to hold onto your incredible grace.  Be with those who are struggling with life today.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret