March 3, 2023

The Bible Edge

Everyone needs an Edge, Believers can have the Bible Edge

Mark 7:16

If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.

Does this strike you as funny? Jesus said If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. In fact, He said this three times in the book of Mark. Everyone has ears. Even if the ears do not work, people have ears. Through an accident or birth defect a small number may not have earlobes but the vast majority of people have ears. So, what Jesus is saying is that everyone needs to hear what he said on purpose. “You have ears, let those ears hear me.”

How many times in life do we hear others speaking but we do not hear what they say? You’ve heard your pastor preach… Did you hear it to the point that it has an effect on your life? At this point in this devotion I could go one of two ways. The way of sharing the context of each time the Lord used this saying, but frankly, that could be a book. Or the direction of how to enable the ears to hear, letting them actually hear.

Suffice this to be said. If you desire to truly hear that which the Lord teaches through His Word you must let yourself hear it. Most don’t. They are like those the Lord spoke of in Mark 8:18. Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? In many ways we are very much like Jerusalem during Jesus’ time on earth. Of that city He stated: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Matthew 23:37

Eternity will reveal the truth that many had ears to hear but they would not let their ears hear that which they needed to hear. But if you do, if you let your ears hear the Lord, it will give you an edge, a Bible edge in life. Both lives, now and eternity.

William Howe, Ph.D.