Are You Listening?
Issues – July/August 2023 – Grace & Truth Magazine
Are You Listening?
They were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?” Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.” —Acts 2:12-13 NKJV
To those who are called … Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. —1 Corinthians 1:24
Astonishing things were happening in Jerusalem: a violent rushing wind, tongues of fire sitting on people’s heads, and unlearned Galileans speaking languages and dialects they had never learned! As the curious crowd gathered, two responses to these miraculous events emerged. The first confessed ignorance and sought understanding; the second assumed understanding and so displayed ignorance. The first asked a question in order to learn; the second made a statement as if it had nothing to learn. The first represents a mind open to the truth; the second a mind closed by its own opinions.
Things have not changed much. Contemporary man, confronted with the biblical record of miracles, does one of two things. He either seeks the source and meaning of them, or he assumes that since he has not seen any and as they do not fit into the little closed box which he calls reality, he can arrogantly dismiss them as mythical – the imaginations of those who are “full of new wine.”
But God still reveals Himself to those willing to listen, just as He did to those people in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. On that occasion the Holy Spirit spoke through Peter, pointing the perplexed inquirers to Christ. Today He still speaks through His servants in the same way as they joyfully proclaim Christ Jesus as Lord.
A cynic who had already made up his mind that Christians are “full of new wine” once asked, “How do I know if I am called?” The wise reply shot back immediately was, “The question you must face is not ‘Am I called?’ but ‘Am I listening?’”
Are you listening?
By Grant Steidl