Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (JN 8:32)

Living

Monday, May 28, 2012

Listen Carefully

By Greg Laurie , Christian Post Contributor
January 9, 2012|5:55 am

So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it.
- Hebrews 2:1

Those who think that simply going to church and going through a little ritual will bring them closer to God are in for a big surprise. Because the easiest place to get a hardened heart is in the church. As I have said before, the same sun that softens the wax hardens the clay.

As the Word of God goes out, some people are impacted by it, some people are changed by it, and others are hardened by it, because they have no intention of believing it. Continual exposure to God's Word is actually doing more harm than good. And in the very place where they could be transformed, they will be worse off than ever.

Am I saying that some people shouldn't go to church? Yes . . . if they have no intention of applying what they are hearing. We can see miracles and hear truth, but if we don't have a desire to apply it, then our hearts can get hardened.

Someone who is living a double life like Judas Iscariot will experience an increasingly hardened heart. Judas walked and talked with Jesus for three-and-a-half years. He was hand-chosen by the Lord. He had heard Christ give His greatest sermons. Judas heard the Sermon on the Mount and the Olivet Discourse with his own ears. He saw Lazarus raised from the dead. He saw blind men receive their sight. He saw deaf men receive their hearing. Judas saw miracle after miracle, yet his heart grew harder.

And even though Jesus knew what would take place, Judas, of his own volition, deliberately betrayed the Lord, reminding us that the foreknowledge of God does not change the responsibility of man.

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So the answer is not to stop going to church; it is to go with a desire to know God.

Copyright © 2011 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000

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