Thursday Thought -- June 12, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe. They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: ‘The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah the prophet: “Go to this people and say, ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.’ For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!’” (Acts 28:24-28)

In Rome, the Jews were willing to come hear Paul preach, but many of them were unwilling to believe what he said. The Jews who gathered to hear Paul preach are like every other group that has heard the Gospel: some accepted the message and some rejected it. The message wasn’t different, they all heard the same things. The difference was within the hearers.

Isaiah had prophesied about how people would respond to God’s message – and he had probably seen the same kind of response to his own preaching. For many it would be the hardness of their hearts that would not allow them to accept the message that they heard.  t was as though there was something keeping the truth from getting through to them.

It takes a soft heart to be able to hear the Gospel. A soft heart is one that understands its own sinfulness. The problem with many of the Jews, and the problem with many people today, is that they don’t realize or can’t accept that they have a problem they can’t solve. The Jews believed that they were O.K. with God. They pointed to the sins of others but could not see their own sinfulness. They weren’t being honest about themselves and it was their lack of honesty that kept the Word from being able to penetrate.

A second aspect of a soft heart is its willingness to accept help. Not only must a person realize his own sinfulness, but he must accept the fact that there is no hope of doing anything about it himself. There may have been some among the Jews of Paul’s day who would have admitted their sinfulness, but in their pride, they believed they were capable of overcoming it on their own. They could work hard enough and be disciplined enough to make it on their own.

A willingness to admit our own sinfulness and admit that we are hopeless to do anything about it -- those are prerequisites to receiving Christ -- and prerequisites to God’s continuing work in our lives, too.

His, by Grace,

Steve