Dear Friends,
We live in a society where there is constant noise. Messages are being communicated, displayed, and screamed at us each and every day from every corner of society. “Do this.” “Buy that.” “Get this.” “Believe that.” “Look like this.” “Strive for that.”How do you know which voices to listen to and which ones to let go of? That’s a great question.
I got an email with this picture of Heath Ledger yesterday. It is the last portrait that he ever sat for, just a few weeks before his tragic death. The portrait was done by Australian artist Vincent Fantauzzo. Mr. Fantauzzo says that the picture “was an idea we discussed together and came up with… it was about how we all have different consciences and voices in our head that tell us what to do and how to react. They’re not good or bad, they’re just voices that we hear, telling us how to behave. That’s what the other figures are in the painting.”
I saw the picture, thought about this talented young guy’s tragic death, and thought to myself, “I wonder what the voices in his head were telling him?” I also thought about the study we have been doing in Romans and how we have learned that we can’t even trust our own thinking, much less the countless number of voices we hear screaming at us from every corner of society. With this in mind you have to wonder, “Who can you trust? Which voices should you follow?”
Throughout God’s Word there is a “Voice” that calls out to us. Calling us from destruction to life. Calling us from trusting in ourselves, our own ingenuity and intellect, and inviting us to trust in Him. Calling us to forsake our ways and learn of His. Calling us from hopelessness to hope. Calling us from rebellion to surrender. What will we do with that Voice? I want to urge you to heed His voice. God will not only lead you through this life into eternity, but He will help you quiet the myriad of other voices that are crying out for your allegiance. The writer of Hebrews said,
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion…” (Hebrews 3:7-8 NIV)
Who’s got your ear today?
In His Steps,
Mike