Years ago, when my husband, Ian, was pastor of a small rural church, we visited a lady who didn’t like being in a room full of people. When asked why, she said she found it hard to hear when there was lots of background noise. We were young, and she was in her 70s. We thought she was being “selectively” deaf, because she had no problem hearing us speaking to her in her own living room. As we got older, we too experienced the challenge of hearing in a group where many conversations are going on. It became a matter of filtering and focusing on one person, one conversation, regardless of what else is going on in the room.

Something happened one day that brought it home to me in a rather interesting way. I was sitting in a busy parking lot waiting for Ian to come out of the store. I could hear loud music coming from another vehicle not far away. The beat intrigued me, and I opened my window to hear it better. But now I could hear all the OTHER sounds outside — car doors closing, people talking, traffic driving by on the street — which masked the music coming from the other vehicle. It was just as loud and clear, but I could not hear it as well. I really had to focus to isolate it from all the other noise going on. I closed the car window again, and could hear the music as well as before.

Our culture today is filled with clutter, confusion, twisted truths, and downright lies about who God is, what we are, and how we are to relate to Him. In order for me to give the clear message of the gospel of Christ to others, I must exercise great care in what message I receive. And in order to receive only what God wants me to hear, I must close the window to all that other irrelevant noise and focus only on the clear message He has given in His Word. 

It’s all too easy to get sucked into the false teachings of our day – even in churches that were to be trusted in the past. Every one of us is in danger of receiving a faulty or twisted message of Who Christ is, and of our desperate need of Him in order to stand before a holy God.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6).

Jesus Christ is not merely one of many ways to God. He is the only way, and the only truth.

The night before He was crucified, Jesus spent time in the garden, praying. His prayer for His followers was,

“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” (John 17:17)

There is a way through the confusion – a way to hear from God. And that is through reading His Word, the Bible, interpreting and accepting it exactly the way He meant us to.

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Everything that comes into our minds from the world around us must be filtered through God’s Word; not the other way around.