We love echoes.
Stand at the entrance to a cave, yell, and listen to the sounds that come back. It’s our voice, even though it doesn’t sound like us. Then it reverberates softer and softer, until it’s gone altogether.
Then we do it again.
The only trouble with listening to the echo in the cave is that we’ll only hear the words we call out. We can make the cave say anything we want.
“You’re the prettiest girl in the world!” Prettiest girl…prettiest girl…prettiest girl…
“I love you!” Love you…love you…love you…
“God is a figment of man’s imagination!” Figment of man’s imagination…figment of man’s imagination…figment of man’s imagination…
The world today is listening to itself yelling into a cave, then standing back in amazement, saying, “See? Even the rocks in the ground tell us that God is only a figment of man’s imagination. How foolish would it be for us to believe otherwise?”
In Acts 9:7, the men traveling with Saul of Tarsus witnessed Saul’s conversion from Christian-killing zealot to Christ-focused apostle. Here’s their reaction:
“The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.”
These men were not followers of Christ. They were Saul’s companions. They were looking into the cave of human understanding, they heard the voice of Jesus, and they didn’t know what it was. They were used to the echo of man’s voice yelling into the darkness; and the majesty of Christ’s spoken words passed them by.
Who’s calling to us out of our cave? Do we recognize the voice of Jesus when we hear it?
John 14:6 whispers the words of Jesus to us.
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
It’s not an echo. The words coming to us are from the mouth of our Lord. Even Thomas, who doubted all things, called out in John 20:28:
“My Lord and my God!”
Jesus died on the cross, was buried in a cave, and then he walked forth from that cave to bring new life to the world. His resurrection, the voice that speaks to us from the cave, calls to us with new life.
His voice is the voice of truth, calling us to receive his gift of eternal life.
Forget the echoes. Anyone can make those. Only Jesus can speak the truth.
When we begin to listen to God, the echoes of man’s self-importance will begin to fade away until we hear them no more.
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Code: FGO.K.02.15b.vp.esv