The Problem of Itching Ears

        I am surrounded in my life with conditions that have been summed up with a cute acronym. I suffer from an occasional UTI, or a URI and my heart is plagued with CHF. My joints don't have a full ROM. I once came up with my own acronym for my former job. I was the POC, or the pastor on call. No one thought it was funny. I have preached and taught the Bible for many years, almost each and every Sunday since May of 1978. I preach and teach as if it were my final message. I pray over the people and wait for God to send me the message for those people at that particular time, and not one that is just pleasing to me, but one thing for sure, it is going to be a message that includes the “gospel” of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of my friends once told me that you don't preach the gospel until you get Jesus out of the grave. He is right. It is because of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that we even have the need for a devotional, a hymn, a church or hope for the future. If Jesus had not raised from the dead, we would not even be writing or reading this devotion. In fact we would not even know about Him. But, He did raise from the dead, and we do know about Him and so what He said is vitally important. Second Timothy 4:2-4 says, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

          Everyone seems to want something else when they come to a church meeting. Paul warned Timothy that people were going to want something that soothed their itching ears and that is who they were going to listen to. Paul, however, reminded Timothy to “Preach the Word” virtually in “every season.” There are a lot of people in the pulpits these days and many are what are called, “Skyscraper” preachers: one story after another and very little preaching of the Word. When we refer to the Word, we are usually referring to the Bible, the Word of God. Perhaps you didn't get “edified” this past Lord's Day but you can still get into the Word yourselves. Perhaps you didn't hear something that contained “sound doctrine” but you can still get into the Scriptures yourselves. Paul warned Timothy about the upcoming teachers in his day and the same is just as true today as people look for something new and different. As for me, tell me the Old, Old Story. We probably have a denomination for each and every type of person. We even have cowboy churches, vertical churches and journey churches in our area and I would guess you have some unusual church names in your areas as well. I still have a “cross stitch” over my desk that was done in the very early days of my ministry by one of the ladies in the church. It simply says, “Preach the Word.” We all deserve to attend a church where the Word of God is preached and where people are fed so we can get through the upcoming trials that are in all of our lives. In the preaching of the gospel, the definition of the word, gospel, is seen in First Corinthians 15:3-4 and contains the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you a person who has “itching” ears? Are you looking for a new gospel? Are you looking for something different in your church attendance? If your toes are getting stepped on by the preacher, then your probably head a message from the Bible. There are those times when the preaching becomes a personal challenge and God speaks to you through the message and the messenger. Praise God for His Word today.