The The body is The Bible tells us that God's word is able to transform someone's life.

So how is it possible for some people to remain unchanged after years or even decades of consistent church attendance?

Alistairbegg looks at the answer to that question today on Truth for Life. We're studying Mark chapter 4, focusing

on verses 21 through 25. By way of overview, let's just acknowledge that Jesus is explaining here, following on

from the parable of the sore and the explanation that he has provided. He's

explained in that there is a direct correlation to the way in which someone

listens to the word of God and the benefit or benefits that they then enjoy or that they in turn fail to receive.

Now at the heart of the paragraph is the exhortation which comes in

verse 23 and 24a and that exhortation which comes in verse 23 and 24 a and that exhortation is

both preceded and followed by instruction. He said to them, do you bring in a

lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed instead don't you put it on its stand?

Now again let me just say what is being said and then we'll look at it in detail.

The parables Jesus is teaching us were not a means to obscure the truth concerning

the kingdom of God. Instead they were a means that Jesus used to cause the listener to see himself or to see herself in the

illustration. So classically in this parable of the sore which Jesus says in some sense is the key to all the

parables. The listener who is really listening, really paying attention, will not simply say,

well this is an interesting story from the agriculture of the first century

but this is a story in which I see myself.

And so what we've been discovering those of us who've been tracking with this,

is that Jesus is using the parables as a kind of filter, as a kind of filter.

So that the same people would listen to the story, some would find themselves saying,

that's a jolly good story or I like that and others were actually saying it wasn't simply a good story that was something that God was telling us about himself and about us. Hence the distinction that we're going to see between

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