by Zeke Flores<\/p>\n
How many times have you heard a thing, yet forget what you heard in a matter of minutes? The older we get, the more we are “quick to hear, fast to forget.” Or, as we’ve all heard it, it’s in one ear and out the other. But the malady isn’t merely age-related.<\/p>\n
Jesus warned about the problem in His parable of the sower and the seed (Matthew 13, Mark 4, Luke 8), which is more of a story about different kinds of “soil” or attitudes of the heart. Jesus explains that the seed sown is “the word of God<\/em>” (Luke 8:11). You’d think such an important message would immediately be held fast, protected, and practiced. You’d think.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, after hearing such crucial information, we read about many who immediately forget all about its requirements and make no changes to accommodate themselves to it. While some people are willing to bask in the glow of such good news for a while, they are quick to leave it alone.<\/p>\n Ezekiel, the prophet, spoke of some who sang God’s message with “a beautiful voice<\/em>”\u00a0but still didn’t live according to it (Ezekiel 33:32). Isaiah mentioned some who delighted to know God’s ways but not enough to practice them (Isaiah 58:2). Not much has changed since then.<\/p>\n Hearing is not always believing, and believing is not necessarily doing. If we want God’s word to abide deeply in us, we’ve got to let it take root and root deep. This is done by hearing and then doing what He says.<\/p>\n Hearing and heeding, ah, now that’s the ticket.<\/p>\n “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. Fro whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him<\/em>” (Matthew 13:11-12).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Zeke Flores How many times have you heard a thing, yet forget what you heard in a matter of minutes? The older we get, the more we are “quick to hear, fast to forget.” Or, as we’ve all heard it, it’s in one ear and out the other. But the malady isn’t merely age-related.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1506,54],"class_list":["post-69679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-hearing","tag-obedience"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":92542,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-jesus-taught-in-parables\/","url_meta":{"origin":69679,"position":0},"title":"Why Jesus Taught in Parables","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Roger D. Campbell No one ever taught as Jesus did (John 7:46)! When He taught people, He often employed parables. By doing so, He fulfilled Old Testament prophecy (Psalm 78:2; 49:4). Jesus was neither the first nor last person in history to teach via parables, but He used them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55055,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-you-teachable\/","url_meta":{"origin":69679,"position":1},"title":"Are You Teachable?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Larry W. Rouse When I first became a Christian I thought that the key to bringing others to obedience to Christ was to have clearly reasoned evidence based on the Word of God. \u00a0I thought \"if others could just hear the truth taught simply and plainly then they too\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Teaching.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":66778,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/genealogy-as-evidence\/","url_meta":{"origin":69679,"position":2},"title":"Genealogy as Evidence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton One thing about all the lists of names in the Bible (forget about the difficulty of pronunciation) is that they were kept meticulously to keep the record accurate and verifiable. When Genesis gave a genealogy, it was to show that the writer was being historical and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94965,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/contradiction-or-expanded-details\/","url_meta":{"origin":69679,"position":3},"title":"Contradiction or Expanded Details?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 6, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Many are those who think they see \"contradictions\" everywhere in the Bible, but my experience has been that after more careful consideration, these so-called contradictions are but an expansion of details, both of which can be true. For example, one common claim is that Luke says\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84108,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/patience-in-bearing-fruit\/","url_meta":{"origin":69679,"position":4},"title":"Patience in Bearing Fruit","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores The parable of the sower and the seed is popular, and for good reason. It's not hard to see the various attitudes and personalities in the different soils offered in the parable. However, as Luke explains Jesus's story, it's the last sentence that is sometimes hardest for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18388,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-say-as-an-invitation-at-the-end-of-a-sermon\/","url_meta":{"origin":69679,"position":5},"title":"What do you say as an “invitation” at the end of a sermon?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning Mr. Hamilton, Could you give me some examples of what to say as an \"invitation\" when I'm done with a sermon? Thank you, sir. Answer: An \"invitation\" at the close of a sermon is a tradition and not a requirement. Not that it is a bad tradition,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}