With today's technology, we have instant access to all sorts of information. How do we know what to listen to?

Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!" (Mark 9:7, NIV)

We live in a culture marinated in words. The sheer amount of content on the Internet is staggering, and growing each day. In a world where so much information is flowing—through our computers, radio, television, cell phones—how do we know what to pay attention to? It could be that you are reading these words even now on an electronic reader. All this access to information might be helpful if we could figure out how to wade through it all. How do we know what to listen to?

God said of Jesus, “Listen to Him!” I talk to Christians who wish they could have lived at the time Jesus walked the earth, so they could have listened to Him in person, seen Him, and let His warm embrace melt their doubts. They forget that our culture has unprecedented access to Jesus. A generation or two ago, many Christian homes had only one Bible. Before the invention of the printing press around 1440, copies of the Bible stayed mostly in churches.

Today, as I write, I am looking up Bible verses on a website that offers me instant access to two dozen English translations as well as the Bible in Bulgarian, Arabic and Haitian Creole, to name a few. You can download the Bible on your BlackBerry. Bibles that look like magazines or even comic books exist. As a result, we can listen to Jesus any time we want—if we’d only take the time to do so. When we sit down and read a portion of the Gospel, carefully reflecting on it, we can hear Jesus’ voice. We can imagine ourselves in the story, and it is like spending time with Jesus. We can read His words, reflect on them, and truly listen.

FAITH STEP: Today, read a short portion of one of the Gospels. Read slowly and thoughtfully, imagining yourself to be right there watching and listening to Jesus.

Written by Keri Wyatt Kent