The Great Evaluators

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." Hebrews 4:12-13

I just returned from an evangelism conference the other day with my heart rocked by one of the Jim Futral's stories. I was sitting their doing my little mental evaluation of each preacher that I heard thinking, "this could be said differently or why was this message delivered in this way or this guys got nothing for me," when Jim shared an experience at a particular youth conference. He said that the person who headed this particular event was in attendance which stood out to him because this particular ministry had church services basically every day of the year. When he approached this person to thank him for coming he responded by saying, "Basically I'm here to check your doctrine." Jim's response is what got me when he shared how he told this young man that instead of showing up to evaluate him, perhaps he should have come with a desire for God to evaluate his own heart.

Our contact with and handling of God's Word should go beyond picking it up, but in handling God's Word we should also size it up. When considering what God says about HIs own Word our text tells us that it is a sword that gets right to the point. In other words when we find ourselves going off on tangents, whether it be in a church service, small group or even in the work place, God's Word will bring us back on point.

Many times when we pick up God's Word or listen to it being preached our minds are muddled with the nonsense of this world or our own self importance, but the Word cuts right through discerning our true thoughts and intentions. If we will listen to what the Spirit of God says to us through the Word of God we will find ourselves in a place of edification rather than evaluation.

All of this discussion begins to take center stage for us when we realize that while we feel we can put on airs of spirituality, in reality we are all naked and exposed to the eyes of the One to whom we must give an account. "Lord give me a heart that is focused on You and what You want to say to me when I pick up Your Word whether it's in personal Bible study or corporate worship. In Jesus name, amen."

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