I'm in my office preparing an upcoming message and am so excited about returning to the pulpit this week (there's not really a pulpit). Communicating truth is such a huge challenge for me and I relish the opportunity (though I get what one communicator was saying when he said, "Sunday afternoon is like the day after a final exam"). Even still to study, research and deliver principles from God's Word, exposing the character of His Son and moving a human soul closer to the heart of their Creator is an amazing privilege. But it can also move people farther away. Each time an individual receives the promises and commandments from the Scriptures poured into their soul by way of hearing the Word, the heart will move toward softening to what has been communicated and experience transformation or it will harden against it...resisting it like a brittle tree in the middle of a hurricane. The heart can melt...but it can also bake. To be honest with you, the thought of that terrifies me at times. It raises the stakes as to what I prepare and how I present it.
Mind you only the Holy Spirit can change a heart...thank goodness folks don't rely on my sermonistic savvy. But the promise from Isaiah 55:11 is clear. When His Word goes forth, it will accomplish the purpose of moving people toward Him...or away from them as they hear another presentation and remain unmoved... unchanged...to go about their daily lives keeping God on the periphery. Even now I feel the burden...I'll be ready...even now I'm praying for the hearts of the people to absorb the Words of the King...the instruction of the Master...the teaching of the Creator...and follow His paths...and so now I must open His Word...and read...and melt.