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Hebrews 4:12, "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart"

Ouch! There are times when you hear a message from the Word of God and you can feel the sharpness of the sword as it cuts into your heart. The double-edged sword doesn't haphazardly enter your heart and begin to hack away at it with the purpose of destruction. God's Word is designed to work as precise as a surgeon's scalpel and go to the area that needs to be cut out.

Have you felt the Surgeon's knife? I have and last night at the Colony of Mercy Chapel, Chaplain Jim Freed delivered a message from God's Word straight into my heart. His message was from Acts 16 called "The Night the Jailhouse Rocked."1

I always pray for my lost friends and family and I pray for opportunities to share the Gospel with them. But if I am really honest, I hope others will do the job for me. Truth be known, just as Jim said, I'm afraid of being rejected by them and so I hope someone else might do the witnessing for me. Chaplain Jim's challenge was to look to Paul and Silas and follow their example. There in the midst of unjust imprisonment, beating and humiliation, they sang their hearts out while shackled in chains in a dark and cold jail cell. They rocked that jailhouse!

It took great courage for these men to continue to sing their hearts out for Jesus. It also took hearts of great compassion for the lost and dying in the jail who didn't know Jesus. The result of their courage and compassion was the conversion, not only of the prisoners, but also the jailer and his family!

Where is my courage? Where is my compassion for those that are without Jesus today? I say I love them, but it seems my own fears outweigh my compassion. Lord, cut away and do through me what I can't do in my own power and strength!!!

God's Word is sharper than any double-edged sword and I need to open my heart willingly and continually to allow His scalpel to cut where it needs to. Even though messages like this one are difficult to hear because they are very convicting, my heart longs for more of them. Although there is pain when that sword penetrates my heart, it IS the only way to grow in faith...to grow more and more into the image of Christ.

Mary Ann Kiernan is the Colony of Mercy Intake Manager. Her son, Dan, is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy

1 "The Night the Jailhouse Rocked," Jim Freed, message given at the Colony of Mercy Chapel, Whiting, NJ, July 13, 2007.