Self-Evaluation

I just had my employee evaluation at work. What they ask of us is to do a self-evaluation. They give us a list of things that we are to know how to do and you check off if you can do them or not. This is the easy part of the evaluation. The hard part comes with the next page, here are a list of things that you are expected to do and now you must evaluate yourself on whether you just meet the minimum requirements or go beyond what is asked and then give an example of where and when you went beyond the minimum requirements. Every now and them I think we should do a spiritual self-evaluation. There are things that God asks is to do then there are things God demands that we do. To often we can become complacent in our walk with God, getting by with just meeting what we consider the minimum standard. When that happens our growth as a Christian comes to an abrupt stop. In todays podcast we are going to look at some of God’s requirements and in the process perhaps we can also do a self-evaluation.

Deuteronomy 10:12

And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear God, to walk in his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

The Hebrew word used here for require, is a word that means to inquire or ask of. So, these are things that the Lord asks of us. They are like the task on my self-evaluation that ask if you meet the minimum or if you exceed the minimum standard. It does not take much effort to meet the minimum standard and as with all things you get out of it what you put into it. At work if you constantly exceed the standard you may be rewarded with a raise or promotion. In the cases of our spiritual evaluation the reward is an unwavering faith and closeness with our Creator. What does God ask of us?

“To fear God.” The word used hear has two meanings, the first is to be afraid, to physically fear. And rightly so, we should fear God. For the God we serve is just and holy and has promised that the wicked and the unrighteous will not go unpunished. The other meaning is to be awe and to show reverence to God. We throw around the word awesome very causally today, and often we attach it to people that are not worthy of being called awesome. We can be delighted and amazed by many people and the things they have accomplished, but they really are not awesome. Awe as defined by Webster dictionary is, fear mingled with admiration or reverence. There is only one person who meets the qualifications, for us to be awestruck and that is God. The book of proverbs tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. For it is a wise man that is awestruck by the glory of God. The opposite is that a fool says there is no Good. God has given us so much evidence that he is the Creator and that he is Lord that Paul tells us we are without excuse.

If we truly fear the Lord and hold him in reverence and awe, then we will hate what is evil. Some might say that hate is wrong, and it is if it comes from a selfish and prideful heart. There is a proper hate, a righteous hate and a righteous anger. Even the Lord hates and gives us a list of the things he hates.

Proverbs 6:16-19

There are six things that the Lord hates and seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breaths lies, and one that sows discord among the brothers.

If we fear the Lord and walk in his ways we to should hate these things and they should have no part in our lives. Looking at the state of the church today one might wonder if we really do fear the Lord and walk in his ways. There is a church that just opened a brewery and is donating the profits to Planned Parenthood. Plan Parenthood is one of the largest abortion providers in the world, they have spilled more innocent blood that even the most despicable dictator. The Episcopal church just recently changed their book of common prayer to say the “union of two people” instead of” the union of husband and wife” all to appease man. They have accepted the lie that the culture should influence the church when it is the church that should be influencing the culture and leading people in the truth of God’s word. We see churches teach a less offensive and watered-down gospel, that will lead people to believing they are saved and are not. They are bearing false witness with their tongues, telling people that there are many ways to heaven, when there is only one. To walk in the ways of the Lord is to keep his commandments, all his commandments not just the ones we think are relevant in an ever-changing culture. We are to walk in this world but not be a part of this world, we are not to embrace the evil but to oppose it and stand firm in the faith. We cannot be the light and embrace the dark.