I can remember my days in school, especially college, when we would have mid-term exams about halfway through the semester. These provided a part of your final grade, but they also provided a tool for evaluating how well you were learning the material. They could provide you with a tool to understand if you were doing well or if you needed to work harder for the remainder of the term.
We have just passed the halfway point of 2008. Perhaps it would be good to take a mid-term exam. Did you make some resolutions at the beginning of the year? How are you doing with those? Perhaps you decided to lose weight, or to stop a bad habit, or to maintain better control of your anger. Whatever it may have been, are you making an effort to accomplish the goal? Can you look back at January and seen an improvement between then and now?
What about goals you set for spiritual growth? Read the Bible more, develop Christian attitudes, bear fruit, and exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. These are a few examples of possible goals you may have set for yourself at the beginning of the year. Do a self examination. How are you doing? If you were to receive a grade, would you be passing the course?
I am not saying the Christian life is like taking a class in history or math, but there is a need to look at ourselves and see where we stand in our relationship with the Lord.
We have just passed the halfway point of 2008. Perhaps it would be good to take a mid-term exam. Did you make some resolutions at the beginning of the year? How are you doing with those? Perhaps you decided to lose weight, or to stop a bad habit, or to maintain better control of your anger. Whatever it may have been, are you making an effort to accomplish the goal? Can you look back at January and seen an improvement between then and now?
What about goals you set for spiritual growth? Read the Bible more, develop Christian attitudes, bear fruit, and exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. These are a few examples of possible goals you may have set for yourself at the beginning of the year. Do a self examination. How are you doing? If you were to receive a grade, would you be passing the course?
I am not saying the Christian life is like taking a class in history or math, but there is a need to look at ourselves and see where we stand in our relationship with the Lord.
Lamentations 3:40 – “Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 13:5 – “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.”
We need to search and examine. If we find we have strayed from the Lord, we must turn back to Him.
The mid-term exam is only a precursor to the final exam. In school, we had final exams at the end of the semester. It was after these exams that the final grade was determined. Up until the final exam, there were opportunities to improve the grade and to prepare for the exam. Upon completion of the final, there were no more opportunities.
In Matthew 25, Jesus uses three parables to illustrate the necessity of being prepared. We do not know the duration of the “semester.” Death is an appointment everyone will keep (Hebrews 9:27), but we do not know the time (James 4:13-15). Jesus’ second coming is certain, but the time is unknown to all except the Father (Matthew 24:36). We must take advantage of every opportunity to be prepared for that moment (death or the second coming) at all times.
Take a moment and complete your mid-term exam. Are you prepared for the final?
--Lamar
The mid-term exam is only a precursor to the final exam. In school, we had final exams at the end of the semester. It was after these exams that the final grade was determined. Up until the final exam, there were opportunities to improve the grade and to prepare for the exam. Upon completion of the final, there were no more opportunities.
In Matthew 25, Jesus uses three parables to illustrate the necessity of being prepared. We do not know the duration of the “semester.” Death is an appointment everyone will keep (Hebrews 9:27), but we do not know the time (James 4:13-15). Jesus’ second coming is certain, but the time is unknown to all except the Father (Matthew 24:36). We must take advantage of every opportunity to be prepared for that moment (death or the second coming) at all times.
Take a moment and complete your mid-term exam. Are you prepared for the final?
--Lamar
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