"EXAMINATIONS...EXAMINATIONS"

People become very nervous when examinations are mentioned. Most do not relish the notion of being examined in any manner. But, we must submit to testing on various fronts. Examinations are important for many reasons.

Students, in school, sit for examinations in order to determine if the information presented to them is being properly received and retained.

Examinations are given to check one's qualifications in certain areas of expertise, such as, board exams for physicians, lawyers, registered nurses, CPAs, or engineers.

Pilots, commercial truck drivers and bus drivers must submit to periodic medical examinations to determine their fitness to, safely, function in their particular endeavor.

Banks are examined in a system of checks and balances to...shall I say...keep them honest. (No inference intended.)

I think everyone will agree that regular, general physical examinations can be very beneficial to our future health and wellbeing.

Spiritual examinations are also important. Truckloads of religious information is being disseminated through various and sundry types of mediums...some is good and some not so good. Some is eternally devastating. Paul told the Corinthian brethren to "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." (2 Corinthians 13:5)

For the next few Sunday evenings I will bring a series of lessons on various examinations that we all need to take. The lesson topic for this Sunday evening will be "Spiritual Optometry." The Bible has much to say about the "eye". Jesus said that "...it is the lamp of the body..." (Matthew 6:22) and that the eye can be good or bad and the body follows after it. In this lesson we will discuss some things that we need to "see" in order to be able to "go" in the right direction...spiritually speaking. Future lessons will be entitled, "Spiritual Arteriogram", "Spiritual Otology", "Spiritual Podiatry", etc.

Please make your plans to be in worship on the upcoming Sunday evenings.