Scripture

Our verse for today comes from Luke 6:9, ” Then Jesus said to them, ‘I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?’ “

Background

My fifth grade year was a mixed bag. On the one hand, our class did this really cool year- long project with the American Cancer Society whereby we were able to do stuff like perform experiments to see the effects of smoking on the human body, dissect actual cows’ lungs to find out what healthy and diseased lung tissue looked like, and watch dozens of videos showing the amazing research that was being done to fight cancer. In fact, I brought home so much literature and information week after week that my dad finally stopped smoking cold turkey that year. But my teacher was also fairly obsessive about keeping order in her class. And her favorite method to restore calm from chaos was the pop spelling test. At any point of any day, whenever she determined that we had grown too unruly for her liking, she would tell us to take out a piece of paper, and she would begin to call out words. And these tests would go on and on. Many, many times we spelled hundreds of words before resuming our normal activities. In contrast to these almost daily quizzes were the dreaded essay questions of college. And none were more ominous than the one question exams. With one answer, an entire grade would be determined, so there was no room for missing five or ten words because you spelled the other 190 correctly. It was all or nothing.

Application

Jesus had His own way of instructing. He gave quizzes along the way. But there were also times when He gave others one lone question to reveal the nature of their heart. And what came forth was usually less than a passing grade. As a follower of Jesus, you have no finals to pass. Your grade is secure, there is no proctor handing out exam booklets. But we are still being tested. God still wants us to know what is going on within our hearts. It is still most relevant how aligned we are with our Father. Therefore, prepare yourself for a test. One is bound to come, so stay close to the One who has the answers.

Charge

As we seek Him today, make sure you spend time doing your homework so that you’ll be ready for whatever is asked of you.