We take our automobiles to the service center for oil changes regularly. While having our car serviced we ask the repairman to check the belts, the brakes, the shocks, the radiator and anything else that may need some attention. This is a scheduled planned maintenance program that helps to ensure our primary means of transportation remains safe and dependable while hopefully helping to avoid costly repairs in the future. Make sense? Of course it does. We try to do the same thing with our health. Seeing a doctor for regular checkups hopefully avoids any surprises that may overcome us. Same thing for our homes, our boats, our RV’s, our retirement plans, our families.
When was the last time you had a spiritual check-up? You know, dusted off the old beliefs, added new dogma, fine-tuned your view on the Old Testament, updated your position on the New Testament. Are there some old hymns that you no longer want and need to replace with modern tunes? Still want to keep those old Ten Commandments or replace them with the new and improved ‘Seven Simple Suggestions’? What about those twelve Apostles, should you upgrade to the ‘Fab’ Four because a dozen names are too hard to remember? Maybe a new version of the Bible is needed, one that is easy to download when you go to church on Easter and Christmas. Don’t forget about the weddings you attend at church, that counts as worship time right?
What about your real spiritual check-up? Have you deliberately memorized any Scripture lately? When was the last time you read some Proverbs, the story of Jonah, the Book of Joel? Have you ever thought of comparing the lives of Daniel and Paul the Apostle? Have you read any parables lately, how about the Sermon on the Mount, the Book of Jude? See any similarities between the old Israel and modern day Israel? Do they have mountainous hillsides like these? Are the goats bright? Are you?
Maybe you need to be taken off the shelf—dusted off thoroughly, checked out, tuned up, turned on and put back in circulation! Every Christian is in a continuing education program. The more we know of Christ and his work, the more we are being changed to be like him. Because this process is lifelong, we must never stop learning and obeying. It takes practice, ongoing review, patience, and concentration to keep the mind keen and in line with His will.
“Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of the Creator”. Colossians 3:10
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