Wow, there’s a lot of good stuff in today’s segment of the One-Year Bible.
In fact, it’s tough knowing which passage to use as the focus for this Morning Devotion….
I think I’ll go for the checklist section from Psalm 15:1-5. I hope you’ll read the verses by clicking on the link above.
Essentially, the psalmist is pondering about who has the promise of earthly/eternal fellowship with God. And here is a 10-item checklist that I crafted, based on the content of the passage:
__ Lives righteously, i.e., almost no sins and quickly repenting when a “slip” occurs
__ Always speaks truthfully
__ Refuses to gossip
__ Refuses to treat neighbors unfairly with words or deeds
__ Won’t cut down others at home, work, school, church
__ Disgusted by the immoral, cruel ways of others
__ Respects/praises those serving the Lord
__ Keeps promises even when financially/socially costly
__ Willing to make no-interest loans to family or friends
__ Refuses bribes of worksite financial advantage or peer popularity at work/school in return for joining attacks on innocent person
Please read through them again, be brutally honest about your life in recent weeks and then give yourself a grade from A to F. Would you have an A for each item? Would you average a C because you’re acting like most other Christians? Or would you be failing?
I encourage you to do a prayerful, humble, honest evaluation of your life compared to these measures. You just might find great encouragement if you see that you’ve made progress over how you used to be and see that you have the ability — through Christ and the Holy Spirit — to practice each of these with excellence.
You’ll also see where you need more of the Spirit’s help in helping you to become more like Christ as you study the Word more and spend more time with spiritual role models.
The fact is that the more excellence we show with this list, the more influence we’ll have with people who need earthly/eternal fellowship with God.
As always, I love you
Martin
