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Tuesday, March 26, 2019

School Days


I won’t say all, but probably most adults can look back on their school years and wish
they had appreciated them more. Rare is the student, although they do exist, that does not long for their school days to end so they can “do as they please.” Then they arrive in the real world.

For many, school brings back pleasant memories, and for others the memories are most unpleasant, to say the least.

Many adults look back on school and say to themselves:
·        I wish I had studied harder.
·        I wish I had not missed so much.
·        I wish I had had a better attitude.
·        I wish I had not been such an idiot.
·        I wish I had been more mature.
·        I wish I had listened to my parents.
·        I wish I had paid attention in class.
·        I wish I had been friendlier.
·        I wish I had not cheated and had actually done the work.
·        I wish, I wish, I wish.

So many youngsters don’t realize that the purpose of going to school is to be schooled; i.e. to learn. To be schooled is to be trained, instructed, educated, disciplined, taught, tutored, drilled or coached. The only words coming from the vocabulary of some though are words like; party time, class clown, goof off, etc.

Do you know that God sends His children to school? None of us have actually graduated, but some have done well and others have done poorly. The exception of course is Jesus. That’s right, even Jesus as the Son of Man, who is God, went to school, and He is the only one who graduated. Before and after Jesus began His ministry He lived by one rule; i.e. “Not my will, but Thine be done.” He always did the Father’s will. Can we say of ourselves that we at least occasionally do the Father’s will?

Our Father in Heaven has a plan for our lives.

“For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

By His Spirit He will guide us in glorifying His Son. In the Christian Academy of Life only true Christians are admitted, and in this school of life we are expected to mature as one of God’s children. Some of us will excel as did Daniel. Some of us will be slow learners as was Hezekiah. Some of us will often fail as did Aaron, but whatever God has planned for us, we can rest assured that He is always there for us.

“The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in From this time forth and forever.” (Psalms 121:7-8)

If your or my child fails in school do we disown the child? Of course not! Before I go any further, I want you to understand that if you are God’s child and you are failing in your life, He will never ever disown you. He may discipline you, but He will never remove you from the Heavenly family and He will never give up on you.

The desire of our Father in Heaven is that all His children succeed, and success is measured by, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” None of us will ever graduate as Jesus did. Only the Son is perfect, but He wants us to do well. We are even provided with His Spirit as our own personal Tutor.

Most Christians today are very much like the goof-offs we saw in school who never carried a book and never paid attention in class. They already knew it all (so they thought) and now are on the “I wish” list.

When in school we had to carry around and actually study language books, math books, science books, etc. The Christian has one text book. It is called the Bible. The Bible is the very Word of God and the instructor (teacher) is God the Holy Spirit.

Unfortunately for some Christians they think they already know more than God so their Bible sits over in the corner somewhere collecting dust. Then there are others who indulge in the opinions of man but forsake the absolute Truth found only in the Bible. There certainly is nothing wrong in reading books written by man, but we should never do so at the exclusion of the Bible.

My personal advice to fellow Christians is to read the Bible every day, making certain it is the main course of every spiritual meal. Do not compare the Bible with what someone says, but compare what someone says with the Bible. The opinions of man are often helpful in our spiritual growth, but they can sometimes be harmful to us.

Every Christian is attending God’s school until the day he or she goes home to be with the Lord. Life is all about lessons God wants us to learn and responsibilities He wants us to accomplish.

“But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.” (1 Corinthians 12:11)

In First Corinthians chapter twelve the Lord is telling us through the apostle Paul that He has different responsibilities for each of us in His Church. We are all different and have different gifts He has supplied to us. In considering this maybe we should consider where we are on that path. Are we growing or stuck in neutral? Either way, we will do well in God’s school if we just live by the following Scripture passage.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Grant Phillips
Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com
Rapture Ready: http://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html