Big Picture
With just days until the Passover, we are all busy doing the final processes of self-examination. We understand the importance of this primary focus.
We live in a selfish world where the emphasis has become placing the self at the center of everything. Whatever the situation, people are pressured to put themselves and their wants and desires first. That focus comes easily to a carnal mind and the trend is across a wide field.
Our self-examination requires that we remember the big picture. It is not an exercise in self-absorption to the extent we overlook the real reason we are doing it. We are self-examining with a deeply divine purpose in mind.
This world desperately lacks purpose for life. If there is one message that people need to hear today it is that human life has hope and a future. Most don’t have ears to hear such a message at this time. As a church, we need to find a way to tailor the gospel (good news) message of hope that will make people think deeply about the source of that hope.
At this point in time, God’s called people are the only ones who have an understanding of the purpose God has for each human. Yet the day will come when people will be ready to listen to such a message – when all human options have been exercised and have failed. Christ will be involved in the orchestration of that day.
God is preparing a family. A family of eternal spirit beings who have been formed from humans in this life. People who have responded to the Father’s calling and voluntarily submitted themselves to a life of overcoming – a life of transformation.
“Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Romans 8:30).
This is an outline of a process. It encapsulates how a human life can develop into a life that can be used by Christ when He returns to help all mankind come to a knowledge of God and His purpose in creating man.
Self-examination prior to Passover is a part of that process. We do it so we can be a better tool in God’s hand to accomplish His purpose. Our view is to look inward but with an ever-present outward focus on the purpose to which we have been called.
“In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness” (Isaiah 29:18).
We self-examine to see what is within us that may be slowing our ability to hear and see spiritually. To develop a deeper spiritual life that can be of service to God.
The world needs to also know the big picture which gives our lives purpose. When God opens their ears and eyes, will you be ready to teach them? That is a big part of the reason for the self-examination that we go through at this time.
Brian Orchard
