God taught us many lessons over this past year and continues to remind us of those lessons, not because we havenít learned them, but because we are prone to forget. For many of us, there will be times that we will sit at service and hear a familiar truth. Thus, the Lord stirs our memory, bringing to the surface a lesson learned and the answer we were looking for.

GROWTH COMES FROM NEW AS WELL AS OLD TRUTHS RENEWED.

We are people who tend to search for new truths, insights, or illustrations and we become what the Bible calls a people who just want their ears tickled. However, we donít apply what God has already spoken to us. So letís remind ourselves of the goal God wants us to bring about from all that weíve been learning throughout the year.

I am reminded of a conversation I had with a friend of mine some time ago. He told me that one-day in college he was shocked by the grade he received for a term paper he turned in. The professorís comments written on the paper read good content, very neat, excellent illustration, and good references. But the letter grade he received was an "F", and written below it was wrong assignment.

Like my friend, I wonder if we too go through life missing our assignment and getting involved instead in fruitless discussion or a life that is fruitless as far as eternity is concerned.

The Bible says in Proverbs 21:2, "God weighs your heart" and in Proverbs 17:3, "God tests the heart". God is talking about a certain quality of love that comes out of a heart that is pure which the Bible calls "first love". For example, have you ever noticed someone who just comes to know the Lord? He is so grateful for being delivered from his past and does everything out of gratefulness. God says this is our "first love". However, after a while, our love may change and we can find ourselves developing a very religious lifestyle not borne out of a pure heart. Therefore, our serving becomes just activity without heart and we lose our "first love". It can happen. It happened to the church of Ephesus in the book of Revelations.

The Greek word for pure is ëkatharosí, and it is used to describe the threshing or cracking of the hard husks of grain and winnowing or blowing away the chaff and thus filtering out the best grain

Like husks of grain that need cracking, sometimes God will need to drive a threshing wheel over our lives to break a hardened attitude or calloused life in order to reveal a katharos heart. Is the goal of your instruction causing a pure heart to be developed? Be willing to let the Lord crack those husks lest the Lord give you an ëFí for the wrong assignment. Do not miss the goal of your instruction, which is to produce love from a pure heart.

So how do you check your heart? The way I do it is by checking the level of skepticism in my life. Am I seeing problems more than answers? Am I seeing evidence of Godís absence in peoplesí lives rather than His presence? Or do I harness my energy toward the future of what God may have and see a resolution rather than a problem? If your heart is pure, you will see an optimistic outcome. How? Matthew 5:8 says, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God". You will begin to see the evidence of Godís presence everywhere only when your heart is being purified.

Another thing I do is to check the level of change in my life. Am I changing or still struggling with the same issues as last year? If my heart is being purified and Iím reading Godís word and threshing out the grain within me, then I should be changing, and not just learning more religious principles. So sit before the light of Godís word, and if you find that your level of change is poor, and that youíre just getting more religious, than youíve missed the whole exam because the goal of our instruction is to love from a pure heart.

Is the goal of our instruction producing a good conscience thatís healthy? Our conscience is activated when we violate the truths God places on our heart and the pain becomes so great that we have to stop and repent before our hearts are able to heal. In other words, we feel guilty and the pain of that guilt results in change. However, some people continue to do evil and withstand the pain of their actions. They let their hearts bleed over and over, until one day they donít feel the pain anymore because they have managed to destroy their conscience. Indeed, our conscience wonít stop us from sinning entirely, but it will make you hate it with a passion. In fact you should have a tremendous amount of pain when you sin so that you will change direction and choose resolution and healing rather than hiding, running, and continuing to sin.

One of the worst things that can happen when you sin is to avoid capture, because then you begin to believe it is okay. Eventually, you will develop a lifestyle of mediocrity and sin becomes a normal part of your life. It is then that you are most susceptible to the wiles of the enemy who will feed you enough lies until one day you find yourself doing time behind bars while the devil rejoices. So keep your conscience healthy and in good working order so you will keep following God. Then your character will develop in the ways God intends for you.

Let your life be held under the scrutiny of the light. David said in Psalm 139:23 "Search me O God, and know my heartÖ" In essence, he is asking God to check if there is any wicked way in him. If we can undergo scrutiny and find ourselves doing okay, then we know weíre on the right path. If weíre not, then we need to say, "Iím sorry," and ask God to please help us change because we should all desire a pure faith.

Is the goal of our instruction producing a faith that is sincere and genuine? The word sincere comes from the Latin word "sine cera" meaning without wax. Itís a word picture that comes from master craftsmen who produced translucent vases that included a process requiring precise heating otherwise a hairline crack would result on their finished product. Dishonest dealers used wax with the same color pigment as the vase to fill in the crack and then buff it until the crack was barely perceptible to the naked eye. Only after holding it up to the scrutiny of light were the fissures revealed. Since this was happening so much, the honest dealers decided to positioned placards in front of the vases they sold that read "sine cera vases" or "vases without wax".

God wants us to develop a sincere and honest faith that will withstand scrutiny by the light. We should not resort to filling in the cracks of our lives with defensiveness and an attitude that refuses to be corrected. Instead, if cracks are found, ask God to help us fix it, and respond by saying, "Iím sorry," because we want to have a sincere faith which will give us credibility when held up to the light.

In the final exam, the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith. When they hold our vessel up to the light they should see right through it because the world needs to see Jesus much more than it needs to see you or me. That will only happen if we are willing to be scrutinized, our faith is sincere, we have a conscience in good working order, and our heart is pure. Remember, to a lot of people you will be the only Bible they will ever read, and the only Jesus they will ever see. So, if at the end of the year weíve found ourselves pursuing the wrong assignment, then weíve only gotten a little more religious and would have missed the goal.

Letís represent Him well in this next year!

Question 5: How will I be different from what Iíve learned today?

Summarized by: Rhonda Pang