A Time for Examination.

A Time for Examination. 

A Time of Opportunity.

I am not Jewish, but I guess you knew that already . . . I am wondering though, if we all ought to be a little ‘Jewish’—especially for the next couple of days.  You see, there will be a new moon tonight, which means a new month; for the Jewish people, it is the New Year.   Funny thing though, it is nothing like the New Year celebration of December 31^st, but is actually one of the holiest days of the year!   It also begins a ten-day period commonly called the “The Days of Awe,” ending in Yom Kippur.  These days are for introspection, prayer, and repentance.

One rabbi gave this recommendation—valid for ALL people, no matter their faith:  take some time on the start of this week, (this new year), and contemplate what you have been doing in the past year.1  Judge yourself – in prayer or in quiet thought.  You will probably find some parts of your behavior that are simply not right.  They’re not the best you can do or they are simply bad choices.  Then turn away from patterns that don’t bring out your best.  Turn, and/or return, to what you know deep down to be your correct path, the path of righteous action, the proverbial path of life.

In Deuteronomy 30.19, God says, “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.”

Many Christians make confession part of their regular time of prayer, I realize that, but how often do we actually look closely at our lives?  How often do we, with God’s flashlight, look into the patterns of our minds and hearts, and truly examine them?  I love Paul’s challenge to the Christians in Corinth, “let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”2

God called us to holiness—‘Be holy, even as I am holy,’3 he commanded.  In order to live holy lives, we must examine ourselves, and then move toward purity—toward holiness.  Sometimes our lives are so contaminated by extraneous material, we are being pulled down by it, yet we do not even realize it.   How do we see clearly, I ask you?  And, how do we make a correction in our course BEFORE life gets our attention through a jarring or traumatic event--that makes us realize we have:

            misplaced our priorities

            complicated our lives unnecessarily

            allowed compromise to become a slippery slope into apathy, or

            fallen recklessly, maybe seemingly unintentionally, into sin

Christian, God calls you and me to purity before him, nothing less.  (Same as he did the Jewish people—Leviticus 11.44)

In that spirit, let’s take a simple look at ourselves:

Have you allowed anything to contaminate your body?________________________________________________________________________________________

While we are no longer under the Law, we are to remember that we should not be under the control of anything.  ‘Everything is permissible—not everything is beneficial.  Everything is permissible—but I will not be mastered by anything.’4    Hey, what has you in its grip?  Alcohol?  Chocolate?  Weed?  Being consumed by work?  Not enough sleep?  Please take good care of your one and only body!

Take a moment to be honest with yourself—ask God to help you do so!

 What have you allowed to contaminate your spirit?___________________________________________________________________________________________

Perhaps some solitude is in order here . . . perhaps some soul searching.

‘Search me, O God, and know my heart…’5   What makes you and me less available to the Spirit?

Be silent and listen. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

‘Surely what distracts me comes through my senses, Lord—something I first entertain in my mind, rather than thinking on that which is ‘true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable or praiseworthy.’6

‘Everyone who [is a child of God] purifies himself, just as he is pure.’7

Back to Rosh Hashanah--one popular practice of these Jewish holy-days is Tashlikh ("casting off"), where the faithful walk to flowing water, such as a creek or river, on the afternoon of the first day and empty their pockets into the river, symbolically casting off their sins.  Hmmm . . . something to think about, isn’t it?

Let’s have our own time of New Beginnings, shall we?

Shalom,

Christine

PastorWoman.com