EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH
Time for a spiritual checkup?

By Russell Stephen Pang

Every year, our cars require safety checks to ensure sound operation. At other times, our cars need oil changes and tuneups to enhance performance.

Have you ever wondered if people take better care of their cars than their spiritual lives? Can you recall the last time you had a spiritual safety check? Or an attitude tuneup? Does this car analogy apply to our spiritual lives?

Paul exhorts: "Examine yourselves to see if your faith is really genuine. Test yourselves." Is life really better if we don't question our current lifestyles? Is life really better if our lives don't line up with Scripture? What is the payoff for living in denial?

Jesus said: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that lead to life and only a few find it."

So how does a spiritual checkup begin? Our examiner, the Holy Spirit, uses Scripture: "For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

James challenges us: "Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts, you double minded."

Some questions quickly flash through our minds. Are we truly submitted and committed to God? Do we really have the fear of the Lord in our hearts and minds? Is Jesus really "numero uno" in our lives?

We are comforted as we read on that if we humble ourselves before the Lord, he will lift us up. As the checkup proceeds to the prodigal son parable, we are confronted by the thought that while we attend church, could we still be prodigals, spiritually and/or emotionally?

Next, we are led to 1st John: "God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin."

A probing question enters our minds. Are we truly walking in God's light or living behind a Christian facade? Again as we read on, God offers a solution: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

As our spiritual exam concludes, the Holy Spirit uses Philippians to channel our thinking and attitude: "Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things."

Russell Stephen Pang is a member of First Presbyterian Church. Expressions of Faith is a column that welcomes written works from leaders in faith and spirituality.