Chuck Bridges Blog

Have you ever felt like you were getting graded for a test you didn’t even know you were taking? If someone could just give us a “heads up” that we are taking a test we could better prepare for it. Or, at least we could accept our grade a little better because we knew there would be a day of ‘reckoning.’ I have known some very intelligent people who just simply did not “test” well. They could understand the material, talk intelligently on a particular subject, but when it came to taking the test, they would have difficulty recalling what they knew.

In a lot of ways, life on earth is nothing but a series of tests. We start taking them at a very early age and, unlike formal education, life’s tests never end. A test is designed to determine our progress in an area of emphasis. In school, tests determine if we are getting it! While good or bad scores may not be significant on every test, how would you feel if the doctor who was about to cut you open crammed for his tests on heart surgery and barely passed? Obviously, there are some tests with greater significance than others.

We have been talking about Heaven in our current series of messages at Washington Avenue Church. In my studies I have been continually reminded how we will stand before God and give an account of our lives before we get to enjoy the bountiful blessings of the Heaven that is created for us! This is the final “EXAM” to determine a great deal of what we will experience forever. I have also been reminded that God does not “Grade on a Curve!” Don’t you just hate it when everyone in the class does horrible on a test except one “bright” student? Your 50 on the test could have been raised to a “B” but because of “Smart Sally” it only makes it to a “C.”

There are many people who view God’s judgment like that. Some think that God will go easy on us once our lives on earth are over. After all, He is a loving God isn’t He? What we fail to realize is that we are all being ‘Measured’ by ONE STANDARD: The Perfect Holiness of God! This is obviously a STANDARD that NO Human Being can ‘measure up to!’ When we accept Jesus as our Savior our deficiencies are raised to God’s STANDARD by Christ’s righteousness. Then, for the rest of our lives, we face a series of “TESTS” to help us become more like the ONE who has given us the opportunity to “pass our final exam!” (for you Theology students this process is called Sanctification)

Heaven is definitely a HOPE that we can constantly look forward to, knowing that no matter how difficult our lives get on this earth, one day all of our troubles will be over — Now that will be heaven!!! But, we also need to understand that the things we experience in this life are used by God to get us ready for our “Eternal Assignments.” So, how are you doing with your tests? Are you making the grade? Trust me, as a Christ-Follower, if we fail the “TEST” God sends our way, we will have to take it again; and again; and again…(you get the point). Later we will discuss the relationship between our “earthly” assignments and their relationship to the roles we will have in Heaven forever! Stay tuned and I will try not to let so much time lapse between blog posts.