Have you been to college? Higher education is expensive, and not everyone can afford it. Yet everyone has experiences in life that can serve as learning opportunities. Everyone at some point makes bad choices. This has been called the ‘school of hard knocks’ and you don’t need a trust fund to be able to pay the tuition, but if you look at the costs of bad decisions you realize that this education comes at a very high price. Do you maximize the potential of these occasions as learning opportunities? They will come and you will pay the price whether you do or not.

Do you live in a Christian nation? That concept invites some questions about just what that means. The Christian faith was understood to be outside of both the political and theological power structures when it was founded, and those who embraced this way knew that they were not of this world. The commandment to come out from among them and be separate was meant for my followers for all generations. How can you come out from them if you are of them? How can you be a peculiar people and strangers and sojourners in this world from the position of the majority?

The eternal life I offer you includes the promise of transformation. Do you regard this as necessary and desirable, or are you fairly satisfied the way you are? What do you think transformation consists of? Would you like to be taller, younger, and slimmer? Have supernatural powers? Do you think those would be popular? Consider the promise in my word that you may be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Does a new way of thinking seem mundane in comparison to the alternatives listed above?

In the story of the sheep and the goats, those who provided for the poor and visited those in prison or sick were commended. Do you suppose this was meant to be an exhaustive list? Do you think the list could be expanded to include any form of ministry to those in need? What about the elderly who were not called out specifically in the original story? You don’t have to look very far to find those who are in need of assistance or even just companionship, and everyone is going there someday, including you.