Read Matthew 13:24-30
“Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn” (v. 30).
Travel back in time to that classroom, that subject, that teacher for whom you had to work the hardest. Whether your classmates wore poo- dle skirts and Elvis hairdos or bell bottoms and afros (or even something a bit more modern), chances are we all had that class — or maybe even that test, in particular — that was especially challenging. You skipped questions to come back to later. You stewed and chewed the eraser off your pencil. You figured and re-figured and searched your brain for the answer.
A few days later when the teacher handed the graded tests back, you dreaded and desired to see the result. Did you make the grade? Did you get enough right? What was that letter in red going to be?
Some people approach life that way. They believe there is a God and there is a heaven, and they hope that they get enough correct answers to pass the test. They do not expect a hundred percent but just hope that the good outweighs the bad.
The problem is Jesus did not allow for an in-between, good-enough result at the final judgment. There were wheat, and there were weeds. The all-knowing Judge sees which category our hearts fall into. (Ashlee Englund)
Are you ready to be gathered into His barn?
This is the Monday, October 6, 2014 devotional reading of Opening the Word.
Photo credit: "Frontier Classroom" by Corey Leopold used under CC BY 2.0 / Resized, cropped.