As we approach the Passover season, we are given instructions in the scriptures to examine ourselves.

1Co 11:27  Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

1Co 11:28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Now look at this verse very carefully, this is a very serious verse, if we take the Passover unworthily we are guilty of the death of Christ. Now that is serious. So we must take this instruction seriously, we must be diligent to examine ourselves with the correct attitude.

A suggestion for this process would be to be honest and make a list of our faults, not our husband’s or our wives, but our own faults. Now if we are honest, the list will probably look similar to the faults we had when we first came into God’s church. Even though we try to correct our attitudes and thoughts, it is a very hard task. Possibly some of the sins and shortcomings are gone, perhaps we have put forth some effort and rid ourselves of certain sins, but perhaps we have picked up some along the way, as we mix with the world during work or social events.

Let’s be very careful of this world, it is hurtling at a great speed towards destruction because of sin and disobedience to God, many things which were considered wrong 20 years ago, are now embraced and accepted by the greater majority in society.

We might look at ourselves and think we are not too bad, but we must see ourselves as God does. What does God see when He looks at our hearts and thoughts and motives?

Isa 64:6  But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.

Isa 64:7  And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities.

Before Mr. Armstrong’s death we may have thought we were all going along pretty well, but look what has happened to the church, a great deal of people have let go of the Sabbath and holy days, others have gone off and formed their own churches, filled with people who are happy to listen to what they want to hear, the truth is not preached in most of these churches. It is time to wake up, if we don’t look at ourselves honestly then we will be guilty of the death of Christ.

We have Christ for our example, we must try to be like He was. He is our measure, He is the one we try to be like, not just say to ourselves we are ok, we are doing pretty well.

Eph 4:13  till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

Notice in the above scripture what has to happen, we must be unified in faith, there will be only one church, very soon, not hundreds of breakaways from the true church. How will there be one church? The next part of the verse explains, the true end time church will be founded on the knowledge of the Son of God. When the last era of God’s church is formed it will have new knowledge about who the Father is, who the Son is. Unfortunately today very few people know who God is. This knowledge has been lost but it will be restored in the last days, very soon now.

Back to self-examination, God does not paint a very nice picture of what we are. We must accept this, and do something about it. We must change from our old ways and admit our faults, confess them to God, and ask Him to help us overcome them, and put them out of our lives.

Lam 3:40  Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the LORD;

1Co 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.

Psa 19:12  Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.

Psa 139:23  Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties;

Let’s not kid ourselves, even the very best we can be will still fall short, remember our hearts are desperately wicked.

Jer 17:9  “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

Psa 19:14  Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.

This self-examination period should start a few months before Passover, to give ourselves plenty of time to look at ourselves honestly, and contemplate the seriousness of our sins, and to work on them before we take the Passover.

Let’s not be afraid to confess our sins to God, if we do, He will forgive us and cleanse us. That is because if we confess, we are admitting our sins, we can see them, we want to change and put them out of our lives.

1Jn 1:9  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

There are sins that we don’t see too, we need to ask God to show us our sins. We need to have a humble attitude. We must be honest and look at ourselves very carefully. Do you remember what Mr. Armstrong used to say? The hardest thing for a person to do, is to admit they are wrong. We must be able to admit we have been wrong in many areas of our lives.

These faults and sins will take a long time to correct, but if we keep at it we can overcome.

Rev 3:21  To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

Rev 21:7  He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.