PREPARING FOR PASSOVER
by Vance Stinson
Self-examination should be an ongoing practice, but we should give it special attention as the Passover season approaches. In preparation for this year’s festival, why not do the following:
Read each of the Gospel accounts of Christ’s last supper with His disciples, His agony in the garden, and His suffering, death, and resurrection. As you read, put yourself in the picture; keep in mind the He suffered and died on your behalf.
Read the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20), and think deeply about each command, how it is worded, how it applies to you. Let God’s Law be a mirror for your life. Examine yourself under the light of each commandment. Be honest. Confess your sins to God, and think of things you can do to avoid committing those sins in the future.
Immediately after reading and meditating on the Ten Commandments, read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Ask yourself how you measure up as you carefully read each point Christ discusses.
Whatever you do, don’t neglect prayer. Make Psalm 51 your prayer. Ask God to help you see within the darkened corners of your own mind. Ask Him to remove the blinders so that you can see yourself as He sees you. Then ask Him to blot out your transgressions, wash and cleanse you, purge you, and create a clean heart within you.
Finally, read Romans 8, and just believe what it says. Then you will truly be ready to keep the feast.
“Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (I Corinthians 5:7,8).