The Master’s Instructional Design
By Jon Walker
But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you all things, and what he teaches is true – it is not a lie. So continue in what he has taught you, and continue to live in Christ. 1 John 2:27 (NLT)
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Someone told me that once you get into medical school you’re no longer given specific A-B-C grades; instead, your progress is measured by a pass/fail standard.
Whether this is true or not, it makes good sense. Would you want a surgeon who just barely pulled a C in an internal organs removal course removing your gallbladder?
No doubt you’d want a surgeon who mastered the procedure! That’s the point of a pass/fail measurement: did you master the training or did you fail to master the training?
God works on such a mastery-based system. His commitment to us is greater than letting us settle for a D in love thy neighbor.
He wants us to get it right, but knows we can’t do that the first time or every time. So he’s willing to work in and around us to help us master the Jesus-school curriculum of love.
The thing about God’s mastery-based curriculum is you cannot fail. He will keep working with you until you get it. A failed test just means you train again until you can pass the test.
In failing, there is no disgrace; only his grace.
Our Teacher makes use of all things – pain and suffering, joy and comfort, opposition and cooperation – to transform us into a people who love fully and deeply, who become other-centered instead of self-centered.
Our Master knows it is impossible for us to master it all, so he’s made all things possible through a supernatural intimacy with him (Matthew 19:26).
He’ll continue to work with us until we’re successful at the purpose for which he created us and then he’ll welcome us home when we graduate to heaven (Romans 8:28; Philippians 3:14).
If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.
