Vital Signs

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

  Have you ever had a nurse come up to you and ask if she could get your vital signs?  There were times when I was in the hospital that it seemed they came in every 4 hours and got my vital signs.  When I had my heart attack, the nurse would come in and get my vital signs, plus ask me who was president of the United States.  Now that I am older people ask me about my vital signs almost everyday. Cardiac units like to know if I knew where I was and what was going on in the world or if my memory was still functioning.  The key word here is that word, "vital."  Notice the meaning of this word.  The dictionary says that the word "vital" pertains to that which is essential life.  In the hospital, they check your temperature, blood pressure, oxygen level and sometimes take a vial of blood or two.  That gives them indications of how your life is.  What are your vital signs in regard to your spiritual life?  John 3:15-16 says, "That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."   The word "life" occurs over 400 times in the Bible.  The word is found frequently in both the Old and New Testaments.  In some cases, it is speaking of physical life but in the above verse, it speaks of spiritual life.  The ingredient that is most important is that one called, "belief."  John stated that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you will indeed have life and in this case, it is speaking of spiritual life.  We might well ask the question, "Is spiritual life as important as physical life?"  The answer is that spiritual life is far more important than physical life.  Spiritual life goes for eternity while physical life is confined to those years you spend physically upon this earth.  Currently the age seems to be averaging out in the 70’s with some going over the one hundred mark..  That still is far less than eternity.  So, now we need to consider what are the "vital" signs of spiritual life.  These verses leave us with the thought of "believing on Christ" as being the only vital sign.  However, John also wrote the 3 epistles which we find in the back of our Bibles.  The little book of 1 John gives us a number of tests that help us decide if we really believe on Christ or not.  So, what are your spiritual vital signs?  Do you believe in Christ as your Savior?  Praise God that He has provided the gift of salvation in His Son.  Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”