.

The resume basically tells people who you are, what you have done and who you did it for. It gives the body of work of your ‘work’ life. With this knowledge employees can tell if you are a good fit for the job they need performed.

With the resume in many cases comes a page that gives references. These are people you have worked with who can vouch for your performance in the past. The people doing the hiring have to trust what these people say about you, your work habits and your character. The better references you have the more likely you are to get the job.

Normally these people know you are using them as references and agree to do so. References are very important and they need to be people who think highly of the job you do otherwise they can tank your application.

I had a friend one time that kept running into trouble on finding jobs he was well qualified for and even had the inside track on. One time after he was rejected for a job a friend on that search committee came to him and told him that there was someone on his resume who was not giving him a good recommendation and it was indeed killing his chances.

The lesson for me as I heard this has always been to be very careful with whom you choose to speak on your behalf. Who speaks for you is critical; you have to know them well and trust them!

There are a lot of people out there that have some pretty fancy spiritual resumes. They have served on church committees, they have held down positions, they have given a great deal of their financial resources. As for works people looking on the outside believe they have it all together and are sure fire fits for heaven.

Their body of work looks really good but their references; that is a bit of a problem.

You see when we all stand before God he will turn to the reference page first because as far as getting in is concerned that page will be all that matters. There will only be one name he is looking for on the ‘reference’ sheet and that name will not be your parents, your spouse, your employee or your best friend. No, the name he will be looking for will be the name of Christ.

You can have the greatest resume of all time, serve the church and community well but if Christ is not the one standing up for you before the Father then no matter how slick your resume looks it will not be good enough.

In getting a job your references are important, it could cost you a job, be sure you have the right one. When it comes to getting into heaven, the person standing in the gap for your sins is critical, if it is not Christ, it will cost you dearly.

Let us be careful, very careful especially those of us who serve in the church to make sure we have not built a great resume but failed to have the right reference.

Scripture: Hebrews 9:27-28, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

Emphasis mine, all of Hebrews 9 would be good to read.

Prayer: Dear Lord, help us to really know you and not to trust in our good deeds here on earth. Help us to serve you out of love for you. We ask all these things in the name of Christ, Amen.