Forget Not

 

What was the name of your third grade teacher?  What street did you live on when you were 15?  Do

you recall the face of  your childhood best friend?  The memories I have of Mrs. Fenn, or my friend

Donna are  firmly set in my brain and while I don’t think of these things everyday, if I want to recall

them, I have only to remember.  

Psalm 103 begins  “Bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name.

                                Bless the Lord, oh my soul and forget not all His benefits.”

Why does the psalmist tell us to ‘forget not’?  Why not just say Remember all His benefits?

There can’t be much difference between an injunction to remember and one to  “forget not.”

I would contend that in order to not forget something, it has to be available to remember. In other words, we have to have something in our minds in order to not forget it.  It is similar to a call to remember something, but in a more forceful, pointed way.  

We are told to not forget all the benefits of the Lord, but do we even know the benefits?  Have we stored them in our memories so that we can recall them and not forget?  And where can we learn all the benefits of the Lord?  If the psalmist tells us there are benefits for us from God, we can be certain that God will show us what those benefits are. 

 Since God has chosen to reveal Himself in the scriptures, that is the place to find the accounting of all He has given us.  Think of it as His letter to the creatures He has made and read it as such.  Avoid the trap of imagining what He has done for us and read His own account.  There is no substitute for hearing about Someone from their own lips. 

Do you find it amazing that God has given us benefits?  In fact this psalm goes on to list at least five things which are to our benefit from the hand of God.  The amazing undertaking of God to aid  His creation, to work for the good of it is astonishing especially in light of the great gap that is between us and our maker. 

Yet that is just what God has done.  We can  know and appreciate these benefits, but it will  take both our  time and our  effort. 

 If you take the opportunity to get to know God and all that He has done for us, a second step is to put those benefits from God into your memory, to commit to memory all the benefits. Memorize the scriptures, read them over and over, repeat them out loud. Don’t place yourself in a position where you might forget.  To work on remembering what God has said and the benefits He has given you is to fill your heart and mind with all that is good and beautiful.  It will only build you up in the faith and give you the peace of knowing that you can “forget not all His benefits.”

Friendship Comfort Zone

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ever had a friend for ages and then you just drift apart?  Or circumstances in life change and suddenly, you don’t see a friend regularly?  The loss leaves a hole, and sorrow.  The loss leaves you with time you did not have before.  The loss leaves you with the opportunity to allow God to bring new people into your orbit.  New people, whose life has also been upset and who have also experienced the same type of loss of friends as you have.

 

For many of us the restrictions placed on us by the governing authorities in an attempt to protect us from the Covid virus have had the effect of separating us from old friends and old patterns.  These actions have lead to new patterns in life, which do not always allow the same depth of interaction with some old friends.  Like a door closing, we have been forced to move on, leaving a bit of our hearts behind. 

 

That leads to the question of whether you believe if God is, indeed, in control of all things, even friendship.  Does the sovereignty of God include the realm of friends?

As much as we may claim that God rules over all aspects of life, we balk at the idea that

He could oversee something so personal and necessary as whom our friends are.  Don’t we get to choose our friends?  Does God not have bigger things to do than select the people we pal around with? 

 

Of course you and I both know that He is ruler of all things, large and small, important and unessential.  If the circumstances of life have caused some friendships to draw back, look for the new people God is bringing into your sphere.  While we may not understand what the reasons, we can still welcome the new friends.  The challenges new friends bring can lead to our growth.  The experiences of new friends can open our hearts to become more sympathetic and more joyful. 

The world is filled with people who are made in God’s image, for His purposes.  As we are forced out of our “friendship comfort zone,” receive the gift of new friends.  Friendship is an adventure, given us by God.  Let Him direct you.  And realize that you, too, are a new friend to someone.

Due Diligence

 

 

 

The opinions are multitude on the person of Jesus.  A politician claims that Jesus would be thought a radical if He came to the U.S. capitol; probably right but for reasons different than she thinks.  A pop singer opines that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a love affair going on, singing songs about it to promote the idea.    Authors portray current day followers of Jesus as mindless people, unable to think or reason.  Popular lecturers claim His entire life a myth.  Where does that leave the honest seeker, the honest follower of Jesus?

 

The source of information about the one we follow is as important as the information itself.   Finding the most honest and truthful source is important in evaluating the accuracy of the facts you are seeking.  We do not turn to plumbers for information on effective cancer treatments, and we would not ask an oncologist how to repair a leaky pipe!  The question to be asked then is why do we look to those with only a fleeting acquaintance of Jesus to explain Him to us?  And especially puzzling is why ask others when He has left us four accounts of His life and words?

 

Some will say that Jesus welcomed all people.  That is indeed true, but look at the accounts of His life and you will find that He not only welcomed them, but also challenged them on what He called their sin. 

 

Some will say that Jesus took the side of the downtrodden and poor, which is true.  However in His life story, He also took the side of the rich and ruthless tax man, who repented.  He expressed love for the rich young ruler, who sought answers.  He voiced respect for the Roman soldier whose faith was strong.   The rich, the poor, the oppressor and the oppressed could all find a welcome, but it was at the feet of Jesus.

 

Some will say that Jesus was a mild mannered, soft spoken teacher.  His story includes several episodes of Jesus as wildly angry, destructive and loud.  Injustice, hypocrisy, foolishness and pride annoyed Jesus and He had no problem expressing that.  He was not always patient, He was never tolerant of sin.  He let his hearers know what he was about and in strong language.

 

The Person of Jesus is introduced to us in the gospels.  The accounts were written or dictated by people who were there, who saw and heard Jesus.  Furthermore, the Spirit of God superintended the writing and made it exactly as it should be.  That is why it is the place to begin learning about Jesus and the place to go to fact check anything you hear from others about Him.

 

Don’t make the mistake of listening to gossip about Him from those that have not known Him.  Don’t go following the opinions of others who have altered His story.   Go to the source. Do your research.  Life eternal is forever; don’t rely on the words of a politician.    

Unity

                                            

 

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”  Eph 4:1-3

 

 

It seems that the effects of Covid-19 are more than just physical.   Followers of Jesus Christ are arguing, publicly, about church closures and the state mandated  restrictions for  church goers.  One viewpoint says churches should open while observing reasonable precautions.  Another viewpoint says churches should stay closed relying on internet church services until there is a vaccine or sure treatment.  A third viewpoint holds that churches should open but obey whatever mandates the state requires; for distance, masks, corporate singing and the like.

These three viewpoints, and there may be others, are not similar.  They divide us as the body of Christ on earth.  And while suspending the gathering together of the saints has many drawbacks that is not the whole of it.  Rather the blemish is how we are treating those with whom we disagree, our brothers and sisters. 

 On social media, fellow Christians are treating each other with disdain.  They are using words to degrade the intelligence and morality of each other, calling into question the legitimacy of the other's  faith.  Churches are taking confrontational stands against each other, not seeking to understand but to humiliate the other and boost their own position.  And this is for the entire world to see.  How did we come to this?   How did we come to scorn our brothers and sisters and discredit other churches?

 I believe the primary point of departure for all of us is that we have neglected practicing grace.  That sounds a bit awkward, but grace is missing in the bulk of these circumstances.  SO back to the beginning we go.

 “It is by grace you are saved.. and that not of yourselves,” Paul writes.   And again he says; “When you were dead in your sins… God made you alive with Christ.  He forgave us all our sins…” 

 We, in the body, were all at one time traitors to God, idolaters having turned our backs on Him so that we could do whatever we jolly well wanted; and it left us dead.  Dead to goodness, dead to joy, dead to love, dead to beauty and dead to hope.    That was who we were.   We existed in the place of darkness, evil and wickedness.  But then the very God we had discarded reached out to us.  He reached across the infinite gulf of our inherent evil and because He loved His creation, He rescued us.  He rescued us from our sin, from the evil in which we lived.  In His holiness, He sought us out and judged us as sinners and then sent His Son, Jesus, to serve the mandatory sentence due us; death.  

The holy, perfect Creator, Lord and King of all that is seen and unseen stooped down to us to offer us all a way out of the destiny that our sin had carved out for us.   

 And we, having a disagreement with a fellow sinner, find it difficult, if not impossible to extend grace.  I fear we open ourselves to the condemnation that fell on the unmerciful servant, who sought repayment of a tiny loan after receiving total forgiveness for his huge and impossible loan.   We are urged by Jesus to forgive each other from the heart and to do that as often as needed.  And further we are instructed to be unified.  You may ask, “how can I be unified with those who call me foolish or frightened or worse?’  You do that by recognizing that Jesus has put us into the church, His Body, through His death, His painful, torturous death.  You do that by realizing that grace has been lavished on you, the little creature that sought to oust God from His throne.  You do that by realizing you are not enemies with those of other viewpoints on Covid-19.  You have an enemy, but it is not your fellow believers.  You do that by remembering what you have in common with other believers, namely you are sinners saved by the grace of God for His purposes, not yours.  And then you repent and behave in  as Christ like a manner as you are able through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  Even if the others are wrong, even when you disagree, we are called to unity in the essentials.  And the reaction to Covid-19 is not one of the essentials. 

Qualified?

Have you ever considered the people God uses to work out His will?  Often we think of Mary, the mother of Jesus, or Hannah and her struggle to have a son, only to give him, Samuel, back to God.  These are indeed admirable people. Stellar women, sacrificial and obedient.   But they are in the minority when you read through the Scriptures.  Let's consider just these three; Samson, Cyrus and David.
You may be familiar with the account of David, raised from shepherding  to be king by God, only to take another man's wife and kill off her husband.  In addition, he was so attached to his son, Absalom, that David nearly caused the  mass desertion of the army that defended him against Absalom's treachery.  Yet, God used David in all his weakness, womanizing and weeping.  David authored many of the psalms, he lead Israel as king for forty years, he saw to it that Israel worshiped God and not idols.  His sins were real, but that did not stop God from using him.

Or consider Cyrus, the pagan king of Persia.  The Scriptures tell us that "the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia to make a proclamation...he has appointed me to build a temple for Him at Jerusalem...any of His people among you...let him go up,"  2 Chronicles 36.  In Isaiah 45 the Lord, speaking of Cyrus says, "This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of...For the sake of Jacob, my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me."  In the life of Cyrus, God directed him God honored him and God used him to restore the Jews to their land after the exile in Babylon.  Cyrus also commanded the temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem,  even though he was not a worshiper of God.  The legacy of this pagan man is bright.

In the book of Judges we learn of Samson, a man of physical strength and moral weakness.  Samson's desire to marry a foreign woman, which was forbidden by God, turned out to be used by God to begin liberating Israel from the Philistines.  The ensuing battles and skirmishes arose mostly because Samson was seeking revenge on his  Philistine enemies.  He used wild foxes to spread fire in grain fields. Not exactly an animal lover it seems.  But Samson's downfall was his lust for women.  Lured into a romance with the pagan Delilah, he told her the secret of his strength and she betrayed him.  Imprisoned and humiliated, God used him one last time to kill the  Philistine elites and so he killed more while dying than he did previously.   He was an obstinate, passion filled man who let his passions lead him astray.

None of these men were saints.  I think many of us would not want them near our children.  They were known for strength, but also for lust, anger, cruelty and more.  YET, God used them.  God moved upon them to direct His will for His purposes.

Two thoughts I take away from this.  The first is that God will use whomever He chooses.  Their character, beliefs and actions are not necessarily a part of the job requirements.  And that leads to the second thought; the  realization that  there are not any people qualified to serve God. It is time we wise up and stop looking for them.  Stop looking for the perfect husband, the perfect wife.  Stop hoping God will find the perfect, sinless person to be a  leader, ruler,  judge, legislator.   God does not look for perfect people, because there are none.   Until the day Jesus Christ returns we live as flawed persons among flawed people in a broken world.   It is astonishing that God uses any of us, but I thank God He does.

Beware the Drift

Since March our country has been closed down due to the Covid-19 virus.  To one degree or another, we have stopped following our normal routines and substituted alternate activities.  School in a school building became home school via computer.  Shopping for groceries became either an online order with contactless pickup or an extended wait in line as stores limited the number of shoppers.   Even corporate worship services at churches became personal internet worship in the home.  We have all been sequestered.  Life has been circumscribed by the walls of our homes.  For many, Sunday morning, with brothers and sisters at a meeting place, became a time to sleep in, lounge around and perhaps tune into the church’s video presentation.  Church attendance became like watching a favorite television show, you could watch live or watch at your convenience.  Of course, no one would know if while watching you were also doing something else-multitasking; which according to Barna Research 15% of practicing Christians do while watching the service.

More importantly to me is how many of us over the last four and a half months have simply lost the practice of worship on Sunday mornings.  Research claims that breaking a habit can take anywhere for two months to a year, and we are four months into limiting church, into meeting together as the church.  My fear is that some of us, having changed the routine of our Sundays, will simply continue in the new habit. 

Belief in God and following Jesus Christ are evidenced by certain actions which include gathering together to worship the Lord and encourage one another.  Certainly we can all worship alone, we have been doing that since the quarantine began, but being physically together in worship, is what the church does. We can reach out to each other through the internet, call or mail, but face to face support is what the church does.  You may say, “The New Testament is filled with long distance, written encouragement from various apostles.”  That is true.  But that is not the only encouragement those people received.  They were in close contact with fellow believers, contact which bolstered and encouraged the one who gave and the one who received.

If we continue to avoid contact, personal contact and corporate worship it will be easier and easier to simply drift away.  We can find other things to do on Sunday, needful things, and forego church on television.  We can find others who are of like mind and leave behind our brothers and sisters.   The drift away will be gradual, almost leisurely.

Then, almost without noticing it we will wake up one Sunday morning and realize we have been without worship or encouragement for a month or two, and it won’t really be that upsetting.  This is what I fear.  This virus upsetting our country will infect more than our bodies.  Don’t let it infect your soul and hinder your relationship to the Lord of Life.

Open My Eyes

Have you ever been doing some chore around the house and your child comes up to you to ask you a question?  You continue your work but listen also to the words your child speaks to you, answering as needed; getting the gist of the conversation.  Neither of the activities has your full attention, but you have been able deal with both.  Perhaps later, when your child revisits the conversation, you have scant memory of what was said and what was decided.

This is often how I treat time with God, when I am reading His word or talking to Him.  I am busy with several things in addition to being with God.  Today I realized I need to really pay attention. Just as it is rude to only half listen to my child; it is rude to partially pay attention to my Creator.

How often God shows Himself in His word and I am too busy planning my day while reading.  There have been times, because I was dividing my attention, that only after the fact have I realized God has been using a person or a scripture to bless me. I had missed what was intended in my attempt to be efficient.
 Trying to use my time wisely, I end up squandering my time with God and people, short changing them and my self by allowing my attention be elsewhere.

In thinking of this new realization it made me recall the episode in 2Kings 6 when the prophet Elisha was trapped in the city of Dothan surrounded by the army of the king of Aram.  Elisha’s servant was fearful and worried when he looked out and saw the huge army, leaving them no way of escape.  The servant was not paying attention to what he knew of God, only trying to figure out how to flee.   Elisha was not fearful even though he could see the same situation as his servant. Elisha’s attention was on God, on the movements and ways of God.  His prayer for his servant needs to be my prayer for my self.    “And Elisha prayed, ‘O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire…’”2Kings 6:17.

 How often have you been fearful and done nothing but fear?  How often have you tried to combine too many activities and do none with your whole heart?  Far too often that is the case for me.  But then God breaks through my stubborn heart and I see.  I see His grace at work as a long, lost friend shows up at the door. I see clearly His handiwork in the lives of those around me as I visit with a friend and we talk about what is truly important.   The incessant chatter around me is silenced and I see the obvious love of the Father for His children. 

I don’t want to be so occupied that I miss seeing God’s work, that I become oblivious to His presence.  Being of earth, we often get so involved in the acts of daily living that we forget that we are also the children of God.  But because we have the Spirit of God within us, we are more than just clay.  It is God who opens our eyes and gives us our time; but we are required to see through open eyes and to invest ourselves in the time given. We certainly can leave the chores and the concerns of life aside for a while and listen to Him with our whole mind and our whole heart. Because then we will really see.