REMEMBER

I was at a conference in the early 1970's in Houston, TX hearing Francis Schaffer speak. He shared his story of wrestling with his faith years before. He spent days pacing back and forth in his attic recalling everything he experienced in his relationship with God. He went through scripture, events, prayers, his sense of calling and vision for life in Christ.

He relived his own testimony, recalling the work God had done in his life. He remembered. As he did this, he said the Lord wove together his memories and made of them something akin to a barge rope; something strong and sure. He said that God reminded him of things he had forgotten and assured him of his salvation, his purpose, his calling and his place in the heart of God.

In Psalm 78: 41-43, the psalmist recalls the tragedy of not remembering.

41 Again and again they put God to the test;
they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember His power—
the day He redeemed them from the oppressor,
43 the day He displayed His signs in Egypt,
His wonders in the region of Zoan.

You would think that after seeing such signs and wonders that the newly redeemed nation, freed from 400 years of slavery, would hold what God had done for them emblazoned indelibly on their hearts and memories. But they forgot that if God could do what He had done in Egypt, He would be able to keep them, guide them, provide for them. If then HAD remembered, they would have made their requests to their Savior with grateful hearts rather than with grumbling and complaining. They even doubted that the Lord could "set a table in the wilderness" for them caring for their every need.

I believe that it is a necessary thing to periodically sit down and remember what the Lord has done in your life. Recall where you were when you realized He was there, seeking you, calling you out of death and into His Life. Remember all He did in your life as a younger disciple, the people He used to speak into your life, to help you, correct you, comfort you, and confirm God's call on your life. Remember!

When Jesus inaugurated the Eucharist at His last Passover meal with His disciples, He took that piece of matzah that had been broken and hidden at the meal's beginning and brought out near the end of the meal, broke it into pieces and said, "This is my body that is broken for you. Take and eat. Do this in remembrance of me." Taking the cup of salvation, as it was known in the Passover meal, He said, "This cup is the new covenant between God and His people confirmed in my blood, drink this in remembrance of Me."

The word Jesus used for "remember" was the word "anamnesis" and it means to make the past present, to re-member it. It's more than recalling it is a participation in that singular event Jesus inaugurated that night. It was an entering into, embracing, announcing all that the Lord Jesus' death on the cross has done for all who believe Him. It is a holy act of recalling and tangibly participating in the saving work of the Lord. There is forgiveness in His blood. There is healing, the removal of the curse of sin in His crucified body.

By the way, the opposite of "anamnesis" is "amnesia", the emptying of memory.

The Apostle, Peter, in his second letter to the churches (2 Peter 1:3-9) Peter gives a discipline for "remembering.

"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins."

Remembering all the Lord has done for you and all He is doing in you because He promised to finish in you what He began is crucial. Life on this earth can relentlessly beat against you, distracting you trying to get you to forget who you are, Whose you are.

We can forget that we have been cleansed from sin by what God has done for us and in us. When we "forget" our ancient enemy will use our past and present failures to condemn and accuse us so as to render us ineffective, non-growing. He can't rob us of salvation, but he will do all he can to try and make us forget the grace and mercy of God. In wilderness times, dry times, the devil will whisper, "Where is you God now?"

Faith in Jesus brings about change and the Holy Spirit forges in us God's goodness. The Holy Spirit reveals more and more of Who God is and what Jesus has done causing us to mature in that revealed knowledge of God, and our experience of Him.

The Holy Spirit begins to transform our wills, renewing our minds, giving us His power to say YES to righteousness and NO to sin. We grow in self-control, a fruit of the Holy Spirit. That process produces perseverance in us because we learn to trust God in every circumstance of life.

We learn to persevere because He has proved His faithfulness to all He has promised. He reproduces His own character in us, godliness that reflects Whose child we are.

This life transformation takes place in Christian community, in open, vulnerable and transparent committed fellowship with other committed followers of Jesus Christ. It's where there is a contribution from one life into another by the Holy Spirit. God's sacrificial Love is born in us by the Holy Spirit, and we are encouraged by sharing His Life together.

That is the context for growing and maturing as followers of Jesus Christ. Without that community, we can find ourselves forgetful, fretful, and unsure of life's meaning and purpose.

It is there that our memories are kept sharp. We recall what God has done, what He has promised to do, and in running the race of Life He has set before us, we become able to fix our eyes on Jesus Christ, the One upon Whom our faith depends from start to finish.

Don't forget!