It’s Time for the Church to Remember

Who you are depends on your ability to remember.
Unfortunately, as humans, we tend to forget what we should remember and remember what we should forget. God knew that our flesh would be prone to fail, so the word of God is filled with reminders for us to remember. As a memory aid, the Lord even encouraged us to use symbols to point us to the truth given to us by the Savior.
One of the simplest practices for the Lord’s people to keep looking up before they began giving up was building altars in the key places that God kept His promises, but before you start looking for huge expensive cathedrals as memorials, all the believers did was pile rocks in the spots where God appeared. The holy ground was not necessarily higher, but any piece of property that the divine work of the Almighty deemed the dirt worthy to show up and do His stuff.
God has always called upon those who never expected to hear from Heaven’s hotline. It’s the humble who are invited to participate in the holy. It’s the available that get invited to the banquet. It’s those willing to listen who hear words beyond their wildest dreams.
Yet, how often do we still do our darndest to try to impress God with our religious language and lofty deeds? Why do we go looking for living water in our manmade wells? Why do we waste so much effort telling God our ingenious plans when all we need to do is report for duty?
Scripture proves that the Lord honors childlike faith over humanity’s puffed-up pride. When earth boasts of us cherishing our common sense, God calls us to commit everything we are and have to Him.
When the storms of life come at us like a raging tsunami, we need to remember what the symbol of a rainbow stands for. When we are being chased by our enemy and come to a fork in the road that looks like the Red Sea, we need to remember that God can open a roadway where there has never been a highway before. When we face situations that long to overwhelm us, we need to remember that David’s trust in the Lord leveled Goliath, not with a sword but a slingshot.
When the religious big shots took potshots at Jesus, we needed to remember that God came and sought to save those who dared to admit that they were lost. When Paul was placed in prison, thinking that locking him up would do away with him sharing the gospel, God’s word went forth with even more power. When the government of men started bragging about how powerful and invincible they are, we needed to be reminded that, in the Book of Revelation, we are told that Jesus will be the one still standing when all the other earthly powers become nothing more than a memory.
When we remember to operate by the truth that God has graciously given us, we are promised the paradise of freedom, despite where our bodies might find us on Earth. Truth is what keeps us from becoming detoured by the lies.
When we refuse to obey the Lord, we become fair game to the crowd’s cries, and people are terrible when it comes to defining one another. God’s love for us is unconditional, and man’s attention has many strings attached. Yet, how many times do we bend backward to make everyone else happy at the expense of ignoring the One who created us and knows us better than we know ourselves?
We can’t afford to turn heaven’s volume down because the one point for certain is that the noise of society is only going to grow louder with each passing day. We can’t be casual during a season in which we must stay committed to hanging on the Lord’s every precious word; then we won’t get tripped up by comments that really should go in one ear and quickly out the other.
Remembering returns us to the place where we first began when we opened up our hearts to Jesus to become our Savior. Did God only promise to forgive half of your sins? Did the Lord only assure you that He wouldn’t leave you or forsake you on excellent days and the fairest of seasons?
Didn’t God tell us, in Psalm 103, that as far as the east is from the west that He would remember our sins no more? When the Lord looks at us, He doesn’t see what we see. Doesn’t he see us as His finished masterpieces, His greatest works of art?
What humanity would throw into the bargain bin God has rescued to redeem, restore and renew. The Lord laid down His life to prove His everlasting love for us, and we still doubt His integrity.
When will we people learn? Do you see why we need daily powerful post-it notes from glory?
I am praying daily for the spiritual condition of our country. There is too much ego where there should be humility.
Politicians are using their constituents for their power, rather than doing what is best for them. Our country that was founded upon the principle to provide freedom for the expression of faith now has deemed it to be non-essential. The enemy is also attempting to divide the Body of Christ at a crucial time when it needs to come together.
 What is the miraculous glue that brings Jew and Gentile, black and white, rich and poor, those who have and those who have no material assets to their name together? What unites us as a loving and caring family in a way that no biological bloodlines can pull off? Nothing but the Blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit’s power.
Remember Church, we are at our best when we make it our priority to keep the main thing the main thing.
Love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love one another. Stop the name-calling, and keep raising the praise of our Jesus,
As we are reunited in our buildings within the coming days, we need to continue to put God first, take care of one another, stop making man-made rules more important that God-breathed words, and do whatever it takes to bring God glory. The legacy we will leave for a waiting and watching world is tied into our need to remember what we must not forget and just forget what is not worth remembering.
Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, “I have the right to condemn you, but I forgive you, go and live in the freedom of my love.” Why would we choose to be tied up in our man-made ropes when God made it possible for us to be free from the confines of this culture?
Even people who love Jesus have gotten and will get COVID-19, and while this sickness can raise havoc within our bodies, it has no hold on our souls. What profit is it if a person gains the whole world and still loses their soul? What good does it do if you stay physically healthy but spiritually and emotionally sick?
Let’s never forget the church’s mission. It is not to be a country club to the righteous, but a hospital for the broken.
I close with the words from the very prayer that Jesus taught us when His disciples asked Him to please teach them to pray. “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Remember, if we don’t remember to live by those words of life, who else will?
ED. NOTE: The author is the senior pastor of The Lighthouse Church, 1248 Route 9 South, Court House.