REMEMBERING!

      Hello again, I'm Arlen Yoder from the Soulwinnersr.us website. Remember—the angels in heaven rejoice when a loved one or friend gives their heart to Jesus.
      Someone said to me once, “You’re living in the past.” By doing so, they were attempting to jerk me back to the reality of the present, rather than me dreamily remembering the past. But I think remembering the past is a very important part of our lives as Christians. And I think the Bible agrees with me.
      Therefore, the title of my post today is “REMEMBERING!” The Bible lists the word “remember", "remembers", "remembered", and "remembering" 262 times. So, I think we can assume that remembering our past is a very important part of looking forward to our future. Let’s look at three aspects of the importance of “remembering”.

Aspect #1: The value of remembering what mighty acts God did for the Israelites. Psalm 78:1-7 gives us what I call a blueprint for the value of remembering. Here it is—it’s a little long:

"My people, hear my instruction; listen to the words from my mouth. I will declare wise sayings; I will speak mysteries from the past—things we have heard and known and that our ancestors have passed down to us.

We will not hide them from their children, but will tell a future generation the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, his might, and the wondrous works he has performed.

He established a testimony in Jacob and set up a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children so that a future generation—children yet to be born—might know.

They were to rise and tell their children so that they might put their confidence in God.
and not forget God’s works, but keep his commands."

      As a retired man, I sometimes feel useless because I don’t have the physical and mental stamina I once had to make an impact on the world around me. I think one of my jobs now, and for my fellow senior citizen retirees, is to pass down to the next generation, as the Psalmist wrote, “wise sayings”, “mysteries from the past”, and stories of “God’s works”, “that they (the people in our lives) might put their confidence in God”. In other words, help the next generation in ‘remembering’ God’s mighty acts of the past.

Aspect #2: The value of remembering what mighty acts God did for my/your denomination or faith group.

• Denominations or faith groups aren’t the end-all and be-all of our faith. But I think they can play an important role in bolstering our faith by remembering the Holy Spirit of God moving in the lives of people in each of our denominations or faith groups over a period of time.
• I used to think that denominations or faith groups weren’t that important. The important thing was having a relationship with Jesus—right? But I’ve grown to cherish my relationship with the Church of God denomination from Cleveland, Tennessee. The Church of God is over 140 years old, and I like having a rich denominational history to ‘remember’. I talked in a recent post about my wife and her late husband growing up in a Church of God church, and about her attending a Church of God university. She ‘remembers’ many important people in the denomination who shaped her life, like the well-known evangelist Carl Richardson, or Robert O’Bannon, her science professor at Lee University.
• It isn’t 100% necessary to belong to a denomination to feel the warm feelings of what God is doing and has done in our lives. But I think it can provide a foundation that is very important to the next generation.

Finally, Aspect #3: The value of remembering what mighty acts God did and is doing in our own lives.

• God is, quite frankly, amazing. What He did for you and me on the day we were saved is the greatest ‘mighty act of God’ ever.
• It’s something we’ll always be ‘remembering’ and can tell our children, grandchildren, relatives, and friends for the rest of our lives here on this earth.

      I was recently brought to the point of ‘remembering’ my roots when I was first saved. It happened when I turned on the online music platform Pandora and went to the 2nd Chapter of Acts station. Listening to old Christian hits by Christian artists of the 70s and 80s almost gave me goosebumps. It brought me to the point of ‘remembering’, as David wrote in Psalm 51:12, “the joy of God’s salvation.”
      See you next time.