Remembering God

Remembering God

"I call on heaven and earth as witnesses today that I have offered you life or death, blessings or curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants will live."

Deuteronomy 30:19

Fourteen times Moses told the Israelite to remember all that God had done for them during and since they had been set free from their capture in Egypt. For example: Deuteronomy 5:15 "Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God used his mighty hand and powerful arm to bring you out of there. This is why the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the day of worship". Also: Deuteronomy 7:18 "Don't be afraid of them. Remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and all of Egypt" Whether to remember to worship the Lord for what He had already done for them, or to remember that God will defeat Israel's enemies for them as He had done to Pharaoh and Egypt, the people were to remember God for everything. 

Why did Moses command the Israelite to remember all that God had done? Simply because of the golden calf episode at the base of Mt. Sinai that angered God greatly. Moses needed to remind the people constantly that they should never want to anger God for any reason again, especially since He has been so protective and loving of them all of their lives. By remembering all God had done the people will continue to choose life and to receive the blessings of God. But, if they decided to choose anything other than God, they would be choosing death, evil, and will have to endure the curses of God that He may set upon them for turning away from His love and protection.

For the churches of the 21st century, the impetus to remember all the ways God has lead them should be even greater since we have had more years with God in the world than the early Israelites had when they were here. Plus, we have had Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to save us and guide us as we go along day to day. Still, there are some churches who preach Jesus to their people, but do not either preach Him in the correct way (using their own form of the Gospel), or they preach Jesus but have their own rules and regulations the people have to follow just as the Pharisees had done in Jesus' time. Today, too many people are choosing death because they are hearing a message that sounds safe to them. Many churches are not speaking about Hell, or the end times, at all. They paint a rosy picture of a Heaven that does not exist; a picture that says everyone is going to Heaven regardless of what you believe since all roads lead to Heaven. 

Some say there is a place called Purgatory where a person goes after death, where they need to stay until their future entrance into Heaven comes about of which no one really knows how long one needs to stay there for this to happen. These churches are dead with no life coming out of the church doors or even out of the people who have been there for some amount of time. But then there are the churches that have chosen life. The singing of worship songs can be heard on the street outside the church doors. People come out of the church smiling and talking in joyful words. The difference between a dead church and a church that has chosen life is remembering that Jesus Christ paid it all to secure our debt from sin. Dead churches speak of Jesus Christ while live, Spirit-filled churches proclaim Him to the heavens and to all those with ears to hear. We who are in the Spirit-filled churches need to take our dead churches by the hand and show them just who they have been missing the Spirit of the living God who is worthy of joyful worship and being remembered in everything we do.

Comment: "God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called."

Author Response: I believe that God doesn't called the qualified because 1) they may be very prideful of their accomplishments, 2) they may be bored with the job they are doing even if they were in the beginning, and 3) they may over-qualified and know much more than they need to successfully accomplish what God wants them to do. It's like we as students are at the beginning of our studies, a time excite our hearts as well as our minds because we hope to use all of this information for God someday. But, even if we are continuing in our studies after this, we know that God has already called us, but we may not know where that where or when is right now. 

Right at this moment, we may not yet be qualified as far as the information God wants us to speak to people, but we know that being saved by Jesus has already qualified us for the future. Whatever that future may be for us after school, we know that Jesus WILL use everything He has taught us here. I look forward to the time when Jesus unleashes me to make a difference in the lives of those He places in front of me. By His stripes I have been healed and qualified for the work of the Lord! As we see in Joshua, he was qualified even before the day he was born. God knew that He was going to save us even before WE were born, which means that we were qualified before birth too. How exciting is that?

Comment: "If you obey His words there were blessings if you disobey cursing. It is still the same thing today; God is constantly dealing with His people to be obedient and live."

Author Response: These days, God is dealing with the evil and sin of the whole world. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, tsunamis, and mudslides are happening more and more. Abortions are up and the news is full of killings every day. The earth is not just groaning anymore as it was in Jesus' day, it is now screaming to be released from the curse God placed on it so long ago, and so is humanity. Those of us who know God get the picture; those who don't are still seeing in black and white. It's amazing how much God has to do to get our attention. How many people do we hear each day that wonders what in the world is going on with the world and everybody in it? 

This world needs Jesus Christ more than it ever did and we need to get the word out. Write an article and post it; tell your Facebook friends all about Jesus, if they defriend you, then they were never true friends; write your congressman burn his/her ears with the truth until they tell you to leave them alone; call the local news station and bend their ear until they start telling the truth in their stories. We must help humanity remember Jesus. Not the rule-giving, angry-so--you're-going-to-Hell kind of Jesus the world thinks He is. It's good for us to remember Jesus everyday as Christians, but we are to help humanity know and desire the loving, merciful Jesus we know. To all of us, He is our Savior, and His love is forever unlike the love of the world. We know Jesus; now let the world know too!