YOU and GOD

Author and physician Alan Beck said, “The family is a storehouse in which the world’s finest treasures are kept. Yet the purest gold you’ll find there is golden laughter. The most precious silver is in the hair of Mom and Dad. The family’s only real diamond is on Mother’s left hand, yet it can sparkle like children’s eyes at Christmas or shine half as bright as the candles on a birthday cake.”

Thomas Jefferson noted that “the happiness of the domestic fireplace is the first boon of heaven.”

Edgar Guest is known for his quip: “It takes a heap ‘o living’ to make a house a home.”

In our previous posts on the building of a home, I noted that Christ and His wisdom–the wisdom needed for right resolves—is the foundation necessary for building a home that will not be swept away by the storms of life. We also saw that, as wise King Solomon posited, we need understanding to cultivate right relationships. (Provs. 24:3,4)

Today, I want to discuss the third vital ingredient in establishing a home that will last—its furnishings, which require knowledge and produce pleasant riches. Solomon put it this way: “In the house  of the righteous is much treasure.” (Provs.24:34)

We will need wisdom for right resolves; understanding for right relationships; and knowledge for the right stewardship of life’s most precious treasures, our children. In Psalms, sons are presented as plants grown up in their youth; daughters are polished cornerstones, the ingredients in our homes that will add beauty, grace and adornment. (Ps.144:11,12)

So, consider the rearing of our children.

We will need knowledge for administering discipline that is both biblical and loving. Solomon instructed us that if we will train up a child in the way that he should go, when he is old he will not depart from it. (Provs.22:6). Discipline of children is both biblical and practical. It is a principle underscored in the New Testament when, in Hebrews 12:11, we read that chastening yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Again, Solomon said that we should “chasten thy son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying.” (Provs. 19:18) Other points that are germane from the wise king’s pen can be pondered by reading Provs.13:24; 29:15,17;  23:13,14; and 21:11.

How are you doing in this critical area of discipline?  Here are some questions that might help: (1) Do you have to tell your child more than once to do something? (2) Does your child fail to answer immediately and respectfully when you or some other authority figure, address him or her? (3) Has your child gotten the impression that he or she can sometimes get away with disobedience? (4) Do you seldom or ever hear your child say, “I’m sorry”? (5) Do you sometimes allow your child to withdraw in silence when she fails to get her way? (I can provide you with a complete list of about 20 questions but for space in this post I have only listed a few: reply and ask for self-test questions and I will be glad to share the remaining with you).

A great pastor of yesteryear, T. Dewitt Talmadge wisely said, “The reason we don’t succeed with our children in reclaiming all of them from worldliness is because we begin too late. Parents wait until their children lie before they teach them the value of truth. They wait until they swear before they teach them the value of righteous conversation. They wait until their children are all wrapped up in this world before they tell them of a better world. Too late with your prayers. Too late with your discipline. Too late with your benediction. You put all your care upon your children between 12 and 18. Why do you not put the chief care between 4 and 9? It is too late to repair a vessel when it has got out of the dry dock.”

Discipline is a priority and it is also productive. God will honor the parent who honors God and He will honor the child who is taught to honor his parents. The late evangelist Phil Shuler once said, “My brother Jack did not obey his parents, did not honor his parents and at 45 he was dead.” Radio evangelist and author Oliver B. Greene, who died in his 50’s’ also testified that he did not honor his parents. Discipline is productive in many ways.  It should, therefore, be a practice. Practiced righteously, discipline is motivated by obedience, bathed in love, administered in reason and accompanied by affirmation. It should be not only righteous but regular, consistent.

One-time newspaper columnist, Ann Landers, once asked 10,000 of her readers whether–if they could do it over–they would have children. She said that 70% of those who responded said they would choose not to have children.

One exasperated mother wrote: “Anger is not really what I feel. It’s alienation. Turn off. I feel in kind of a sad, resigned way, that the past 20 years were a total waste. My husband and I have nothing to show for it. It’s not that we’re sitting around crying. We have jobs, travel, live full lives, but the child raising part of our lives was a waste because the kids are nothing. Just nothing.”

One can only hope that the aforementioned parental remonstrance is the exception! It should be–and will be, if biblical principles concerning the rearing and training of our children are followed.

No parent would boast of having done a perfect job. Even Solomon– who gave good, God -inspired counsel–failed in many respects, but that does not lessen our responsibility, nor does it minimize in a loving parent’s heart the desire to get it right knowing that we only have one opportunity at it.

I close this solemn discussion with something a bit amusing (at least I thought it was):  “A young preacher, still single and in college, became known for his sermon, ‘The Ten Commandments for Rearing Children.’ After college he was married. Two years later he and his wife were blessed with their first child. He vigorously preached the sermon until the little bundle of joy was 2 years old. Then he changed the title to ‘Ten Rules for Rearing Children.’ When the child went to grammar school, he changed the title again to ‘Ten Suggestions for Rearing Children.’ When the youngster went to Junior High school, the title became ‘Ten Helpful Hints for Rearing Children.’ At last count, since his child entered high school, he has not preached his famous sermon!” Selah!

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Eph.6:1,4)

I want to devote this post to my friends and family who not only read the “You and God” blog regularly but also pray for Ellen and myself. 

It was 19 months ago that, having gone to a couple of doctors because of a sore hip that would not stop hurting, I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a disease of the white blood cells. If left unattended, the damaged cells attack the bones and eventually overwhelm the body’s ability to fight back. Though there is no known cause or cure, there are treatments that will sometimes put the disease into remission. I have not yet reached that state, but the chemo that I take—three weeks on and one week off every month—is so far holding the myeloma “at bay.” My excellent cancer doctors are very positive, and my wife is the best “caretaker” in the world. My stamina is quite a bit abated, physically, but my spirit is strong. I am able to do some writing, to preach some when called upon, and to do periods of daily of light work inside or out (weather permitting).

My “2^nd opinion” cancer specialist at Indiana University said I’d probably die of something other than myeloma. At the age of (almost) 81, that could be a good guess, although my heart tests good and all systems are apparently in working order. The strong chemo produces side effects that are mostly annoying, and I am not having any significant pain to speak of. At my last (Aug. 15) visit to my primary cancer doctor, he said with a smile, having reviewed a complete battery of blood tests, “Everything looks stable.” I take that to mean nothing is getting worse as far as the progression of this disease in my body is concerned, and that is cause for rejoicing and thanksgiving to our great God!

All of the above is to say: I am surely blessed. I have been retired from the senior pastorate for four years and, until I was diagnosed with this ailment, have been very healthy all my life. My passion in ministry for half a century was shepherding the flock of God’s people that He entrusted to my care, and promoting world missions through the local church. I was able to travel much, visiting missionaries, and have enjoyed visiting many mission fields. Ellen and I are celebrating 58 years of marriage, and we are deeply grateful for our daughters and son who are plugged into our lives and demonstrate their loving concern for us in many ways.

To those of you who pray for us, I want to say, “Thank you!” That seems so inadequate, but I hope you will know it comes from the depths of our hearts. I am awed at hearing often the words, “You are on our daily prayer list,” sometimes from people that we do not even know that well. The family of God is incomparable, and to be a part of that great Body of blood-bought believers is a blessing unspeakable. Again, thank you all very much!

Writing the bi-weekly “You and God” post is most gratifying to me, too. It keeps my mind working and gives me an outlet for sharing what is on my heart, and some of what I have been able to glean from studying God’s Word. It is very rewarding for me, and I love to hear from those of you who are able to take the time to reply with a comment or even a disagreement. I welcome the discussion and feel that one should always be open to learning, so keep the responses coming, please! If you have a particular subject you’d like for me to address, please let me know. I try to limit each post to two pages, double-spaced, so cannot usually explore topics in depth. But at least our “pure minds” can be stirred up to give some thought to issues that matter!

I will keep this post brief, as I just wanted to give you an update primarily on my health, since I know many of you pray for us and there are quite a few who live at a distance and are not in communication with us in person regularly. But feel free to call at any time! Our schedule is pretty flexible, though we do manage to stay busy. Of late, I have been preaching for a pastor friend who is rehabbing from a bad fall he suffered a month or so ago. At age 88, his recovery is going slowly. It is a privilege for me to be able to “pinch-hit” for him while he is at home recovering. We enjoy attending and serving in our local church, too, and are thankful for opportunities to sub for Pastor Stevens when called upon. For locals, the next opportunity will be, Lord willing, tomorrow night at prayer meeting in Grace Place!

Best wishes to all. We pray for you, too, and are humbled and deeply grateful to God for His family with whom we can worship and serve our Lord as we wait for His coming from Heaven.

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (I Cor. 15:58)

That is the word that Jude, in his 25-verse epistle, uses repeatedly to describe men who, in the early church, had “crept in unawares” and were “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Jude3)

These deniers and deceivers are commonly called apostates. A dictionary definition is “a person who renounces a religious or political belief or principle.” In the New Testament, they are also called “false prophets,” (2 Peter 2:1), “grievous wolves,” (Acts 20:29), and “ravening wolves,” (Matt 7:15). Jude has a blistering list of adjectives that describe these people, who have run “greedily after the error of Balaam.” (Jude 11) He calls them “spots in your feasts,” “clouds without water,” “trees whose fruit withereth,” “raging waves of the sea,” “wandering stars,” “murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.” (Jude 11-16)

They have been ever-present as a nemesis to God, His Son, His Church, the truth, and truth bearers of all ages. Jesus, Paul, John, and Peter all raise the severest of warnings against these ungodly worms, whose sole intent is to deceive, deny, and damn ignorant and unsuspecting adherents to their “hard speeches.”

One writer said of apostates: “One is reminded by way of contrast with the Lord, whom these men deny. He is the rock of our salvation, they are hidden rocks, threatening shipwreck to our faith. He comes with clouds to refresh His people forever; these are clouds which do not even bring temporary blessing. He is the tree of life; they are trees dead. He leads beside the still waters; these are like the restless troubled sea. He is the bright and morning star heralding the coming day; they are wandering stars presaging a night of eternal darkness.” (Unknown)

They are false teachers who, Peter says, bring in damnable heresies, “even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” (2 Pet.2:1) It should be unequivocally stated that these people were never saved. They pervert the grace of God through their pernicious ways and “through covetousness they shall with feigned words make merchandise of you.” (2 Pet. 2:2,3). When Peter says that they denied “the Lord that bought them,” he is in no wise saying that they were at one time saved (having been “bought”), that they have denied the faith, and that in so doing have lost their salvation. The Lord that bought them is the same One of whom Paul said He was “the savior of all men, specially of those that believe,” (I Tim.4:10) and of whom John the apostle wrote when he affirmed that Jesus Christ “is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (I John 2:2) Christ died for all men, and in that sense is the savior of all men; his death is “sufficient” for the salvation of all, but “efficient” only for those who believe. These ungodly men will go to hell having rejected their only hope, the savior of all men, Jesus Christ.

Pastor and Bible teacher John MacArthur describes these persons aptly: “Apostates have received light, but not life. Apostates have known and accepted the written word but never met the Living Word. . . . They know intellectually that all of this is true, but they have never made it their own. It is a deliberate rejection after the truth is known.” (John MacArthur, sermon on Jude 3-4, “The Description of Apostates”) Jude likens them to the angels that kept not their first estate, or to the men of Sodom and Gomorrah who went after strange flesh and “are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” (Jude 6,7)

In a DVD promo for livingthequestions.com, a project that claims to “re-educate thinking Christians,” one proponent of an anti-conservative evangelicalism said: “I think the atonement is the worst heresy ever perpetrated against Christianity.” On the video, liberal theologian Marcus Borg is quoted as saying: “We live in a time of transition in the church. . . . [It is moving away from an] older, conventional understanding, which is usually semi-literalistic and quite doctrinal and after-life oriented.” That vision, Borg goes on to say “has become unpersuasive.”

Os Guinness and John Yates, whose church recently left the American Episcopal Church (AEC), say that the AEC no longer holds to the historic, orthodox Christian faith. “Some leaders expressly deny the central articles of the faith—saying that traditional theism is ‘dead,’ the incarnation is ‘nonsense,’ the resurrection of Jesus is ‘fiction,’ the understanding of the cross is ‘a barbarous idea,’ the Bible is ‘pure propaganda’ and so on. Others simply say the creed as poetry or with their fingers crossed.” (Washington Post, 1/8/07)

This raw apostasy is not new, and it is not going away. One Episcopal Bishop was quoted as saying, “In the fall of 1988, I worshipped God in a Buddhist temple. As the smell of incense filled the air, I knelt before three images of Buddha, feeling that the smoke could carry my prayers heavenward. It was, for me, a holy moment, for I was certain that I was kneeling on holy ground. . . . I will not make any further attempt to convert the Buddhist, the Jew, the Hindu, or the Muslim. I am content to learn from them and to walk with them, side by side, toward God who lives, I believe, beyond the images that bind and blind us.” (Quoted from a message by David Reagan in “Voice in Wilderness,” August 2001)

In an article about the “Jesus Project”—an effort by a group of academics professing objectivity and neutrality to determine the historicity of Jesus—Christianity Today referred to the work of Robert Price, who claimed he used to be born again. (12/17/08) In a book he wrote, entitled Jesus is Dead, Price said: “(1) Not only is there no good reason to think that Jesus ever rose from the dead, (2) there is no good reason to think that he ever lived or died at all.”

In light of the above statements by modern-day apostates, one can appreciate more fully the tenor of the alarms sounded by the half-brother of Jesus, Jude, in his brief epistle! No wonder he closed his strongest-possible warning with these poignant words:

“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” (Jude 20,21)

One day in the middle of March, 1942, General Douglas MacArthur, having made a gallant stand on the Philippine Islands in the name of the Allied offensive, strode to a microphone and almost casually told a group of anxious reporters: “The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines and proceed from Corregidor to Australia for the purpose of organizing the American offensive against Japan. I came through, and I shall return.”

Those historic words, “I shall return,” became the watchword of the Filipino people for the duration of the Japanese occupancy of their homeland. As MacArthur, in his memoirs, said regarding his promised return: “It lit a flame that became a symbol which focused the nation’s indomitable will and at whose shrine it finally attained victory, and, once again, founded freedom. It was scraped in the sands of the beaches—it was daubed on the walls of the barrios, it was stamped on the mail, it was whispered in the cloisters of the church—it became the battle cry of the great underground swell that no Japanese bayonet could still!”

“I shall return!” Those same words, spoken by the Captain of the greatest army ever enlisted, spoken initially to a band of 11 saintly soldiers gathered around a table in an upper room, became the battle cry of the Soldiers of the Cross, the Army of the Redeemed in Christ. “I shall return.” The Captain said it: “Let not your hearts be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me: in My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you; I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again.” (John 14:1-3)

The promised return of Jesus Christ is the believer’s motive for faithful, victorious Christian living today—and has been since the Church was founded. Paul urged the Thessalonica church to “wait for God’s Son from heaven, Whom God raised from the dead.” (2 Thess. 1:10) He pleaded with the Corinthian church that they “come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Cor.1:7) Note with me the sequence of His coming again, the surety of it, the signs of it, and the significance to it, as outlined in the scriptures:

• The Sequence. First, in what is called the Rapture, He will come in the air to catch away His bride, the Church. The dead in Christ shall rise first, then those who are alive shall be caught up together with the rising “dead” to meet the Lord in the air, ever to be with Him. (I Thess. 4:13-18) Second, in the Return proper at the end of seven years of tribulation following the Rapture, Jesus will come back—this time to the earth, with His Church, to establish His millennial kingdom, reigning from Jerusalem for 1,000 years. (Rev. 19; Matt. 24)

• The Surety. It is as certain as are the promises of God. The proof of it is in the power demonstrated in the resurrection of God’s Son by His Father. To this proof He adds His pledge: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.” (I Thess.4:14; cf. Matt.24) His return is sealed by His promise: “This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” (Acts. 1:11) Peter affirmed that “the Lord is not slack concerning His promise…But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.” (2 Pet. 3:9,10)

• The Signs. John the Apostle said, “These are the last times.” (I John 2:18) Paul characterized the last days as “perilous times,” during which men would be “lovers of their own selves,” and 17 more degrading trademarks of the general population, worldwide, that would point toward an imminent second coming of Christ (2 Tim.3:1-5). One might note that these signs have been characteristic of mankind since John said, plainly, that “these are the last times,” and they will prevail until Jesus comes again to establish His rule and reign of righteousness.

More specific signs, though, were given to the Apostles by Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 24. The first eight verses of that “Olivet Discourse” outlined some general signs, including the prevalence of false Christs, wars and rumors of wars, nations rising up against nations, famines, pestilences, persecution, and earthquakes. These  were the “beginning of sorrows,” and they preceded the trip-hammer series of seals, trumpets, and vial judgments of the Tribulation, through which God will pour out His wrath upon the earth. The Tribulation will last seven years, and during this time the “man of sin,” (the Antichrist, 2 Thess. 2) will make his ugly appearance, accompanied by the beast and false prophet, comprising an unholy trinity. (Rev. 13) The last half of this seven-year holocaust  will be a time of “Great Tribulation,” the likes of which the world will have never witnessed. Multiply the horrendous devastation of whole neighborhoods in the wild-wind generated fires that destroyed homes and lives recently in Maui, HI, to a worldwide scope and you will get a mental image of the magnitude of this total purging of the earth, its surface, and its population.  

• The Significance.  First, to the unbeliever, the Tribulation of seven years preceding His return will be a time of cataclysmic physical judgments of God unleashed upon a rebellious mankind; there will, however, be millions saved during this time, as the gospel is preached by 144,000 Jewish evangelists (Rev.7), and by messengers via multimedia airwaves beaming the gospel message in tongues of all peoples of every nation and tribe;  (Rev.14:6,7) The Second Coming of Christ to earth will conclude this period. Second, to the believer, the second coming will mean that we who have been declared “kings and priests” will “reign on earth” with Christ for 1,000 years, after which time shall be no more and we shall eternally inhabit heaven with God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the saints of all ages, and the holy angels. (Rev.5:10; 20:6)

“But the day  of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” (2 Pet. 3:l0-12)

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” (Matt .24:36,42)

In Proverbs 24, Solomon identifies the key ingredients in the building of a home that will stand the tests of trials and time: “Through wisdom is an house builded, and by understanding it is established: And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.” Part one of this three-part series considered the role of wisdom in building a Christian home. In this post, we focus on understanding.

Half of the marriages in the United States will end by divorce, indicating that there must be a dire need in homes today for what Solomon called understanding. Whereas wisdom is a must for making right resolves, understanding is vital for establishing healthy relationships.

It is doubtless true that happiness in marriage is a matter of not only finding the right person but being the right person. And, being the right person starts with committing one’s life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, trusting Him with all of one’s heart, and leaning not unto our own understanding. (Prov. 3:5,6) A person rightly related to Jesus Christ, by grace through faith, has the basis for being rightly related to others, and this is crucial in marriage relationships. Jesus is the foundation of a life that will be safe and solid in the stormy seas that will sway all: He is the rock and the foundation of which Paul spoke: “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (I Cor.3:11)  After the foundation comes the frame of a house (home), and the frame has to do with relationships—being rightly related to God, through Christ, and to one another in Christ.

In having a right relationship to Jesus Christ, we must know, first, that He is our Savior; second, we must joyfully, daily surrender and happily yield to Him as servant for life. It is a service of love. We love Him, and serve Him, because He first loved us. (I John 4:19)

Having inventoried our relationship to Jesus, we ought also to examine how we relate, in our home (marriage), to our spouse.

Men, are you functioning under His guidance as the spiritual leader of your household?  Are you leading in worship? Are you providing for the material needs, as God enables you to? Do you cherish your wife and children, and are they often reminded of that fact? Do you dwell with your wife according to knowledge (I Pet.3:1ff.)? Does she know that you are investing in her life, with the goal of assisting her to realize fulfillment in her world? Do you daily experience heart to heart, mind to mind, communication with her?

Wives, is your husband confident that, in you, he has a companion, a completer, a counsellor?

Do you acknowledge that “the woman was made for the man,” and that you and you alone can fulfill his basic needs for fellowship, for faith-building, and for fulfillment as a husband, father,  and person?

Moms and Dads, do you have a healthy attitude toward your children? Are they, in your estimation, an heritage of the Lord? Would you agree with President Lincoln, who said that “A child is a person who is going to carry on what you started. He is going to sit where you are sitting, and when you are gone, attend to the things you think are important. You may adopt all the policies you please, but how they will be carried out depends on him. He will assume control of your states and nation. He’s going to move in and take over your churches and schools and corporations. All your books are going to be judged, praised or condemned by him. The fate of humanity is in his hands. Train him well!”

Finally, a home that will stand the rigors of life must be a home in which there is a relationship to the Body, the Bride of Christ—that is, to His Church. Most every New Testament reference to the church is to a local church, an assembly of “called out” believers in a locality that meets regularly for worship, for honoring the Lord by reading and studying His Word, for keeping the ordinances He has commanded, advancing the cause of world missions by getting the gospel to all peoples everywhere, and for regular fellowship in local church assemblies with those of like faith and practice. There is no substitute for what the local church can provide and produce in the lives of its regenerate members. To be out of fellowship with His church is to be out of fellowship with Him; to be disconnected to a local assembling of His Body, the Church, is to be disconnected from Him who is the Head of the Church that He is building.

A healthy home, where members are rightly related to God and to each other, will be a home where attendance to, and participation in, a Bible-believing local church is a not only a priority but a profitable and pleasurable part of life.

A visitor was being guided around a leper colony in India when, at noon, the bell rang for the midday meal. People flocked to the dining hall from every direction. Peals of laughter filled the air as two young men, one riding on the other’s back, were pretending to be a horse with a rider. As the visitor watched, he observed that the man who carried his friend was blind, and the man who was riding on his back was lame. The one who could not see used his feet, and the one who could not walk used his eyes. Together, they helped each other in getting to where the food was served. So, too, we live, love, and labor together with others in His amazing body, the Church, each ministering the gift with which He has equipped us to fulfill the needs of the body in its complete, edified, state. It is a must for a healthy church, and it is a must for a happy, healthy home that followers of the Lord Jesus Christ be rightly related to a local church.

God help us to build a home upon the foundation which is Christ, with a frame fitly joined together. Each to Christ: husband to wife, and wife to husband; parents to children, and children to parents; and all to other believers in His Body, the Church.

“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” (Eph.4:13)

Memory is a wonderful blessing; yet, sometimes it is a curse, but the loss of it is also tragic. I am the age at which the medical profession asks, once a year or so, if you will come in for a “wellness” test. Part of that exam is reading a short story, at the conclusion of which the administrator (nurse) asks a few questions about details in the story. It is a test to see if you still have command of your short-term memory. I had one of these wellness tests a few years ago and passed; this year, however, the nurse mentioned the test, which I was ready to take. But she never did administer it, and I did not ask her to. Maybe it was because I brought delicious yeast rolls and donuts from Indy’s favorite bakery when I checked into the office as I arrived!

In the Bible there are lots of admonitions to remember. The very first admonition or command to remember something is Ex. 20:8: “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.” Is this 4^th of the 10 commandments still binding today? Well, is the 7^th still binding: “Thou shalt not kill”? Or the 8^th: “Thou shalt not commit adultery”? Or the 1^st: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”? “Remember the Sabbath Day is a universal principle. One day in seven is supposed to be set aside for rest and worship. The Lord set the example in the first week of the world when, after creating the heavens and the earth and every living thing in the heavens, and on land and in the seas, including humans, He rested. He set the pattern long before one day in seven was encoded into the law. The early church transferred the day of worship and rest from the seventh day to the first day of the week, in celebration of Christ’s resurrection from the dead on the first day. So, it is still a principle that believers worldwide, since the Day of Pentecost to the present, have honored; and we keep it, not in a legalistic fashion, but in the spirit of liberty, honoring the Lord of the Sabbath (rest) who kept the law, fulfilled the law, and set us free from the bondage of the law.

Other commands:

• 2. “Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, ‘I have no pleasure in them.’” (Eccl. 12:1) The last chapter of this book of wisdom, Ecclesiastes, closes with the reason why each person ought to remember their creator in the days of their youth: “Fear God and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing….” (Eccl. 12:13, 14)

• 3. “Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God; whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.” (Hebs. 13:7) Paul says in I Tim. 5:17 that elders who rule well ought to be counted worthy of double honor, “especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.” The word rule can mean command, in a military sense. But a Greek lexicon gives as its first meaning “lead.” A pastor, an under-shepherd, leads the flock over which the Lord has made him overseer. It is a leadership of love. There are myriad ways to honor one’s pastor, and a well-fed flock ought to earnestly strive to do so.

• 4. Paul exhorts all in Gal. 2:10 that “we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.” So very many admonitions from the wise king’s pen in Proverbs about how we should think of and treat the poor! (Provs. 14:31; also, Ps. 41:1)

• 5.  Again, in Hebrews 13, the Holy Spirit moves the writer to tell us to “remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them, and them which suffer, as being yourselves also in the body.” (v.3) In my lifetime, I have witnessed the release of Pastor Georgi Vins from a Soviet concentration camp. He was exiled to the U.S. shortly before Ronald Reagan became president. Scores of other prisoners were released in the ‘90’s as a result of the prayers and focused attention of God’s people worldwide. The window was only opened briefly, but we have seen what “remembering them that are in bonds” can do. Many Christians across the world are suffering in detention centers for their faith. We dare not live as though this horrendous persecution does not exist today.

• 6.  We must also take time to meditate upon so great salvation that we enjoy because of the grace of God: There is no better way to do this than to review what God has done for us: “Wherefore, remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision in the flesh made by hands….” Eph. 2:11-13

• 7.  Or, how about this memory jogger by Paul as he bade farewell to the elders of Ephesus: “I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to REMEMBER the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35). Try it and you’ll see what He meant.

• 8. Jesus, in one of his sermons as recorded only in Luke’s gospel, said: “Remember Lot’s wife.” This is a warning to the people of God, of all time, to keep moving ahead toward that city whose builder and maker is God, not looking back to the condemned world—which John warns that we are not to be having a love affair with. (Luke 17:32; I John 2:15-17)

• 9. The Holy Spirit moved Isaiah to quote almighty God, who said: “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God and there is none like me.” (Isa.46:9) It is increasingly difficult to remember the former things of old: days when preachers preached without Power Points, congregations sang using hymnbooks, and people were called to respond during an invitation by hitting the “sawdust” trail and kneeling at an old-fashioned altar.

• 10. We began in the first book of the Bible; let us conclude from the last book of the Word of God. To the church in Ephesus and to all churches of all time: “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” (Rev. 2:5)

Rudyard Kipling’s Recessional in 1897 for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee (i.e., 60^th anniversary):

“God of our fathers, known of old; Lord of our far-flung battle line;
Beneath whose awful hand we hold, Dominion over palm and pine;
Lord God of hosts, be with us yet; Lest we forget; Lest we forget!”

William T. Ellis, in his biography of Billy Sunday, relates the conversion story of the great former Chicago White Sox player. On a street corner in Chicago one Sunday afternoon, upon hearing a group of Christians from the Pacific Garden Mission singing and testifying, Sunday took his stand for Jesus Christ, announcing to his boozing, ball-playing buddies, “I am through: I am going to Jesus Christ. We’ve come to a parting of the ways, boys.” Some of his pals laughed, some mocked, one of them wished him well, and others just sat in silence.

Years later, Sunday related the sad stories of some famous teammates who sat with him that day when he decided to follow Jesus.

“Mike Kelley was sold to Boston for $10,000. Mike got half the purchase price. He came and showed me the check he got for $5,000. John Sullivan, the prize fighter, raised $12,000 to buy Mike a home and they gave him the deed to it. His salary for playing for Boston was $5,000 a year. When Mike died in Allentown, PA, he had spent all that he had made and that was given to him—and they had to take up an offering to get enough money to put him in the ground.”

Ed Williamson, another of Sunday’s buddies, was on a ship crossing the Pacific Ocean with the team when Spalding (a sports equipment company) took them on a playing tour around the world. While crossing the English Channel, a fierce storm arose and the Captain of the ship thought the vessel might be lost. Williamson dropped to his knees and prayed, asking God to bring the ship to harbor and assuring Him that he would sober up and become a Christian. The storm quieted, and the ship made it to safety. But when Williamson got back to the states he opened up a saloon on Dearborn Street in Chicago. Billy Sunday said that when he died, they put him on a table and took out his liver, which was the size of a candy bucket.

Then there was Frank Flint, a famed catcher for 19 years. He worked behind the plate before there were masks, chest protectors, or even gloves, catching bare-handed. There was not a bone in his hands that had not been broken, and his nose and cheeks, shoulders and ribs were all crushed in some fashion. Flint, a heavy drinker, was finally dismissed from the White Sox for his habit. He made his home in the Chicago saloons, and Sunday often said he found Frank sleeping on beer tables. His wife left him due to his drunkenness. One day, Frank staggered out of a saloon and was overcome with a coughing seizure. Blood was streaming down his nose and out of his mouth and eyes. A wealthy woman coming down the street took one look at him and cried out, “Frank, is that you? Oh, my dear!” It was his estranged wife. She came up and kissed the poor, ruined man on the cheek, hailed a cab, and called for the help of two nearby policemen. They hurried Frank to his wife’s house, and the best physicians were summoned. But they said the dying man had, at best, only a few hours to live. When his wife told him that the doctors could do nothing more for him, Frank said, “Send for Billy.” Listen to the pathetic account as Billy Sunday told it:

“They telephoned and I went. Frank said, ‘There is nothing in the life of years ago I care for now. I can hear the bleachers cheer when I make a hit that wins the game. But there is nothing that can help me now. And if the Umpire calls me out now, won’t you say a few words over me, Bill?’ He struggled, as he had a few years ago on the diamond when he tried to reach home, but the Great Umpire said, ‘You’re out!’ and waved him to the club house. He sat on the street corner with me, drunk, 27 years ago in Chicago when I said, ‘Good-bye, boys, I’m through!’ Did they win the game of life, or did Bill?”

Billy won the game of life; they lost because of sin. Some who read these lines may come to the end and the great Umpire will say, “You’re Out!” Beware the Course of sin, the Character of Sin, and the Curse of sin:

• The Course of sin, James 1:14: There is a look, then a lust; a touch, then a taste; a glance, then a gawk; a wish, then a will; a pause, then a pursuit; a handling, holding, and hugging—this is sin’s beginning, a drawing. But after the drawing there is a doing—usually against better judgment; against knowledge, good counsel, previous resolve, but never against one’s will. Then the end of sin, dying: “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.” (Romans 5:12)

• The Character of sin, James 1:15a: Sin entices through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. After it entices, it conceives, bearing fruit that multiplies. In every sin, there is seed of another sin: “Twas but a little drop of sin we saw this morning enter in; and, lo, at eventide a world is drowned.”

• The Curse of sin, James 1:15b: Death is the result of sin, both physical and spiritual. The first and final product of sin is death: “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23a) “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen.2:17)

“Sin is a monster of such hideous mien, as to be hated is but to be seen; but seen too oft, familiar with her face, we first endure, then pity, then embrace.” (Hugo)

“But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust; and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” (James 1:14,15)