It would appear summer has set it’s sights on us with the break out of wild flowers, honey bees, boaters on the river, and my personal favorites, the fireflies, the crickets, and the frogs who make the evening seem surreal and dream like.
i was in the basement of the cafe this afternoon looking for an old music stand i kept stashed down there and i came across some old pictures of myself and to other boys from long ago. The pictures had folded edges, slightly yellowed, but the memory was still there. There we were, three boys standing at the edge of the river, right near here, barefoot, smiling eyes, fishing poles in hand. i remember well that summer day when the mother of one of the boys took that picture. It was the day we made an agreement between ourselves, that someday, we’d meet again, buy this property and put up a cafe here in this very place with a big deck overlooking the river, where people would come, peace could be found, and sometimes we’d talk till the wee hours of the morning. Laughing about silly old times, sad about some of the trails of life, and expounding on the victories of overcoming and being strong. We imagined ourselves as old men, sitting on the deck speaking our adventures, with wives, children and grandchildren, and how God, from the beginning had a destiny for us. Some of us learned a little about destiny in Sunday school, and it was just enough to dream, believe, and imagine that maybe, just maybe we could be part of the amazing stuff God was doing.
How about you? Do you remember anything from your younger years like that?
Do you know that the word “remember” in all it’s variations, is used 651 times in the Bible? That says to me the idea of recalling the days, years, times and seasons of our lives, our times of joy, opportunity, and enjoyment are all a priority according to the Lord……but above all, it is a vital time to remember that our God and King is good and of galactic importance. He has pursued us as a determined lover, even when we didn’t want to be pursued.
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy–meditate on these things.”
As we’ve said before seeing as how we spend the majority of our lives waiting, how do we spend our time of waiting? What do we allow our minds to dwell on? Like i did when i saw the picture of the three amigos, i allowed myself to dwell on that summer day when we three boys played “Tom Sawyer”. Those boys, who even then, as children, had a dream of fellowship, that the days of our youth would continue and would be as wonderful in our future as that magical day fishing together on the Ockluhwahhah River.
Most everyone, i would imagine, would like to forget the tragedies and terrible times of our lives. There have been overwhelming storms in my life i would love to not remember, because, well, because they were hard, or sad, or cruel, but on the other hand, looking back, remembering even those times, i can see God at work in my life… even then. God at work in my life is more important to see than just remembering the heart break of life. We have to look over the top of those seasons of grief and hand wringing, past the blackened mile stones of vicious circumstances to see God, even if at that time, Jesus was not part of our everyday as we knew it, God was there, speaking, working, and helping.
Regardless of what a person has done, or what kind of abuse one has suffered, God still calls us. We may think our secret is worse than anyone else’s. Rest assured that He knows all about it, and still draws us with an immutable call. No matter how difficult life seems, people with a past need to make their way to Jesus. Regardless of the obstacles within and without, they must reach Him. We don’t have to tell everyone our entire history. Just know that He calls, on purpose, people with a past. He knows our history, but He calls us anyway. The “wounded redeemed” is a good term, and Jesus is setting those captives free…those with burned out, black and white lives that have been reduced to smoldering ashes…and out of the ashes… OUT OF THE ASHES COMES THE WORK OF THE LORD.
Remember God in your life, not your life as it appears in fading memory. Jesus made those broken weary bones to dance again, it’s Jesus who waters our thirsty hearts with a river. Like the song says, Lord we rest our eyes on You, we are waiting…for You are our garland of grace and we worship Your Great Name with songs of praise and a lifestyle of worship.
When David was in the cave hiding from Saul’s thugs, the people that showed up were “desperate, discouraged, and dissatisfied”, and those people ended up becoming the “mighty men of valor”, the people willing to bleed for a cause. They no longer merely appeared to be valiant, but actually BECAME strong men of valor. What an interesting transformation…from the 3 D’s to the 3 R’s… from Desperation, Discouragement, and Dissatisfaction – To Redeemed, Reconciled, and Restored.
That transformation is worth remembering, forever.
Jesus wants us to want Him enough to overcome obstacles and to push in His direction. He doesn’t want to just throw things at us that we don’t have a real conviction to receive. When we see a humped-over person crawling through a crowd, know that that person really does want help, even if they say they don’t, somewhere in their heart they wish they did have some help. That kind of desire is what it takes to change our lives. Jesus is the answer. We may seek help by going from one person to another, but Jesus is the answer. We may be sick in our body, but Jesus is the answer. If my son is dead, insane, on drugs, or is just far away in a distant land, Jesus is the answer. No matter my problems, Jesus is the answer.
God remembers His covenant with people, He said so in Genesis 9:15. Nehemiah 4:14 “…Remember the Lord, great and awesome…” Psalm 9:12 says God remembers, or brings to mind, the cry of the poor and does not forget them. Because God remembers them, we should remember them also. In Psalm 42, David gives us a good example of what to do when we are remembering the more unkind times in our lives and we incur turbulence in our emotions and feelings, reliving that hardness. David says he goes to God and pours out his heart, and he remembers the goodness of God which gives Him rest and peace. Notice, David didn’t just dwell on all the injustice and wrongness. He purposely focused on God, and as he rested His eyes on God, his heart came to rest.
Do you remember God in your life before you knew He was in your life? If i set my mind to the task of remembering the times of my youth, knowing Jesus now, i can see Him back then. i can see things God did, things He said to me, things He influenced in other people, long before i thought i knew Him. Interestingly, those memories of God’s working in my life are so alive, even now. and even though all my other memories have lost or begun to lose their luster, the memories of the footsteps of the Lord are as bright now as ever before. It’s also odd to me, i can clearly see that in those moments, it never crossed my mind anything about the Lord whatsoever….and some would say, how can that be? All i can think is that the Lord was there and i simply didn’t have eyes to see Him, and now that i do have eyes to see, He is clearly there in my memories.
In John 5 there is an account of a man who was sick for 38 years whom Jesus met at the pool, Bethesda in Jerusalem. Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be made whole, and even though the man made an excuse for why he hadn’t been healed in the past and never did actually answer the question, Jesus healed the man anyway. Interestingly, the man did not know who it was who healed him. The knowledge nor the recognition of God was not present in his memory, even to the point that when the Pharisee’s asked him who did this, the man said, “i don’t know”. Only after Jesus found the man in the temple later on, and said, “You are well, go and sin no more lest something worse comes upon you”, only then did the man know who Jesus was.
God was working in that man’s life, even when the man did not know it was God who did the work. In the same way, i believe God is at work in our lives, even when we do not know it is God who works in us and in our circumstances.
Now that i know Christ and am much older, i remember times of my wild days as a young man, and i can clearly see God miraculously turning the car from the sure death of going off a mountain road; i can clearly hear God speaking wisdom to me to not go down a certain pathway; i can clearly remember the Lord motivating me to try harder in school to help me not see myself as a complete failure; it is clear to me now, and it is the kindness of God, that today, in my remembering myself as a young man, i see the Lord bringing me into relationships with other people, with some of those friendships continuing to this day, and they are not only good for me, i see the Lord in them also.
Look beyond the stagnant days of your life, think and remember. Can you see the Lord in your life, even before you knew it was the Lord in your life? Can you see Him?
Remember…. the Lord says, “Look and see, it was Jesus all along”. Many, if not most times, we don’t need someone to bring us BIG change, we just need a firm foot provided us so we can set our foot against it in order that we can find purchase to change direction some.
Ultimately, it is the foot of the Savior, who in His mercy, provides us a stanchion…even when all our closest, most relied on friends have gone, Jesus gives us the pinion and rope to hold us fast to His Heart, even when we are dangling from a reverse-inclined sheer rock cliff, Jesus is there with us, and He is busy working on our behalf, driving pinions, making pivots, throwing us ropes, pulling us close to His heart, never leaving or forsaking us. He is there!
From the Journal of the Unknown Prophet:
“Oh, and how long has He sought you, beloved? How many nights, has He stood listening, silently waiting in the shadows unseen by you and those that surround you?
For it was He who wept as He heard your soundless scream in the midnight hour. It was He who watched as you tried in your brokenness to marshall together the fragments of your shattered heart.
And so most beloved of His children, now He comes closer, the fairest of ten thousand. And as He walks out from behind the shadows and you lift up your tear-stained face to Him, half blinded by the radiance from the most beautiful of countenances, He reaches out His hand to you.”
“…’You?’ you mouth soundlessly. And you hear His whisper: I have sought you all your life. Through all the pain, through the loneliness, I have sought you. Each time your heart broke soundlessly with the agony of not belonging, i sought you. Through each rejection, through each hour of despair, I sought you. I was there, loving you. Reaching out to you. It was Me all along.
And as your eyelids gently close, you are engulfed in His tender embrace and the tears fall, somewhere through the sands of time in that gray place between sleeping and waking, you recognize that familiar presence and you too know that He was there. It was He all along.” Think about it.
Let’s pull this program to a close this evening. The day is done, gone the sun, only the world at rest is left around us.
i’m Social Porter and this evening’s broadcast is brought to you by our good friends on Main Street, Trinity Bakers, where there’s always something good in the oven, Living In His Name Ministries, Area 22 Guitars, Kevin, Perry, and Tommy over at world headquarters for the Mebane Freedom League, and Werner Graphics.
Music was by the Pete Minger Quartet, Andreas Vollenweider, Coleman Hawkins, George Benson, J.J. Johnson, Miles Davis, and Didier Malherbe. All music use is licensed by BMI.
Remember this week as you go your way in your work-a-day world, God has been working in you since before it ever entered your mind He was in your life. The Lord is merciful and kind to us, long past our ever deserving anything as good as His love towards us. Be kind to each other, speak peace to your neighbor, afterall, God is working in them also in order to bring them safely to anchor in a peaceful and restful harbor.
Be strong and courageous. One day soon i’ll meet you under the flag of the Lion of Judah, the ensign of the Son of God and we’ll talk further. Amen.