THE CALL TO REMEMBER

THE CALL TO REMEMBER

"Consider your own call, brothers and sisters; not many of you were wise
by human standards, not many powerful, not many of noble birth." 1
Corinthians 1:26

In my ten years of rubbing shoulders with men who have graduated from
the Colony of Mercy, our 120-day residential for men struggling with
life-dominating addictions, there have been men who have wanted to
forget "where they came from." While Paul instructs us to "forget those
things which are behind," it is good for us to REMEMBER where we have
come from. It is a good review and it helps us with our perspective on
life.

In his devotional, BETWEEN SUNDAYS, Shawn Craig writes: "I love the word
REMEMBER. It literally means to bring back the picture to your mind. To
relive it, to see it, to do it again. When a man set's a photograph of
his wife on his desk, he wants to call her image to mind. As he looks at
her photograph, he REMEMBERS her.

The Apostle Paul wanted the Corinthians to remember something as a way
of attaining the proper attitude of mind and spirit. In essence he was
saying, 'When you are tempted to boast and become prideful, recall your
humble beginnings. Bring back to your mind the picture of who you were
before Christ found you.

In the say way, Moses reminded the children of Israel, 'Remember that
you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of
there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.' (Deut 5:15)

Why does a superstar athlete go to the ghetto and reach out to the poor
and destitute? He wants to REMEMBER his humble beginnings. He looks at a
young boy and sees himself a few years earlier when someone reached out
to him with compassion and caused him to believe that he could escape
the tyranny of poverty.

REMEMBERING empowers us to move forward. Woodrow Wilson said, "A nation
which does not remember what it was yesterday does not know what it is
today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing
of we do not know where we came from or what we have been about."
Remembering our calling and who we were before Christ found us does two
things: It causes us to boast in the Lord instead of ourselves, and it
gives us faith in the mighty power of God. REMEMBERING, we can boldly
stand and say, 'Christ saves! Christ delivers!' because we are living
witnesses of His grace. We REMEMBER what he has done for us."

Take some time today to REMEMBER. It will be a good exercise at the
beginning of this new year.

Great quote: "Head knowledge of the things of Christ is not enough; this
following Christ is primarily a matter of the heart. If your heart is
not fixed on its purpose, your principles, as good as they may be, will
hang loose and be of no more use in the heat of the battle than an
ill-strung bow. Half-hearted resolve will not venture much nor far for
Christ." - William Gurnall

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