Remember that One Time?
Illus. I've Always Liked The Story Of The 3 Old Widows .....
I’ve always liked the story of the 3 old widows who lived together. One sister got up to go to bed, half way up the stairs she stopped and asked "was I going up or was I coming down"
One sister replied with hint of aggravation, "you were going up to bed."
A second sister headed into the kitchen to make herself a sandwich. Once in the kitchen she hollered back to her sister who was still down stairs; "what did I come in here for"
The sister responded again with a trace of irritation, "you went in to make yourself a sandwich" after which she said; "I’m so glad I am not as forgetful as the both of you are" as she knock on the end table.
And then she got up and walked over to the door and said "Who is it?"
Yes, we are a forgetful people. And from my vast experience I have concluded that forgetfulness is not a respecter of age. And there fore we come up with all kinds of ways to help us remember; (string around finger; post it notes, day planners, most recently nowadays, the smart phone....Yes, most of us do need a little help to remember.
Memorial Day, a time when we remember the things others have done. That have left their fingerprints on the quest, for the thing patriotic Americans from every walk of life, hold so dear. Freedom!
Freedom, a tangible asset that always comes with great cost. They say that A picture is worth 1000 words and one of the most iconic photos ever taken that symbolizes freedom, was the one with the soldiers raising the flag during the battle of Iwo Jima.
Illus. One day in late February of 1945, TIME correspondent Robert Sherrod cabled his editors a report about what had occurred on the island of Iwo Jima during the previous day. The island’s Mount Suribachi had been captured that morning, Feb. 23, and an American flag had been raised there. “A lot of the boys cried when they saw the flag raised on top of the mountain,” Sherrod reported, in parentheses, having heard so from a marine officer.
“When the U.S. flag was raised over this highest point on the island,” the magazine duly informed readers in the next issue, “some marines wept openly.”
The sight that made those men weep led to one of the most enduring images of the war and perhaps the 20th century. The Joe Rosenthal Associated Press photograph of a flag-raising on Suribachi was printed in that very issue of TIME, with a caption noting that the moment would “rank with Valley Forge, or Gettysburg."
And, within weeks, the picture had become, as TIME reported then, “easily the most widely printed photograph of World War II.”
Though those men we're just doing their job, The rest of the world looked at them as if they were heroes. If you would ask them, they probably would've said they were no more important then the next guy.
All of the conflicts on the road to freedom, were memorable ones... Starting with the pilgrims. Before there was ever a mayflower, their was the road that led to the Mayflower.
The road that led to the Mayflower all the way until today, was one full of hardship and oppression. God truly has blessed America and the devil has been there fighting with all his might, all along the way!
America never would've been so great without the involvement of the great almighty God. And the devil has known from the beginning because of God's involvement, he would have to try to derail any opportunity of the freedom to worship God.
That's why still after all these years, even after all the great accomplishments America has given God the credit for, the devil continues to try to undo them.
There have been so many heroes in our rich history, of this nation. From the Revolutionary war, to the Civil War, to world war one and two, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf Wars.
All filled with men and women who did what we consider to be heroic acts. Who if you were to ask on a individual basis, would've probably tried to take no credit for what they did. However if they had all been in a room together, it would've probably been the biggest game of one upmanship the world has ever seen.
Human nature is a funny thing, kind of like Billy Graham once said. It takes around 28 people to win someone to the Lord. The first one thinks they did nothing and the last one thinks they did it all. And all the ones in between, tends to think they were just planting seeds.
1st Corinthians 3:5-9 MSG
5-9 Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God’s field in which we are working.
Truth be known we have all been guilty of playing Thee one ups Manship game. The words, I remember the time have all rolled off of our lips at one time of another. And while it's good to remember the event, it's better to remember the one who made the event possible!
Remembering what God has done, rather then what we have done, is what builds our faith!
When we know and realize on a continual basis, what God is capable of. It's easy to call on him in the moment of need and believe that he will take care of the situation and find sweet rest.
It's what's known as the peace of God that passes all understanding! It's an atmosphere of faith and a tangible place that you can walk in and live everyday, forever!
Paul was saying, it's not about what you can do yourself. It's all about what God can do for you if you are willing to let Him!
2nd Corinthians 11:21-30 The Voice
This is where Paul was admonishing the Corinthians, because they had received and listened to other preachers who were preaching something other than the gospel of Christ.
21 Embarrassingly I admit that next to them we must look very weak!
But in whatever way they dare to boast—remember, I’m speaking in character as a fool—I dare to boast even more! 22 Are they Hebrews, God’s chosen? So am I. Are they true Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they servants to the Anointed One, the Liberating King? I am even more so! (I can’t believe how foolish I sound.) I have worked harder for God’s kingdom, taken more beatings, been dragged in and out of prisons, and have been eye-to-eye with death. 24 Five times I have withstood thirty-nine lashes from Jewish authorities, 25 three times I was battered with rods, once I was almost stoned to death, three times I was shipwrecked, and I spent one day and night adrift on the sea. 26 I have been on many journeys and faced the most extreme circumstances: perilous rivers, violent thieves, and threats by my own people and by the Gentile outsiders alike. I have faced dangers in the city, in the wilderness, and at sea; and danger from spies among our brothers and sisters. 27 I have survived toil and hardships, sleepless nights, hunger and thirst without a crumb in sight, bare to the cold. 28 As if these external trials weren’t enough, there is the daily stress I feel and anxiety I carry for all the churches under my care. 29 Who is weak without this arousing my empathy? Who gets hurt and offended without this inciting my burning anger? 30 So as you can see, if I have to boast, I will, but only in my own weaknesses.
Paul was playing the ultimate game of one ups man-ship against the others, but in the end, he said it wasn't about him. Even though he easily would have won the contest against them. All the things he had experienced, all failed in comparison to What Jesus accomplished on the cross!
Probably with out a doubt the most memorized verse from the Bible is John 3:16 MSG
And it's no wonder that it is, because it set the world stage for the greatest Memorial Day that ever happened. The day that Grace established a new way of relationship to God.
16-18 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
Have you established your spiritual freedom yet, your Memorial Day with God, by accepting His One and only Son as your Saviour?
If not, why not do it today as we pray?
