April 11, 2010

I think it would be wonderful to make a "scrapbook" or "memory book" of the things God has done in our life.  Don't you?  We take photos of our kids growing up, and the major events in our life, like weddings and birthdays, and we document our vacations and our mission trips.  We collect memorabilia from our various activities and event we want to remember.  Then we look at them occasionally, and these scrapbooks bring back the memories or our best times, strengthening them every time we do.  We talk to our kids about our life before they were born:  "Look, there's mommy and daddy with really funny hairdo's and clothes!" or the funny things they did when they were little:  "There you are at one year old, with a pie pan on your head!"  It's easy to laugh and share with our kids with something to look at that's organized and picturesque.

God did similar things with Israel it seems, only they didn't have iphones!  When Joshua led them across the flooded Jordan, heaping up the water, the Lord instructed them to take twelve stones out from the Jordan and pile them up in the Promised Land as a memorial for what He had done for them.  "Then he spoke to the children of Israel, saying: “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ then you shall let your children know, saying, ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land’; for the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over, that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever.” Joshua 4: 21-24

If we are to accomplish the things that God gives us to do, it is imperative that we bring to remembrance the times that He has worked in our life, the times He has empowered us and brought us through.  Otherwise we tend to lose faith in the midst of difficulty.  This has been one of my largest shortcomings throughout my Christian walk.  I'm a great starter, but carrying through is not so easy, and finishing something has always loomed before me like an impossible task. 

I very much related to this Scripture verse today: "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? Luke 14: 28-30  The thing is, when I start something by the inspiration of the Spirit and the word of the Lord, I know the Lord can do it through me, because I know His power and ability.  But do I really count the cost?

Jesus knew the kinds of trials, struggles, temptations and oppositions we would face as we walked through life as His disciples.  He gave us the perfect antedote to failure: "pick up your cross and follow me," and "whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple."  The cost of fulfilling God's will and following Christ to the end, the finish line, is EVERYTHING.  You just don't quit!  And you let nothing stop you from obeying Him, not even yourself.

A scrapbook of remembrance, in lieu of stone monuments, might help us remember not only God's faithfulness to us and to our ancestors; but it might also remind us of the times we chose, yet again, to commitment ourselves to faithful discipleship.  We need reminders that we were once willing to pick up our cross and give up everything, so that we will continue in that choice when we feel ready to quit.

I like how so many of the verses tied together today, and I like how Proverbs sums up the concept of follow-through:
The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting, But diligence is man’s precious possession. In the way of righteousness is life, And in its pathway there is no death. Proverbs 12: 27-28

There is only one righteous path, and that is Jesus Christ.  If we stop following Him, we fail, but if we continue to follow Him, enduring until the end, we succeed, because there is no death or failure in Him.