The past cannot be changed, but it can be misunderstood…forgotten or ignored. Know your past. Know your future.
This week in particular is a time for all people to remember the past and not forget where we came from. It is imperative to never forget God created humans in love and in His image. Adam and Eve looked around the garden and saw the beauty and ease with which they lived in the presence of God. The enemy wanted them to forget how good life was and how much God loved them. That spin still continues. Today, the enemy wants us to forget the Son of God and what He accomplished with His life and death. It’s comfortable for people to believe in a higher power and call it God, but Jesus is the line in the sand.
Jesus is so important because He finished what the Creator started with mankind. Some human beings had chosen to walk away from the family of God like a third of the angels who followed Lucifer in the great rebellion. Christ came to reunite us and formally give us an adoption back into the family with full rights restored. With Jesus there was no more separation from the Father. Jesus was a ransom payment to free what the enemy had captured in the garden when Adam and Eve chose to be disobedient to God. Death WAS the ultimate trump card Satan had until Christ rose from the grave and started living and breathing again. Christ’s last words on the cross echo across the ages, “It is finished.” Your past includes the ultimate victory. And that my friends, is who and what you can never forget.
God is full on love with the human race but if we choose to turn our back on Him and His Son, there are dire consequences. Dire means extremely serious and urgent. Dire consequences are disastrous. That’s a critical point that is not politically correct or pleasant to remember. Easter week in particular, we need to remember the message of Jesus’ obedience in living a life of love. We need to remember the fact He paid a price with blood and a violent death. We can’t forget obedience to God is at the root of creation in Genesis and redemption at Easter. Don’t forget obedience.
Our world needs a big God and we have Him. We are wired to want something more than ourselves. We know there is a greater plan and path but there’s a lot of misinformation and noise to distract. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection remind us there is a price in not following the easy route by making up our own philosophy and belief system. When talking about eternal life with Him, Christ said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and path that lead to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14. God didn’t make it hard. If we choose to see mankind and the world as evolved and not created for a purpose beyond ourselves, we make it hard. We are here to bring glory to the Creator and His Son. If you forget that, you’re on the wrong path.
Robert Frost wrote about paths back in the early 1900’s. Americans love to recite some of the lines because it empowers our sense of self, control and destiny.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and Iā
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Although both paths were worn the same, Frost emphasized the perception that he had chosen a path that distinguished him from others. Americans are a freedom seeking and rebellious lot from the get go. Whether it was taxation without representation or freedom of religion, we like to choose our own paths. Problem is, no one is reminding us of the dire consequences with spiritual choices and we are forgetting the past. The path to eternal life is narrow. It involves faith, acceptance and obedience. Jesus chose the narrow path so He can understand the choices you and I face. Don’t forget His actions and words.
Adam and Eve forgot the words of God pretty quickly. Today, our enemy wants us to forget the love our God and Savior have for us. He wants us to forget the reward in store and the price Jesus paid. Most importantly, the enemy wants us to forget the consequences of rebelling against and turning our back on an omniscient God. Mankind is the centerpiece of a rich heritage in God’s creation and the focus of His Son, Jesus. The enemy wants to steal your knowledge of that fact. Christ followers are filled with the Holy Spirit and the enemy wants to kill your use of that power. Believers have an inheritance of eternal life as an heir of God and Satan is bent on denying those rights before you receive it. Don’t forget who you are.
We cannot forget the creation story and how the world came into existence. We cannot forget our Creators original intent for us to live in obedient communion with him. If we forget what Christ accomplished with his death and resurrection, then the clock ticks away until our day of judgement comes. And the end of all things IS coming. Your end will not be late, you just don’t know how early it will be.
Easter week is a time to remember the past and not forget the future. The words of an old song remind us. “Tomorrow people where is your past. Tomorrow people how long will you last? Today you say deyah (you’re here) but tomorrow you’re gone. Don’t know your past you don’t know your future.”