Remembering

Have you noticed that as time passes memories sort of fade? Even memories of important things begin to lose their significance as life rushes on and new memories crowd out the old.

Sometimes this is a good thing. If we remembered every car wreck we ever witnessed (or were actually in) with the passion and vividness of the moment we would never be able to leave our house and get in a car. If mothers remembered too strongly the pain of childbirth there would be a whole lot of only children in the world.

But sometimes this fading of memories is not a good thing. We need to remember car wrecks a little so we don't drive like crazy people when we are on I-24 going to Nashville!

Today we are remembering 9-11. And even that has faded. We don't remember how horrific that event was. This morning on Fox and Friends (my favorite morning show) they showed actual footage and their coverage of that terrible morning. For a few years it was deemed too graphic and too horrible to show. I'm glad they showed it this year. We were starting to forget.

As I watched, all the emotions of that day flooded back. I fought back tears as I watched the reporter as he told about the plane hitting the World Trade Center and then another plane flew right behind him and hit the second tower.

These are images we need to remember. Not so we will remember to hate the people who did this. No. On the contrary it should remind us that the only hope for peace between men is found in our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what the Apostle Paul was talking about in the second chapter of Ephesians. Read This Chapter

Paul is explaining in these verses how formerly there were two groups - the Gentiles and the Jews - and that now Christ had made them one body. v.14 "For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,"

There is so much more in this chapter that needs to be said. It would make a great sermon series. But let me give you a few more things I hope you will remember not only on 9-11, but every day.

1. You were dead in your trespasses and sins (vs.1-3)
2. "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ" (vs.4-5)
3. You were created for good works - to live your life that way (v.10)
4. You need to remember that once you had no hope and were separate from God (vs.11-12)
5. "But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." (v.13)

(Someone aught to be shoutin' "Hallelujah" by now!)

So now that you remember all of that... go live the truth. Live like a child of the King. Do the good works you were created for. Satan wants us to live our lives like we are still in the ashes of the World Trade Center, without hope and without God. But the truth is found (summarized) in Ephesians 2:19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household,

There are people in your family, people that you work for, people around you, who have no hope. They are separated from God. YOU have the words of life living in you. Let them see by your good works and your good words that you have been brought near to God - that you are part of God's household. Give them some hope. Read Ephesians 2 Read This Chapter and then tell them - in your own words - how real that is in your life. The power of the Gospel doesn't depend on us. God is the one who convicts and saves and makes those who were formerly far oof to be near, but He lets us be a part of the process. How cool is that?

Now - get busy. There are a lot of people out there and we're behind.