December 23, 2024

(Move Our Hearts To) Remember

psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv

This is the Body that was torn for us
This is the Blood that was spilt
Points to the pain You endured for us
Points to the shame, the blame, the guilt

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, come…
move our hearts to remember

This is the Lamb who was slain for us
So we, the Church, may enter in
So bittersweet when we think of You
The One who bore our curse, our sin

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, come…
move our hearts to remember

Singer / Songwriter: Laura Story

   *  ~   ♥  ~  ✞  ~  ♥    ~  *  

Sometimes, we forget.  (And how could we forget?)  But we do.  (I don’t know how…but we do.)  We forget our Suffering Savior.  We forget His hurt and tortured and bruised Body.  We forget His spilled Blood.  And I think that our Lord knew we would forget; remember what He said to His beloved apostles as He shared His final meal with them?

Then He took a loaf [of bread], and when He had given thanks,
He broke [it] and gave it to them saying,
This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.
Luke 22:19

Undoubtedly, those twelve men had no idea what Jesus was communicating to them.  But within a few days, they knew.  Perhaps, they also asked God to move their hearts to remember.

Paul also caused the believers in Corinth to remember:

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you,
that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said,
“This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in My blood;
do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
1 Corinthians 11:24-26

There are many, oh-so-very-many, reasons for us to remember what Jesus accomplished through His sacrificial death on the Cross. Here are just a few.

Lord,…move our hearts to remember!

He himself bore our sins in His body on the Cross,
that we might die to sin and live to righteousness
1 Peter 2:24

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness,
which stood against us and condemned us;
He has taken it away, nailing it to the Cross.
And having disarmed the powers and authorities,
He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the Cross.
Colossians 2:13-15

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us— for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”
Galatians 3:13

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God
through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled,
shall we be saved by His life.
Romans 5:10-11

…Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold
from your futile way of life inherited from your fathers,
but with precious Blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the Blood of Christ.
1 Peter 1:18-19

…Having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt
that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the Cross.
Colossians 2:13-14

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,
so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21

And we must intentionally remember because,

“…the message of the Cross is sheer absurdity and folly
to those who are perishing and on their way to perdition,
but to us who are being saved it is the manifestation of the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 1:18 AMP

These next few weeks (called Lent, in some churches) are an excellent time to determine to focus on Jesus’ sacrifice, and all that He went through (His betrayal, His trial, His torture, His crucifixion) leading up to His death and (oh! joy!) His Resurrection!  There are many things one can do to purposefully remember Jesus’ accomplishments, such as…

  • Read through Matthew chapters 26 and 27; Mark chapters 14 and 15; Luke chapters 22 and 23; John chapters 17 through 19
  • Download an app of a daily devotional focusing on Jesus’ last days. One suggestion would be the YouVersion of the Bible.
  • Listen to hymns and other Christian songs which help you to recognize and remember what Jesus went through. And sing your praise! (Perhaps make a playlist.)
  • Ask a loved one (a family member or a friend) to be your accountability partner during this time.
  • Watch a movie depicting this time period of our Lord’s final days.
  • And finally, but most importantly, pray…asking God through the Holy Spirit to help you to remember.  It is a prayer I know He will answer.

Remember

psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv

This is the Body that was torn for us
This is the Blood that was spilt
Points to the pain You endured for us
Points to the shame, the blame, the guilt

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, come…move our hearts to remember

This is the Lamb who was slain for us
So we, the Church, may enter in
So bittersweet when we think of You
The One who bore our curse, our sin

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, come…move our hearts to remember

~  Sing this song with me as our prayer and worship today.  ~

Singer / Songwriter: Laura Story

 *  ~  *  ~   ♥  ~  ✞  ~  ♥    ~  *  ~  * 

Sometimes, we forget.  (And how could we forget?)  But we do.  (I don’t know how…but we do.)  We forget our Suffering Savior.  We forget His hurt and tortured and bruised Body.  We forget His spilled Blood.  And I think that our Lord knew we would forget; remember what He said to His beloved apostles as He shared His final meal with them?

Then He took a loaf [of bread], and when He had given thanks,
He broke [it] and gave it to them saying,
This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.
Luke 22:19

Undoubtedly, those twelve men had no idea what Jesus was communicating to them. But within a few days, they knew.  Perhaps, they then were asking God to move their hearts to remember also.

Paul also caused the believers in Corinth to remember:

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
1 Corinthians 11:24-26

There are many, oh-so-many, reasons for us to remember what Jesus accomplished through His death and sacrifice on the Cross. Here are just a few. “Lord,…move our hearts to remember!

He himself bore our sins in His body on the Cross,
that we might die to sin and live to righteousness
1 Peter 2:24

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness,
which stood against us and condemned us;
He has taken it away, nailing it to the Cross.
And having disarmed the powers and authorities,
He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the Cross.
Colossians 2:13-15

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us— for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”
Galatians 3:13

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God
through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled,
shall we be saved by His life.
Romans 5:10-11

…Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold
from your futile way of life inherited from your fathers,
but with precious Blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the Blood of Christ.
1 Peter 1:18-19

…Having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt
that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the Cross.
Colossians 2:13-14

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,
so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21

And we must intentionally remember because

“…the message of the cross is sheer absurdity and folly
to those who are perishing and on their way to perdition,
but to us who are being saved it is the manifestation of the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18 AMP

These next couple of weeks are an excellent time to determine to focus on Jesus’ sacrifice, and all that He went through (His betrayal, His trial, His torture, His crucifixion) leading up to His death and (oh! joy!) His Resurrection!  There are many things one can do to purposefully ‘remember’ Jesus’ accomplishments, such as…

  • Read through Matthew chapters 26 and 27; Mark chapters 14 and 15; Luke chapters 22 and 23; John chapters 17 through 19
  • Download an app (on your tablet or smartphone) of a daily devotional focusing on Jesus’ last days. One suggestion would be the YouVersion of the Bible.
  • Listen to hymns and other Christian songs which help you to recognize and remember what Jesus went through. And sing your praise! (Perhaps make a playlist.)
  • Ask a loved one (a family member or a friend) to be your accountability partner during this time.
  • Watch a movie depicting this time period of our Lord’s final days.
  • And finally, but most importantly, pray…asking God through the Holy Spirit to help you to remember.  It is a prayer I know He will answer.

Came AND Coming: with Purpose

SeekingHimLogoA favorite picture of mine has a scene where a white lamb’s in the background and the face of a transparent lion is largely spread over a scene of earth showing God’s great and rich creation in all of its splendor and beauty! So, there are three reminders of God there, but today, I’ll focus on two of them:
1) Christ as the Lamb of God- He sacrificially came to rescue us from a life where we were set apart from Him because of our sins. He died for our sins in our place. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).  John the Baptist said of Jesus, “…Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
2) Christ as the Lion of Judah- “…See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals” (Revelations 5:5). I’m reminded of His power and strength and that He’s coming back.
***********************
This image is powerful. Jesus both came and is coming again with purpose!
If I had the equipment/means to present a short piece on visual media, I’d do this:
Soft music plays as a video camera captures the blue skies, then pans down on a white lamb climbing a large green hill (an attempt to symbolically depict that Jesus came), and once it crests the top of a hill, there in front of him is a large rugged wooden cross towering. The music builds and then, it abruptly stops as the scene cuts to one dressed as a Roman soldier as if hammering a nail in the hand of someone (depicting Jesus) lying on a cross. The clanging of the hammer hitting the nail is piercing each time hammer hits nail. The music begins again and grows darker along with the scene. The cross is lifted up. Camera’s high and behind the cross viewing the Biblically-dressed people with different emotions gazing up toward the cross. The skies are dark and there are “trembling” special effects depicting an earthquake. The image of a veil is torn (seen and heard). Then, dark skies and howling wind are on-going as the cross is lowered, but one sees only the top of the cross going down as the camera stays on the dark skies. The scene cuts to a tomb where light spreads across the entry rock and darkens 3 times to depict the passing of 3 days. Suddenly, an earthquake is portrayed, then, the rock is rolled away with a bright flash of bright light (depicting an angel’s presence). Music is intense and celebratory while building…and then, abruptly stopping. Camera pans up to blue skies, then, down on modern-day people walking in the streets amidst loud city noises then, the street noises start to fade. The people walking phase into slow-motion and the ticking sound of a clock gets louder and louder, then, stops. Then suddenly, a burst of a loud, roaring lion pierces the silence (an attempt to symbolically depict that Jesus is about to return but people in scene don’t hear it). Pause 3 seconds. Lights brighten on scene to depict that the clouds part. All look up into sky as look of awe spreads onto each face. Freeze-frame camera on their faces. Overall, there is the sound of the Scripture being read as the words are scrolled over the screen.

“I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter.’ He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has the name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Revelations 19:11-16

Hold camera on their faces, then, fade scene away.

*********************************************

The Book of Revelations is Truth and is packed with symbolism. (I suggested the visual of a literal lamb and the sound of a roaring lion in the scene to accentuate His Presence in that Jesus came to sacrificially redeem us, and He’s coming back to rule and reign with power!)
For the full account of Jesus’ birth, life, crucifixion, resurrection, and future return, see the books: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Revelation. God’s Word trumps all words.
I’m a simple, ordinary person, and I shared with you. What can you do with the opportunities God gives you to impact others for Him? The clock’s ticking… Don’t let time get away from you.

Dear Lord,
You’re worthy of all praise! Let us worship You! Let us not waste time, and let us keep telling others about You. You came to redeem, and You are coming again to rule and reign! We await Your return! Let hearts be ready!!! In Jesus’ precious Name I pray,
Amen.