02 - The Importance of Remembering

More and more so God has impressed upon my heart the importance of remembrance in relation to my own spiritual life. Forgetfulness is truly a crippling factor for many seeking to continue their walk for God. The inability to grasp and keep on grasping the promises of God for our life and the fundamentals of God’s character can be a frequent stumbling point. It is said our belief affects our behaviour, thus failure to remember what we believe will undoubtedly affect our ability to live out the Christian life. Through my study of the Bible over the last few weeks I have been attentive to what it means to remember and the things God does to encourage remembrance amongst His people.

Thus the Bible is full of symbols, motifs, rituals and stories which show how God commanded His people to remember the good things he had done for them, the character of his faithfulness and loyalty to his people. In the modern church we have lost the true value of symbolism and what it means; so often the church dismisses symbolism as idolatry, some thing to flee from quickly. In this piece of writing I hope to explore some of the rich symbols and motifs throughout the Old and New Testament, the symbols God gives to his people to help them remember the good things He has done for them, His incomparable character and the role God must play as Lord and Saviour in our everyday lives. Hopefully we may begin to value symbolism and incorporate it within our Christian lives helping us remember all of God’s goodness and combat the problem of spiritual forgetfulness.

The next few posts will shall walk through some scripture and see what we can learn about both remembering and symbolism, until then....

01 - The Importance of Remembering

One of the great preoccupations of so many modern day Christians and spiritual people in general for that matter is that there is some great spiritual secret just waiting to be discovered. Somewhere in the abyss of all knowledge, once discovered this secret will make the Christian life easy and transform everything they at once thought obscure to suddenly making sense. It is unsurprising therefore that people spend millions of dollars purchasing the latest Christian literature or hours upon hours listening to the latest sermons in order to make a spiritual breakthrough in their own lives. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not discouraging anyone from these things, indeed they have been highly profitable in my own Christian walk, but I believe people can often be found looking in the wrong place for such a breakthrough. I believe the greatest spiritual ground a Christian can make in his own life is to simply remember the fundamental truths of why they became a Christian and what it means to be and live as an adopted Son of the God most high.

I believe one of the great problems of the Christian life therefore and indeed my own ability to live successfully as a Christian is spiritual forgetfulness; people forget important truths about what it means to carry out and practise the Christian life. I am very specific here to mention the importance of remembering in reference to practical Christian living, and not remembering large amounts of theoretical information with little or no relevance to actual life.

This can be seen in my own testimony growing. Growing up in a Christian family I grew up always knowing God as a very real person being part of every day life. For this reason I can’t remember a specific point in time when I became a Christian, although along my journey I remember making various commitments to God. My baptism for this reason was an intensely significant moment for me in that it was a point in time where I displayed what it meant for me to be and to live as a Christian. Although I can’t remember when my first love as a Christian began I can look back and remember my baptism as a point in my life which symbolised for me what it means to be a Christian. It is an event in which I can remember the most important thing about myself, that I am dead to my own self but made alive by the indwelling power of Christ Jesus. And that I should look back and remember that event and live every day in light of what it means.

The First Post

Welcome! Today is the day I officially became a fully fledged 'blogger'. Consider this awkward first fisrt post, I shall soon get stuck in to some proper posting however. This should be an interesting experience for myself and hopefully those reading also. I intend to post a range of content, however most of my posts will have a spiritual and devotional element included within them. This should be a good way for me to order my thoughts and share what I have be thinking about and in particular God has been speaking to me. Hopefully you may find it both interesting and thought provoking.

I have been studying at Capernwray Bible School for the last 6 weeks and have a remaining 2 weeks to complete. We have looked at a various books in the Bible, from the New and Old Testament covering a wide range of topics and issues. Alot of what I post intially be from amongst everything I have learnt. Capernwray is truly an amazing place, a place of great culture, diversity, freedom, fun and spirituality. I have met so many many amazing people here and had many unforgettable experiences. The pictures featured are from a trip we made in Liverpool half way through the term and from walk we did across Morecambe bay just last week...both were great fun!