Stories from the Cleft-6: Remembering, “Re-Membering”, and Reminding

Welcome to the sixth installment of Stories from the Cleft.

Please check out where we’ve been along the journey at The Training Table Archives section of Feast of the Heart. Be sure to recall the Bible passage from Exodus 33:12-23; 34:29-35 where the story of Moses and “the cleft in the rock” can be found.

The first REMEMBRANCE I want to serve up today is this: GOD’S Story Includes YOUR Story—in the sort of detail that should rock your world each and every day.

As you follow the www link to “God’s Story” to spend some time refreshing your memory, please (oh please) try and be as explicit as possible about how God has shaped YOUR STORY (see www link for a great tool) as, (a) a reflection or pattern or “template” of God’s overall Plan of Redemption, and (b) includes details that, if you make it your business to dig deep and see them, you will be in awe of them, praise God for them, and influence others through them! And you will see God’s glory every day.

Remembering God’s story, and yours within it, is a VERY big deal! Moreover, never knowing, or forgetting it, is disastrous: Without knowing our story, we are lost souls, anonymous, living devoid of The Great Narrative that’s fixed in the heart of all humankind, and yet foiled by sin, and must be figured out by each one of us… SO WE REMEMBER AGAIN.

Remembering Precedes and Assists “Re-Membering” SO THAT We Can Remind Others
Here’s bombshell in a nutshell for us all to remember: Our devotion to remembering the doctrines, goals, and outworking of the faith are directly proportionate to “the re-membering of and in community”, and carrying out the faith (over and over again each day) as The Body of Christ. Now, if this seems like a no-brainer, it’s just a symptom of how mindless we can be about forgetting.

The Bible points out this truism of our faith over and over again. It goes something like this, “REMEMBER Who God is; REMEMBER who you are; and “RE-MEMBER” yourselves in unity, in community (to re-call, re-commit, re-vive, re-establish, re-train, re-new, re-root, re-join, re-treasure, re-fix, etc) SO THAT the people of God can carry out God’s redemptive plan.”

The better we are at REMEMBERING, the more effective we are at REMINDING others as well! This principle applies to many, many aspects of life, including one we’ve discussed here before: HOW WELL LEADERSHIP… HELPS THE LED… REMEMBER the Vision, Mission, Core Values, and Strategic Roadmap of any organization!

If we remember, we, like the psalmist, can say, “I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and His might, and the wonders that He has done.” (Psalm 78:2-3).

“Remember these things, O Jacob; and Israel, for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me” (Isaiah 44:21).

But, what if we, by the sin of omission or commission, forget to remind ourselves of such things, and not tell others of the same?

This is why the Bible is so clear and lovingly emphatic about something hugely important: FORGETTING (or forsaking, and numerous other synonyms for turning our back on God)! Perhaps one of the most condemning and inspiring parts of the Bible about “forgetting God” can be found in the Prophet Jeremiah’s excoriating words from God to His people, “Oh, Isreal”—or, by implication, you and me.

Please take the time to read for the first time, or REMEMBER Jeremiah 2, SO THAT you and I can then RE-MEMBER around this table, praise God together for His manifold mercies, SO THAT we can then “be a light of remembrance and comfort to a dark and despairing world”!

Three Points to REMEMBER about Moses and The Story of the Cleft: To Help Us RE-MEMBER, Unite, and REMIND Others in Our Lives:

Remember Moses… had prevailed with God for one favor after another. The fruitfulness of his prayers to God emboldened him to go back for more of God, of His blessings, of God’s glory. The more Moses saw himself and God’s people blessed, the more he asked of God, and he and God’s people were mightily blessed…. All the more: It’s organic!

Re-Member You and Me… beseeching God to bless us, by using us as “co-redeemers” (“God’s hands and feet”), involves great risks AND greater rewards! But, if we ask of God to do so, listen and act in gracious obedience, He will not only answer our prayers, but bless our obedience by seeing His glory in increasing quantity AND quality! Heaven on earth (Matthew 6:10) is a reality that we should not underestimate or avoid for any reason, or for any cost.

Remember Moses… was wise enough to know his own abject unworthiness and utter darkness compared to the worth and light of God. He knew that God’s glory, in direct contact, would evaporate him. He also knew that there is an enjoyment of God, face-to-face, that he would have to wait for until heaven.

Re-Member You and Me… should be as self-aware, in general, but especially of our depravity (born into sin, and sinners—Romans 3:23; 7) AND of our divinity (as new creations—2 Corinthians 5:17). We too should be made wise by means of the best stewardship of our suffering (James 1:2-5), and yet as hopeful and passionate to know God as intimately as we can, this side of heaven. “In the meantime, let us adore the heights of what we do know of God, and the depth of what we do not” (Matthew Henry).

Remember Moses… what he heard back from God in response to his request, “I beseech Thee, show me see Thy glory…”. God said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you.” Moses saw that God’s glory is His goodness. Moses saw God’s glory in His mercy, just short of His majesty—which no one can see and live.

Re-Member You and Me… in Christ, we see God’s mercy and His majesty combined, first on the cross, and then at the resurrection, and now in our hearts—if we have repented and beseeched Jesus to be our Savior and Lord! We see God’s goodness is an all-encompassing goodness witnessed by His Common Grace (anything good of any kind comes from God and God only), and His Special Grace (“safe in the cleft of the rock” when we are redeemed by the blood atonement of Jesus Christ).

As we rise each day purely by God’s grace, if you and I will faithfully say, “I beseech Thee God, show me see Thy glory today…”, we will be rewarded mainly by three things:

First, by the unavoidable suffering promised those who are in Christ and will stand in the GAP for God, the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit—in one of the most unbelieving, wounded, skeptical, and yet needy era’s ever. We have the unspeakable honor to suffer as Christ did—He sinless, we sinners… saved to serve.

Second, by the face-shining glory of God’s “common and special grace and goodness” passing by—right in our and other’s very midst! In remembrance, we are called to proactively REMIND (encourage, exhort, warn, remind, enlighten, etc) the Saints and the non-believers in our midst of the goodness of God.

Third, as we are treated to the wider and deeper glories of God’s goodness “passing by the cleft”—the Rock of Christ He has placed us in—we will be filled with ever-increasing purpose and excitement about waking each day in anticipation of God’s glorious goodness passing by!

REMEMBER, TO “RE-MEMBER”… today (Psalm 95:7-8). And do so by enjoining others to do the same. Your face too will shine like the Son’s!

See you at The Training Table next week as we feast on, “Turning Our Mourning into Dancing”.

May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guide and guard your heart, emotions, and life in Christ Jesus.

JohnDoz