Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

Memory is a very important aspect of our lives. Without our memories it is difficult to know ourselves and to pass on the baton to those coming behind. In essence, it is difficult to be human.  And so in every culture, tribe and nation, individuals are given markers to help the process of remembering. A large part of being human is our ability to connect with the past and so when your history has been obliterated or deemed as meaningless, your very humanity is being challenged. The way memory works is very complex and intriguing. However, for us to remember significant event in our lives we place markers in time when those significant events occurred so that we can flag them up as and when needed. Once the people of God had left Egypt, they needed markers to remind them of where they were going, where they had come from and the reason why they were on this monumental journey. Similarly when we decide to follow Christ wholeheartedly, we constantly need to be reminded of the reasons why we do what we do and where our final destination is. Sadly for many of us, just like many of those people who came out of Egypt with Moses, our long term memory tends to become clouded by our short-term needs. And we forget about the bigger picture and concentrate on the here and now and the felt needs rather than long term real needs.

The sole purpose of slavery is to cause you to forget who you really are. The purpose of deliverance is to get you to remember whose you are and to whom you belong. To establish order in the people of God, Moses instituted a whole host of rituals, feasts and services. These were times when the people would re-enact the deliverance and relay stories about the mighty works of their God. Every individual needs to know about and to connect with their history. This knowledge allows us to order our lives by being able to reach forward with a sense of hope but be grounded by the realities of the past. So today refresh your memory of your recent historical past but lay the foundations for a monumental building in the future. Remember, if we forget who we are we cannot be a part of His Story! Read Exodus 19&20.