This past week Memorial Day was celebrated. It was a time to remember those who had sacrificed for our freedom. We must continue to remember that the freedoms that we enjoy are not free. They cost us something. It has cost some life, other liberty, and others their freedom. We need to remember these brave individuals for without them we would not have the freedoms that we enjoy today. Romans 12:7 reads, “Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.” This being the case, then it is true and good that we due honor those who have sacrificed for America. It seems that every generation has a war to fight. Our grandfathers had WWI our fathers WWII then our generation had Korea or Vietnam. Today’s generation has Iraq. Each one of these groups ought to be honored for without the sacrifice of their time and effort, we would not enjoy the freedoms that we do here in America. This needs to be taught in our schools. Some may not like that but it is still true. We need to remember those who have given their all and best to keep us free.
It seems that with the passing of time we forget what history was all about. D-day no longer is known first hand. We have to teach our children about these events. It is like our 4th of July. What does it mean to you? Shopping, eating, going to the lake, vacation? Time was we did not have to teach what it was about, people knew! Today it is different. With the passing of time we get further and further away from the actual occurrence and we need to be taught what the fourth of July is really about. It is our history! If we don’t teach it who will? Who will remember? The same is true of Memorial Day.
With these thoughts let us reflect on biblical ideas. Jesus left the splendors of heaven; He left the other parts of the God head to come to this earth for you and for me. Paul stated it this way, “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he because poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). We must educate ourselves about what He has done for us. We must learn and teach that He was God, The Word, that made the universe and all that in them is. We must learn that He was equal with God. Then we must know that He left that all for you and me! Why, because He loved us! Nothing more or less, oh what love that is? Do we remember this often do we let time and cares let these actual events, do we let time distance us from these things and forget them? Brethren, these things ought not so to be! Let us remember!
Do we remember the sacrifice that He made for us? Yes the above written idea was a sacrifice but that is not all He sacrificed. Like those military personal there is more than one sacrifice that they have made, Jesus made more than one sacrifice. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering the offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10-14). More reading can be done about this event and the sacrifice that Christ made for us in Hebrews 9. But we must remember that this sacrifice was done with a cruel death! The crucifixion was a very cruel death. The scourging was nothing less than brutal. The laying open of the back of Jesus, the beatings, the crown of thorns, the place of the royal rob and the taking if off of the scourge-ridden back of Jesus were all barbaric and cruel. Yet He went though this knowing what would take place and not putting up a fight. He was as a sheep in many, many ways. Yet how many forget this event? How many forget what Jesus did for us? Someone might say they don’t forget it they just don’t remember it. This may be true, we have a tendency to forget those things that we do not need or use. We may know them and know them to be true but we forget them until we need them. Let us remember these events each and every day that we live and let us be forever thankful for what Jesus has done for us. Let us remember the opportunities that we have to live for Him each and every day of our lives.
Let us remember also that Jesus set up a memorial to cause us to contemplate this event each Sunday. How can some place this memorial feast on a different time table than what the Institutor of the event wants is beyond me? This is to be done on each Lord’s Day which is the first day of the week. Why would any one want to do something else during this time? We are to remember His death till He comes back to this earth (1 Corinthians 11:23-27). Why would anyone place something else before this event? Why would anyone place the sacrifice of Christ lower than any other part of their lives? This is another reason why we are not to “forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is” (Hebrews 10:25).
Brethren, what would it take for us to, “trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Sprit of grace” (Hebrews 10:29)? What would you say would manifest such a disposition of mind and heart in an individual? Could it be that if a person forsook the assembly of the saints for any trivial manner that this is the disposition shown? Would a Christian who did not remember the Memorial Feast that was set up by the Savior but guilty of this kind of action? Just what kind of action would it take to think of the sacrifice and blood of Jesus an unholy thing?
Let us never be guilty of not remembering this Memorial Day and the Feast that is set aside of us to partake of on this day. Let us come with reverence to this wonderful day and remember the One who made this all happen.
Love, Keith
