Remember – James Travis

Recording and Remembering – Esther 9

Published on February 16, 2020February 13, 2020 by James TravisLeave a comment

How often we forget the good things in our life, the good done to us, how often we forget the good done for us when things get tough.

If you haven’t read Esther 9 recently, you can do so here.

Expecting and fearing defeat, God’s people find that with the help of the King, the reverse occurred (v.1). Their victory is complete and we see the principle of Romans 8.31 shining through,

Interestingly, one line of thinking says that the total victory requested by Esther (v.13) is an outworking of God’s decree in 1 Samuel 15 where the ancestors of Haman (3.1, Haman the Agagite) are destined for destruction.

God’s people are delivered from death and told to remember their deliverance (vv.20-22).

How quickly we forget the good done to us, for us, with us, the good done on our behalf. Recording the good done for us and remembering it with feasting and gladness, with gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor is never a bad thing, is it?

If God’s people here are told to record and remember their deliverance from earthly circumstances that were leading to death, how much more should we, eternally redeemed through the blood of Jesus record and remember this?

The recording has already been taken care of, bigger picture, hasn’t it? Read your New Testament and you will see the birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. How this recording looks in your own life is down to you though; Scripture in the home, time spend reading the Word with family, prayer with and for others, daily time with the Lord…your recording will be what you make of it.

The remembrance is again very personal. There are things we are commanded to do as believers – make disciples, baptism, and communion to name but three. Again, your daily hour-to-hour remembrance is down to you.

Do all your thoughts, words, and deeds go through the filter of ‘God loved me so much as to deliver me from impending death, therefore I should/shouldn’t…‘?

Today – and every day – work this recording and remembering into your life, and see how it changes you from the inside out, and see how it changes you for the better!

Hebrews 10.26-39 – Remove, Remember, Remain

Published on November 16, 2019November 13, 2019 by James TravisLeave a comment

²⁶For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. ²⁸Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. ²⁹How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? ³⁰For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” ³¹It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

³²But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, ³³sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. ³⁴For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. ³⁵Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. ³⁶For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. ³⁷For,

“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
³⁸but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”

³⁹But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

What kind of people should we be?

Why should keep going to church (vv.19-25)?

What does being part of a body help us become?

We should be the kind of people for whom there will never come a time when we might give in to the temptation to declare that the whole thing was worthless (vv.26-31).

We should be the kind of people who refuse to remove ourselves from right relationship with God through a steadfast faith in the faithfulness of Jesus.

We should be the kind of people who remember what happened to us when we first gave our lives to Him (vv.32-38).

We should be the kind of people who remember the former days when after we were enlightened how we put up with and triumphed over everything that the world, the flesh, and the devil could throw at us.

We should be the kind of people who live by faith and do not shrink back (v.39).

Faith is what matters–God’s faithfulness to us, and our answering that with faith in Him.
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We should be the kind of people who have faith in Jesus and preserve our souls, remain in Him.

³⁹But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Is that you?

Remembering 11.11

Published on November 11, 2019November 11, 2019 by James TravisLeave a comment

Today is the eleventh of November, Remembrance Day.

Perhaps this day has a different name where you are from, but essentially today is the day we pause to remember the sacrifice of those who gave their lives in World War One, and in other armed conflicts since.

World War One finished one hundred and one years ago today, at the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month – 11a.m, November 11th, 1918.

“The first two-minute silence in Britain was held on 11 November 1919, when King George V asked the public to observe a silence at 11am. This was one year after the end of World War One. He made the request so “the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead”.” (BBC).

We look back and remember the ultimate price paid by those brave men and women of the armed services, and those who were not in the military but part of the effort, with thanks.

As they willingly gave their lives to defend their countries, and others, from tyranny, oppression, terrorism, injustice, and all manner of evils so we as believers in the Lord Jesus have a Saviour who willingly gave His life to deliver us from evil.

Greater love has no one than this,

that someone lay down his life for his friends.

John 15.13

Let us pause and pray at 11am today to remember those who gave their lives so we can enjoy so many of the freedoms we do, and, let us pause and pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, the Prince of peace, that this horrible and seemingly endless cycle of people needing to take up arms in order to wage war against each other will be broken, either miraculously before His coming or as a direct result of it.