Are We Forgetting Something?

Are We Forgetting Something

7/1/15

The human mind is a fascinating organ that directs our very movements, allows us to see, hear and sense all areas of life that we need in order to function.  Likewise, our mind is the one organ that will hide and then permanently put away things that are deemed to be irrelevant and non-useful to our lives and this includes all aspects of our lives.  Yet, while we systematically engage in this type of activity our spirit continues to starve for its Creator, and given time our inner being becomes silent and gives into the wiles of the world and when this status changes, our entire existence changes.  It is through these changes that God sees and acts to accordingly, which automatically exposes what is hidden within our hearts.

Back in the late 1990s one of my colleagues at work approached me about a specific event that was going to be presented at one of the local mortuaries in our town; sounds morbid I know.  The event was being sponsored by this specific funeral home and it involved a local film producer who made a documentary about some of the World War II veterans that were living within the nearby area, who would share in their experiences during this time frame.  My colleague and I had many conversations about WWII and its events over the past few years so when the opportunity arose; he naturally invited me to join the screening.  I was thrilled beyond words to have such an opportunity to be part of something that I held so close to my heart, and to think it was the premier of this documentary to top it off.

As the years have passed, I realize that while I do not think about this event every day of my life, this evening still rings loud and clear in both my mind and in my heart.  The event was about those men who served our country during World War II and all of their experiences that they encountered during those tumultuous years.  I remember that when the documentary was finished, the producer stood up and stated that one of the men interviewed for the documentary died shortly after the film was finalized, and as of today I can almost guarantee that the majority of the others if not all of them have passed from this world onto the next.  We cannot retrieve these heroes but in my heart I believe that it is our duty to keep their memory and what they did for civilization alive and represented well.

I continually read history, and through my readings I have learned that all mankind has had to endure multiple unnecessary pain, agony, and endless frustration due to some of the choices that our forefathers made.  It is not hard for humanity to hide some of these past choices and bury them deep enough so that many of them are never retrieved; ones that are glorious or otherwise.  It has become blatantly obvious that most people around the world wish to hide these historical facts and documents away from their lives in order to proceed in a progressive manner, even while proclaiming that they understand that "a past" cannot be continually lived within, or they use these negative or situational lessons as a resource to prove their personal points.  So, it becomes easy to forget these past circumstances by eliminating them from our thought process and pray that the public eye approves of such a resolution, which becomes easier when the participants of such events are no longer within striking distance in our lives.

This period of WWII remembrance continued through the early 2000s when a series came out that covered a specific unit during this time and the entire series was received with award-winning praise; it even spawned a sequel about the other half of the war in the Pacific.  As with the other wars, many or all of the men who fought and survived them are now eternally resting.  Our memories gradually lose control of their achievements and while periodically we attend to their memories within our heads, they have forever left our hearts which leaves only a faded recollection of what they gave us.  No matter how we feel about this war and all other wars that this country and her allies fought, we must never forget what those men and women did for this country.  We should never lose sight of the accomplishments that their actions led to and through these accomplishments the endless opportunities that their actions provided.

Presently our nation is embroiled with the current and popular Confederate flag issue and all that it brings to the table it should not be a surprise as to why it is being fought over.  How many people living within this country fought in the Civil War?  How many people differ from this battle flag and everything that it stands for?  One could argue that countless numbers of differences exist if one wishes to accurately formulate.  Does this mean that it should be erased from our memory and how it shaped this country?  Should it become taboo, subject to instant ridicule and advocate of anger?  Or does it really symbolize our inadequacies towards the truth and doing our best, on all sides, of trying not to repeat history?

With the current attitudes flying around our land, most of us know it is a matter of time that this part of our national history will be thrown into a museum and sent into hiding from the general public.  Afterward, instead of healing it will be stored in these museums only to fester for days, weeks, years and maybe decades reigniting memories at some future time.  But what I find very intriguing is that while many are throwing away this remembrance portion of our history and the fight, on both sides, that it defined are replacing it with a hyper segmented lie that could define their eternal status for eternity.  For a country to be divided from its original confines seems petty compared to that of an eternal separation from our Creator.  True and perfect healing through Christ is the only way that this issue can be forgotten and properly learned.

Why is it so difficult for our egos and pride to reflect upon the manners in which this country was founded and then divided?  The same question needs to be posed to those that refuse to seek wisdom through our heritage and history over the past millennia as well.  A flag means something to a person, a group, a state or nation and its hoisting up and its lowering can bring an end to a nation or a future struggle of another one.  This action can also be applied on a personal level and can reap the same benefits or adverse conditions as on a national level or global level.  How many of us have forgotten this principle about humanity; probably more than one would expect. 

It is unnerving and downright destructive when a person, state or nation deliberately forgets about its history.  Even though the history may represent a personal or national scar it still needs to be remembered not erased.  By defaulting and then foreclosing on history one foregoes their responsibility to remember it and to learn from it; therefore, dooming that person or society in repeating that history in some gross and adulterated manner.  It does not matter which part of history one can put onto the dotted line, all would be readily accessible for this type of acquisition.

Another example of this type of progression has occurred with the Bible as well.  While not everyone has always been acceptable of God’s Word they have been respectful of those who were.  Over the past few decades this percentage of tolerance towards God’s Word and of the people who have accepted God’s true ways has diminished drastically.  But one must contend that many Christians have directly contributed to this decline through the harsh transactions that they have portrayed upon the dying and sinful ways of humanity.  The double consequences of these actions are now being presented through the actions of the ruler of the world, allowed by such choices.  No matter what our history may entail we must never forget about the scars that we obtained during our past.  For those who are thinking about this and trying to rid of our scars, we cannot augment them either, for that process shall leave other scars as well.

It is no argument that the Bible and everything that took place within that time frame is part of our history, and it is also no argument that many people treat biblical history as any other type of history.  The difference with this argument is that biblical history not only tells about the physical history of mankind but it also demonstrates the eternal consequences of the choices of humanity; basically reiterating the double consequences rule that was mentioned in the paragraphs above.  So, when it comes down to the dotted line biblical history falls within the same kind of thinking as any other type of history, forgotten. 

There are two sides to this forgetting of biblical history that are concerning to our lives today.  The first is that the world itself continues to ignore the fact that the Bible gives us specific directions on how to be blessed by God and why we are to be chastised by God, all within the same context and verse.  This side of the issue remains in contention that everything from God Himself to the stories within the Bible are fantasy and they never happened, which make them lies and fuel fanatic resistance to their cause.  To enhance this type of thinking, many have now restricted the voices of Christians and practices that have been generally accepted in the public eye.

This type of behavior should not come as a surprise to many since one would logically believe that it would be on a natural level for this type of thinking from this group of people.  By their own admission that the Bible is not true, they have deemed this important and vital piece of wisdom as inaccurate and resistance propaganda, in which intellectual and advanced peoples would be considered foolish to even consider its content as fact.  With the grouping of the Bible into human history, it has been thrown into the forgotten and “not wanting and inconvenient” categories which further its enthusiastically shelving by the billions.  Out of sight, out of mind comes into play here and this thought process opens the door for a dangerous situation to occur.

God cannot change, no matter how humanity wishes to try.  Governments have tried to override His ways and laws, ethnic groups have tried to derange their existence by formulating relationships with other gods and religious practices, and nations have done their best to rewrite human laws where life itself is concerned.  We continue to try and change things through a humanistic value system and every time we have tried to complete this, it has failed.  Every time we leave God’s laws and ways out of our lives, we have failed.  Every human way is flawed, so why do we continue to try and improve our lives based upon flawed thinking?  Don’t you think that if we base our laws and ways upon a perfect Created system that our results would be better?

The second side of this issue comes from the Church herself and how she has forgotten about the history of mankind and of God.  It is alarming of how rapidly she has continually dealt herself a losing hand when it comes to this area, all due to her complacency with the current worldly environment; there are numerous examples of this type of human behavior in God’s Word where mankind has totally forgotten who God is to them and how their society shortly afterwards fell.  The Church should know what will occur when individuals, groups and nations ignore God’s laws and turn from His ways to accept worldly substitutions; the Church shall have no excuses either when the final period of time arrives.  Yet with this knowledge, she is standing tall now for worldly transcripts and ignoring God’s laws all in the name of egotistical and prideful claims.  Every member of the Church should recognize that humans cannot be equal in a multitude of areas, especially when the world is involved in that decision.  The world cannot create equality only God can and we blew that equation long before you and I were on this planet.  If the Church continues to hold hands with the world, it will not be too much longer until the world’s hands will be around another part of her body; it is that plain and simple.

I have to admit that besides the war memories and the Confederate flag issues I was struggling a bit to find a biblical companion to this article.  When it was time to begin my morning Bible study I felt like God directed me to read the first chapter of Exodus.  I did so, and then began my other morning routines and really did not think too much else about the passage that God wanted me to read.  It was not until later in the day as I was driving to get my youngest daughter who had stayed with my oldest daughter that God dropped the reason why He wanted me to read that passage.  I felt so stupid and since I was driving at the time I could not hit my head or do any other foolish thing so I began mumbling to myself, in which my wife looked at me weird and then I had to explain to her what was going on; she then just gave me a smirk.  But it is this side of the issue that this country can relate to and see where it will be headed if we do not change our ways, now!

Exodus Chapter 1 gives a prime example of what happens when people forget about their history and this passage proves that it does not have to be ancient history or a “long time ago” to fall into the forgetful category.  This passage states that Joseph had died and that all of his brethren were dead as well.  All of the relatives of Joseph were now out of the government and no longer a part of that setting.  The leaders of the Egyptian government had no clue about what had occurred during the reign of Joseph and now looked upon the descendents and people of Joseph’s land as a problem instead of an ally.  The Egyptian leaders were in their place of power due to the knowledge that came from God to their forefathers, yet Scriptures clearly indicate that the future generations of that land had forgot where their source had originated.

A series of decisions and laws were made pointing this new attitude towards the children of Israel all in order to keep them at bay.  But as the laws began to tighten against Israel, they continued to prosper and flourish within Egypt and once again more progressive and suppressive laws were incorporated upon the Israelites until they had become slaves to the land that their ancestors saved years before.  I find this example very testy since the same type of setting is occurring all around the world today.  Not much has changed in this manner, especially when human beliefs are challenged and thus deemed threatening.  The slavery of Israel would cost their population countless numbers of people yet what was remarkable about this situation is that once they were free, many still continued to desire their return back to the land of slavery.

While God’s children were laying in waste through the captivity in Egypt, God still had a plan for their lives but He had to rid Egypt from their hearts first.  Later on down the road when it was time for the Confederate States of America to rise up and to take a stand against the Union, God still had a plan for each American male and female within the borders of this country.  World War II and all of the other global conflicts proved to be defining moments in world history that cost millions of lives, yet God still had a plan for humanity even after all of the atrocities man afflicted upon each other during those years.

If one takes a hard study concerning humanity they will find that whenever people refuse to allow God to be number one in their lives humanity falls apart.  The root problem for this cause is the fact that people who associate themselves with God do not study the Word of god deep enough and pure enough to understand what God is showing us.  The only way that we can survive each other is to hide the Word of God within our hearts and in order for us to live by this standard we must throw away our selfish divisions and listen to what God is saying through His laws.  To hide something means that you know exactly where that object is located.  What security one will have when they know that hiding God’s laws and words in their hearts provides them no matter what the occasion may rise. 

The modern church is in an uproar due to its own lack of understanding about hiding the Word of God within her heart.  Her presence on this planet has become stagnant and vulnerable to the same world that she is trying to incorporate within her walls.  She has totally forgotten about how to hide the message of good news within her heart so that she may stand out as a beacon to a dying world.  Instead, she has grasped the concept that she should lower herself into the murky waters of the world in order to still be relevant within society.  Through this activity, the world has sold her into believing that God’s Word is not the authoritative definition of our existence and has also convinced her to water down the content of the Bible and to leave it chained up on the boat when in deep waters. 

If the Church continues to operate in this manner we should expect more conditions of slavery to infiltrate our lives.  I am not talking about just the Church herself but in all societies around the world.  No, they will not be presented as such but according to the laws of God we will become slaves to our own flaws and worldly operatives which in turn will create a permanent division from God.  The world screams for this separation by making their own laws and thumbing their noses at God’s ways, and this is how the Church should be standing out from the world, by not accepting deadly ways.  God does love each and every one of the people o this earth but in order for us to understand and to know God’s love we must live within His laws and not ours.  There can be no substitute for this truth in order to maintain our eternal security.

DLB