Real love remembers. It is what makes us different from this selfish, self-centered society in which we have been called to live. Like beans in a sack, we are surrounded by what I call “takers”.
A taker is a person who allows their narcissistic personality to be demonstrated by a lifestyle of forgetting where they came from for those that are less fortunate, and those that can no longer add to their life. They have no respect for family because they have weak love and selective remembrance. They only remember what was done wrong to them, not what was done right. A taker is really a grown-up toddler whose life is about pronouns like I, my, and mine.
Why is this so prevalent in our culture?
Without love there is no remembrance. You must have love for others to be able to remember. Remembering is a gift of God. We were created by the Creator to remember. Our brains have stored years of information, and love is the mouse that clicks on a particular place and time and helps us to remember.
I urge you to take these words to heart because real love remembers.
Acts 20:35 And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
Remember the Poor
I have always had a heart for the poor. I really remember like it was yesterday. I remember being hungry. I remember my dad working for a dollar a day here in America. I remember some godly Christian people who did not know us bringing us food and clothing. It is for that reason that with or without a congregation or donors, I have kept a food pantry running for 30 years for needy people without an agenda. I am not special. I am not great. I am thankful, and the love in my heart remembers.
You don’t need your Pastor or Priest to schedule a “SERVE” day! This is something that no one else needs to remind you about but should flow out like water from a spring in your life. No special reason. It is who we are, and it’s what we do.
Gal 2:10 They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.
Remember the Widows
The Bible doesn’t say that we are to remember those widows that you are related to or the widows who have done something for you. In the case of widows, we are to remember them because they are part along with us of His Body. The widows are a part of the Body of Christ that need help, and many times they are left alone and in dire need. After they have given their whole lives to help others, they are quickly forgotten or put on the back burner. By the way beloved, men are widows too!
James 1:27 Pure religion “demonstrative lifestyle” and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Real love remembers and it causes us to be moved by compassion for those that are not fairing as well as we are. Grateful and thankful people are always looking out for people with whom to share their bounty. When God blesses, it is not for you to store, but for you to share.
Matt 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Remember those in Prison
The world is full of prisons and growing at an alarming rate. The world is also full of people that should have done time in prison and did not. I am one of those. I have always hated prison and funeral homes. I don’t know why. I was just raised that way. Well, when the Lord called me, prison ministry is where he sent me. For four years straight twice a week after work and on the weekends, I found myself speaking to death row/ electric chair candidates about eternity and life in Christ. I fully understand why people say they don’t like going into the prisons. After hours inside, I couldn’t wait to get home to take a shower so I could get that dirty “juju” off of me.
But nonetheless, we have been commanded to remember those in prison.
Heb 13:3 Remember the prisoners as if chained with them — those who are mistreated — since you yourselves are in the body also.
I am sure if you try hard enough you can think of someone doing time who could sure use some cheering up. Sometimes just the reality that someone outside cares and remembers them is all that is keeping them alive. We should also remember that as good as our justice system is, it is not always fair.
Real Love Remembers your Spouse
We are living in wasteful society these days. What 90% of the world repairs and reuses here in America it is thrown in the trash. While media bombards us with “get the new model propaganda,” people are switching bed partners like they switch for the latest phones.
Have you considered the price your spouse has paid to put up with you all these years? If they are a godly spouse, your ups and downs have been their ups and downs. Yes, you can trade down for a new model: something externally prettier or maybe internally stronger, but is that real love? The definition of real love is that it doesn’t begin until the person you are loving cannot return your investment in them.
Next time you look over the menu, remember who has stood at your side all these years. What legacy are you leaving your children? When you have a problem, you need to remember to take the medicine before it gets bad! Ask the Lord to help you make every day your anniversary!
Real Love Remembers those Men and Women of God who Have Lived an Example for You to Follow.
This one hits close to home, so hold on. Do you have any idea what it costs a man or woman of God to swim in the fishbowl? Their whole life is on stage. Everyone is looking for a weakness in them to excuse their own sin. Everyone is looking for a fault so they don’t have to care if they can pay their bills or not.
Don’t give me any baloney about the preachers getting rich off the congregation. Those clowns are the minority, and one day they will attend a huge bonfire in their honor.
I am talking about the 90th percentile. Those that no longer have that charismatic hop and that booming voice. The years of carrying other people’s pain and anguish have taken a toll and given birth to wrinkles, a white top, or a loss of hair.
It’s all the well they don’t fit into skinny jeans because they can’t afford them.
How do I know the above is true? I have ministered to over a million people in my lifetime, and you only need one hand to count the donors in my life since I quit serving them their Sunday meal. Remember??? I don’t think it is even on their radar.
I have always had a respect for my elders. I was taught that right or wrong, they had paid the price to make the decision, and I didn’t need to understand. Today I am an advocate for men and women in the ministry. If they have no one to talk to, they can talk to me. Why? Because real love remembers!
Heb 13:7 Remember those who rule over you, “who lead/walk before you and have been your examples” who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.
Remember is not always money, remember is a phone call, a card, a lunch, cutting their grass, or any act of kindness.
You sow what you reap, and if the increasing darkness of society is any clue, some people are in for a rude awakening. Remember these words when you find yourself inside that retirement home. It’s what you bred!
Ask yourself; whose shoulders have you been standing on? Maybe your memory has selectively forgotten the price others paid to help you and your family, but I assure you the Lord hasn’t, and the subject is not closed!
Finally, I just want to leave you with this verse from the Message Bible so you can’t ever say you didn’t understand King James English.
Matt 25:35-40
I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
36 I was shivering, and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’
37 “Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? 38-39 And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ 40 Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me — you did it to me.’
These are hard words, but I pray you understand they are birthed from a real love that remembers.
On the Eve of Memorial Day, I also remember, so I want to thank all service men and women for their service to this country!
I want to take this moment to thank the few, the humble, who have remembered unselfishly to help me and my family. You are loved and remembered here and up there!
Much Love,
Jose L. Bosque
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
My name’s Philip and presently live in the Netherlands. Today I came across your Christian site which seems to share an identical perspective on what some label as organic Christianity or the deeper Christian life.
The reason for writing this letter is for the sake of me seeking communication/fellowship with saints engaged in organic Christianity or the deeper Christian life since the Christian life itself was never meant to be an individualistic pursuit.
For a brief chronology of my own walk of faith:
Since 1985 I’d gradually visited a number of denominational institutions in South Africa. The first few were the Church of England in South Africa, Vineyard Christian Fellowship and the Church of Christ. In 1988 I was baptised in a built-in baptistry at a Church of Christ building in Rosebank, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa.
For the next few years I spent a number of months engaging in biblical lessons with the Watchtower Society, Worldwide Church of God, Way International, Rhema Bible Church a seemingly radical schism from the Church of Christ, known then as the Boston Movement. It was in 1990 in a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa that I came across some believers within the Boston Movement amongst the Church of Christ.
During the next decade from 1990 until 2000 I was shuffling to-and-fro from the Boston Movement and the mainline Church of Christ some three to four times until I visited an exit counsellor in the US to have my psychological and theological perspectives reorientated. In other words, I needed a spiritual ‘debriefing’ experience. At the time I was totally confused about who was a bona fide believer and who was not. I’d also been subjected to being baptised on two separate occasions in the Boston movement. In 1994 this movement changed its formal name from the Church of Christ to the International Church of Christ.
From 2002 until 2004 I participated in a biblical studies programme at Athens International Bible Institute, a Church of Christ-affiliated Bible institute in Athens, Greece. From 2004 until 2008 I started seeing more holes in the Church of Christ in comparing what I was taught at their Bible institute and what was being practised with those I’d spent time with during the process of approaching them for practising as a trainee evangelist. Rather briefly, I was never appointed as an evangelist at the time since the elderships of various congregations i’d spent time with regarded a single man without children not a suitable candidate for, say, counselling married couples who have children.
Between 2004 and 2008 I was recommended by two evangelists, totally apart from one another, to actually leave the Church of Christ since they felt that opportunities for seeking non-institutional Christianity outside the Church of Christ would be more feasible. This is not the norm within this institutional denomination, and frankly, probably not in any other institution either. In fact, I sincerely doubt whether the latter experience in my life would be the norm in any institution of any sort – even outside Christianity itself …
Well, in 2008 I did leave the Church of Christ and came upon two sites that same year which more or less deconstructed my entire evangelical and protestant mindset over a period of time. These specific sites are located at http://www.housechurchresource.org and at http://www.awildernessvoice.com. The concept of organic Christianity or the deeper Christian life can be gleaned from the aforementioned resources.
Since that time I’ve found that the concept of organic Christianity and the deeper Christian life is usually resisted by many believers in many institutional denominations since it challenges the status quo of modern evangelicalism and protestantism.
By the way, I’d also visited a number of other denominations since then, yet found that once I started discussing deeper spiritual issues with believers more directly about having a more naturally-shared life in Christ, experiencing Christ as a community of saints etc. my suggestions were not listened to or were usually ignored. Maybe that’s the price one pays for wishing to experience the deeper Christian life more seriously. Another site that I found valuable for the deeper Christian life is located at http://www.thedeeperchristianlife.org.
In 2016 I asked some believers affiliated to the Lord’s Recovery – a brotherhood of believers originating from the ministry of the late Witness Lee – to baptise me and this was the fourth time I’d been baptised into Christ. The purpose of me being baptised once again was for me turning my back on baptismal regeneration since this was inherited by the descendants of the nineteenth century Stone-Campbell Movement (Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, Church of Christ, International Church of Christ, International Christian Church etc.).
Actually, I’ve also considered writing a book about my own spiritual journey. If you’re open to communicating more directly, then feel free contacting me via my Skype profile code philipvdijk or dial my mobile no. +31 65 782 4492 by using either Messenger, Viber or WhatsApp.
Love in Christ,
Philip van Dijk
It was great speaking with you on Skype today!
Much love,
Jose