I didn’t get the chance to blog about it on the actual day
but I wanted to speak about a special event from my past. When I was a baby, on April 24th of 1982, I
had the first defining moment of my life. I’m not going to go into great detail today,
but essentially I was sick with an unmerciful disease as an infant. While at the hospital, I died for 3
minutes. My life would have been gone,
but God intervened. I love the words of
Daniel to King Belshazzer in Daniel 5; he tells him God holds “your breath in
His hands” (verse 23; NKJV). God put
breath back into me that day; what’s more, the disease was gone; and it hasn’t
resurfaced again in almost 4 decades now!
Some people are of the opinion that the past doesn’t
matter. That one should just look
forward, and never contemplate the past.
But this isn’t a biblical idea. I
recently came across an excellent article from the website got questions.org. I commend it to you, as I really can’t delve
as deeply into it as I would like. It
asks and answers the significance of the stones of remembrance in Joshua
4. The author writes, “Joshua’s stones
of remembrance are just one monument in a series of memorials commemorating the
mighty acts of God on behalf of the people of Israel (Exodus 13:3-6;
Deuteronomy 27:1-8; Joshua 22:9-12; 24:24-28; 1 Samuel 7:12).”
Later on in this marvelous article, the writer states,
“Remembering the past plays a vital role in the identity of any nation. Sociologists claim a society aspiring to
endure must become “a community of memory and hope” (Waltke, B.K., “Joshua” New Bible Commentary 21st century Edition, ed.
By D.A Carson, R.T. France, J.A. Motyer, and G.J. Wenham, Inter-Varsity Press,
1994, p. 241). God repeatedly directed
ancient Israel to set up monuments and enact rituals such as Passover (Exodus
13-14). Each tribute marked a
significant historical memory that would offer hope for the nation that God had
claimed as His own.”
(Source: https://www.gotquestions.org/stones-of-remembrance.html)
As I look at my life now, I’m overwhelmed at God’s power,
mercy, and sustenance to me. God is not
bound by time. We humans experience time
in a linear fashion; it unfolds one moment at time. But God is outside this limitation. The Bible says that a day is like a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8). I bring this up because God knew when He
healed me as a child the life I would be living today. He knew the battles I would fight with my own
sin today. The old hymn says it well: “Prone
to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to
leave the God I love.” I struggle and I
fall. But I call out to Him for forgiveness,
and He graciously provides it. He picks
me up, cleans me up, and we recommence walking together.
To conclude, I love the song from writer Tommy Nelson
titled “Never gonna stop”. His words
echo mine with these words from his pen: “For Your beauty that’s been shown,
for Your mysteries unknown, for the miracles we’ve seen, we praise You,
Lord. For the story of Your love, for
the wonder of Your blood, how it makes the sinner clean, someone like me. So I’m never gonna stop, never gonna stop,
lifting up my hands to You, lifting up my heart. When the last day comes and goes, and time
will be no more, I’ll be praising You.”
Kevin
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