Article: by Jim Alexander

Marlo re-opened the broad territory of obedience recently and I'm wondering if there is an obedience that the Lord wants to bring out in us that goes beyond the simple obedience of just obeying him along the lines of the 10 commandments.

"Oh no!", you say.  "Just when I thought I was giving it my all, along comes ANOTHER set of rules and commands".

Trust me, I know what you mean by that.  Been there, done that, many times over.  But please, allow me some more of your time here.  It's not as bad as you think.

First, a little intro: back when I turned 40, many years ago now, I felt the first hit of memory function impairment and I thought I had Alzheimers, but that was so long ago now and if it was Alzheimers I would have been in a pine box years ago.  Nevertheless, my memory wasn't what it used to be and I needed to work at it to make it work, and 'memory required' is still a bit of a minor shock wave generator in me.

"So?", you ask,  "What has memory got to do with going beyond?"

Allow me to go beyond what I've already covered.

If I told you that this extra bit of 'requirement' enabling you to 'go  beyond' was utilizing your memory, would you think that was too hard to do, even if I can do it?

As I see it, regarding memory, the steps I take in order to make it work are:

1.  Assign a priority to what you just heard (will this be devastating if you fail to remember?  If you answered 'yes', then this is priority one.)
2.  Do what you have to do to remember this, i.e. make notes, etc.  (Take, for instance, a serious university student and what they do to facilitate remembering because they are devoted to obtaining their degree.  If we're to take all this 'Jesus stuff' seriously, something that works to the benefit of all those important areas of obedience, faith and thanksgiving is, quite simply, remembering.)
   
   

Are you still with me?

Ok.  Here comes an important step in my rantings: 'To Believe is to Remember'.

If something is important to you, like a date with someone special, you will make a point of remembering the time and place you're meeting.  In fact, you will do everything you have to in order to grab that in your memory.  That's just the way it is.  You can't help it.

But here's a funny thing that flies i the face of what I just said.  Jesus told his disciples what was about to happen to him in John 14, but they don't do anything to remember!  If they had, would they have run and hid when he went to the cross?  Would they not have believed their friends who came to them with reports of seeing him alive from the dead? "Yeah, sure.  We REMEMBER he said he was going to die and live again" is what they would have responded with.  But they blew it because they didn't remember, or was that because they didn't BELIEVE?

Why did they not not remember, and then, consequently, not believe?

Was Jesus not believable?  Was he just a flake and couldn't be trusted?

Surely he was anything but that and he proved it to them, over and over again while he walked with them for 3 years.  Yet they didn't even try to remember what he had told them would happen in the next few hours.  Instead they went running off and lost their hope completely after his crucifixion.

Jesus expected more of them and cuts them no slack for being human about the whole thing in Mark 16:14. That they failed to believe what Jesus said was obvious when he 'upbraided' them, and upbraiding is a very stern rebuke for their failure.  You don't want to be rebuked by Jesus.  No way, no how.

But, going beyond the obvious, (ok, I'll stop with the 'going beyond) did they fail to believe or did they fail to remember?

Here's my point: if you can do what it takes to remember, you have what it takes to believe.

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Note:  You will see articles like this on a regular basis.  These articles are submitted by the congregation.  Hope you not only enjoy them but prayerfully consider what God is saying through them.