Jump Start # 1588

2 Peter 1:9 “For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.”

   Our verse today follows that wonderful section commonly called the “Christian virtues.” Peter lists a series of eight spiritual characteristics of a growing Christian. The New American Standard uses the word “applying.” Older translations used the word “add.” We understand that concept. It’s a growth process. We add layers on in the winter to stay warm. We add more friends on Facebook. We add up the days until we retire. Adding is a choice. These were the things that brethren were doing on purpose. These qualities are not a matter of picking and choosing. It’s all of them or none of them. They are so tied together and one leads to the next, so carefully, that a person develops them all.

Our verse is what comes next. Peter says the person who lacks these qualities, is talking about these virtues. That is the qualities that Peter has in mind. For a Christian to lack these things, means that he hasn’t grown. He has not understood Christ. He hasn’t become. He’s stuck.

The one who lacks these things is blind and has forgotten his salvation. How can we forget? How can we forget where we started and where we are.

All of this leads to some thoughts about forgetting. It seems the older a person gets, the more he forgets. I can be around my kids or my wife and they can bring up a story from the past and I have forgotten that. I see faces that I ought to know, but I have forgotten their names.

There are some things that we ought to forget. We need to forget our sins that God has forgiven us. Forgiveness does not erase our memory. We can remember the argument and what we said and how we acted. We can remember flying off the handle. We can remember hurting others. The pain of those sins can linger for a long, long time. If forgiven, we ought to bury those sins in an unmarked grave and never return there again. But that’s hard to do. Some continually beat themselves up over the same forgiven sins. We ought to forget them.

We ought to forget the good that we have done for others. Just do good, and don’t let the left hand know what the right hand is doing. Keeping a mental file of all the good we have done will make us think too highly of ourselves and it may lead to bragging. Just do good and let Heaven keep track of what is done. One of the best things is when someone comes up years later and he remembers something nice that you did, but you have totally forgotten all about that. That’s the way to do that.

But then there are some things that we ought never to forget. This is what has been bothering me lately. I know as I get older, I am going to be forgetting things. There are some things I don’t want to lose. My mom  has been gone for more than twenty years. I will never forget her. But there are some things she said, some memories had are fading. I hate that. There are parts of my childhood that have faded. There are things that I do not want to forget.

Here is my list of things that I never want to forget. Maybe after you read this, you can make your own list.

• I don’t ever want to forget how wonderful God has been to me. He has blessed me beyond what I have ever expected.
• I don’t ever want to forget that I have had great people in my life that have helped me spiritually. There have been churches that gave me a chance. There have been patient brethren that took the time to show me things. I would never be who I am without these amazing people.
• I don’t ever want to forget how special baptisms are. Each one is a unique story. Each one puts a smile on God’s face.
• I don’t ever want to forget how special my family has been to me. Words cannot describe what these people mean to me.
• I don’t ever want to forget where I was before Jesus.
• I don’t ever want to forget what a privilege it is to preach God’s word. That’s such an honor. And God has allowed a simple guy like me to do that for almost four decades. Unbelievable. Each time, every time, is special.
• I don’t ever want to forget how beautiful and powerful God’s word is. Those incredible stories have built my faith and made it possible for me to walk with my Savior.
• I don’t ever want to forget how special Heaven is. Heaven is about God. It’s about being with God.

My grandma used to forget the names of us grandkids. She have to start naming them off, sometimes even including the names of the pets, before she got the right name with the right person. We’d laugh. That doesn’t seem all that funny now.

Forgetting—there are some things that you need to let go and there are some things that you should never, ever forget.

Roger