As we studied in our last lesson, as human beings, we tend to forget things. Details become lost as the feelings and impact of past events fade. Remember the Challenger, the events of 911, the U.S. embassy bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, what year did that happen, how many Americans died?
Moses wrote, “6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deut. 6:6-9). That was because it is so easy to forget history, what God did for the Jews, what God did for the world. I think that few people alive today don’t know the words, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). There indeed may be few who don’t remember, but the tragedy is that to a greater extent there are fewer who remember what Jesus did for them during the last three years of His life on the earth. That is why we must also teach about Jesus not just to our own children but to everyone we come in contact with. Peter wrote, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;” (1 Peter 3:15), and Paul, “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4).
We must regularly study our Bibles as Paul instructed Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 3:15). Remember the virgin birth (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:25), remember the miracles, “Water to Wine” John 2:10, “Raising Lazarus from the dead” John 11:1-45, “Walking on Water” Matt. 4:22-33, or “Feeding the 5,000” 14:13-21). And lest we forget the resurrection of our Lord from the dead, Acts 10:40; Matthew 28:5-6 or why Jesus died in the first place, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We must not forget that Jesus will return to take the saved, that is the church up to heaven to be forevermore with God (John 14:1-6; 1 Cor. 15:4).