A need to remember.

I wish I could just put all the bad and wrong I've done away and never have to deal with them again. This is a statement that many of us have thought or said about our pasts. I believe that this is a dangerous thing to ask. We've all heard the old saying if you don't know your past your doomed to repeat it. This holds strong even outside of the old saying. I used to go to a church that taught, "When you get saved God takes away everything, your sin, the temptation to do that sin, and in some cases the memories of that sin." I believed every word of that to be true for everyone when they became born again. Then I got saved. When I accepted Christ I was waiting for all of that to come to pass. Only one of those things happened for me. My sins were forgiven, that was it. I didn't get some amazing revelation that, "I don't ever want to look at website that I shouldn't, I don't ever wan't to lie, ect.... " No those things were still a temptation to me and even still are to this day. Then there is the idea that God sometimes takes away all memories of your past. Now before I go any farther I will reiterate something, I believe all of the above things can and do happen to people, I just want to stress the danger behind saying they are fact for everyone. Okay back to the topic. My memory of the events in my past stayed with me after accepting Christ and are still there. So after all of that happened or didn't happen, I felt lost, I didn't even think I was really saved. I was told for so long that when you get saved that all sin should become a bad memory or not even that. I just want to say, that's not always the case. These teachings nearly pushed me away from Christ. I thought, "This must not be true. It cant be if these things are still around me." What I came to realize is that not everyone has that plan in their life. The plan God had for me is that He wanted me to continue having those temptations in my life. Christ was given temptation, and I believe that for some it is necessary for pruning. Christ stated that even the branches that bear fruit would be pruned in order to bear MORE fruit. However, some aren't able to deal with harsh temptations and aren't given to them so not to cause them to fall. I only wanted to say all of this because it is very important to remember that God loves you very much and if you love Him with all your heart mind and soul you are under his grace, and only you can take that from yourself. He is with you always.

Warning! Flying objects!

Sinners are the arrows that missed the target. Literally, sin was a word used for missing the target in archery. I heard this from a friend once and for some reason I thought about this for awhile today. When you hit the target the location of where that arrow is becomes apparent. When you miss it may seem the arrow is lost. The LOST arrow is only that if the archer only picks up the arrows that hit the target. The arrows that missed aren't lost they are just harder to find and bring back in. So if you equate the arrows to people, the arrows that hit their target to the saved or followers of Christ and the missed arrows to sinners, you can understand the analogy. Most Christians only take the arrows out of the target and forget about the ones that missed, or they only want to talk to and lead other Christians to the target/Christ. My question is "why?" I've done this myself not wanting to talk to people that don't know Christ because I'm afraid what they may think or it may offend them. What ever the reason, it's not a good one. Jesus said He came to seek and save the LOST. He knows where those arrows that hit the target are. Now He wants the lost to be found. If you spent time carefully carving and shaping a large number of arrows would you want those arrows back no matter how hard or how long it took? The same goes for God, He wants us back, whether we hit the target or not, and he will pursue us until we are found. Obviously we are not really arrows so we don't just sit and wait, we will eventually die and meet judgement, so if we are not ready to surrender our lives to the one and only God we may eternally be lost. God Bless: Joe