WELCOME

Do you have a particular method of remembering things? Visual cues can be very effective, for example the cool bag by the front door reminding you to take your packed lunch out of the fridge before you set off on a journey. Plaques and monuments are common reminders of people and events and you can probably think of one that you see regularly. God doesn’t need visual cues to help Him remember things, but he gives them to His people. The first one mentioned in the Bible is after the great flood that God sent upon the earth in the days of Noah, a faithful man. When the waters had drained away and Noah and his family were able to come out of the ark that had saved their lives, God told them: “I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.” (Genesis 9:13-15) God didn’t need the rainbow to remind Him not to flood the earth, but He was giving Noah and his family something to remind them what He had said to them. Even now, when we see a rainbow in the sky, we can remember that God put it there for a reason. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses was reminding God’s people about their journey from Egypt towards the Promised Land, and the word “remember” comes in throughout the book. God wanted them to remember where they had come from and what He had done for them. Sadly, many of them remembered the wrong things, for example the food they had enjoyed in Egypt, although as slaves they had probably gone hungry a lot. They forgot how God had fed them every day as they travelled from Egypt. Jesus knew that we need reminders to keep us on track. The last meal he shared with his disciples before he was cruelly killed was a special one, often referred to as “The Last Supper”. This meal took place in an upper room in Jerusalem at Passover time, when they remembered how their ancestors had been rescued from slavery in Egypt. God had told them to keep this feast every year so that they would not forget what had been done for them. Now Jesus was using the meal as a reminder for his disciples. He took bread and gave thanks for it, then, “… broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me”. (Luke 22:19). They also shared a cup of wine. After Jesus had risen from the dead and ascended to heaven, his disciples never forgot that special meal. As Jesus had instructed, they regularly shared bread and wine in remembrance of him. This still happens today. It is so important to remember what Jesus did for his disciples. Jesus did not tell them that they had to share this special meal on a particular day of the week, or in a particular place, only that they must do it in remembrance of him. Usually Christadelphians hold a “breaking of bread” service weekly. In the book of Acts, we read of disciples gathering to break bread together on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7). Sunday has become the usual day for us to do this, when we are more likely to be able to get together. However, it can take place on any day of the week. The important thing is to follow what Jesus told us to do: remember him. It is a quiet time, when we can think about him and what he did for us in giving his life and we can think about how we want to follow him in the coming week. When Jesus introduced this meal, he spoke about the kingdom that was to come when he returned to the earth. Remembering is not only about the past!