Proverbs 7:1-3

¹My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. ²Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. ³Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.

Cruffin

Who said that life is boring? There are a lot of interesting activities that can be tried and followed from online videos of indoor or outdoor activities.

​Have you even heard about cruffin. What is cruffin? It tastes like croissant and shapes like muffin. An online video about cruffin had attracted my interest. I viewed it a couple of times and followed the video and baked cruffins; the result was pleasant to my taste. The next time I baked cruffins, I did not bother to follow the video since my first try was good. The result was terrible. So, I watched the video again; I wasreminded of a crucial process to make it crunchy and tasty.

​So many times, Christians don’t bother to consult or read the Scripture. Why? Do they assume that they know every detail about the commands of God? Yet if you ask them to recite the Ten Commandments, you will find out that they just deceivedtheir selves into believing that they have enough knowledge of the word of God. The Scripture used the word rememberhundreds of times.

The Lord instructed the Israelites in Numbers 15:38-41, ³⁸Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. ³⁹You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. ⁴⁰Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God.⁴¹I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God.

​Tassels could be fashionable among the Israelites but actually, they are reminders of God’s commands. But why did God frequently remind them that he brought them out of Egypt? As humans, the Israelites were also forgetful.

​To remember the commands of God was given throughout the generations to come. The Lord knows our limitation and failure to remember his instructions. He wants us to make sure we remember what he said. Actually, to remember the words of God, we need his help. His Holy Spirit in us helps us remember his word.

1. Remember

¹My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. ^2aKeep my commands and you will live;

​If we consider ourselves as a child of God, he wants us to keep his word; to remember his commands. Every single day we can be bothered with many things.

Sometimes we are confused, disorderly or forget things, responsibilities.

Does God know that we may forget his commands? Yet he commands us to keep his commands. So, how can we remember his commands when in reality we are forgetful? We must remind ourselves that to obey godly commands, we need godly effort. Therefore, to remember and obey the commands of God, we need his Holy Spirit in us to help us. We remember to obey his command when the Holy Spirit inspires us, and we submit to Christ as our Lord over our life.

Jesus Christ is eternal and infinite God; his memory is eternal. He can easily remind us of the things we should do aschildren of God. He says in John 14:26:

²⁶But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

​Have you received the Holy Spirit? When by faith we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, we received his Holy Spirit in our life. The Holy Spirit reminds us of the lesson we learned from Christ, but will he reminds of special days also?

Birthday

Ten years ago, on March 27, 2013, I greeted Louie a happy birthday. Louie was startled and puzzled why I greeted him happy birthday. Actually, I prepared something I thought to be delicious food to celebrate the birthday of our favorite son. Louie is our only son and so, no other son would feel jealous if I call Louie our favorite son. Anyways, I asked our youngest daughter, “Lyka! Have you greeted your brother yet?” She told me that Louie’s birthday is April 27 and not March 27.

I realized that I made a good mistake. It was a mistake because I thought it was already April. It is good because we can eat something special on an ordinary day. And when I told Lyka that I prepared something special for Louie’s birthday, she laughed real hard at her father and felt good that she can laugh at my mistake without hurting my feelings. Since then, we celebrate every March 27.

While such mistake can make us smile, it is not very funny to forget what God has instructed us because we may miss our eternal benefits if we forget our responsibility as children of God. We’ve got to be reminded often and always.

2. Remind

^2bguard my teachings as the apple of your eye.³Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.

​How precious is an apple in your eyes? What kind of apple do you like?

Have you tried eating apples with “Alamang” or “salted krill or shrimp fry?”

Someone (Rebecca Romjin) shared the benefits apples to the physical body:  “Apple is really good for you. There is fiber in the skin that helps with digestion and helps you absorb all the nutrients of everything you’ve eaten that day.”

A preacher (Robert H. Schuller) presented the mystery of the All-knowing God in a more creative way using apple as object lesson: “Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed.”

Another person (Eyemadreamer) might have read the warnings in Proverbs chapter 7 about adulterous women: “Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are on the top of the tree. Men don’t want to reach the good ones because they are afraid of falling and don’t want to get hurt. Instead, they just get the rotten apples from the ground, that aren’t so good but easy. So, the apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality they are amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who is brave enough to climb all the way to the top because they value quality.”

​Someone preached, “An edible apple fruit can be purchased for just $1 or less. An Apple computer is priced at $1,000.00 or more. Both apples though, are precious according to anybody’s perspective. How much one values them would definitely affect his life at present and in the next life to come. Each time you see an apple (fruit or computer) remind yourself that if you value God’s commands, you will surely benefit from it now and forever more.

​Make sure, we are reminded of the commands of God, may it be on fingers or on the tablet of our hearts. That is amazing, right? Before computers or tablets were invented, the Scripture mentioned about tablets of our heart.

​Many individuals can function better with their high-tech gadget or tablets. Those gadgets can be spiritually beneficial if they are used to remind us about the word of God. Apostle Paul told the believers in his letter in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3

²You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. ³You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

​Christ has instructed us to go and make disciples. The Lord reminds of his mandate to make disciples because he had already prepared rewards for the obedient disciple. May the Holy Spirit inspire us to obey him diligently all the days of our life until Christ returns to take us into heaven! Amen!