It's A New Day

I grew up with a young man who became a preacher. He had an unusual gift. He could read a sermon and the next day get in the pulpit and repeat it word for word. Needless to say, that ability also helped him in school. I envied that gift until he confessed that two or three days after the sermon, or test, he wouldn’t remember anything about what he had read or said.

Most of us can’t retain every word of what we read for two or three days, but we don’t have the disability of forgetting everything in such a short period of time. It’s a new day, and a new year! And while we might retain some of what we learned this past year, it probably won’t hurt us to be reminded of things we have learned. Someone has well said, “Anything that ‘goes without saying’ is in danger of being left unsaid.”

Peter, wrote to the exiles of the Dispersion. In this letter, he repeated a number of things he had taught them earlier. They may have thought that he didn’t need to repeat himself, but he said: “Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have” (2 Peter 1:12 ESV).

Later, Peter says, “This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder” (2 Peter 3:1 ESV).

It never hurts to be reminded. In the yearning words of Catherine Hankey:

“Tell me the old, old story,
Of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory,
Of Jesus and His love” (see video)

Brethren, some things never grow old! We love to hear them over and over, even though it is a new day. —John Gipson, via the Montana Street bulletin

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets