People have realized the power in knowledge for hundreds of years. The ancient Hebrew people educated their children by teaching them their heritage. As mankind became more civilized text books were written to teach generation after generation of the successes and failures of bygone times. We are taught to learn by our mistakes but what if we never had the opportunity to hear of them?

God instructed the Hebrews to stack up memorial stones for the generations to come that they would remember the successes of generations past. Life is a journey and, if you do not know where you came from, you can not know where you are going. To chart a course you have to have a starting point and a destination. When you buy an airplane ticket, this information is printed on it. On your return ticket, it will have the destination that was your starting point at the beginning of your trip. It is very important that you return to the right airport.

If the knowledge of your successes and failures are not available, the same mistakes will be repeated over and over again. If this were to happen, people would not be able to advance beyond their failures. Many people deal with this in their personal lives. They fail at something and continue to fail at it repeatedly. They remain in a defeated condition because they do not have the knowledge of what to do to right the wrong. These failures are a way of learning what not to do. They are not meant to defeat you. On the other hand, successes are a way of learning what to do. But you can not learn from what you do not know.

This is not only true in our personal lives, it is also true of a family, a church, a community, or a nation. We can not be productive and prosperous if we do not have knowledge of the past. These things, good and bad, shape our future and equip us for life. The bible teaches us in Second Thessalonians 2:10; those who perish have bought into unrighteous deception because they did not receive the love of the truth! The bible also says; without knowledge people perish and in another verse, if you know the truth, the truth will set you free.

These are the things we are looking into at the Gathering Place every Sunday morning at 10:30 and Wednesday evening at 7. Come and join in.

Pastor John Pfeifer