It took me a long time to succumb to the peer pressure of getting a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), but finally I yielded. Everybody had them. I would sit in meetings and colleagues on both sides of me would be scribbling notes with their styluses and beaming them to one another. Across the room, another individual would be typing away on one of those portable keyboards. I love toys, but I just could not see the advantage of giving up my trusty DayTimer for another electronic fad.
But the first time I played with a friend’s device sitting on an airplane, I was hooked. And after performing my first “HotSync” operation when I purchased my own unit, I became the top promoter for the company!
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Of all the cool features my handheld possesses, I have probably benefitted most from the little “alarm” feature on my date book. My DayTimer never used to talk to me. But when I enter an appointment or an event into my PDA date book, I can attach a reminder to it. I can even determine how far in advance I want to be reminded. At the appointed time, a little alarm of three short beeps will go off reminding me of the event. And the really neat part is that it will just keep going off about every ten minutes or so until I acknowledge that I have been reminded!
The apostle Paul believed that the preacher is not only a reporter, but a reminder of that which has been reported.
The Task of Reminding
The Christian preacher is commissioned with a particular task, that of reminding people over and over again of God’s Word and its claim on their lives. We find this theme often in the New Testament, both from Paul and others. Paul told the Romans, “Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God” (Rom. 15:15; emphasis added). To the Philippians he wrote, “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe” (Phil. 3:1).
Even Jude got in on the action, and said, “But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe” (Jude 5; emphasis added).
The apostle Peter probably filled the bill more than any other New Testament writer. He seemed to place a huge amount of emphasis on the preacher as reminder. In one passage he reminded us about reminding three times: “For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease (2 Pet. 1:12-15).