Like the rest of us, you’re probably hearing that phrase being thrown around seemingly nonstop these days. For the past almost-year since the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
People politically-left use it to describe the efforts and claims of former president Donald Trump and his allies that the election was “stolen”, “rigged” or a variant thereof.
People on the political right say that the “Big Lie” is the “Big Lie”.
They’re both wrong.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, way, way, way off. Not even close! Because the ACTUAL “Big Lie” – the biggest and most common and most dangerous and deadly and, very unfortunately, most successful, most believed lie, is the one the devil and his minions and the sinful, fallen flesh of humankind tell virtually every lost soul: that they’re on the path to Heaven when they’re actually on the road which leads to Hell.
The devil and his minions have placed big signs every few feet along that road to hell which have four oversized words written on them: “This way to Heaven” – even though they know that nothing could be further from the truth since there’s only ONE path that truly leads to Heaven. The one which goes straight through the immaculate womb and rugged Cross and empty tomb. (I’m copyrighting that because if I ever write a book on the life of Jesus, that’ll be the title: From Immaculate Womb to Empty Tomb 🙂 )
But thankfully, God is faithful to grant clear vision of the truth to every person who accepts whatever amount of the truth about Him and His plan of salvation, the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-8, among many other passages… throughout the entire Bible actually but this Chapter is perhaps the clearest and easiest-to-understand of them all), that they’ve received up to that point. For example, Romans 1:20 and Psalm 19:1-6 couldn’t communicate any more crystal-clearly that nature reveals a certain amount of facts, of truth, about God; so if anyone accepts what nature, for instance, reveals about God, He will always be faithful to send them more truth, to take them to the next level of understanding about Him and human sin and salvation/redemption which is the path that leads to (drum roll, please) Heaven! For all eternity.
But, heart-breakingly, billions upon billions of people who have passed through this life – down to the present day and hour and minute – have opted to put their faith in, say, self-righteousness to get them to Heaven. Wrong way (as the common traffic sign says). Wrong path. Wrong answer. (Insert the “buzzer” sound effect from “Family Feud” here.) Because not a single one of us is good enough to “earn” our way to Heaven. “No not one.”
Some of you might be saying, “But DJ Bible, I go to church every Sunday. Twice! And mid-week, too!” To which I reply, “Good for you! That’s a very good thing… but it won’t get a person even a single inch closer to Heaven in and of itself.”
Others have opted to not have any faith at all in or about God and instead have chosen to be atheists. I pray for them as a group regularly, that they’ll see the light before it’s too late, before they find themselves – their real self, their soul – standing before a certain throne of judgment. Not of forgiveness or mercy for it would be too late. But it isn’t too late yet! Hence my regular prayers for that group and others. I genuinely love atheists. And agnostics. And even the ever-smirking self-righteous like the Pharisees of Jesus’s time. Because God loves them. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. Every bit as much as He loves His own children, for His love is infinite and immutable, continual, constant, cannot change even one iota ever toward anyone. Because it’s literally who He is.
- “… God IS love…” (1 John 4:8)
But please don’t mistake that, as many do, to mean He therefore couldn’t and wouldn’t ever send someone to hell for all eternity.
He, in the Bible, makes it explicitly clear that He most certainly can and will… IF a person hasn’t chosen the aforementioned path that really does lead to Heaven. Or as 2 Thessalonians 2:10 puts it, who “did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”
- “If we are faithless, He remains faithful [i.e., to Himself, per the next phrase]; for He cannot deny Himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13)
All of which brings us to perhaps the scariest portion of the Bible; just listen to what Jesus Himself said (super-scoldingly, brimming with righteous, justified anger but all in love for them, for their souls) to a group of Pharisees who were the “religious” leaders of that era:
- “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'” (Matthew 7:21-23, at the very end of the famous-for-centuries and much-beloved “Sermon on the Mount”)
You see, it’s not about what a person says but rather what a person “does”, what they “practice” in life, what characterizes their lives overall. (You can read more about this specific aspect in a past post.)
Furthermore, when it comes to getting into Heaven, what counts isn’t whether or not you know Christ but rather whether or not He knows you. Not whether I know Him bur whether He knows me.
Further still, note how strong, how powerful self-deception, self-deceit, self-delusion can be. It’s clear by their statement that the Pharisees were absolutely, 100% “certain” they were headed for Heaven.
Score another one for the “Big Lie”. Those men, those souls were like countless other people before and since whose human heart has definitively convinced them that they too are headed for Heaven, But as the Bible also makes crystal clear about said human heart:
- “The [i.e., human, fallen] heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” Or as the King James Version puts it, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
I’m sorry to say that I know this to be true firsthand. Thankfully the Bible – and especially Bible memory and recitation and meditation – can and does and will transform the human heart/mind (c.f., Romans 12:1-2) so I’m very, very, very grateful for that but all of us, all of our hearts and minds and souls start out life in the very same boat as described in Jeremiah 17:9 and – still enveloped by fallen, sinful flesh until the day we physically die – that battle never goes very far away in this life, on this side of eternity (c.f., Romans 7:14-25 and Galatians 5:16-26, and note that word “practice” in verse 21 of this latter passage… like I said in that past post, it’s all about “practice”!) – even for the most spiritually mature, which I feel very safe in saying was the Apostle Paul [who physically penned those words] since he was undoubtedly the fullest imitator of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1) the world has ever known (and, not coincidentally, probably suffered more than any other human has other than Jesus Himself, but perhaps more about that in a future post) (see also 1 Peter 4:1-2 … definitely more about that in a future post, very powerful and empowering and relieving and freeing/liberating!).
Getting back to this present post’s primary passage in Matthew 7, note that those Pharisees were putting all of their weight and dependence and faith in (admittedly very impressive but equally insufficient-to-get-to-Heaven) deeds rather than having an actual relationship with God. (Meaning a good, active, ongoing and ever-growing relationship, as technically everyone has a relationship with God… some good, some bad; some functional, some dysfunctional; some peaceful, some hostile; some effective, some ineffective; some sufficient, some insufficient.)
And the fifth and final fact from this bit of our beloved Bible I’ll note is that two-word phrase “narrow gate” here in Matthew 7:13, both of which are repeated in verse 14. The picture painted by Jesus is that of a turnstile.
Ever gone with your family to the airport or amusement park or many other places and tried to all go through the turnstile at the same time, together? To say that doesn’t work very well is an understatement. Because it doesn’t work at all.
Does. Not. Work.
And that’s EXACTLY how it is with Heaven, too! It’s entirely an individual thing. Nobody, absolutely nobody can enter as part of a group or family or couple or even denomination. Strictly “one at a time ” as the signs on turnstiles blare.
Good, spiritually-mature and doctrinally-correct families can certainly be a huge help in terms of (post-salvation) spiritual growth, but not salvation itself; no, that’s a decision which each one of us must come to, must make entirely on our own, individually, from our own heart.
The previous post on this blog was about 9/11 (20th anniversary). I’ll end this one by begging any of you who haven’t yet come to that point, who haven’t yet made that decision of salvation through faith in Christ and specifically His becoming a human (Philippians 2:5-11) via the immaculate conception by the Holy Spirit; His perfect, sinless life (how would you like to have been Mary’s other children… talk about sibling issues, yikes, always having to be compared or live up to an older brother who was perfect – truly perfect, not like some who just think they are, but I digress 😉 ); and His death, burial, and resurrection.
THAT, my dear friends, is THE path, the RIGHT path that does indeed lead to, which will indeed take you to Heaven when your time here on earth comes to an end.
And harkening back to 9/11, please don’t make the potentially eternally-dreadful mistake of “putting off the matter” for another day or until another time. Because just think about those thousands of people who woke up on September 11, 2001, and went to work at their office in the World Trade Center or Pentagon as usual, just like every other day, or hopped on an airplane as many of them had so many times before.
Very often, death doesn’t give a one-year or one-week or one-day or even one-second notice. Much better, much wiser to plan ahead in this most important matter. And for the many of you reading this who no doubt already have, how crucial it is to lovingly tell those in your inner circle or whose paths you cross about this.
I feel compelled to end this post by reiterating something I emblazoned on the BibleMemory.ORG Home page and also said in the Overview video on the Home and Videos pages: in my view, in my perspective, I’m the biggest sinner I know, I’m the biggest sinner I’ve ever known, and I’m the biggest sinner you’ve probably ever known, at least that’s the way I see it, since memorizing a lot of Bible verses and indeed entire books opens one’s eyes very widely so as to see these two things (among countless others) very clearly: how righteous and perfect God is, and how sinful and unrighteous and imperfect we are in and of ourselves, apart from Christ – “who knew no sin [became] sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21, one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible, one of my favorite statements ever made by pen or tongue). Harkening back one last time to those Pharisees in Matthew 7… it’s not about me, it’s not about you, it’s not about us, it’s all about Him!
And praise the Lord for that.
Thankfully this “Big Truth” totally trumps, utterly outweighs the real ”Big Lie”, which the devil is constantly throwing out, hoping to snag and drag as many unsuspecting people as possible with him to an eternity in hell. (Misery loves company, eh?) Let’s rededicate ourselves, right now, to thwarting those plans of his by lovingly and humbly and powerfully and confidently communicating – by our lives/deeds, then our words – to as many people as possible starting with those in our inner circles, the “Big Truth”.
In fact, now when someone so much as says that phrase “the Big Lie” you have a perfect reply! Talk about an open door!
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Quick Thought: Prayer Life: Asking
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryIt’s important to ask. Indeed, it’s commanded. By no less than the Lord Jesus Himself. In the greatest sermon – or oration of any kind – in human history, the well-known and much-beloved so-called “Sermon on the Mount”.
Ergo, it is indeed essential to regularly ask the Lord for various things, that should certainly be a component in our (unceasing) prayer life (1 Thessalonians 5:17) but two thoughts about this:
First, asking is important but I have adopted a “10% model” in my prayers: 10% asking, 90% thanking (1 Thessalonians 5:18) and praising and worshiping. While I’m sure that a 25/75 or even 50/50 model would also please God, I’ve personally adopted 10/90 based on Jesus’s fascinating story about the “ten lepers” and simply inverted the equation since Scripture sends a super-strong signal and sense that thanking/praising/worshiping is even more pleasing to Him (indeed, He “inhabits the praises of” His people) than asking, as great and essential as the latter indeed is but, again, this is just my own personal preference, whatever makeup the Spirit lays on your heart would also be totally acceptable but I thought I’d at least share this.
But second, and my main point here, is that whenever I ask God for anything I include three 3-word phrases which I’m also certain bring much pleasure to our Lord: “If Your will“, “In Your time“, and “Thanks in advance” (either way, regardless of His answer).
I intend to write many more posts about prayer as this perennial project at BibleMemory.ORG unfolds over the coming months and years but give these (or your own variation on them) a try and see what you think!
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Heart of Gold but Head of Dross?
/in Uncategorized /by Bible Memory(Or, as my perpetual poetic penchant would probably put it… “Heart of Gold but Head of Mold?”)
I’m sure you know a number of people – sadly, even Christians – who have a “heart of gold” but haven’t yet discovered how to resolve the emotional and relational issues which are native to human nature, to flawed, fallen flesh.
If one had to choose, the heart is clearly more important than the head, the soul than the body, the spiritual than the physical, the eternal than the temporal, the heavenly than the earthly. But praise the Lord, one doesn’t need to choose between the two, we can have BOTH! A golden heart and mind.
How? Yep, you got it: by reading and especially studying and most especially memorizing Bible verses.
Because the Bible – and especially the Bible ingested, internalized, i.e., memorized – not only “restores the soul” but also ”rejoices the heart” (emotional) and “enlightens the eyes” (mental) and “makes wise” (all aspects, overarching… such is the nature of true wisdom, see Proverbs 3).
It’s (literally!) like a PILL to cure any and all ailments in the intangible (spiritual/emotional/relational/mental) realm (too) which trips up so many, so easily… so TAKE THE PILL by (a) memorizing Scripture on a regular (daily), systematic (verse-by-verse, book-by-book) basis and you’ll see any lingering or even full-fledged emotional or mental issues fade away, G-U-A-R-A-N-T-E-E-D, or to a lesser but still super-significant extent even just by (b) regularly listening to someone who has lots and lots of the Bible inside of them, and trust me when I say that a ton of it will rub off onto you, into your life and mind!
Indeed, that’s one of the many purposes of BibleMemory.ORG! Follow along on this historic journey, this history-making undertaking as I dedicate my life to finish memorizing the ENTIRE Bible and then recite it back to the Lord as a love gift and “thank You” gift for all He does and who He is, and then dedicate the rest of my life to helping others do likewise. Because while almost nobody likes to think much less talk about mental health, the Bible makes clear that it’s one of the biggest factors in one’s usefulness to God, which is what the Christian life is all about: how to be not just used but most used by God, to please him and help others. And there’s no problem or issue you have or ever could have that can’t be cured (often quickly) by the Bible. Allowing us to have a heart and head of gold.
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If you sense that the Lord might be leading YOU to support the historic event unfolding in real-time here at BibleMemory.ORG and thus become my fellow worker and thus share in all of the fruit and blessings (3 John 8) and literally MAKE HISTORY together, here are the best ways to do so:
1. Become a one-time or monthly partner by making a donation via PayPal’s fully-secure Bible Memory page!
2. Encourage as many people as you can to support this historic event by having them go to BibleMemory.ORG/support (please make sure they understand that it’s .org, not .com) – doing so by word-of-mouth is great, and to do so with a single click on your social media simply click here then scroll down a few inches to the green box and select your platforms, it’s that quick and easy!
3. Add your name to my Prayer List!
4. Encourage as many of our fellow Christians as you can to pray for this historic event by having them go to BibleMemory.ORG/pray (please make sure they understand that it’s .org, not .com) – doing so by word-of-mouth is great, and to do so with a single click on your social media simply click here then scroll down a few inches and select your platforms, it’s that quick and easy!
5. Share this post on your social media by clicking on one or more of these platforms:
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Quick Thought: 3 Kinds of People
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryThere are three kinds of people:
Those who seek to put their issues/burdens onto others. (Bad)
Those who seek to put their issues/burdens onto themselves. (Good – Romans 14:12)
Those who seek to put others’ issues/burdens onto themselves. (Best – Galatians 6:2)
(If I ever turned this post into a movie I’d call it “The Good, the Bad, and the Utterly Beautiful”)
May we never be the type of people who try to pass off their burdens or issues onto others; rather, may we maintain full ownership of our own and, better yet, take burdens off of other people’s shoulders and onto our own. Because when one fulfills the former, he or she will be able to add the latter. And quite easily at that.
Great perspective. Great way to live, to go through life.
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Ripple Effect
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryIt seems as though “PK’s” (pastors’ kids) tend to largely end up going to one extreme or the other in life. I’m sure there are many who end up somewhere in between, in the middle, but the ones I remember most vividly either “turned out” to be very, very good or very, very bad/troubled.
I’ll leave it to the Lord first and foremost, and under that umbrella, other people to render a verdict on how this PK, moi, yours truly, has turned out, but in any case a massive benefit of being born into such a situation (especially spiritually but in other ways, too) is that the Bible was constantly (no exaggeration) being discussed all around me since birth (my father entered seminary to get his MDiv shortly after I was born). While that wasn’t (couldn’t have been) “the” reason (since none of my siblings showed much interest in the Bible or spiritual things as kids), it absolutely didn’t hurt in my starting to memorize Bible verses at age two or three, mainly via the (long-since-defunct) BMA and (still-going-strong!) AWANA ministries.
As briefly discussed in the Overview video on the Home and Videos pages and YouTube Channel (YouTube.com/BibleMemory) and alluded to in a prior post, Bible memory has had many wonderful and powerful benefits and effects in my life including near-perfect health; I literally haven’t been sick even a single time my entire adult life (and only of the “faking it!” variety throughout my school years so I could stay home and play video games and watch TV 🙂 ) but I used the word “near-perfect” just now because there was kinda one exception: for a few years as a teen, maybe every 3-6 months (warning, please delay for a good hour or two before reading on if you just ate) I would develop ingrown toenails. Always the “big toe”. (And once on BOTH feet at the same time… OUCH!)
But would any rational, sane person think that said pain was relegated, was limited to just that toenail? Of course not. The pain, the consequence, the result (quickly) spread to the foot and leg and indeed entire body. (If you’ve ever broken a leg or foot or collarbone, you know exactly what I mean. And we certainly all know that a toothache doesn’t just affect the mouth.)
And that’s exactly how it is in the Christian life!
When we sin, the consequences, the results, the effects don’t remain limited or relegated to our own life but indeed spread to the entire body (local and even universal) of Christ (church… Colossians 1:24). (Good example of what I always say… in a slight tweak of Apple’s slogan, “There’s a verse for that!”)
And God is very clear how urgent a matter this is when He, through Paul, says in verses 11-13 “not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler – not even to EAT with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, GOD JUDGES. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.” (Emphasis mine.)
The only thing on which I rely and depend in this life is the Bible and through it, as a result of what it says, the Lord and Holy Spirit and heavenly Father. Ergo, if a principle or perspective is taught in the Bible, that’s not 99.9% but 100% (or as I used to say as a child, “infinity percent!”) confirmation, all we need, full stop. Yet I find that the Lord doesn’t just confirm truth to us via the source and essence of truth, the Bible (John 17:17), but also in life itself (which makes perfect sense since God is the Author of both).
Two recent – and stark – examples of this principle (one person’s conduct affecting the group) in action, all from just the past year alone and spanning the political spectrum:
The name “Cuomo” used to be among the most respected in all of politics, but that’s no longer the case as it evokes mocking and ridicule after son Andrew was forced to resign in disgrace amid multiple scandals including multiple criminal complaints: the results, the consequences, didn’t affect just him as his conduct has obviously tainted his entire family and especially his father Mario’s legacy.
Ripple effect.
And when the year kicked off with around a thousand people with Trump and Republican flags and hats storming the U.S. Capitol as Congress was certifying the big presidential election two months prior, the results and consequences didn’t stop with them: as we’ve all seen in countless news stories all year, the actions of the (comparatively) few (i.e., 800-1,000 of the reported 250,000-1,000,000 who attended that rally at the White House) has in very large part tainted the entire Republican/MAGA/conservative political movement.
Ripple effect.
And how many times have many of us shared the Gospel with someone in the past year whose reason for rejecting it included the name Jerry Falwell Jr. or Ravi Zacharias? [Not judging or criticizing them but rather biblically benefiting the Body by beseeching you to not only imitate Christ-like conduct (1 Corinthians 11:1; Philippians 3:17) but also realize and reject bad behavior by those who confess Christ with their mouths in public even while doing the exact opposite with their deeds in private (Philippians 3:18; 1 Timothy 5:20 … and verses 24-25 are eerily on point… not criticizing at all, for truly “there but by the grace of God go we”).]
Ripple effect.
So too, your and my words and actions and decisions have ripple effects. The vast majority of which we’ll likely never even know about on this side of eternity, but those ramifications do indeed extend to the lives of others, and certainly to the body of Christ so I think it very wise for each of us to go forward and live the rest of our time on earth with this perspective and to ensure that said words and actions and decisions are good and decent and noble in nature such that the related ripple effects will inure to the benefit of others and especially the body of Christ, not to the detriment as the examples just discussed.
In other words, to live by Bible verses such as these:
Because a toothache isn’t just felt in one’s mouth. It spreads throughout the whole body. Just like sin does in Christ’s body, the church. (Colossians 1:24). Like leaven (e.g., yeast… as I often say, “There’s no leaven in Heaven!”). Like cancer.
Or spider venom.
When I was a teenager, I was bitten by a spider in our backyard shed. I immediately told and showed my parents who virtually worshipped me throughout my entire formative years and into adulthood and I love them dearly but at times they’d tend to “have their heads in the clouds” (almost always on ministry matters so I didn’t mind!) to such an extent that things – even important, indeed, even life-and-death things – of a physical, earthly nature sometimes didn’t quite “register” with them at first, on their own, and surely enough their reaction was to “just trust the Lord” and “pray for it to heal” which are all well and good but should never be misunderstood or misused to avoid the human responsibilities in life which are in line not only with God’s will but indeed His very design for creation, for life, for us – so I respectfully let them know in no uncertain terms that at least one of them would be driving me to the emergency room within ten seconds and to their credit they did and it’s a good thing because otherwise the first person in known human history to memorize the ENTIRE Bible and then recite it back to the Lord as a one-of-a-kind love and thank-You gift for all He does and who He is would never have made it out of his teens: you see, the urgent care doctor said that I hadn’t been bitten by just any spider but a brown recluse, one of three in the black widow family. The doctor cut about a half-inch section out of my arm because he could see the poisonous venom starting to spread. (The Lord was faithful to protect me – as always – but what a great illustration of the primary means by which He does so: via the “common sense” with which he has endowed each of us such that virtually everyone knows (or learns) not to put their hand on a hot stove or in a fire.) The last thing the doctor said was that had I gone even just ten or twenty minutes longer I would have definitely lost my entire arm (via amputation) and quite possibly my life.
And that’s another great example of how it is with sin in the body of Christ, the church: when sin infects one member of the body, it’s sure to spread. Like spider venom. Like cancer. Like yeast in a lump of dough. So next time we’re tempted, let each of us immediately remind ourselves that giving in and sinning would not only displease the One who has given literally everything for us and not only bring certain discipline but also adversely affect the entire body of Christ, especially our local church.
I find that focusing on how my sinning would affect God and my fellow believers is an even far more effective motivation and means by which to overcome temptation.
May I never, ever be a stumbling block or spider bite or cancer to my brothers and sisters and especially my Lord and Savior and best friend by far.
How could ANY pleasure promised by sin (James 1:14-15) even COME CLOSE to comparing to the pleasure delivered via purity and righteousness and obedience?
Next time you experience temptation I hope you give that tip a try! It has worked wonders for me. Along with a few others in particular which I’ll discuss in-depth in future posts. But the biggest “bat” by far to aid in believers’ battle with temptation and sin and the evil one is, yep, you got it, the B-I-B-L-E (to quote a beloved Sunday school song). Reading it, yes. Studying it, yes. But especially memorizing it.
With one year’s ending and another’s beginning, may we refocus our day-to-day lives on pure and righteous living and obedience to God’s Word, the Bible. And that’s really BibleMemory.ORG in a nutshell: to demonstrate the true and tangible and jaw-dropping power of the Bible – in my own life and then help do so in the lives of countless others. If YOU would like to be my partner and “fellow worker” for the kingdom of God in general and for the cause of Bible memory in specific and thus share in the eternal/heavenly and immediate/earthly benefits such is sure to produce, please click here and, if comfortably able, also the small “Make this a monthly donation” check-box on that PayPal page as this would provide even far better visibility and planning for the many ministries methinks God intends to flow forth from this historic project underway at BibleMemory.ORG!
May He bless you richly in the New Year.
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Talk about a weighty post!
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryPun fun aside, I’ve been thin my whole life… with two exceptions. The first was when I was promoted to a cushy desk job; it wasn’t the fact that I literally sat at a desk the entire shift in that new role so much as the fact that said shifts lasted 10-12 hours, virtually the whole waking day. Leaving no room for exercise. Enough said.
Then one morning I noticed that my suit pants had gotten a bit too tight for my taste and weighed myself and it was “go time!” Having resigned from that job and gone into business for myself weeks before, I availed myself of that newfound freedom of schedule and hit the many walking paths in the area (or the treadmill when the weather was wavering) for two or three hours every day but Sundays and, wa-la, got back down to my high school weight again. Whew, close call.
But then it happened again. Just recently. That’s right, the second exception was when the trying-to-taper-but-still-going-as-I-write-this pandemic hit early last year (2020) and pretty much everything was shuttered, total lockdown for what turned into many months and I put the previous poundage back on but here’s the thing: like before, it kinda “crept up” on me, like the frog which starts out in a pot of lukewarm water which only very slowly comes to a boil.
And it hit me that this is exactly how it is with the Christian life! More often than not, sin “creeps up” on a believer and previously-gained ground is given back very subtly.
Another perfect parallel: for a second time in my life I now know what it feels like to take “two steps forward, one step back” when it comes to weight management. What it’s like to “give gained ground back” and how important and more efficient it is to (a) be aware of that ever-present (pesky!) potential and (b) prevent it.
And back to the physical realm, I’ve learned for the second time that the best way to do this is to weigh myself every week or so (versus never like before). And that’s true in the spiritual realm, too!
In the physical realm I’ve taken to doing so on Saturdays, and while I’m thankful for the progress so far (around 50% of the “pandemic pounds” have been worked off) that still leaves the other half and it hit me just now on this lovely November Saturday evening that I could always just set my (analog) bathroom scale to a default setting of -15 (versus 0) and, wa-la, that would do the trick, problem solved! But only in my mind. Yes, it would feel good but wouldn’t actually do any good.
This is very obvious in the physical realm but sadly it’s exactly what countless people do spiritually in trying to take a “shortcut” to salvation/heaven, to find a different route than Christ and perhaps the biggest example of this is the massive rise we’ve all seen in “virtue signaling” in recent years in particular. As I find myself saying more and more often to those who ask, don’t let yourself get “triggered” when you observe people doing that but instead simply see it for what it actually is. Self-righteousness. Nothing more and nothing less. It’s a way human nature tries to make a person feel better about one’s spiritual state / soteriological situation, spurred on by the sense of eternity God Himself has set in the human heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11) but unless a person goes through Christ (John 14:6) it’s literally no different than if one were to set the default on their bathroom scale to -15.
Truly, totally ineffective.
Why try to do for oneself (with guaranteed failure) what Christ has already done for us (with infinite success)?
Why merely feel good about one’s spiritual state very temporarily versus actually being in good shape for all eternity?
I choose the latter.
I choose Christ.
Unlike the computer on which I’m currently typing, when it comes to salvation/heaven there are no shortcuts. Or as the famous tagline in Porsche ads would put it, there is no substitute.
The solution is found in Christ alone.
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If you sense that the Lord might be leading YOU to support the historic event unfolding in real-time here at BibleMemory.ORG and thus become my fellow worker and thus share in all of the fruit and blessings (3 John 8) and literally MAKE HISTORY together, here are the best ways to do so:
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3. Add your name to my Prayer List!
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Inaudible… But Very Loud!
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryAs we all know, the wind is intangible… but definitely not silent!
A few months ago a very rare, no, unheard-of tornado (and a DUAL tornado at that!) came within mere feet of my humble abode. At 9:00 p.m. no less. (If you want to experience something truly ethereal, have a double-tornado pass right in front of your bedroom window at night, in pitch darkness. It wasn’t scary, but was one of the most interesting moments and events of my entire life.) But it doesn’t take something even a tenth of that to know that the wind isn’t silent. Hence the common term “howling wind” we’ve all heard hundreds of times.
No, the wind definitely isn’t always silent… and neither is the Holy Spirit!
Inaudible? Yes. For He speaks through the Bible. I.e., the Bible “does His talking for Him” – the Bible is the Holy Spirit’s voice as it were.
Intangible? Yes. The Holy Spirit is a, um, s-p-i-r-i-t and therefore, by definition and nature, inherently intangible.
Yet I find that the Holy Spirit is often quite LOUD. If we truly take the time and wield the wisdom to simply listen for His gentle yet unmistakable and indeed inescapable leading and frequent proddings. Which are every bit as tangible as when we feel the wind blow on our faces or bodies.
This has probably been the number one area of life about which the Lord through the Bible has been teaching and convicting then empowering me in my daily life, in my day-to-day walk with Him.
Things like music and TV and radio and hobbies aren’t (necessarily) bad in and of themselves (and when managed properly can indeed be very positive, reap great results) – bunless they come before or interfere with the things of God including and in many ways especially the free-will capacity we give the Holy Spirit to get through to us on an ongoing basis.
Believe me, He is very, very, very, very willing and ready to do just that, but will never, ever violate a person’s free will (definitely more on that in a future post, some very powerful takeaways) so it’s up to each of us to voluntarily “make way”, to “make a clear path” for His inaudible-but-loud communications to our hearts/minds.
Yes, the Holy Spirit is like the wind. And – as you’ll see for yourself, with your own eyes, in the coming months and years via this website and related YouTube Channel – Bible memory is like a wind tunnel.
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Quick Thought: Only One
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryI think it’s safe to say that virtually every believer is well aware that it’s wrong, indeed dangerous and even deadly, to judge (condemn, criticize) others.
But why? Because God says so in the Bible, quite (crystal) clearly. But why does He say so, what’s behind that truth?
Another truth, as is ever the case with God and His Word, the Bible.
It’s because HE is the Judge… the ONLY judge on the planet.
(For those who might think that jurists – the human judges in our courtrooms – are an exception, not so, since their authority is merely lent, simply delegated to them by God; see Romans 13:1).
But in comparison, I think far fewer people realize that this very same principle applies to a “control issue”. Trying to be “in control” – in most cases, all of the time, in every situation.
While I could (literally) write a book about the bevy of bad results such brings about in the human realm, the spiritual consequences are even far bigger, far worse, far-reaching.
Why? Because control belongs to God and God alone.
Ergo, it’s every bit as crucial and biblical to avoid “trying to control” others as it is to avoid judging others. And every bit as dangerous to fail in that endeavor.
The only form of “control” we can rightly possess is self-control, and of course that’s so good because it’s the fruit of, produced by, the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
I wrote about this in greater depth in an early post on this blog but I love the parallel of those two applications of this “only one” principle as set forth in the two verses highlighted above.
When it comes to things like judging or controlling others, it’s always best, beneficial, biblical to “render… to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:21; Mark 12:17)
With few if any real exceptions, we don’t like it when others seek to usurp or violate our “space”.
Neither does God.
Lord, may we wisely leave “judging” and “being in control” to You and You alone. For there is indeed “only one” Judge and “only one” Sovereign: You. Grow in us instead a servant’s heart of humility and sweet-spirited submissiveness and love.
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The “Big Lie”
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryLike the rest of us, you’re probably hearing that phrase being thrown around seemingly nonstop these days. For the past almost-year since the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
People politically-left use it to describe the efforts and claims of former president Donald Trump and his allies that the election was “stolen”, “rigged” or a variant thereof.
People on the political right say that the “Big Lie” is the “Big Lie”.
They’re both wrong.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, way, way, way off. Not even close! Because the ACTUAL “Big Lie” – the biggest and most common and most dangerous and deadly and, very unfortunately, most successful, most believed lie, is the one the devil and his minions and the sinful, fallen flesh of humankind tell virtually every lost soul: that they’re on the path to Heaven when they’re actually on the road which leads to Hell.
The devil and his minions have placed big signs every few feet along that road to hell which have four oversized words written on them: “This way to Heaven” – even though they know that nothing could be further from the truth since there’s only ONE path that truly leads to Heaven. The one which goes straight through the immaculate womb and rugged Cross and empty tomb. (I’m copyrighting that because if I ever write a book on the life of Jesus, that’ll be the title: From Immaculate Womb to Empty Tomb 🙂 )
But thankfully, God is faithful to grant clear vision of the truth to every person who accepts whatever amount of the truth about Him and His plan of salvation, the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-8, among many other passages… throughout the entire Bible actually but this Chapter is perhaps the clearest and easiest-to-understand of them all), that they’ve received up to that point. For example, Romans 1:20 and Psalm 19:1-6 couldn’t communicate any more crystal-clearly that nature reveals a certain amount of facts, of truth, about God; so if anyone accepts what nature, for instance, reveals about God, He will always be faithful to send them more truth, to take them to the next level of understanding about Him and human sin and salvation/redemption which is the path that leads to (drum roll, please) Heaven! For all eternity.
But, heart-breakingly, billions upon billions of people who have passed through this life – down to the present day and hour and minute – have opted to put their faith in, say, self-righteousness to get them to Heaven. Wrong way (as the common traffic sign says). Wrong path. Wrong answer. (Insert the “buzzer” sound effect from “Family Feud” here.) Because not a single one of us is good enough to “earn” our way to Heaven. “No not one.”
Some of you might be saying, “But DJ Bible, I go to church every Sunday. Twice! And mid-week, too!” To which I reply, “Good for you! That’s a very good thing… but it won’t get a person even a single inch closer to Heaven in and of itself.”
Others have opted to not have any faith at all in or about God and instead have chosen to be atheists. I pray for them as a group regularly, that they’ll see the light before it’s too late, before they find themselves – their real self, their soul – standing before a certain throne of judgment. Not of forgiveness or mercy for it would be too late. But it isn’t too late yet! Hence my regular prayers for that group and others. I genuinely love atheists. And agnostics. And even the ever-smirking self-righteous like the Pharisees of Jesus’s time. Because God loves them. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. Every bit as much as He loves His own children, for His love is infinite and immutable, continual, constant, cannot change even one iota ever toward anyone. Because it’s literally who He is.
But please don’t mistake that, as many do, to mean He therefore couldn’t and wouldn’t ever send someone to hell for all eternity.
He, in the Bible, makes it explicitly clear that He most certainly can and will… IF a person hasn’t chosen the aforementioned path that really does lead to Heaven. Or as 2 Thessalonians 2:10 puts it, who “did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”
All of which brings us to perhaps the scariest portion of the Bible; just listen to what Jesus Himself said (super-scoldingly, brimming with righteous, justified anger but all in love for them, for their souls) to a group of Pharisees who were the “religious” leaders of that era:
You see, it’s not about what a person says but rather what a person “does”, what they “practice” in life, what characterizes their lives overall. (You can read more about this specific aspect in a past post.)
Furthermore, when it comes to getting into Heaven, what counts isn’t whether or not you know Christ but rather whether or not He knows you. Not whether I know Him bur whether He knows me.
Further still, note how strong, how powerful self-deception, self-deceit, self-delusion can be. It’s clear by their statement that the Pharisees were absolutely, 100% “certain” they were headed for Heaven.
Score another one for the “Big Lie”. Those men, those souls were like countless other people before and since whose human heart has definitively convinced them that they too are headed for Heaven, But as the Bible also makes crystal clear about said human heart:
I’m sorry to say that I know this to be true firsthand. Thankfully the Bible – and especially Bible memory and recitation and meditation – can and does and will transform the human heart/mind (c.f., Romans 12:1-2) so I’m very, very, very grateful for that but all of us, all of our hearts and minds and souls start out life in the very same boat as described in Jeremiah 17:9 and – still enveloped by fallen, sinful flesh until the day we physically die – that battle never goes very far away in this life, on this side of eternity (c.f., Romans 7:14-25 and Galatians 5:16-26, and note that word “practice” in verse 21 of this latter passage… like I said in that past post, it’s all about “practice”!) – even for the most spiritually mature, which I feel very safe in saying was the Apostle Paul [who physically penned those words] since he was undoubtedly the fullest imitator of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1) the world has ever known (and, not coincidentally, probably suffered more than any other human has other than Jesus Himself, but perhaps more about that in a future post) (see also 1 Peter 4:1-2 … definitely more about that in a future post, very powerful and empowering and relieving and freeing/liberating!).
Getting back to this present post’s primary passage in Matthew 7, note that those Pharisees were putting all of their weight and dependence and faith in (admittedly very impressive but equally insufficient-to-get-to-Heaven) deeds rather than having an actual relationship with God. (Meaning a good, active, ongoing and ever-growing relationship, as technically everyone has a relationship with God… some good, some bad; some functional, some dysfunctional; some peaceful, some hostile; some effective, some ineffective; some sufficient, some insufficient.)
And the fifth and final fact from this bit of our beloved Bible I’ll note is that two-word phrase “narrow gate” here in Matthew 7:13, both of which are repeated in verse 14. The picture painted by Jesus is that of a turnstile.
Ever gone with your family to the airport or amusement park or many other places and tried to all go through the turnstile at the same time, together? To say that doesn’t work very well is an understatement. Because it doesn’t work at all.
Does. Not. Work.
And that’s EXACTLY how it is with Heaven, too! It’s entirely an individual thing. Nobody, absolutely nobody can enter as part of a group or family or couple or even denomination. Strictly “one at a time ” as the signs on turnstiles blare.
Good, spiritually-mature and doctrinally-correct families can certainly be a huge help in terms of (post-salvation) spiritual growth, but not salvation itself; no, that’s a decision which each one of us must come to, must make entirely on our own, individually, from our own heart.
The previous post on this blog was about 9/11 (20th anniversary). I’ll end this one by begging any of you who haven’t yet come to that point, who haven’t yet made that decision of salvation through faith in Christ and specifically His becoming a human (Philippians 2:5-11) via the immaculate conception by the Holy Spirit; His perfect, sinless life (how would you like to have been Mary’s other children… talk about sibling issues, yikes, always having to be compared or live up to an older brother who was perfect – truly perfect, not like some who just think they are, but I digress 😉 ); and His death, burial, and resurrection.
THAT, my dear friends, is THE path, the RIGHT path that does indeed lead to, which will indeed take you to Heaven when your time here on earth comes to an end.
And harkening back to 9/11, please don’t make the potentially eternally-dreadful mistake of “putting off the matter” for another day or until another time. Because just think about those thousands of people who woke up on September 11, 2001, and went to work at their office in the World Trade Center or Pentagon as usual, just like every other day, or hopped on an airplane as many of them had so many times before.
Very often, death doesn’t give a one-year or one-week or one-day or even one-second notice. Much better, much wiser to plan ahead in this most important matter. And for the many of you reading this who no doubt already have, how crucial it is to lovingly tell those in your inner circle or whose paths you cross about this.
I feel compelled to end this post by reiterating something I emblazoned on the BibleMemory.ORG Home page and also said in the Overview video on the Home and Videos pages: in my view, in my perspective, I’m the biggest sinner I know, I’m the biggest sinner I’ve ever known, and I’m the biggest sinner you’ve probably ever known, at least that’s the way I see it, since memorizing a lot of Bible verses and indeed entire books opens one’s eyes very widely so as to see these two things (among countless others) very clearly: how righteous and perfect God is, and how sinful and unrighteous and imperfect we are in and of ourselves, apart from Christ – “who knew no sin [became] sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21, one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible, one of my favorite statements ever made by pen or tongue). Harkening back one last time to those Pharisees in Matthew 7… it’s not about me, it’s not about you, it’s not about us, it’s all about Him!
And praise the Lord for that.
Thankfully this “Big Truth” totally trumps, utterly outweighs the real ”Big Lie”, which the devil is constantly throwing out, hoping to snag and drag as many unsuspecting people as possible with him to an eternity in hell. (Misery loves company, eh?) Let’s rededicate ourselves, right now, to thwarting those plans of his by lovingly and humbly and powerfully and confidently communicating – by our lives/deeds, then our words – to as many people as possible starting with those in our inner circles, the “Big Truth”.
In fact, now when someone so much as says that phrase “the Big Lie” you have a perfect reply! Talk about an open door!
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REPRINT: It’s That Time of Year Again: 9/11
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryThe following is a reprint of a past post:
September 11.
This is a date and that was a day which we will never forget. September 11, 2001. 9/11. It doesn’t matter how it’s written, it still causes a tingle to run up my neck every time. The tragedy. The sorrow. The loss. The massive and senseless, needless loss of people who were simply going to work like they had thousands of days before or merely catching a flight that morning.
But also the heroism and bravery of our fellow Americans. The first responders. The amazing passengers on United Flight 93 who almost saved themselves but definitely saved the country from an even more horrific outcome that day since those hijackers were planning to fly that plane into the U.S. Capitol or the White House.
And that reminds me of a great Bible verse, Romans 8:28 – “And we KNOW that God causes ALL things to work together for GOOD to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” There are many ways which that proved true in a big-picture, overarching kind of way… but also and even down to the nitty-gritty. Did you ever think that a 30-minute DELAY on a runway would be a good thing? Indeed, just the opposite: that’s likely near the top of the list of things that cause people to curse aloud. But just think about how gracious God was in letting that particular plane – United 93 – on that particular runway at that particular airport on that particular day get delayed for take-off for a solid half-hour, which in turn allowed those brave passengers to receive the phone conversations and realize what fate awaited their plane unless they rose up and fought back, to save their own lives but otherwise at least the lives of their fellow man on the ground in Washington, DC. As you’ll hear me say regularly in future posts and one in particular, there is NO SUCH THING as a “coincidence” in life. None whatsoever. And this is a good and indeed historic example of that. (Most of us probably thought we’d NEVER give thanks for a 30-minute delay in traffic, eh?)
And indeed, as recently noted in the past, despite all the tragic loss and destruction and devastation which occurred that day, I thank God for 9/11. For that bravery and selflessness and self-sacrifice demonstrated so beautifully and courageously by those first responders in New York and Washington and our military heroes at NORAD and civil servants at several FAA centers in the east and those countless “average” citizens like me who dropped to the knee and cried out to God for mercy and grace and healing for a country which has always tasted so generously of His grace but has put that at risk in recent decades by turning its back on Him in many ways, reminding Him (for MY sake, NOT His) of the truth in James 5:11 – that He is by nature “full of compassion, and is merciful” and surely enough He doled both out in spades and has kept our nation free of big attacks these past 18 years since. (Indeed, and interestingly beyond words, I prayed that prayer right at 10:30 a.m. ET, as the TV screen was showing the collapse of the second World Trade Center tower – and as it turns out that was the exact END of the active devastation.)
So on this day which will indeed never be forgotten, which like December 7 sixty years before will “live in infamy”, I thank God for all of those things, for bringing us through that horror and demonstrating His mercy and compassion yet again, just like that verse says. May He continue to be on our side but as Abraham Lincoln so wisely put it, “my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” Amen. Lord, please pour out that compassion particularly on those directly affected, who still feel the sting of the loss of friends and/or family. For those now-adults who were children who lost one or both parents, forever altering the course and nature of their lives. For those former first responders who still suffer the dreadful effects of cancer and other diseases to this day as a result of that day. For Lisa Beamer and surviving relatives of those courageous passengers on Flight 93 whom You used to lessen and dull the full brunt of that day. May each of us serve as Your fingers and feet to them through our prayers on their behalf, donating to their respective charities, or simply showing kindness to strangers, who more likely than not were affected by that day even if by two or four or six degrees of separation. And most of all, Lord, please keep using that day and the memory of it to remind the masses that only ONE THING in life really matters, and that’s the decision we make regarding the life to come, regarding our eternal destination. May not a single person reading this take another step or spend another night without first making sure that this is a settled matter, by putting their faith in Your immaculate conception, perfect life, then Your death, burial, and resurrection to cover and pay the price for OUR sins and thus allow us to enjoy a relationship of peace with God, not hostility.
Please make that a pressing priority. Please don’t delay even one more day. Because, as so dramatically demonstrated on 9/11/01, “tomorrow” is guaranteed to nobody. TODAY “is the day of salvation’ … NOW is ‘the acceptable time'” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
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If you sense that the Lord might be leading YOU to support the historic event unfolding in real-time here at BibleMemory.ORG and thus become my fellow worker and thus share in all of the fruit and blessings (3 John 8) and literally MAKE HISTORY together, here are the best ways to do so:
1. Become a one-time or monthly partner by making a donation via PayPal’s fully-secure Bible Memory page!
2. Encourage as many people as you can to support this historic event by having them go to BibleMemory.ORG/support (please make sure they understand that it’s .org, not .com) – doing so by word-of-mouth is great, and to do so with a single click on your social media simply click here then scroll down a few inches to the green box and select your platforms, it’s that quick and easy!
3. Add your name to my Prayer List!
4. Encourage as many of our fellow Christians as you can to pray for this historic event by having them go to BibleMemory.ORG/pray (please make sure they understand that it’s .org, not .com) – doing so by word-of-mouth is great, and to do so with a single click on your social media simply click here then scroll down a few inches and select your platforms, it’s that quick and easy!
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Quick Thought: “D’oh!”
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryLast night for dinner I had a big bowl of salad.
Score: +1
Overall: +1
But I paired it with a half-loaf of freshly-baked French bread.
Score: -1
Overall: 0
Gained ground given right back … I should’ve remembered this past post!
In the physical realm but even far more in the spiritual realm, how important it is indeed to maintain the ground we gain.
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