When it comes to stocks and bonds, the market continually makes the trader/investor an offer.

If you say no, it just comes right back with another  offer.

If you say no again, it just comes right back with yet another one, and so on, and so on, ad infinitum.

And that’s EXACTLY how it is with temptation/trials for a Christian.

Our flesh (James 1:14) “offers” us a temptation, an opportunity to sin (i.e., to choose SIN and the Devil OVER Christ and the cross in that moment).

If we say no, it just comes back with another offer.

If we say no again, it just comes back with yet another one, and so on, and so on, ad infinitum – UNTIL we leave this world and are in heaven with Christ, “where neither moth nor rust destroys” (Matthew 6:19-20).

The key is to KEEP RESISTING (1 Peter 5:9), knowing – and being motivated by the fact – that “the one who ENDURES TO THE END, he shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:13)

To end where we began with an analogy to the stock market… that’s why an overall “chart” of DECREASING sin, INCREASING righteousness is indeed one of the biblical PROOFS of genuine salvation, that someone is truly saved and not only “knows” the Lord but (infinitely more importantly) IS KNOWN BY the Lord.

• “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to BE KNOWN BY God…” (Galatians 4:9)
• “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 [the key word here; note that He DOESN’T use the word “commit”] lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:22-23)
• “And by THIS we KNOW that we have come to know Him [i.e., be known by Him], if we KEEP [i.e., practice!] HIS COMMANDMENTS.  The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does NOT keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is NOT in him; BUT WHOEVER keeps [i.e., practices!] His word, in him the love of God has TRULY been perfected.  By this we KNOW that we are in Him:  the one who says he abides in Him out himself to walk [practice!] in the same manner as He walked.” (1 John 2:3-6)
• “EVERYONE who PRACTICES [there’s that word/concept again!] sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.  And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.  No one who abides in Him sins [i.e., PRACTICES sin]; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him  Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices [there’s that word yet again!] righteousness IS righteous, JUST AS He is righteous [more on this in a minute]; the one who practices [there’s that word yet again!] sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning.  The Son of God [i.e., Jesus] appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.  NO ONE who is born of God PRACTICES sin [there’s that word yet again!  He couldn’t have been and the Bible couldn’t be ANY CLEARER in the matter!], BECAUSE His seed abides in him; and he CANNOT [practice] sin, BECAUSE he is born of God.  By this the children of God [i.e., saved] and the children of the devil [i.e., unsaved] are OBVIOUS:  anyone who does not practice [told ya that’s the key word =] righteousness is not of God…” (1 John 3:4-10)

Yes, the KEY word is “practice”, but in “second place” would be “because” and praise the Lord He included that word, too.  You see, it totally takes away any “pressure” to perform in the Christian life because THAT is and can ONLY be accomplished BY CHRIST, as clearly explained in one of my “life verse” couplets which I’ll leave you with for now:  “Therefore, if ANY man [i.e., person] IS in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things [i.e., practices, habits, affections, perspectives] have come.  He [God the Father] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, THAT we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:17,21)  And THAT, my friends, perfectly explains 1 John 3:5-10.

What a blessing and help and comfort and confidence that God graciously gave us in the Bible, which serves as a MIRROR for us to look into and see our TRUE spiritual state (James 1:22-27) so that we needn’t go through life with ANY DOUBT about whether or not we are truly saved.  We DON’T have to wait until the next life (eternity) to find out (good thing, because then it’s TOO LATE) – no, we can KNOW with TOTAL AND COMPLETE CONFIDENCE in THIS life exactly where we’ll be spending the next, where we’ll be spending all eternity.  This is THE MOST IMPORTANT MATTER IN ALL OF LIFE, nothing else EVEN COMES CLOSE.  Which is why the Bible urges us to REGULARLY LOOK into that mirror, to MAKE SURE.

• “TEST YOURSELVES to SEE if you are in the faith; EXAMINE YOURSELVES!” (2 Corinthians 13:5)
• “Therefore, brethren, be ALL THE MORE DILIGENT to MAKE CERTAIN about His calling and choosing you [i.e., your salvation]; for as long as you practice [there’s that word YET AGAIN, amazing!] these things, you will never stumble” (2 Peter 1:10)

God, via the Bible – and by extension, I – DON’T say that to cause anyone to doubt but JUST THE OPPOSITE, to REMOVE any and all doubt about it.

Eternity demands nothing less.

I have ZERO power or ability to save anyone (including myself).  None.  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  Because that’s ENTIRELY the work of the Holy Spirit through the Bible, the Gospel, the “message concerning Christ” as Romans 10:17 puts it.  But you know what I CAN do?  I can make as many people as possible AWARE of this pressing, most-crucial-of-them-all-by-far matter.  While I’d personally LOVE for as many people as possible to join me and Christians throughout the ages in Heaven some day, to spend all eternity there with our precious and victorious Lord, the aforementioned Matthew 7:13-23 makes it crystal clear that the majority of people won’t, but I at least don’t want them to leave this life and slip into eternity without opening their eyes widely about this matter, and if they reject the truth then sobeit, that’s between them and God, that’s not just “above my pay grade” it’s out of my realm altogether, but making them AWARE of this truth is not, and indeed I’ve committed the rest of my earthly life to that very thing, under the umbrella and rubric of the work and ministry of the Bible in general and Bible memory in specific.

In other words, I’d prefer that every person accepted the truth and thus received all of the related and indescribable benefits and reward, but I at least want – and have the ability – to make them AWARE of that option.  Because the saddest and scariest thought of them all is how many millions and indeed billions of people have indeed NOT REALIZED these things until it was too late, until they had already entered a fiery and tortuous eternity which will know no end or respite or reversal.

No, THIS LIFE is the time to resolve one’s eternal destiny.  Or as 2 Corinthians 6:2 puts is, “NOW is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold, NOW is ‘the day of salvation.'”

May it be so.

It’s very true that I can’t save anyone, but I CAN and would be thrilled to provide whatever information you might seek in this matter, simply use the form below but instead of entering “not spam” in the filter box, please enter “salvation” and any questions or comments you might have then click that red button and it’ll be my honor to respond just as quickly as possible.

Because NOTHING in this  life is so important as resolving one’s destiny vis-a-vis the life to come.  And my goal is to help as many people as possible remove all doubt.  For the rest of their lives.
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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!

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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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I have to admit that 99.9% of Bible passages make me happy.  No, thrilled.  They literally breathe new life  into me.

But there is a stark exception:  Luke 17:11-19

Jesus healed ten lepers.

Leprosy is like no other disease.  It was so bad that those stricken by it were forced to dwell outside  of the city, on the outskirts of town, and had to depend on the merciful, pity-filled alms of others just to survive.

I won’t go into the medical specifics of that disease because, well, frankly, I just ate and don’t want to, um, exhume my dinner but trust me, it was a gross, hideous disease, and those who suffered from it had perhaps the worst  ”quality of life” except for death itself… and I’m not sure even THAT was a step down, I think many lepers would deem death itself as a step up, as an improvement, and one of the few types of people who probably greeted “the Grim Reaper” with a hug and kiss.

Now imagine for a minute that you were born with no arms, no legs, no eyes, and no ears.  And one day a doctor discovered a cure and freely gave it to you and, bam, you suddenly had all of your limbs and eyes and ears and were as good as new, what would you say to that doctor, how would you react?

Well, in Luke 17:11-19 the Bible tells us that Jesus came across ten lepers and healed them.

Good as new!

After living their entire life – which was really no life at all, no quality of life whatsoever – in such a horrific condition, you and I would think, would just assume that those ten lepers couldn’t thank Jesus enough  for healing them and totally transforming their lives, right?

Yeah, but we’d be wrong.  Can you believe that just ONE of those lepers took the time to THANK Jesus?

Man, that is so GALLING!  It’s vexing even just thinking  about those other nine lepers.  Infuriating, really, that anyone ‭ could be THAT ungrateful!  Grrrrr.

But no sooner did that thought hit me a few minutes ago that a second, quite different thought immediately followed:

How often do I  thank the Lord for my spiritual salvation that permitted and produced the greatest transformation of all, one of literally infinite, eternal proportions?

How often do YOU?

Color me embarrassed.  Color me convicted.  Because even though I do thank Him for that every day or two, it’s not nearly, nearly, nearly, nearly, nearly, nearly enough.  You better believe that if a human doctor cured me of leprosy or cancer or any other life-altering disease, I’d be showing up at his or her office at least three times a day for the first month or two and thereafter would do so via email for the rest of my life.

How much more, then, does God, the great Healer and Miracle-doer, deserve our constant gratitude for curing us of an eternal disease?

Let’s commit and strive to be like that one leper, not  the nine.

How fitting that these two thoughts hit me on Thanksgiving Eve.

Happy Thanksgiving indeed!

But every  day should be Thanksgiving for those of us who’ve been healed by the Lord every bit as tangibly and infinitely more consequentially than those lepers.

May it be so.
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I love the hymns of old in particular.  So many are chock full of theological truths straight out of Scripture, both simple and profound.

I have far too many favorites to list them here but one of them is How Great Thou Art, made famous and a household humming fave by its pervasive use in the Billy Graham crusades.

But I often think that if I were to ever write a hymn I’d likely title it How Good  Thou Art.

Was and is and will He forevermore be great?  Ab-so-LUTE-ly!

Christ created everything.  “Both in the heavens and on earth.  visible and invisible [I’d say that covers it! =] … all things have been created by Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:16)

Christ clearly and convincingly and completely conquered  sin and death.  Think about that for a second:  He conquered death.

In His death, burial and resurrection, He made Satan like that famous fish which went after a worm on a hook and thought he was about to eat dinner when in fact he was about to be  dinner.  As Jesus bled and bled and bellowed out asking why the Father had forsaken Him and breathed His last breath before becoming sin  for us (2 Corinthians 5:21) (think about THAT for a second… mind-blowing), Satan saw such and started to celebrate – a bit prematurely as it turns out.  He put on a private party in Perdition but before it could barely begin, Jesus rained on his parade (Ephesians 4:8-9) and “disarmed” the devil and his demons but went even further and turned that private party into a “public display” of degrading defeat and definitive deliverance (Colossians 2:15).  (Talk about crashing a party!  Talk about making an entrance!)

Greatness doesn’t get any greater than that!

How great Thou art, indeed.

But just as often each day I find myself being overwhelmed with how wonderfully warm and loving and generous and giving and good  He is to me, and to all of His children, and even to those who not only don’t yet know Him but who hate  Him! (Matthew 5:45; Romans 5:8,10)

He clothes us and feeds us and shelters us.  But He not only takes care of the physical and emotional needs of our human hearts and bodies but also our spiritual needs.  Salvation.  Eternal life.  Forgiveness of our (unfortunately) ongoing but (fortunately) ever-decreasing sins.  The ability to love and be loved by Him.  To know and be known by and walk with Him every day, every hour, every minute.

Goodness doesn’t get any “gooder” than that!

So, yeah, I think that would be the title if I ever write a hymn to Him:  How Good Thou Art.

Because both  are absolutely essential for us.  And essential to  Him.  His greatness and His goodness.  His goodness and His greatness.  For without the former, the latter wouldn’t do us any good as He’d be a tyrant, gushing with greatness and power and muscle but no heart.  Yet without the latter, the former would give us a god who wants  to grant us “every good thing” and “every perfect gift” (James 1:17) but lacks the power to actually do so.  No, beloved, it’s the combination  of His goodness and greatness which makes Him not “a god” but God.

So on second thought, I’d title that future hymn How Great and Good Thou Art!

Thank You, Lord, for Your goodness and  greatness.  For being so great but also being so good, and so good to us.

Indeed, that dual fact is exactly why I’m in the process of memorizing the entire Bible – every word of His Word, of His love letter to us – so I can demonstrate  through this very unique love/thank-You gift the gratitude and affection I and countless others hold for all He does and who He is!  For the fact that He not only defines greatness but goodness, too.

Yes, how great – and  good – Thou art, indeed.
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It rained in my city all last night and all this morning.  The lingering vestige of what was a hurricane when it hit land on the Gulf Coast a few days ago.  Drenched.

But as is always the case, eventually, around noon today, the Sun shone down its powerful beams on the ground and guess what, yep, in just an hour or two it was totally dry.

That’s the power of the Sun.

Now multiply that by INFINITY and you’ll have the answer to this post’s title.

You see, not only did Jesus Christ perform actual and literal miracles and demonstrate Deity-derived dominance over nature and life itself (instantly calming a storm and raising Lazarus from the dead, just to name two of many), not only did He prove that He had power over the natural realm, but even greater than that is the fact that He has power over the spiritual realm!  He not only can raise people from the dead, He can save their souls forever (Hebrews 7:25).  I’m living proof.  He saw and felt compassion for and personally pursued the biggest sinner I know, the biggest sinner I’ve ever known, and the biggest sinner you’ve probably ever known – ME! – and instantly transformed him from a spiritually dead and depraved and dirty-as-filthy-rags do-no-gooder into “the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Just think about that for ten seconds (or hours).  He is able and willing and ready to turn total sinners into the very RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD HIMSELF and give them eternal life in His presence in heaven decked out with its streets of gold and crystal-like sea, to dwell and reside and live with Him and all other believers forever and ever and ever.

That’s the power of the Son.

I pray that you come to know Him if you haven’t already.  Through this website and historic undertaking and outflowing ministries would be the biggest thrill and honor and privilege of my life here on earth but that’s very, very secondary – at the end of the day, I’ll be thrilled with whomever  God might use to accomplish that, i.e., that blessed result  is what’s paramount, the vessel  God may choose to use will merely be a cherry on that simply-so-sweet spiritual sundae.
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