You might think I’m talking about the seat “at the head of the table” referenced in Luke 14:7-11. And that’s also a seat to be avoided at all cost. The seat of selfish pride, of self-honor.
Or you might think I’m talking about “the seat of scoffers” referenced in Psalm 1:1, at the very beginning, in the very first verse of that longest of all biblical books and constant “love song” to the Lord and His Word. And that too is a seat to be avoided at all cost.
But I’m talking about trying to place oneself in the seat of God Himself, as referenced in 2 Thessalonians 2:4.
You might not immediately think that you have anything in common with the Antichrist of end-times fame, and certainly it’s on a different scale, on both a prophetic and actual basis, but did you ever realize that any time we try to control things or other people, we are absolutely putting ourselves in HIS seat? Since He – and He alone – is sovereign, since He shares control with no one? And every time we exhibit pride – like the Antichrist or those dinner guests in Luke 14 – that’s tantamount to placing ourselves in the seat of Him for whom alone “pride” and “Self” aren’t wicked and indeed, in His case, are utterly appropriate and fitting and righteous? Pride is something of which He COULDN’T ever be guilty because He is worthy of all glory and honor and power and praise and worship, is He not? Indeed He is.
He is worthy, YOU AND I ARE NOT. Distinctly not. (That statement should garner me an Oscar nomination for Biggest Understatement in a Supporting Role.)
We look at the Antichrist’s conduct described in 2 Thessalonians and Revelation and Daniel (among other passages) and immediately realize how foolish and silly and repulsive it is, yet we are guilty – in essence if not extent – of the very same thing whenever we would seek control over anything but ourselves (Galatians 5:23) or – “with all dignity” – one’s children (1 Timothy 3:4) during that temporary phase of their lives. Whenever we let pride creep in by deeming ourselves better than others — than anyone else — or by seeking honor and glory for ourselves versus “putting the spotlight on others” and overarchingly on the Lord Jesus Christ.
So instead of unknowingly and unintentionally following the example of none other than the Antichrist, let us determine this day, here and now, to instead – and very knowingly and intentionally – follow the example of Him who loved others so much that He laid down HIS OWN LIFE that they might live (1 Timothy 2:5-6; 1 John 3:16; Romans 5:18-19), who was so humble that he didn’t regard even ACTUAL AND LITERAL EQUALITY WITH GOD something to be grasped or counted as gain in terms of human self (Philippians 2:3-11), and when suffering didn’t turn that onto those inflicting such but rather entrusted Himself to God (1 Peter 2:23; 3:9; 4:19). And so should we.
“EVERYONE who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; assuredly, he will not be unpunished.” (Proverbs 16:5)
“For EVERYONE who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.” (Luke 14:11)
“And WHOEVER exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12)
“Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” (James 4:10)
Or as Charles Haddon Spurgeon would put it, each of us has a choice to be HUMBLE or be HUMBLED. May we choose the former. Like that wise dinner guest in Luke 14:10. I gladly do so since even in the human/horizontal realm it’s just far more flat-out fun. And if it was good enough for “God in flesh appearing”, how much more fitting for sinners and mere mortals like us?
Lastly, there’s one more takeaway, one more way to apply this truth.
In sports lingo, everything discussed above primarily pertains to “offense”. But this is also imperative for a strong, healthy “defense” in life. Here’s what I mean.
What we do is very important. For instance, James 2:14-17 and 1 John 3:17-18 are crystal clear that qualitative to any genuine Christian is the consistent practice of meeting the needs of others. Same with the broader category of loving others, to the point that 1 John 4:7-8 says “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” and again at the end of that very same Chapter, verse 20 says this: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he HAS seen, CANNOT love God whom he has NOT seen.” Whoa! And James 3:9-12 echoes that very sentiment when it comes to how we speak to or about others: “With it [our tongue] we bless our Lord and Father; and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing [of God] and cursing [of others]. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh AND bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Neither can salt water produce fresh.” And while our first human priority is toward other believers, this definitely extends to ALL people, which is why the beloved Apostle Paul says, “and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, AND FOR ALL MEN [i.e., mankind, people, everyone]” (1 Thessalonians 3:12).
Yes, what we do is very important – but so is what we DON’T do.
Meaning, that while it’s crucial that WE never try to sit in the seat which belongs wholly, fully, and solely to GOD (i.e., trying to control others/circumstances, pride, etc.), neither should be populate our life’s relationships with people who do try to sit in that seat. I’m not talking about strangers or reaching out to share the Gospel with people who exhibit such a pattern in their life but rather whom we do – and don’t – give a regular role in our own life.
While the Bible makes this clear on a general, overarching level, it also makes it clear in several very specific areas of life or patterns of conduct. Here are just a few, the ones which are always at the forefront of my mind when discerning which relationships I should or shouldn’t be allowing into my life so as to be in full compliance with Scripture and wisdom:
Did you know that the Bible forbids us from giving fools a place in our lives? One of my favorite verses is Proverbs 14:8[interesting side note: this verse says, “The wisdom of the prudent is to UNDERSTAND HIS WAY” and was written by Solomon who lived and ruled in the 900’s BC, but sounds a lot like Socrates’ famous quote “Know thyself” who came FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER Solomon, i.e., I don’t know whether to view him as guilty for plagiarizing and pawning it off as his own or as blessed for spreading the Word of God but in any case this is but one of many popular quotes and adages which are known and heeded in all the world but actually come from the Bible! I’ll do a separate post about those at some point, stay tuned…] but the one right before it is equally important and even more pertinent to this discussion: it says, “LEAVE THE PRESENCE of a fool, or you will not discern words of knowledge.” (I’ve already begun writing a more detailed post about the items/verses in this section so stay tuned for that, too, I think you’ll find it literally life-changing.)
Did you know that the Bible forbids us from giving people with an unresolved anger issue a place in our lives? “DO NOT ASSOCIATE with a man given to anger; or go with a hot-tempered man, lest you learn his ways and find a snare for yourself.” (Proverbs 22:24-25)
2 Peter 3:17 says not to let purveyors of false teaching into our lives: “You therefore, beloved, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of UNPRINCIPLED MEN, you fall from your own steadfastness” and in the previous Chapter gives a great example of this, referring to Sodom and Gomorrah and the effect it had on Lot (2:6-8)
And more broadly 1 Corinthians 15:33 instructs us to AVOID “BAD COMPANY” because such “corrupts good morals.”
I’ll elaborate far more in that future post but I’m sure you get the point, that not only should we make sure WE don’t try to sit in God’s seat but also not to spend time or focus or allow relational proximity with people who DO. And as we know from football and basketball and baseball and hockey and tennis and golf and any sport, it’s crucial to have both a strong offense and defense, and the Bible has just taught us that exact same principle in regard to the spiritual and relational aspect of our life. Much more about this in that future post, but simply starting to implement this biblical filter in your current relationships will have a huge effect and change your life in ways you can’t even imagine. More emotionally liberated and free. More wise. Much more happy. Stay tuned! . .
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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http://biblememory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMAGE-LOGO-BMO-PNG-3701x4004-IMPROVED-with-extended-y-underlines-Human-Head-with-Bible-on-multi-colored-Brain-Lobes-all-atop-Domain-Name-277x300.png00Bible Memoryhttp://biblememory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMAGE-LOGO-BMO-PNG-3701x4004-IMPROVED-with-extended-y-underlines-Human-Head-with-Bible-on-multi-colored-Brain-Lobes-all-atop-Domain-Name-277x300.pngBible Memory2020-03-22 16:56:312022-03-13 19:23:13Never Sit in This Seat. (And Avoid Those Who DO!)
That word, air, always makes me think of Michael Jordan. Air Jordan. Who earned that nickname by gliding ten feet in the air from foul line to rim, seemingly without effort, capped-off by an imaginative slam-dunk rarely seen by anyone else before. Or since.
But in this post I’m talking about actual air. You see, as discussed in previous posts, when the Lord called me to quit my job to devote full-time to memorizing the ENTIRE BIBLE and commit my life savings to this historic project and building this website to chronicle the journey and then using this history-making event to help others in the areas of Bible memory, spiritual growth, additional happiness in this life and eternal treasure and reward in the one to come, and even in physical healing based entirely on simply ingesting (“finding”) the words of God, the Bible (per 1 Timothy 4:8 & 6:6 and especiallyProverbs 4:22 – it doesn’t get any clearer than that!), I sold my only car and started relying on my bike and own two feet to get me around town as needed. While it’s a LOT more work than merely pushing a gas pedal, there have also been some great benefits, like getting back to my high school weight and far more importantly finding that it has been during those walks and bike rides that the Lord has opened my eyes and ears to some amazing truths which I’ll be sharing with you via this online journal (a.k.a., “blog”).
Anyway, I had gotten frighteningly low on groceries so today I rode my bike to the store so I could make it through the next week without dropping to my fetal weight. =) I hadn’t gotten more than 30 seconds into the trip when I noticed that my bike was far tougher to pedal than before. Way tougher. To the point that I was barely moving. Expending SO MUCH energy and effort but not getting anywhere.
I’m usually extremely careful about biking. To obey all rules and laws and ordinances, to avoid getting hit by the smartphone/can’t-go-ten-seconds-without-texting crowd of drivers these days, and to maintain its mechanical fitness. Well, I was quite intent about getting to the store so as to stave off starving tomorrow so I left without doing one thing on the preparatory checklist: I neglected to check the air in my tires.
And that’s when it hit me that this is EXACTLY how it is in the Christian life, in our walk with the Lord. How many of us “expend a lot of energy and effort but don’t get anywhere” to speak of, don’t really grow all that much?
The Bible in general and Bible memory in specific is the “air” in the Christian life.
Oh, sure, a bike will move if the tires are low. But not very much. And not very effectively or efficiently. But if you try Bible memory on a regular, systematic basis, you’ll find that you will GLIDE through life. Like Michael Jordan used to do on the basketball court. EVERYTHING will become easier, more effective, more efficient. And bear greater – and tangible – fruit.
So before you leave your home next time to go to work or the store or run some errands, do yourself the biggest favor and DON’T FORGET TO ADD SOME AIR! Memorize a verse or two, and then recite it throughout the day. Let it baste beautifully in your brain, in your body, in your heart and soul and mind. And I assure you that you’ll start to go through life like Michael Jordan on a basketball court.
P.S. If you aren’t sure how to best memorize Bible verses, stay tuned because the more books of the Bible I memorize, the EASIER it becomes and the greater CAPACITY for even more because of the very specific memory method it is revealing to me, to my mind’s eye, which (believe it or not) also makes it EXCITING AND FUN, and which I can hardly wait to share with you here when that process is complete or at least 95% complete, something like that. I expect such to occur in the coming months so stay tuned, it’ll CHANGE YOUR LIFE – not just spiritually but also intellectually and emotionally, just watch and see! (NOTE: If you’d like to automatically be notified by email when that and other future posts are published, you may do so in “3.” in the Side Panel near the top of this page and at the very bottom.) .
http://biblememory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMAGE-LOGO-BMO-PNG-3701x4004-IMPROVED-with-extended-y-underlines-Human-Head-with-Bible-on-multi-colored-Brain-Lobes-all-atop-Domain-Name-277x300.png00Bible Memoryhttp://biblememory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMAGE-LOGO-BMO-PNG-3701x4004-IMPROVED-with-extended-y-underlines-Human-Head-with-Bible-on-multi-colored-Brain-Lobes-all-atop-Domain-Name-277x300.pngBible Memory2020-03-22 16:55:102022-03-12 14:17:58Don't forget to add some AIR!
Imagine this scenario: a person commits a crime, is guilty as sin (literally!) but when going to trial, when entering the courtroom, sees that his defense attorney is also the judge and jury!
Sounds silly in light of how our legal system actually works, but did you ever realize that this is EXACTLY how it is for YOU AND ME in the spiritual/eternal system of justice? That’s right. We are the defendant/accused (Romans 3:23; 5:12), God is the judge (James 4:12), the devil is the prosecutor (Revelation 12:10), and Jesus Christ is the defense attorney: “And if ANYONE sins, we have an Advocate [defense attorney] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).
That’s right. It’s TOTALLY RIGGED – but in OUR FAVOR in this case! IF we select the right defense attorney.
As referenced in the previous post: “To sum up, each and every one of us is born into sin by default (Romans 5:12) but then compound the situation by our own actual sins (Romans 3:23) which carry the spiritual penalty of death (Romans 6:23).” BUT made available to each person is the greatest defense attorney ever, who has never lost even a single case for a client. Not by proffering clever legal arguments. No, the Lord Jesus Christ is unlike any other defense attorney because He wins our freedom by offering to SERVE THE SENTENCE for our crimes on our behalf, in our stead, in our place: “and He Himself is the propitiation [substitute] for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2)
Yeah, I think I’ll take HIM as my defense attorney in spiritual court, thank you very much. Talk about a no-brainer! Talk about a slam-dunk! Talk about a rigged system – but praise God, this one is indeed in our immense and infinite favor. We simply need to choose the right Attorney. .
I’m writing this on October 31. While the world wilts at the thought of ghosts and goblins and other mythical creatures, I’d like to share with you what I think actually isTHE SCARIEST thing in the universe. Bar none.
You might think I’m talking about hell, about spending all eternity in fiery torture and utter darkness and isolation and separation from God (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9) but would you believe that there’s something – one thing – EVEN SCARIER than that? And that’s this: a person’s spending all eternity in hell after being fully convinced for YEARS and even DECADES here on earth that he or she would be spending it in heaven.
The other day I turned on the TV for a few minutes to see what was going on in the nation and world, to keep up with the news, and I came across a commercial with former President Ronald Reagan’s son and namesake, Ron Reagan (which is the only reason I stopped to, you know, actually watch a commercial – a very rare, nay, unheard-of event for me personally, but he was one of the most beloved presidents so I waited a few seconds to see what his son would say). Perhaps you’ve seen it: he promotes atheism and ends by saying something to the effect that he’s “looking forward to burning in hell.”
Okay, that’s the OPPOSITE of what I’m talking about here.
I’m not referring to people like him who think eternity itself is a joke or myth or even that they’ll have fun in hell. And I’m not even talking about the exponentially greater number of people who rightly realize and view that notion as utter folly, who don’t mock hell but also don’t know whether or not they’ll avoid that grimmest of fates.
BOTH of those thoughts are scary, to be sure. Very scary. At least to any sane person. But what I find to be scariest is the fact that many, many, many people who are absolutely convinced that they’ll go to heaven will wake one irreversible day, when it’s too late, in the fiery lake of hell. The Lord Jesus Himself could not have been any clearer about this in Matthew 7.
Just the thought of that breaks my heart. Breaks. My. Heart. And brings tears to my eyes. So it’s no surprise that this is one of THE BIGGEST, STRONGEST motivating factors of my life and very existence, to spend virtually every second of every minute of every hour of every day doing everything I can (the Lord through me) to help people KNOW and MAKE SURE they are indeed headed for heaven, not hell.
I do not desire at all to breed doubt in anyone. Just the opposite: blessed and blissful certainty about this most important of all matters. Nor does the Bible desire at all to breed doubt, but given said all-importance it does URGE us in two passages in particular not to doubt but rather to REMOVE any and all doubt about our eternal status and destiny.
“TEST YOURSELVES to see if you are in the faith; EXAMINE YOURSELVES!” (2 Corinthians 13:5 – and please note the explanation point there, quite rare in the Bible, i.e., we should render rapt attention to EVERY WORD, every jot and tittle of Scripture… but the Holy Spirit – and I suspect the Apostle Paul – doesn’t ever waste His breath, even down to something like punctuation, so it would behoove us in that sense to pay 110% attention in this case, if you get my gist, i.e., it’s almost as though the Bible is “waving its hands” to get our attention, knowing that this matter perhaps more than all others is prone to getting swept under our collective rug and out of our minds)
And He takes a similar approach in 2 Peter 1:10 in saying, “Therefore, brethren, be ALL THE MORE DILIGENT to MAKE CERTAIN about” our salvation, adding that we “will never stumble” if we simply practice the qualities in verses 5-7, namely: faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love
Hmm, that sounds very familiar. Probably because it’s a virtual mirror of the “fruit of the Spirit” listed in Galatians 5:22-23. And also similar to the list in Romans 5:3-5. And Ephesians 5:18-21.
Yes, beloved, the standard, the “key” for grading the test is very clear in the Bible – not just these passages but also the entire books of James and 1 John which in essence were written for this very purpose, so that the reader “may KNOW that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13) simply by “looking intently” into the mirror of the Bible and abiding by what we see versus being “like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror” and then simply “goes away” and “immediately forgets” what he saw (James 1:22-25).
So why did these two warnings in 2 Corinthians 5:13 and 2 Peter 1:10 even need to be given much less twice? One word: deceit.
You see, not only do we have the external factor of the devil always seeking to deceive us with his various “schemes” (Ephesians 6:11) but we also have the internal factor of our fallen flesh (Jeremiah 17:9). But wait, there’s more! Believe it or not. Just what we needed, right? Yeah, like an eighth hold in the head. But be that as it may, along with being prone to the deceit of the devil and our own flesh, there’s also the additional deceit produced by sin itself (Hebrews 3:13). That’s right, it’s already as though each of us is trying to walk UP the DOWN escalator, but when we let sin into our lives, when we give into temptation, it’s as though the operator pushes the “2x speed” button.
This is the reason for that exclamation point (urgency) in 2 Corinthians 13:5 and the phrase “ALL THE MORE DILIGENT” in 2 Peter 1:10 and “applying ALL DILIGENCE” in verse 5.
But that’s easier said than done. Why? It goes back to the devil’s deceptive”schemes” of Ephesians 6:11. The Lord Himself called him the “father of lies” (John 8:44) and said that the self-righteous religious leaders of the time wanted “to do the desires” of the devil, to carry out and fulfill what THE DEVIL wanted them to. But did you know that this is the case with EVERYONE who hasn’t put their faith in Christ? “… those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from THE SNARE OF THE DEVIL, having been HELD CAPTIVE by him to DO HIS WILL.” (2 Timothy 2:25-26)
Wow! Double-wow! Just to think that there are literally billions of people on earth who are headed for an eternity in hell but don’t even realize it. Why? Well, if we had been thrown out of heaven and cursed to spending all eternity in the fiery lake and darkness and torture of hell and wanted as many people as possible to suffer that fate with us (per the time-tested adage that “misery loves company”), what would be the BEST way to accomplish that? Exactly. To make people headed for hell THINK THAT they’re going to heaven. In other words, the devil’s main desire and goal in life – and ultimately his only desire and goal – is to take as many people with him to hell. WHAT BETTER WAY TO DO THAT THAN TO MAKE THEM THINK THAT THEY’RE GOING TO HEAVEN?
You see, people who are searching out and seeking the truth are far more likely to find it, right? But by convincing so many people, by making and keeping them so convinced that they’re going to heaven, his job is made a thousand times easier and more effective, more productive, more successful. Talk about warped! Talk about evil genius! Talk about psychological/spiritual warfare! He’s playing for keeps. For eternity. But thankfully God in/through the Bible has given us all the weaponry we need to combat and overcome him and his tactics and wicked intent. The “armor of God” as noted in that very same verse, Ephesians 6:11, and consummated in verse 17 by “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” – the Bible! Isn’t it amazing how everything always comes back and down to the Bible?! This is why I’ve committed the rest of my life (literally) to memorizing it. Reading it is right, studying it is super, but memorizing it is max, ingesting it is incomparable, irreplaceable, and imperative for maximum victory over the devil and sin and our own human propensity for being deceived. 1 John 2:14 – “because you are strong, and THE WORD OF GOD ABIDES IN you, and you have OVERCOME THE EVIL ONE.” It’s right there in black and white, the only question is whether or not we’ll walk through that wide open door.
To sum up, each and every one of us is born into sin by default (Romans 5:12) but then compound the situation by our own actual sins (Romans 3:23) which carry the spiritual penalty of death (Romans 6:23). BUT by accepting that “free gift of God” of “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” by placing our faith and foundation for entering heaven wholly, fully, and solely in Him (John 14:6) by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) which comes via the Bible (Romans 10:17; James 1:18) and will be confirmed by a characterizing pattern of good works in that person’s life (Ephesians 2:10; James 2:14-26; Romans 5:15-19; entire book of James; entire book of 1 John) which also comes via the Bible (1 Peter 2:2; John 17:17).
Therefore, it’s absolutely imperative that each of us examine our own life to see, to “make certain” that it does indeed demonstrate such a pattern and if it does, then we can KNOW for a FACT that we will indeed spend eternity in heaven, not hell. “Even so, EVERY good tree bears good FRUIT; but the bad tree bears bad fruit.” (Matthew 7:17)
But if we fail to do that, to make certain of that most important of all matters, the Bible makes clear that we run the risk of merely thinking we’re on the road to heaven, of being in the very same boat of the people Jesus addressed later in that Chapter, in verses 21-23, which in my view is indeed the SCARIEST passage in all of Scripture and scariest thought in the universe. May we be wise in this matter and heed the instruction and implied warning of 2 Corinthians 13:5 and 2 Peter 1:10 – not for the purpose of making us doubt but rather to REMOVE all doubt about our true eternal destination and spiritual status. In other words, don’t question your salvation, clarify it; don’t doubt it, definitely do confirm it by taking a close look at your life on a regular basis to make sure that what you see if in line with what you read in the Bible: if it IS then KNOW that you are indeed saved and heaven is in your future, not hell. But if the overall, characterizing pattern of your life isn’t in line with the Bible then it would be wise to stop wandering through life with a guess and come to a clear conclusion in the matter – and quickly. Because tomorrow is guaranteed to nobody, only today, indeed only right now. If your examination suggests that you’re in this second camp, please don’t put it off for another day, hour, or even minute. I don’t want you to find yourself in the same situation as undoubtedly so many of those unsuspecting 9/11 victims did, startled to awake in hell when they thought they were going to heaven, or never took the time to nail down that most important of matters. And then next thing they knew, it was too late. “NOW is the acceptable time, TODAY is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Today is the day.
. .
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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… to Sunday school teachers. Are they THE BEST or what?!
They don’t do it for money or praise (since they get the latter so infrequently, and the former almost never) but rather give a good deal of their precious time for one reason: to help others, often the next generation, often children.
I remember my Sunday school teachers like it was yesterday. Most of them didn’t have impressive jobs or incomes or titles, yet I’ve remembered them regularly as I’ve journeyed through life ever since.
One in particular had an outsized impact on me, on my life and especially my future (now my present).
As noted on the home page and in other posts, ever since I heeded God’s call for my life to memorize the ENTIRE BIBLE, I’ve found that He and/or it – the Bible itself – has been revealing to me, to my mind’s eye, a very specific method to accomplish that. How true it is that God’s calling NEVER LACKS God’s provision, so I’m not surprised by this development at all but nor was I expecting it. But I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful and blesses I’ve been by it, as it hasn’t just made this historic goal actually doable but has literally revolutionized my life, because it has revolutionized my mind, my entire way of thinking, my entire thought process.
And I’m 99.99% sure that it’ll have the exact same effect on countless others when He finishes revealing it to me and I can thus share it. My sense is that I’m around 75% of the way there so I expect this to occur in the not-too-distant future and what a total GAME-CHANGER and (literally) world-changer it’ll be, no doubt about it. It will make it EASY (and, believe it or not, FUN!) for virtually ANYONE to memorize and retain unthinkably-large amounts of text. My hope and strong recommendation of course will be for them to use it 90+% for Bible memory but the fact is that it works for everything else, too. Just like EVERYTHING in the Bible does! (1 Timothy 4:8 – “For bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for ALL THINGS, since it holds promise for the PRESENT LIFE and also for the life to come.”)
I am so excited about this! Please be praying that the Holy Spirit and the Bible itself will keep it coming, will keep revealing this to me, will keep filling in that final 25% so I can share it with everyone and have the great pleasure and honor of seeing it benefit them as it has me.
But back to that childhood Sunday school teacher. Before I had any inkling that decades later God would call me to be the first person in known human history to memorize the ENTIRE BIBLE, He used that Sunday school teacher to give me my very first taste. I remember it as though it were yesterday. He was teaching us the books of the New Testament and helping us memorize them so we could turn to a passage quickly whenever the Bible was being taught, and he gave a very common but unknown-to-my-young-brain-until-then mnemonic device of acronyms.
USA, CIA, FBI, DOD, TSA, ICE – the government certainly hasn’t been bashful about using it, that’s for sure. =) And he was in the military so that all fits perfectly but the way he used it with us, with that church room of around 15 kids, was to remember the correct order of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, and he did so via “General Electric Pepsi Cola”. (A friend later said his Sunday school teacher used this variation: “General Electric Power Company” – that’s good, too, probably even a little better… whatever works best for you as I often say.) And that was all I needed! I had been memorizing Bible verses for a few years at that point thanks to BMA and AWANA (can we also give a big hand for all AWANA workers?! What a great ministry that is!) but this seemingly small aid took it to a whole other level.
I hope that ALL of the teachers reading this will never forget that even the smallest statement out of your mouth, even what might seem like a “throwaway line” can make a HUGE difference in your students’ lives and even effect change on the whole world as I think will be the case in this instance.
To all teachers – and especially Sunday school teachers – thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart (and I’m sure your students’, if not now then certainly when they’re older). Lord bless you richly for investing your time and energy and insights for eternal dividends. Indeed, “your labor is not in vain…” (I Corinthians 15:58). I’m living proof. .
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When it comes to mistakes, I see so many of my own through the years that I simply don’t have time or space to look at other people’s errors very much at all. But one of the most common mistakes I see people – especially those working in the stock market or – making these days is PROJECTING the past onto the future.
The past certainly shouldn’t be ignored (I like that saying, “Dwell on the past, lose an eye. Forget the past, lost both eyes.”) but nor should it be projected onto the future, since the latter will almost certainly diverge from the former at some point.
I can’t even tell you how often I see people doing this, every day, all the time. The main tip-offs are statements like “That’s not how it’s been done in the past” or “That’s how it’s always been done in the past”, it works both ways, in either case it’s still projecting the past onto the future.
Far better, far wiser to just follow the Bible’s instructions for life since its Author does know the future so why take any chances?!
By the way, the worst example of this I’ve ever seen is found in 2 Peter 3:3-7 – “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.’ For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”
It is SO EASY for us humans to think – consciously or subconsciously – that the Lord isn’t going to return, certainly not anytime soon, probably not in our lifetime, right? Maybe. But maybe not. And the stakes in this matter are just way too (sky-) high to take a chance. Far better to live life with an ongoing view of that very real possibility. “And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man’s work, CONDUCT YOURSELVES IN FEAR[i.e., REVERENCE, RESPECT]during the time of your stay upon earth” (1 Peter 1:17).
May it be so.
Grant us, Lord, not to give in to that human tendency to think tomorrow is going to be like yesterday but rather to simply trust and obey Your Word, the Bible. Thank You so much for its teachings and principles and wisdom and also for its warnings, may we be wise and heed them. .
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I’m sure all of our parents used this phrase often when we were growing up. “It’s like riding a bike!” (That, and “When I was your age I had to walk ten miles in four feet of snow to get to school. Each way!” God bless all the parents out there.)
Well I actually was out riding my bike today and a thought occurred to me.
Actually two thoughts, with the first being how much more I enjoy riding down hills versus up them. But the second, and admittedly far more important, thought that hit me was yet another way in which biking parallels the Christian life, our walk with the Lord.
I usually like to go for at least 5 miles when I ride (go big or go home, right?) but I can’t even go one or two without encountering several hills. Just like the Christian life! Trials, testings, temptations (all really the same thing in essence, differing only based on our reaction) go hand-in-hand, are part and parcel with the Christian life. Indeed, spiritual growth is caused BY the Bible (1 Peter 2:2; John 17:17) and THROUGH trials (James 1:2-4) which is exactly why we should view them as huge POSITIVES and “consider it all joy” when we encounter them.
Thankfully, I’ve successfully learned that lesson spiritually and have come to actually cherish each and every trial which comes my way given that incomparable benefit, but I have to admit that such is very much not the case when it comes to biking, when it comes to the physical realm: I like going DOWN hills much, much, much better than UP per Thought #1 above, and I don’t expect that to ever change.
Thanks to being well on the way to accomplishing this historic goal of memorizing and reciting the ENTIRE BIBLE, I’ve found that not only do I sin a lot less than before but I don’t even get tempted nearly so often as then. Maybe that’s simply Psalm 119:11 at work, doing its thing. Or Colossians 3:16-17 (it’s a lot harder to sin or even be tempted when one is continually “singing” and “thanking” and “doing” things with the Lord’s pleasure and praise and glory and honor in mind and at heart – all of which are the stated result of “letting the word of Christ richly dwell within” us). Or Ephesians 6:17. No, ALL THREE! And others. But that has been a big blessing because I now find that most of the time my Christian walk is more like riding a bike DOWNHILL, so I shan’t complain. But neither shall I “think I stand” because 1 Corinthians 10:12 makes clear what would surely happen so I’ll just keep plugging along and putting ALL of my dependence on the Lord and the Bible – His precious message and “user manual for life” which He so graciously “left behind” along with the Holy Spirit when He departed from our physical, human presence and ascended back to Heaven.
So far, so good!
Just something to think about, especially the next time you find yourself or see someone else riding a bike. Our parents were right! .
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At the very moment the Lord laid on my heart this calling to memorize the ENTIRE BIBLE and then recite it, recite His Word and words back to Him as a love/thank-You gift for all He does and who He is – not just from me but from and on behalf of every person who supports this historic effort and outflowing ministries however they’re able – I simultaneously committed my entire life savings to building this website so people all over the world could follow along and track my progress from the first book to the sixty-sixth. So along with eating in all the time now, I also sold my car to pay for the cost to finish building this website and have thus been using a bicycle and my own two feet to get myself around town to run errands, buy groceries, etc.
It takes a lot longer than driving, that’s for sure, but the two main benefits have made up for it and exponentially more. Second, I’ve lost around twenty pounds and am back to what I weighed in high school, as a teenager. But first and foremostly, I’ve found that it’s during these multi-mile walks or bike rides that I have the sweetest, most intimate communion and communication with the Lord and (not unrelated thereto) also get the majority of ideas for these blog posts. My feet don’t always agree right afterward but GREAT TRADE-OFF. I literally can’t imagine what my life would be like if I were still driving everywhere. I know, I know, one can think and pray and listen to the Lord (recite Scripture) in a car, too, but with all the signs and other cars and, you know, pedestrians, such is indeed possible but not nearly so practical nor (in my experience at least) productive/fruitful.
Anyway, with the weather now turning cold as autumn swoops in, I find myself opting more for walking than biking – like just today when I had to get some groceries. A store I rarely go to is having a great sale on items I needed so I headed there.
Like I said, I haven’t gone there but once or twice before, so I went online and mapped out the trek. Then a funny thing happened on the way to the store.
I came upon a shortcut! Yessirree, this was going to save me a good 10-15 minutes… so I veered off-course and wouldn’t you know it, that “shortcut” turned out to be the longest street I’ve ever seen in my life with seeming dozens of twists and turns – right before dead-ending into a cul-de-sac. Are you kidding me??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! was the thought that immediately came to mind. Unfortunately for me, there was no kidding to be seen, it was no joke, I had to turn around and walk back that entire, long, winding street and then continue on my little, er, just-got-twice-as-long trek.
And it hit me that this is also true in the Christian life!
How many times have I looked for a “shortcut” and veered off-course? Too many to list here, that’s for sure. It doesn’t matter HOW SURE I was, the fact of the matter is that there ARE NO shortcuts in the Christian life. And thankfully, just like Google Maps for grocery stores, so also the Bible provides very easy-to-follow directions for life which (unlike Google Maps, I’ve found a time or two =) NEVER lead me astray but always go exactly as it says.
And that’s just one of the (literally) infinite benefits of Bible memory: it’s like having all of Google in your head, at your fingertips at all times, but so much more powerful and even more helpful in navigating life and making decisions and getting to know God so much better. Nope, no more shortcuts for me! So the next time you think of maybe taking one, just remember this verse which has been such a blessing and help in my life: “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12 & 16:25 – this truth is so crucial that He gave it to us TWICE just in case we missed it the first time!) That’s the problem, but thankfully the Bible also gives us the solution: “How can a young man [or any person for that matter] keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word [the Bible].” (Psalm 119:9)
Just like it would be foolish to drive cross-country (or in my case, walk to a new grocery store) without first mapping out a course, so it is with life itself. But thankfully, God gave us the perfect atlas in the Bible, the ultimate road map – we need only to follow the directions. It reminds me of that song many of us sang in Sunday school as kids: “My Lord knows the way through the wilderness, all we have to do is follow…” Indeed! Back then it was a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. These days it’s the Bible… all we have to do is follow! .
I used to enjoy eating dinner out at various restaurants, but ever since the Lord laid this historic effort and burgeoning ministry on my heart and led me to commit my entire life savings to this, I haven’t eaten out, not even a single time, so let’s just say I’ve been doing a lot more cooking in my kitchen, more in the past year alone than my entire life prior to that combined.
I’ve always done a pretty good job at staying away from sweets and junk food. Pretty good. There’s always that stray week or two each year that I discover my sweet tooth. Last week was just such a time, so I went to my local store and bought a few different cake mixes. Carrot cake. Chocolate. Banana nut. (Hungry yet?)
They were so delicious in theory. But a funny thing happened on the way to the kitchen. Actually, not funny at all. The opposite of funny. Because they turned out to taste terrible. Inedible!
But why, I wondered to myself, what went wrong? How on earth did I go zero-for-three, a total strike out in ovenland?
Simple: upon further review (as an NFL referee would say) I realized that I didn’t follow the directions on the box.
Rookie mistake. But it hit me that the Christian life is no different. All we have to do is FOLLOW THE CLEAR DIRECTIONS. And thankfully, God has graciously given us an error-free, tried and true, can’t-fail Cookbook. The Bible. And it’s not nearly so complicated as so many might think:
“God has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind… and your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)
“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.” (Romans 12:10-13)
“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice, and be kind to on another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:29-32)
“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:3-4)
“And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” (Colossians 3:12-13)
“To sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:8-9)
The simple truth is that I can try and try and try again to bake a cake using pear concentrate instead of eggs but it’s just not going to turn out properly. So from now on, I’m just going to FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS – in cooking (on the box) AND especially in the Christian life (in the Bible). TO A TEE. Without substitution. So the rest of my life will turn out far better than those cakes. . .
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!
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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You probably think this title refers to the Bible as set forth so beautifully in Psalm 19:10 and just thinking about that verse makes me sorely tempted to change lanes and go there but I’ll stick with the plan and discuss a different kind of gold.
Specifically, the “golden rule”.
I’m sure 99.9% of us heard this many times in our childhood: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” from Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31.
Matthew 5-7 is the well-known Sermon on the Mount, which I believe is the greatest message, sermon, speech or oration of any kind ever spoken by a human, to this day, a record certain to never be broken. So deep yet simple to understand yet so elegant. Amazing.
But I believe this to be the FLOOR for us, NOT the ceiling.
What I mean by this is that this is true even on a purely human, earthly basis, right? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you – because they WILL! Because that’s exactly what’s going to happen 99% of the time. With some but few exceptions, give respect and you’ll get it. Give love and you’ll get that, too. Be generous with others and they’ll be generous with you. Show kindness and it’ll come back to you in spades. A handful of verses later in that second passage, in verse 38, this is famously stated in this way: “Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”
Yes, the “golden rule” is a fine way to go through life, it’s a fine goal but should be the MINIMUM, not the maximum. It’s quite literally the least we can do.
So I’m calling this the “rhodium rule”, because that’s the most valuable metal on earth. It’s gold to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, but it’s rhodium to “do unto others as God does unto you.” That’s a much higher and better standard. Therefore even to those who mock and ridicule us we should show mercy. Even to those who hate us, we should show love. Even to those who are cruel to us, we should show kindness.
This “rhodium rule” is set forth throughout the Bible, with one of my favorite examples being Colossians 3:13 – “bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; JUST AS the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” Do unto others as God does unto you. Matthew 18:21-35 is another great example of the “rhodium rule”. But perhaps my favorite in this regard is Romans 12:20-21 which says, “But if your enemy [who? even your ENEMY] is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink. … Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
So as I go through each day, I’m going to think in terms not merely of doing unto others as I would have them do unto me but rather doing unto others as GOD DOES unto me.
Never Sit in This Seat. (And Avoid Those Who DO!)
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryYou might think I’m talking about the seat “at the head of the table” referenced in Luke 14:7-11. And that’s also a seat to be avoided at all cost. The seat of selfish pride, of self-honor.
Or you might think I’m talking about “the seat of scoffers” referenced in Psalm 1:1, at the very beginning, in the very first verse of that longest of all biblical books and constant “love song” to the Lord and His Word. And that too is a seat to be avoided at all cost.
But I’m talking about trying to place oneself in the seat of God Himself, as referenced in 2 Thessalonians 2:4.
You might not immediately think that you have anything in common with the Antichrist of end-times fame, and certainly it’s on a different scale, on both a prophetic and actual basis, but did you ever realize that any time we try to control things or other people, we are absolutely putting ourselves in HIS seat? Since He – and He alone – is sovereign, since He shares control with no one? And every time we exhibit pride – like the Antichrist or those dinner guests in Luke 14 – that’s tantamount to placing ourselves in the seat of Him for whom alone “pride” and “Self” aren’t wicked and indeed, in His case, are utterly appropriate and fitting and righteous? Pride is something of which He COULDN’T ever be guilty because He is worthy of all glory and honor and power and praise and worship, is He not? Indeed He is.
He is worthy, YOU AND I ARE NOT. Distinctly not. (That statement should garner me an Oscar nomination for Biggest Understatement in a Supporting Role.)
We look at the Antichrist’s conduct described in 2 Thessalonians and Revelation and Daniel (among other passages) and immediately realize how foolish and silly and repulsive it is, yet we are guilty – in essence if not extent – of the very same thing whenever we would seek control over anything but ourselves (Galatians 5:23) or – “with all dignity” – one’s children (1 Timothy 3:4) during that temporary phase of their lives. Whenever we let pride creep in by deeming ourselves better than others — than anyone else — or by seeking honor and glory for ourselves versus “putting the spotlight on others” and overarchingly on the Lord Jesus Christ.
So instead of unknowingly and unintentionally following the example of none other than the Antichrist, let us determine this day, here and now, to instead – and very knowingly and intentionally – follow the example of Him who loved others so much that He laid down HIS OWN LIFE that they might live (1 Timothy 2:5-6; 1 John 3:16; Romans 5:18-19), who was so humble that he didn’t regard even ACTUAL AND LITERAL EQUALITY WITH GOD something to be grasped or counted as gain in terms of human self (Philippians 2:3-11), and when suffering didn’t turn that onto those inflicting such but rather entrusted Himself to God (1 Peter 2:23; 3:9; 4:19). And so should we.
“EVERYONE who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; assuredly, he will not be unpunished.” (Proverbs 16:5)
“For EVERYONE who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.” (Luke 14:11)
“And WHOEVER exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12)
“Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” (James 4:10)
Or as Charles Haddon Spurgeon would put it, each of us has a choice to be HUMBLE or be HUMBLED. May we choose the former. Like that wise dinner guest in Luke 14:10. I gladly do so since even in the human/horizontal realm it’s just far more flat-out fun. And if it was good enough for “God in flesh appearing”, how much more fitting for sinners and mere mortals like us?
Lastly, there’s one more takeaway, one more way to apply this truth.
In sports lingo, everything discussed above primarily pertains to “offense”. But this is also imperative for a strong, healthy “defense” in life. Here’s what I mean.
What we do is very important. For instance, James 2:14-17 and 1 John 3:17-18 are crystal clear that qualitative to any genuine Christian is the consistent practice of meeting the needs of others. Same with the broader category of loving others, to the point that 1 John 4:7-8 says “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” and again at the end of that very same Chapter, verse 20 says this: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he HAS seen, CANNOT love God whom he has NOT seen.” Whoa! And James 3:9-12 echoes that very sentiment when it comes to how we speak to or about others: “With it [our tongue] we bless our Lord and Father; and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing [of God] and cursing [of others]. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh AND bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Neither can salt water produce fresh.” And while our first human priority is toward other believers, this definitely extends to ALL people, which is why the beloved Apostle Paul says, “and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, AND FOR ALL MEN [i.e., mankind, people, everyone]” (1 Thessalonians 3:12).
Yes, what we do is very important – but so is what we DON’T do.
Meaning, that while it’s crucial that WE never try to sit in the seat which belongs wholly, fully, and solely to GOD (i.e., trying to control others/circumstances, pride, etc.), neither should be populate our life’s relationships with people who do try to sit in that seat. I’m not talking about strangers or reaching out to share the Gospel with people who exhibit such a pattern in their life but rather whom we do – and don’t – give a regular role in our own life.
While the Bible makes this clear on a general, overarching level, it also makes it clear in several very specific areas of life or patterns of conduct. Here are just a few, the ones which are always at the forefront of my mind when discerning which relationships I should or shouldn’t be allowing into my life so as to be in full compliance with Scripture and wisdom:
I’ll elaborate far more in that future post but I’m sure you get the point, that not only should we make sure WE don’t try to sit in God’s seat but also not to spend time or focus or allow relational proximity with people who DO. And as we know from football and basketball and baseball and hockey and tennis and golf and any sport, it’s crucial to have both a strong offense and defense, and the Bible has just taught us that exact same principle in regard to the spiritual and relational aspect of our life. Much more about this in that future post, but simply starting to implement this biblical filter in your current relationships will have a huge effect and change your life in ways you can’t even imagine. More emotionally liberated and free. More wise. Much more happy. Stay tuned!
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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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Don’t forget to add some AIR!
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryThat word, air, always makes me think of Michael Jordan. Air Jordan. Who earned that nickname by gliding ten feet in the air from foul line to rim, seemingly without effort, capped-off by an imaginative slam-dunk rarely seen by anyone else before. Or since.
But in this post I’m talking about actual air. You see, as discussed in previous posts, when the Lord called me to quit my job to devote full-time to memorizing the ENTIRE BIBLE and commit my life savings to this historic project and building this website to chronicle the journey and then using this history-making event to help others in the areas of Bible memory, spiritual growth, additional happiness in this life and eternal treasure and reward in the one to come, and even in physical healing based entirely on simply ingesting (“finding”) the words of God, the Bible (per 1 Timothy 4:8 & 6:6 and especially Proverbs 4:22 – it doesn’t get any clearer than that!), I sold my only car and started relying on my bike and own two feet to get me around town as needed. While it’s a LOT more work than merely pushing a gas pedal, there have also been some great benefits, like getting back to my high school weight and far more importantly finding that it has been during those walks and bike rides that the Lord has opened my eyes and ears to some amazing truths which I’ll be sharing with you via this online journal (a.k.a., “blog”).
Anyway, I had gotten frighteningly low on groceries so today I rode my bike to the store so I could make it through the next week without dropping to my fetal weight. =) I hadn’t gotten more than 30 seconds into the trip when I noticed that my bike was far tougher to pedal than before. Way tougher. To the point that I was barely moving. Expending SO MUCH energy and effort but not getting anywhere.
I’m usually extremely careful about biking. To obey all rules and laws and ordinances, to avoid getting hit by the smartphone/can’t-go-ten-seconds-without-texting crowd of drivers these days, and to maintain its mechanical fitness. Well, I was quite intent about getting to the store so as to stave off starving tomorrow so I left without doing one thing on the preparatory checklist: I neglected to check the air in my tires.
And that’s when it hit me that this is EXACTLY how it is in the Christian life, in our walk with the Lord. How many of us “expend a lot of energy and effort but don’t get anywhere” to speak of, don’t really grow all that much?
The Bible in general and Bible memory in specific is the “air” in the Christian life.
Oh, sure, a bike will move if the tires are low. But not very much. And not very effectively or efficiently. But if you try Bible memory on a regular, systematic basis, you’ll find that you will GLIDE through life. Like Michael Jordan used to do on the basketball court. EVERYTHING will become easier, more effective, more efficient. And bear greater – and tangible – fruit.
So before you leave your home next time to go to work or the store or run some errands, do yourself the biggest favor and DON’T FORGET TO ADD SOME AIR! Memorize a verse or two, and then recite it throughout the day. Let it baste beautifully in your brain, in your body, in your heart and soul and mind. And I assure you that you’ll start to go through life like Michael Jordan on a basketball court.
P.S. If you aren’t sure how to best memorize Bible verses, stay tuned because the more books of the Bible I memorize, the EASIER it becomes and the greater CAPACITY for even more because of the very specific memory method it is revealing to me, to my mind’s eye, which (believe it or not) also makes it EXCITING AND FUN, and which I can hardly wait to share with you here when that process is complete or at least 95% complete, something like that. I expect such to occur in the coming months so stay tuned, it’ll CHANGE YOUR LIFE – not just spiritually but also intellectually and emotionally, just watch and see! (NOTE: If you’d like to automatically be notified by email when that and other future posts are published, you may do so in “3.” in the Side Panel near the top of this page and at the very bottom.)
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Quick Thought: Best. Attorney. EVER. I highly recommend availing yourself of His services.
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryImagine this scenario: a person commits a crime, is guilty as sin (literally!) but when going to trial, when entering the courtroom, sees that his defense attorney is also the judge and jury!
Sounds silly in light of how our legal system actually works, but did you ever realize that this is EXACTLY how it is for YOU AND ME in the spiritual/eternal system of justice? That’s right. We are the defendant/accused (Romans 3:23; 5:12), God is the judge (James 4:12), the devil is the prosecutor (Revelation 12:10), and Jesus Christ is the defense attorney: “And if ANYONE sins, we have an Advocate [defense attorney] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).
That’s right. It’s TOTALLY RIGGED – but in OUR FAVOR in this case! IF we select the right defense attorney.
As referenced in the previous post: “To sum up, each and every one of us is born into sin by default (Romans 5:12) but then compound the situation by our own actual sins (Romans 3:23) which carry the spiritual penalty of death (Romans 6:23).” BUT made available to each person is the greatest defense attorney ever, who has never lost even a single case for a client. Not by proffering clever legal arguments. No, the Lord Jesus Christ is unlike any other defense attorney because He wins our freedom by offering to SERVE THE SENTENCE for our crimes on our behalf, in our stead, in our place: “and He Himself is the propitiation [substitute] for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2)
Yeah, I think I’ll take HIM as my defense attorney in spiritual court, thank you very much. Talk about a no-brainer! Talk about a slam-dunk! Talk about a rigged system – but praise God, this one is indeed in our immense and infinite favor. We simply need to choose the right Attorney.
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Talk About SCARY!
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryI’m writing this on October 31. While the world wilts at the thought of ghosts and goblins and other mythical creatures, I’d like to share with you what I think actually is THE SCARIEST thing in the universe. Bar none.
You might think I’m talking about hell, about spending all eternity in fiery torture and utter darkness and isolation and separation from God (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9) but would you believe that there’s something – one thing – EVEN SCARIER than that? And that’s this: a person’s spending all eternity in hell after being fully convinced for YEARS and even DECADES here on earth that he or she would be spending it in heaven.
The other day I turned on the TV for a few minutes to see what was going on in the nation and world, to keep up with the news, and I came across a commercial with former President Ronald Reagan’s son and namesake, Ron Reagan (which is the only reason I stopped to, you know, actually watch a commercial – a very rare, nay, unheard-of event for me personally, but he was one of the most beloved presidents so I waited a few seconds to see what his son would say). Perhaps you’ve seen it: he promotes atheism and ends by saying something to the effect that he’s “looking forward to burning in hell.”
Okay, that’s the OPPOSITE of what I’m talking about here.
I’m not referring to people like him who think eternity itself is a joke or myth or even that they’ll have fun in hell. And I’m not even talking about the exponentially greater number of people who rightly realize and view that notion as utter folly, who don’t mock hell but also don’t know whether or not they’ll avoid that grimmest of fates.
BOTH of those thoughts are scary, to be sure. Very scary. At least to any sane person. But what I find to be scariest is the fact that many, many, many people who are absolutely convinced that they’ll go to heaven will wake one irreversible day, when it’s too late, in the fiery lake of hell. The Lord Jesus Himself could not have been any clearer about this in Matthew 7.
Just the thought of that breaks my heart. Breaks. My. Heart. And brings tears to my eyes. So it’s no surprise that this is one of THE BIGGEST, STRONGEST motivating factors of my life and very existence, to spend virtually every second of every minute of every hour of every day doing everything I can (the Lord through me) to help people KNOW and MAKE SURE they are indeed headed for heaven, not hell.
I do not desire at all to breed doubt in anyone. Just the opposite: blessed and blissful certainty about this most important of all matters. Nor does the Bible desire at all to breed doubt, but given said all-importance it does URGE us in two passages in particular not to doubt but rather to REMOVE any and all doubt about our eternal status and destiny.
Hmm, that sounds very familiar. Probably because it’s a virtual mirror of the “fruit of the Spirit” listed in Galatians 5:22-23. And also similar to the list in Romans 5:3-5. And Ephesians 5:18-21.
Yes, beloved, the standard, the “key” for grading the test is very clear in the Bible – not just these passages but also the entire books of James and 1 John which in essence were written for this very purpose, so that the reader “may KNOW that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13) simply by “looking intently” into the mirror of the Bible and abiding by what we see versus being “like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror” and then simply “goes away” and “immediately forgets” what he saw (James 1:22-25).
So why did these two warnings in 2 Corinthians 5:13 and 2 Peter 1:10 even need to be given much less twice? One word: deceit.
You see, not only do we have the external factor of the devil always seeking to deceive us with his various “schemes” (Ephesians 6:11) but we also have the internal factor of our fallen flesh (Jeremiah 17:9). But wait, there’s more! Believe it or not. Just what we needed, right? Yeah, like an eighth hold in the head. But be that as it may, along with being prone to the deceit of the devil and our own flesh, there’s also the additional deceit produced by sin itself (Hebrews 3:13). That’s right, it’s already as though each of us is trying to walk UP the DOWN escalator, but when we let sin into our lives, when we give into temptation, it’s as though the operator pushes the “2x speed” button.
This is the reason for that exclamation point (urgency) in 2 Corinthians 13:5 and the phrase “ALL THE MORE DILIGENT” in 2 Peter 1:10 and “applying ALL DILIGENCE” in verse 5.
But that’s easier said than done. Why? It goes back to the devil’s deceptive”schemes” of Ephesians 6:11. The Lord Himself called him the “father of lies” (John 8:44) and said that the self-righteous religious leaders of the time wanted “to do the desires” of the devil, to carry out and fulfill what THE DEVIL wanted them to. But did you know that this is the case with EVERYONE who hasn’t put their faith in Christ? “… those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from THE SNARE OF THE DEVIL, having been HELD CAPTIVE by him to DO HIS WILL.” (2 Timothy 2:25-26)
Wow! Double-wow! Just to think that there are literally billions of people on earth who are headed for an eternity in hell but don’t even realize it. Why? Well, if we had been thrown out of heaven and cursed to spending all eternity in the fiery lake and darkness and torture of hell and wanted as many people as possible to suffer that fate with us (per the time-tested adage that “misery loves company”), what would be the BEST way to accomplish that? Exactly. To make people headed for hell THINK THAT they’re going to heaven. In other words, the devil’s main desire and goal in life – and ultimately his only desire and goal – is to take as many people with him to hell. WHAT BETTER WAY TO DO THAT THAN TO MAKE THEM THINK THAT THEY’RE GOING TO HEAVEN?
You see, people who are searching out and seeking the truth are far more likely to find it, right? But by convincing so many people, by making and keeping them so convinced that they’re going to heaven, his job is made a thousand times easier and more effective, more productive, more successful. Talk about warped! Talk about evil genius! Talk about psychological/spiritual warfare! He’s playing for keeps. For eternity. But thankfully God in/through the Bible has given us all the weaponry we need to combat and overcome him and his tactics and wicked intent. The “armor of God” as noted in that very same verse, Ephesians 6:11, and consummated in verse 17 by “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” – the Bible! Isn’t it amazing how everything always comes back and down to the Bible?! This is why I’ve committed the rest of my life (literally) to memorizing it. Reading it is right, studying it is super, but memorizing it is max, ingesting it is incomparable, irreplaceable, and imperative for maximum victory over the devil and sin and our own human propensity for being deceived. 1 John 2:14 – “because you are strong, and THE WORD OF GOD ABIDES IN you, and you have OVERCOME THE EVIL ONE.” It’s right there in black and white, the only question is whether or not we’ll walk through that wide open door.
To sum up, each and every one of us is born into sin by default (Romans 5:12) but then compound the situation by our own actual sins (Romans 3:23) which carry the spiritual penalty of death (Romans 6:23). BUT by accepting that “free gift of God” of “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” by placing our faith and foundation for entering heaven wholly, fully, and solely in Him (John 14:6) by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) which comes via the Bible (Romans 10:17; James 1:18) and will be confirmed by a characterizing pattern of good works in that person’s life (Ephesians 2:10; James 2:14-26; Romans 5:15-19; entire book of James; entire book of 1 John) which also comes via the Bible (1 Peter 2:2; John 17:17).
Therefore, it’s absolutely imperative that each of us examine our own life to see, to “make certain” that it does indeed demonstrate such a pattern and if it does, then we can KNOW for a FACT that we will indeed spend eternity in heaven, not hell. “Even so, EVERY good tree bears good FRUIT; but the bad tree bears bad fruit.” (Matthew 7:17)
But if we fail to do that, to make certain of that most important of all matters, the Bible makes clear that we run the risk of merely thinking we’re on the road to heaven, of being in the very same boat of the people Jesus addressed later in that Chapter, in verses 21-23, which in my view is indeed the SCARIEST passage in all of Scripture and scariest thought in the universe. May we be wise in this matter and heed the instruction and implied warning of 2 Corinthians 13:5 and 2 Peter 1:10 – not for the purpose of making us doubt but rather to REMOVE all doubt about our true eternal destination and spiritual status. In other words, don’t question your salvation, clarify it; don’t doubt it, definitely do confirm it by taking a close look at your life on a regular basis to make sure that what you see if in line with what you read in the Bible: if it IS then KNOW that you are indeed saved and heaven is in your future, not hell. But if the overall, characterizing pattern of your life isn’t in line with the Bible then it would be wise to stop wandering through life with a guess and come to a clear conclusion in the matter – and quickly. Because tomorrow is guaranteed to nobody, only today, indeed only right now. If your examination suggests that you’re in this second camp, please don’t put it off for another day, hour, or even minute. I don’t want you to find yourself in the same situation as undoubtedly so many of those unsuspecting 9/11 victims did, startled to awake in hell when they thought they were going to heaven, or never took the time to nail down that most important of matters. And then next thing they knew, it was too late. “NOW is the acceptable time, TODAY is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Today is the day.
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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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Let’s Give A Big Hand…
/in Uncategorized /by Bible Memory… to Sunday school teachers. Are they THE BEST or what?!
They don’t do it for money or praise (since they get the latter so infrequently, and the former almost never) but rather give a good deal of their precious time for one reason: to help others, often the next generation, often children.
I remember my Sunday school teachers like it was yesterday. Most of them didn’t have impressive jobs or incomes or titles, yet I’ve remembered them regularly as I’ve journeyed through life ever since.
One in particular had an outsized impact on me, on my life and especially my future (now my present).
As noted on the home page and in other posts, ever since I heeded God’s call for my life to memorize the ENTIRE BIBLE, I’ve found that He and/or it – the Bible itself – has been revealing to me, to my mind’s eye, a very specific method to accomplish that. How true it is that God’s calling NEVER LACKS God’s provision, so I’m not surprised by this development at all but nor was I expecting it. But I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful and blesses I’ve been by it, as it hasn’t just made this historic goal actually doable but has literally revolutionized my life, because it has revolutionized my mind, my entire way of thinking, my entire thought process.
And I’m 99.99% sure that it’ll have the exact same effect on countless others when He finishes revealing it to me and I can thus share it. My sense is that I’m around 75% of the way there so I expect this to occur in the not-too-distant future and what a total GAME-CHANGER and (literally) world-changer it’ll be, no doubt about it. It will make it EASY (and, believe it or not, FUN!) for virtually ANYONE to memorize and retain unthinkably-large amounts of text. My hope and strong recommendation of course will be for them to use it 90+% for Bible memory but the fact is that it works for everything else, too. Just like EVERYTHING in the Bible does! (1 Timothy 4:8 – “For bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for ALL THINGS, since it holds promise for the PRESENT LIFE and also for the life to come.”)
I am so excited about this! Please be praying that the Holy Spirit and the Bible itself will keep it coming, will keep revealing this to me, will keep filling in that final 25% so I can share it with everyone and have the great pleasure and honor of seeing it benefit them as it has me.
But back to that childhood Sunday school teacher. Before I had any inkling that decades later God would call me to be the first person in known human history to memorize the ENTIRE BIBLE, He used that Sunday school teacher to give me my very first taste. I remember it as though it were yesterday. He was teaching us the books of the New Testament and helping us memorize them so we could turn to a passage quickly whenever the Bible was being taught, and he gave a very common but unknown-to-my-young-brain-until-then mnemonic device of acronyms.
USA, CIA, FBI, DOD, TSA, ICE – the government certainly hasn’t been bashful about using it, that’s for sure. =) And he was in the military so that all fits perfectly but the way he used it with us, with that church room of around 15 kids, was to remember the correct order of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, and he did so via “General Electric Pepsi Cola”. (A friend later said his Sunday school teacher used this variation: “General Electric Power Company” – that’s good, too, probably even a little better… whatever works best for you as I often say.) And that was all I needed! I had been memorizing Bible verses for a few years at that point thanks to BMA and AWANA (can we also give a big hand for all AWANA workers?! What a great ministry that is!) but this seemingly small aid took it to a whole other level.
I hope that ALL of the teachers reading this will never forget that even the smallest statement out of your mouth, even what might seem like a “throwaway line” can make a HUGE difference in your students’ lives and even effect change on the whole world as I think will be the case in this instance.
To all teachers – and especially Sunday school teachers – thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart (and I’m sure your students’, if not now then certainly when they’re older). Lord bless you richly for investing your time and energy and insights for eternal dividends. Indeed, “your labor is not in vain…” (I Corinthians 15:58). I’m living proof.
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A Big (But Very Common) Mistake
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryWhen it comes to mistakes, I see so many of my own through the years that I simply don’t have time or space to look at other people’s errors very much at all. But one of the most common mistakes I see people – especially those working in the stock market or – making these days is PROJECTING the past onto the future.
The past certainly shouldn’t be ignored (I like that saying, “Dwell on the past, lose an eye. Forget the past, lost both eyes.”) but nor should it be projected onto the future, since the latter will almost certainly diverge from the former at some point.
I can’t even tell you how often I see people doing this, every day, all the time. The main tip-offs are statements like “That’s not how it’s been done in the past” or “That’s how it’s always been done in the past”, it works both ways, in either case it’s still projecting the past onto the future.
Far better, far wiser to just follow the Bible’s instructions for life since its Author does know the future so why take any chances?!
By the way, the worst example of this I’ve ever seen is found in 2 Peter 3:3-7 – “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.’ For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”
It is SO EASY for us humans to think – consciously or subconsciously – that the Lord isn’t going to return, certainly not anytime soon, probably not in our lifetime, right? Maybe. But maybe not. And the stakes in this matter are just way too (sky-) high to take a chance. Far better to live life with an ongoing view of that very real possibility. “And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man’s work, CONDUCT YOURSELVES IN FEAR [i.e., REVERENCE, RESPECT] during the time of your stay upon earth” (1 Peter 1:17).
May it be so.
Grant us, Lord, not to give in to that human tendency to think tomorrow is going to be like yesterday but rather to simply trust and obey Your Word, the Bible. Thank You so much for its teachings and principles and wisdom and also for its warnings, may we be wise and heed them.
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“It’s Like Riding a Bike!”
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryI’m sure all of our parents used this phrase often when we were growing up. “It’s like riding a bike!” (That, and “When I was your age I had to walk ten miles in four feet of snow to get to school. Each way!” God bless all the parents out there.)
Well I actually was out riding my bike today and a thought occurred to me.
Actually two thoughts, with the first being how much more I enjoy riding down hills versus up them. But the second, and admittedly far more important, thought that hit me was yet another way in which biking parallels the Christian life, our walk with the Lord.
I usually like to go for at least 5 miles when I ride (go big or go home, right?) but I can’t even go one or two without encountering several hills. Just like the Christian life! Trials, testings, temptations (all really the same thing in essence, differing only based on our reaction) go hand-in-hand, are part and parcel with the Christian life. Indeed, spiritual growth is caused BY the Bible (1 Peter 2:2; John 17:17) and THROUGH trials (James 1:2-4) which is exactly why we should view them as huge POSITIVES and “consider it all joy” when we encounter them.
Thankfully, I’ve successfully learned that lesson spiritually and have come to actually cherish each and every trial which comes my way given that incomparable benefit, but I have to admit that such is very much not the case when it comes to biking, when it comes to the physical realm: I like going DOWN hills much, much, much better than UP per Thought #1 above, and I don’t expect that to ever change.
Thanks to being well on the way to accomplishing this historic goal of memorizing and reciting the ENTIRE BIBLE, I’ve found that not only do I sin a lot less than before but I don’t even get tempted nearly so often as then. Maybe that’s simply Psalm 119:11 at work, doing its thing. Or Colossians 3:16-17 (it’s a lot harder to sin or even be tempted when one is continually “singing” and “thanking” and “doing” things with the Lord’s pleasure and praise and glory and honor in mind and at heart – all of which are the stated result of “letting the word of Christ richly dwell within” us). Or Ephesians 6:17. No, ALL THREE! And others. But that has been a big blessing because I now find that most of the time my Christian walk is more like riding a bike DOWNHILL, so I shan’t complain. But neither shall I “think I stand” because 1 Corinthians 10:12 makes clear what would surely happen so I’ll just keep plugging along and putting ALL of my dependence on the Lord and the Bible – His precious message and “user manual for life” which He so graciously “left behind” along with the Holy Spirit when He departed from our physical, human presence and ascended back to Heaven.
So far, so good!
Just something to think about, especially the next time you find yourself or see someone else riding a bike. Our parents were right!
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Directions, Part 2
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryAt the very moment the Lord laid on my heart this calling to memorize the ENTIRE BIBLE and then recite it, recite His Word and words back to Him as a love/thank-You gift for all He does and who He is – not just from me but from and on behalf of every person who supports this historic effort and outflowing ministries however they’re able – I simultaneously committed my entire life savings to building this website so people all over the world could follow along and track my progress from the first book to the sixty-sixth. So along with eating in all the time now, I also sold my car to pay for the cost to finish building this website and have thus been using a bicycle and my own two feet to get myself around town to run errands, buy groceries, etc.
It takes a lot longer than driving, that’s for sure, but the two main benefits have made up for it and exponentially more. Second, I’ve lost around twenty pounds and am back to what I weighed in high school, as a teenager. But first and foremostly, I’ve found that it’s during these multi-mile walks or bike rides that I have the sweetest, most intimate communion and communication with the Lord and (not unrelated thereto) also get the majority of ideas for these blog posts. My feet don’t always agree right afterward but GREAT TRADE-OFF. I literally can’t imagine what my life would be like if I were still driving everywhere. I know, I know, one can think and pray and listen to the Lord (recite Scripture) in a car, too, but with all the signs and other cars and, you know, pedestrians, such is indeed possible but not nearly so practical nor (in my experience at least) productive/fruitful.
Anyway, with the weather now turning cold as autumn swoops in, I find myself opting more for walking than biking – like just today when I had to get some groceries. A store I rarely go to is having a great sale on items I needed so I headed there.
Like I said, I haven’t gone there but once or twice before, so I went online and mapped out the trek. Then a funny thing happened on the way to the store.
I came upon a shortcut! Yessirree, this was going to save me a good 10-15 minutes… so I veered off-course and wouldn’t you know it, that “shortcut” turned out to be the longest street I’ve ever seen in my life with seeming dozens of twists and turns – right before dead-ending into a cul-de-sac. Are you kidding me??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! was the thought that immediately came to mind. Unfortunately for me, there was no kidding to be seen, it was no joke, I had to turn around and walk back that entire, long, winding street and then continue on my little, er, just-got-twice-as-long trek.
And it hit me that this is also true in the Christian life!
How many times have I looked for a “shortcut” and veered off-course? Too many to list here, that’s for sure. It doesn’t matter HOW SURE I was, the fact of the matter is that there ARE NO shortcuts in the Christian life. And thankfully, just like Google Maps for grocery stores, so also the Bible provides very easy-to-follow directions for life which (unlike Google Maps, I’ve found a time or two =) NEVER lead me astray but always go exactly as it says.
And that’s just one of the (literally) infinite benefits of Bible memory: it’s like having all of Google in your head, at your fingertips at all times, but so much more powerful and even more helpful in navigating life and making decisions and getting to know God so much better. Nope, no more shortcuts for me! So the next time you think of maybe taking one, just remember this verse which has been such a blessing and help in my life: “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12 & 16:25 – this truth is so crucial that He gave it to us TWICE just in case we missed it the first time!) That’s the problem, but thankfully the Bible also gives us the solution: “How can a young man [or any person for that matter] keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word [the Bible].” (Psalm 119:9)
Just like it would be foolish to drive cross-country (or in my case, walk to a new grocery store) without first mapping out a course, so it is with life itself. But thankfully, God gave us the perfect atlas in the Bible, the ultimate road map – we need only to follow the directions. It reminds me of that song many of us sang in Sunday school as kids: “My Lord knows the way through the wilderness, all we have to do is follow…” Indeed! Back then it was a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. These days it’s the Bible… all we have to do is follow!
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Directions
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryI used to enjoy eating dinner out at various restaurants, but ever since the Lord laid this historic effort and burgeoning ministry on my heart and led me to commit my entire life savings to this, I haven’t eaten out, not even a single time, so let’s just say I’ve been doing a lot more cooking in my kitchen, more in the past year alone than my entire life prior to that combined.
I’ve always done a pretty good job at staying away from sweets and junk food. Pretty good. There’s always that stray week or two each year that I discover my sweet tooth. Last week was just such a time, so I went to my local store and bought a few different cake mixes. Carrot cake. Chocolate. Banana nut. (Hungry yet?)
They were so delicious in theory. But a funny thing happened on the way to the kitchen. Actually, not funny at all. The opposite of funny. Because they turned out to taste terrible. Inedible!
But why, I wondered to myself, what went wrong? How on earth did I go zero-for-three, a total strike out in ovenland?
Simple: upon further review (as an NFL referee would say) I realized that I didn’t follow the directions on the box.
Rookie mistake. But it hit me that the Christian life is no different. All we have to do is FOLLOW THE CLEAR DIRECTIONS. And thankfully, God has graciously given us an error-free, tried and true, can’t-fail Cookbook. The Bible. And it’s not nearly so complicated as so many might think:
The simple truth is that I can try and try and try again to bake a cake using pear concentrate instead of eggs but it’s just not going to turn out properly. So from now on, I’m just going to FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS – in cooking (on the box) AND especially in the Christian life (in the Bible). TO A TEE. Without substitution. So the rest of my life will turn out far better than those cakes.
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Better Than GOLD!
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryYou probably think this title refers to the Bible as set forth so beautifully in Psalm 19:10 and just thinking about that verse makes me sorely tempted to change lanes and go there but I’ll stick with the plan and discuss a different kind of gold.
Specifically, the “golden rule”.
I’m sure 99.9% of us heard this many times in our childhood: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” from Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31.
Matthew 5-7 is the well-known Sermon on the Mount, which I believe is the greatest message, sermon, speech or oration of any kind ever spoken by a human, to this day, a record certain to never be broken. So deep yet simple to understand yet so elegant. Amazing.
But I believe this to be the FLOOR for us, NOT the ceiling.
What I mean by this is that this is true even on a purely human, earthly basis, right? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you – because they WILL! Because that’s exactly what’s going to happen 99% of the time. With some but few exceptions, give respect and you’ll get it. Give love and you’ll get that, too. Be generous with others and they’ll be generous with you. Show kindness and it’ll come back to you in spades. A handful of verses later in that second passage, in verse 38, this is famously stated in this way: “Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”
Yes, the “golden rule” is a fine way to go through life, it’s a fine goal but should be the MINIMUM, not the maximum. It’s quite literally the least we can do.
So I’m calling this the “rhodium rule”, because that’s the most valuable metal on earth. It’s gold to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, but it’s rhodium to “do unto others as God does unto you.” That’s a much higher and better standard. Therefore even to those who mock and ridicule us we should show mercy. Even to those who hate us, we should show love. Even to those who are cruel to us, we should show kindness.
This “rhodium rule” is set forth throughout the Bible, with one of my favorite examples being Colossians 3:13 – “bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; JUST AS the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” Do unto others as God does unto you. Matthew 18:21-35 is another great example of the “rhodium rule”. But perhaps my favorite in this regard is Romans 12:20-21 which says, “But if your enemy [who? even your ENEMY] is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink. … Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
So as I go through each day, I’m going to think in terms not merely of doing unto others as I would have them do unto me but rather doing unto others as GOD DOES unto me.
Why settle for gold when we can have rhodium?!
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