Many people will (mistakenly) think that anyone who memorizes a huge amount of Scripture must be some sort of “super saint”. I have this to say about that, and that’s this: Super saint? NO I AIN’T! Not even close. (To echo the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:18, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh”.) In fact, just the opposite of their notion is true, because the more of the Bible I memorize, the more I realize how utterly and entirely sinful I am in and of myself, in my flesh. You see, as Psalm 19:7-8 clearly states, the Bible – and especially memorizing the Bible – “enlightens the eyes”. It breaks through the blindness which besets us from birth and opens one’s eyes. To the truth and existence and nature and will of God. To the nature and detrimental, destructive, and indeed deadly consequences of sin (Romans 6:23). And to the nature of man. Our flesh. Our fallacy. Our tendencies. Why we do what we do. Why we do what we should not and not do what we should! (Romans 7:19) So you can see why I say that the more Scripture one memorizes, the more one will see the righteousness of God and the sinfulness of oneself, of the flesh, to the extent that I can honestly say that I’m the BIGGEST SINNER I know, I’m the biggest sinner I’ve EVER known, and I’m probably the biggest sinner YOU’VE ever known, at least that’s how I see it, that’s my (believe it or not blissful) Bible-borne perspective.
But thankfully Psalm 19:7-8 doesn’t stop there! Because it’s just as clear that the Bible also “restores the soul” and “makes wise the simple” and “rejoices the heart”! It’s not just a win, not just a home run, memorizing and reciting Scripture is a GRAND SLAM! And not just spiritually, but humanly… not just in the spiritual realm, but in the human realm, not just in the life to come but also this present life (1 Timothy 4:8). And I can testify from firsthand experience that all of this is absolutely true: so long as I’m doing so on a regular basis, my spirit remains utterly joyful, rarely ever leaving the proverbial “cloud nine”. I find that I see things that many others don’t (heightened insight produced by the Word within). And I find that my heart remains filled with and focused on the things above, not on the things that are on earth (Colossians 3:2), not on the things which are seen, but unseen, not the things which are temporal but eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18) – what a wonderful way to go through life! And what’s amazing is that I’m just at the START this journey of memorizing the entire Bible, after which the Lord is leading me to turn this into a full-fledged, full-speed-ahead, full-time ministry – here’s the plan…
PHASE 1: Memorize the ENTIRE Bible as a “love/thank You” gift back to Him and also to prove, to demonstrate to the world the utter and tangible power and benefits of the ingested (memorized) Word of God! And for the first few months to highlight the need and leave room for the Lord to lead like-minded Bible-loving believers to support this in whatever ways they’re able and willing and excited to do so when learning about this historic endeavor and opportunity.
PHASE 2: After memorizing all or at least the vast majority of the New Testament, the next step will commence and entail totally changing the emphasis of this website from seeking one-time and especially Monthly Partners so as to get and keep this going to just giving back by meeting the needs of others, to “fulfill the law of Christ” by “bearing the burdens of others” (Galatians 6:2) and “serving one another” (Galatians 5:13; 1 Peter 4:10).
Specifically, I will make myself available all throughout the day virtually every day so anyone will be able to:
- Ask and receive Bible-based answers to their questions about the Bible itself, God, sin, human nature, and whatever else might be on their hearts at any given time. Literally for the rest of my or their lives, they will have a ready and waiting friend and/or listening ear and/or shoulder to cry on according to their need at the time. Without reservation, and without judgment.
- Submit prayer requests to be prayed for by someone who is brimming with the living Word within him, which I firmly believe is the biggest key to effective prayer: the Word sanctifies (John 17:17) and cleanses (Ephesians 5:26) and keeps pure (Psalm 119:9) and away from sin (Psalm 119:11); now combine all of this with the fact that “the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer” (1 Peter 3:12) and “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (James 5:16b) and perhaps speaking most poignantly to the amazing link between memorizing Scripture and an effective prayer life, “If you abide in Me, and MY WORDS ABIDE IN YOU, ask WHATEVER you WISH, and it SHALL BE DONE for you.” (John 15:7). How will people’s lives literally change and be transformed by the supplication and intercession by one in whom such a massive amount of Scripture will be dwelling? GAME-CHANGER. Life-changer. WORLD-changer! (Literally. Just ask the people who were living in the time of Elijah.)
- Find a BIBLICAL – Bible-loving, Bible-believing, Bible-practicing – church near them, right in their local area! I am already in the process of putting together this network of churches; denomination will be irrelevant, the only criterion will be the extent to which they demonstrably adhere to the principles set forth in the Bible about “how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:15) With a primary focus on how supportive they are of Bible memory. I expect even just the human-interest/intellectual aspect of this project to attract countless people who aren’t even religious or are very early on in their spiritual growth who’ll need and want to find a church that will foster and maximize said growth.
- Find the businesses in YOUR area that are owned and/or managed by fellow Christians who love the Lord and His Word and realize the importance of and support Bible memory. Galatians 6:10 and 1 Timothy 6:2 make clear that it is our responsibility as Christians that our everyday choices inure to the benefit of fellow believers whenever possible, so I’m going to make that super easy and convenient by posting a nationwide (but searchable by state/county/city) LIST of Christian businesses so we can all choose THEM whenever we need a product or service; once assembled, it will appear on the “Find A Christian Biz” / Yellow Pages section here at BibleMemory.ORG so please check back for that in the coming weeks.
PHASE 3: Turn this burgeoning history-in-the-making effort into a full-speed-ahead, full-fledged, full-time ministry to Educate, Encourage, and Empower others to memorize and recite Scripture on a regular, systematic, verse-by-verse, book-by-book basis! Tall goal, but totally doable, because something very interesting happened as I memorized my very first book of the Bible, the New Testament book of James. That goal seemed not just tall but downright monumental. Undoable. Right? Wrong! Because, amazingly, the more of it I memorize, the EASIER it gets! The more of it I memorize, the more I am able to memorize. By the time I came to Chapter 5, I knew this large task was indeed going to be accomplished. BIG difference than when I was facing Chapter 1 Verse 1.
This is a fantastic real-life demonstration of Matthew 19:26 which says, “With men, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Including memorizing the ENTIRE Bible! You see, in the physical realm, the more water you pour into a glass, the less capacity it will have for more water to be added. But in the spiritual realm, when it comes to God and His Word, the Bible, the exact OPPOSITE is true! The MORE you pour into your mind, the MORE capacity you’ll have for additional verses and chapters and books to be added! Not less. And this amazing power is exponential in nature: I saw a large increase in capacity from James 1 to James 5, but double or triple the capacity by the time I finished memorizing Hebrews 1-5, and then quadruple or quintuple the capacity by the time I finished memorizing Hebrews 6-10, and so on. This finding is literally historic, and indeed the closest thing to a bona fide miracle in recent history of which I’m aware: it’s verifiable, it’s tangible, and – due to the “living and active” nature of the Bible (Hebrews 4:12) – it’s even repeatable. While the specific extent of this phenomenon might vary from person to person, the essence of the Word does not. Ever. This is how I’ll be able not just to Educate and Encourage the masses to memorize and recite Scripture on a regular, systematic basis but also to EMPOWER them to do so (the Word through me). (Believe me, once a person gets a taste of this, his or her life will never be the same. Human metaphors don’t really do it justice but in terms of the Christian life, it’s like trying filet mignon for the first time after a lifetime of eating hamburger.)
This will primarily be accomplished by producing a course, a syllabus, an entire series of videos, CD’s, and even audio cassettes, which will take all of this and make it SUPER EASY and CONVENIENT for people the world over to learn and apply this at their own pace and as their individual schedules permit. I am utterly convinced that another worldwide spiritual revival will occur, but I’m even more certain that it will only occur as people start ingesting the living Word of God by memorizing and reciting it regularly – “all the day” (Psalm 119:97) and even “day AND night” (Psalm 1:2-3).
By the way, this would be a great time to let you know that as I’ve been memorizing Scripture, a very specific METHOD of doing so is coming into focus, which, as noted above, I can testify firsthand is making it MUCH EASIER for me to memorize and retain – not just the Bible but EVERYTHING: to-do lists, schedule and meetings, various events that occur, etc., a true “sponge” effect! – and I’m 99.9% sure that it will do so for virtually anyone and everyone who applies it. It’s still coming together but seems to be getting close to the point that it can be rolled out. This one aspect alone of this one phase alone could easily and literally change the world and people’s everyday lives.
PHASE 4: Set up new and/or work with established addiction centers to specifically address the huge need for healing, curing, and then preventing from recurring (relapse) the massive crisis of addiction to pain killers, opioids, and other drugs, as well as the dreadful disease of depression. I am absolutely certain that the best and probably only way to truly beat, to truly eradicate, overcome, and conquer an addiction is to turn to something even more addictive – and I am equally certain that the most addictive thing in the universe is the BIBLE, the living and active Word of God, the Word ingested. No doubt about it. The main challenge is that so relatively few ever really give regular and systematic Bible memory a try, but I – with your and the Lord’s help – intend to change that!
It won’t happen overnight but I have no doubt that change is indeed coming. And just in case you don’t think the Bible extends or has relevance to the physical realm of human existence, I humbly give you Proverbs 4:22 which, referring to the Bible, the “my words” of verse 20, clearly states that His words “are LIFE to those who find them, and HEALTH to ALL their WHOLE BODY.” Is that an amazing verse or what?! We have a super-duper health “pill” readily available to us (the Bible is the most-published and available book of all time) yet SO FEW EVER ACTUALLY SWALLOW IT! To their utter “missing out” yet few if any are even aware of this because nobody has trumpeted it from the proverbial mountaintops but with your help I intend to change this, too, and do just that!
I didn’t start memorizing entire books of the Bible as a child but did memorize a lot of single Bible verses and – totally not surprisingly in light of that verse/truth/fact – I haven’t had to see a doctor or go to the hospital my entire adult life. Not even a single time. No emergencies. No health surprises. Not one. I don’t think the two are unrelated or that this remarkable health history is mere coincidence or the result of “good genes”; no, I’m certain it’s that verse at work.
No, it won’t happen overnight but down the road I look forward to organizing some clinical/medical trials to demonstrate that this is universal and not just specific to me. I dare say that other than imparting the Gospel or giving one’s own life to save another’s, there is no greater act of love and kindness and therefore Christlikeness (since He epitomized and epitomizes both) than to free a person from the cruel slavery and bondage of addiction or depression, to provide them with the answer, the antidote, something that actually and permanently WORKS! So even just this phase of the action plan will likely be enough to revolutionize the nation and world.
CONCLUSION: If you like what you’ve heard here and found yourself nodding in agreement several times, please read on…
Three Hearses
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryIt’s not every day that someone sees one hearse much less three like I did today. But it makes perfect sense in this case because of where I was. Arlington National Cemetery.
The sight of three hearses lined up in a queue then pulling into that hallowed cul-de-sac back-to-back-to-back, it packed a punch and evoked a strong sense of gratitude and perhaps some sorrow humanly-speaking for the grieving loved ones left behind but most of all it made me wonder whether the three people who once inhabited the bodies in those hearses were currently in heaven or hell.
Because that’s the biggest binary choice of them all.
Not Bush or Gore.
Not Obama or McCain.
Not Trump or Clinton.
Not Biden or Trump.
No, my friend, the biggest binary choice of them all is Heaven or Hell. Because those are the only two options for the next life, for eternity. Every single person ever born will spend forever and ever and ever and ever in one of those two places.
There’s no “in between”.
There’s no exit once there.
But I’m thrilled to be able to truthfully tell you that each person’s eternal destiny is up to them in that one can choose to put one’s faith and hope and confidence and reliance and dependence for entrance into heaven in the Lord Jesus Christ, or one can choose to put it in anything else.
The former is a narrow “gate” (think turnstile). The latter is a very wide highway (think Los Angeles).
The former leads to an eternity in Heaven. The latter leads to an eternity in Hell.
I wonder which one the three people with the hearse-borne bodies chose.
In their case, what’s done is done. Times a trillion. But thankfully, for the rest of us, it’s not too late to make that most-important of all choices, of all decisions… if you haven’t ever done so, I humbly and lovingly and strongly encourage you to secure a “reservation” in Heaven in the future by putting your faith in Christ in the present.
Because while you might (might) have another year or decade or more to make that decision, as we see literally every day in the news: ”tomorrow” is guaranteed no man. Only “today” and really only the here-and-now.
I pray that nobody reading this will proceed per the past and play proverbial Russian roulette with their very soul, with where they’ll tarry for all eternity.
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Born Again = Sin Less NOT Sinless
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryI’m thankful that I was able to muster sufficient time to take one of my many-mile mega-walks today. As mentioned several times in the past, other than the time spent “hunkered down” in my daily Bible memory sessions, these walks are probably my most prized and precious pastime or activity of any kind. Because (very similar to my memory sessions, not surprisingly) they invigorate me physically, stimulate me mentally, inform me intellectually (just being amid nature does that ever time!) and renew me spiritually since I’m able to focus on and listen to and speak with the Lord with utmost intensity and clarity and consistency (thus giving a whole new meaning and texture to the phrase “walking with the Lord” =).
Today’s walk was without a doubt the most creativity-drenched I’ve ever experienced; literally, I’d walk a fraction of a mile and another interesting and impactful thought would come to me. And right after filtering it through my mind, a new one would manifest itself… so instead of trying to cram them all into a single post, I think it would be better to publish five of these distinct thoughts in their very own post; I won’t include the billion little, split-second thoughts, just the big ones, of which there are several so, specifically, these next five posts (starting with this one) will convey those thoughts that hit me along the way on my walk today.
Okay, let me say without delay if I may that I’m definitely, absolutely, certainly NOT sinless… but I do sin less each year than the one before.
You see, though saved, even saints slip on a proverbial banana peel (or, for fellow alliteration lovers, proverbial plantain peel =) from time to time; the key is firstly to confess and repent of that sin (1 John 1:9) (the sooner, the better) and secondly that, like the chart of a failing stock, the presence, the occurrence of sin in a Christian’s life should surely show a clear trend DOWNWARD. (Or conversely, righteousness and good deeds in a Christian’s life should have a consistent UPWARD trend overall, like the sun that gets brighter and brighter as the morning progresses.)
Which is why we are warned by the Bible’s magnificent mirror multiple times to check the “stock chart” of our life to see whether or not there is in fact that upward trend of goodness and downward trend of sin, since such signifies and indeed confirms that a person is truly saved and thus headed for heaven when their time on earth ends.
In other words… during our time on earth (which, compared to eternity, is like a single breath you see for a split second in cold weather according to James 4:14) Christianity has NOTHING to do with being sinless. But the Bible bids us to be crystal clear that Christianity has EVERYTHING to do with sinning less. Or put most simply and concisely: a Christian will NOT be sinless but WILL sin less overall from the time of our spiritual birth (the “born again” of John 3:3,7 and the “born of water and the Spirit” of verse 5) to our physical death (or, for a comparative few, Christ’s return or as it’s often called, the Rapture, which will preempt death at that time).
The Bible blesses us by giving these clear and wise words of warning; likewise, the goal and pointed purpose of this post is NOT that you’ll question your salvation but rather than you’ll CONFIRM it, i.e., to increase confidence and destroy doubt.
And derail deception. You see, for our entire time on earth, our sin nature within will never stop trying to deceive us…
… to make us think we’re headed for heaven when we’re actually headed for hell, or to make us think we’re headed for hell when we’re actually headed for heaven. The fallen human heart hungers and constantly seeks to deceive; it literally plays both sides of that equation. This is exactly why it’s so important to take time at regular intervals to truly and honestly look at our lives through the lens and “mirror” of the Bible to CONFIRM that we are indeed redeemed, to not just believe but KNOW that we’ve been born again.
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Where Would I Be Without You?
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryThe song at the end of the previous post starts with a solemn question to the Lord: ”Where would I be without You?”
That’s one question to which I definitely know the answer!
Nowhere.
At all.
I often think “What in the world would I do without the Lord living within me?” How could I muster the courage or strength to even try to survive without His hallowed hand of help, fond friendship, frequent forbearance, and precious personal presence?
I’ll end this post with a song which poses that question far more beautifully than I ever could. It always brings tears to my eyes… tears of immense and immutable joy and gratitude and love. Thank You, Lord, that I don’t have to ever actually find out what I’d do without You in my life, since You’ve promised and proven to “never leave nor forsake” me or any of Your children. It’s true: I don’t know what I’d do without You.
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