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…
Friday the 13th
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryIt has been almost an entire year since the 13th day of a month fell on a Friday – a chronological chasm that’s so rare since it can only occur with the help of a Leap Year.
The leery, weary, wary, worried world writ large views this day as scary or ominous or given to superstitions of all types; but when one walks with the Lord, this day is downright “lucky” like any and every other.
For folks of faith, there truly is no fear.
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Dynamic Duos & the Perfect Pair
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryIn a hat tip to the recently wrapped-up pro basketball season, as fun and (usually) exciting as the Playoffs were to watch, one thought that hit me was that the games and sport couldn’t and can’t hold a candle to the 1990’s when (and because) Michael Jordan hit his whole stride, his pinnacle, winning SIX STRAIGHT Championships on an individual basis and six out of eight with two “threepeats” for his team (the Chicago Bulls… as you probably know, he retired for the two seasons in between to try his hand at pro baseball, probably in part due to his dad’s death while resting in his car on the side of a highway) but he didn’t do it on his own. No, there were two different “dynamic duos” in that situation: Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen on-court, and MJ and his cool-as-a-cucumber head coach Phil Jackson off-court.
Similarly, in a hat tip to the looming pro football season, the next decade (2000’s) brought the world a “dynamic duo” in a different sport when the New England Patriots properly paired Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski on the field and also “TD” TB with his head coach Bill Belichick on the sidelines.
Dynamic indeed.
Of course, most people would probably deem the best-known “dynamic duo” to be Batman and Robin but there’s one with which NONE of these can compare: the PERFECT Pair of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, the Second and Third Persons of the Godhead, the Holy Trinity.
While I feel and give infinite praise and glory and gratitude to our Heavenly Father, He Himself has designed it so the other two deal most directly with us humanly speaking, in that those are the two Persons of the Godhead who actually and literally and personally DWELL INSIDE of each and every person who puts his or her faith sincerely and exclusively in God’s plan of salvation, the Gospel, i.e., that the only way for post-fall-of-humanity sinners could reunite, could get back into fellowship with a perfect God is to put one’s full faith in the fact, the truth, that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, into the world, who was ABLE and QUALIFIED to take our sins off of us and onto Himself because He DIDN’T have any sin, because He was conceived in Mary’s womb not by Joseph, not by man at all, but by the Holy Spirit, thus NOT inheriting the “sin nature” which has befallen every single person ever conceived by a male, by a human father.
Ergo, Jesus was not just a “good man” or even just a “great man” or “prophet” but a PERFECT person in every way. Deity. ”Immanuel”: God [is] with us… God literally walked among mankind! And walked and walked and walked and walked among humanity, rubbing shoulders with people just like you and me, especially during the roughly three years of His public ministry.
He walked and walked and walked – all the way to the Cross of Calvary on which He willingly and lovingly and beyond-bravely consummated a Self-sacrifice in taking all of our sins – past, present, and future – onto Himself, onto His literal body which was killed, crucified, then buried in a sealed-up grave with great guards ensuring that nobody could enter it (they feared His followers would seek to steal His body) but then those armed guards fled in fear when Jesus, the Son of God and God Himself (Second Person as noted above) rose again from the dead after having taken the greatest, the most phenomenal and consequential “victory lap” of all time when He flew through Hell so you and I and anyone who puts their full faith and trust in Him won’t have to!
After He rose from the dead – which to this very day has been celebrated the world over, each Spring, on Resurrection Sunday or as the world calls it, Easter – He then appeared on that very same day to two men who were walking on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus and also to Peter then all twelve of the Disciples then to over FIVE HUNDRED at one time, all of whom became literal, historical and definitely historic eyewitnesses to testify to the truth, the veracity, the fact that God’s plan for the salvation of man was indeed “finished” just like Jesus stated on that Cross just before His human death, so they could (and did!) tell others, who told others, who told others, and so on, for the past two thousand years, just you and I are hopefully doing today!
But after Jesus spent some time among people post-Resurrection, He ascended into Heaven but not before promising to send us a Helper, who was the Holy Spirit and He’s still here, still helping us, each and every day we let Him, each and every minute we don’t “grieve” or “thwart” His full ministry in and to us via the times we sin/slip/stumble in our walk with God but even then, as mentioned two posts ago, our day-to-day fellowship and walk is restored when we simply confess and repent of said sins.
Therefore, the GREATEST (and most famous) “dynamic duo” BY FAR is the perfect Pair of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, working hand-in-hand in and with and through us. Praise the Lord.
[You’ll probably want to stick around for this next song… (the whole thing but especially the last minute]
[… and this one, too, to take us out on a high note… (literally 🙂 )]
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Biggest, Best Blocker
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryAnother football season is rapidly approaching, and (not wrongly) most of the attention will go to the Quarterbacks and Running Backs and Receivers but I’ve always had a special place of respect and appreciation in my heart for a very different position, which is perennially at the other end of the fan-attention spectrum and that’s the Offensive Line.
While this certainly makes perfect sense intellectually – how could passers and receivers succeed but for the OL’s (brilliant) blocking which gives both of them the time needed to drop back or run their routes, or what runner could make it down the field but for the OL’s blocking to open up the “holes” and “lanes” amid all of the defenders? (Okay, okay, Barry Sanders succeeded with little to no help but the exceptions are few and very far between) – the other reason is that I’ve had very close connections with a certain NFL team who had THE GREATEST offensive line in the history of the league, pretty much indisputably even for fans of other teams [including personally knowing very well and at times working with many of their players and front office big-wigs, attending the same (super-small) school as the son of the team’s now-Hall-of-Fame Head Coach, etc.] … monumental memories, but the main point for the purposes of this particular post is that the concept of phenomenal blocking has been embedded in my brain since I was a child.
It was enforced in a very different way just two days ago.
Friday was as hot and humid and oppressive outside as I can recall in my entire life. Indeed, this area has set new all-time high temperatures these past two weeks with Friday taking the proverbial cake – more about that dramatic day in a future post, for now let’s talk about Saturday. The weather was still super-hot and I had occasion to be in downtown DC, the country’s crystal-clean capital (NOT!) (aesthetically or ethically, unfortunately) and I felt those smoldering sunbeams every step I took, every inch of the way as I made my way walking from the U.S. Capitol to the Golden Triangle to Foggy Bottom (i.e., GWU) but once I reached 10th or 11th Street NW it became much cooler and more comfortable ergo enjoyable… why? Because that’s where the downtown practically begins, with its huge office buildings providing much-needed and appreciated shade.
But like those big buildings blocked my body from being burned by the SUN, the Bible blocks us from being burned by the SIN which is so prevalent and pervasive and perpetually present around us in modern-day society.
Similarly, during this time of the year in particular, many people apply to their body suntan lotion with a high Sun Protection Factor (SPF) when they go to the beach or take a long walk in the summer; I wonder how many of them (even think to) apply to their heart, to their mind, to their brain the balm of the Bible, bubbling with blessing and benevolence every time a person puts it on their inside, on their interior via several ways I’ll note below.
As we go through life, may we not (foolishly) try to “complete passes” or “run routes” or “rush down the field” WITHOUT the biggest, best BLOCKER in the universe, the Bible, the literal and living Word of God! (If we simply ingest it, it’ll block better than a billion-SPF lotion, and even better than “the Hogs” did for Doug Williams and Mark Rypien and John Riggins and Art Monk and “the Smurfs” when I was a kid.)
Desire it.
Read it.
Study it.
And I’m going to help you (and/or your family, friends, fellow congregation members, etc.) even memorize it. In massive amounts. And, despite what you might think or feel right now, you/they will actually find it to be a lot of FUN so stay tuned!
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