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…
Suffering is SUPER! (Seriously.)
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryThe conclusion come to in Romans 11:33-34 couldn’t be (crystal) clearer, that it’s impossible for mere mortal man, finite and fallen, to fathom why God does some of the things He does: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” [As a side note, one of the countless things I just love about the powerful yet precious Apostle Paul is his perpetual passion, which is demonstrated by how much more often he used exclamation points in his writings than other human authors of Scripture.]
If it were up to you or me, we probably would’ve designed it so that there were many paths to heaven, many ways to come to God and to receive salvation from sin – its penalty (in our past), its power (in our present) and its presence (in our future) – and that’s very understandable and well-intended, as we’d like to see as many people as possible prosper spiritually and in all of the resultant tangential manners (emotionally, relationally, etc.) … but God didn’t do that, God didn’t create many ways to come to Him, to get to heaven, just ONE way:
No doubt this was one of the very first Bible verses many of us memorized, maybe as young children in Sunday school or AWANA; many in today’s culture reject the notion that there is only ONE WAY to God, to heaven, to salvation, but we have known and accepted this truth our whole lives.
But did you know that just as God has provided only one way for salvation, so also there’s only one way for sanctification?
And I can sum it up in a single word: suffering.
Trials, tribulations, troubles, testing, discipline… there are many words and phrases but they all involve the same thing, all spring from the same root: suffering.
If I had to boil down my perspective on suffering into a single sentence it would be this: Suffering is necessary, temporary, and salutary. (Often scary, and in the case of Paul downright legendary – 2 Corinthians 11:23-28)
Let’s do a deep dive on this topic.
I think that over the past two thousand years since Christ roamed the very same sod on which we currently walk, the majority of Christians have gotten the majority of biblical principles right, we’ve pretty much “nailed it” in most cases.
But one major exception to that is the area and topic of suffering.
Certainly the world at large, but even the vast majority of Christians view “suffering” as a negative, in a negative light – often completely but at least partially, as though suffering is either altogether undesirable or at least has drawbacks.
But one of THE MOST CRUCIAL aspects and principles of the Christian life, of spiritual growth, of victory and power over sin and temptation and every evil thing is that not only ISN’T suffering “bad” or “negative” or “undesirable” but JUST THE OPPOSITE: it’s GOOD and POSITIVE and VERY DESIRABLE. Because it’s utterly necessary and indispensable if one is to be sanctified, if one is to walk through the ONLY gate and walk down the ONLY path which leads to and results in “the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14, very strong words!)
Which means that it’s a downright disaster that so many people, even so many Christians totally get this one – but uber-important given the words, the warning just quoted – area, this one aspect of the Christian life so wrong but hopefully this post will change that!
Specifically, the Bible will change that as we read and heed the living and active Word of God Almighty quoted particularly in the “bullet points” of this post.
The first fact is the one which led off above: God is the one who designed life and the plan of salvation and sanctification and His wisdom is infinitely beyond what our finite, fallen, flesh-bound minds can muster so we shouldn’t question His decisions (in general, including this one in specific) but rather accept, embrace, and indeed celebrate them.
The second fact is that suffering is universal. No human being is immune or excepted from this rule.
The Bible is full of “tests” or “proofs” of genuine salvation. Two of my “favorites” are the entire New Testament books of James and 1 John. But I submit to you that the Bible is equally clear that how a person responds to suffering (again, often referred to as “trials” or “tribulations” or “trouble” or “testing” or “discipline”) in this life reveals where he or she will be spending the life to come, eternity. To wit:
The third fact is that suffering is NECESSARY as it is THE way in which God SANCTIFIES those who come to a saving knowledge of Him, i.e., Christians…
… starting with Christ Himself (very fittingly… since the word “Christians” means “Christ ones” or “little Christs”):
My friend, if it was necessary for GOD IN FLESH, the Lord Jesus Himself, to experience suffering and thus learn obedience (God’s own words as we just read, not mine) in His humanity, how much more do you suppose that goes for sinful sinning sinners like you and me?!
I submit to you that suffering isn’t just a part of the Christian life but in a very real sense it IS the Christian life!
The fourth fact is that God knew that selfish, sinful, sin-filled, fleshly, fallen, finite folks like us would have a totally distorted, backward view of something like suffering, since it goes against the very grain of human nature by default. Which no doubt is why His call was crystal clear not only in its simplicity and straightforwardness but also in its caveat: that following Him would absolutely entail great cost, much suffering, and that a person would therefore be very wise to “count the cost” BEFORE making that fateful decision.
One reason Jesus did this was His utter thoughtfulness and generosity of spirit, always wanting what’s best for others. Unlike so many “salesmen” today, He eschewed hype and deceit and instead just gave his audience the facts, the truth. Another reason was to separate the wheat from the chaff, knowing that only those truly called by God would want, would deem it “worth it” to take on suffering in this life versus the pleasure and “happiness” and “self-fulfillment” prized and sought by so many today, by the world, the world system and its adherents.
But Christians are cut from a different cloth. We understand what Moses did and exemplified so beautifully:
The fifth and final fact is that the value and benefit and benefits of choosing Christ, of choosing to follow Him and not the world (“I have decided to follow Jesus…”) FAR OUTWEIGHT AND SURPASS any and all of the “pleasure” this world could ever give… “TIMES INFINITY” as we used to say as children.
And going back to the previous verse brings us full circle to the “warning” noted above but for full context I’ll print the previous four verses since this is so important, so vital, so crucial:
Ding ding ding!
And this truth is similarly stated in 1 Peter (different human author, same Spirit):
… which is why we can consider, count, view suffering as TOTAL JOY and for the POSITIVE thing that it actually is! Since it’s – and please be sure to really let this sink in – since it’s IMPOSSIBLE to separate or de-link it from its result.
Above I quoted 1 Peter 2:21 which clearly states that we were called for the “purpose” of suffering. So it’s fitting to end this post with another passage just over a chapter later in that very same book:
My friend, beloved, the fact of the matter, the fact of life is that it is I-M-P-O-S-S-I-B-L-E to arrive at the desperately desired destination of defeating and conquering and overcoming sin and being spiritually mature on the path of sanctification W-I-T-H-O-U-T, A-P-A-R-T from S-U-F-F-E-R-I-N-G!
Which is why I have come not just to genuinely love and desire and want it but to truly TREASURE it. For real. Because I have come to see its result. I have come to see that it is the ONLY gate through which one may travel on the path of salvation and sanctification and spiritual growth. I have come to see that it is indeed the means by which God removes the “dross” of sin from our lives so that the “precious gold” of godliness can be experienced in this life before being fully realized “at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:7) Therefore, let us indeed “arm ourselves” spiritually “with the same purpose”, knowing that just as Jesus is “THE way” for salvation (John 14:6), so also suffering is THE way for sanctification, with our precious Savior as the ultimate example, the perfect pattern for us to follow. (1 Peter 2:21)
Let us “count the cost”…
… then let us choose wisely, let us choose to put the world and the past behind us and focus on the cross and the future before us…
… from this day forth, let us not be so foolish and short-sighted and worldly-minded as to view suffering as a “negative” or “drudgery” but rather for the immense, extreme POSITIVE and BLESSING and TREASURE that it is.
Or put another way, one we would’ve immediately understood as kids… Let’s view suffering not as okra but blueberries!
Startinnnnnnnnnng now!
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If you sense that the Lord might be leading YOU to support the historic event unfolding in real-time here at BibleMemory.ORG and thus become my fellow worker and thus share in all of the fruit and blessings (3 John 8) and literally MAKE HISTORY together, here are the best ways to do so:
1. Become a one-time or monthly partner by making a donation via PayPal’s fully-secure Bible Memory page!
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3. Add your name to my Prayer List!
4. Encourage as many of our fellow Christians as you can to pray for this historic event by having them go to BibleMemory.ORG/pray (please make sure they understand that it’s .org, not .com) – doing so by word-of-mouth is great, and to do so with a single click on your social media simply click here then scroll down a few inches and select your platforms, it’s that quick and easy!
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Quick Thought: How to Read Minds (It’s EASY!)
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryActually, there are TWO ways, straight out of the Bible so this is totally true and I can attest firsthand that it really works!
Way #1: Note what someone SAYS:
Way #2: Note what someone DOES:
And if you add to this already-strong combo a person’s reputation/testimony, how most others view them, well, you have a virtually foolproof way of knowing what’s inside a person, what they think about… mind-readers!
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Quick Thought: All-in-awe, this is the greatest Two-Way Street in the universe
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryThe Christian says to Christ, “I am in awe of You.”
Christ says to the Christians, “I am in all of you.”
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