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…
“That is so GALLING!”
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryI have to admit that 99.9% of Bible passages make me happy. No, thrilled. They literally breathe new life into me.
But there is a stark exception: Luke 17:11-19
Jesus healed ten lepers.
Leprosy is like no other disease. It was so bad that those stricken by it were forced to dwell outside of the city, on the outskirts of town, and had to depend on the merciful, pity-filled alms of others just to survive.
I won’t go into the medical specifics of that disease because, well, frankly, I just ate and don’t want to, um, exhume my dinner but trust me, it was a gross, hideous disease, and those who suffered from it had perhaps the worst ”quality of life” except for death itself… and I’m not sure even THAT was a step down, I think many lepers would deem death itself as a step up, as an improvement, and one of the few types of people who probably greeted “the Grim Reaper” with a hug and kiss.
Now imagine for a minute that you were born with no arms, no legs, no eyes, and no ears. And one day a doctor discovered a cure and freely gave it to you and, bam, you suddenly had all of your limbs and eyes and ears and were as good as new, what would you say to that doctor, how would you react?
Well, in Luke 17:11-19 the Bible tells us that Jesus came across ten lepers and healed them.
Good as new!
After living their entire life – which was really no life at all, no quality of life whatsoever – in such a horrific condition, you and I would think, would just assume that those ten lepers couldn’t thank Jesus enough for healing them and totally transforming their lives, right?
Yeah, but we’d be wrong. Can you believe that just ONE of those lepers took the time to THANK Jesus?
Man, that is so GALLING! It’s vexing even just thinking about those other nine lepers. Infuriating, really, that anyone could be THAT ungrateful! Grrrrr.
But no sooner did that thought hit me a few minutes ago that a second, quite different thought immediately followed:
How often do I thank the Lord for my spiritual salvation that permitted and produced the greatest transformation of all, one of literally infinite, eternal proportions?
How often do YOU?
Color me embarrassed. Color me convicted. Because even though I do thank Him for that every day or two, it’s not nearly, nearly, nearly, nearly, nearly, nearly enough. You better believe that if a human doctor cured me of leprosy or cancer or any other life-altering disease, I’d be showing up at his or her office at least three times a day for the first month or two and thereafter would do so via email for the rest of my life.
How much more, then, does God, the great Healer and Miracle-doer, deserve our constant gratitude for curing us of an eternal disease?
Let’s commit and strive to be like that one leper, not the nine.
How fitting that these two thoughts hit me on Thanksgiving Eve.
Happy Thanksgiving indeed!
But every day should be Thanksgiving for those of us who’ve been healed by the Lord every bit as tangibly and infinitely more consequentially than those lepers.
May it be so.
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Quick Thought: Predictive Indeed
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryI went for a walk yesterday. After a stretch of glorious autumn weather, the forecast was calling for the remnants of another hurricane from the Gulf Coast to make its way up to my neck of the woods, but I was hoping to get my errand in before that happened.
As I was walking, the (heinous) humidity here was as high as I’ve ever felt it. (The word “sauna” sprang squarely to mind.) And I was reminded of what many of us learned in grade school:
Humidity is predictive.
And a truth I learned in Sunday school also immediately hit me:
Humility is predictive.
But unlike the weather, this second truth entails 100% odds. Bank on it. Whichever path we choose, the Scripturally-stated subsequence is absolutely guaranteed to follow. Definitely eventually, usually immediately. While the unbreakable, never-veering verity averred in this verse serves as a warning, it is also a massive blessing: the determinative difference lies only in which path one walks along while in this world.
May we choose wisely. May we walk wisely. May we opt for humility in our daily lives. Like that Porsche TV ad tagline of yesteryear puts it: there is no substitute. It’s a no-brainer. Not necessarily easy for our fallen flesh to fathom much less fulfill, but let us find firsthand that the Bible unleashes the Holy Spirit to produce and grow this guaranteed-golden trait within us, such that it eventually becomes automatic, one’s default setting in life. And remains such as long as we don’t touch, as long as we keep our grubby hands off of the wheel and let the Bible and Holy Spirit drive us and do their thing, to perform the work as promised (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
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Quick Thought: If I ever write a hymn, this would be the title.
/in Uncategorized /by Bible MemoryI love the hymns of old in particular. So many are chock full of theological truths straight out of Scripture, both simple and profound.
I have far too many favorites to list them here but one of them is How Great Thou Art, made famous and a household humming fave by its pervasive use in the Billy Graham crusades.
But I often think that if I were to ever write a hymn I’d likely title it How Good Thou Art.
Was and is and will He forevermore be great? Ab-so-LUTE-ly!
Christ created everything. “Both in the heavens and on earth. visible and invisible [I’d say that covers it! =] … all things have been created by Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:16)
Christ clearly and convincingly and completely conquered sin and death. Think about that for a second: He conquered death.
In His death, burial and resurrection, He made Satan like that famous fish which went after a worm on a hook and thought he was about to eat dinner when in fact he was about to be dinner. As Jesus bled and bled and bellowed out asking why the Father had forsaken Him and breathed His last breath before becoming sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21) (think about THAT for a second… mind-blowing), Satan saw such and started to celebrate – a bit prematurely as it turns out. He put on a private party in Perdition but before it could barely begin, Jesus rained on his parade (Ephesians 4:8-9) and “disarmed” the devil and his demons but went even further and turned that private party into a “public display” of degrading defeat and definitive deliverance (Colossians 2:15). (Talk about crashing a party! Talk about making an entrance!)
Greatness doesn’t get any greater than that!
How great Thou art, indeed.
But just as often each day I find myself being overwhelmed with how wonderfully warm and loving and generous and giving and good He is to me, and to all of His children, and even to those who not only don’t yet know Him but who hate Him! (Matthew 5:45; Romans 5:8,10)
He clothes us and feeds us and shelters us. But He not only takes care of the physical and emotional needs of our human hearts and bodies but also our spiritual needs. Salvation. Eternal life. Forgiveness of our (unfortunately) ongoing but (fortunately) ever-decreasing sins. The ability to love and be loved by Him. To know and be known by and walk with Him every day, every hour, every minute.
Goodness doesn’t get any “gooder” than that!
So, yeah, I think that would be the title if I ever write a hymn to Him: How Good Thou Art.
Because both are absolutely essential for us. And essential to Him. His greatness and His goodness. His goodness and His greatness. For without the former, the latter wouldn’t do us any good as He’d be a tyrant, gushing with greatness and power and muscle but no heart. Yet without the latter, the former would give us a god who wants to grant us “every good thing” and “every perfect gift” (James 1:17) but lacks the power to actually do so. No, beloved, it’s the combination of His goodness and greatness which makes Him not “a god” but God.
So on second thought, I’d title that future hymn How Great and Good Thou Art!
Thank You, Lord, for Your goodness and greatness. For being so great but also being so good, and so good to us.
Indeed, that dual fact is exactly why I’m in the process of memorizing the entire Bible – every word of His Word, of His love letter to us – so I can demonstrate through this very unique love/thank-You gift the gratitude and affection I and countless others hold for all He does and who He is! For the fact that He not only defines greatness but goodness, too.
Yes, how great – and good – Thou art, indeed.
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