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Why Memorise Scripture?
Anyone who knows me knows I am pretty keen on memorising (and reading) the Bible. I am not alone in such thinking, in fact many Christians you might have heard of hold the same view.
John Piper quotes Dallas Willard saying,
“Bible memorization is absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation. If I had to choose between all the disciplines of the spiritual life, I would choose Bible memorization, because it is a fundamental way of filling our minds with what it needs. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. That’s where you need it! How does it get in your mouth? Memorization”
There are many reasons to memorise the Bible. Here are a few that motivate me;
1. It helps me become more like Jesus
1 John 2:6
whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
2 Cor. 3:18
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
2. It helps me resist the temptation to sin
Psalm 119:11 was my first ever memory verse,
I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
3. It helps me to resist the devil
Jesus in the wilderness, Matt 4:4,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”
James 4:7
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
4. It helps me tell other people the Gospel
In sharing the Gospel I try to interweave the words of the Bible with experience, questions or testimony. I always think it helps me make sure I am testifying about Jesus not me. Acts 5:42
And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
1 Peter 3:15,
in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
5. It helps my words bring life, hope and encouragement
Proverbs 15:23,
To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!
6. It helps me to know more of God and his ways
I like to memorise verses which proclaim the greatness of who God is, Isaiah 40:28, 29
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
7. It helps me to live in the promises of God
John 15:7,
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Phil. 4:13,
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
There are lots of books, posts, blogs and papers giving other good reasons for memorising your Bible. What I have given here is a very simple set of reasons that motivate me to do it.
Next time I will talk a little about the practice of memorising, how you do it.
May Chapel Schedule
| 2/5/201 | MONDAY | SINGING & PRAYER |
| 4/5/2011 | WEDNESDAY | BEN LONGCHAR |
| 6/5/2011 | FRIDAY | THEMREINGAM CHILHANG |
| 9/5/2011 | MONDAY | HUBERT MAKANG |
| 11/5/2011 | WEDNESDAY | ARUN KOCHARY |
| 13/5/2011 | FRIDAY | TESTIMONY FROM STUDENTS |
| 16/5/2011 | MONDAY | LOLI PHIMU |
| 18/5/2011 | WEDNESDAY | RITESH RANA |
| 20/5/2011 | FRIDAY | AYLWIN WOLENG |
| 23/5/2011 | MONDAY | RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN |
Be very careful
…is something I am likely to say to my children when they go and take part in new venture, when I am worried about the company they might keep, when I am concerned for their safety. Most of us have either been on the giving or receiving end of such advice.
God was just as concerned for his people as they entered a new phase of life. Joshua is about to pass on to glory. New leadership, new experiences, new challenges await. Joshua 23:11-13
Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God. For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the LORD your God has given you.
There it is, be very careful to love the Lord your God. In each new situation you have to develop patterns, habits, routines that ensure you love God first. Joshua had led the people into a place of God’s abundance and yet still they had failed to see it, failed to take hold of it. The book of Joshua is full of such instances. This is Joshua 16:10,
However, they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites have lived in the midst of Ephraim to this day but have been made to do forced labor.
Loving God requires determination to conquer the enemies of our walk with him. Where have you stopped fighting? Are there places unconquered in all God has called you to?
Substitution
Substitute the words, “when will this end? when will this end? when will this end?”, and you have an insight into the brain of every student in my class.
The original cartoon was found here.
Dispensationalism
Just to help you understand more here are a couple of links to simple papers which give you a simple overview of dispensationalism.
http://www.theologicalstudies.org/dispen.html
http://www.answers.org/theology/dispensationalism.html
http://www.endtimes.org/dispens.html
and I have also found this useful page,
http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/dispensationalism.html
I have uploaded the class notes to slideshare and scribd.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/53914496/Chafer-Bible-Doctrines-Dispensations
http://www.scribd.com/doc/53914789/Chafer-Bible-Doctrines-Covenants
http://www.slideshare.net/rdc2506/chafer-bible-doctrines-dispensations
http://www.scribd.com/doc/53914789/Chafer-Bible-Doctrines-Covenants
JN Darby (pictured above) is considered one of the early pioneers of systematised dispensational theology.
Theology I – Dispensations
This is a summary presentation of Chafer’s teaching on dispensations. This is not my own opinion and is not necessarily commonly held in the Body of Christ today.
Theology I – Covenants
Teaching notes from this book.
God is no respecter of age
I have heard a lot spoken over the years of a chosen generation that God is going to use and work through in a mighty way – it has always been a generation of young people. God, it would seem, isn’t too interested in people who are over 30. I confess this has never been the generation I am “part of”. I have always been left pondering why God would want to cast off faithful older people because they are not young?
Psalm 92:12-15
The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
They are planted in the house of the LORD;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever full of sap and green,
to declare that the LORD is upright;
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
They still bear fruit in old age! When youth has gone God still has plans for fruit bearing. When the world is looking on to something new God is still looking at you. People might put you on the shelf or out to pasture, but God is always looking for you to bear fruit – no matter what age you are.
John 15:4-5
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
A child’s question (the point of Easter)
Thania, my daughter who is 7, asked a great question yesterday. We were talking about why Good Friday was ‘good’. She had some great answers, in the midst of our talking she asked,
“Why did Jesus have to die, why couldn’t God just forgive us?”
Why indeed? It is a question which has shaken far greater minds than mine.
John Stott gives a great answer,
‘Why should our forgiveness depend on Christ’s death?’…’Why does God not simply forgive us, without the necessity of the cross?’…’After all’, the objector may continue, ‘if we sin against another, we are required to forgive one another. We are even warned of dire consequences if we refuse. Why can’t God practise what he preaches and be equally generous? Nobody’s death is necessary before we forgive each other. Why then does God make such a fuss about forgiving us and even declare it impossible without his Son’s “sacrifice for sin”?’
For us to argue, ‘We forgive each other unconditionally, let God do the same to us’, betrays not sophistication but shallowness, since it overlooks the elementary fact that we are not God. We are private individuals, and other people’s misdemeanours are personal injuries. God is not a private individual, however, nor is sin just a personal injury. On the contrary, God himself is the maker of the laws we break, and sin is rebellion against him.
The reason why many people give the wrong answers to questions about the cross, and even ask the wrong questions, is that they have carefully considered neither the seriousness of sin nor the majesty of God.
I took this quote from Against Heresies blog where it was used in answer to Brian McLaren and Steve Chalke both of whom have discussed their dis-ease with God’s chosen way of bringing forgiveness.
The traditional understanding says that God asks of us something that God is incapable of Himself. God asks us to forgive people. But God is incapable of forgiving. God can’t forgive unless He punishes somebody in place of the person He was going to forgive. God doesn’t say things to you—Forgive your wife, and then go kick the dog to vent your anger. God asks you to actually forgive. And there’s a certain sense that, a common understanding of the atonement presents a God who is incapable of forgiving. Unless He kicks somebody else.
Brian McLaren
Is it not strange for Jesus (God incarnate) on the one hand to say ‘do not return evil for evil’ while still looking for retribution himself? Similarly wouldn’t it be inconsistent for God to warn us not to be angry with each other and yet burn with wrath himself, or tell us to ‘love our enemies’ when he obviously couldn’t quite bring himself to do the same without demanding massive appeasement? If these things are true, what does it mean to ‘be perfect…as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matt 5:48)? If it is true that Jesus is ‘the Word of God’ then how can his message be inconsistent with his nature? If the cross has anything to do with penal substitution then Jesus teaching becomes a divine case of ‘do as I say, not as I do’. I, for one, believe that God practices what he preaches!
Steve Chalke
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