How to memorize scripture

I have been memorizing scripture.  I had not done this since I was quite young, and I didn't think I could anymore, but I learned that I can, even after the ripe old age of 50!

I'd like to share the secret with you:

You can memorize scripture when the Lord Himself puts the scripture on your heart.

Don't try to memorize somebody else's list of recommended verses.  I'm sure they are very good Bible verses (of course they are, all scripture is beautiful and beneficial).  In fact, once you come up with your own list, you will almost undoubtedly find that it overlaps with other people's lists.  However, the words will go much more quickly and deeply into your heart if you find them, chew them and internalize them yourself while you commune with God, than if you try to catch a shortcut by using other people's lists.

There are no shortcuts.

I recently listened to a sermon by my favorite Bible teacher, Colin Smith.  Since we have to stay at home while the Coronavirus threatens, and since we had not settled into a church here before the plague descended, I can listen to Colin Smith guilt-free on Sunday mornings.  This past week, he literally preached my life's journey and moved me to tears.  One thing he said, sort of in passing, was that a mentor had taught him always to pray with an open Bible.  Admittedly, I do not always pray with an open Bible.  But when I have a deep need that I am bringing to the Lord, I have both prayed over a (now tear stained) Bible, and also printed out many (now ragged) pages of Bible verses to pray through.

Experiences like these plant scripture deep into one's heart.  As you return to the same verses, reading again and again about who God is and what He promises, the words become lodged in your mind.  You start to talk about them, to share them with others.  You may realize that you stumble a bit as you try to recall, so then you write the words out on a notecard and stack the notecards on your nightstand, handy for you to review and straighten in your memory.  These verses become your verses, the words God has spoken directly and specifically to you, for your needs.

You can memorize when God Himself puts the words into your heart, but the process begins when you go to meet with Him in His word.  For me, I started meeting with Him in His word in earnest when I hit a major crisis.  When I desperately ran to Him for help with a problem, He did not quickly solve the problem.  Instead, He spoke to me and taught me about truth, and hope, and faith.  He planted His word in me, and taught me to memorize when I thought it was far too late for a forgetful old mind like mine to learn new Bible verses.  He has given me gifts that have sustained me in many trials besides the original one that drove me into His arms.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
~James 1:2-4

Palm Sunday

On Sunday, it was Palm Sunday (so odd). 

We went for a drive.

Actually, we went for two drives.

We began by trying to go in the car, but the battery was dead, so we jumped it from the van.  I, I myself, located the jumper cables, and assisted like an OR nurse, feeling very important.  Once the car was started, we knew we should drive it around for awhile, so we hopped in and set out.

Because of the Corona quarantine, we hadn't been out for a long time.

The back roads through the woods are stunning right now, clusters of forest like giant bouquets of pale green hydrangeas radiating under a brilliant sun.  Dogwood blossoms float outward like fairy flowers in flush white layers, while colossal clusters of pale lavender wisteria drip like grapes from massive trees.  Tucked back in the underbrush, wild azaleas brighten the shade with their red, pink, while and coral blooms.

It was quiet on the road, and bright, and still.  Angled light fell through the trees, tinged with pastel colors, illuminating particles of pollen and falling petals.

I'm not sure about Shawn, but I felt like an outlaw, especially when I sneezed a few times, because allergies are real, and they instill one with guilt when COVID-19 is raging.

We drove to a trailhead we had noticed near the Haw River.  We checked the parking lot, which was somewhat full but not bursting.  Some tan, shirtless young men with short hair, tattoos, and strings tied around their heads were unloading kayaks from the back of a pickup.  They waved, friendly.

We drove home and switched out the car for the van, just in case the battery wasn't really fixed, and we went back.

The trail we embarked upon did not seem well traveled.  Shawn warned me that there was a lot of poison ivy, so I held my elbows tight in at my waist and clasped my hands upright in front of me.  It was warm, sunny, shady, pale green and speckled everywhere with wildflowers whose names I do not know.

We crossed a tributary on wobbly stones.  Being older than I ever have been, I needed a hand to keep upright, but with help I skipped over.

Now and then we passed others, and we tried very hard to keep the recommended six foot distance.  Most of the time, I think we did well.  We also have taken to holding our breath in the presence of strangers.

At one point, walking along the river, we came upon a couple of girls reclining on the bank.  They were extremely thin and pale, in small red and gray bikinis that didn't match the pastel scenery.  One of them seemed to be lying back on some sort of chaise lounge, while the other sat forward on a blanket with her knees pulled up.  They were having a deep discussion while the sun touched their colorless faces, both from above and in reflection off the water.  I wondered where they could possibly be from, and how they could be unaware of the sunburn they would later suffer.  Maybe they had used sunscreen.  I don't know.  To me, they looked tragically and enigmatically unaware.  I had no sunscreen to offer them, so I kept my silence, trusting in the fringe of new green ferns and grasses to privatize our separate parties.

We walked all the way to where the trail encountered a sign that said, "Posted.  No Trespassing."  Although the trail continued, we figured we should not.  So we went back: along the river, up the hill, through the forest, across the tributary, up another hill, past the wooden gate at the trailhead, and across the hot gravel parking lot, by then quite empty.  The boys with the kayaks were gone.

After all that, Shawn checked his Fitbit, and we'd gone less than a mile.  Our own small neighborhood at home gives us a pretty solid mile.  Shawn said, "That's the longest less-than-a-mile walk I ever took."

We drove down to Lowes to see if the garden center was open, just to observe, not to explore.  It was open, but three or four people stood under the sun on the asphalt, between taped off spaces, waiting to be allowed in to shop.  Every soul was wearing a mask.  One woman, in amongst the plants, wore a particularly effective looking mask, a pandemic professional.  She was thin, sporting a tee-shirt, pale green like the spring foliage, and she stroked a plant in a pot with a plastic-gloved finger.  I asked Shawn if we could leave.  Across the parking lot, Kentucky Fried Chicken had posted a giant red and white sign, "WE ARE OPEN."

At that point the heat was bearing down, and I was really thirsty, but by a miracle of Providence, a rumpled package of bottled water behind my seat turned up a fresh bottle for me, and it was still somehow cool to the touch, a precious relic from the last trip we took, so long ago.  When even was the last trip we took?

We drove north up the main road toward home, past many businesses with dark windows and empty parking lots.  Some fast-food drive-through windows were open, but hardly any cars stood in line.  I drank my water gratefully, watching the beauty of the brilliant sun shining through its clarity. 

Such a very strange Palm Sunday.

The inclination of a heart

I am trying to figure out what to do with whatever might be left of my life.

I've never been outgoing or had an easy time making conversation with people, so the traditional adage of the church, that we need to go out and share Jesus with others, is something I've never effectively done.  Or maybe, if I'm honest, it's simply something I haven't done, effectively or not.  Yet, Jesus is the Savior of the world, our only hope for release from the curse of destruction.  I must speak.

I would be lost without Jesus, and without hope.  I would not be able to find any point to anything.  I long for home, which I have finally come to understand is heaven, although I have spent, literally, decades of my life pining to live in geographical proximity to family members.  Now I finally know that home is not here.  It's in the hereafter.  This frightens me, because it will be utterly different from anything I have ever known.  Yet, I try to hold and believe the promises of God, that this is the fulfillment of all I have ever desired and the healing from all I have ever suffered.

I fear because I am not good at loving people.  I am scared of people.  From the time I was a small child, I have been afraid of people, and have experienced them as much more hurtful than trustworthy.  But God tells us that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.  I do try, but I am incredibly bad at being loving.  I am selfish and self-protective, and above almost all else, I do not want to experience pain.  By the grace of God, I do not have impulses to hurt people.  This is not to say that I don't hurt people.  I do.  But it is usually by mistake.  I try very hard to be kind and safe.  Yet, I still find myself doing hurtful things, even if they are by accident, or accidental collateral damage that comes from my self-protective nature, or the explosive chaos that breaks out of a panic attack.

I am afraid of what selfishness may be exposed in my nature as this virus bears down on us.  May God forgive me, and help me to be loving.

God is good, although His ways are often inscrutable.  I do not know why He allows fallible people to try to act on His behalf in bringing the news of His grace to the world.  I do not know why He allows wolves to get in among His flocks in disguise, and savage His sheep.  I do not know many things.  But I do know that the world is irreparably broken, and Jesus is our only hope of rescue, and He promises that if we cling to Him, it will be better, so much better, a weight of glory beyond all comparison.

I think God might save more people than we expect, and perhaps different people than whom we expect.  (C.S. Lewis said that, in better words.)  In my own words, I think it depends only on the inclination of the heart.  Is your heart inclined towards Jesus, or away from Him?

A long line stretches from sin, at one end, to righteousness, at the other.  What I'm saying--about the inclination of your heart--is that it doesn't matter where you fall on the line, how close to the righteous end, or how close to the sin end, at any given time.  What matters is the direction you are heading.

"Whosoever will may come."  All who long for Jesus and look to Him--agreeing with Him and admitting our desperate need--will be saved, only held accountable for whatever revelation of God we have been given (Romans 2).  But even the most apparently "righteous" person, if he looks away from Jesus, will be lost.   Everyone will be held accountable for what he does with whatever revelation he has received, but only God can be the judge of that, for some "revelation" comes through such flawed sources that it is distorted to a point where Satan's deception makes it impossible for the listener to receive.  Only God can be the judge, but if He knows that you know the truth about Jesus and relentlessly reject it, that is the sin that will condemn you.  The ultimate sin is when you say in your heart, "I know who you are, God, and what Jesus did for me, and I don't care.  I don't want any part of you.  I want my own way."  For any other attitude, I believe the Lord has grace.  His great desire, His passion, is for the salvation of all people.

There may be more people seeking God than some of us realize.  Although they may not be able to name Jesus, they will know in their hearts the value of humility, kindness and compassion, His righteous example.  When they meet Him, they will not turn away in pride, but will run with open arms to the one they have always longed to know.  They will realize that the voice inside their hearts, exhorting them to goodness, was never their own, and always His; His call.

Jesus taught that true, effective righteousness is love.  He explained that to keep the Law and the prophets, you need to love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.  Righteousness is worked out in love.  Love is humility, humbly counting others as more significant than ourselves and seeking others' interests rather than our own, but truly seeking their best interests, not just indulging their desires (which could be quite detrimental for all parties).  

The opposite of righteousness is sin.

The opposite of love is selfishness.

The opposite of humility is pride.  

So, if you go back to imagining the line, you see that sin, selfishness and pride are at one end, and humility, love and righteousness are at the other.  

RIGHTEOUSNESS

SIN

LOVE                                                       <------->-------->--------<----------<-------->

SELFISHNESS

HUMILITY

PRIDE

The direction in which we incline is the factor that determines our standing for eternity.

Satan loves to deceive us in regard to pride, because that is the easiest way for him to trick us.  There is a truly distressing amount of pride in the world, and it doesn't usually look the way we think it would.  It is forever creeping up on me.  The moment we experience a bit of victory over sin, the temptation to pride becomes an imminent threat.  I'm so thankful that God is merciful.  We must always remember that everything good is only ever from Him, never from any other source.

I pray we can find joy and gratitude and peace as we wait out these days, wondering what is to come.  I pray that time in quarantine in our homes will lead us to consider, and then to speak with God, to examine our hearts and our ways under His light.

Seek the Lord while He may be found

call upon Him while He is near.

Let the wicked forsake their ways

and the unrighteous their thoughts.

Let them turn to the Lord, 

and He will have mercy on them,

and to our God, for He will freely pardon.

Isaiah 55:6-7

God is on the throne of heaven

Last night, Shawn and I were looking for something therapeutic to watch before we went to bed. At stressful times, we gravitate to nature documentaries by the BBC, narrated by David Attenborough (Planet Earth, etc). Unfortunately, I think we have already watched them all.

Perusing similar offerings, we selected a show about the Universe. The first episode was about the sun. About 20 seconds in, watching explosions of sun-matter being flung from the sun's surface out into the solar system, we decided that it was not, in fact, a low-stress option and we switched it off. Yet, as I thought about the terrifying images I had seen, I had to wonder and compare them to what we are experiencing right now, as the corona virus spreads across the face of the earth.

I see many articles these days, postulating whether this is a judgement from God. After watching solar flares that resulted in massive coronal ejections, I could only be thankful for the mercy of God in that, if this is a judgement, it is a corona virus which we have had a gracious lot of time to watch as it unfolds and spreads. It is not a coronal ejection unleashed from the sun upon the earth in a one-time cataclysmic explosion. We have time to think, time to pray, time to look to Jesus. For those who are far from Him, there is time to repent. God is so kind. He gives us so much time. He is not willing that any should perish, but desires that all should have the opportunity to repent and receive forgiveness and redemption. Even those who fall sick have time. Many sick people recover, but even those who succumb receive ample time to seek the Lord and receive His gift of eternal salvation. God's eternal kingdom is a place of life, light, health, peace and joy forever and ever.

The sin that brings death to our current physical universe has caused every single entity in it to be subject to deterioration and ultimate destruction. Even stars have lifecycles; even stars die. Nothing lasts forever. Someday, all of this is going to be gone: our sun, our solar system, our galaxy, everything. We don't know when or how, but we know it will end at some point. Every time we watch a falling star, we should remember: the physical Universe is not eternal. Only God is eternal. Amazingly, God loves us and calls us to Himself, to become a part of His eternal Kingdom, to live with a sure hope of eternal glory. Perhaps He knows that our sun is going to explode sooner than we realize, and He is sending the corona virus to wake us up, to remind us that we are not invincible, we desperately need Jesus to carry us into eternity.

Social distancing cannot save us--it's a wise thing to do, but it is not the key to our ultimate salvation. Political leaders cannot save us. Policies and laws cannot save us. The internet cannot save us. Doctors and engineers and scientists cannot save us. Science cannot save us. Only God can save us. I believe that He is merciful and mighty, and I think He will stop this pandemic in His time and for the display of His glory. But He also wants us to heed the warning. We are frail beings in a Universe that is far beyond our knowledge, and even farther beyond our control. The only safety is in aligning ourselves with the gracious, infinite Creator and Savior who made us, loves us, and gave Himself for us. If you don't know Him, please come to Him today. If you do know Him, please join in praying for the salvation of our world.

Praying

Today I am trying to join a prayer effort in praying for the cities of our nation as they shudder under the burden of COVID-19.

We have been asked to pray Romans 12, with attention to our need for the Holy Spirit to indwell and act through the church.

We are to present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice.

We are to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit and permeated with love, His love, both received and given.

We are to acknowledge our gifts, given by the Spirit, His portion of Himself dwelling in each of us,

and we are to use our own gifts generously, while highly esteeming the gifts of others.

We are to overcome evil with good.  Overcome evil with good.  Yes, Lord Jesus, please overcome evil with good, in us and through us.

At such a time as this, we need one another and the power of God working through all of us, more than we ever have in our lifetime.

Before this all happened, I began to be burdened about the church.  As we moved across the country and started looking for a church, I was so discouraged by what I found, and did not find.  I had begun to pray for the church, for the Spirit to be present and active and real in the body of Christ, the collective of all who hear His voice and are called according to His purposes, all who have truly offered themselves to be vessels of His presence in the world, cracked vessels filled with the light of Christ shining out.

It is so rare that we think about the wonderful mystery of Christ in us.  In us.  We forget about His precious Holy Spirit abiding in our hearts, in our minds, in our attitudes and actions.  I fear that when we forget about Him, we quench Him.  I have been praying for Him to pour Himself out again, anew, on His people, and to rise up gloriously through us.

We the church, in times of prosperity, can become confused about our mission.  We separate what we do at the church building, and perhaps in a weekly small group meeting, from our everyday lives.  We enjoy time with church friends, sometimes sharing and praying for one another, listening to stirring music and interesting sermons about "relevant" topics, undertaking the intermittent mission trip or ministry project . . . we see church life as things we can do, and feel good about, without being fundamentally changed.  We do the church activities, enjoy them even, but in the end, we retreat to our regular lives, strategizing our retirement savings or the next money deal on the horizon, watching TV, feathering our nests, and lying down in the comfortable beds we have made for ourselves.

Church is an extra-curricular, an important one, of course, but still a sidelight.  There is always regular life to return to, whether it is work, cleaning, shopping, "chillaxing," or attending our kids' sporting events.  Because church is a sidelight, it has to be well-marketed, to continue to draw in people, who will continue to support it financially, so it can continue to grow and attract more people.  It becomes one more entertainment business, and thus, within the church, the most valued players can become those who have charismatic personalities and sparkling gifts of music and oratory.  We start to rely (as the Corinthian church also had relied) on the most successful, eloquent, attractive leaders we can find.  If they orchestrate big events that make the news, if they are effective fundraisers, if they can persuade people to get on board with their programs, we assume they are blessed by God.

Paul wrote that Christ had sent him ". . . to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.  For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God . . . And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.  For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  And I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God," (1 Cor 1:17b-18, 2:1-5).  Paul's words were in reaction to a shameful competition the brothers had begun, based on who was following the "best" teacher.

We are so prone to compete rather than to love.  1 Corinthians is Paul's plea that the church would desist from their prideful competitions and allow the Holy Spirit to move them into a life of humble love and service for one another (1 Cor 13:1-13, 16:14).  This calls everything into question, from how we choose a church, to how we set our minds in the morning when we awaken, to how we view life under the canopy of the grace of God who has given us everything we have.

And speaking of the things God has given us, we believers each have a gift, given by God, through the Holy Spirit, for the purpose of building up the body of Christ and ministering to the world.  We've become so warped in how we see the church, that we fail to see how God purposed for our gifts to work.  We glorify those with gifts to stand on the "stage" (we actually call it that these days), and we pay casual lip-service to the invisible people who did the set-up and the cleaning and handled the nuts and bolts of the service behind the scenes, and we forget everybody else.  Thus, everybody else walks around with their gifts unused and unappreciated.

Today, as I pray for our world, and for God to help us battle COVID-19, I think of our Spirit-filled brothers and sisters in Christ whose gifts are real and powerful, yet largely unsung.

I pray for Christian scientists, doctors and engineers.  I pray that God will work in them and through them, granting supernatural wisdom and skill to develop the means to help people all across the world at this time.  Engineers and doctors at the University of Illinois have developed a prototype of a simple, emergency ventilator that could become available at an approximate cost of $100 per respirator.  They are forfeiting all rights and patents and offering the design to anyone in the world who would like to produce it.  I praise God for their invention, and for their spirit of generosity in not trying to profit individually during this time of crisis.

I pray that God will raise up business people and producers--ideally Spirit-filled and Spirit-led business people and producers--to manufacture these ventilators and make them available in miraculous time.  They are saying these devices could be available within a matter of 3-4 weeks.  I pray that with God, it could be much faster than that.

We don't often think of gifts of business and science as gifts from God, but our vocations are our callings.  May we esteem our scientifically gifted brothers and sisters, and our brothers and sisters with gifts and resources to implement the speedy discovery, invention and production of life saving devices, medicines and vaccines, as gifts from God to help in time of need.  May they realize that their gifts are from God for such a time as this, and rise to the occasion in faith and love, with confidence.

Oh God, please pour out Your Spirit on your researchers and scientists and infectious disease specialists--people who know you, love you, honor you--and give them the supernatural spiritual ability to find a way to overcome this illness by your wisdom and your grace.  Give aid to your people, and let them prevail over the godless people in their fields who would mock and dismiss them because of their faith in you.  Please hasten and do not delay to come to their aid, and through them bless the world, just as through the seed of Abraham, you blessed the world with a Savior, Jesus Christ.

Lord I pray that your people, your church, your beloved children will rise up with your mercy, grace and inspiration and bless the world with Your healing at this time.  I pray that their actions will come from hearts of love and service, and that the example of altruism they set will be a blessing and a witness to people the world over.  May this be an unprecedented time when love wins over selfishness, and life is valued over money, and you are glorified above all.

In Jesus' name, Amen.