Memorize the Word…

 “Your word I have hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You…”      —Ps. 119:11

One of the spiritual disciplines we should recover immediately is the practice of memorizing scripture. Nothing has the power to make a more substantial change in our lives than filling our heart and mind with the living Word of God. The reason for this is found in John’s revelation that God and His Word are One. The King James communicates this truth better than any of the more modern versions:

 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.”     — John 1:1–2

When we fill ourselves with the Word, we intensify our awareness of the presence of God. We could say that we are filled with God only to the extent that we are filled with His Word. Selah!

 By planting God’s Word in our memory, we position ourselves in a place of submission to it. The memorized Word can (and will) shape our dreams, our speech and our thoughts, each of which plays a role in determining the direction of our life. When the Word governs our life, the outcome will be blessed:

 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”       —Josh. 1:8

 The Bible likens the Word to food. By memorizing the Word, we feed our spirit, which is the source of our life (Prov. 4:23):

 But [Jesus] answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”             — Matt. 4:4

 Our energy and strength ebb when we skip a meal; in the same way our spiritual strength is sapped by missing time in the Word. Memorizing scripture enables us to feed “on the run.” Job recognized this important work of the Word when he said, “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12).

 Memorizing the Word will sustain us. But perhaps even more importantly, memorizing the Word will guide us on our journey of discipleship. We are destined to be conformed to the image of our Lord and Savior (Rom. 8:29). The Holy Spirit will use the Word we’ve memorized as He shapes us into accurate representatives of Christ in the world:

 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”        — John 14:26

 The Holy Spirit will use the Word we memorize to encourage our obedience to God’s commands. And then this becomes a life-giving, life-sustaining cycle. We memorize scripture to increase our awareness of God and to join ourselves to Him. The Holy Spirit reminds us of God’s commands, and, as an expression of our love for God, we seek to obey the Word. This then further unites us with God:

 “Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.’”            — John 14:23–24

 Our life as Christians is founded on, sustained with, and developed by the Word of God. Yet the Word printed in our Bible on the table can have only limited effect. However, if we take the Bible and speak the Word aloud into our memory, the Word’s power will be released into our life. Memorizing scripture equips us with a reservoir of God’s Word, which will permeate our entire life. It is time to recapture this spiritual discipline: memorize the Word!

 Begin with something easy and work your way up. You might start with a favorite psalm. Psalm 1 or Psalm 23 are excellent choices for beginning memorization; Psalm 91 is another wonderful psalm to write on your heart. In time you’ll want to work your way up to memorizing entire chapters of scripture. Romans 8, John 3, and Isaiah 53 are excellent chapters to commit to memory.

 Know that as you fill your heart and mind with God’s Word, your life will change. You will become more conscious of God’s continuous presence. You will mature in the life of faith. And you will be equipped to be a blessing to others in ways you have not imagined. Let us embark on this discipline together and encourage one another to memorize the Word.  

To know the uncreated God…

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.— Psa. 19:1

 There are places in this earth where a person can stand and breathe in the very presence of God. For me I cannot help but pray in the midst of the glorious red umbers of the desert southwest. Beneath a star-laden sky, I lift up a soft-spoken but heartfelt psalm of praise to our God. I love the rocks and skies and trees and plains that form the dramatic landscapes of our world, and remain constantly, deeply appreciative to God.

 Yet I am reminded that for all we might esteem the creation, in comparison with the Creator it is nothing. Julian of Norwich received a series of visions from the Lord back in 1373. She records an interesting revelation about the relationship between creation and the Creator in the book, Revelations of Divine Love. In light of the increasing divinization of creation in our age, her insights are of special import:

 “And he showed me more, a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, on the palm of my hand, round like a ball. I looked at it thoughtfully and wondered, ‘What is this?’ And the answer came, ‘It is all that is made.’ I marvelled that it continued to exist and did not suddenly disintegrate; it was so small. And again my mind supplied the answer, ‘It exists, both now and forever, because God loves it.’ In short, everything owes its existence to the love of God.

 ”In this ‘little thing’ I saw three truths. The first is that God made it; the second is that God loves it; and the third is that God sustains it. But what He is who is in truth Maker, Keeper, and Lover I cannot tell, for until I am essentially united with him I can never have full rest or real happiness; in other words, until I am so joined to him that there is nothing between my God and me. We have got to realize the littleness of creation and to see it for the nothing that it is before we can love and possess God who is uncreated. This is the reason why we have no ease of heart or soul, for we are seeking our rest in trivial things which cannot satisfy, and not seeking to know God, almighty, all-wise, all-good. He is true rest. It is his will that we should know him, and his pleasure that we should rest in him. Nothing less will satisfy us. No soul can rest until it is detached from all creation. When it is deliberately so detached for love of him who is all, then only can it experience spiritual rest.” ¹

 This is certainly no warrant for treating creation with contempt, but it is a warning against making more of creation than is proper. Nothing must supplant the place held by the Creator God alone. This is a provocative reminder to us that we cannot allow anything—no one and/or no thing—to come between God and our affections. For truly, there is no good in this world but God alone.

 Yet this revelation communicates good news as well, especially to ears bruised by the din of apocalyptic preachers of environmental destruction: God is involved in creation! He made it, He loves it, and He sustains it. We are part of His good creation, and we know how much He loves us. This creation is our home—both now and for eternity. Surely we should value our home and treat it with respect. But we can also rest in the strength of God’s omnipotent sovereignty, even over creation.

 We must learn to live in the world while not being of the world; to care for the world, without esteeming it more precious than its Creator. We must recognize that God is bigger than the creation and more powerful than us. We should love our home and take joy in its beauty and wonders, yet never place it above God in our heart, mind and affections. At the end of the day, we must strive for detachment from all things, in order to be united to God. It is not easy, but with His help, through the Word, the Spirit, and the community of faith, we can move in that direction. Let us hunger to know the uncreated God, beside whose majesty, the creation seems no more than a hazelnut in a hand.

 

¹—Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, trans. by Clifton Walters (London: Penguin Books, 1966), 68.

Called… to be with Him

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”            — Matt. 28:16–20

The last command Jesus gave the church before ascending to glory was to “make disciples of all nations.” To make a disciple, one must teach. Jesus outlined the discipleship curriculum: “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded.” On this basis we can authoritatively claim that church’s mission is to educate, train, and/or coach believers to live according to Jesus’ instruction.

Jesus’ imperative is derived from the noun disciple, defined as “one who engages in learning through instruction from another” (BDAG). The secondary definition expands the picture and communicates an important characteristic of the disciple: he or she is “one who is rather constantly associated with someone who has a particular set of views” (BDAG; emphasis added).

 A disciple of Christ is one who is in close, constant association with Christ. This was true for His first disciples:

And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.            —Mark 3:13–15

Notice why Jesus selected the twelve: His first reason was, “so that they might be with him.” Only after that might they be sent to preach, heal and deliver. This is an important insight: discipleship is not learning about Jesus—it is a relationship with Jesus. The church has confused discipleship with education, and while education is a large component of discipleship, the two are not identical. All the learning in the world—all the knowledge of Scripture, theology, doctrine or ministry—does not make one a disciple. The sad fact is that there are many learned experts in each of those areas who have no relationship with Christ at all.

 To be a disciple is to spend time with Jesus. It is to be “rather closely associated” with Him. We must come to Christ—through the Word—and stay with Him. It is a function of intention that demands attention, and requires faith, a listening heart, and quiet time.

 Christ’s last command is our first call—we are called to be with Him. We cannot share Him with others if we do not know Him. Resolve to ignore that tug in your heart no longer—come! An excellent place to begin is with the gospel of Matthew. Carve out a time to spend with Jesus each day—not to pray, but to listen to and watch Him. Read with that intention. Watch Him relate to people. Hear Him teach others and attend to His explanations.

 Let us resolve to be no longer students, endlessly learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth. Let us become disciples. Come, spend time with Christ.  

The Sad Quest for Relevance…

They say there’s no fool like an old fool… and sadly, when that old fool is a well-known minister of Christ, the characterization moves beyond foolishness to disgrace. Recently, noted televangelist Pat Robertson joined Al Sharpton in starring in a television advertisement on behalf of Al Gore’s global warming panic. The multimillion-dollar media campaign brings famous people together who are otherwise not noted for their warm fellowship. The issue of global warming presumably trumps any other discord that exists between people.

 Rumors circulating in the Virginia Beach church community claim that Robertson’s organization carefully vetted each and every word of the script, to insure that Robertson would say nothing more than a properly modeled Christian commitment to creation. But surely Robertson is not so naïve to think that he can separate himself from the dominant views of his sponsors merely by watching his words? Perhaps he needs a refresher course in the New Testament which warns, “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals’” (1 Cor. 15:33).

 Now, lest anyone imagine that I have an axe to grind, let me assure you that I am neither an avowed enemy of Pat Robertson nor a proponent of environmental despoliation. I owe a debt of gratitude to Robertson; the Lord used his daily television broadcasts to woo me back to a saving faith in Christ. Additionally, I recognize that God’s grant of dominion over creation (Gen. 1:26–30) conferred the right to humanity to steward creation, not plunder it. The Church has a long record of recognizing this truth, particularly within liturgical traditions, which have crafted elegant, scripturally sound prayers for humanity’s proper use of creation.

 My objection—nay, my horror—at Robertson’s involvement in this marketing campaign is that it communicates a tacit agreement with Al Gore’s new religion. Gore is not disseminating truth; he is promulgating a “Big Lie”—the phenomenon where, if one repeats a lie often enough and loud enough, it eventually is assumed to be true. Gore relies on a so-called scientific “consensus” to support his lie, but that consensus purposefully ignores a larger population of credentialed, respected scientists that reject his hypothesis. Gore’s theories are undercut by scientific findings each and every day, yet doubters are pejoratively referred to as members of the flat-earth society!

 However Gore is not proclaiming science, he is preaching a new faith. He is architecting a new pagan religion of earth first. In this religion there is no God and no Creator who is fully present in (and to) the Creation. Without God, there is no sin, and consequently no need of redemption. The problem is not sin and its perversion of the human ‘heart,’ but misguided, selfish behavior. The cure requires no Divine Mediator, but committed thinkers in enlightened governments, who will promote stringent legislation and administer penalties for non-compliance. The State, then, becomes Al Gore’s Church, where he and members of the world’s governments serve as priests. The promise is of complete human equality, with equal access to the world’s resources for all.

 The religion of global warming seeks the destruction of Western society. It aspires to the elimination of free-market capitalism, free enterprise and individual choice. It intends to move all power over individual lifestyle to the direction of a central government. As such, it is nothing more than communism dressed in the latest compassionate guise. For a growing population left functionally illiterate by public education, ignorant of its history, economics, philosophy and theology, and indoctrinated by leftist university cant, Gore’s dream seems a sweet palliative promising an escape from a guilty conscience. But make no mistake: this religion is evil and deceptive.

 In Gore’s theology, humanity is the dominant power in the universe. This humanity is good and noble. If wickedness exists, it is the result of ignorance or unbridled capitalism, or a failure of thorough social and economic planning. This is the doctrine of Al Gore’s new church. And it is this church that Pat Robertson has now entered and genuflected before its deity. He has joined the congregation of the unholy, who persist in worshipping the creature rather than the Creator. What an amazing development! Surely, Pat Robertson should have been able to recognize the anti-biblical nature of this global warming hysteria. How did he miss it? Why did he do it?

 We have no access to another person’s heart, but we can speculate about their thinking based on their actions. As a man grows older, he increasingly hopes that his life mattered, that he made a difference. At his stage of life, Robertson is now faced with the reality that he never achieved his goal of political power (anyone remember the ‘white house’ dream/prophecy circulated in an early book?). Perhaps it is a hope for a place of power—or a place of relevance—that override his judgment. Such a longing for political power might explain why he would suspend a commitment to the pro-life agenda and family values to endorse Rudy Giuliani earlier this year.

 As despicably cynical as those previous sentences are, their explanation of Robertson’s actions are infinitely more charitable than the alternative: that Robertson is in fact an old fool, growing more foolish over time. Between his calls for political assassination, his backing of a pro-choice politician and now contributing to Gore’s agenda, Robertson discredits the conservative political movement in the US, and embarrasses those who proclaim a biblical faith in Christ. Rather than spending time vetting his script, Robertson’s people might be better employed by keeping him away from a microphone. They should be more concerned with insuring Robertson’s legacy than with appropriating some relevance.

 In contemporary Christian circles, Robertson is not alone in joining the global warming delusion. The Southern Baptist convention recently adopted a position for it. The quest for relevance will take Christians far away from Biblical truth: witness the Archbishop of Canterbury! All these moves are troubling. That it should manifest in one so near—near both in my heart and by geography—is particularly grievous. Let us pray for Pat Robertson, and let us pray for the Church today. Let us honor God by enjoying and preserving His good creation. But let us remain on our guard, for it is a time of great deception.  

Do we believe…?

A question I like to ask myself is, “Do I really believe?” It becomes an increasingly important question the longer I live. This world is terribly narcotizing. Sensory reality pummels one’s spiritual expectations. It is easy to slip into a spiritual unconsciousness, which has the deadening effect of fostering unbelief. We need to stir ourselves up. And so I ask, do we truly believe?

One of the best litmus tests to evaluate faith is our reaction to the sayings of Jesus. The Gospels present us with some truly remarkable sentences spoken by Christ. If we believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant word of God, and if we believe that Christ is the Son of God who spoke truth and cannot lie, then we must agree that what Jesus said in the Gospels is absolutely true. But, do we believe it? Consider these words about prayer:

“In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” — John 16:23 

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” —Matt. 7:7–8

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” —John 15:7

Let’s be brutally honest—what’s our prayer life like? If I examine mine in light of these sayings, I see a terrible gap between what I claim to believe and my daily practice. Why does prayer seem so arduous? Why am I tempted to think that, at the end of the day, it just doesn’t matter? This can only be that I do not believe what Jesus said:

“And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” —Matt. 21:22 

What about the difficulties we face in life? How do we react to the obstacles of life? Do we believe Jesus?

And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” — Mark 11:22–24 

Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” — Mark 9:23

Again, let’s be honest. Have we dismissed these claims? It matters not if we dismiss them on the basis of academic exegesis or on the basis of a belief that we are unworthy of them. In either case, we do not believe. And what about our daily life? Do we believe that God cares for us? Or are we on our own?

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” —Matt. 6:25–33 

For too many of us, our lives prove our claims of faith to be false. We struggle to believe. Why do we have no confidence in Jesus’ words? Because we do not know Him. We hear about Him constantly; we speak of Him often; we even pray ‘in His name.’ Yet we do not know Him well enough to have confidence in his words. This is troubling on two levels. First, how can we trust Him with our eternal destiny if we don’t believe Him about our life in the here and now?

“If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” —John 3:12 

And even more problematic, what does this lack of faith say about our eternal security?

“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” —Matt. 7:22–23 

The answer to our lack of faith is to be with Jesus. We need come to Him in humble, honest repentance, bow our knee and sit before Him. We must come to know Him. We can only know Him if we spend time with Him. To do this we must return to the Word. We need to return to the gospels and read them slowly, meditatively, and prayerfully. Ask the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our heart to see Jesus completely. Let us come to know Him. As we know Him, we will learn to trust Him. Then we can really believe!