As a Christian, I believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and that it alone brings true change to individuals, communities and nations. Scripture is LIVING WORDS, unlike the words of the world.
So the question is, what kind of words do you speak? Whose words are you speaking?
Are you using the words of the world? Words that demonstrate that God is not sufficient, or words that are crass?
Perhaps you are using words that are basically your own. Slightly sanctified words that don’t mean much, that don’t say much, and that do not carry life in them.
One of my goals for the new year is to speak the Scriptures regularly, even (especially) when talking to the children at work. I don’t want to be just changing their behaviour (though for some it would be a good start) I want to be changing their SOULS.
What’s more, this will stand me in good stead for when I have my own children. There are no souls that I would rather have renewed into the image of God than those that are my (as yet unconceived) children. And these Words will no doubt minister to my own spirit too.
So, whose words are you speaking? In 2011, make sure that they are God’s.
Showing posts with label memorisation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label memorisation. Show all posts
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Monday, 30 August 2010
Psalm 13
Most of us know that as Christians we need to have the Word of God in our heart. The thing is, memorising the Bible is HARD. Especially if you want to memorise more than a verse or two here or there. A chapter? Not easy.
One of the easiest ways to remember portions of scripture is to set them to music. There are lots of different versions of psalms available on the internet, on CDs, etc. Sometimes they're great, sometimes they're highly edited and abridged. Often it's hard to get a whole section all in the one song.
I was kind of annoyed at that, so I decided to just make up a song or two as I worked on memorising psalms. Here is Psalm 13. I did the music for this in December last year.
Psalm 13 For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.
One of the easiest ways to remember portions of scripture is to set them to music. There are lots of different versions of psalms available on the internet, on CDs, etc. Sometimes they're great, sometimes they're highly edited and abridged. Often it's hard to get a whole section all in the one song.
I was kind of annoyed at that, so I decided to just make up a song or two as I worked on memorising psalms. Here is Psalm 13. I did the music for this in December last year.
Psalm 13 For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Thoughts From my Quiet Time
"...let the one who has my word speak it faithfully..." (from Jeremiah 23:28)
It is so important that our conversations about God are based on God's Word. So often we can use our own human arguments and reasons as to why God is real. We rely on our testimonies, on our stories, on our experiences. And while they are important examples, they cannot take the place of the Word of God when speaking to others (especially non-Christians).
For this to happen we need to actually HAVE the Word. So few Christians in the West have a knowledge of the Scriptures. I remember being horrified when I once read that the average Western Christian has memorised 7 verses. How can we explain the faith if all we know is John 3:16 and Jeremiah 29:11? (I'm not dissing those verses - they are some of the first ones I memorised; I'm just saying that there is a whole lot more in the Bible than just those.)
Recently my reading and memorising of Scripture has fallen off. I so often get distracted by worldly concerns. Yet there is nothing more important than my relationship with God, which must be founded on a true knowledge of Him and His Word.
It is so important that our conversations about God are based on God's Word. So often we can use our own human arguments and reasons as to why God is real. We rely on our testimonies, on our stories, on our experiences. And while they are important examples, they cannot take the place of the Word of God when speaking to others (especially non-Christians).
For this to happen we need to actually HAVE the Word. So few Christians in the West have a knowledge of the Scriptures. I remember being horrified when I once read that the average Western Christian has memorised 7 verses. How can we explain the faith if all we know is John 3:16 and Jeremiah 29:11? (I'm not dissing those verses - they are some of the first ones I memorised; I'm just saying that there is a whole lot more in the Bible than just those.)
Recently my reading and memorising of Scripture has fallen off. I so often get distracted by worldly concerns. Yet there is nothing more important than my relationship with God, which must be founded on a true knowledge of Him and His Word.
Monday, 23 November 2009
I Don't Understand
Psalm 131
My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.
This is my current memory work. I've been working on this passage for a while, as I'm having a bit more difficulty concentrating at the moment than I was a few weeks ago. I'm also reading "Faith on Trial: Studies in Psalm 73" by Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
And it really struck me about how I so often complain in my heart about the way things are going for me. I was pretty sick for two years (turns out it was undiagnosed allergies), always tired, stressed beyond belief from work, and single whilst a lot of my friends (Christian and non-Christian) are beginning relationships. It's all been hard for me.
The thing is, I so often whinge to myself about these facts. It's not fair. Why is all this happening to ME. I don't UNDERSTAND.
The thing is, I'm not always called to understand. Often we will, later down the track, but often we won't. Either way doesn't help us now. We are not called to understand everything. We are called to be obedient. We are called to do what God has asked us even though it would be so much easier to do things in a manner that doesn't reflect Christ.
God says in Isaiah, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9) God's ways are not always understandable for us. His purposes are not always clear. But we know that "All things work together for the good of those who love Him" (Romans 8:28a) even the things that we do not like or understand.
It remains for me to still and quiet my soul, and to trust more completely in the LORD.
My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.
This is my current memory work. I've been working on this passage for a while, as I'm having a bit more difficulty concentrating at the moment than I was a few weeks ago. I'm also reading "Faith on Trial: Studies in Psalm 73" by Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
And it really struck me about how I so often complain in my heart about the way things are going for me. I was pretty sick for two years (turns out it was undiagnosed allergies), always tired, stressed beyond belief from work, and single whilst a lot of my friends (Christian and non-Christian) are beginning relationships. It's all been hard for me.
The thing is, I so often whinge to myself about these facts. It's not fair. Why is all this happening to ME. I don't UNDERSTAND.
The thing is, I'm not always called to understand. Often we will, later down the track, but often we won't. Either way doesn't help us now. We are not called to understand everything. We are called to be obedient. We are called to do what God has asked us even though it would be so much easier to do things in a manner that doesn't reflect Christ.
God says in Isaiah, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9) God's ways are not always understandable for us. His purposes are not always clear. But we know that "All things work together for the good of those who love Him" (Romans 8:28a) even the things that we do not like or understand.
It remains for me to still and quiet my soul, and to trust more completely in the LORD.
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Psalm 1
1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
I've been thinking about this recently. You know, for many Christians it is enough to do the first verse. To not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. And these are important things. I'm not denying that - indeed, I wish more Christians would actually apply verse one of this Psalm.
But it isn't ENOUGH. We need to be meditating on the law of the LORD, day and night! Staying away from immorality is not enough, like Sodom did with Lot, it will draw us closer, bit by bit, until we are immersed in it, even if still repulsed by it.
No, we need to have God's word in our mind, contantly reminding us of His ways, so that we may not sin against God (I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you - psalm 119:11). That is what will keep us from being drawn into the counsel of the wicked.
The thing is, memorising Scripture is not easy. Especially if you want more than a verse here and there, but want passages, chapters, even whole books of the Bible to be in your heart.
It's something I'm working on. I don't have the level of passages memorised that I would like. Here are some ways that I use that help me.
1. Music
This is one of the easiest ways. Choose a passage and either find a song for it or make one up yourself. The main problem with this is that many Scripture songs are either very tacky or annoying (so you don't WANT to be meditating on them day and night) or they only have an isolated verse or two in them. Which if you want to be memorising passages is not great.
One group I like is Sons of Korah. They set entire psalms to music - pretty much word for word, usually NIV version - which is beautiful to listen to!
2. Write it out and Just Do It!
The other method I'm using sucessfully at the moment is to write out a passage on a piece of card and carry it around with me. Writing it out helps me to remember it a bit better. I then am able to look at it throughout the day. At the moment I spend two hours of my work day putting children to sleep - and this means I have time to bring out the card and read over it, slowly commiting it to memory. On one good day I memorised all of Psalm 1! Yay!
So, are you meditiating on the law of the LORD day and night? Do you even have enough Scripture memorised to be able to?
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
I've been thinking about this recently. You know, for many Christians it is enough to do the first verse. To not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. And these are important things. I'm not denying that - indeed, I wish more Christians would actually apply verse one of this Psalm.
But it isn't ENOUGH. We need to be meditating on the law of the LORD, day and night! Staying away from immorality is not enough, like Sodom did with Lot, it will draw us closer, bit by bit, until we are immersed in it, even if still repulsed by it.
No, we need to have God's word in our mind, contantly reminding us of His ways, so that we may not sin against God (I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you - psalm 119:11). That is what will keep us from being drawn into the counsel of the wicked.
The thing is, memorising Scripture is not easy. Especially if you want more than a verse here and there, but want passages, chapters, even whole books of the Bible to be in your heart.
It's something I'm working on. I don't have the level of passages memorised that I would like. Here are some ways that I use that help me.
1. Music
This is one of the easiest ways. Choose a passage and either find a song for it or make one up yourself. The main problem with this is that many Scripture songs are either very tacky or annoying (so you don't WANT to be meditating on them day and night) or they only have an isolated verse or two in them. Which if you want to be memorising passages is not great.
One group I like is Sons of Korah. They set entire psalms to music - pretty much word for word, usually NIV version - which is beautiful to listen to!
2. Write it out and Just Do It!
The other method I'm using sucessfully at the moment is to write out a passage on a piece of card and carry it around with me. Writing it out helps me to remember it a bit better. I then am able to look at it throughout the day. At the moment I spend two hours of my work day putting children to sleep - and this means I have time to bring out the card and read over it, slowly commiting it to memory. On one good day I memorised all of Psalm 1! Yay!
So, are you meditiating on the law of the LORD day and night? Do you even have enough Scripture memorised to be able to?
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