Memorizing God's Word

Back in January I wrote how I was going to be working on memorizing the book of Colossians as I went through the book with our Precept study!! Wow!! What an amazing journey that was.  As it turned out, I was able to learn it right along with Kay as she taught it - so the section I was learning was the section she was teaching on that week.  It's an incredible book - and I love with www.scripturetyper.com you review and review the passages you've learned so I'm going over the truths every few days.  

I've also started learning some Psalms...and re-learning ones that I learned a long time ago at boarding school in the Congo.  I haven't decided yet which book I'm going to tackle next - Philippians or James? I Peter?  or maybe just a chapter.  There's definitely something to be said though for getting the flow of the whole book in your mind.  


I did learn Psalm 91 which is where the name for this blog came from...amazing chapter and amazing truth! God is amazing!! 

Grace...

I've been thinking a lot about grace this past week after the lesson we heard from Kay at our Precepts study. I have a long way to go in fully comprehending God's grace towards me but I love contemplating His grace and the many verses about it.

One thing that Kay said last week that struck me - I've never thought of it in this way. She was talking about how grace is mostly spoken about in the NT and not in the OT. However, grace is very evident in the Old Testament - even though that word is not used. In Psalm 51 David understands God's grace and in every sacrifice that was made, God's grace was there. We know that the blood of sheep and goats couldn't take away the people's sin - that was just a picture of what was coming when Jesus would be the sacrificial Lamb. But God covered them in grace through those sacrifices that they made until He could bring the New Covenant. And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

(John 1:16-17 ESV)

Grace - an amazing gift that I'm thinking on as I dwell in His shelter...

When bad things happen...

"...As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today." Genesis 50:20

It's such a comfort to me to know that when it seems that bad triumphs over good God is still in control and He will use these bad circumstances for His glory. We had this same teaching in John 11 this past week in our study. Lazarus had died and Jesus says that he waited the 4 days so that God's glory could be shown. Not only did He use the sadness of Lazarus's death - when he raised him from the dead- for His glory but then later in the passage He uses the bad idea from Caiaphas the High Priest to bring about His will.

John 11:47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.

We can trust God in every situation in our lives even when we get the worst news possible. I remember the day my dad called and told me my mom had been hit by a truck in the crosswalk of a busy street and was at the hospital. So many emotions ran through me - but I literally felt like I had been punched in the gut. You just don't expect bad news like that in the middle of the day. Or the Sunday afternoon I received an email from the mom of a soldier in Brian's unit telling me that her son had been killed...another punch in the gut. Literally I couldn't breathe.

Our lives are filled with these sad stories - with gut wrenching grief and tears.

Just this past week a young father of two small children dies from cancer, a little 4 year old boy has a brain tumor and has suffered a stroke - not sure of how his brain has been affected by the trauma, a 5 year old little girl has a fast growing tumor at the base of her skull...can the surgery to take the tumors out give her enough time for further treatment in another city...how do you tell a 5 year old she may not be able to go back to school, may not swim again all the while not knowing if she'll even make it through the next few months...We just don't know what next week will bring.

Through it all we HAVE to keep our eyes on the Lord - on His truth - in His Word. Through my mom's death, my sister was able to lead a young lady on the plane to the Lord. We know that mom would have been thrilled that through her accident someone entered God's kingdom. We sent a message through the police department to the driver of the truck that we as a family forgave him - we knew he didn't do this on purpose and that God could easily have protected her. It was her time to go to be with the Lord and this truck was the instrument God chose.

The big picture...God uses all the circumstances in our lives to make us more Christ-like - bottom line. His grace is sufficient for whatever we go through. Yes, the grief is there. I remember for weeks after my mother's death I would be driving someplace and the tears would just spill over and I would end up sobbing at my loss. Sobbing...I had never cried like that before...heart-wrenching sobs at the grief of the loss of her presence in my life...all the while knowing she was having the time of her life singing with all the incomparable joy of being in a new body and in heaven with the Lord she loved and served all of her life.

II Cor. 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Truth - God's truth - keeping my mind focused on truth when all around me seems to be so unsteady - He is my Rock, my shelter, my truth. Dwelling in the shelter...that's where I want to be!

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Before Brian left for Iraq back in the fall of 2006 I wrote this blog about the Scripture in II Corinthians 12:9. I love this verse and the promises in it.

It's a Colossians Year!!

As I wrote earlier in a blog I am working on learning the whole book of Colossians this year - committing it to memory! I'm very excited about this. There's a real peace in being obedient. I found a great tool online - ScriptureTyper.com - and it's really making a difference with my ability to memorize.

I am also very happy to be going to a Precept study on Colossians. Today was the first day - it's going to be a very rich study indeed.

In Kay's message today she talked about Grace...charis in greek. "Grace to you" was a common Greek greeting and Peace was a common greeting to the Hebrews, the Jews. So, at the beginning of the book Paul greets both Greeks and Jews - Grace to you and Peace from God our Father.

She spent the whole teaching time talking about Grace...what a wonderful hour it was reveling in the grace that God shows us and looking up all the verses.

Charis - or grace - was a word used in the greek culture for gracefulness, loveliness, gratitude, graciousness, gifts and Christian acts. Because of this you have to look at the context of it's usage and interpret it from that perspective. Paul took this concept of grace out of the greek culture and used it for the gospel.

To summarize Kay's points about Grace:

1. We are saved by it - Ephesians 2:8-10, Acts 20:18-24, Romans 3:24, Hebrews 2:9

2. We stand in it - Romans 5:1-2 (Jesus takes us by the hand and walks us into the grace of God)

3. It is sufficient for all of life - II Cor. 12:9

4. We operate in it - I Peter 4:10, Romans 12:6

5. Grace is multiplied to you in the knowledge of Him - II Peter 1:2-3

6. We are to grow in it - II Peter 3:17-18

Wonderful truths - I am nothing without the grace of God in my life. I Corinthians 15:10 "By the grace of God I am what I am and His grace towards me was not in vain." If I try to substitute my "righteousness" or my good works or anything - then his grace is in vain. Faith releases grace. When we trust him that everything He has said is truth and we rest in Him, we will know God's peace that comes from His grace. We can't handle past sins apart from knowing and understanding God's grace.

So many truths - so much to think about...verses to meditate on...dwelling in His shelter is the perfect place to be.

Blogging...

I'm going to try to be a better blogger - not that anyone has to read any of it - but it's good to have things down on "paper" for accountability and also to look back on and see how God worked things out, lessons learned, growing towards more holiness, learning more about God's Word etc.

I'm very thankful for Compass Bible Church and for the wonderful people there...so much energy and desire to walk closely in God's truth and striving one step at a time for more holiness in their lives.

We've been going through the book of Romans since May of 2008 and have just heard two messages on Ch. 12:1 last week and 12:2 this week! Great verses!! I think the illustration that helped me the most was the one way street. The world is going one way and as Christians we should be going the other way. When you go the "wrong" way on a one way street you get people very unhappy with you. In the same way the world will be angry with you because you're not conforming to their way of doing things. We should expect controversy. Pastor Mike showed us how "Do not be conformed" is in the passive negative imperative...in other words - don't let this happen to you. Don't let yourself be or get conformed to this world...if we're not actively working to not be conformed it will happen.

Actively working to NOT let this happen is "being transformed by the renewal of your mind." Feeding daily on God's Word, moving in God's direction in every aspect of my life - what I read, watch, listen to, friends, etc - is what will determine if I am being transformed or conformed.

Pastor Mike closed with 5 things "to do."

1 - we better be asking for wisdom - James 1:5

2 - search the Scriptures - Psalm 119:105

3 - ask - is this Christ-like I Jn 2:6

4 - Is it OK for Christ to return right now? I Jn.2:28

5 - What would your spiritual heroes think or do? Heb 12:1-2

Good things to go over and over - continuing to dwell in His shelter...

A short devotional I found today on the internet from A.W. Tozer...

Personal Life: Personal Feeding on God's Word

Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. --Psalm 119:97

I remember James M. Gray, the noted Bible teacher, telling of a Christian brother, a Michigan farmer, whose spiritual life had suddenly blossomed until there was an overflowing of God's presence. Many in the man's community recognized the change in his life and personality and sought spiritual counsel from him. Dr. Gray had opportunity to ask the man about the transformation of his spiritual life and witness.

"Dr. Gray, I began to devote myself to the Scriptures for my own need," the man humbly explained. "Something happened when God opened my spiritual understanding as I studied the book of Ephesians. I cannot really explain what the Lord is doing for me and through me, but it has come through prayerful meditation in the Word of God."

None of us can expect to get the rich, transforming blessings from God apart from the Scriptures....

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I have definitely been challenged anew to be in the Scriptures daily and only here will I find God's will for my life and learn to depend on Him for my sanctification. It's so important to read and study for ourselves and ask God to teach and reveal His truth. This is the 3rd year I'm reading through the Bible. I figure there were a few missed days but over the course of several years I will have read most of the Bible through a number of times.

For the really enthusiastic reader there is Professor Horner's method of reading - 10 chapters a day. You go through a lot of the Bible multiple times per year. This is a link to an online version of it. There is also links online where you cut out the bookmarks for the various books you're reading. The online version definitely simplifies it and you can read it on your smartphone! ; )

I'm also taking on the challenge this year to memorize the book of Colossians - 2 verses a week. There is a group on Facebook for support which is wonderful. I'm writing out the verses in a little booklet as well as using printed cards. That way I can keep a set in the car or my purse for when I'm out and about. This was all inspired by Ann Voskamps Blog and links found there. If anyone is reading this who wants the ESV version of cards, email me at armymom2@gmail.com and I'll gladly pass along what was already a gift to me. Having an accountability partner will help...I have a couple of friends as well as my sister. So, now begins the challenge to get this old brain fired up memorizing! Great exercise for the brain and heart!

Dwelling in the shelter definitely takes time in God's Word!

In our Women's Bible Study at church we will be going through the book of John. John's purpose in this book was to make sure that Jews and Greeks alike understood and believed that "Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His name." John 20:31. He introduces us to Jesus in John 1:1-5 as the Word - Jesus is the Eternal Word v.1-2, the Creative Word v. 3 and the Incarnate Word v 14 (Wiersbe - Be Alive p 20,21.)

When I have studied books of the Bible through Precepts one of the first things we do is go through the passage and mark key words. I love doing this because right away you can see what the passage or book is emphasizing. It shows patterns, key concepts, illustrations, etc.

A very cool tool that was passed on to me is the website called "Wordle." I went this morning and typed in the first 5 verses of John 1 and this is what came up:


(Click on it to make it larger).

Very cool don't you think? Here is a website where you can find every book of the Bible done in Wordle so you see the most important words in each book. I think this is one of the coolest things I've seen!

Anyway - have fun making your own Wordles!! It's a great tool for Bible study!