Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Fencing lessons 101

1 Timothy 2:15: Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
The only weapon God encourages us to wield is the sharped sword of his word. How are you doing in your fencing lessons? It's sad that most of us can quote sports stats, historic dates, and lines from movies more than we can verses in the Bible.
Remember how Frodo had no idea how to defend himself. As a Hobbit, he wasn't trained how to use a sword so he was at the mercy of his enemies. And we know how he spent much of his time running from those who were after him. This is true of many followers of Christ. We end up weak against worldly pressures, with out integrity, void of God's power, and defeated by our enemy. It's our privilege and responsibility to read, study, memorize, apply, and share God's word. How are you doing in this area?

My wife has spiral bound index cards next to our bed.
A few weeks ago she pulled them out and challenged my knowledge of scripture. She uses each card to write a verse that speaks truth in her life, reminds her of her identity, and points her to God's love and purposes. This little spiral thing now acts as training in the sword to combat lies. Now, I am doing it and I also passed out 30 of these spiral guys to those who attended our fall retreat. My small group is using it as a way to memorize the word, find truths that apply to specific situations, and keep accountable. I encourage you to be proactive and accountable about learning and applying God's word. Too many of us are believing and living lies when we have full access to God's truth at our finger tips to right our mind.
If you have other ways of memorizing God's word please share.

2 comments:

Glenn+Jenn+Owen+Ian said...

Thanks for this post. It reminds me of a small group I was a part of awhile back and we had small notebooks with verses that others gave to us - I remember that Kehau wrote out Eph. 4:29-32 for me. This is a great reminder that I need to pick this up again and get back in the habit of writing out verses that speak into my life and how God wants to mold me. Thanks again.

David Bromberg said...

I'm a huge fan of the TMS (Topical Memory System) by the Navigators. It's a series of mini index cards with verses on them, organized by topic. Scripture memory has helped me a lot, not only for myself, but in being an encouragement to others.