Jacob’s Tests (podcast)
This is a sermon from our time in Canada earlier this year. I focused on James 1:17-27, but it’s really an introduction to the whole book.
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Devotional and Bible
It’s hard to have faith…
Tonight Ismael was leading a Bible study all about trusting God to do the impossible. One of the passages we read from was 1Peter 5:6-7:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
Do you think this might be a good definition of faith? There are lots of ways we could define faith, and they all show different aspects of what faith is.
As Christians we know that “faith” has to have an object. It’s not “faith that things are going to get better” or “you just gotta have faith!” No, it’s faith in the God of the Bible.
And the God of the Bible is the Almighty, the All Knowing, the All Wise. He is also the Loving Father.
He’s the one who sees the big picture that we don’t see. He’s the one who cares for us.
So I wonder if this verse could show two aspects of faith – we trust Him enough to humble ourselves and give Him his proper place in the universe. And we cast our cares on Him – knowing that He isn’t some distant deity or an angry tyrant. He’s a God who cares, and so we can leave these things in His hands.
Sometimes it’s hard to have faith. But it should be a lot easier as we learn who God is, and how He cares for His people.
Memorizing Philippians – so far…
I know there are a few of you out there who are joining me in the challenge to memorize Philippians during the last 5 months of 2014. So now that we’ve (hopefully) made some progress, how is it going?
On the practical side, I have bowed to those with more experience. As you may remember, I was using the pamphlet by Dr. Andrew Davis, An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture. The one bit of advice I hesitated to follow was that you memorize the chapter/verse numbers along with the text.
Well, I didn’t get too far before I was converted to his point of view. It just makes it so much easier to keep track of where you are and not skip verses, and I don’t think it significantly disturbs the flow of thought as you’re meditating on the text.
Overall I really like the way Dr. Davis memorizes. You don’t have to panic if a verse isn’t solidly in your mind after one day – you know that it will become more and more solidified in your memory as the days go by.
I’ll be memorizing verse 13 today, Lord willing. If you’re not on 12 or 13 today, you might want to push a little to catch up.
A few things have struck me in the first few verses of the book. Remembering where it says “Christ Jesus” or “Jesus Christ” or just “Christ” is quite tricky! Also, Paul’s constant use of the word all is quite something. He’s talking to all the saints (Philippians 1:1) which of course excludes all the false believers in the church right away. But it is such a testimony to the bond that all believers have, how they pray for each other, and how God will finish His good work in all of us.
Anyway, I’m not planning to post frequently about this, I just wanted to shout out some encouragement to all of you who have started memorizing the book. For those who haven’t started – and would like to – you still have time to join us and probably even catch up before too many weeks pass. Check here for a brief introduction to Philippians.
Don’t put it off – memorize a verse today! 🙂
Church – May we Love!
What a blessing to spend time with believers here in Ixtapaluca! We enjoyed a service together this morning, and visited friends in the afternoon.
The battle continues, but God is still at work.
I actually left the service early – a team was here this past week from Nebraska, and we took them to the airport this morning. As I asked them about their week, one of their comments was how much people in the church here love each other. What a great thing to hear (John 13:34-35)!
This prayer that I read this morning, written over 300 years ago, seems very appropriate:
O God, our Heavenly Father, who has commanded us to love one another as Your children, and has ordained the highest friendship in the bond of Your Spirit, we ask You to maintain and preserve us always in the same bond, to Your glory, and our mutual comfort, with all those to whom we are bound by any special tie, either of nature or of choice; that we may be perfected together in that love which is from above, and which never fails when all other things shall fail.
Send down the dew of Your heavenly grace upon us, that we may have joy in each other that doesn’t pass away; and, having lived together in love here, according to Your commandment, may live forever together with them, being made one in You, in Your glorious kingdom hereafter, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
~ George Hickes
Memorization Challenge: Day 1 of Philippians
Today is the day to start memorizing Philippians (why put it off?)! Don’t worry, I’m not going to post every day. But it seems that an introduction is in order.
So you may remember that the Apostle Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia saying,“Come over to Macedonia and help us!” (Acts 16:9)
Well, Paul’s missionary team concluded that God wanted the Gospel preached there. So the team headed to what we now call Europe and ended up in the city of Philippi.
Philippi is in ruins today, but it was a very important city back around 50 AD/CE when Paul first visited. It had been settled by Romans and was in fact considered “Roman soil” outside of Rome itself. This meant that the Philippians didn’t have to pay taxes.
Philippi was in what we now call Greece, on a main trade route. In fact, you can still see the ruins (see map below).
Paul, Timothy, Silas, and Dr. Luke visited the city and first met up with some Jewish women outside of the city (perhaps Jewish by birth, but likely Gentile converts). You can read the story of this first visit to Philippi in Acts 16:9-40.
Paul would visit the city again on future mission trips. Finally, he wrote them this letter. The church at this time was probably about 10 years old, and Paul may not have visited for about 5 years.
Philippians was probably written around 61 AD/CE. The tradition says, and the evidence seems to suggest, that he wrote while he was in prison in Rome.
It seems that the letter was accepted very quickly, if not immediately, as authoritative Scripture. A student of the Apostle John named Polycarp wrote a letter to the same church early in the second century, referring to Paul’s earlier letter. The First Epistle of Clement, possibly written even earlier, to the church in Corinth, also alludes to Philippians. It seems this epistle was quickly copied and circulated.
So, with the goal of roughly 6 verses a week, we start today with verse 1:
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:
If you’d like to memorize with us, check this post for more information and how to dowload a booklet with tips on how to go about memorizing a book.
Bible Memorization, anyone?
Would anyone like to join me for a Bible memorization challenge during the last 5 months of this year?
The plan would be to memorize the book of Philippians. That’s right, the whole book.
My plan is to use the approach that Dr. Andrew Davis uses, which you can read about in his booklet An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture (pdf – no charge). Download the booklet and take a look (also available on Kindle for a few pennies). He talks a little about the value of memorizing whole books of the Bible, and how he does it for long-term benefits.
I’m waffling on one part of his approach. He actually memorizes verse numbers along with the text. Now I’m sure you can imagine the possible downsides the this approach (especially in an era when the ESV Reader’s Bible is being so heavily promoted – although please note that English in sentences and paragraphs is not the way the books were originally written!).
Here’s what he says the benefits are:
This will help prevent you from dropping out verses or even whole paragraphs when you’re reciting the book all the way through. It will also help you in being able to pick individual verses out to quote to someone for ministry or evangelistic purposes. Finally, it will help you to be able to recall the verses as you are reading Christian books that cite them… you won’t have to look them up! … It actually makes memorization easier in the long run!
Well, he’s very convincing but I’m not sure if I’ll do this or not. So we’ll call that part “optional”.
This time I’m going to memorize in English, although hopefully I’ll have time to read and reread the book in Spanish too.
Why Philippians? Well, if you’ve listened to the news lately you can probably see why a book that talks about joy and hope in the midst of suffering would be appropriate.
The Details
Ok, so there are 104 verses in the book, and starting in August there are over 21 weeks to the end of the year. That allows us to memorize 6 verses a week with about 3 weeks to spare in case we fall behind.
That way we should be able to memorize the book by the end of 2014. If we follow Dr. Davis’ system, the next step would be to recite it every day for 100 days in 2015 (that takes us the end of April). This shouldn’t take much/any “extra” time, since you can do it while you walk, drive, shower, etc.
Dr. Davis has even more suggestions beyond the 100 days to help you remember the book, be encouraged by the book, and keep your memory accurate. The long and the short of it is that we will be able to enjoy this epistle anytime anywhere for the rest of our lives.
If you’d like to take the challenge, leave a comment! It’s more fun to memorize with friends!