NT 2020

“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.” President John F. Kennedy, “Moon Speech,” Rice Stadium, September 1962

As we come to the end of the first month of this decade, I have begun to ponder a question. We all make New Year’s resolutions (well, not everyone, but many do) . . . or maybe “goals” is a better word. I shared mine in a blog entry earlier this month. But have you ever made a New Decade’s resolution? Neither have I.

As I continued to ponder this question, I quickly thought of the above quote by JFK. It’s pretty motivational, isn’t it? The “Moon Speech” got me to thinking that if—and that’s a big if—I were to make a resolution, or goal, for this decade, it would have to be something pretty big. It would have to be challenging, and it would have to be significant. It would be difficult to attain, yet produce lifelong benefits. More “mundane” resolutions like losing twenty pounds or remembering to floss every day wouldn’t cut it.

Over the past few years, I have been increasingly exposed to the idea and practice of memorizing Scripture. In 2009, I took a series of classes where I had to commit a total of six biblical passages to memory, each of which was eight to eleven verses long. In addition, I have done some reading on the topic. In particular, I read recently of a pastor advising other pastors to memorize entire books of the Bible. Is he kidding? Entire books? No way! Yet this seemingly outlandish advice got me to dwell on the subject of Scripture memorization even more.

All this led me to consider the myriad of good reasons for committing Scripture to memory. I will not elaborate on all of them here, as I think many of them are self-evident. Eventually, though, I noticed that my ponderings about Scripture memory were beginning to merge with this idea of a New Decade resolution. Suffice it to say that this confluence of events and ideas has led me to my goal for the new decade. Are you ready? . . .

By the end of this decade, my goal is to memorize the entire New Testament. For short, I will call my goal “NT 2020.”

Yes. I said the entire New Testament. That’s twenty-seven books, from Matthew to Revelation. Two hundred and sixty chapters. Just under 8,000 verses. That’s an average of about 800 memory verses per year.

Now, before you laugh too hard, let me say a few things.

First, I have ten years to complete it. I don’t have to do it all at once. Remember, we didn’t put a man on the moon in 1962 or 1963. We did it in July of 1969.

Second, I have a small head start, in that there are a lot of verses that I have already memorized, or that I am pretty familiar with. This is a result of my seminary study, and five years as a Bible Drill leader at church.

Third, I have a plan. I won’t bore you with all of the details, but I am starting by memorizing “anchor verses” throughout the New Testament, to include the first verse of every chapter, as well as other familiar verses (i.e. John 3:16, Romans 3:23, 1 John 1:9). These verses will be the “frame” upon which the overall memorization can be “built.”

Fourth, think for a moment of the things that you have memorized and perhaps don’t realize it. For instance, in my case, I bet I could recite to you, from memory, right now, the lyrics from at least 500 rock and roll songs from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Heck, I know the lyrics to at least 150 Beatles songs right off the bat . . . “As I write this letter, send my love to you, remember that I’ll always, be in love with you . . .” (that’s from “P.S. I Love You,” it just came into my head). All I’m saying here is that the entire New Testament may seem like an insurmountable number of words to commit to memory, but in reality, I have probably memorized just as many words in another area of life without really thinking about it. When I view things from this angle, I am encouraged.

Fifth, what if I fail miserably and only get half way there? Well, in that case, I still will have memorized great stretches of the New Testament, which would still be extremely beneficial.

So, you are all cordially invited to my house on January 1, 2020 for “NT 2020,” where I will recite the New Testament for you. That is, until you cry, “Uncle.” Then we’ll just visit and eat a lot of good food together and have a good time. I haven’t decided yet whether or not I’ll leave a tip jar at the door, but I have time yet to work out the details.

What do you think? Am I totally off my rocker? Do you think there is any chance that I could really do this? It seems really, really hard. But then again, as JFK said, sometimes we don’t do things because they are easy, but because they are hard, and in my case, I see that the benefits to my personal spiritual life and teaching ministry would be immense.

To improve, or not to improve, part 3

Let me start today by asking you a question. Why do you love your spouse? Let me share two possible answers that I could give.

First answer: I love my wife because when I get home from work, she cooks dinner—and she is a great cook. She does all of my laundry. She runs the kids here and there, does all of the grocery shopping, and keeps track of everybody’s schedule. Oh, and she cleans the house.

Second answer: I love my wife because she has integrity. She is honest, kind, and truly caring. She loves the Lord very much and sets a positive Christian example for our sons. She is extremely loving, understanding, and forgiving of my many faults. Also, she is very pretty. She is beautiful, both “on the inside and the outside.”

Hopefully you can identify the key difference between the two answers (both of which are true), but I’ll say it anyway. The first answer focuses on what my wife does for me, while the second answer focuses on her virtues or attributes—who she is.

I finished Part 2 of this mini-series by asking how and why a church, or an individual Christian, can and should improve in its/his/her spiritual growth. I’m not going to focus too much on the question of why . . . perhaps I’ll take that up in some future blog entry. Suffice it to say for now that the Bible teaches that we should be growing and maturing in our Christian faith (see Hebrews 5:12 and 2 Peter 3:18 for starters). Instead, I want to focus for a few minutes on the question of how we can and should improve in our Christian lives.

Now, if you’ve read my profile, or my personal story (series of blog entries starting last September), you know that I have a passion for studying and teaching the Bible. So it should be no surprise that my answer to how Christians should improve in their spiritual growth is by studying the Bible. If you want to know who God is, study the Book that tells us all about Him, right? However, there is an important caveat here. You see, there are different approaches that one can take in learning about God by studying the Bible. And two of these approaches parallel the question I asked above.

On the one hand, we can look at all of the wonderful stuff God did for people in the Bible, and apply that to ourselves. I call this the “magic genie” approach. God is our magic genie in a bottle who is there to do a lot of stuff for me (or our church). God is the one who gives me a house, and a car, and a job. God is the one who makes me feel better when I’m sick, or helps my son to get good grades so he can get into a good college. Some of these things are no doubt sincere desires and worthy to be taken before God in prayer. But do you see how it all centers around what God does for me?

On the other hand, we can get to know God more and more intimately by studying what the Bible says about His attributes—who He is. God is holy. He is perfect. He is our creator and sustainer. He is just. He is angry. He is jealous. He is eternal. He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. He is triune.

Do you see how the second approach can lead to a much more substantial and vibrant Christian life? The more we find out about God, the more we want to learn. And the more we learn about Him, the more we love Him. And the more we love Him, the more we want to serve Him. And the more we serve Him, the more glory He receives and the more mature we become as Christians.

And before you know it, the church—individual Christians and the corporate body—is experiencing unbounded spiritual growth. In other words, Little Grove Church is no longer the same today as it was five years ago. To bring my story full circle, you will recall me saying back in Part 1 that my 5k and 10k running times did not improve because I didn’t do the things necessary to experience improvement. Studying the Bible with an eye toward learning more intimately who God is will cause a church to experience spiritual growth and improvement.

In my view, the best way to achieve this is by teaching Christian theology and doctrine. This probably sounds boring to most people. After all, churches are flooded these days with “Bible studies” about parenting, divorce recovery, financial management, you name it. And don’t get me wrong. I think some of these types of studies are legitimate and even necessary. But again, they ultimately focus on what God can do for me, not who God is.

The study of theology and doctrine starts with the question, “Who is God?”, and moves on from there. It introduces, or reintroduces a person to God and sets him or her on the path to knowing and loving Him more and more intimately for who He is. It’s by no means the only answer to the question of how a church can experience spiritual growth and improvement, but it sure is a huge step in the right direction.