A three-course banquet of Bible memorization

Life, Sola Panel

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This is the second post in my series on memorizing Bible passages. You can read part 1 here.

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A couple of weeks ago, I invited you to commit Bible passages to memory. The fact that you’re still reading encourages me a lot, because I know that memorizing the Bible – especially whole passages! – isn’t popular:

Once, I thought that memorising anything longer than two verses was for old people or super holy people. – Anna

In my late twenties was challenged by some Navigator friends to memorize Scripture…I thought they were saying that because Navigators sell Scripture Memory courses. – Duncan1

When I encourage people to memorize the Bible, I sometimes feel about as popular as a peddler of bad-tasting, expensive medicine. (more…)

→ Grief—a forgotten apologetic

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Many of our friends and family—and us, I suspect—don’t think about death a whole lot. So when someone close gets cancer, or a friend has a miscarriage, we’re caught off-guard.

Nathan W. Bingham reflected on this recently:

There are many reasons why ignoring grief and the pain of life is bad. Not the least of which is that we’d be faking it. And faking it is antithetical to Christianity. Christianity is all about getting real with God. Real about who you are and your sin. Real about who He is and His holiness. Real about the only way to reconcile the two: through Jesus Christ. Too many Christians are being crushed as church has become a show room for success stories instead of a hospital for the hopelessly helpless.

However, today I want to consider another reason ignoring grief is a bad idea: pain and grief is an apologetic for the faith. Not apologetic in a literal sense of being a defense of the faith, but:

  • a tool to confirm the truthfulness of Christianity,
  • a reality best explained by Christianity,
  • and a bridge to give us an ear for sharing Christianity.
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An anatomy of sin

Life, Thought, Sola Panel

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flickr: SashaW

The first stage in Paul’s announcement of the gospel of God’s grace is a concise anatomy of sin (Rom 1:18-32). Sin is, at its heart, a suppression of truth. This suppression of truth has a kind of logical progression to it: rejection of God (vv. 19-21) leads to worshipping the creation (vv. 22-23), then to sexual degradation (vv. 24-27), then to “all unrighteousness”, particularly rejection of family (v. 30), foolishness, faithlessness, heartlessness and ruthlessness (v. 31). Then there is the ultimate suppression of truth: the shameless promotion of sins committed by others (v. 32). At first glance, though, this logical progression might seem a little arbitrary. Does sexual immorality, for example, really lead people to approve of other people’s heartlessness and ruthlessness? (more…)

Five – or possibly six – more tips for going to church with your family

Everyday Ministry, Life, Sola Panel

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Did you see last week’s link to Christine Jensen’s Growing faith: Ten tips for going to church with your family? It’s such an excellent little post, it sparked a few reflections of my own. (I’d also like to second her point about letting kids see you enjoying church.)

Here they are, five six more tips for going to church with your family. 

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→ Raising gospel-centered children

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Luma Simms:

If we stop to consider the motivations of our hearts—what is driving us as parents—we can gain important insight into the discipleship of our children. The driver behind gospel-centered discipleship is the glory of Christ. The driver behind child-centered discipleship is the glory of our children, and by extension, our own glory. In order to understand my own motives, I’ve learned to ask myself: Do I want my children to know God, to rest in the person and work of Christ, to have their many, many sins washed in the blood of the Lamb, and to eternally glorify Him? Or rather do I want my children to be “good,” to scrupulously avoid sin and follow biblical injunctions, to avoid bad consequences in this life?

(h/t Jean Williams)

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Teaching preaching

Everyday Ministry

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I wish I could say that the idea to begin a ‘teaching preaching’ course at our church was part of a deliberate and well-planned strategy to equip people for ministry. The truth is I stumbled across the idea out of desperation as I tried to cope with ministry demands, but I want to share it with you because it is the most significant ministry training I have ever done in a local church context.1 (more…)

→ Speech

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Andrew Cameron:

In the Bible, James says that ‘anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect’ (James 3:2). Does he seriously expect that? He reckons that a person who speaks that well could ‘keep their whole body in check’. He seems to picture someone with absolute self-control.

But who’s like that? Our speech bubbles up from so many different emotions and circumstances. How could you seriously expect ‘perfect’ speech from anyone?

Short-but-fascinating post on the complexity of wise speech, and if you can make it (to Sydney) it sounds like a great night of discussion.

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→ Growing faith: Ten tips for going to church with your family

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Christine Jensen:

Growing up in a family that didn’t go to church, I was determined when I married for ‘church’ to be the centre of our family. Of course, this was idealistic, and there were many moments when I thought it would have been easier to stay at home.

I hadn’t realised that this goal of mine wasn’t as easy as it sounded. I wanted my children to go happily, for church to be a delight to all family members.  But this does not always happen. We certainly had a revolt on our hands for a couple of years, by a couple of teenagers who simply did not want to go to a Bible Study on Friday nights in addition to one on Sunday afternoons with church to follow! I know that we should just go to church come what may as we want to meet the Lord, but are there any tips we can share about creating a positive attitude to what is a pretty important activity?

Read the 10 tips here.

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Why be afraid of fear?

Thought

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The day of the guest service has arrived: the culmination of weeks of planning, prayers, and many nervous “Hey, our church is holding a guest service this Sunday, and I was wondering…” type of conversations. To your joy and terror, a number of your friends said yes. (more…)

As good as it gets

Life

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“This is as good as it gets” the man assured me. I was initially shocked, but then deeply saddened by his statement. It was an astonishing statement—but there was no doubting the sincerity with which he was speaking. (more…)