Tonight I spoke about New Year’s Resolutions. The most popular NYR for Christians is to read the Bible and pray more throughout the new year. What is it that will help you to follow through with this resolution?

In response to Psalm 119 it’s having a heart that treasures God, His Word and obeying it more than life itself. In order to treasure God and His Word, we need to plan to spend time with him to hide his word in our hearts.

Following are some practical tools to help you: Read it, Remember it and Pray it.

READ IT

• CCEC Daily Reading notes
• McCheyne reading plan (this looks like a great resource!)
• Free Don Carson Devotional through email – sample – based on McCheyne plan (Row and I do one of these columns each night)
• Search for “Bible” in iTunes – look under “Audiobooks” to find the whole Bible for a bargain price – listen to the Bible on your iPod.
• Click ‘listen’ at the top of any passage to listen for free online – I’ve just started using this – it’s great!

REMEMBER IT

• Navigators topical memory system (you can buy their cards or make your own based on their verses)
• Fighter Verses from John Piper
  
• Memory Verse Songs for Adults
  
• Remember whole books of the bible
• Free email-based Bible memory program

PRAY IT

• Pray in response to the verses you read
• Pray in response to the verses you remember
• Don’t close your Bible when you pray, but let the priorities of the Bible shape your priorities in prayer.
• A Call to Spiritual Reformation – a good book showing Paul’s priorities in prayer

Do you have any tools for reading and remembering God’s Word?
Share them in the comments…

Dr. Andrew Davis suggests that there are numerous advantages of memorising whole books of the Bible as opposed to individual verses. One of the key things that he says is that it’s easy to take verses out of context when remembering them in isolation. (I think there are verses in the Navigators system that do this.)

My memory is often elephant-like in it’s ability to retain and use individual Bible verses. I’m thinking that I might have a crack at remembering a 1 or 2 books of the Bible next year. There are some that I can already recite large slabs of such as Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians that might be good ones to start with.

Can you remember entire books of the Bible? Check out the following article for some good tips on how to do it well.

An Approach to the Extended Memorization of Scripture

(direct download)

(h/t JT)

I’m preaching on Psalm 119 this Sunday @ ccecnitechurch. In it the Psalmist is deeply passionate about the word of God. Rejoice, delight, recount, obedience, praise, understanding, wonder, zeal and love are some of his responses to the word.

I’ve been challenged to “not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deut 8:3 and Matt 4:4).

The following is one way that the Psalmist seeks to feed upon the word of God:

“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Psalm 119:11

Jerry Bridges says that one of the ways that the Holy Spirit guides is by recalling to our minds scriptures that we have memorised. Maybe he said that so Navigators could sell more memory verse cards! My guess is that it’s based more on Ephesians 6 and being armed with the Sword of the Spirit – which is the Word of God.

Here are 3 systems that might be helpful in arming yourself:

• Navigators Topical Memory System. I have completed the first set of these verses which is about 60 verses. There are a bunch of other sets that I haven’t completed. If you don’t buy their cards… just use the verses they have on the above page and make your own cards.
• Bethlehem Baptist Church (John Piper) – Fighter Verses. They do this system of over 500 verses as a church. Check the link above to find out more about how they do it, including subscribing to a Podcast with verse of the week. You can also buy the full set for super cheap from Desiring God.
• Forever Grateful Music – Scripture Memory Songs by Mark Altrogge. CraigS has started using these and says that they are gold. Check out some of their samples and then order some CD’s if all goes well.

Do you know more Bible verses or quotes from your favourite movies?
Do you read the newspaper or the Bible first thing in the morning?

Delight in the Word of God. Be passionate about it. Remember it. Hide it in your heart.

Do you use a system for remembering verses? Which one? What’s it like??

This is our biggest issue of J-walk ever! It’s my last one as editor. To be honest… I didn’t do much editing at all. I wrote the editorial. So… it’s my last editorial. Alex Hartley has now begun editing j-walk. This is good… I’m excited about some of the plans for the magazine next year.

Here it is amigo…

“Basically I am convinced that men who do not make praying their first priority in life and ministry should not preach or pastor. As preachers they will be confusing models of a Christian man, and as shepherds they will not show willingness to die for the sheep…As we seek faith and pray together, the power will be in the preaching, and other matters such as style will begin to take their own course.” (h/t The Buzz Man)

I listened to some sermons from Covenant Life Church last year on Affluenza (1, 2 & 3).

What is affluenza? Josh Harris explains it like this:

Affluenza is a nifty little word that some clever sociologist created by mixing two different words together. The word affluence means having a great deal of money. Influenza is a highly contagious and potentially fatal disease. When you mash these two together, you get affluenza, which is a useful word for describing the problems generated by a rich consumer culture that has an endless hunger for more and more stuff. Affluenza is the disease of greed. It’s the materialistic mindset that says getting more money and possessions is the ultimate aim of life. Affluenza is the spirit of our age, and it has infected all of us.

Josh is currently blogging the text from the first affluenza sermon. In the sermon and the blog post Josh speaks from Luke 12 on the ‘Disease of Greed’. Good, challenging stuff.

Affluenza, Part 1: The Real Money Problem
Affluenza, Part 2: The Deception of Greed
UPDATE: Affluenza, Part 3: Greed Destroys Us