How Scripture Memorization Can Be Important to the Christian

This is another of my son’s essays for Christian Growth, and it is on a subject that we hold very dear to our hearts, as Scripture memorization is so important in our everyday lives. In some countries it is illegal to own a Bible, so the only way to have God’s Word near to you is to hide it in your heart.

Scripture memorization is extremely important to the Christian. It helps him to withstand the attacks of the Wicked One. Scripture memorization will help the Christian to “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” (1 Peter 3:15). Scripture memorization should be an integral part of every Christian’s spiritual walk with God. Scripture mentions the memorization of God’s Word in many places, especially in Psalm 119. How fitting it is that the longest chapter of the Bible contains so many references to memorizing God’s Word as well as many indirect references to it.

Scripture memorization is one of the most effective ways of blocking Satan’s attacks. Why wait until Satan attacks to try and counter attack and find your armour? Isn’t it better to have your armour on before the battle, than to walk out onto the battlefield, start the battle, and then discover that you forgot to bring your armour with you? Oh, how true are the words of the Psalmist David when he said, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” (Psalm 119:11). Hiding God’s Word in your heart will help you to overcome Satan time and time again. Here are just some of the verses in Psalm 119 discussing Scripture memorization: Psalm 119: 9, 11, 16, 17, 38, 50, 82, 101, 105, 162 and 172. There are many more in that one chapter that deal less directly with the issues. Some of those may not deal with the benefits of Scripture memorization, but with the results of not memorizing the words of our Mighty Lord. We should always seek to memorize more of God’s holy, inspired Word.

If someone asks you the “reason of the hope that is in you” if you have memorized God’s Word, then you will be able to give them an answer direct from God’s Word. God’s Word has the power to change people’s lives. “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;” (Romans 10:8). Praise God if His Word is found in our mouths and our hearts, and not just in our heads. His Word is of no value if it is only in our heads and in our hearts, It only has the power to change our lives if it is our hearts and committed there through prayer and the Holy Spirit.

No matter if you memorize a passage a week, or a larger passage a month, pray that God will commit that passage to your memory for life. One day you may need those passages that you memorize, so don’t just let them be forgotten in the busyness of life. If you have never memorized God’s Word before, or if you have trouble memorizing His Word, pray to Him that He will help you to “hide His Word in your heart.” He can help you to overcome any problem that you are facing right now – don’t be afraid to ask Him, and to ask Him for a double portion of His Spirit to help you overcome.

Crafty Cards

Yesterday my daughter and I made another crafty card – this time for our friend, Gwenda, in Tumby Bay, as her favourite colours are purple and shades of purple. Although the butterflies don’t look like it, they are actually a deep, rich purple.

Making cards is so easy, especially with double-sided tape and all of the card accessories that can be obtained cheaply from Spotlight and Cheap-as-Chips, which are discount stores in Australia. We started out with the shades of purple that we were going to use, and checked the adornments that we were adding before we made them permanent. Initially we were going to have a dragonfly on the cover, but it wouldn’t travel well through the post, so it was back to the drawing board.

Eventually we came up with this simple but elegant design for our card. The rhinestones don’t really show up that well in the photo, but they look glittery and sparkly in real life and add a little pizzazz to the card. Our favourite card verses come from here, and Michelle has written a verse for every occasion that you can think of – there are also inspirationals, devotionals for men, women and children; Bible stories and poetry pages. Hers is a wonderful site to explore if you have a few spare hours!

What about you? Do you like making cards, or perhaps you have another craft that you’re particularly interested in?

A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24

The High Cost of Selfishness and Self-pity

This essay is my son’s report on “The High Cost of Selfishness and Self-pity”, for his Christian Growth, PACE 136, and it is a subject that is at the heart of many broken marriages and failed friendships. I hope that you enjoy reading it.

The cost of selfishness and self-pity is very high. Selfishness and self-pity lead to many problems in the home. These include domestic disputes, anger, divorce, violence, and affairs among many other things. Selfishness has lead to many unhappy marriages even between committed Christians. Selfishness harbours resent; even though the person may not see the situation as unfair, it may just be their outlook that makes it feel that way. Selfishness is a sin, and sin can take many forms. 2 Corinthians 11:14 says, “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” Sin may appear as if you have been wronged, but that is the way that Satan wants you to see it. He likes to disguise sin and deceive Christians with that sin. And [Satan] shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, (Revelation 20:8). It must really grieve God to see His children deceived by the Wicked One.

When marriages end in divorce, it is usually because of selfishness in one or both of the couple’s hearts. What may start out as a trivial matter will then be dwelt upon and fester up inside of one or both of the couple and then grow into resent, which is really selfishness or self-pity in disguise. They will continue to dwell upon the resent until it becomes such a great burden that they explode and the once happy marriage will end in divorce. Satan loves to see marriages fall to pieces as it means that his tactics have worked yet again inside of a happy, successful marriage between two committed Christians. If only married couples realized that resent is really selfishness, and selfishness is really a sin, then many marriages could be saved before they ended in a divorce.

Self-pity has many the same symptoms as selfishness. It can disguise itself just the same under a cloak of “Poor me!” or just like an affiliate link that has been cloaked, it is still self-pity, no matter what disguise it takes. It still takes you to the same endpoint whether it is seen or disguised. If it is disguised it may just take a little longer to get to the same end. Just like an affiliate at the end there is a cost. The cost with self-pity is always high, no matter whether it is “cloaked” or not. It may be a friendship that someone has broken, it may be a marriage that has ended in divorce, or it may be a business venture that has ended in failure.

If you are suffering from selfishness or self-pity, then pray to God that He will help you to find the source of that selfishness or self-pity. Then either remove the source from your life, or ask God to help you overcome the thing that is causing this problem. If you ask God, He will surely help you to overcome that thing in your life – all you have to do is ask.

Original image from here.

Ye Ol’ Farmhouse

While my husband was chatting to one of our local farmers, the farmer said that he had another farm near us, and there was LOTS of dry firewood to cut. My husband and son went out to the old farm, and these were the first photos that my son took. In the first photo, you can see the dry stone wall – around here there are many of these old dry stone walls, and they have such character. In the next photo, this is ye ol’ farmhouse, which I find rather sad really, as the pigeons have overrun the house.

In these photos you can see the old chimney and probably the tack room – aren’t they gorgeous? If you look carefully at the photo on the right, you can even see the old door.

These are the old stables and the stable window, which I thought was ever so rustic.

Mind you, my son also had to load the trailer, but he took fifty-five photos while they were out cutting wood. I can see why, as it was extremely hard choosing which photos to post to my blog. They were only gone for about an hour and a half, and they have a full trailer load of wood – my husband ♥♥♥ his new chainsaw. I feel so blessed to be living in this area with all of the history associated with it. Praise God, for we definitely won’t be going cold this winter!

New Life Skills

Yippee! My husband is teaching our son new skills – skills that he will need when my husband has the much-needed operation on his knee. My son is learning how to milk our goats – Delilah, Jemimah, Ruth, Cleo, Deborah, Esther, Aquila and Priscilla. Praise God that we have the most patient goats, and they have been extremely tolerant of a novice milking them.

Some of our goats have tiny little teats and are difficult to milk, while others like Deborah, Aquila and Priscilla have wonderful teats for milking.  Priscilla is one of the most patient goats ever, and she has LOTS of milk. My daughter has also expressed a desire to learn how to milk, and her small hands would definitely be an advantage in milking some of our goats.

Today my husband and son went out to cut firewood, and they came back with a HUGE amount of firewood in the shortest time ever. What does my husband think of his new chainsaw? He ♥♥♥ it, as it makes the job of cutting wood so much easier, and my son loaded the trailer for him while he used the chainsaw.

My husband was going to show our son how to use the chainsaw, but we have a slight problem. The chainsaw is too heavy, and when you rev it up, it kicks back- maybe next year??? I love homeschooling, as there is so much to learn – new life skills everyday!