A Helpful Tool

Memorizing Scripture is hard for me.  Not because I can't memorize, but because I rarely make time for it. 

I have been following Christ Jesus for about ten years now.  In the earlier days, I committed a lot of Scripture to memory; since then much has been lost.  This saddens and convicts me.  I want God's word in my head and on my heart.

My renewed desire to memorize Scripture started with a modest goal: memorize one verse per week.  Memorize Now is a tool that I am using to do just this. 

No registration is required.  You create "cards" of any text you want (not just Scripture) to memorize.  There are various ways to help you memorize: letters or whole words can be removed.  My favorite tool shows the first letter of each word.  Click the "save" tab and follow the directions.  There are other online memorizing tools, but I am currently dabbling with this one.  Go check it out for yourself!

Can you guess what verse the picture shows?

Related Post:
Who Knows?

Give Yourself an Assignment

Last week I mentioned that I would begin a weekly(ish) post: "Give Yourself and Assignment."  Take them as merely ideas.  More than anything they cultivate my idea generating temperament.  Some will be good, others will be bad.  If at any point you decide to follow through with one of the ideas, please leave a comment and share how it went. 

Today's brainstorm:

• call your mom and/or dad
• start going to the same coffee shop; become a "regular"
• take a half day off from work for a "prayer retreat."  
• consider a theological, philosophical, political, and/or economic viewpoint (aren't they usually interwoven?) different from your own.  Learn about that opposing viewpoint from someone who holds it.  Listen.  Try to understand.  Be able to articulate their position accurately and fairly (so they would say, "Yes, that is what I believe.")  Then be able to articulate your own position accurately and clearly.  Don't use strawmen.  May your words be seasoned with grace, love, and truth.
  

Give Yourself an Assignment (Weekend Edition)

I think I am going to do a post like this once every week or two. I am probably doing it more for me, but I do it also to encourage you. Just think of me as the "idea guy."

Today's Brainstorm:

1. Go ice skating.
2. Sleep in on Saturday; wake up and make pancakes.
3. Think of a question. Go ask the same question to 5 different people to hear/learn from their perspectives.
4. Write a letter to a friend or family member. (An actual, hand written one!)

Related Post:
Give Yourself an Assignment (first edition)

This is funny to me...and so true.

This guy is sick and tired of C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton.  This only confirms what Lewis said about reading:

"It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones."

I recommend reading the rest of his comments relating to reading old books to modern books in his Introduction to St. Athanasius' On the Incarnation.

'Mercy killing' not part of law

'Mercy killing' not part of law: "An Old Bailey judge sums up in the trial of a mother accused of murdering her son who was brain-damaged in an accident."

This is very interesting in light of recent discussion in England in particular, and Europe in general. What do you think about it?

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes

Below are some of his quotes. These quotes and more come from here.

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."

"Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better."

"An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."

"Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them."

"A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan."

"A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus."

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

The Same Movie on the Same Row

What do a bridge, a road, a school, and a national holiday have in common?  They all are named in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.  There is plenty of written history about this man and his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, so I am not going to write in length about that.  He is probably most well known for his "I Have a Dream" speech, which you can watch on any number of websites and blogs today.  For instance, you can watch it here.  Today I want to briefly write something more personal in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Twice this month I have gone to the movie theater, and both times I have gone to the restroom following the movie.  And both times I was deeply moved by the experience of washing my hands next to an older black man.  Not too long ago there were separate toilets, separate water fountains, separate schools, separate restaurants.  "Separate but equal" is not equal.  So this MLK Day, I am thankful to be able to wash my hands next to a black man and enjoy the same movie on the same row. 

It makes sense for people of minority races to honor and celebrate MLK Day.  It also makes sense for whites (that's me, a white guy) to honor and celebrate him.  You see, the oppressor has the false perception of feeling superior and the oppressed has the real perception (but also false) of feeling inferior; however, the oppressors' dignity is also stolen when wickedness and injustice is committed against the oppressed.  Correcting that injustice, in a way, restores the God-given dignity of both sides.

The laws have changed, but the battle of the heart continues to rage.  Praise God that he ultimately judges with righteousness, justice, and equity!  Praise God that in Christ Jesus there is "not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3:9-15).  He is the one the transforms and renews our hearts and restores our brokenness.