Why do we memorise scripture?  Well, the first and most important reason is that the Bible tells us too!  Colossians 3:16 gives us a clear command, let the word of Christ dwell in us.  With that in mind, what does it actually mean to memorise scripture and let the word of Christ dwell in us?

Specific Scripture Memory

The first and perhaps most obvious approach we can take to this is to be very specific.  Specific scripture memory is very simple, I’m sure most Christians will be able to recite some verses with no problem, verses like John 3:16, or maybe Genesis 1:1.  This is excellent and I commend this to any Christian, but it is also slightly dangerous.

You see, the Bible was not written with chapters and verses in mind, the authors certainly didn’t write a set of individual sentences and mash them all together in the hopes of something coherent (not even the write of Proverbs!).  So why exactly do we think it’s acceptable to pick out our favourite verses and memorise them, forgetting anything of the context of the rest of the book they are from.

Take John 3:16 as an example.  This verse alone tells us that God loved us so much that he sent Jesus, and as a result if we believe in him we won’t die.  But what of sin?  Where in that verse is that problem which needed solving?  How did God giving his son save us from death?

Of course if you have bothered to memorise that one verse you probably already know that broader context of the gospel itself, but what of the narrow context of the passage?  Do you know who those words were spoken to, or what else was being said at the time?  Are you even sure who was saying those words?

General Scripture Memory

With these issues with specific scripture memory in mind, there is another approach which seems to make sense.  Instead of being narrow in our memorising, lets be much broader.  Instead of memorising an individual verse, how about we tackle the general flow of a passage or a whole book.  Instead of picking off relevant verses, we can deal with themes.  I know that Nehemiah is about the exiles returning to Israel and rebuilding.  I know that Pauls letter to the Colossians is an encouragement for them to continue in the gospel that saved them.

This is also an excellent thing to strive for, and one day I would love to be able to rattle off a list of the broad themes from each of the books of the Bible.  Given some specific struggle in your life you might have some vague memory of that being a theme in one of Pauls letters, so you can flick through it and see what the Bible has to say.

Of course this broad sweeping approach to scripture memory falls far short of the ideal too.  If you don’t happen to have a Bible to hand then knowing that Paul gives some advice for husbands and wives in Ephesians is useless unless you can remember exactly what that advice was!

So a combination then?

Ah, a conclusion!  Yes, I think we should be careful to combine memorising specific verses with a clear understanding of the broader themes of the Bible.  I also think that when we talk about scripture memory we should mean something bigger than just picking off individual verses, we should also include learning the flow and themes of the Bible in that phrase.

There is however, one more caveat:

It’s all about Jesus

The real problem with poor scripture memory is not our approach, but our motivation.  I could learn hundreds of individual verses, and pick out every theme the Bible has and still not find life.  Life is found in Jesus, and when we memorise scripture (whatever form that takes), what we should be really seeking to do is hold Jesus close to our hearts.

If learning a single verse brings Jesus closer to my heart I want to do it.  If taking the time to see what the context of that verse really is also brings me in line with Christ then I absolutely want to do it!  If learning a verse of picking out a theme serves no purpose other than to boost my ego or increase my academic knowledge of the Bible, then I actually want to avoid it.  I would much rather memorise nothing but hold Jesus close than memorise everything but not see him in any of it!

My house was burgled last night whilst I was down in Oxford with two of my housemates at a friends wedding.  I’m not really bothered to be honest, but my computer was stolen so I don’t have ready access to the internet for the time being.

If for some reason you need to contact me, the phone would be your best bet.

I need to post a few letters, and I wasn’t sure exactly where the nearest postbox to my house is, so I asked Google. First of all I was rather surprised that Royal Mail don’t offer a postbox locator service themselves, this seems like a massive oversight on their part as it would be a very useful tool.

Second to that, I have discovered that the Freedom of Information act is rather neat. Some friendly folk wanted to put together a website where you could search for a postbox yourself, and lo and behold they were able to acquire a complete listing of postbox locations direct from the government on request. Furthermore, that information was made publically available (all be it in a pretty horrible PDF file) here: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/location_of_every_post_box_that

Thankfully someone then took that and converted it into a much nicer format, which can be found and browsed easily here: http://edwardbetts.com/postboxes/

Since the information is there now, I suspect someone will take the time to make a search by location database available in the near future. The internet is nifty!

I have chosen to spend some of my time this term studying the Biblical view of Men and Women. I chose to look at this area for a number of reasons, the main one being that it is a serious area of contention in the western Church today and as such I wanted to be sure of my views on the matter and more importantly sure that my views agree with the Bible. I also chose to study manhood and womanhood because I am a Christian guy, and as such the Bibles definition of a man applies to me and I should seek to be the kind of man that the Bible says I should be. This is I think especially important in todays western Church climate where there are many more women in Church and masculinity is under attack from the culture around us.

This morning I listened to a great sermon on Ephesians 5:15-33 by Russell D. Moore (pick it up here) in which I was reminded of something really essential that I often forget. A large part of what Moore had to say was that we often read passages like this and think “ah, so Christ’s relationship to the Church is a picture of what marriage should be like”. The reality is that Paul is saying something very different, he is in fact saying something more like “marriage is a picture of what Christ and the Church are like”.

This shift in focus from God picturing life for us to us picturing God for others is an immense thing. We go from a self centered perspective of asking God how he can help our situations to a totally outward looking evangelistic perspective of our lives. When we think like this, the real question is no longer “What can you do for me God?”, but instead we ask “How can I show you to others God?”.

I am reminded of a great song by Tree63 which sets out not only this wonderful attitude towards God, but clearly explains why this is an appropriate attitude if we have understood the gospel!

Gratuitously stolen from Marcus Honeysett (see this post), word clouds are a handy way of analysing content and so I created one for recent blog posts just to see what would show up.

If I can be bothered I might look for a sidebar gadget to create up to date word clouds, because they’re nifty and it’s nice to have an indication of just what it is I’ve been writing about. Anyway, here is the result:

I love my guitar very much. The main reason I love it is because having learnt to play it I can now pick up most worship music and play it fairly quickly. This is great because it means when I want to, I can spend some time singing songs of worship to God in my bedroom really easily.

When I’m at home singing on my own it’s really easy, I know that if I miss a chord it doesn’t matter, if I sing out of tune I don’t mind and if my fingers hurt I can stop for a while. When I’m at home I sing really loudly and I can focus completely on God and what he is like which just leads me to worship him even more.

Now tomorrow I have to lead a group of other people in worship. I will be playing my guitar and singing worship songs to God, but I know that it will feel very different. If I miss a chord or sing out of tune it does matter, perhaps not a huge amount (it’s a pretty informal setting), but it does make a difference. If my fingers begin to hurt I have to ignore that and carry on anyway. On top of that, I have a room full of other people to think about. If I’m going to move from the chorus back to the first verse again I need to indicate that in some way to other people, I can’t just do what I feel like and expect everyone to follow easily. This (and various other things which will be running through my mind) means that it becomes harder to focus totally on God.

On top of all that, the aim of corporate worship is to worship in community, to lift up God and declare truths about him together so that we remind each other what God is like, and that we are part of a family. I cannot simply get lost in my own private world of worship, I must be in a place where I am praising God in the company of others. I must take part in eyes open worship, where I can observe the people around me and be uplifted and inspired by them.

This is both a fantastically exciting prospect, and a really scary one. As I prepare the music I will be playing tomorrow I pray that God would empower me to worship tomorrow with a right attitude. This is no mere performance, nor is this an individual act of worship, this is something different, something much better!

Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the Earth yet?

According to imdb, the MPAA rating for Twister (the ‘96 classic about running around a lot and watching barns being ripped apart) is the following:

Rated PG-13 for intense depiction of very bad weather.

One of the great things about doing Relay is that I have a bunch of amazing people supporting me throughout the year, not just financially but also in prayer. As such I will be producing regular prayer letters with updates on what has been going on in Leicester and what I’m up to in particular.

My first prayer letter is written and has been printed out, I will be picking them up tomorrow so if you see me at any point after that please do ask me for one. I’ve also stuck a copy online for those of you who won’t be able to get a hard copy off me, you can check it out here:
http://spiderscripts.co.uk/public/prayer_letter_sep_08.pdf

If you would like to receive these letters by e-mail so that you get them straight away then leave a comment and I will add you to my mailing list.

As I walked home from the train station the other night I was thinking about how I travel. In the past my general approach to travelling has been to get there as quickly as possible, because the destination is the most important thing. I have now come to the conclusion that rushing to get somewhere is a bit of a rubbish thing to do. So I have devised a set of things which I should try to do whenever I’m going somewhere. These collective things will constitute strolling, which is different from just plain walking and certainly not the same as rushing to get somewhere.

• Strolling should not be done too quickly.
• When strolling, you should take the time to actually look at your surroundings and try to really take them in.
• To show other people that you are strolling, you should smile and say hello to them
• When strolling you must not worry about what time you will arrive (which means you should probably set off extra early)
• At some point during your stroll, you should pause to thank God for something beautiful you have seen (if you are paying attention this won’t be difficult!).

At least some of these principles can be applied to other methods of travel too, especially public transport.

On top of this, encouraged to break out of the British mould by this post by Dave Bish, I have been chatting with people quite a bit when I’m using public transport. I have been very surprised at just how easy it is to chat with people, and how much happier people look when they’re given the chance to talk to people instead of having to sit silently for the whole journey!

Strolling and chatting have given me a much greater appreciation of the world around me, and of the people around me. I would heartily recommend them both to you!