"I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you."
It is our conviction that Scripture memorization is essential, vital and necessary... and fun for all believers.
• it aids your meditation - Joshua 1.8, ESV
"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."
• it adds to your treasure - Psalm 119.11, ESV
"I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you."
• it helps draw you closer to God - Psalm 63.5-6, ESV
"My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night..."
• it hinders the build up of sin - Psalm 119.9, ESV
"How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word."
• it holds hope for those without Christ - Romans 10.17, ESV
"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."
• it assists us in renewing our minds - Romans 12.2, ESV
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
So, we want to store up the Word in our hearts and minds. Each Sunday, we'll give witness to doing just this. We'll ask someone to share the verse chosen for that week... before the whole congregation. Now, don't panic, it's purely voluntary; no one will be called upon. Then, the following week, someone else can recite that week's verse, and so on. We believe this will encourage one another to treasure God's Word, to build up others (maybe you'll be the one reciting a verse, perhaps forget the next word or two and someone else can help you out with a little reminder) and to spur us all on to learn the Word.
Pastor Kevin is preaching from the New Testament book of 1 Corinthians, so we thought it would be a good idea to commit to memory verses from one of the most “famous” chapters in the Bible – 1 Corinthians 13. Here are the current verses being memorized*:
March 20, 2011 – 1 Corinthians 13.3 (ESV)
“If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
March 27, 2011 – 1 Corinthians 13.4 (ESV)
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant…”
April 3, 2011 – 1 Corinthians 13.5 (ESV)
“…or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;”
Arpil 10, 2011 – 1 Corinthians 13.6 (ESV)
“…it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”
April 17, 2011 – 1 Corinthians 13.7 (ESV)
“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
April 24, 2011 (Easter Sunday) – 1 Corinthians 13.8 (ESV)
May 1, 2011 – 1 Corinthians 13.9 (ESV)“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.”
May 8, 2011 – 1 Corinthians 13.10 (ESV)“For we know in part and we prophesy in part…”
May 15, 2011 – 1 Corinthians 13.11 (ESV)“…but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.”
May 22, 2011 – 1 Corinthians 13.12 (ESV)“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”
May 29, 2011 – 1 Corinthians 13.13 (ESV)“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
* You may use whatever version of the Bible you’re accustomed to using and memorizing. Pastor Kevin highly recommends the English Standard Version.