Memorize Ephesians With Me - Home Again!

Hey guys,

we are one day shy of week two, and I wanted to have us rethink our goal. I know from experience, that at about this time you can get even more intimidated by the challenge ahead than when you first began. If this is what you are experiencing, I want you to do something...forget the book. Thats right, just forget about doing the whole thing, instead consider Chapter one only. We can think about the other chapters later. Lets just move through this first step and allow God to bless and shower his love over us, and the rest of the mountain can wait.

So go to www.biblegateway.com and print up chapter 1 and enjoy every minute of your time in it!

God is good to us!!

Memorize Ephesians With Me-Colorado Update 2

Hey friends,

This last update includes a short clip from my friend Brad Tillotson, a young man who climbed Mt. Denali in Alaska for his thirtieth birthday. Brad makes some beautiful and insightful comments about the nature of God's call on our lives. For Brad this is expressed in his desire to climb the largest Mountain on our Continent, Mt. Denali in Alaska (Denali is an Athabaskan word which means "the Great One"). Brad says that he wants to climb the mountain because it "provides a window into his soul, I wanted to look at the mirror and see whats there...I want to be free inside".

This is a parallel and picture of why I look to memorizing books of the Bible. The Word becomes a mirror into my soul, that helps me see what is inside. The encouragement that I find, especially as I have looked into the book of Ephesians is that the mirror is reflecting something that I wouldn't have anticipated. It's reflecting back to me what God sees, God sees someone who is loved by God, Chosen before the world was created to be holy and without fault. Someone who God enjoys. Forgiven, showered in God's kindness, grace, wisdom and understanding, identified as His own, full of the Holy Spirit, purchased to be His. All that expressed in the first 14 chapters!

What an amazing mirror. I've heard it said, that "we will never be able to grow beyond the way we are able to see ourselves". How kind of God to show us a glimps of the new creation. Paul later on in this book says that "we are God's masterpiece". So hard to fathom, but that is the invitation, to look at this soul searching mirror, and keep climbing, as "high as we can get" as Brad says, to look up at the face of God and say "I love you".

May you find moments this week when you look into the mirror of God's word and see what God sees. A new creation, a son or daughter with a "good and noble heart".

Keep climbing, I'm right behind you!

Hunter.

Memorize Ephesians With Me - Colorado Update 2

Hey friends,

This last update includes a short clip from my friend Brad Tillotson, a young man who climbed Mt. Denali in Alaska for his thirtieth birthday. Brad makes some beautiful and insightful comments about the nature of God's call on our lives. For Brad this is expressed in his desire to climb largest Mountain on our Continent, Mt. Denali in Alaska (Denali is an Athabaskan word which means "the Great One"). Brad says that he wants to climb the mountain because it "provides a window into his soul, I wanted to look at the mirror and see whats there...I want to be free inside".

This is a parallel and picture of why I look to memorizing books of the Bible. The Word becomes a mirror into my soul, that helps me see what is inside. The encouragement that I find, especially as I have looked into the book of Ephesians is that the mirror is reflecting something that I wouldn't have anticipated. It's reflecting back to me what God sees, God sees someone who is loved by God, Chosen before the world was created to be holy and without fault. Someone who God enjoys. Forgiven, showered in God's kindness, grace, wisdom and understanding, identified as His own, full of the Holy Spirit, purchased to be His. All that expressed in the first 14 chapters!

What an amazing mirror. I've heard it said, that "we will never be able to grow beyond the way we are able to see ourselves". How kind of God to show us a glimps of the new creation. Paul later on in this book says that "we are God's masterpiece". So hard to fathom, but that is the invitation, to look at this soul searching mirror, and keep climbing, as "high as we can get" as Brad says, to look up at the face of God and say "I love you".

May you find moments this week when you look into the mirror of God's word and see what God sees. A new creation, a son or daughter with a "good and noble heart".

Keep climbing, I'm right behind you!

Hunter.

Memorize Ephesians With Me - Colorado Update

We are about four days in to our trek through Ephesians...how's it going? Remember to go easy on yourself. This takes some practice, most of us are not used to this kind of discipline, and it might seem clunky and a bad fit at first, but don't worry that's normal. G.K Chesterton once said "anything worth doing is worth doing badly". I love that quote, it helps take some of the pressure off. In fact that was something that I woke up with this morning, the thought that the pressure is off. Grace means the pressure is off. I don't have to earn, or measure up, or have it all together, instead we are welcomed, and accepted, and loved, just as messed up as we are right now. That's good news.

The last video post i mentioned that I was a bit overwhelmed at the response, 20 people in one day deciding to join in on this project. By the end of the day it was at thirty people, and this morning I woke up to another five. So our numbers are growing! Very exciting, there is so much in this letter that my heart needs to wrestle with, so much for the Church to re-awaken to that I can't help but think this holds great promise for our lives and for the Kingdom. That said I woke up this morning, a bit anxious about all the people coming along, and the high expectations we often have at the start of a project like this. I know from past experiences, that we can often walk away from these things worse for ware. We feel like a failure for not completing our goal, and we end up more discouraged about our spiritual walk, than when we first began.

So let me say from the onset, that the pressure is OFF! I don't care if you are able to memorize 1 verse or the whole thing. Our spiritual vitality isn't linked to having a bunch of verses crammed in our head. Jesus said "You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!" So lets let Jesus be our life, and the scriptures be our "pointers", something that will help us stay focused on him who is our life, OK?

Take ten minutes, read through the first 10 verses ten times out loud, then close the book and see if you can get through the first 2-3 verses without looking. Then read 1-10 again close the book and try verses 1-3 again. Just roll along with this for ten minutes and then thank God for speaking to you. Thats it!

Word for the day:
Eph 1:9,10

"God has now revealed his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure, and this is the plan, at the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ, both in heaven and on earth."

Good news! Your life in Christ brings God pleasure, you please God, how bout that?!

PS. I'll be speaking at two schools this week in Colorado, Belleview Christian, for their Spiritual Life Retreat (we are at a camp in the Rockies!) , and Ravencrest in Estes Park. One for Jr. and High school students, the other College age. So, I'll be out of contact with the web for a few days. Feel free to post comments on the blog site, encourage each other, or report your progress as you like. I'll be back in touch as soon as I can.

I appreciate your prayers.

Hunter

Memorize Ephesians With Me (2)

Day two in our Journey through Ephesians. We have folks from all over North America joining in. Old friends, new friends, people I don't really know, folks from California, Washington and Oregon, Canada, the Mid-West, and a handful from hear in New Jersey and New York. All seeking to grow, all wanting more. Here is a quote from a book I'm reading by John Ortberg it reads, "The Talmud says that every blade of grass has an angel bending over it whispering "grow,grow" God wants you to grow! I think what you are doing is beautiful, and the response was totally unexpected, and the number of folks continues to grow, so feel free to invite others along, lets see where this happens.

Be encouraged as you go through the first part of Ephesians today. and consider this:

Phil 2:13
"13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him."

God is at work, and that is good news!

Memorize Ephesians With Me

Some of you know that last year I memorized the book of Ephesians and have since begun performing a dramatic retelling of the book at Churches around the country. Well, today I began a project to review the book from memory, and the thought came to me that it might be helpful to invite others along for the trek. Helpful for me, because I'll have some accountability in reviewing a book that I have memorized, and helpful for others who may be wanting to challenge themselves by memorizing a book of the Bible.

I have spoken with many of you about what an important spiritual discipline memorizing/meditating on scripture has been for me. Much of my life work and calling is to advocate for an imaginative engagement with the word of God. Meditation and the imagination are two very powerful, and often overlooked tools in spiritual development, tools that continue to play a huge role in my apprenticeship as a follower of Jesus. I'd like to take some of what I have learned and experienced, and walk along side those who are interested in engaging scripture in this way, and go after the book of Ephesians together.

I'll try to post via YouTube and this blog, a couple of posts per week that offer suggestions and encouragement. I'll also offer: resources for memorization and meditation, model my own experience, provide feedback, answer questions, and provide a place for you to comment and post your own reflections. I'll be your coach.

If your interested, let me know, email me, or post a comment on this blog. Think about sending this link to someone else, a friend, an enemy :) a group of friends, a group of enemies. Whoever, lets just work together. Slow,steady, and in community, a fellowship of the book!
lets see what happens.

In Christ.

The Book of Daniel, Part of the Process

The four year old daughter of our friends, who are missionaries in India was bitten by a Krait snake today, one of the most venomous snakes in India. Many have prayed, and the venom has had no effect, she shows no sign of the venom entering her body. We are at eight hours after the bite and she will be moved out of ICU in another hour. God answers prayer

What English Bible Should I Own? (Including a Plug for the KJV)

This is an article from Justin Taylor's blog, commemorating the 400th anniversay of the King James Bible.  The "Authorized" text has had perhaps the most profound impact on the world as any specific "thing" in the last 400yrs.  The way it has served to put the word of God within reach of the english speaking world, helping to transform both Church and societies.  Prior to this most Bibles were chained to pulpits in local Parishes, written in Latin and only read by "qualified" members of the Priesthood, and since most in the English world didn't speak Latin, the reading of the word was not understood by the listener.  Now we have many translations written in the common venacular and it is generally accepted that the Bible is for everyone to read and understand, and not just a select few.  I don't read a King James Version of the Bible, I've been reading the New Living Translation the last few years, but the Church can be thankful for the work that was done 400 years ago that began a movement, putting the word of God in the hands of everyone interested and willing.  

It's the Little Things...

Home - Radiolab

Words have the power to shape the way we think and feel. In this stunning video, filmmakers Will Hoffman and Daniel Mercadante bandy visual wordplay into a moving exploration of the power of language.

This Church Had A Man Crisis