Ephesians 1:1-10

For my Ephesians friends it's been almost two week since I've last posted, trust me, I haven't given up on you! It's been a couple of really busy weeks. Travel to California and Maine, with performances at great Churches like 1st Presbyterian in Westminster, California, and 1st Baptist in South Portland, and Smallpoint Baptist in Phippsburg, Maine, thrown in was a half-day seminar and performance at New England Bible College.

But you, my memorization crew have been on my mind and heart. I hope things are going well with all of you. Have you had an opportunity to share what you have memorized with others-how did it go? Did people stare at you like your from Mars? Sometimes it's hard to convey to others what the process of meditating on scripture is like, how significant it is to your own soul. It's still important to share it though. So let me encourage you again to gather family and friends around and share these words with them. Also, send me a clip of your memory/meditation work. It will be a great encouragement to others in this project to continue on. And you will have a greater sense of accomplishment, a little monument to what God has led you through. I've posted a small clip of a few of you who have sent me clips, as well as some of my own family who are joining in on the project. You can see the clip here.

Keep pressing forward. A little at a time, consistent review and you will make progress. Underscoring it all is our montra that the "pressure is off!" please keep that in mind. My goal is to "inspire to desire", not "wilt from guilt" :)

Send me an update, and I'll cheer you on even if your still on the first verse.

PS. Did any of you find the first three versus the hardest to memorize of all so far? I sure did, seemed like it took me two weeks just to get those three.

Imagine the Word: Bicycle Rickshaw Theatre

Memorize Ephesians With Me - (A) Method

One of the questions I most often get from people is "How do you memorize?" This is actually a hard question for me to answer, because I don't really have (A) way to memorize scripture, instead I have about 5-10 ways that I explore when memorizing.

For those of you who are familiar with the popular P90X the physical fitness program, you will know that one of the advantages of this program is that it offers you a variety of exercises from muscle toning, cardio, yoga, wth generouse doses of abdominal work. "Muscle confusion" is what they tout as a real advantage of their program. The idea being that if you stay with one set form of workout, soon your muscles will plateau, and you will begin to see deminished results. BUT if you mix your workout up, your muscles will remain sufficiently confused, allowing you to experience greater gains.

In a similar way, mixing up my approach to meditation and memorization I have found to be helpful. The fact that I get board easily is also a big factor.

That said, I do want to offer you a few approaches and try to model them. In this weeks video, I demonstrate (a) method that is espoused by Pastor John Piper. I have tried similar things before, but never as strictlly as Piper describes. For the sake of demonstration, I've towed the line closely, and have spent the last couple of days really trying to adhear to this approach.

So here it is: Read the passage (a select few versus, in my case no more than three at a time) out loud, ten times, (Each time I make a hash mark on paper, to make sure that I am completing this sequence.) then I close the Bible and try to recite as much of the 1-3 versus that I can from memory. Then I continue to go over it from memory, looking back to the passage as needed.

I do this for ten minutes. The following day, I'll spend ten minutes with another 1-3 versus, and try to include the previous days 1-3 versus. Soon you will find that you are going more than ten minutes, but most of that time will be actuall reciting versus that you already know by heart. You will find this encouraging, and you will also find yourself becoming far more efficient in the way you are remembering things. Give it a try and tell me what you think!

Also, still waiting for some video clips of you guys offering a passage in Ephesians. I recieved one video thus far, and am still hoping for more. It doesn't have to be a long portion, it can be; one, two three versus, however many you want. Nothing is too small. Take a momement and documet it via video and send it my way!

Great fun being with you on this, I do appreciate the emails and comments.
I pray you have a remarkable day, with much joy!

Wonder!

Hunter

Luke 2 Excerpts by Orison

This video is from little Orison Piper, grandson of Pastor and author, John Piper. read his Mother Molly's description of how they learned this extended passage of scripture together, the simplicity of what they have done is worth paying attention to.

"During the month of December, we decided to read Luke, Chapter 2 every night before bed with Orison. We would do our Advent Calendar reading for the night, then Orison would settle into his bed for Daddy to read the account of Jesus’s birth.

He got excited about the repetition and predictability of it. “Are we going to read Luke 2 tonight?!?!”

The effect of reading one section of Scripture every night for a month was surprising. Nothing we anticipated, really. But on December 23rd, Abraham got him started and did an experiment to see how many words he knew in the story.

Basically, he just kept going. And going.

He had the whole thing almost word-perfect from verses 1-21. We were STUNNED!

So our new plan for family devotions for 2009 is to introduce Orison to important people/accounts in the Bible, reading a section repeatedly for a certain amount of time. We might not do a whole month with all of them, but the repetition has proven really good for his little memory.

And it’s had its effect on us, as well. I know a lot more of Luke 2 than I ever have before. So not only do your kids get concepts and stories from the Bible into their eager little brains, but you learn it too!"

Ephesians 1 Scripture Songs

I received this youtube clip from my friend Dan in Alberta who just joined in on our trek through Ephesians. My wife Heather has a great way of putting scripture to song, too. I'll post some of her more recent stuff in future posts.

Wonder!
Hunter
BTW the guy playing guitar is NOT my friend Dan :)

The Karate Kid clip 'Jacket On'

My daughter Maggie and I went on a date this Summer to see the latest movie by Jackie Chan, "Karate Kid".

In the film Jackie has agreed to mentor actor Jaden Smith in the secrets of Kung Fu as a way of defending himself against bullies, win a scheduled bout against his bigger and stronger rival, and of course win the heart of the cute Chinese girl.

For training, Jackie offers him the singular instruction of repeatedly hanging up his jacket...thats it! hang up his jacket, over and over. "Jacket on" "jacket off" is the extent of the instruction offered to the eager young boy, who is expecting something more elaborate, something that at least looks like Kung Fu. Jackie offers no explanation, for hours each day all the boy hears is his Sinsei's mantra of "jacket on, jacket off".  the boy eventually snaps an decides to quit and walk out.

In this video clip above Jackie finally reveals the meaning of this mundane task.

I found this to be a fun parallel for spiritual disciplines like memorizing scripture.  Often the work of memorizing seems like donkey work, just plodding over and over again, words and phrases that you have already read hundreds of times, with times in the process where you question the fruitfulness of the exercise.  The exercise itself is not the point however, instead the exercise is an indirect path to a more important goal.

Most of us have learned at some point in our Christian life that God has done a work in our hearts in converting us, that our hearts have been made right with God.  Luke says that we have been given a "good and noble" heart.  These "new" hearts need to go into training however in order to be fully experienced.  That is what discipleship is, becoming an apprentice with Jesus, arranging our whole lives around the things that Jesus does.  Spiritual disciplines like memorization of scripture allow us to train our new heart.  We cannot live like Jesus simply by willing it to happen.

Even the word "discipline" implies a need to correct a weakness, and now with a new heart this transformation of the self, the mind, body and spirit are capable of transformation because the Spirit lives in us.  And the renovation of our hearts are brought about in part through disciplines.  Sometimes "repetitive" and "mundane " like taking your jacket on and off, over and over again, they work to free us to live in the Kingdom and to be fully alive to the new hearts won for us through Jesus.

 Jackie says "Jacket on, be strong:  Jacket on, firm:  Jacket off, remember, always strong."  Now watch the video one more time and as you listen to Jackie's last words try substituting the word/s "Jesus" or "the Word of God" for Kung Fu.

Jesus is our Sinsei, and we are his apprentice.  Now pick up the Bible - ready?   "Ephesians on!" "Ephesians off!"

Belleview Christian SLR Update

This video is a follow up to the Spiritual Life Retreat of Belleview Christian School in Westminster, CO. Recorded for their Chapel Service on Oct. 6th.