His Will Blog

July 19, 2019July 13, 2019

Reading the Book of Nature

Imagine a person who grows up without access to the Bible. He has never heard of Jesus. He knows nothing about the church. What does he know?

He knows he exists. He can look into a mirror and say, “I exist, and I did not bring myself into existence.”

If he thinks deeply he will realize that he lives in a world uniquely suited to sustain life. Is it a coincidence that our earth, our solar system, our galaxy, our universe are put together with ingenious purpose? That purpose appears to be the sustenance of human life with the biodiversity to support it.

The Bible agrees and says these facts are pointers to the existence of a Creator. “What may be known about God is plain. … God’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20).

Whether or not he has read the Bible, the thinking person knows that right and wrong exist as immutable moral laws. These moral standards are universal and are found in all philosophies and religious systems. This awareness of good and evil is written on every human heart (Romans 2:14-15). Natural law is God-given and is the foundation for justice.

Furthermore, the person who has not yet received formal teaching about God may still contemplate with awe the beauty of creation, and he may create beautiful things himself. His appreciation of a glorious sunset, the majesty of the heavens at night, a beautiful garden, the birth of a child, may provoke a worshipful response. Who is he to worship? Aesthetics is not the product of blind chaos. Beauty itself is a pointer to the beauty of God.

Our thinking person is reading the book of nature and it tells him that God exists. But nature by itself cannot lead him to know the Creator in a personal way.

The Creator is also a communicator. He has chosen to reveal himself through the written words of the holy scriptures. The Bible tells how God has revealed himself in his son Jesus Christ. It is through faith in Jesus that our thinking friend may be brought into a personal relationship with God. “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

This is the essence of the church’s concern for people who do not yet know God. This is the reason missionaries cross cultural and geographic boundaries to go to those who have never heard the message of Jesus. When they go, they often discover that there are people whose hearts the Lord has opened as they have thought about the purpose for existence, the quest for justice, and the gift of beauty.

These are reasons to worship God and to give careful attention to the gospel of Jesus Christ. These are reasons to seek him.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7).

– Pastor Randy Faulkner

July 12, 2019July 12, 2019

Give Your Life Away

In his new book, The Second Mountain, political columnist David Brooks tells about finding personal fulfillment in his involvement with people who are turning around communities through volunteer service. His Aspen Institute program, Weave: The Social Fabric Project, connects him with folks around the country who are “restoring social capital and healing lives.”

He writes: “They don’t have to ask themselves if they are doing anything valuable with their lives. They know.” These are people whose commitments to others give them identity and purpose. “They find joy in the light they bring others, and they know why they have been put on this earth.”

He tells stories about people he has met all over America (“we are a nation of healers”) who are literally giving their lives away for others. These people have a light in their eyes when they talk about what they are doing. They have renewed enthusiasm for living, a reason to get up in the morning.

This aligns with the teaching of Jesus who said, “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). This saying of Jesus is so important it is repeated in all four of the gospels. The Lord is telling us that we find life, real life when we give our lives away. It eludes us when we selfishly hoard the life God has entrusted to us.

Last May, the administrators of Whiz Kids, a local non-profit, honored volunteers, and my friend Laura Love and I were recognized for having completed twenty years’ service. This faith-based ministry is more than a “program.” It is built on relationships, connecting tutors from all over the city with children in inner-city schools for help in reading.

Sure I was busy. As a pastor of a large church, I had plenty to do. But I kept at this because the Lord has been good to me in life and I want to give back to a boy who needs help. I love to read and I want to help him discover the pleasures of reading. This may seem old fashioned in an age of digital short cuts and addictive technologies. But I really believe this is important and I am willing to give a chunk of my life for it.

I want my Whiz Kid to learn to read well so he can improve in his other academic subjects. I want him to read well so he can learn how to be a life-long learner. I want him to learn to read well so he can focus and maintain the concentration necessary to do good work. I want him to learn to read well so he can read the Bible for himself and discover God’s love in Jesus Christ.

David Brooks is right when he says, “Our commitments give us a sense of purpose.” He tells the following story.

In 2007, the Gallup organization asked people around the world whether they felt they were leading meaningful lives. It turns out that Liberia was the country where most people felt a sense of meaning and purpose, while the Netherlands was the place where the lowest percentage of the people did. This is not because life was necessarily sweeter in Liberia. On the contrary. But Liberians possessed what Paul Froese calls “existential urgency.” In the turmoil of their lives, they were compelled to make fierce commitments to one another merely to survive. And these fierce commitments gave their lives a sense of meaning.

I don’t know if it is “existential urgency” that motivates me to be a Whiz Kids tutor. And my life is not in turmoil. But I do believe in making “fierce commitments” to doing what Jesus wants me to do. I guess I am addicted to the joy that follows. I invite you to make this same discovery. Give your life away.

– Pastor Randy Faulkner

In case you’re interested in Whiz Kids 2019-20

July 28 — Sign up at Metropolitan Baptist Church
August 27 — Tutor training
Call for information: Karen Mickle (405-818-1361); Laura Love (405-740-4694)

July 5, 2019July 4, 2019

Christian Ethics and the Crisis at the Border

The immigration crisis at our Southern border is perceived as a security crisis. Perhaps it is. But it is also a political crisis. It points up the need for a comprehensive, humane and workable immigration policy, suited to our national interest.

It is a diplomatic crisis raising questions about U.S. policy toward neighboring countries in Latin America. In some of these countries, gang violence, human trafficking, dismal living conditions, and sometimes authoritarian governments, exploit the people. These factors prompt thousands of them to become desperate migrants, risking their lives and their children’s lives on a journey to the north.

No person of compassion can fail to be moved by the plight of these refugees. If we still believe that human rights are a foundation of our American national character, then we will see this crisis as a humanitarian crisis.

Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence, dated July 4, 1776, wrote the “self-evident” truth that all people are “created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,” especially the right to life and freedom. This is a reason we speak of American exceptionalism and greatness.

This understanding of human dignity is rooted in the teachings of the Bible. It says God created mankind in his own image. Human rights are derived from the fact that human beings bear the image of God. This is what it means to be human. Human rights, dignity, and equality are bestowed by our Maker, not by any government.

If we believe and live by the Bible, this truth will influence our opinions about foreign policy, criminal justice, the rights of the unborn, economic policy, and the platforms of presidential candidates. These same biblical values should, I believe, also guide our thinking about immigration and the refugee crisis.

Jesus quoted the Hebrew scriptures when he taught us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Leviticus 19:18 is just one of many teachings given to Israel that are carried forward into Christian teaching (Galatians 5:14). Justice and compassion for foreigners were priorities of the laws given through Moses.

For example, the words of Deuteronomy 10:18-19 are restated in different ways throughout the Bible: “He (God) defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you. … And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”

Jesus teaches his followers that it is he whom they are serving when they show hospitality to strangers (Matthew 25:35). If this Christian ethic governs our lives as individuals, then it makes sense to me that this same value system should influence our national policy. After all, we are a government “of the people,” and it is the beliefs of the people that inform our response to issues like border control and immigration.

So the wisdom of the Bible provides us with a way of thinking about immigrants and refugees. Of course, we should be concerned about border security and the rule of law. This too is a moral issue. But obsessive fear, ethnic bigotry, and inflammatory rhetoric are contrary to the Christian way of living.

Those who are willing to be guided by the teachings of the Bible will recognize that immigrants have the same God-given human rights and dignity as those who were born here. Whatever conclusions “we the people” come to about immigration policy and the humanitarian crisis at our Southern border, should be influenced by these truths.

– Pastor Randy Faulkner

July 4, 2019July 3, 2019

A Prayer For Our Nation

This hymn was written in 1838 by English pastor and hymn writer John H. Gurney (1802-1862). It is an appropriate prayer for our nation on this Independence Day.

Great King of nations, hear our prayer, while at your feet we fall and humbly, with united cry, to you for mercy call.

The guilt is ours, but grace is yours, O turn us not away; but hear us from your lofty throne, and help us when we pray.

Our fathers’ sins were manifold, and ours no less we own, yet wondrously from age to age, your goodness has been shown.

When dangers, like a stormy sea, beset our country round, to you we looked, to you we cried, and help in you was found.

With one consent we meekly bow beneath your chastening hand, and, pouring forth confession meet, mourn with our mourning land.

With pitying eye behold our need, as thus we lift our prayer; correct us with your judgments, Lord, then let your mercy spare.

Amen.

– Pastor Randy Faulkner

June 28, 2019June 27, 2019

A Song for Dangerous Times

“If you say, ‘The Lord is my refuge,’ and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you” (Psalm 91:9).

The extravagant promises of Psalm 91 are puzzling to anyone who faces trouble. And who doesn’t? What are we to make of assurances that if God is our refuge, we need not fear plague and pestilence, destruction and disaster? Are these sweeping promises to be understood as some version of word of faith prosperity theology? Are these verses examples of pious escapism?

In the world I inhabit, the world as it is today, people of faith do in fact, fall victim to night terrors (v.5), deadly diseases (v. 6), untimely death (v.7), natural and man-made disasters (v.10), and various other troubles. My memory ranges over 47 years of pastoral ministry. There have been countless instances where I have been called to be present in the lives of people who loved the Lord but who faced disasters, dangers and death.

The author of this psalm is realistic in his poetic assessment of the world as it is. He names the threats: snare, pestilence, arrow, plague, war, disaster, dangerous predators. “Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come,” wrote John Newton. His life was a testament to the fact that people of faith are not immune from the troubles of the world.

In these circumstances, the inspired writer directs our attention to our Creator. In the world, as it is, he wants us to know God as He is. He invites us to live in close relationship to God, sheltered under his wing of protection.

The names of God reveal aspects of his character: “Most High” — supreme, exalted ruler over the universe; “Almighty” — all-powerful, all-sufficient One; “The Lord” — Yahweh; the self-existent, personal, covenant-keeping God; “My God” — the majestic God of eternity, the sovereign God of creation. These names are a call to worship and trust him, in all circumstances.

The titles of God (refuge, shelter, fortress) remind us to think of him as our security and protection: soft, when it needs to be, like a mother bird’s sheltering wing, hard, when it needs to be, like a warrior’s armor. The psalmist would have us stop and think about God when we face life’s troubles.

If you read Psalm 91 again, think about it in light of world events, interminable war, natural disaster, refugees from genocide and poverty, political turmoil, suspicion and fear, economic disruption, assassination, and especially, religious persecution in various parts of the world. The plain fact is, God’s faithful ones do not always escape trouble.

You might be brought up short and puzzled until you read verse 15. There the Lord promises, “He will call on me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble.” This is a key to understanding how to apply the beautiful promises of the psalm. The author looks at the world as it is and to God as he is, and he brings them together. There is a resolution in verse 15.

This is a Christian philosophy that sustains you in the boardroom when the manager says, “Clean out your desk and turn in your keys. This is your last day on the job.” This is a worldview for the hospital room when the doctor brings bad news and the outlook is bleak.

“I will be with him in trouble,” not necessarily escaping it. It is the presence of the Lord in the time of trouble that gives courage and hope. Two biblical illustrations come to mind. In the book of Genesis, Joseph endured many troubles. There we read, “The Lord was with Joseph.” In the New Testament book of Acts, The Lord Jesus appeared in a vision to the apostle Paul at a time when he was discouraged and lonely, “Do not be afraid…for I am with you.”

He says the same thing to you and me: “Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5-6).

It is not a blanket escape from the threats and risks of living in a dangerous world. Rather it seems clear that the writer sees and wants us to see another dimension, that of eternity. In the book of Romans, we are given a Christian interpretation of Psalm 91: “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:35-37). “In all these things” we learn to recognize and rely on God’s presence with us. In persecution, trouble, or even death we will not be forgotten or forsaken.

– Pastor Randy Faulkner

June 21, 2019June 21, 2019

Hope Springs Eternal

Today is the first day of summer. For me, this evokes memories of baseball. Growing up as I did in the 1950s I remember watching the Game of the Week featuring commentators Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese on lazy summer Saturdays. I would spread out the baseball cards for the participating players as I followed the action on TV.

As a boy, I loved attending games at iconic Engel Stadium in Chattanooga, the home of the Chattanooga Lookouts. The Lookouts were the minor league affiliate of the Washington Senators before that team became the Minnesota Twins in 1961. I got to see some pretty famous players before they became famous: future major league stars like Bob Allison, Jim Kaat and one of the greatest home run hitters of all time, Harmon Killebrew.

At that time the Lookouts played in the AA Southern Association with the New Orleans Pelicans, Atlanta Crackers, Birmingham Barons, Little Rock Travelers, Mobile Bears, Nashville Vols, and Memphis Chicks. Most of the teams traveled by train or bus in those years and life in the minors was not easy.

Players were willing to put up with cheap hotels, brown bag lunches and long bus rides in the hope of being sent “up” to the major leagues. Once in a while, a player would show up in a Lookouts uniform after being sent “down” from the parent club. I remember getting one of them, Ernie Oravetz, to autograph a baseball card which pictured him in the uniform of the Senators.

I still love going to the ballpark. OKC’s Bricktown Ballpark is a field of dreams. It’s fun seeing our Oklahoma City Dodgers going all out to prove themselves worthy of a call up to the big leagues. One of our players, Will Smith, spent time with the LA Dodgers earlier this season. He is certain to be called back up if he keeps hitting home runs at his current pace.

I like to follow the fortunes of former Oklahoma City stars who are now doing well in the majors. Cody Bellinger is near the top of the major leagues in batting average and home runs. Corey Seager is a candidate for the National League all-star team at shortstop. Alex Vertugo is a fixture in right field for the Dodgers. I enjoyed watching all of them here in OKC.

Some of the players are getting older, in baseball years. Even though they are in their late twenties and thirties, they haven’t given up hope of being promoted to the majors. To borrow words from the beloved baseball poem by Ernest L. Thayer, Casey at the Bat, “The rest clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast.”

This reminds me of biblical truth. I don’t want to trivialize it by comparing it to baseball, but if there’s anything the Lord Jesus offers us, it is hope. The hope of a better future, both now and in eternity, the gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Every earthly hope is a faint reminder of the ultimate “hope of eternal life” (Titus 1:2) when we are “sent up” to be with the Lord. And we don’t have to earn it with a good performance. This eternal and good hope is a gift of God’s free grace.

– Pastor Randy Faulkner

June 14, 2019June 13, 2019

Make Room for Doubters

Graham Johnston wrote about a conversation he had with a man in his thirties living in his hometown of Perth, Australia. He asked him, “Do you ever attend church?”

He replied, “Not really.”

“Do you ever wonder about spiritual matters?”

“Well, yes, who doesn’t?”

Johnston then asked, “If you have questions about spiritual matters, don’t you feel that the church could address some of those issues?”

His response was interesting: “The church is for those who already believe, not for people like me.”

Is it really? is the church only for naive adherents whose gullibility and enthusiasm keep them from thinking deeply? The Bible gives us a different picture.

The Gospel of Matthew closes with Jesus appearing to his disciples in Galilee after his resurrection. Matthew says in 28:17, “When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.” These were, apparently, disciples of Jesus who had not yet seen him in person. Were they among the five hundred Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15:6?

In any case, Matthew includes them among the disciples. They just couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Matthew writes with sympathy toward these hesitant ones. D. A. Carson commented: “Jesus’ resurrection did not instantly transform men of little faith and faltering understanding into spiritual giants.”

Perhaps Matthew had in mind his own skepticism and that of the other disciples about the first reports of Jesus’ resurrection. Or he may have been thinking about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus who at first did not recognize the Lord when he appeared to them on the day of his resurrection. Or Thomas, who needed extra confirmation before his incredulity could be dispelled.

“But some doubted.” Surely this tells us that there is room in the church for those with honest doubts. Jesus’ patience with “doubting Thomas” is proof of that. Thomas needed evidence for the resurrection and Jesus gave it to him. What was it that quieted the doubts of these Galilean disciples?

The authority of Jesus’ presence and his words (Matthew 28: 18-20) must have turned some of them from doubt to certainty. Perhaps they prayed, as you and I sometimes pray, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). This is the kind of honest praying that pleases the Lord.

Martin Luther put it this way: “Dear Lord, although I am sure of my position, I am unable to sustain it without Thee. Help Thou me or I am lost.”

One other thing that strengthened the faith of these early disciples, was the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, a few weeks later. This was a supernatural confirmation because it was a supernatural transformation. Believers today are given the same Holy Spirit who confirms the words of Jesus to us: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

This leads me to the following conclusions.

We should talk openly to Jesus about our own doubts. Philip Yancey wrote, “But in honesty, I must admit that even now, after two decades of rich and rewarding faith, I am vulnerable to…doubt.” Jesus shows immense sympathy for our weakness, as he did with his first disciples.
Let’s be patient and gracious to others who express doubts. There is a role for the church to play in their spiritual experience. Often it has been the faith and unconditional love of church members that have helped bring skeptics to faith in Jesus.
Encourage the doubter to trust the authoritative word of Christ who said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live” (John 11:25). It all comes down to faith in his promise. “Faith comes by hearing the message (in church?), and the message is heard through the word about Christ” (Romans 10:17).

“The church is for those who already believe, not for people like me.” Well, it is true that the church is an assembly of believers. But there is also a loving welcome for the doubter who comes with an open mind to hear the word of Christ. Those with doubts “must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 24-25).

– Pastor Randy Faulkner

June 7, 2019June 7, 2019

What Do Pastors Do All Week?

Eugene Peterson, in his delightful memoir The Pastor, wrote that when he started out in local church ministry he wasn’t entirely sure what it was a pastor was supposed to do. He said it was not obvious to the people of his congregation or community, either.

He went to a seminar led by a nationally-recognized authority on pastoral theology. The young Peterson was impressed by the brilliant man’s erudition and theological vocabulary. “For an hour or so I was under his spell. And then I began feeling that something was not quite right. What I was doing, working in a congregation characterized by interruptions, false starts, and unfinished work, seemed like a far cry from anything he was presenting.”

He pressed the man with questions about his experience in pastoral work. He was evasive. It turned out that he had been an associate pastor for only one year in a small town! Peterson checked the indices in the books the man had written. There was not a single reference to prayer in any of them. There were few if any, references to congregation, worship, preaching, and scripture.

“I still had a great deal to learn about the vocation of pastor, but I knew one thing for sure: the work of prayer was at the heart of everything. Personal conversation with God had to intersect with everything I thought or said, whether in the sanctuary or on the street corner.” He went on to say that “the vocation of pastor had to be understood entirely under the shaping influence of the biblical text.”

Hmmm. Prayer and the biblical text. Not exactly innovations or contemporary novelties. Prayer and the biblical text. Remind you of anything? Do you remember the priorities of the first church leaders who said, “We… will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word” (Acts 6:4)?

I am reminded of the provocative words of Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse who said, “If I had only three years to serve the Lord, I would spend two of them studying and preparing.”

The famous evangelist Billy Graham was speaking to a large gathering of London clergymen. He said if he could repeat his ministry, he would make two changes. The people looked startled. What could he mean?

First, he continued, he would study three times as much as he had done. “I’ve preached too much and studied too little,” he said. The second change was that he would give more time to prayer. Surely this thinking was shaped by the priorities in the biblical text!

Every conscientious pastor gives a certain amount of time each week to pastoral care and counseling, to visitation, to evangelism and discipleship. Administrative work takes time: planning, decision-making, committee meetings, staff meetings. Important work to be sure.

But nothing, absolutely nothing, should take the place of prayer and Bible study. This is what produces, in the life of a pastor, clarity of vocation, depth of conviction, maturity of judgment, integrity of character, and sanctity of ministry — on Sunday, and throughout the week.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

May 31, 2019May 31, 2019

A Strategy of Subversion

The sermon on the mount was subversive. Our Lord Jesus subverted and re-framed time-honored religious precedents: alms-giving, fasting, public rituals, interpersonal relations, and prayer. The climax of the sermon is the Lord’s Prayer. It is an expression of the desire that God’s kingdom will up-end and replace all earthly authorities, powers, and customs. “Your will be done on earth” (Matthew 6:10).

This is the main idea of Albert Mohler’s book, The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down: The Lord’s Prayer as a Manifesto (Thomas Nelson, 2018, 175 pp). I read the book on a recent trip. It refreshed and renewed my understanding of the Prayer, in its simplicity and power.

In the introduction, he writes: “Looking across the landscape, it becomes clear that very few revolutions produce what they promise. Arguably most revolutions lead to a worse set of conditions than they replaced.

“And yet, we still yearn for radical change, for things to be made right. We rightly long to see righteousness and truth and justice prevail. We are actually desperate for what no earthly revolution can produce. We long for the kingdom of God and for Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords. We are looking for a kingdom that will never end and for a King whose rule is perfect.

“This is why Christians pray the Lord’s prayer.”

Mohler writes with the conviction that this short prayer is a call to spiritual revolution. The kingdoms of this world will indeed pass and give way to the kingdom of Christ, in which God’s will will indeed be done on earth. The Lord’s prayer asks that the rule of God be made visible. That is the kind of authority in praying that seems to be lacking in many sectors of Christendom. That is why this book is valuable and deserves a wide readership.

The author confesses his own human weakness in a story he told about going about the business of prayer as one robotically performing a familiar task. He gives other examples of the tendency to pray badly, for which the Lord’s prayer is a corrective.

Analyzing various religious traditions, he asks us to consider what we really believe about God and about prayer. The fact that human beings are created in God’s image means that we are given the privilege of communication with our communicating creator who wants us to think of him as “our Father.”

Faithful to the gospel, Dr. Mohler sets forth the necessity of redemption through faith in Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer for disciples of Jesus to pray. We can only relate to God as Father if we have become his sons and daughters through faith in Christ.

The fact that we are social creatures means that we are not to live or to worship in isolation, and the Prayer challenges our individualism. “Jesus is reminding us that when we enter into a relationship with God, we enter into a relationship with his people.” Mohler rightly emphasizes the fact that there is no first personal pronoun in the entire prayer. The plural pronouns mean we pray this in solidarity with other believers.

Point by important point the author applies the wisdom and beauty of the Lord’s Prayer in helpful lessons for all Christians. Dr. Mohler is a theologian who writes with the clarity of a journalist and with the empathy of a pastor. This is the kind of book I intend to give as gifts to people I care about and recommend to people who read this blog.

Romans 8:26 says “We do not know what we ought to pray for.” That has often been true in my experience. I am thankful for the promise that the Holy Spirit “helps us in our weakness.” One of the ways the Spirit helps me is the example of the prayers of the apostle Paul. Another is to pray the psalms, which are a guide to praise and worship. Another is the Lord’s Prayer. It is a model, or template, for praying in accordance with the will of God.

C.S. Lewis, in his Letters to Malcomb, Chiefly on Prayer, wrote about how he added to the Lord’s Prayer is own private overtones, or “festoons,” which were his way of using the Prayer as architecture for his personal praying. The categories and structure of the Lord’s Prayer, he said, allowed for freedom of personal application and expression of his worship, intercessions, and confessions.

Dr. Mohler would agree, I think. Reading his book has strengthened my praying. It has reminded me that Jesus has this world situation well in hand, and somehow our praying this way is a part of achieving his victory over the powers of darkness. Think about that when you are praying the Lord’s Prayer this coming Sunday in church.

– Pastor Randy Faulkner

May 24, 2019May 20, 2019

Hide it in Your Heart

Christians who wish to be strong in faith should memorize scripture. Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Jerry Bridges wrote that “The Word, stored in the heart, provides a mental depository for the Holy Spirit to use to mediate His grace to us, whatever our need for grace might be.”

When I was a young boy, my dear mother encouraged me to memorize Bible verses. These helped me grow in my early understanding of God and his gift of salvation. Not only that, she set a good example herself, systematically using a plan of scripture memory. I remember seeing her Bible verse cards on the window sill above the kitchen sink in our little house on Duncan Avenue in Chattanooga. She reviewed her verses as she went about her household chores. She often quoted verses as she tucked me into bed at night.

I am sure she and my dad took to heart Moses’ words to the nation Israel, “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children…” (Deuteronomy 6:6).

In my ministry of personal discipleship through the years, I have emphasized the importance of scripture memory. I have noticed that this has been one of the most important ways men have grown stronger in faith and service. Here are a few reasons why I think this practice is important for the spiritual growth of any Christian.

Assurance of salvation

When a person trusts Christ as savior, salvation is promised as a free gift. That gift is received by faith alone. It is faith in the promises of God that will continue to assure our hearts that our sins are forgiven and we are secure in Christ. is necessary to know those promises, and to rest on them. I recommend memorizing 1 John 5:11-12 for assurance.

Resistance to temptation and sin

When doubts afflict us, or when Satan tempts us, the word of God is “the sword of the Spirit” by which we defeat them. Our Lord Jesus was tempted by the devil and he defeated him by quoting scripture. John Piper wrote, “As sin lures the body into sinful action, we call to mind a Christ-revealing word of scripture and slay the temptation with the superior worth and beauty of Christ…” 1 Corinthians 10:13 is a rather long verse but it is a powerful promise for Christians to claim in the battle against sin.

Guidance

Decision-making in the ordinary course of life often presents us with important choices. We need the wisdom of God. It is helpful to memorize and rely on the promises of guidance we find in scriptures such as James 1:5 or Proverbs 3:5-6. This is not magical thinking, but an intensely practical reality. God has promised that his inspired word would be a lamp for our feet and a light for our path (Psalm 119:105).

Comfort in times of trouble

The Bible is full of promises that bring hope and consolation. There are hundreds of verses that Christians have relied upon in times of trouble. Philippians 4:6-7, for example, promise to exchange our anxiety for God’s peace. Lately, I have been memorizing Lamentations 3:22-23.

Authority in our witness

We have good news to share and we are just the ones to share it. Any Christian can do this by memorizing a few key verses on the gospel. The gospel itself is the “power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). It is possible to share the offer of salvation with a friend by quoting verses such as Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8-9, and John 5:24. The authority is in the word of God, not in our persuasiveness or salesmanship.

For these reasons and others, Christians of all ages should hide God’s word in their hearts. I think it is time for Sunday school teachers, Christian school teachers, church student ministry leaders, Christian camp counselors, support group ministries, faith-based drug and alcohol treatment programs, discipleship leaders and others, to place a renewed emphasis on helping people memorize God’s word.

We forget much of what we hear, we retain more of what we read, but we remember 100% of what we memorize.

My good friend Dr. Bob Kanary, an Oklahoma City pastor, has written the attached article on the value of scripture memorization. I hope you will take it to heart. Why Memorize Scripture?

– Pastor Randy Faulkner