Guess what I have for everyone this morning? A healthy dose of conviction! Don't you just LOVE that first thing in the morning? No. Whoops. We're going there anyway.
I, along with many of my Christian friends, have been caught saying, "I just can't memorize Scripture" or "I kinda know some Bible verses, but I never remember references." Like a spoiled rotten rich girl tossing fiscal responsibility out the car window, we as Christians are collectively claiming, "I've no head for such things."
But that's okay right? It's okay that I can't remember Scripture because I know what it says basically. I know the gist of the Bible. It's cool.
Yeah...probably not. Not cool.
Conviction doesn't always hit you in the face like a hammer. Sometimes it starts slowly and just starts to burn a bit...like hot coals warming up on the grill.
The embers were first lit while listening to a sermon in the car by Dr. David Jeremiah. My mother-in-law lent me a whole series on Spiritual Warfare forever ago, but I didn't start listening to them until recently.
In the series, Dr. Jeremiah expounds upon the spiritual battle we all face as Christians and the spiritual armor we all need to fight the battle, which is found in Ephesians 6:10-18.
We're at the end of the series now: we've reached the Sword of Truth, which is the Word of God.
I always thought the "sword" was the Word as a whole. Dr. Jeremiah said he's even seen people refer to their Bibles as their swords...but that's not actually the case.
Greek is a tricky language.
In the Bible, the whole Word of God, or the message of God, in Greek is logos (pronounced Low-goss). When Jesus is referred to as "the Word" in Scripture, it is the term logos that is used, if I'm not mistaken.
However, that is not the word used in the Bible in Ephesians 6:17 when Paul says:
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God.
Here "word" is the Greek word Rhema (Ray-mah); literally, it means "utterance," but contextually it means the Word of God applied to your situation...the Word of God written on your heart and spoken directly to you.
Confused yet? Hang on--we'll get through, I promise.
Dr. Jeremiah explained it like this: The Bible is not the sword. The Bible is the armory, which contains many swords. When you read a verse (logos) and it speaks directly to your heart, in your situation, it becomes your sword (rhema)...God's word TO YOU.
That's crazy powerful, right?
The issue is, even when God speaks to our hearts through his Word, when he writes those words directly onto our souls, we're dropping them. Can you imagine? God is handing us gifts, and then, after the crisis, after the moment, after the turning point, we just drop it. He's handing us swords--personal, intimate gifts from him to us--and we're dropping them.
Then, the fiery coals of conviction got hotter when I went to an Awana leaders' meeting where we watched a video and one of the founders was speaking on the importance of memorizing Scripture. This 90-odd year old man recited an entire Chapter of Isaiah (53) with passion and emotion, and he challenged leaders to do the same.
Ya see, even Awana leaders, people who are teaching children to memorize Scripture are not doing it themselves...like our brains are too old and addled for such nonsense.
Poppycock.
We're wrong--just plain wrong. He knows it. Dr. David Jeremiah knows it. I know it.
And now...so do you.
Let me ask you something...
Can you quote your favorite movies? Word for word?
What about your favorite songs? Sing them at the top of your lungs?
How about your kids' favorite movies? The ones you don't even like, but you've heard them as background noise for so long that you just know them...memorize those?
You mean, your brain doesn't freeze and go into a coma when you start to quote those things? Huh...that's interesting. Wonder why it's different?
Well, duh, we know why it's different right? We've heard and seen those movies and songs over and over and over.
DOH! That's the clincher...that's the sword to the heart.
Maybe we should be in God's Word
more than Hollywood or the radio.
Yup. Convicting right?
I challenge you: today memorize a Bible verse. Today. Sit down, open your Bible, and memorize a verse and the reference (where it's found in the Bible). I guarantee you can do it...probably in ten minutes...or less.
You see, that's what I've found in all this. It's not that I CAN'T memorize Scripture, it's that I DON'T, and those are two entirely different words.
Here's the deal, folks, the sword isn't doing you any good in the armory. Only when you take up your sword(s) are you equipped to do battle in the spiritual war that is raging around you (and it is, whether you like it or not...whether you acknowledge it or not).
Body of Christ, I'm begging you--pick up your swords.
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