My friends and I memorize movie lines with ease. There was a period of time when we spoke in a language all our own, consisting of little more than an amalgam of quotes from our favorite shows and films. The memorization and incorporation of quotes into our everyday lives just seemed effortless.

Daniel Levitin—professor of Psychology, Behavioral Neuroscience, and Music at McGill University—said that this effortless memorization has to do with enjoyment. When you enjoy something, when you care about it, when there is an emotional connection of some kind, then it is easier to commit it to memory. For instance, Levitin said that you can play someone a tenth of a second from a song they know and they will be able to identify it. A tenth of a second! "Before the melody has a chance to evolve. Before there's any rhythm," Levitin asserted. He also noted that if a familiar song was played for someone, but it had been altered slightly, then the person would pick up on the discrepancy. When I heard about this my mind automatically went to Scripture memorization.

The obvious objection to a comparison of music and Scripture is that one has a melody and rhyme scheme while the other does not. Fair enough. But the truth remains, if you care about something, if you enjoy it, if you have an emotional connection, then you will inevitably find yourself storing it away in your memory, whether it's a song, lines of dialogue, or sports statistics. 

In Psalm 119:47 King David writes that he delights in God's commands because he loves them. Then in verse 97 he exclaims, "Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long." You see Daniel Levitin's assertion at work in the life of David. David loved the words of God, and therefore meditated on them all day long, like a good song stuck in his head. 

The attention given to Scripture when we are memorizing its words is not all that different from staring up at the night sky. The more time and focus you devote to stargazing, the more pinpoints of light you discover. Similarly, the longer you gaze at the pages of Scripture, the more details and subtleties you notice. I cannot help but think that God, having gone through all the work of putting his words down on paper and preserving them over the ages, wanted us humming the melody of his words all throughout the day.  

I’m the king of indecision. A buddy of mine recently asked me to join him and some friends for dinner. I waffled back and forth before coming up with some excuse for why I couldn’t make it. He responded, "You only live once." My mom is probably my biggest fan, but even she has called me out for my indecision. A few months ago she asked me if I would join her for some weekend activity—I can't remember what it was exactly. I said, "Maybe." She responded, "You're so indecisive." Ladies and gentlemen, when you're mom calls you out, you know there's a problem.

I think many people struggle with this same kind of crippling indecision, and I can't help but wonder if it's because we have so many options. 

I was watching Will Smith in an interview several years ago. During the interview Smith was asked about his marriage to Jada Pinkett Smith. What was the secret to their marriage's success and longevity? Smith responded, "What I found is divorce just can't be an option. It's really that simple. And I think that's the problem with L.A. There are so many options. So a huge part of [our] success is that we just removed the other options." 

I think the Fresh Prince hit the nail on the head. It seems that nowadays there are too many options. And while this may lead some people to make very poor decisions, I also believe that it has the ability to paralyze us and prevent us from making any decisions whatsoever. At any given moment our heads are swimming with an array of options. Who will I marry? Where will I attend college? What will I major in? Where will I live? What career will I pursue? Etc. And in my experience these options tend to knot up inside a person like an indigestible wad of gum. I fear many people are becoming increasingly incapable of making tough decisions due to an overload of options. 

In the parable of the talents Jesus tells the story of three servants who were given sums of money from their master. Two of the servants took initiative and invested the money, doubling what their master had given them. The third servant played it safe by digging a hole and burying the money. The first two servants were rewarded and the third was banished. If you want to know the truth, I think I most relate to the third guy who erred on the side of caution. He had several options and could have done any number of productive things with that money, but instead he hid it. 

Decide today that you won’t allow the abundance of options orbiting you to create indecision. Use what God has given to you, the opportunities at your feet and the resources in your hands, to see his kingdom spread over the face of the Earth. 

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Sean Bess serves with NavPress in Birmingham, Alabama. He blogs at http://seanbess.tumblr.com/.

 

 

In light of yesterday's horrific tragedy in Connecticut, we were reminded of an article written by fellow NavPress staff member, Sean Bess, as he reflected on the Colorado Theater shooting this summer. Please join us as we continue to pray for the community of Newtown, CT who have been affected by this senseless tragedy. - Bradley Isbell, NavPress Operations

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It is days like today that I am reminded we all have souls. I believe in the soul, in part, because of tears, and many tears were shed this morning following the shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. At last count 12 were reported dead and dozens more injured. There are evolutionary reasons for tears—like washing out debris from around the eyes—but humans are the only creatures that cry due to grief and I have yet to find a satisfying evolutionary explanation for that. I think it is possible we cry tears of grief as a way of washing out debris from around our souls.  

I pray that the indescribable God would visit people during their impossible pain and console the inconsolable. Borrowing inspiration from the Psalmist in chapter 90 verse 4, I pray that God would satisfy them over the course of this horrible morning with his lovingkindness and teach them to once again sing for joy and be glad all their days. 

 

 

It has been said of Christopher Columbus that he left without knowing where he was going, arrived without knowing where he was, and returned without knowing where he had been. Without proper discipleship, this is the danger every student faces as they transition out of a youth group and into adulthood. Tragically, some students enter and leave their youth groups without ever really grasping the gospel message, as evidenced by the fact that approximately 70% of high school students involved in youth groups leave the church after graduation. But we here at Life Bible Study believe that this trend can be reversed. It is with that end in mind that Life Bible Study and NavPress have started in on a discipleship revolution, an endeavor to serve and equip youth ministers in the wonderful cause of sharing Christ with their students.  

Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” That is the rhythm of discipleship. We hear the words of life and we put them into practice, which involves passing Jesus’ words along to others. Discipleship, by its very nature, entails making more disciples. For those leading students, the hope is that your youth will hear the words of Christ from your lips week after week and will learn to live by them. In doing so, students will build their lives on the rock, which is wildly important because, as Jesus said, the rain will come, the water will rise, and the wind will blow and beat. Storms are a fact of life, and the discipleship revolution is about ensuring that when storms roll in students will be firmly grounded on the rock of Christ. 

Consider the closing words of Acts 2: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer … They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

This passage sounds like it would make a wonderful “happily ever after” type of ending, wouldn’t it? But this wasn’t the end. Not even close. This was simply the calm between storms, a peaceful scene between the end of Christ’s earthly ministry and the start of the New Testament Church. What we have at the end of Acts 2 is a beautiful picture of early discipleship in the church. A group of believers, young in their faith, are gulping down the apostle’s teachings, which were undoubtedly the words that Christ had spoken to them. From this moment on a wave of discipleship grew and swept the globe, and a couple thousand years later it has reached our shore and is lapping at our feet. Each of us is now given the distinct privilege to take our place in the discipleship revolution.    

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Sean Bess serves with NavPress in Birmingham, Alabama. He blogs at http://seanbess.tumblr.com/.

Mark 9:43-47 is the type of passage that I used to hide from during conversations about my faith. It’s like the time Jesus told listeners to eat his flesh and drink his blood. It’s worth noting that he was using imagery to teach the importance of faith, but nevertheless people responded, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” And the Scriptures tell us that “many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” That’s why I’ve feared Mark 9:43-47. It’s another one of Jesus’ graphic word pictures that threatens to turn people’s stomachs. Jesus said,

 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.  And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell.

Really Jesus? I wanted to ask. People aren’t going to form a line to join a faith that promotes self-mutilation. But this passage recently revealed itself to me, kind of like the punch line of a joke (which isn’t to say that this passage is a joke). I’ve recently been confronted with some vices in my life that have long been flying below the radar, namely my pride and quick temper and judgmental attitude. A slip up here and there is easy to overlook. For instance, my selfishness or anger may prompt me to say something I shouldn’t, but so long as it doesn’t get me fired or ruin a friendship, I tend to move on pretty quickly. However, I’m in a season of life in which my shortcomings are piling up like months of bills gone unpaid, and I’m finding the whole experience pretty overwhelming.

Now, more than ever, Jesus’ words in Mark 9:34-37 are resonating with me. I’m finding that during this time of guilt and discontentment with my character, I want nothing more than to lop off whatever it is inside of me that causes me to act and think in certain ways. I think everyone has felt this kind of overwhelming remorse at one time or another.  Of course, Jesus was using imagery and wasn’t suggesting that we literally cut away our appendages to keep from sinning. If so, we’d all be rolling around like Mr. Potato Head. Instead, I think Jesus was illustrating the weight of sin and the importance of getting out from under it.

I feel sorry for guilt. When compared with cheerful words like “love” or “hope,” it seems very unattractive. But guilt—or at least, the right kind of guilt—is always going to reference cheerful words like love and hope. Our hearts cry out, “Lord, take my hand, take my foot, take my eye, take whatever it is that makes me act this way.” But God points us to Jesus on the cross and repeats, “It is finished.” You see, guilt reminds us of the weight of sin, at which point we’re reminded it’s a weight that Jesus alone can lift. As I poke around in my recent pile of sin I’m directed to the love of God and the hope of the gospel. That’s the gift of guilt.

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Sean Bess serves with NavPress in Birmingham, Alabama. He blogs at http://seanbess.tumblr.com/.

Within the past few years many of my friends and acquaintances have started marrying and having children. I’ve come to find that when my married friends are expecting a baby, they might talk a bit about how they hope to have a boy or a girl, or about how they hope that their child will play football like his father or take dance classes like her mother, but there is always one hope that they stress above all the others. “I just hope the child is healthy and happy.” Of course, there’s nothing at all wrong with parents wishing for their children to be born healthy and happy. Any parent worth their weight in salt would hope for nothing less, but it’s got me thinking.

What if there was a hope that existed outside of our circumstances, a hope that was independent of our physical or emotional health? This would be good news, because it would mean that even when our health isn’t great, or even when we aren’t feeling particularly happy, hope would still be available to us from an outside source. It’s like the way the sun shines on our planet at all times, no matter what kind of chaos might be taking place down here. If that kind of hope existed, wouldn’t it make sense to place that hope above every other hope, to hold that hope nearer and dearer to our hearts than even health and happiness?

In Romans 3:23-24 Paul made the claim that such a hope exists. Under the inspiration of God Paul wrote, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” I’m not trying to be negative, but I can’t help but notice that Paul said “all have sinned and fall short.” That includes those of us who started out as “healthy and happy” babies. The good news is that just as everyone has fallen short of God’s glory, everyone who believes is “justified freely by his grace.” God’s grace is the hope that shines down on us no matter our quality of health or level of happiness. This is God’s incomparable love at work in our lives.  

Just yesterday I was texting with one of my friends. I knew her before she was married, but today she has a husband and two young daughters. She asked me how I’ve been. In two short sentences, I told her that I’ve started a new job and I’m doing well. I then asked her how she was doing, and she responded with a six part text message talking about her two little girls. My friends have changed dramatically since they’ve had children. I see it in their faces and I hear it when they speak. How has the hope we have in Christ changed us? Do people sense the incomparable love of God at work in our lives?

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Sean Bess serves with NavPress in Birmingham, Alabama. He blogs at http://seanbess.tumblr.com/.

What would you tell your teenage self? I’m 25 years old, so my teenage years aren’t too distant in the rearview mirror. Although I could probably think up a dozen different responses to that question off the top of my head, after giving it some thought I realize that there is one answer that stands above the rest. “Sean, stop shutting yourself off to the world.”

I didn’t start following Christ until I was in high school, and at that point I had already taken part in a laundry list of mischievousness—that’s putting it lightly. As is often the case, after putting my faith in Jesus I experienced a dramatic shift in my lifestyle choices. I stopped hanging out with certain people, stopped getting into so much trouble, and I began withdrawing into my own little world.

I vividly remember eating lunch alone in my high school’s raucous cafeteria. Classmates surrounded me screaming and laughing, while I sat quietly tucked away reading my Bible. At face value this may seem endearing, but looking back I think it represents missed opportunities. Honestly, I’m not sure what it was that caused me to clam up the way I did. Maybe it was the fear that I wouldn’t be accepted, or perhaps it was my pride; the kind of pride that compelled the Pharisee to announce, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.” Whatever the case, I realize now that this isn’t what Christ had in mind when he said, “Follow me, and I will make you a fisher of men.”

I think Jesus knew that disengaging from the world around us would be a strong temptation. In John 17 Jesus prayed to the Father for his disciples, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world… As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” When I fell in love with Jesus my kneejerk reaction was to wave off most of my other relationships, essentially removing myself from the world around me, but I see now that this was counterintuitive.

Jesus said, “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket…” Likewise, Jesus hasn’t given us new life so that we can put our heads in the sand. So, what would I tell my teenage self? “Sean, reach out to your classmates, just as Jesus reached out to the culture around him.”

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Sean Bess serves with NavPress in Birmingham, Alabama. He blogs at http://seanbess.tumblr.com/.

Here is a report of what the Lord did this past weekend at the Harvest Crusades in SoCal. 
78,000 plus people came to Angel Stadium for the two nights. 
8147 people came down to the field to make a profession of faith. 
2798 people registered their decision to follow Christ via the Internet. That’s a total of 10,945 professions of faith via the stadium and web cast! To God be the glory! Plus, 2,416 venues carried Sunday night Harvest America live. That does not include the TV and Radio outlets. As I learn more I will share that with you.

The experience was humbling, historic and amazing to be a part of the crowd there in the stadium.  I could not help but think perhaps this is a glimpse of what Pentecost might have been like.

 

 Start! To Follow

 

This is a critical reminder for all of us that those the Lord added to the church this past weekend, whether in Anaheim or whatever location, cannot be allowed to fall thru the proverbial crack!  These infants in Christ need intentional follow up and assimilation.  As we are reminded in the second chapter of Acts, these new believers need to meet together in a relational environment on a regular basis. 

 

Go to http://www.starttofollowstudy.com for resources, personal reading and reflection guide and small group facilitation guidance to help you with follow-up.  What does it mean to follow Christ as His disciple? Help everyone in your church understand, apply, and re-teach vital principles of the Christian life.  Thanks to everyone who prayed, participated, and invited people to be a part of an event that could have a major impact on our culture.

 

 

1,755 host sites so far and growing every day. Churches and venues around the nation (and the world) are joining together for a unified evangelistic effort this weekend, Sunday, August 26, 2012. The Harvest America live event will be available on every form of media imaginable: TV, radio, webcast to computers and personal devices, Roku, and of course simulcast into host sites. (Click here for viewing options.) One Day, One Church, One Message!

Pray for thousands to respond in genuine faith to the gospel.

Pray for the Church to be awakened with a renewed passion for evangelism.

Pray for a discipleship revolution and ongoing ministry that is both relational and intentional about spiritual growth.

Go to StartToFollow.com for follow-up discipleship resources from NavPress and Greg Laurie for your church.

Go to HarvestAmerica.com for more information on how to view, host, and pray for the event this weekend.

We hope you will join us in this historic leveraging of technology to proclaim the gospel.