Are you desperate to have God and His Word
as a constant source of nourishment for your weary soul?
I’m SO excited to share with you that this August and September we will be studying and learning through Janet Pope’s book, His Word in My Heart ~ Memorizing Scripture for a Closer Walk with God.
Has Scripture Memory ever scared you? Are you like me and KNOW you need to do it, have admired people who do it, have piddled around with it, but can’t recall much of what you’ve learned in the past? OR do you think that your brain just can’t memorize anymore? OR might you think that you don’t have the time to fit this into your already busy day?
I totally get all of that. And relate to it all.
And that’s why I’ve had such hesitation in bringing this study to us. In fact, I’ve had one of those back-and-forth-battles-for-obedience-and-trust over this, knowing that it’s not going to be the most popular study with our people, wanting to please everyone… yet wanting to obey and please the Lord more…
I hesitated in my obedience to the Lord over offering only this study, not because we don’t need it. In fact, all of us would probably agree that this is a discipline we NEED in our lives. But may I be flat-out-honest? I’ve had a real battle in bringing this study to our ladies as our only option this fall because of all of the choices of Bible studies before us, this isn’t the easiest of classes, or the “fun-nest” of studies. It’s not the one that everyone will naturally flock to… it won’t tickle our ears or make us laugh out loud at the video… (there isn’t even a video to watch – gasp!) but I believe it is the study God has laid before us to do next, and the one whose application will produce some of the greatest rewards in our lives.
So I’ll ask again:
Are you desperate to have God and His Word
as a constant source of nourishment for your weary soul?
If so, then will you join us (FBC in Cleveland, MS) in August and September on Sunday nights at 5 or on Wednesday nights at 6 for His Word in My Heart?
(And blog friends… any of you who want to join us in this experience but don’t live here, grab a book at this link, and tag along!)
A bit about the book:
Regular woman, wife, and busy mom (and now author) Janet Pope has discovered an {ancient} alternative for the “frazzled, guilt-ridden woman who longs to know God and His Word but hasn’t yet found a way to accomplish this amidst the unrelenting treadmill of activities:” hiding God’s Word in our hearts through memorizing SCRIPTURE.
Sounds impossible? She thought so, too. Where would she get the time? Where would she get the brain-power? But Janet was challenged one day to try it, and God’s Word hidden in her heart has overwhelmingly blessed her life. Since then, she has challenged others to memorize Scripture, and ladies, we are going to take her up on that challenge!!!
Janet promises that you don’t have to have the sharpest mind – just a deep desire, and the uncomplicated goal of knowing God and walking closely with Him through His God-breathed Words stored inside.
God promises blessings for us as we embark on this process.
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” Psalm 1:1-3 (emphasis, mine)
In an interview about how memorizing Scripture changed her life, Janet Pope refers to Psalm 1 and says, “We like to say, ‘Well, so and so, she’s blessed,’ or ‘So and so, he’s blessed.’ This is the person that God says is blessed, so I just love that. I want to be the person that God says is blessed, not what someone else’s opinion is…
God says that the person who meditates on God’s Word day and night is like a tree planted by streams of water. When your mind and heart delight in God’s Word, then your actions will be God-centered and divinely prosperous, and you won’t be withered…
I have a higher goal than just to memorize the Bible. That’s not my goal. My goal is to know God and to walk closely with Him…
It’s so you can be thinking God’s thoughts. Trading your thoughts for His. Meditating on what’s important to God instead of what’s important to yourself…
It’s having this Scripture in your heart that helps you to recalibrate and to know that you don’t get your sense of well being from the news. You don’t get it from what is going on around you or from your circumstances or from your health. You look at what God’s Word says…
Do it because you’re hungry for God’s Word. You need Him. You want Him.
All quotes taken from transcripts from Janet Pope’s interview with Nancy Leigh Demoss Wolgemuth on ReviveOurHearts.com
You can listen to it or read the transcripts of her interviews here: https://www.reviveourhearts.com/series/his-word-in-my-heart-with-janet-pope-cd/
For our FBC Ladies, this entire 2016 year’s study theme has been centered in God’s Word – how to know it, pray it, study it, live it, and in this next class, we will learn how to memorize it. Not for “memorization’s sake” – but so that we will have God’s thoughts in our own minds, so that our thoughts and lives can quickly adjust to His ways and purposes, no matter what comes at us in the days ahead.
We hope you’ll make plans to join this class! Church member or not, younger or older… you can work at your own pace – just come and learn with us how to hide God’s Word in your heart.
Sunday nights – beginning August 7, 5:00 Room 308
Wednesday nights – beginning August 10, 6:00 Room 308
Books are $15 and can be purchased at first class, or can be purchased from The Delta Christian Bookstore.
Your word I have treasured and stored in my heart,
That I may not sin against You.
Blessed and reverently praised are You, O Lord;
Teach me Your statutes.
Psalm 119:11-12 (Amp)
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