Quest to Memorize The New Testament

I know that the grace of God covers us and a little watching of TV - it might not affect for most strong Christians out there. I was able to remove my tragic use of Facebook by removing my apps but its different for TV, it is in the living room and we have housemates who loves to watch - of course who doesn't? I had memorized  'I will not set my eyes on anything worthless, it shall not cling to me, I hate the works of those who fall away' Psalms 101:3, but sometimes its just damn hard to go against the current of the flesh, when I am sitting in the living room with real people and they don't share my enthusiasm in the Word but I can find myself sharing to some of what they want to spend their spare time. So I write it down and see when can I ever let go of this obstacle. The reason why I am so strict on myself in terms of watching TV is because (well mostly just a waste of time) based on my experience, even just for a short time like 30 minutes or an ho...

September 26, 2019 While I am in the midst of schedule memorizing the Gospel of John (Chapter 18) I decided for something unusual. For the last couple of days and for this week long, I decided to recite to myself Titus every morning, 10 minutes before I step to my office - after all its just 3 short chapters. Why?, first is because it has become rusty when the last time I review it, and second, I am in dire need to remind myself how to behave myself at work lately. "to speak evil of no one", "to show perfect courtesy towards all people".  (Not that I already totally attained it, I am still not successful sometimes that is why I am trying to memorize and hopefully I can 'own' those words I am storing in my heart). This book (among many others) reminds me I am to the grace of God so it would be easier to extend the grace to others who are not so nice or unfair. I badly need the wisdom of the bible and the strength from the Spirit in my daily li...

Last updated on 07 Nov 2019   When I've started this journey of hiding His words in my heart , I was so excited - I can't explain, I just knew this is something that I would do for myself that I wont regret. Well I know how forgetful I am and at first I thought this will be my perfect remedy - to train my brain to retain what I prize. However I got to admit there are times when days are tough it feels overwhelming - as the saying 'the flesh is weak'. Then when I was consistent and active physically, it becomes easier as clock-work and most of the time it turns to be my constant source of joy and anchor as time goes by, as battles won. When times are tough it needs determination, focus and time management, and constant praying for strength from the Lord. This activity makes me feel so fulfilled, doing something that contributes to my goal to be able to follow my Lord... now I only have 21% (as of 24 Oct 2019) memorized in the New T...

September 3, 2019   I had memorized John 1 to 18 from April to August 2019. However, an issue in my work happened that consumed my thought life. I struggled in my review times, I was looking in my bible but my mind flies. You might be asking, then why not use the "verses" that speaks to "anxiety" to battle off the issue so I could concentrate in my schedule? Yes I do have many "sword of the spirit" in my mind, but sometimes I just have to admit if I let my flesh rule like when I got home tired and stressed, instead of praying and meditating to the source of Life, I try to self-medicate by distracting myself to new tele-series everyone in the house are devouring, then it slips in my mind I am already in the loosing end of the battle. As a result it was about more than a month that I did not follow my review schedules. I didn't feel good that I can't achieve this goal and thanks be to God who helped me to get back to perspective and the issue i...

Gospel of John and My Take in Apologetics 25-June-2019 Three years ago, I memorized this Gospel and yet I have not followed the schedules of review. On 12th April 2019 I started to re-memorize it and now in God's grace I am now in Chapter 13. This is again the stumbling block I remembered when the first time I memorize this book, when I go to this Chapter, I tend to procrastinate and watches videos (like the Gospel of John ) to be able to move on. It helps on memorizing because through the movie it can imagine the materials I am storing in my heart. I have linked this to that Gospel of John Movie that seem to be very faithfully represented the Bible. However while I was at YouTube watching Gospel of John, I run into apologist debates and I was really so astound how Christianity stood up. For example those from William Craig and Ravi Zacharias. I even stayed awake until 2AM to watch a video of William Craig vs Richard Dawkins on existence of God, although it was a group deb...

April 7, 2019   My schedule for March was to memorize 1 Timothy,  2 Timothy and Titus.  Praise God that now they are in my weekly review.  I'm also now currently memorizing 1 Peter and I notice that all these 4 books have theme for training in godliness. It happens these are what I need now in my situation in my work. April 10, 2019 Thankful to God that I have now memorized 1st Peter. Lately I've been inspired of this one site https://www.preceptaustin.org/memorizing_his_word  which gives me mixed thoughts on what I am doing. It gives me the strong conviction that what  I am doing now, hiding the precious words of my saviour in my heart in a systematic way with a goal - is indeed a well time spent. This is a way I could put the word of truth in my heart in order that I could use it, that I could walk it out. However there was a part of that site that gives a strong warning regarding legalism, from that site it defines it as:   "Lega...

Feb 11, 2019 After memorizing the book of Ephesians, I am still in daily review but I feel I still can take new verses rather than purely reviewing. I remember that when I was reviewing James,  I couldn't perfectly recite it yet but I take in new verses of another book and through out the next few month reviewing I can perfectly recite it. Now I am taking Philippians,  2nd day and I have 15 verses already. It is such a lovely book, full of graceful words which rejoices my heart.   Feb 16,2019 I've finished memorizing Philippians 1 and started in Chapter 2. Ephesians daily review for 7 days is done and maybe I'll review after 3 days if I can safely put it in weekly review.  Feels good to be on track.  I created a new plan of memorizing the new testament with monthly separate tab. Documenting every step so I can repeat the method in every book on the way.   Feb 19, 2019 I am scheduled to finish memorizing Philippians 2 tomorrow.  As always...