memorising ephesians

[heidi.]

well, i decided i'm going to do it. anyone want to join me? i'm through the first 4 verses so far :)

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

[Kevin Young]

well, i decided i'm going to do it. anyone want to join me? i'm through the first 4 verses so far

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

You are my hero!

[veronica23]

That's so cool Heidi! I think I want to join you in memorizing Ephesians. I haven't memorized verses in such a long time. I used to do it a lot. A few years ago I started memorizing the book of James, I memorized chapters 1 & 2, but for some reason, I stopped and never continued with it. I'd love to start memorizing again and it's nice to have someone to do it with.

[heidi.]

yay! have you started, veronica? i'm to verse 6 now but i can wait if you need to catch up :) one of my friends is memorising james right now! i thought of doing that but i just felt like i should do ephesians. kevin, are you going to memorise it too? it is so funnnn :) anyone else??

In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

i'm doing a sentence a day roughly, which is usually a couple verses. and i'm using ESV, which i haven't used before actually but i like the change, it's like a fresh perspective :)

[veronica23]

I haven't started yet, I'm going to start today. I like memorizing verses while I'm driving, I usually write the verses on index cards and tape them to my steering wheel. I find that's when I'm able to concentrate the most. You don't have to wait for me to catch up. I should be able to catch up in no time, seeing as I have a half hour drive to and from work each day, hour of driving, I can get a lot memorized; plus I have 8 hours a day of mindlessness at work that I can use to memorize verses too! So I'm good to go, lol I'm using the NIV, that's just what I've always used, although, the ESV is such a cool translation, I don't own that translation, but one day, I'd like to.

[KaintBkwite]

When I think of memorizing something for the point of memorization, it seems too hard. But, if I think of it like the familiar words to a song I love, or lines from a movie that's a favorite, the more I repeat or read over something, the easier it is to remember it.

That's why the movie "The Book of Eli" impressed me so much. *spoiler alert if you've never seen it!* He read his bible every day for 30 years and eventually memorized the whole thing, word for word, literally walking by faith and not by sight. There was a point though where he realized that protecting the book wasn't the priority as much as living by it's words. It should be that way with us as well - Hiding the word in our hearts so that we don't sin against against God.

[heidi.]

I LOVE MEMORISING THIS BOOK!!!!!

p.s. everybody, it's still not too late to join in :)



In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things in accordance with the counsel of his will, that we should be to the praise of his glory.

[veronica23]

I've caught up with you! YAY! I just memorized verses 10 & 11 today. I'm having a lot of fun doing this.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will - to the praise of His glorious grace; which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment - to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according the plan of Him who works everything out in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory.

Now, I have no idea what the last verse means, the part where it says, "in order that we....might be for the praise of His glory". I don't really understand that line, any idea what it means?

[heidi.]

YESSS! it's so fun! no lie!!

that verse, um, that our lives are for him, to use as He wills and so that in His plan, when He uses us and works in us and through us, we glorify Him... does that help??? haha, i feel like i'm just as cryptic! this would be a good discussion.

[veronica23]

I think that makes sense, it's still a bit blurry, but it makes a little more sense than before. Thanks!

[Bob]

The church I go to has a social media site called the city. I just discovered that they have a scripture memorization tool! You enter the passage and it basically turns it into a fill-in-the-blank and then grades you each time you fill it in and you can set it up to send you a daily email reminder about it. Each time you fill it out it moves the blanks around, so you're not filling in the same thing a million times. Definitely an awesome tool. I've been struggling for a while to memorize James 1:2-4, but now I have it down. This is going to make memorizing scripture a million times easier.

The site is http://marshill.onthecity.org and it's free to sign up, if you want to check out the tool. Just thought it might be of help. I've never seen anything like it.

[heidi.]

that's awesome! but... there's nowhere to sign up? lol

[veronica23]

That sounds really neat, memorizing is difficult. I'm having a hard time with Ephesians, it's fun, but difficult. That memorizing tool sounds really neat, hopefully we can find a way to sign up. Mars Hill church - James, do you go to the same church as Mark Driscoll?

[heidi.]

i'm so close to finishing ephesians 1.... so close....

[veronica23]

Finished Ephesians 1! I never realized how cool that chapter is until I memorized it. I think my favorite line out of the whole chapter is the end of vs 23, "the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way." Jesus is the only one that is completely complete and it's His completeness that completes everything else in every single way. This verse reminds me of the verse in Acts 17, "For in Him we live and move and have our being." We are complete when we are in Christ and we are who we are in Him, He defines us, He gives us meaning and a purpose. I just love that. I want to share something really cool that's been happening since I've started memorizing God's Word. I find myself praying a whole lot more that I used to. I've always struggled with prayer and it's like now that I'm spending more time in God's word, I'm finding that I'm spending more time in conversation with God. It's so cool! I love hanging out with God, He is so awesome! I'm so excited to see what chapter 2 has to say and what God wants to teach me through it. Heidi, how's the memorizing going for you?

[heidi.]

you are beating me now! haha! i haven't worked on it for about a week, but i have the rest of the ch1 verses half-memorised. there's been soo much other stuff going on that God is speaking to me about, which is overwhelming and awesome

BUT... at the show on saturday, Kevin was speaking from ephesians and that was AWESOME. it was verses i memorised, and to hear someone speaking them and talking about them when i already had them in my heart, and getting new revelation..... yeah that was awesome.
jen recorded it i think so when she gets the video up i will post the link here

[veronica23]

That is awesome! Definitely post the link, I can't wait to hear what Kevin had to say. I admit, I've been slacking a bit too. I'm halfway through chapter 2, but I've been there for a little while now. I'm finding chapter 2 a bit hard to remember, it doesn't seem to flow as nicely as chapter 1 did.

That's super neat that God is speaking to you about some other things, I love when He does that. Can I ask what He's speaking to you about?

[heidi.]

oh man, we could be here for DAYS. that's what i keep telling everyone. i'm still sorting through it all. i'm working on getting it into my journal and after that point i am sure i will post a thread about it

[heidi.]

here is the video of kevin talking when he mentions some very familiar verses :)
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php ... 9&comments

[veronica23]

here is the video of kevin talking when he mentions some very familiar verses
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php ... 9&comments

I can't open the link, when I try a little message pops up saying that the video can't be opened due to the possibility of the video being removed or due to privacy settings.