{"id":542,"date":"2007-08-16T21:28:13","date_gmt":"2007-08-17T03:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/2007\/08\/16\/you-should-do-this\/"},"modified":"2007-08-16T21:28:13","modified_gmt":"2007-08-17T03:28:13","slug":"you-should-do-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/16\/you-should-do-this\/","title":{"rendered":"You Should Do This"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year I noted<\/a> here how impressed I was by this guy who recited Hebrews 9 and 10<\/a>.  He not only quoted it, but he did it in a way that inspired me to get working on a memory project I had not made much progress on.  Because he motivated me, I thought that I might be able to motivate others to memorize Scripture.  So I made it my goal to memorize Ephesians as a “gift” to the IBEX Spring 2007 group.  Which meant that I had to finish by the end of April.  I also did it in secret, so that even Kelli did not know.<\/p>\n

A good friend, Josh Clutterham, videotaped the presentation of it and then improved it with an opening scene and background music.  This he uploaded in 4 parts.<\/p>\n

I am hesitant to share it, not primarily because I think that it could be done much better, but because my intention was for this to encourage and inspire my current students.  What is one thing in person may be something else online.  It’s not a professional presentation; it was done for friends in a bomb shelter.  It also has the potential of drawing attention to me, instead of Paul, the people in Ephesus, God, his Word, and his amazing(!) purposes for the church.  I have overcome my hesitation on the hope that it will benefit other friends who couldn’t be there that day, and on the assumption that you won’t miss what is truly glorious.<\/p>\n

There are some important realities that are not communicated in this video.  The first is that while I always thought of this as a “gift” to others, I benefited far beyond anyone else.  I was forced to have Scripture running through my mind many times through the day for many months, and that was a rich blessing.  I learned so much about God and his ways that I never have before (and I’ve read and studied this book quite a bit).  A second reality is that while I’ve carried various portions of Scripture around in my back pocket for years, so that I can pull it out and memorize it when I have time, it is 10 times better to have that Scripture in your mind so you can “pull it out” literally anytime.  It takes effort to read it off a page; it takes far less effort to just say it to yourself.  In other words, once you do the hard work to get it in your mind, there is wonderful reward.  A third comment is that I probably benefited even more after<\/em> I finished memorizing the book (and after this video was made) as I reviewed the entire book time and again in my mind.<\/p>\n

There are some good things that could come from this.  You could be encouraged just in hearing the book of Ephesians.  There’s something about hearing it when it is not being read that is different and perhaps better.  You might hear some truths in a different way than before and be stunned by God’s purposes and convicted to obey his commands.  My prayer is that you would also be motivated to memorize Scripture yourself.  Many godly people have commented that Scripture memory is the most personally beneficial spiritual discipline, and I agree.<\/p>\n

Each of the four parts is about 5 minutes long.  One thing you should not do: use the audio for learning the book as I was very nervous and made many mistakes.  May God be glorified and may you be encouraged.<\/p>\n

Part 1<\/a> | Part 2<\/a> | Part 3<\/a> | Part 4<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year I noted here how impressed I was by this guy who recited Hebrews 9 and 10.  He not only quoted it, but he did it in a way that inspired me to get working on a memory project I had not made much progress on.  Because he motivated me, I thought that I might\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}