I have wonderful memories of sitting in small little wooden chairs around low tables with 4 or 5 other children hearing the marvelous stories of the Bible as they were told to me by Mrs. Paddock, my Sunday School teacher. What delight to hear of the adventures of Noah as he built and climbed into the Ark with all the animals two by two or David grabbing those five smooth stones out of the river bed as he rushed forward to take on the giant Goliath and the whoosh, whoosh sound of the sling passing over his head with increasing velocity. Samson with superman strength, Daniel in the Lion’s Den and the stories of Jesus feeding the 5000 or walking on water all came alive with the help of flannel boards, songs with hand motions, and crafts of all sorts.

Those were the stories that one grew up with if they were fortunate enough to have been brought up in a church with a good Sunday School program like I was. These are the great epic accounts of God’s sovereign grace and protection in human history. As believers in the God of the Bible, we believe these stories are true and display the message of salvation to us thousands of years later. However, like most children’s stories the ones of the Bible can become sanitized and “cleaned up” to suit the imaginations of young children. There is a tendency to keep out some of the more graphic details so as to not offend young minds.

Certainly this is a wise decision. Can you imagine your child coming home from Sunday School explaining how the teacher described in specific detail how David would have had to take Goliath’s immense sword and hack and saw back and forth across Goliath’s neck to sever it with blood gushing everywhere? Your child showing you the picture he colored of young David holding his prized head by the hair with blank lifeless eyes staring back at you. Talk about nightmares!

While necessary, the challenge is that in cleaning up the stories there is a danger of them becoming less impactful and realistic and, if left as nothing more than children’s stories, irrelevant Fairy Tales that have no bearing on us as adults. The stories lose their authenticity. We lose sight that these are not just nice stories but rather, the real activity of God in the lives of His people throughout history. These epic moments of God working miraculously in the lives of His people have powerful lessons to teach us as disciples of Jesus.

God has been putting on my heart a desire to go back over some of these classic Sunday School lessons and preach a Summer series of sermons focused on them so we can see that they are indeed much more than mere Fairy Tales. I believe we will be able to see the power of the gospel message proclaimed through these epic Bible stories. I’m looking forward to us mining deeply for rich gems of truth from these classic texts. Even if we aren’t dwarfs!

Over the years of my Christian journey I have had seasons of scripture memorization. While I was in seminary and commuted back and forth between Haverhill, Massachusetts and South Hamilton, where Gordon-Conwell Seminary is located, I had memorized and had perfect recall of over 120 verses. It was a great time as I would drive along and learn and review Scriptures.

All these years later, a failure to review those verses regularly and a few less brain cells have taken their toll on my recall. Fortunately, I recently have been blessed to be a part of two different discipleship groups that are both memorizing Scripture. It is such a blessing to have brothers in the faith join me in this wonderful Spiritual discipline and hold me accountable.

The Bible, of course, speaks enthusiastically and commandingly about the importance of God’s people being those who are able to quote Scripture from memory. Even children were commanded to be taught to memorize Scripture, and the common understanding was that everyone would know God’s Word by heart.

"Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." - Deuteronomy 11:18-19 (NIV)

A recent quote I read in "The Great Omission” by Dallas Willard says, “This practice of memorizing the Scriptures is more important than a daily quiet time, for as we fill our minds with these great passages and have them available for our meditation, quiet time takes over the entirety of our lives."

That certainly places the value of Scripture memory at a high premium and speaks clearly to the importance of us, who call ourselves disciples, memorizing God’s Word.

God told us clearly that we are to immerse ourselves in Scriptures:

"Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." - Joshua 1:8 (NIV)

How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." - Psalm 119:9-11 (NIV)

Jesus told us that we are to be a people who have His words “in us” so that we can live a life of faith in a unfaithful world:

"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you." - John 15:7 (NIV)

So, I’m not sure how this will end up, but for this season I am really enjoying this discipline once again. Here are some helpful links to get you started with scripture memorization:

http://www.memoryverses.org
http://www.pursuinglife.com

Also, I have been using an iPhone app called “Bible Memory Verses” by Woody Hays that I have really liked and will continue to use. You can find it in the App Store on your smart phone.

I am sitting at my desk listening to a beautiful Christmas choir singing on Pandora and thinking about Christmas for 2011. This is the first year in the 53 I have been alive that I have been thinking as deeply and as biblically about Christmas -- 53 years of trees, wonderful presents, candlelight Christmas Eve services with wax dripping on the floor, parties, and family gatherings. Those are wonderful memories that cause me to give thanks to God.

Yet, I have learned something new this year. Even as a pastor for 30 years, I am ashamed to admit that I have not grasped the truth of Christmas at the same level I have this year. Maybe it is my age and I am finally experiencing some of that wisdom that supposedly comes with age. Or maybe it is just that now that I am leading this effort to start a new church and we have been involved in “re-thinking” everything that has to do with church, I have finally taken the time to step back and really, honestly evaluate what Christmas was originally and what it has become both for me and the Church.

Obviously God didn’t intend any of the hype we call “Christmas” today. We love to find reasons for a party and a celebration, and Christmas lends itself to such an inclination wonderfully. Everyone enjoys Christmas as we know it. But for some reason, I am for the first time in my life finally “getting it.” The prophecies we read from the Old Testament on Christmas Eve were not for Christmas as we know it and celebrate it. They were for people to be encouraged that God’s plan would one day be unveiled and set into motion -- a plan for all humankind to be forgiven the irremovable stain of their sins and to be accepted by God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Christmas is the inauguration of the Gospel taking life in God becoming human! This is great cause for celebration and worship. So this Christmas I am enjoying Christmas as never before because I am working hard to focus on the Christmas idea that God has had in mind since the beginning of time. It makes this time much more grand and more worshipful when I take in the full panoramic picture of the Good News about Jesus from Genesis to 2011. What a blessed Christmas!

I have been doing much praying, thinking, and reading about discipleship. I remember back to those days when I had first become a follower of Jesus and heeded those words of invitation from Him: “If anyone would come after me ..." I made the decision to accept that invitation and become a lifelong follower of Jesus. I so appreciate what Oswald Chambers wrote about this in “The Highest Good:" "If any man would come after me …" "If" means "you don't need to unless you like, but you won't be of any account to Me in this life unless you do."

What followed was years of reading, studying, learning Greek and Hebrew, and sacrificing as I spent nine years in various colleges and institutions of higher learning. I look back with satisfaction and gratitude to have been able to learn all that I have learned. But I also realize that to be a disciple doesn’t mean you have to go off to school somewhere. To be a disciple means to allow Jesus to be Lord and master of your life, not how much schooling or knowledge you have gained. So as I contemplate this new church I am faced with the challenge of how we will make disciples. I have been reading “Building a Discipling Culture” by Steve Cockram, and I so resonate with this passage from the book:

"Jesus has not called you to build his church. In fact, in all of the Gospels he mentions the church only two times. One time he mentions it, it’s about conflict resolution. The other time? To say that he will build his church. Our job, our only job and the last instructions he gave us, was to make disciples. And out of this we will get the church."

So, making disciples must be our aim. Unfortunately, my experience, while helpful, has been basically a process of discipleship developed in the construct of academia. Professors and scholars have taken the format of education and laid out a template for discipleship that is more about knowledge and learning doctrines and theology. While these are extremely valuable and important, they are not necessarily the direction that Jesus took with His disciples composed, not of the intellectually elite, but rather common fishermen, blue-collar workers, and even a tax collector.

The beauty is that we have the opportunity to do discipleship according to Scripture and to follow Jesus’ example and not according to someone’s latest program or methodology. My plan is to take some time to pray and study the Scriptures to examine and strategize how we can do discipleship as Jesus intended. In the posts to follow I hope to share what I have learned.

Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Over the years I have had the opportunity to worship in many different corporate settings. As a preacher and pastor, I have always made the effort to not just show up for church but actively engage in the effort and work of worship. I do this in various ways as I make the decision to worship and not just be a spectator.

Unfortunately, too often today we find auditoriums and worship centers filled with folks looking to sit and hopefully be entertained. At the very least, they hope to leave and go home feeling satisfied that they have checked off the box of having been to church that week.

The truth is that corporate worship takes effort and we must move from being a spectator to being an engaged participant in the event. I read the following wonderful blog about how we can do just that and I wanted to include it here for you! Enjoy!!

How to Get the Most Out of Your Pastor’s Preaching
Posted on 09.08.11 by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Do you ever find yourself . . .

• waking up on Sunday morning and wishing you didn’t have to go to church?
• having a hard time staying awake in church?
• daydreaming during the message, or making a mental “to-do” list while the pastor is preaching?
• picking apart the message or the preacher in your mind or not getting anything out of the sermon?
• wishing your pastor would be more _____?
• forgetting what the message was about before you get home from church?

If we’re not benefitting from the ministry of the Word as it is publicly proclaimed in our local churches, the fault may not lie in the one proclaiming the Word. It may lie in our readiness to hear, receive, and respond to the Word.

How can you prepare your heart to get the most out of your pastor’s preaching?

Before the service

1. Pray for your pastor as he prepares for Sunday. Pray that his schedule would be free from unnecessary distractions. Pray that God will give him understanding into the meaning of the Word. Pray that God will speak to him personally through the Word and that he will respond in humility and obedience. Pray that God will help him to communicate the truth with clarity, freedom, passion, and power.

2. If your pastor is preaching a series from a particular book of the Bible, take time during the week to read ahead and meditate on the text. Ask God to speak to your heart before you even hear the message.

3. Prepare for public worship the night before. Turn off the TV, limit social activities, and instead do things that will cultivate your appetite for God’s Word.

4. Ask God to prepare your heart for the preaching of the Word. Repent of any sin God reveals to you, and get rid of the things that are standing in the way of the Word of God in your life.

5. Ask God to give you a sense of anticipation. Come to church asking God to meet with you. Expect to hear from Him and to be different when you leave.

During the service

1. Participate—you need to be there. You’re not going to get a lot out of church if you don’t go.

2. Get to church early enough to spend a few minutes before the service quietly preparing your heart for worship. Pray for God to move—in the pastor, in your heart, in others’ hearts—and surrender your heart to whatever God will say.

3. Don’t be a spectator. Participate fully in every part of the service. That means when it’s time to sing—sing. When it’s time to pray—pray. When it’s time to give—give.

4. While the sermon is being preached, open your Bible and follow along. If your pastor refers to other references, look them up.

5. Listen attentively to the reading and the preaching of the Word. Try to make eye contact with the pastor. Be a “yes face”! Not only does that help the pastor know people are listening and connecting, but it helps you stay alert and focused.

6. Listen humbly to the preaching of the Word. Ask the Lord to make it fresh. If your heart is humble, your focus won’t be on evaluating the message or how it’s delivered; you will let the message evaluate you.

7. Take notes. Jot down things the Lord speaks to you about; highlight points the Spirit applies to your heart and life. Take those notes home, and work through them later.

8. Don’t make your pastor a prisoner of unrealistic expectations. Your pastor doesn’t have to be mesmerizing, entertaining, dramatic, or tell a lot of stories to be effective. You are blessed if he is a man of God who is humble, loves the Word, and opens the Word and seeks to make its meaning plain. The power is in the truth, not the messenger.

After the service

1. Ask God to give you at least one takeaway from the message—a key concept, phrase, or verse that you can review throughout the week. Jot it down so you don’t forget.

2. While it’s still fresh on your mind (before you leave church, on the way home from church, over the meal following the service, etc.), discuss the message with others. Share how God spoke to you.

3. Be a doer of the Word and not just a hearer (James 1:22). Apply what you heard Sunday morning to real-life, everyday circumstances and situations throughout the week.

Making It Personal

• Do you highly esteem, respect, and reverence the Word of God (Neh. 8:5; Ps. 138:2)?
• Do you prepare your heart to hear the Word of God (Ps. 119:18)?
• Do you find delight in hearing the Word proclaimed?
• Do you listen attentively when the Word is being read or preached (Neh. 8:3; Ps. 85:8)?
• Do you expect God to speak to you every time you hear His Word proclaimed?
• Do you have a teachable spirit (Ps. 25:9)?
• Do you tremble at the Word of the Lord (Isa. 66:2; Ezra 9:4)?
• Do you pray for those who proclaim the Word to you, that they might be pure, anointed vessels of God (1 Thess. 5:25)?
• When the Word is preached, are you conscious that you are not listening to the words of men but to the Word of God (1 Thess. 2:13)?
• Do you have a commitment to obey anything God shows you from His Word (Matt. 7:24; James 1:22–25)?
• Do you respond in faith, that is, acting on the Word you have heard (Heb. 4:2)?
• Is your heart good soil that receives the Word and produces fruit (Luke 8:15)?
• Are you willing to let the message sit in judgment of you rather than you sitting in judgment of the message?
• Do you take the message personally (James 1:22)? Or are you more focused on how it applies to the people sitting near you?
• Do you pass on to others what you’ve learned from the Word of God (2 Tim. 2:2)?
• Do you express appreciation and gratitude for those who minister the Word of God to you (Gal. 6:6; 1 Thess. 5:12-13)?

I have a confession to make. I am a “fair-weather” baseball fan. I know a little bit about the sport and I really enjoy watching it … occasionally. And, if the weather is nice ... and I have some friends to go with me ... and I don’t have much of anything else going on.

I know, this is pretty sad and you are probably at the point of thinking I’m not a baseball fan at all. But as I thought about this it dawned on me that many of the people I have known over the years were just “fair-weather” church fans. If all the right scenarios lined up, they would show up at church.

I started to entitle this installment of my blog, “Going to church with friends,” but then I realized we don’t “go” to church -- we are the church! So I changed it to, “Being a church.” The second half of the title is also important, because I think it is pertinent to ask, “Can a person be in relationship with others as a church and not be their friends?”

I believe it is safe to say that there are many who just go to church as opposed to those who are a part of a church. The Bible uses detailed brush strokes as it paints a very clear word picture of the difference between the two. There are all sorts who get up each Sunday and “go to church.” They may even be “members” there and they might even participate and serve somewhere in the organization. The leadership might even consider them “committed members” because of their attendance and involvement.

That is certainly not what we read about in the New Testament. In the Bible we read of people being the church through all times, including the good and the bad and everything in between. What we see taking shape from the description given in Scripture is one of people who were friends doing the hard work of friendship! We don’t see fair weather friends who went to church when it was convenient, but real friends who were willing to give their all for one another.

Well, I have to say that I am so excited to be a part of a church that is filled with friends: friends that are more than just “fair-weather” friends; friends who stand by one another and are there for each other; friends who trust one another first and then ask questions after. How refreshing to know that I am a part of a family that is more than just “fair weather.”

Now, I admit we are brand new and still in our infancy as a church and the possibility of us becoming just like every other “fair-weather” church is a reality as we grow. I am hopeful, however, that with God’s help and Jesus Christ as the head of this church, we will be able to continue to grow as we make the effort to be true friends.

I hope we will be friends that, even when differences of opinion come, or someone stumbles and sins, will be there for that person and love them and help them any way we can. This has been the most amazing journey of faith and friendship and God just keeps blessing and teaching us His goodness!

I was surprised to see a high school friend of mine I haven’t seen or heard from in any way for over 30 years walk into the church this past Sunday. Mike and I used to do everything together -- many things that I am embarrassed about and wouldn’t want to share. Let’s just say we “sowed our wild oats” and did lots of stupid stuff that seemed like it was fun at the time.

More important is the fact that, after more than 30 years, Mike could walk into church and bring me such joy. We were young, foolish boys who, but for the grace of God, many times could have been seriously injured or even killed. Yet God protected us and here we are all these years later still able to remember back and know we were and still are friends.

How does that work? And why are some people lifelong friends even when time and distance separate us? I have concluded that the answer is found in our willingness to accept each other as we are in spite of or because of our past shared experiences. Mike and I are still friends after all these years because Mike and I shared some experiences over the course of four years that, while not reflecting much intelligence or wisdom, were still ours and we shared them together.

Those years helped me know Mike and him to know me and even though we have gone our separate ways, gotten married, had children, and now even grandchildren, we still can look in each other’s eyes and smile because we are friends. Shared experiences among friends where we had each other’s back (whether on the basketball court for the high school team or out on the town) are what can carry us through time and distance and, in some cases, challenging times. This is the key to a good friendship.

So, I guess the opposite is also true. To fail to be a good friend is to fail to share experiences where you give of yourself to such an extent that you have each other’s back. The result can often be that there are those you thought were your friend but ended up bailing on you when times got tough or time passes by, or you move far away.

The answer for me is this: be true to your friends, protect them, stand by them, have their back. Then you will have friends for life! Then you will always be able to look them in the eyes and smile because you know, and they know what it means to have a real friend!

I have thought about friendship and done some study on the topic. I have also learned a bit from life and the ups and downs of friendship. The challenge is that there is a false idea that is very prevalent today that reduces friendship to little more than an acquaintance.

It starts when we are just youngsters and our parents decide we should have some of our "little friends" over. It's understandable that we would refer to them as friends because it would be fairly awkward to call them acquaintances. Imagine a mom saying to her 5-year-old, "OK honey, why don’t we have some of your little acquaintances over today?"

The result is years of confusion regarding what are friends. Even as adult, those who we spend time with would be hurt if we referred to them saying, "thanks for being such a dear acquaintance," or "you know, you are one of my best acquaintances."

Time goes by and those we had called friends when we were little move on. Later in life, some whom we thought were friends let us down or betray us in one way or another and we end up struggling to fully understand what friendship is.

The author of Proverbs, under the inspiration of God, wrote God's thoughts on this issue in Proverbs 18:24: "Some friendships do not last, but some friends are more loyal than brothers."

The idea is one of longevity. Friends, unlike acquaintances, are with us for the long haul. Neither time nor distance will lessen the commitment that one friend has for another. They will put up with all sorts of issues and stick with you. Like brothers who will always be there for each other. They might not always agree with one another and the decisions that a brother makes, but at the end of the day, they are there to support, lift up, and, if necessary, even carry their brother.

Euripides, the ancient Greek playwright, said it well when he penned these words: "One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives." This idea is also communicated in God’s Word in Proverbs 17:17: "Friends always show their love. What are brothers for if not to share troubles?"

When times get tough and you see an acquaintance going through a tough time, you may say a prayer for them, maybe even send a card. But that will be the extent of it. That is what acquaintances do. But a friend goes much further. A friend travels to wherever their friend may be, no matter how far, and is there with them, sitting right beside them.

A friend will do whatever is possible to help, encourage, and support their friend no matter what. After all, what are friends for if not to share troubles? One true test of a friend then, as opposed to an acquaintance, is this: "Are they there with you when they hear of your troubles, or do they turn away?"

As a young boy I had a "best friend" that was my "go-to" friend for play time and adventure. Every birthday I was allowed to have one friend over and Joe was my pick every time. I spent countless hours and sleepovers in his home and he in mine. We talked about everything young boys would talk about and I felt comfortable in sharing anything with Joe. He was my friend and I could count on him.

I hadn’t read any books, watched any YouTube clips or listened to any sermons on friendship. It just happened. It was a natural outcome of two young boys who didn’t have anything to prove or pride to protect. We were just plain "best buds" accepting each other just as we were.

What I realize from this is that friendship is not difficult as far as the theory goes. And what two young, fairly naive and innocent boys found was a certain easiness in our friendship with each other. It wasn’t complicated or difficult. It was as easy as eating your favorite ice cream!

Perhaps you had similar experiences of friendship in your early years -- playmates and friends that you shared childhood with.

Joe and I eventually lost touch with each other. Life has a way of doing that as he went off to college and I went off to a different school. We grew apart. Our interests and priorities changed and eventually we met our future spouse and families and ... Well, life happened.

In spite of the time that has elapsed and the distance that has grown between us, I can honestly say that if Joe called me tomorrow and needed me, I would do everything I could to help him and be there for him. Why? Because we were childhood friends and I cherish the memories and the relationship we had.

Thinking about and reflecting on those early friendships the question must be raised, "what qualities of those early friendships are universal and transferable to all stages of life?"

The unchanging qualities of friendship that are "the golden rules" for true friendship are fairly easy to discern. They are what make true friends. So, in the weeks to come I want to suggest a list of the Golden Rules for Friendship based on my thoughts and understanding from experience and Scripture.

Perhaps we can all become better friends as a result!

In my next blog I will look at:

"Some friendships do not last, but some friends are more loyal than brothers." - Proverbs 18:24