Thankful Thursday

Good glory, how did it get to be Thursday already? I had written another post for today but then realized that whoa - it was Thursday. Since I am such a rule follower and that I do need to stick with the designated plan, I needed to stop and think about what I am thankful for today. And that didn't take long - I am thankful for God's Word.

Last night, I was privileged to sit in a class of about 50 fellow church members to better learn how to study the Scriptures. The class is called Bible-ology and is taught by a very bright, intelligent young professor of Christian studies at Truett McConnell College. He and his family are members of our church and what a blessing he was! This class was a jam-packed, hour and a half of discovering the basics of using the four-step interpretive method when studying a passage. And then how to actually take a Scripture "apart" to discover the significance of things such as repeating words, comparisons and contrasts, figures of speech, and cause and effect relationships. Very, very interesting stuff.

Ironically but so God-like, the passage that we were asked to analyze last night is my current memory verse, Romans 12:1-2. So I was all over that. To be completely honest, Scripture memory is something I struggle with. I so want to know His word and to be able to live in it. But I have to remember unless I commit it to memory, it is hard to "renew" my mind with it.

I believe that we all have a constant "thought tape" reeling in our minds. Some days we play and then hit rewind to hear the same old "thought songs" over and over in our heads. Some days we hit skip from thought song to thought song, changing our mind patterns quickly depending the the busy-ness of our day. And some days we fast forward, not wanting to think too long about anything. Our minds are constant, always playing thought patterns. So how do we take out that old thought cassette tape and replace it with a new more modern CD?
And for our purposes this CD stands for "Christ Dependency." And to get it we must memorize His Word! We must hide it in our hearts!

Today I challenge you to renew your mind with God's Word! I am so a work in progress with this concept that I'm walking right beside you. It is so worth it.

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2