Participants: C.A. Murray (Host), W.Clarence, Schilt
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000193
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00:29 Hello again and welcome to "Issues and Answers."
00:32 I'm C.A. Murray and my guest is 00:34 Pastor Clarence Schilt, I should say 00:36 Dr. Clarence Schilt. He is the Pastor 00:39 of the Rockwood Seventh-Day Adventist 00:41 Church in Portland, Oregon. 00:43 And we've been discussing and will be 00:45 discussing today word power, the transforming 00:49 power of scripture. Doctor, good to have 00:52 you here. Thank you. Glad to be here. 00:53 The power of the word, there is power 00:56 we know in the word of the God, 00:57 and there is power when we read the word of God, 01:01 but you came to this understanding with 01:03 some baggage, with some history. 01:05 Walk us through that experience if you will. 01:06 Well, in terms of personally, 01:09 I came from a very painful home where 01:12 there was two divorces and a 01:15 number of children and a home where fear 01:17 kind of ruled, we were terrified of my dad 01:19 and all that kind of thing. And I lived 01:25 even though I left home when I was 01:28 in my 20s to go to school and so on. 01:30 When I was 50, I was still waking up 01:33 every morning just terrified, 01:36 I mean that's a bit, maybe that's a 01:39 strong statement, but waking up just 01:40 wanting to hit the fetal position and 01:41 pull the covers over and face. 01:43 And now face the day even though 01:45 when I ticked through the day 01:46 there was nothing to be afraid of. 01:48 One of the lines I like to use is, 01:51 what gets the mind gets us and what 01:54 gets us is reported in our thoughts, 01:57 attitudes, words and actions, and 01:59 fear had so dominated my mind 02:05 and my emotions for 20 years that it just 02:08 was a monkey on my back, also anger 02:12 was something that I lived with a lot in 02:15 my home in terms of dad's anger. 02:17 And so I become very terrified of anger 02:20 and learned to relate it very poorly and 02:22 afraid of anger and consequently 02:25 I was afraid to get angry and afraid 02:27 of other people's angry. Well, people that don't 02:28 handle their anger, well they get depressed. 02:30 Yes, yes, yes, yes. So it is so, so 02:33 much of my life, why I struggled 02:36 with chronic levels of fear and chronic 02:39 levels of depression and when all these 02:42 had to do with word power. 02:44 Well, I have got to ask you a question 02:45 because I know word power is a solution 02:48 but I want to just mind the depth of 02:49 your experience just a little bit because 02:51 you were during this time a Christian, 02:54 were you not? I was a Christian, 02:55 I was a Pastor. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 02:57 And people will say okay, you're a Pastor. 02:58 Surely you got a handle on this thing, yeah. 03:00 No, not so. I had a prayer partner. 03:04 We talk about this, we pray about it together, 03:06 we labor and pray. We at times would say, 03:10 is this just your "Thorn in the flesh" 03:13 Paul had a thron in the flesh, sure, sure, 03:15 that God did remove, he said my powers 03:17 made perfect in weakness. 03:18 And we just finally said to each other 03:20 is God gonna just allow this somehow, 03:23 is this gonna be with you to keep 03:25 you dependent on Him. And you're not gonna 03:27 find healing for this until Jesus comes. 03:29 I've got to ask you then so did you feel 03:31 that you're incomplete, you were not quite 03:33 measuring up, you were not quite all 03:35 that you could be in the Lord because 03:37 I've heard preachers say the kind of thing 03:38 I would say that you're not functioning 03:40 sort of on all eight soon, as you're kind 03:42 of just function on forward, 03:43 you have ability to work on eight. 03:45 Did you feel that in yourself? 03:46 I felt that very much, in fact, 03:48 my fear was quite paralyzing and 03:52 I sometimes, I sometimes say to 03:53 my wife, this sounds like, this is sort of 03:56 Pastor ego coming through but I say 03:57 you know I think I do more, and I think 03:59 maybe I be given more responsibility 04:02 if fear didn't paralysis me so much and just 04:05 keep yeah, I didn't lie, wait nights thinking 04:08 about it, but I did feel like my fear 04:10 or might be depression were 04:12 very much hindering and limiting what I 04:14 might do and also frankly I mean even 04:17 though I was a Pastor, I'll admit 04:18 that I had what my prayer partner called 04:21 marshmallow sins. I had marshmallow 04:23 addictions, I did a lot of escaping to 04:25 TV or to eating ice cream in the middle 04:27 of the night, I had, I had those things 04:29 that I do to try to escape the pain, 04:31 I mean addictions are really to escape 04:34 boredom or escape pain, so anesthetized 04:36 pain. Yes, yes, yes. And so I was 04:39 experiencing life negatively in terms 04:42 of those emotions but also there were 04:45 behavioral things, especially my addiction 04:47 to TV, which I felt very bad about it, 04:50 and wasn't getting victory over it. 04:52 Now a question then, did these insecurity 04:55 and I'll use that term, sure, manifest 04:57 themselves in your dealing with your 04:59 members, with other individuals. 05:01 I mean you had this escapist going 05:02 and actually going to television. 05:04 Which really, praise the Lord, 05:07 we can kind of save a little milk toast, 05:09 that wasn't you know you didn't take drugs, 05:10 you know put milk in hand, and praise 05:12 the Lord for that, sure, but did this 05:15 insecure mindset manifested itself 05:18 in your dealings with your members 05:19 or with other individuals? Yes, I think so in a 05:22 positive way strangely enough is 05:25 I could really identify with their emotional 05:27 pain and so all of my ministry why members 05:33 have valued in a sense the way 05:36 I could identify with them and they'd 05:37 often say you really preach in the real world, 05:40 you live in the real world and it's because well, 05:42 I was living some of those painful 05:44 negative stuff that they were living. 05:45 Oh! I see. You know and so just 05:48 couldn't stop there and then, 05:49 when I was about 50 years old 05:51 I was complaining to a friend of mine that 05:54 I was tired of being just the pop 05:56 psychologist as a Pastoral counselor. Yes. 05:58 I felt like I wasn't doing anybody any harm, 06:01 but I was really helping them, and 06:03 this friend said, you ought to go to a 06:06 seminar called Biblical Counseling Foundation, 06:08 and there they will teach you how to 06:11 use scripture to counsel people in 06:14 a way not as hammer but to just help them 06:18 with it, I said fine, I'm interested because 06:20 I felt like all I was doing was hand holding 06:23 people through their pain and not helping 06:24 them gain victory, and really gain power. 06:27 And so I went to this seminar and thought 06:31 I would be learning how to counsel all 06:32 those biblically. When I got there I found 06:36 out this was a seminar called Biblical 06:38 Self-Confrontation. This was the 06:40 prerequisite to another seminar 06:42 I was gonna have to go through on 06:43 how to help others. So this was going to 06:45 be just all on me dealing with myself. 06:46 I was self rose. I was kind of irritated 06:49 frankly. Yeah, yeah. Well, 'cause I thought 06:51 I was getting into a different kind of 06:52 program in here. It came along here, 06:54 go ahead. Well, you know something 06:55 that popped up in my mind, is it James 4:1, 06:58 where it says whence cometh wars, 07:00 whence cometh you know all of this 07:02 fighting and anything do they not come from. 07:04 Oh, yeah. The battles that's going on within 07:06 you, Yes, exactly. Yeah, so that if you 07:08 can't get along with yourself it's gonna 07:09 be very difficult for you to get, exactly. 07:12 Well, At that conference 07:14 after I realized I wasn't getting along with me 07:16 very well, yes, two dramatic things 07:19 happened for me that were totally 07:21 I've had four where there are dramatic 07:24 growth periods and this was one of them 07:26 and that is my attitude towards scripture 07:30 changed. I realized up until then this 07:34 book really the Bible was more a text book. 07:38 It was a text book to prove doctrines, 07:41 to prove behaviors; it was you know to 07:44 get information, It was more, it was a 07:46 text book personally as well as professionally 07:50 since I was a pastor to prepare Bible studies 07:52 and sermons and all of that. 07:53 But it was more of an objective information 07:58 place and there boy, I just realized that 08:02 this is not primarily an informational book. 08:05 It's a transformational book. 08:06 Oh! Yes, yes, yes, yes. And I got from that 08:10 conference a primary thing I got was look 08:13 what food is to the body, I can't tell you 08:17 what happens when I eat and food keeps 08:21 me alive. I don't know what happens 08:24 when scripture, but I think what food is 08:26 to the body, scripture is to the mind, 08:28 it something, yeah, yeah, yeah, something 08:30 dynamic happens. I think one of the reasons 08:34 I would like to say this scripture is 08:35 twice inspired, because the Holy Spirit 08:39 hovered over the writing of it, yes, 08:41 but then where do we understand the 08:43 Holy Spirit lives now, he lives in us. 08:46 Yes, yes, surely, surely. So when 08:48 I'm saying these words to you I can't 08:50 go with my words into your brain and 08:52 affect how they, impact how they affect you. 08:55 I as the author I can't get in your head. 08:57 The author of these words lives inside me 09:02 so when I take these words the author 09:05 that inspired these words is there now to 09:09 empower them. Oh, yes, yeah, yeah. 09:11 So the scripture's inspired when it was 09:12 written. It's inspired when it's heard, 09:14 because the author lives inside our heads, 09:16 that's about as good as it can get. 09:18 That's like if you eat good, healthy food 09:21 whatever that has will be transferred to you. 09:24 Yes, hey, you did my line, I guess the mind 09:26 gets us, see all for most of my life, 09:29 all of that fear, that depression, 09:31 all of that unhealthy anger was filling me, 09:36 getting me and controlling me, 09:37 driving me to addiction, limiting 09:39 my productivity, well, I guess the mind 09:41 gets us and what gets us is reported 09:44 in our thoughts, attitudes, 09:46 which is feelings, our words what we say 09:48 and our behaviors, yes, and I realize hey, 09:52 scripture can change all of that. Praise God. 09:54 Scripture can change all of that. Praise God. 09:56 And at that seminar I went away with love 09:59 and a heart for these words. 10:03 I mean you know when you have dear friends 10:05 or people, mentors you really respect, 10:07 you just hang on their every word. 10:08 Oh, yes. Alright, well, I went away just 10:11 loving scripture like I never love scripture 10:15 before, that's the first thing that 10:16 happened at that seminar. 10:17 The other, that was an attitude change 10:20 and I noticed that real growth if I'm gonna 10:24 change I need two things, I need an 10:26 attitude shift and I need a behavioral shift. 10:29 Yes, yes. In fact, for too many years 10:31 I tried to get married couples when they 10:33 come to me for counseling to change 10:35 their behavior and they couldn't do it 10:37 because theirs hearts, their attitudes hadn't 10:39 changed, you know, on the other hand once 10:41 their attitudes changed then. 10:43 The behavior would follow, anyway. 10:44 And so the behavior that followed was this, 10:47 I learned that the seminar I'd have to 10:50 go to later was for actually role playing 10:55 and counseling other couples and 10:57 counseling situations they set up, 10:59 that they teaches how to use the Bible. 11:02 At lunch time I was talking to people 11:03 that were in some of the advanced seminars 11:05 in other parts of building where I was 11:06 going to the beginning seminar and I said, 11:08 what you doing and they said, well, 11:10 they're setting up role plays and we're 11:12 counseling people and I said, how you using 11:14 the Bible they said, well, we just have to know 11:16 it by memory. I said, you gotta be kidding, 11:18 Worth is involved. I said, really, 11:23 he says yes, I said you mean you just 11:24 need to know the references so you 11:26 can look up and read it. 11:27 No, no, no, you got to know it by memory, 11:29 you got to be able to quote it. 11:30 I thought oh, wow! So I thought okay, 11:34 they sent me home with a 400 page 11:36 manual with very short chapters 11:37 and a memory verse at the beginning 11:39 of each of these chapters, and so 11:42 I thought I didn't want to look bad. 11:44 I mean you know pastors, we don't 11:45 wanna look bad, our ego is at stake. 11:47 So I went home and I had 3 months 11:52 between that time and the next seminar. 11:54 And I said, I am going to memorize these 11:57 verses in this manner. Now how many verses 11:59 are we talking about? I have no idea but I 12:02 was memorizing many verses a week, 12:05 I mean I just needed to be and I was doing 12:07 it for all the wrong reasons. 12:08 I was doing just selfishly. Yeah. 12:10 I did not want to look bad and I 12:12 didn't want my colleagues to look 12:14 bad that I represented this conference. 12:16 So for all the wrong reason I had 12:18 memorized scriptures and I gotten stars for 12:20 it when I was in kindergarten. 12:21 Oh, my goodness. Earn your ribbons, 12:22 and so for all the wrong reasons just 12:24 so I wouldn't look back, I got into 12:25 scriptural memory and I put it on project 12:28 status you know, I mean when you're 12:29 painting your house or remodeling it, 12:31 all your timing and usually your thoughts 12:33 go into that except when you got to be 12:34 at work or sleeping or reading. Right. 12:36 I put, I had scripture on cards in my pocket, 12:40 on my dash in the car, at home, 12:43 in my office and I was compulsively anytime 12:47 I had spare time in a boring meeting, driving, 12:51 waiting in a line somewhere, 12:53 I was memorizing scripture just doing 12:57 nothing but memorizing scripture. 12:58 It's interesting that this epiphany 13:01 if I can use that term, didn't come 13:03 to you too well into your ministry. 13:05 Alright, and yeah I've been a pastor 13:06 for 25 years. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and here 13:10 at camp and what's shocks me though, 13:12 you know, in the early days of it 13:15 I was just memorizing scripture 13:16 and preparing for this seminars 13:18 I was going to go to. Yes, yes. 13:19 And a month into the project of 13:22 memorizing I suddenly realized 13:24 I wasn't watching TV near as much 13:26 and I wasn't even working on it. 13:28 I suddenly realized that I was, 13:30 that I was getting up and eating ice cream 13:32 much in the middle of night, which sounds 13:34 like, but anyway I realized but I realized 13:38 I wasn't waking up scared in the morning. 13:40 Praise God, praise God. I mean I could 13:41 not believe it and without working on 13:46 that so that internally, emotionally 13:49 God was actually through the power of his word, 13:52 you know in First Thessalonians 13:54 I think he says, we also thank God 13:56 continually because when you receive 13:58 the word of God which you heard from us, 13:59 Paul said we were the agent, 14:01 you accept it not as the word of man, 14:03 but it actually is the word of God 14:05 which is at work. It works in us. 14:08 That is powerful. I said, I think scripture 14:10 does to the mind what food does to the body. 14:13 And He absolutely transforming me 14:17 in two ways, He was healing my 14:20 inner emotional baggage, my fear, 14:24 my depression, all that sort of stuff. 14:25 And externally, at the same time, 14:29 I was just sinning less, I mean to me 14:33 watching too much TV is sin, especially 14:36 watching junk. Where it gets the mind, 14:38 gets us. Yes. you know set your minds 14:40 on things above. I was setting my mind 14:42 on junk TV, you know, I mean all that 14:46 sort of stuff, so it was just, I mean we're in 14:50 Isaiah 55, I love Isaiah 55, it says, 14:55 why spend money on what is not bread, 14:56 and your labor on what does not satisfy? 14:58 Yes, yeah. Listen, listen to me and eat 15:01 what is good and your soul will delight 15:05 in the riches that are fair enough eight. 15:07 All of our, the hassle of life is our inner 15:10 souls are not at peace. We want something, 15:12 our soul will delight, give hearing, 15:15 come to me and hear me that your 15:17 soul may live. And later on he says, 15:20 As the heavens are higher than the earth, 15:23 so are my ways higher than your 15:25 ways and my thoughts then your ways 15:26 and then it goes on as the rain and 15:28 the snow come down from heaven, 15:29 and do not return to it without watering 15:31 the earth and making it bud and flourish. 15:33 I live in Portland, North West is loaded 15:35 with best wheat, we have great vegetation, 15:37 Alright, so is my word that goes out from 15:39 my mouth: it will not return to me empty, 15:43 but will accomplished what I desire and 15:44 achieve the purpose for which I said, 15:46 so this clearly says, look, this isn't just 15:50 information we're dealing with. Yeah. 15:52 This is Jesus said in John 6:63, the words 15:56 I've spoken to you are spirit, and they are life. 16:00 Yes, yeah, yeah. And yet these words seem 16:04 to stay in an informational level 16:06 and one of the things I've struggled with 16:08 a lot is, how we can move scripture from 16:11 information to transformation. 16:14 Oh, praise God. You know, one thing pops 16:15 out at me, the inherent power in the word. 16:20 So that even when you may contact with 16:23 it for the wrong reason. The word is 16:27 so powerful it's going to convert 16:28 you anyway because your idea was to 16:31 not be embarrassed, and to do good on a 16:34 test on examination, I was memorizing 16:35 scripture just so I look good. Pour it in. 16:37 That's right, but It's like, it's like eating 16:39 ice cream. You eat it enough, you're 16:41 gonna put on, you know that's true. 16:43 You're right. That you intend to or not. 16:45 Yeah, the principles of the mind are there, 16:46 so your mind on things above, you set your 16:49 mind on things above now there can be 16:52 such a spirit that it could be only 16:54 mechanical but if your heart's right 16:57 you search again scripture. 16:58 And the things are going to change. 16:59 Yes, things are going to change. 17:01 Things are going to change. Yeah, yeah. 17:02 Now the inside I ran into that was huge 17:04 for me later because I thought look just 17:07 memorizing scripture that's a mechanical 17:10 experience, okay, and just for those that 17:13 want to get into scripture memorize 17:14 and say to you, if you really, if you'll 17:15 call and interested in this. 17:17 The pros have learned that if you want to read 17:19 and get a text down thoroughly once 17:20 you can repeat it from memory, 17:22 you should review it everyday for six weeks, 17:25 every day for six weeks, and then it 17:27 will really stick with you, you can lay it aside 17:29 but it can still just be information 17:31 and I went to a seminar where I 17:33 learned that when things come to us 17:36 just at word level about 10 percent sticks hey, 17:40 when we were going to school and we took 17:42 history tests, when did you want to take 17:45 the text? Right after you've done home work. 17:48 When you do your home work, I'll take 17:50 it next week because you know it'll all be 17:52 gone, most of it be gone, see when you 17:54 cut only words just data 10 percent sticks 17:58 on the other hand, if words are accompanied 18:01 with pictures whether we actually see it with 18:05 out eyeballs or visualize it in the minds eye. 18:08 So sensitizing your brain, yes, yes, yeah. 18:09 Fifty five percent of that will stick and 18:12 on the other hand if the words are accompanied 18:15 with not only pictures but with feelings, 18:18 emotions, a hundred percent sticks. 18:21 Now that's why children, why 18:23 everything impacts them so deeply. 18:25 Good things that happen to them 18:26 because they feel everything and they 18:28 experience everything. Well, once we become 18:32 adults in the church. Wouldn't you agree 18:36 with me that nearly all of our religious 18:39 activity is words. Yes, surely. 18:42 We go to Bible classes. You know, we go to 18:45 small groups, we discuss scripture, 18:47 we discuss it and hyphenate them. 18:49 Hyphenate item, but it's words and we 18:52 need to learn, frankly, what I described 18:54 words, pictures, feelings is what 18:57 meditation is all about. Thy words have 18:58 I hid in my heart, that I might not 19:00 say neither words of my mouth and the 19:02 mediation in my heart be pleasing 19:03 in your sight. And so I've learned that 19:06 what makes a huge difference is after 19:08 I know those scriptures and memorize them 19:11 to be able to then okay visualize them, 19:14 picture them I, one of my hey as you 19:17 know one of the monkeys on my back was fear. 19:20 Yes. Alright, I could just, let me walk this 19:23 through with you. I could wake up in the 19:24 morning and be afraid and say Lord help me 19:28 not to be afraid. Well, it's good that 19:30 I at least prayed about it. 19:31 And now this is actual problem of fear. 19:34 This is your afraid of what? Afraid of. 19:36 Just existential fear. When I spent the 19:39 first 20 years of my life so afraid of pushing 19:42 my dad's anger buttons and so 19:45 consumed with fear of him that it just 19:48 gripped me. It was my, even when there 19:51 was nothing to be afraid of I check 19:53 through my day. And yet I feel this anxiety 19:57 and fear. It's almost a culture of fear. 19:59 It almost is a climate of fear. 20:01 A climate of fear. That's really true, 20:02 yeah, and so I could just say Lord, 20:05 help me not be afraid. I could go 20:07 to First John 4:18 and say, there is no 20:10 fear in love but perfect love drives out fear, 20:12 sure. And say Lord, help me to help these 20:15 words to means to be my message about 20:17 my experience. But then I could, those 20:20 are words but what if I took First John 4:18, 20:23 there is no fear in love but perfect love 20:24 drives out fear, and I just Jesus is love, 20:28 so what if I became a mini movie producer, 20:31 and in my mind I just picture Jesus 20:34 approaching me, holding his arms out and saying, 20:37 hey Clarence, I want to give you a hug. 20:38 I like hugs from men and women, and so 20:41 I in my mind's eye, a lot of my imagination 20:45 controlled by scripture to just be embraced 20:49 by Him and more then that what is so, 20:52 here is my, the words are, there is no fear 20:54 in love, perfect love drives out fear. 20:56 The picture is Jesus is with me, embracing me, 20:59 now I go to the emotions and I hear 21:02 Jesus saying Clarence, you don't have to afraid. 21:04 Yeah. Nothing can separate you for 21:05 my love for Romans. I won't never leave you, 21:09 nor forsake you and I stay in that embrace 21:11 and I feel those feelings until, until 21:15 just all that fear just washes out me, 21:19 based on His word and meditating on His word. 21:22 Praise God, yeah. And He just absolutely 21:25 transformed and healed me through 21:28 the process of filling my mind with scripture 21:31 and then learning to take a way be onwards 21:35 to making, to meditating on it, 21:37 to picturing it, to experiencing the 21:40 emotions there, so. Praise God. 21:42 Yeah, a very, very special experience. 21:44 And then slowly imperceptibly but 21:46 definitely changes are taking place 21:48 in your life and in your attitude, 21:49 in your mindset, your relationship with Christ. 21:51 It really is. And I think now the name 21:54 of the game is where we just get 21:57 preoccupied with scripture, and we are 22:02 what we think, see we are what we think. 22:06 And you think and we're always thinking, 22:09 and that's what sleeping and then we're dreaming. 22:13 Yeah, yeah, the brain never really shuts down. 22:14 But where are we sleeping and are 22:16 always thinking, not only sleeping and 22:19 when you think about it, we're always mediating, 22:23 we're picturing things. I picture what we would 22:26 like to be with you even though I didn't 22:28 know what it would be like. Surely. 22:29 You know I pictured it and we're either 22:32 replaying things that happened in the past 22:34 or we're picturing things are gonna happen. 22:37 We're always how much are our preoccupations 22:43 with His words. Oh, that's a important point, 22:46 yeah, yeah. So that His words and we 22:51 talk sometimes about dying to self 22:52 and the theme of dying to self from 22:54 resurrection power that's why I think 22:56 one of the best ways to die to self is to 22:59 actually think about scripture so that 23:03 His thoughts are controlling me, not 23:06 my own thoughts. His thoughts you know 23:08 say you're. Paul said in Second Corinthians 4, 23:11 are lighten to momentary troubles and that's 23:17 make me a little mad because I got troubles 23:20 but I don't think our like momentary. 23:22 But our lighter momentary troubles 23:24 are achieving for us and eternal glory 23:26 that far away them all. So we fix our eyes 23:31 not on what is seen which are troubles, 23:34 light or heavy, but I want it unseen for 23:37 what is seen is temporary. Yes. 23:38 but what is unseen is eternal. 23:40 Is eternal, surely, surely, so that where 23:42 I have hidden my heart that I might 23:43 not sin against the, and of course 23:45 we realize that Christ's weapon of choice 23:48 was the word. Exactly. Yeah, was the word. 23:51 Exactly, that was it. The word I mean 23:55 He just kept out the word, the word, 23:58 the word you know the word is a living 23:59 and active, sharper then any double-edged sword, 24:02 it penetrates. I mean there is a so many 24:04 scriptures on the power of scripture 24:07 and I mean the longest chapter 24:09 in the Bible Psalm 119, whoever wrote 24:12 Psalm 119, we're not sure who wrote it 24:14 but whoever wrote it, it was totally wrapped up, 24:17 I mean he uses decrees and commands 24:19 and statutes and laws and words and he says, 24:22 sweeter than honey and all that whole chapter, 24:26 the obsession of the writer there was 24:29 word of God. Yes, praise God. 24:31 Just read word of God. So it's beginning to 24:34 revolutionized your ministry. 24:35 It sounds like they made some profound 24:37 and dramatic changes in your life. 24:39 What about your wife's life, if I can use that 24:41 right here. Yeah, hey listen, as she began to, 24:44 she got into it a little later then I did 24:48 but now while she carries Bible promises 24:52 book with her so as the things come up, 24:54 she carries, has a pack of cards that 24:56 she's laminated that in a little cubby 24:58 hole in the car, I see those. 25:00 She actually has the Bible on Tate now. 25:03 And when she's running errands. 25:04 So she's listening to the word a lot, 25:06 and it's made a huge I mean sometimes 25:09 she's had difficult situation where a 25:12 verse of scripture just slashing to our mind. 25:15 Yes. And just like that the inner attitudes 25:19 change and she was at peace, 25:20 it was wonderful. Let me ask this question, 25:22 if I can and that is where in your 25:25 ministerial experience, did you see this having 25:27 it's most profound impact? 25:29 It had a profound impact in my own 25:33 personal preaching and counseling, 25:35 because it's wonderful to just 25:38 have scriptures bring to mind and be 25:40 able to quote it. Yes, yes, yes, it occurs to me. 25:42 So there he did, plus I was doing enough 25:47 that people began saying teach us 25:49 how to memorize, and of course, 25:51 I mean whether they like it or not. 25:54 The members of my church, they kind of 25:56 probably get tired of hearing me talk about 25:58 word power, but about the importance 26:00 of one way or another getting very wrapped 26:03 up in his word. Yes. So that, so that whatever 26:07 life served up to us like Jesus said, 26:09 it is written, Our impulse more and 26:11 more is to respond with his words. 26:13 Instead responding with self, yeah, and 26:15 just our own selfishness, our own anger, 26:17 irritation, worry whatever we respond 26:20 with his words and we let him controls us. 26:21 Yeah, and if the Holy Spirit is on line 26:24 or it has to sort of bring youth things 26:26 that you have not studied you know, 26:28 he can but I don't think he is behold 26:31 to do so if we don't put it in, 26:33 it's not going to come out, and we 26:35 just spend that time with the Lord. 26:36 Yes, I find that most of what comes to 26:39 mind for me, are texts that I've looked at 26:42 a lot that I memorized a lot that I thought about, 26:44 and it is I cannot tell you how rewarding 26:48 it is personally, just my own life as well as 26:51 my profession Pastoral life to just 26:54 over and over again whatever happens, 26:58 words of scripture pop into mind. Praise God. 27:01 And they can control me or I can share them 27:04 with others sensitively, you have to be very 27:06 careful not to get just, it's called be 27:08 all you doing as Bible bashing and 27:09 hammering away, but it is really winsome 27:13 and healing and powerful for my own 27:15 life and my ministry to be able to share 27:17 words that come to mind. Praise God. 27:19 I suspect you would commend this to anyone, 27:21 sort of jump start for the Christian experience. 27:24 It's hard for me not to push scripture memory 27:26 on everybody, I confess, and I cautious 27:30 because there are various ways to get 27:31 wrapped up in scripture besides memory, 27:33 but getting preoccupied with His word is one 27:36 very special experience. Praise God. 27:38 And suspect it to takes some amount 27:39 of discipline to do so. Yes, it does. 27:41 Yes, yes. Yes, it does. 'Cause the Christian 27:43 word is good for us. But that is christian 27:44 top is good for us, experience. 27:45 Okay, doctor thank you so very much. 27:46 Thanks for having me. Praise the Lord, 27:47 your church must be very, very, very blessed. 27:49 Well, we're having a good time. 27:50 Again may I comment you to scripture 27:52 reading as a solution spiritual world 27:54 and a spiritual jump start for a life, 27:56 until next time God bless you. 27:58 We'll see you again soon. |
Revised 2014-12-17