Mentoring Men for the Master

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR BIBLE RIGHT NOW?

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR BIBLE RIGHT NOW?

SEVEN SIMPLE STEPS ON HOW TO SUCCEED IN INTERNALZING THE WORD

My personal experience goes back to my childhood when I heard my dad read the Bible before we ate.  I also heard some of the Bible in Sunday school, in Worship Service, and a little over the radio.  When I became a teen-ager I decided to read the Bible through – what a drudgery.  I did it so I could tell my dad and please him. Having finished, I proudly announced I had done so to my dad, who replied, “That’s good, son.  Do you mean you read every chapter in the entire Bible?”  To which I replied, “Yes.”  “Well, did you read the 5th chapter of Jude?”  “Absolutely,  I said.  He replied, “That’s strange – Jude has only one chapter in it.”

Finally, when I was called to my first church, all I knew was that I must preach the Bible, but knew only one verse.  So I filled every sermon with Scriptures, felt led to preach without notes, and week by week added to my repertoire.  In my second pastorate one Jay Lewis said to me, “Pastor, you have a Scripture for every thing on earth.”  I can’t recall if I did or not, but within four years I was familiar with verses on major teachings of the Bible and was obeying them as well as quoting them.  Fast forward, I moved into a much higher relationship with my Bible.  How?  When God called me to mentor, I scrambled to get a better handle on the Word for my students.  Then one day while attending a Mentoring Meeting in Denver, mention was made of “INTERNALIZING THE WORD,”  and I knew the Holy Spirit had opened a new day, as I began to “Internalize the Word” in the four ways set forth in our “Pledge to the Bible.”

In my earlier relationship, I saw the Bible as just “literal words” on a page, (what the Bible calls the “logos,”) but now the word became the Rhema  (found in Romans 10;17; Matthew 4:4).  “Rhema is more than just the words themselves, it is the process of understanding them, of having eyes to see and ears to hear. It is like reading between the lines so that you get a sense of the real meaning and its relevance and application to your life.”[1]  Everything I have said is summed up on one verse in the Bible which tells us what the Bible can do, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”  (Hebrews 4:12 NKJ)  For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.  (Hebrews 4:12 NLT)

Final word, as to myself, I began to internalize years ago but the process continues and becomes sweeter all the time.  Ex: Psalm 119:92

How should you be treating your Bible?  Exactly as God commands:

 

 

  1. OBEY FROM YOUR HEART, YOUR PLEDGE TO THE BIBLE:  “My most valuable earthly possession.”  “God’s Inerrant Word.”  “God talking to me personally.” “Obey what it says”.  “Share with others.”

 

When you really obey the Bible in these ways, you will read, search, memorize, meditate, obey, apply it, etc.  Paul commends this approach:  “ For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe – 1 Thess. 2:13.

  1. MEMORIZE, MEDITATE, CHEW IT, SWALLOW IT, REGURGITATE IT, CHEW IT SOME MORE UNTIL you get all the flavor out.  CHEW YOUR CUD:  “Now, if you don’t have a farming background, you may be wondering what in the world it means for a cow to ruminate or chew its cud- and what’s a cud, anyway?  As gross as it sounds, “cud” is the food a cow ingests, chews, swallows, regurgitates, and then chews some more before swallowing again.  According to animal scientists, cows spend about eight hours a day chewing their cud, which works out to be about thirty thousand chews.  Because of the way their digestive systems are configured, it’s critical that cows keep chewing over and over again to moisten their food and break it down into smaller pieces.

 

Similarly, we should meditate on God’s Word in such a way that it stays with us.  We’re so bombarded with information each day – emails, Facebook messages, tweets, reports, articles, letters, notes, magazines, and books.  It’s gotten to the point that most of us don’t read anymore; we skim.”[2]

  1. WHEN SHOULD YOU DO #2 ABOVE?  Let the Bible speak:   “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” – Joshua 1:8.  “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.  But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” – James 1:21-25.
  2. WHY SHOULD YOU DO THESE THINGS?  So you will be “conforming to the image of Christ,” or become true followers, a disciple who will make other disciples.  And that is success in the Kingdom of God and the only way for success.- Joshua 1:8; James 1:25.
  3. KEEP THE PROCESS GOING JUST LIKE EATING YOUR DAILY FOOD.  “We are to be in the Word every day, not out of duty or to feel better about ourselves, but because doing so gives us room to meditate, which is the pathway to revelation and faith.  The Bible is not a once-a-week, Sunday kind of book.  It’s not even a morning devotional book, but instead it’s like food, something you and I need every day.  Something to be devoured and digested, chewed on and chewed some more.

Too often, we allow someone to serve us a tiny Bible morsel on a platter once a week and then we wonder why we’re weak, stuck in one place, or lost in the doldrums.  Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t eat three meals a day.  I eat about five times a day.”[3]

 

  1. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP.  If you fail once and even more, do not quit.  Question:  How long did it take me to learn to “Internalize the Word?  Everyday I have lived and ever will live.  If I cease, I will cease to truly live, but if I continue I will “shine brighter and brighter and brighter to that perfect day” – Prov. 4:18.
  2. SIMPLE SUGGESTIONS:
    1. Read the One Year Bible – Each day reading from the Old Testament and New Testament, Psalm and Proverbs.  Takes only 15 minutes per day.
    2. Find one verse from reading which you can “chew” on all day.  Ex. personally: 2 Cor. 2:14.
    3. Sanctify your food before eating by quoting one verse, followed by prayer – 1 Tim. 4:4-5. A must if you want your children to love, memorize and obey the Bible.
    4. Never travel without invoking God’s traveling promise in Psalm 121:8.
    5. When you can’t sleep at night, do not count the sheep but talk to the shepherd – Psalm 4:4.
    6. When death, deep troubles, when you do not understand, CAMP in Isaiah 41:10,13, or 2 Chron. 9:16; Heb. 13:5; Psalm 23:4.
    7. Remember and never forget that if you want to live abundantly and stay out of the doldrums, you must live every day by “every Word which proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Jesus – Matthew 4:4).
    8. Memorize, Meditate and Chew on verses which address a serious temptation or need or responsibility or challenge in your life- Psalm 119:9:
    9. Pornography – 1 Cor. 10:12; Phil 4:13; 1 Cor. 6:18a
    10. Sleeplessness – Psalm 121:4; 127:3
    11. Inject humor in your visit to the Dentist – Psalm 81:10
    12. Winning the lost – Romans 3:23; Romans 5:8; Romans 6:23; Romans 10:9.
    13. Answers to Satan’s accusations – 12  Ex:  Not saved – John 1:12
    14. How to lend to God – Prov. 17:17
    15. How to treat those you love  who won’t love you – 2 Cor. 12:15.
    16. Obesity- Prov. 23:1-2
    17. The glory of children – Prov. 17:6
    18. Value of a spouse – Prov. 18:22
    19. Value of Discipline – Heb. 12:11
    20. Promise to a faithful soul winner- Psalm 126:6
    21. How to find rest for you soul- Matthew 11:28-29
    22. How to whip worry – Phil 4:6-9
    23. Unexplainable Disasters – Romans 8:28
    24. Speaking without script (notes) – Matthew 10:10; Ephesians 4:29; Prov. 15:1
    25. About to give up – Luke 18:1; Gal. 6:9
    26. Discipline of children – Ephes. 6:4

Remember and never forget that if you want to live abundantly and stay out of the doldrums, you must live every day by “every Word  (Rhema) which proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Jesus – Matthew 4:4).

See pp. 125 – 131 in text book for 76 areas of Biblical Truth

 

[1] Chris Hodges, Fresh Air, p. 88

[2] Chris Hodges, Fresh Air, Tyndale Publishing: Tulsa Oklahoma, 2012, pp. 90-91

[3] Ibid. p. 93