Come Help Change the World

Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade, wrote a book back in the early 1970s he titled “Come Help Change the World”. I read it while in college and have never been able to forget that challenge.  It has been my dream ever since, that in my own small way, God would allow me to change our world for His glory.

I believe after years of His preparation, I have found His calling that will result in His using my small talents and gifts in the best way for the kingdom. We have called it Bible Memory Coins (http://www.BibleMemoryCoins.com).

From a young age I was led to study and memorize large portions of the Bible. It started in Sunday School where our teachers would have contests (the prize was candy bars—it worked!) to see who could recite the most verses. I made sure I won every contest (hey, I liked candy bars…). Then in the Christian elementary school I attended, to get an A+ in Bible class you had to memorize 100 verses in a semester. Being a normal competitive male, I made sure I got that A+!

In junior high school, our church gave a beautiful leather Bible to anyone who read the Bible through in a year…I can still remember getting up late at night because I had forgotten to read, and reading my couple of chapters.

Early high school led me to Navigators Topical Memory System and I learned all those verses pretty quickly. Then my junior year I attended a Bill Gothard seminar and was challenged to learn chapters and whole books of the Bible, which I have been doing ever since. (I won’t mention my foray into learning in the original Greek…might make some of you think I am a nerd or something….)

There have been times in my life when I am not sure I would have persevered in my faith or made it through the difficulties and trials had I not been a memorizer. It has been the defining, most important discipline of my Christian faith and life experience. Yet we do not typically now encourage our kids to learn God’s Word. I find this appalling, and very sad.

Every Christian leader and pastor today I most respect—men such as John Piper, John MacArthur, Rick Warren, Dallas Willard, Howard Hendricks, Billy Graham, and the list goes on—places huge importance on Bible memorization. Dr. Louis Evans, the late pastor of Hollywood Presbyterian Church, had memorized the ENTIRE Old and New Testaments. He was a phenomenally effective pastor.

Below are just a few quotes from some of our most deeply spiritual leaders:

Billy Graham: "I am convinced that one of the greatest things we can do is to memorize Scripture." Billy Graham, Personal Thoughts of a Public Man p. 88
Charles Swindoll, Insight For Living/Dallas Seminary,  "I know of no other single practice in the Christian life more rewarding, practically speaking, than memorizing Scripture...No other single exercise pays greater spiritual dividends! Your prayer life will be strengthened. Your witnessing will be sharper and much more effective. Your attitudes and outlook will begin to change. Your mind will become alert and observant. Your confidence and assurance will be enhanced. Your faith will be solidified." Seasons of Life p53 (emphasis mine)

Rick Warren of The Purpose Driven Life, says "Scripture memory is a habit that most Christians have never even tried, but getting your members to hide God's word in their hearts brings personal revival and renewal.It is the single most important thing I have ever done in my spiritual life."

Dr. Howard Hendricks, Dallas Theological Seminary "One of the most important Christian disciplines is Scripture memory. If I had it my way, every student would know 500 verses word perfect with the references before leaving Dallas." spoken to Drake Mariani at a men's conference 11/15/98.

C.H. Spurgeon said of John Bunyan (who wrote Pilgrim's Progress), “Prick him anywhere; and you will find that his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his soul is full of the Word of God.” (Quoted from his Autobiography in Iain Murrya, The Forgotten Spurgeon [Edingburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1973]
p. 34)

Dallas Willard, professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California, wrote, “Bible memorization is absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation. If I had to choose between all the disciplines of the spiritual life, I would choose Bible memorization, because it is a fundamental way of filling our minds with what it needs. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. That’s where you need it! How does it get in your mouth? Memorization” (“Spiritual Formation in Christ for the Whole Life and Whole Person” in Vocatio, Vol. 12, no. 2, Spring, 2001, p. 7).

If all these men of God who have served and studied His word for a lifetime agree on the critical importance, indeed, primary importance of Bible memory and meditation, why are we not practicing this discipline? We believe we love the Lord and want to follow Him yet we are disobedient. Over and over in scripture the Lord calls us to “hide His word in our hearts.” Psalm 119:9-11, Colossians 3:16, Psalm 1, Joshua 1:8…the list is endless.

We wonder why we are defeated Christians, not bearing fruit, frustrated? We need to get back to the basic of filling our hears and minds with God’s Word.

I have set my life mission for as long as the Lord gives me breath to facilitate, teach, and train people, especially youth, to study and memorize the Bible as a lifelong discipline.  The tool for doing this is a beautiful set of actual coins approximately the size of a half dollar, each with 2 memory verses, front and back. We have developed this program over the past 3 years and are now in production.

But we need your help. We will not go into debt for this program. This is a commitment we have made as a Christian company. So creatively we have developed a simple “Bible Memory Society” to fund the development and manufacture of the Bible Memory Coins and training programs to go along with it.

You can be a part of this mission by joining the society: the cost of membership is a one-time fee of $50.00. You will receive our booklet on memorization and meditation “The Word Filled Heart”, a certificate that is frame able and shows your family and friends your support for and belief in the Bible, and a 10% lifetime discount on all coin sets, booklets, publications, and other products BibleMemoryCoins might sell.

Many of you have followed me on Twitter and been a part of our #MKBiblechats as well as many of our Comedy Hours (we don’t have to be morose to be Christians). I have personally devoted between 60-70 hours per week the past 7 months without pay to develop the chats and Bible Memory Coins. We are now at the point where in order to maintain that commitment, we need a minimum of 100 Bible Memory Society memberships.

If you value what we have done and are doing, I would encourage you to join. You will be supporting and enabling us to get God’s Word out all over America in the form of coins which will literally last for generations. I dream often of having millions of coins in circulation that say things like, ”What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?”…and “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life.”

Will you join us and ‘Come Help Change Our World”?  God’s Word and the love of Jesus Christ on the cross is the only hope for our many personal and societal difficulties. This $50.00 fee will help us to move forward and begin what I hope and dream will become a great work honoring our Lord and His Word.

Email me at MyTweetBuds@gmail.com or Direct Message me on twitter at @BibleMemCoins and I will send you the information on how to sign up and make payment.

It is my  hope andprayer you will pray and consider this very seriously. In this awesome time of the year when we celebrate our Lord’s birth,  “May the Lord bless you, and keep you; may the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; may the Lord lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace.”

God's Richest Blessing,
Mike