Introduce kids to the Savior of sinners. This is a series of audio podcasts for kids who want to meet with Jesus by using Meeting with Jesus: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids. Listen to previous episodes here.

USA Memory Champion Nelson Dillis can memorize 240 names and faces in 15 minutes. He can memorize a deck of cards in 30 seconds and three decks in five minutes. He memorizes 100 lines of poetry a day.

That’s incredible isn’t it! God has given us amazing abilities to memorize. Imagine if we used that ability to memorize Scripture.

WHY MEMORIZE SCRIPTURE? 

It helps us beat sin and Satan: When we are tempted, we can recall Bible verses to help us be strong, as Jesus did when he was tempted by Satan.

It helps us draw near to God: Scripture is God speaking to us and therefore if we go over it in our minds we are hearing God’s voice, and that helps us talk with him.

It helps us speak God’s Word: If we have God’s Word in our hearts, we can speak it to others without opening a Bible. Perhaps you can encourage a Christian or witness to a non-Christian with the verses you’ve memorized.

These are three good reasons to memorize Scripture, aren’t they? But how do we do it?

HOW DO WE MEMORIZE SCRIPTURE?

Here are some tips to help you memorize the weekly Bible verse in Meeting with Jesus.

1. Write it out: Science tells us that writing something out helps our minds to remember it. There’s a space in the book for you to do this. But you could also write it out on an Index card so you can put it in your pocket and refresh your memory with God’s Word wherever you are.

2. Highlight it: Once you’ve written it out, you can maybe highlight different sections of the verse or different words in the verse with color highlights. Our minds remember color better than just black on white.

3. Add graphics: Maybe you can draw a small picture of some of the things mentioned in the verse. Our minds remember funny and weird things really well, so you don’t need to be a great artist to do this. In some ways, the worse the picture, the better you will remember it!

4. Speak it out: Don’t just go over the verse silently in your head. Speak it out as you do so. You are then hearing the verse as well as reading it and that helps your memory. As you read it out, emphasize some words, or put the words in a rhythm. That also aids memory.

5. Short and often: It’s better to do a little at a time, maybe three words a day. If you can go back over the words a few times in the day, your memory will really thank you for that. Once you have cemented three words in your mind, then add another three. You’ll get better and faster at this with practice.

6. Test: Ask your mom or dad to test you at the end of the week of learning a verse. That will make you want to learn it. And maybe they can give you a reward as well!

We may never be a memory champion like Nelson Dillis. But if we memorize Scripture, we’re memorizing something far more important and far more helpful than decks of cards and telephone numbers.

Listen to this episode on Living the Bible podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Spotify.

Introduce kids to the Savior of sinners. This is a series of audio podcasts for kids who want to meet with Jesus by using Meeting with Jesus: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids. Listen to previous episodes here.

I’m sure some of you are really missing school during this lockdown. I must be honest, if I was your age and the government closed my school, I’d be so happy. I’m afraid I didn’t like school at all. I wasn’t a very good student at school. I found some subjects really boring. I’d tune out and my mind would wander. I’d leave the class knowing nothing.

But one teacher figured out how to teach me. She kept asking me questions. Of course, at first I had no idea what the answer was. I’d been miles away in my mind. It was pretty embarrassing. Everyone would laugh. Eventually I realized that I’d better listen if I wanted to answer the questions and not be embarrassed. I actually started learning, and, even more surprisingly, I enjoyed it!

Some times we read the Bible but don’t meet with Jesus. We get sleepy. We stop thinking. We don’t learn how to learn more.

What’s the solution? Good questions are the solution and help us meet with Jesus. That’s why I included a daily question in my book Meeting with Jesus. Let’s look at how important questions are for meeting with Jesus.

QUESTIONS KEEP US AWAKE IN THE BIBLE

They make sure we concentrate on what we’re reading so that we can answer the question.

They make us write out the Bible in our answers

Do questions just keep us awake? No, they can do even more.

QUESTIONS MAKE US THINK ABOUT THE BIBLE

We have to look for answers in the passage and think about what we read.

We have to ask Jesus for help sometimes, which helps us meet with him.

What about the future, after I finish the Meeting with Jesus book?

QUESTIONS TRAIN US TO STUDY THE BIBLE

You will learn a lot about the Bible using Meeting with Jesus.

But you will also learn how to learn. In learning the kind of questions to ask, you will learn how to study the Bible.

Do you see how important questions are?

• When we’re falling asleep, they wake us up.
• When we’re dreaming about something else, they make us think about the Bible.
• When we’re answering questions about the Bible, we’re learning how to ask questions about the Bible.

Ask God to help you use questions to make meetings with Jesus more lively, more interesting, and more beneficial.

Listen to this episode on Living the Bible podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Spotify.

Introduce kids to the Savior of sinners. This is a series of audio podcasts for kids who want to meet with Jesus by using Meeting with Jesus: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids. Listen to previous episodes here.

Imagine a meeting that was just one-sided in conversation. That’s not really a meeting is it? If we met a friend and we never said anything back to them, we just listened and then walked away, do you think your friend would be very happy? Do you think your friend would want to be your friend? No, of course not. A meeting is two people getting together to talk and listen to one another.

So why would people try to meet with Jesus without prayer? While the Bible is the way God talks to us, prayer is the way we talk to Jesus. Meeting with Jesus involves both Bible reading and prayer.

If we don’t pray, Jesus doesn’t hear our voice and we won’t hear Jesus’s voice in the Bible. So, let me encourage you to pray as part of meeting with Jesus.

PRAYER IS A MEETING WITH JESUS

• We thank him for the meeting
• We tell him how much we love/need him

PRAYER HELPS US MEET WITH JESUS

• He speaks to us in the Bible
• He helps us through the Bible

PRAYER MAKES THE MEETING LAST

• We are changed by the meeting
• We help others meet with Jesus.

Why not pray something really simple like, “Lord Jesus I want to meet with you and talk with you. I want to tell you about my life and share some of my problems and needs. But I also want to tell you how much I love you and want to hear your voice in the Bible.”

Make prayer part of meeting with Jesus because prayer is a meeting with Jesus, it helps us meet with Jesus, and it makes the meeting last.

Listen to this episode on Living the Bible podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Spotify.

Introduce kids to the Savior of sinners. This is a series of audio podcasts for kids who want to meet with Jesus by using Meeting with Jesus: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids. Listen to previous episodes here.

There are lots of people we could meet in the world. So, why meet with Jesus?

Usually when we want to meet with someone it’s for one of three reasons:

• What can they do for you?
• What can they be for you?
• What can they give to you?

So let’s think about what Jesus can do for you, be for you and give to you. Hopefully that will make you want to meet Jesus more than anyone else.

MEET WITH JESUS BECAUSE HE’S THE ONLY SAVIOR

• No one else can save you from sin
• He alone can save you from sin

MEET WITH JESUS BECAUSE HE IS THE BEST FRIEND

• He’s always there and never leaves
• He always loves and never stops loving

MEET WITH JESUS BECAUSE HE’S THE BEST MASTER

• He gives reliable guidance with his Word
• He gives wonderful service opportunities to help people with their greatest needs.

What can he do for you? He can save you.

What can he be for you? He can be your best friend.

What can he give to you? He can give you a reason to live and a rule to live by.

Motivate yourself to meet with Jesus because of his salvation, friendship, and service.

Listen to this episode on Living the Bible podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Spotify.

Introduce kids to the Savior of sinners. This is a series of audio podcasts for kids who want to meet with Jesus by using Meeting with Jesus: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids. Listen to previous episodes here.

What do you do when you want to spend time with friends? You make a plan don’t you? Or you ask your parents to make a plan. You arrange a time and place to play together. “Meet at the park at 4pm.” Unless you make a plan it’s not going to happen.

It’s the same with meeting Jesus. You need to have a plan. Many people want to meet Jesus but don’t have a plan. They want to meet but never actually meet because they don’t have a plan. They say “Yes, of course I want to meet with Jesus,” and “I hope to meet with Jesus,” but they have no plan. They don’t set a time, a date, and a place. They keep putting that off later and later in life.

So, you need a plan to meet with Jesus, and that plan means setting a regular time and place to meet with Jesus. For example, if you say to your friend, “Let’s meet every day at 6pm,” then that will become a habit and you’ll never forget it.” However, if you say, “Let’s remember to meet up often,” but never set a time and place, it’s not going to be a habit, and it will happen only when you both remember, and that may not be very often. So let me suggest a two-part plan.

Plan to meet with Jesus early in life

• You are never too young to meet with Jesus: If you’re six, don’t say, I’ll wait until I’m seven, or eight, or ten, or twenty. Meet with Jesus early in life.

• You’re never too old to meet with Jesus: If you’re listening to this and you’re a parent or grandparent, remember, you’re never too old to meet with Jesus. You may have put it off for years but maybe this kids book, Meeting with Jesus, can help you meet him before it’s too late.

Plan to meet with Jesus every day

• Same time each day: What helps me to remember is to plan to meet with Jesus around my eating. It’s something I do the at the same time every day, and so it’s easier to remember. I do my own private Bible reading in the morning just after my breakfast, and our family meet with Jesus to sing and read His Word and chat with him via prayer just after evening supper.

• Same place each day: Find a quiet place in your house, maybe your bedroom, and meet with Jesus there every day. Keep your Bible, your Meeting with Jesus book, and your pencil or pen there and then you don’t need to look for it every day.

Meet with Jesus early in life and every day. Make a plan if you want to meet with Jesus.

Listen to this episode on Living the Bible podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Spotify.

Some of us have good memories, while some of us have poor memories. Even those with good memories, though, can’t remember everything, and eventually start forgetting more as they age. So we all forget something at some point or other.

Sometimes, our forgetfulness has limited consequences (e.g. forgetting to wash our car). Other times, our forgetfulness has far greater consequences (e.g. forgetting to put gas in the car).

Today, I want to consider with you a forgetfulness that has very serious consequences. As Christians we sometimes forget how spiritually dead we were before Christ gave us life. Christ may have given us life last year, or many years ago, but we’ve forgotten what life was like, or what we were like, before Christ gave us life. This has serious consequences. When we forget how spiritually dead we were

• We don’t realize how desperate our condition was (which undermines humility)
• We don’t realize how bad the consequences were (which undermines gratitude)
• We don’t realize how great God’s life-giving power was (which undermines worship)

The Colossians faced the same challenge, but, in Colossians 2:13-15, the Apostle Paul reminded them of what their condition was, how awful the consequences were, and how great God’s life-giving power was. He did this to increase their humility, gratitude, and worship. We want to learn from how Paul did this, but, first, let’s remind ourselves of the background to these verses.

For more, see my sermon notes.  Scroll down a bit further and you’ll find a one-page sermon summary infographic. Index to other sermon notes here.