Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement. It is always a danger to get our priorities wrong . Thankyou joosep for the reminder that our goal is to know him! Blessings to you all! ππππ
Goodnews, I commend you for your accomplishment and for the great amount of time you've spent meditating on God's Word! And if I may, these are the verses which came to my mind just now; this is my prayer for myself, for all of us, from Jeremiah 9 (NASV) verses 23 and 24:
This is what the LORD says: βLet no wise man boast of his wisdom, nor let the mighty man boast of his might, nor a rich man boast of his riches; but let the one who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises mercy, justice, and righteousness on the earth; for I delight in these things,β declares the LORD.
I would like to emphasize, I didn't mean to minimize or diminish anyone's accomplishments here with respect to badges, goals reached, etc. But I did feel moved to affirm that knowing God and giving all to Him, and serving Him as His son or daughter, is the true purpose and end-game of all the effort we put in on this site. The value of knowing God as described by Jeremiah is infintesimally greater than the value of any badge we might get.
I guess, as I get older, I get more and more serious about the fact that we will all die and stand before Him; for some of us it could be very soon. What will we say in that moment?
Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement. It is always a danger to get our priorities wrong . Thankyou joosep for the reminder that our goal is to know him! Blessings to you all! ππππ
Honestly, joosep, if you hadn't posted the second part I wouldn't have taken it that way. That being said, I have a lot in my life to feel guilty about already as I read the Word. After all, the Bible acts as a high powered spotlight revealing who I am versus who I need to be. For that reason, I'm just not going to add "Don't be proud of your Bible memorization badges" to that list. Great scriptures though. I've never seen that one before.
It wasn't at all my intention to say to you "Don't be proud of your Bible memorization badges". If you read through my two previous comments carefully, you will see that.
I will also repeat, I stated it as a prayer (see my first comment). I stated it is a prayer for myself, first of all. And I also felt it important to affirm it as well as a prayer for all of us.
It is a struggle really. I go to a church that says you can never be proud of anything because that is the sin of Satan. And while I get that on a conceptual level, there is value in being proud sometimes. I am proud of the 191 day login streak. It motivates me to add one more day which brings me closer to God. Likewise, the achievements of others on here motivates me to do the same thing. I think that's sort of what Jesus was talking about when he spoke of not putting your light under a bushel, but letting it shine to the world. Luli's light with his three year achievement makes me want to brighten my light. And I hope at some point mine does the same for others. So I guess you have to balance being proud in your achievements with knowing that your achievements in memorizing the Word does not earn you grace or get you into heaven (it does, however, earn rewards in this life (Heb 11:6)). I appreciate your contributions joosep. I'm also thankful to have another couple of verses to add to my future collection. On a side note, I wish that we had a way to chat with each other that didn't involve hijacking someone else's achievements. Sorry Goodnews!
It is also interesting to note that the context of Jeremiah 9:23-24 is the failure to keep the law. It is amazing how much the OT equates wisdom with keeping the law. To know him and to love him is to obey him.
Yes, I too am sorry that I hijacked Goodnews' good accomplishment. I totally agree with what you wrote above, onfire. I guess I'd like to add that it's Satan, in my opinion, who disguises himself and tells us, or demands, that we must achieve all this right now! Whereas Jesus said, 28 Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30, NASV).
So we have to balance Jeremiah 9 against Matthew 11.