Goodnews, concerning many events happening in the world, I am doing my best to keep my focus squarely on our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for your prayers.
Hello Goodnews :) I just want to say, I've done this with the Psalms also, I mean, combining several Psalms into one set. I think it can be a useful idea. Honestly, I don't know these Psalms too particularly well, except for Psalm 19; and Psalm 20:6-8 is the basis of a song we used to sing in church a long time ago.
Yes, I relate. I've felt the same confliction. At times I wish there were an option here to disable the News Feed. At other times, I'm encouraged by the discussion.
may I comment here? just a quick note to say, if you wish, you can create an identical "Complete - Mark 01" set, leave it private, and then when you name it, name it "Complete - Mark 01 - Private". Then choose that set whenever you work on it. That way you wouldn't feel bad anymore :)
BUT on the other hand I LIKE it when I see that once again your are working on Complete - Mark 01. It's edifying ... and Paul tells us many times to edify one another. For example, 1 Corinthians 14:12 and 26. I'm serious about this, to put it a different way, it encourages me, inspires me, motivates me, edifies me to see that someone is straining towards the memorization of all of the Gospel of Mark. In that sense you don't need to feel bad at all :)
Thank you Moviegoer :) at this point my goal for Revelation is not memorization, but that clear and methodical, meditative pace you mentioned :) I would certainly agree that Mark's clear narrative is a great aid to memorization. I'm looking forward to the day when I read here that you've begun 1 Peter!
I meant to say, Revelation is intended for us to read, and study, and memorize; yes, many parts of it are difficult to understand, but as we study we can increase in wisdom as the Holy Spirit leads us in our thinking. And the parts which we do not yet understand, I believe, we can receive them as children, and still be blessed. Our heavenly Father said it, so we believe it. Just like how a young child in a healthy household believes anything which his or her father says.
I'm doing what I might call a survey of various parts of the Bible. I use a Google Spreadsheet to set a completion goal for each portion.
For example, I'm going through Revelation, sets of 10 verses at a time which I review for 3 days, to be completed in 121 days. There are 404 verses in Revelation, divided by sets of ten makes 40 sets, times 3 -- because I review each set for 3 days -- equals about 121 days for completion.
I'm doing the same with other parts of the Bible.
So at the moment my goal is not to reach "fully learnt" but rather to cover larger portions of the Bible as a whole, and going through them slowly and meditatively.
I use the "practice" option whiche each verse that scores less than 90% as I review, and keep repeating that practice option on the spot, until I can get 100%. That's my method of doing it slowly and meditatively.
Thank you Janet. 1 Samuel 16:7 Matthew 6:1-7 God is concerned about the attitude and condition of the human heart. Of course, what we do is very important, but even more important is why we do what we do. Do we do "good" things to give an appearance of righteousness to others? Or do we do them because we truly love Him and want Him to be glorified and known by others? John 5:39-40 The Jews were searching the Scriptures, which is a very good thing. But yet they were not willing to come to Jesus, so that they might have life. These are, I guess I could say, the core issues that God has been speaking to me about, and as I write this I point the finger at myself. I very much need God's grace in this area. May we all love Him more and more and be motivated always by that love and our desire to bring glory to Him.
yes, I'm aware that he hasn't logged any activity since November. I wrote that earlier message in the hope, and with the prayer, the he would log in, read it and participate again.
yes, I agree, mrsmoo, I have been praying for him -- and will continue