
November 3, 2021
Episode #118
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What does it mean to hide God’s written Word in our hearts? David and Karen Mains discuss the delight that comes from memorizing verses of Scripture and how this activity has a powerful impact on a believer’s life.
Episode Transcript
David: Those who delight in memorizing scripture will discover its impact goes far beyond their expectation.
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David: I know I was in college, so the memory has to be from at least some 60 plus years ago. That’s a long time, but it’s still fresh with me.
Karen: Well, I’m eager to hear what this memory is all about.
David: Okay.
Intro: Welcome to the Before We Go Podcast featuring Dr. David Mains and his wife, noted author Karen Mains. Here’s David and Karen Mains.
David: It was a Sunday church service. It was Sunday morning. Nothing was unusual. It was the normal time for scripture to be read, and it wasn’t that uncommon for someone who was a part of the congregation to read the scripture.
I was a college student. I remember the setting, the building, everything, and this white-haired gentleman got up to read the scripture, presumably. I knew his name. I could say his name, but it’s irrelevant right at the moment. And he paused for a moment, and then he closed his eyes. And then he started reciting the scripture, and it was a long passage.
Karen: Oh, my goodness.
David: And it got more and more quiet in the sanctuary. And when he finished, he opened his eyes and walked back to where he was seated.
Karen: Didn’t really need a sermon after that, right?
David: It was very, very powerful. I mean, all these years later, I remember it.
Karen: Yeah, well.
David: You know, you’re almost thinking, oh my goodness.
Karen: Yeah. In surveys and studies of worship services, the reading of the scripture is the time when people sort of phase out the most.
David: Yes.
Karen: So that kind of thing, you would have been glued. The whole congregation would have been glued to this old white-haired man reciting a whole portion of scripture from memory. I mean, it gives me the chills, doesn’t it?
David: So, we’re going to talk about memorizing scripture, and I kind of thought that might be a negative to you, because I know your background was almost being overfed. Too much scripture.
Karen: Well, I’m 78, so I’ve kind of grown out of some of that stuff. But I was a part of a campus Bible quiz team. This was done all over the states. I mean, they actually had a national playoff.
David: Oh, yeah. It was huge. Youth for Christ was a big, big man when you were in high school.
Karen: In the campus Bible clubs and secular high school campuses. So, I was a part of the local memory team. I remember, David, we memorized. I can’t remember how many books. That was for almost my whole high school experience. I think I’ve memorized seven books of the Bible word perfectly. One of them was the book of John, the Gospel of John.
David: That’s a big one.
Karen: So, no mean feat. James was another one.
David: You need to pick up a Titus or a second Thessalonians, or third John.
Karen: But in my years since, I’m looking back as far as what that did. In some ways, it was kind of force-reading scripture for maybe the wrong cause. All very good intents to hide God’s word in your heart.
David: The closest I came, I had to memorize, I know, 50 verses to go to camp free.
Karen: Yeah.
David: You had to say them one after another and they had to be word perfect.
Karen: Yeah, word perfect. And this had to be word perfect as well. We meet as teams as I’m assessing this and remembering, and you do a playoff. I mean, you’d have different teams from different rallies, and you sat on chairs in front and the question would come up and the first person out of their chair was the one who got to answer the question.
David: You didn’t always get the whole question.
Karen: You always, you didn’t always get the whole question. So, you sort of have to complete the question and then answer it. So, you didn’t want to jump too soon, but if you waited too long, then the other team would take the advantage. So, my assessment of that has been that it was almost a force-feeding of scripture, the best of intentions. But when you memorize that much scripture, maybe for the wrong reason to win a quiz on a quiz team.
David: You’re being ultra-critical.
Karen: Maybe you don’t want to look at scriptures for many years of your life because you’ve had so much of it. I hated oatmeal as a little girl. I remember my dad on breakfast and he forced me to eat a bowl of oatmeal. I was young, you know, two years old, maybe two or three. And I did what any child would do in those circumstances. You just throw it up.
David: Poor Dad Burton.
Karen: He learned that it was not good to force feed a child. They had their own methodologies.
David: Not this child anyway.
Karen: And I think that there was a process after memorizing so much scripture in kind of a force-feeding kind of way. And I had trouble looking at scripture for a lot of my life. But just to show you how mature I am in my old age, I said to myself, you need to be…
David: …also putting the bib on.
Karen: Taking it off. I said to myself, you’ve memorized all those scriptures when you were young. Why don’t you go back to those very same books and passages and re-memorize them now for the right reason, for meditation purposes, to fill your heart with his Word.
David: And you’re doing that now.
Karen: And I’m doing it now.
David: And you’re also, I noticed Jane has come as a house guest for a week, two weeks I guess, and you’re memorizing scripture with her.
Karen: Let me tell a little bit about Jane. Through the years of our lives, we practiced scriptural hospitality and sometimes that’s meant taking people in some of them very displaced in their personality. It had wretched backgrounds in their lives. And so, I think it was about 20 years ago, she was early 40s. Someone brought her to our door to meet me and she was the toughest thing I’ve ever seen.
David: You would say that.
Karen: She had to be. She had developed an exterior demeanor. I mean, it was motorcycle gang maw. You know, I mean, we could go on and on.
David: But the Lord touched her in a marvelous way.
Karen: And she came to our house, and I just was filled with love for her. And that’s, to me, a sign that God wants to work through me to that person. And so, we invited her into our home, and she lived with us for six years. So, she’s come back to visit this summer. She does every summer, and she helps me with odd jobs around the house. And we kind of do some spiritual reconnoitering together in spiritual direction. She has bad dreams still left over from those years. And I said, “One of the ways I think you could combat this impact in your life is to begin to memorize scripture, hide them in her heart and I’ll memorize along with you.” So, we very proudly show off what we’ve memorized.
David: For me, that is beautiful. I know you’ve been working on Psalm 23. And you say the Lord is going to finish it.
Karen: Yeah, the Lord is, and Jane finished. I shall not walk. So, but it’s been good for me too. I really enjoyed it in a minute. But it’s really fun to work this out with her as well.
David: So, you’re going back and rememorizing.
Karen: Yeah.
David: That’s kind of I don’t know if there’s such a word, but let’s use it anyway. You’re rememorizing verses from those sections of the New Testament that you learned so much about.
Karen: It would be passages, whole passages. So, I started with John because we had memorized that one. I haven’t got beyond. “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God….” now I’ve gone a little farther than that. But even quoting that verse to you, I feel very moved emotionally because I am a writer. And the fact that scripture and the description of who God is the word all of a sudden has captivated me in a way that I had not seen before, because it was rote learning. Now it is intentional meditation on it. And so that’s where I’ve been resting in that reality. It’s been extraordinary.
David: Let me put it into a sentence. Those who delight in memorizing scripture will discover its impact goes far beyond their expectations.
Karen: Oh, I agree with that. Say it again. That’s beautiful.
David: Those who delight in memorizing scripture will discover its impact goes far beyond their expectation.
Karen: Yeah, I really agree with that. So, tell us about your memory process, because I know you’re in one now too.
David: It’s kind of coming in the back door, I guess. During my prayer times, I find my thinking seems to be much closer to God’s thinking. As I find, I don’t say God’s speaking. I mean, I’ve never heard him speak out loud. But as I’m processing my thoughts and the scriptures, I try to write in a sentence and sound like…
Karen: Why am I not surprised?
David: What it is the Lord is saying to me and then I look for scripture that verify that.
Karen: Okay.
David: So that’s my process. I can tell you the one I am working on right at the moment. I find that consistently when something bad happens I tell what happens and it’s truthful, but it’s twisted a little bit. So, I’m kind of removed from the guilty category.
Karen: Oh, so you’re not a part of it when something bad happens, are you?
David: I’m usually in the lily white.
Karen: In your mind, right?
David: In my mind. But it’s not lily white in God’s mind. I maybe was not as innocent as I like to present. And so, I’ve said to myself, my words need to have more of God’s stamp of approval if that makes sense. So, then I said, okay, I got to look for something that says this that will seal it in my thinking. And I got to Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth”, and the next section is “and the meditation of my heart,” but “…let the words of my mouth be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”
And I’m saying that by memory, it’s not that long at first, but it’s very important to me as a reminder that I have to be totally true to what happened as far as I can tell. And if that means I wasn’t 100% righteous, then I need to be aware of that. And so that’s kind of the process I’m going through. I find that as I pray, and maybe we can talk about this next time, Jesus says to watch, he’s going to come back again. That’s the biggest thing he says to people, you know, you have to be ready. Don’t be taken by surprise. So what I’m doing is trying to find a verse that will help me not only watch, but understand what watch means. And I’m on the lookout for that verse. Does that make sense what I’m saying?
Karen: Yeah.
David: So, it’s just a different process.
Karen: And perhaps a different way than a lot of other people would approach scripture. So, we all have particularities in our identities and the way we function and in our personalities. So, I think that’s a good example for people who are like you very orderly in your thinking.
David: Yeah, I wrote it down. It is important to regularly remind myself that King Jesus said he will be returning unexpectedly and in power and great glory. So that’s where my search is now.
Karen: So, you’re looking for the scriptures that say that.
David: Yeah, I may do, but I’m trying to find the one that really says it for me. And then I’ll memorize it.
Karen: I would say that if that were me explaining that happening to me and see if I’m getting it right, I get an inner nudge. And I attribute many of those inner nudges to the work of the Holy Spirit or the whisper of the Holy Spirit in my heart. To ensure that they really are, then I would ask for several validations. And your validations are coming out of scripture. I’ll take experiential validations as well. But you’re focusing the verification on scripture when you have verses that are sympathetic or open up even more. This sort of central meaning of what you’re working with.
David: It’s a little different than being given a pack of memory cards. Those are very helpful.
Karen: Yeah, those are helpful.
David: But they may not be as personal. Anyway, everybody’s different. Thank goodness that we’re different and that we can converse and learn from one another.
Karen: Well, I think learning from one another is huge. And maybe this is a nice conversation to open up in a small group. What’s your relationship to memorizing scripture? Are you doing it? Do you want to be held accountable? Is the Holy Spirit nudging you about it? What have you learned recently?
David: Are there memories you need to let go of?
Karen: Are there memories that you need to let go of?
David: So, very fine. Let’s go back. Those who delight in memorizing scripture will discover its impact goes far beyond their expectations. I think another thing that I want to do, we started with me talking about that gentleman quoting scripture, I’m wanting to find a passage that I can memorize. And I don’t mean to entertain, but I’d like to be able to have a memory of a section of scripture that would be appropriate to give in a church service or in a small group, whatever. Just so I can say, this is very meaningful to me. And I’ve put it in my heart.
Let me share it with you. And whether that’s in a restaurant with a couple of friends or whether that’s in a large gathering, it doesn’t matter. Scripture is very powerful. And what happens is when you memorize it, you slow it all down until you get the nub of what is there. And then you’re able to say, that’s mine. And it’s mine not in a cocky way, but it’s mine in the sense of saying, this is very precious. And I’ll use it at the appropriate time.
Karen: You know, I’m thinking of the little bit I’ve learned about the way the brain cells work.
David: Ok.
Karen: And the scripture says that I word have I hid in my heart. But I’m wondering if it wouldn’t even be translated in its intent to mean I have stuffed my brain cells as full as I possibly can as much scripture as I could memorize. And that’s the great storehouse that I have at the end of my life is this brain stuffed with scriptures. Another take on that verse.
David: There’s a movie where the one guy who was precious because he had memorized the whole Bible and they had a protective slide. I was one of the big African American actor. I think it’s Denzel Washington. Yeah, it’s kind of a dystopian.
Karen: Dystopian communities are non-functional or very anti-Christian communities who won’t let you have a Bible.
David: I don’t think I have any ambition to memorize the whole Bible. I think that that would be a Herculean task probably would make me very, very sensitive with the Holy Spirit.
Karen: There are people who have done that at some point in time. They have memorized the whole Bible word for word, so they didn’t have a Bible in their house. But it wasn’t like we said in their house. It’s extraordinary really.
David: We’re not wanting people to take that on yet. We’ll let that for a future generation when we find those people and the word continues alive in individuals’ life. Anyway, tell us again what you’re working on.
Karen: As far as scripture? Well, I’m working on the Psalm 23. And then I’m also working on those first opening as I mentioned before those first one.
David: John 1?
Karen: Yeah, John 1. But I can’t get beyond the impact it’s having on me.
David: Well, that’s good. That’s good. And for people who have read scripture a lot and has gotten a little bit slow.
Karen: Passage maybe.
David: Passage is great. Right.
Karen: Overuse. But you need to step into another way of approaching it that may totally enliven your life. And I think that’s what your sentence is.
David: And when we run out of this being new to us then maybe we need to memorize scripture together.
Karen: That would be fun.
David: I’ll do verse one. You do verse one.
Karen: Oh, that sounds like a great idea. Let’s try that. I think I’m like you know what I’m talking about.
David: You know those two great-grand husband and wife they got up and they did…
Karen: A whole chapter. A chapter from memory.
David: Yeah, he probably had trouble with the second verse, so she resided that way. I don’t know.
Karen: Whatever. Anyway, we’re saying this to our listeners. If you’re not memorizing scripture, we hope this will encourage you to do so.
David: Perfect.
Karen: And if you are memorizing scripture, hurrah! Kudos to you. Keep on.
David: Yes.
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