Greetings Bible Recall List! We have some new members since we finished a year of memorization exercises on the New Testament. I want to welcome you! The memory verses are found here: http://www.lubbockchurch.com/resources/bible-recall The lessons on the memory verses are found on our blog page here: http://www.lubbockchurch.com/about/blog

Brother Kyle Hammock preached on spiritual growth yesterday (March 31, 2019). As a small part of that journey in spiritual growth, I am resuming Bible Recall in a new direction—THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.

On the first Monday of the month, I will send out a lesson from Proverbs. We will begin with Proverbs 1 for April. I would encourage you to consider five exercises:

• Carefully read the chapter of the month. You might want to read it several times throughout the month.
• Read the article.
• Choose a verse or set of verses in the chapter to memorize for that month. A good suggestion from a young member in Washington State is to partner up with someone to hold each other accountable in choosing a passage to memorize it. Use our suggestions on memorization helps found here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/biblerecall/TgMvHCzBMxE
• Find ways to apply the wisdom from Proverbs in your own life.
• Share the wisdom in Proverbs with another person. Encourage others to join the list. Relate any lessons that you have learned or benefit from as it pertains to the Scripture assignment. (Today it is easier than ever to share information with email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. But also a good ole fashion letter mailed or verbal conversation has its own peculiar benefit too!) These lessons can also be used for family bible study time.

These articles will be posted in our articles page: https://www.lubbockchurch.com/resources/articles

Revelation Recall Verses

Here are the verses from the book of Revelation that were submitted to me. Thanks for the participation!

Nick Wallace (2:10)
I vote for Revelation 2:10. The verse ends by saying, “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life,” making it a suitable verse to end this session of Bible Recall.

Revelation 2:10, “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Buddy Long (3:11):
Revelation 3:11,
“Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.”

I find this verse very encouraging due to the fact that Jesus says that He is coming back and quickly. It also encourages me to stay the course of righteousness.

Jim Hammock (22:18, 19 or 21:4):
As a warning, a good passage to memorize is Rev. 22:18-19.  But on a positive note, 21:4 is very good.

Revelation 22:18, 19,
“For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Revelation 21:4, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Note: It is interesting to me that passages from the beginning and the end of the book were selected. These words encourage all readers who follow Christ to “overcome.” No goal is more important; no victory has more at stake; no quest requires more daily resolve to meet this world with all its distractions than the resolve to overcome what Revelation calls each of us to do. Selfish pride, intimidation, self-will, and self-deceiving lusts always oppose our end goal.

Jude 1:3
“Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”

Ty Duncan recently taught from Jude and this passage was brought out as the central thought of the book. It makes a fitting memory verse to begin this new year.

Consider that disciples of must contend for the faith because:

1.        Men have turned the grace of God into lewdness and deny God (1:4). Men have, since early times, perverted the grace of God. It should not surprise us when they do this today.
2.        The Lord after He had saved the people out of the land of Egypt destroyed those who did not believe (1:5).  There is no solid support for the notion that when a person is saved he is permanently and forever sealed and can never sin so as to be lost! He must continue in the faith to inherit Heaven, our Promised Land. If this is not the application of the text, then what is saying?
3.        Even the angels who did not keep their proper domain are doomed (1:6). If angels cannot get away with sin, why should we think we can? “But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the LORD; and be sure your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23).
4.        Sodom and Gomorrah’s downfall serve as an example of what it means to suffer the vengeance of God (1:7).
5.        Men have rejected authority (1:8).
6.        Men speak evil of what they do not know (1:10). Ignorance is often at the source of much evil talk.
7.        There are spots in our love feasts (1:12). Our “love feasts” are not church-sponsored meals as some have fallaciously asserted. Paul never authorized such a practice (1 Cor. 11:22, 34). Our love feasts are not composed of any kind of literal feast any more than these wrongdoers are literally “spots,” “clouds,” “late autumn trees,” or “raging waves of the sea.” “Love feasts” is a figurative expression describing our worship time before God generally and possibly the Lord’s Supper specifically. The Greek word for “spot” was used in Homer’s Odyssey in the sense of a rock or reef in the sea which destroyed ships (see 3:298). Jude is speaking in the same way about men who come into the church and with raging waves spiritually and morally collide Christians into a rock (cf. 1 Tim. 1:19).
8.        The Lord is coming to execute judgment (1:14, 15). Judgment is sure.

Let’s become contenders of the faith so as to preserve the integrity of stance before God.

--Steven J. Wallace

3 John 2
“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”

John’s prayer for the beloved Gaius was that he would prosper in all things and be in health and that these would be in proportion to his soul’s health. It is not wrong to pray for good health and to seek to be prosperous. But what is wrong is placing little weight on the soul’s condition. While we know there are many whose physical health supersedes their souls’ health. We also know that there are others still whose spiritual health dwarfs their physical condition.

The question for each of us to ask is “What would my prosperity and health be like if such were in proportion to my soul?” What would my status in life be like? What would I feel like? Would I have heart problems because my heart is not right with God (Acts 8:21)? Would my bones rot due to envy (Prov. 14:30)? Would my appetite be morbid due to a lack of hunger for spiritual things (Matt. 5:6)? What would my hearing be like (2 Tim. 4:3, 4)? How well would my vision and memory be (2 Pet. 1:9)?

Would I want John to make this prayer for me?

--Steven J. Wallace

2 John 9

“Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.”

While the apostle John has a lot to say about love, he stresses the importance of being doctrinally correct. Real love must have its basis in the love and respect for God. To move beyond the doctrine of Christ is to move beyond the truth. One can never leave the truth and retain God any more than one can leave the teaching of the gospel as an act of love.  

• “Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love” (2 Jn. 3).
• “But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him” (1 Jn. 2:5).
• “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 Jn. 5:3).

--Steven J. Wallace