Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:36-40)
I've been wanting to share these verses for a long time. I hope you will copy them on half of a 3x5 card (front and back) and carry them in your pocket until they will flow through your mind without effort and flow out of your mouth to share with many people.
I love to remember that President Abraham Lincoln practiced writing verses on scraps of paper and carrying them in his pocket while he was memorizing them. I carry one card in my shirt pocket all week and focus on it by quoting it as often as I think of it all day long—maybe 25 times. Seven days times 25 comes to 175 times.
It works! After a week, retire that verse into weekly review. You can do your reviewing early in the morning or sometime before you go to bed. I don't do much reviewing during the day. After you accumulate a lot of verses in your weekly review, retire some of them to your monthly review. You are going to be pleased with the results you are going to get by practicing this simple idea.
I got the idea from Abraham Lincoln and Ron Hood. I'm 75 and still working on memorizing. A teaspoon of cod liver oil every day and daily practice at memorizing is good for your brain. No kidding! It is good for you!
I send the Good Morning! verse(s) to four groups of people by cell phone text message. That's not for everybody but some like it. It's a quick on-the-go way of looking at one verse or two and looking at it throughout the day. If you would like to be put on the phone list, let me know (encourager@biblewalking.com) . In the subject line type: phone subscribe Give me your complete phone number and your URL(?) address (Verizon, or whoever). We'll start sending those from my computer soon. So far, it has been with my thumbs the old-fashioned way. Now then, let's get to the verses.
Jesus is not talking about how to be saved. No one has ever been saved by keeping the Law of Moses. The law was given to show people how to live on the earth and to show us we cannot attain righteousness and need the righteousness of Christ imputed to us.
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. (Galatians3:24-25)
Paul explains further: Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. (Romans 4:6-8)
God says that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). So, our text today was not given to save our souls. We cannot be saved by keeping God's law and we cannot be saved by keeping our own made-up, home-made laws. How many self-righteous people are there who will tell you in a skinny minute: "Well, I'll tell you right now I wouldn't do some of the things some of those church members down there do. No siree!" They are self-righteous, above it all, a puffed-up toad. And they are probably right. They may know some sorry sot in the church who owes them money or drinks booze like a fish or cusses like a sailor. That's home-made righteousness.
The law was given like a mirror in the bathroom to let us know our face is dirty. But a bathroom mirror will not wash our face. It takes soap and water to clean up a greasy, dirty face. It takes the blood of Christ to wash your soul.
There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
—William Cowper
The Law was given: … that every mouth might be stopped and the whole world become guilty before God (see Romans 3:19).
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