This guest post was done by Bill Walton. He was a member of the FBC group that memorized the Sermon on the Mount. I asked him to provide his thoughts on the last few months.

If I summed-up in one word what I came away with while Partnering to Remember: The Sermon on the Mount, it would be “practice.”

“… but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:19)

Before I accepted God’s gift of salvation I remember thinking that there is no way I could live a life serving God. It would be too difficult to do all the things that a Christian is commanded to do. It would be impossible. Going to church was never a priority in my home while growing up. Until my wife and I joined First Baptist Church in 2006 I never regularly attended church anywhere. Needless to say I lived a life that was missing the mark about being a Christian.

Partnering to remember the Sermon on the Mount brings back familiar feelings, but now I embrace these feelings from a different perspective. It is through faith that I can take comfort in knowing that what God wants from me is to trust him and to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and he will provide the things I need to do the rest. Sometimes it is hard to separate how God expects me live with the way I want to be. As I read and memorized the verses the message made me look at my inner state of mind and heart and take an accountability of my Christian discipleship. I am far from God’s standard. I routinely pray for forgiveness and a stronger desire to read, study, and abide in God’s word and get out there and “practice” the examples that Jesus showed and taught. Good practices turn into good routines.

The time our group set aside each week to meet and recite verses was uplifting. It’s a blessing to have peace of mind to openly discuss God’s word and give your take on it or learn something you may have not known. Partnering to Remember is, for me, a great way to fellowship through scripture reading and discussions and then put them into practice.

I once heard that Wednesday’s night services are like the old stick our moms used to hold-up the middle of the clothes line. I never understood that until I experienced the difficulty of living according to Jesus’ examples. You need support and encouragement through the week. To fellowship outside of church with a “kingdom seeking” group who cares for your knowledge and development in God’s word is another great way to hold you up through the week until you reach Sunday.

This guest post was done by Kenneth Matthews. He was a member of the FBC group that memorized the Sermon on the Mount. I asked him to provide his thoughts on the last few months.

This is the second round of memorization I’ve done.  The first one was to memorize Philippians and now I’ve completed Matthew 5-7.

Personally, I have found it to be rewarding. It’s been helpful when I hear sermons on related matters because I can immediately recall other related texts. Many people memorize a verse here and a verse there and that’s good, but this practice helps you really understand the context of what you’re memorizing, rather than picking a verse and trying to apply it to something that may be completely out of context. Many times, verses we focus on memorizing are ‘warm and fuzzy’, but this practice forces you to confront hard verses and really examine the text. Second Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is inspired by God so we need to study all of Scripture, not just the parts we are comfortable with. It has also been convicting to study more of God’s Word and realize how fallen we really are and that it’s only by God’s grace through Christ that we can have a relationship with Him.

Contrary to what you might think, it doesn’t take much time to do. In fact, it’s been interesting to notice that just like exercise, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. The program divides the verses into manageable pieces of around 5 verses a week. I have found that it works well for me to practice the week’s verses when I’m waiting at red lights or repeat them to myself while driving, so if it’s something that you think you don’t have time to do, please reconsider.  If you can memorize the words to songs on the radio, why can’t you do that with The Word?

Over the last year, I’ve memorized over 300 verses of Scripture. I started with Tim Brister’s “memory moleskine” on Philippians in January 2011. A group of guys from church worked on that through Easter. During the summer, I learned the “Songs of Ascent” (Psalms 120-134). I had previously read through those psalms at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Those words had an impact on my time there, and I wanted to learn them. This fall, I memorized the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew, chapters 5-7 – again with a group from church, including my wife.

I’ve been reading and studying various books of the Bible for church over the decades, yet I’ve never sat down to memorize Scripture. Since I’ve been an adult, I’ve never hidden God’s word in my heart. It feels like I’ve wasted years of my life that I could have spent learning the Bible. God’s word seems so much more precious to me now.

Needless to say, I’m hooked. I plan to continue working through Scripture, memorizing passages from the Old and New Testament. I’m going to work on a short NT book next, Philemon, but my goal is to learn one of the songs of the “Suffering Servant” in time for Easter (April 8, 2012). I’m looking at the passage in Isaiah 51:13-53:12. I’ve broken it into five weeks, with three verses each week. I hope the pacing will encourage more within my church to participate with me. After that, I will go into another NT book, possibly Colossians or James.

I’m excited about next year!