10 Million in 2010

Here are my rambling thoughts about "10 Million in 2010" I hope to edit and organize them soon, but thought some with time on their hands might want to read as is.

You can share your thoughts and/or read other people's thoughts by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

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Is this the year? Are we tired enough of the Almighty Creator of the Universe who supposedly has supernaturally invaded our lives and now dwells in our heart, in actuality being such a trivial part of our day to day life?

Have we experimented enough with the latest and greatest version of the new and improved Republican, Psychologically correct, financially sound "Christian God" custom made to meet our needs and desires on our terms in 2010?

Has the true, historical, living, Biblical God burned in us a desire to deeply and authentically know and experience Him on His terms?

10 Million in 2010 is a campaign to document 10 million verses of Scripture already memorized or being memorized by Dec 31st, 2010.

I admit there is real danger in such a campaign being abused and many legitimate questions that can be raised.

"Can't I just study and meditate on the Scriptures without word for word memorizing them?"

"Why does it have to be all about the numbers? Isn't it more important and valuable for me to memorize a few verses well and spend my time meditating and applying them to my life, rather than mindlessly memorizing a bunch of words that mean nothing to me just so you can get to 10 Million?"

"Are you saying I can't deeply know God and experience Him powerfully working in my life without Scripture memory? I powerfully experience God every Sunday at church and through the week He speaks to me all the time without me memorizing any Bible verses. Who are you to judge my personal relationship with Jesus?"

"I have memorized 100s of verses that I love and meditate on often. Why do I have to document these? Is it really worth the time involved?"

"I see that memverse.com has and is developing contests and charts to motivate us to memorize more Scripture. Doesn't this take the focus off God? Can't it lead to sinful comparing with others resulting in either discourage or pride?

“The Pharisees memorized thousands of verses from the Bible and Jesus exposed them as fakes who did not really know God. Are you trying to make us like the Pharisees?? Hello.... the Christian life is not a dead religion of us trying to act spiritual and doing religious things like memorizing verses to impress God. The Christian life is a living RELATIONSHIP with God!!!"

And there may be more legitimate questions I'm not thinking of right now.

With so many legitimate questions about the value of a "10 Million in 2010" campaign, and with so much danger of potential abuse, why in the world would you want to start such a campaign?

I'm glad you asked. Simply put, I wholeheartedly believe that the immeasurable treasure and transforming power of knowing, loving, worshipping, and serving God more and more through His Word makes any potential danger worth the risk!

1) God used His Word to powerfully draw me to an authentic faith in Jesus and has given me a passion to get to know Him through His Word. I have made and continue to make many mistakes in this life, but I do not regret the hours I've spent memorizing Scripture, nor do I expect to regret it any time in the next 10 million years.

2) There is strength in numbers. I still remember when at the age of 23, God through His Word (in particular GALATIANS 2:20) became real to me. I couldn’t believe how much He changed me on the inside and was so excited to get to know Him through His Word as much as I could. I was also excited looking forward to meeting other Christians whose eyes had been opened like mine were and were as thrilled about getting to know God as I was. I had so many questions. "What passage should I memorize first? What passage has meant the most to you? Can you help me stay fired up when I get down?"

You can imagine my shock when it seemed like no one in any of the churches I knew wanted to get to know God better through His Word. 10 Million verses is not the ultimate prize or an end to itself. I am only excited about “10 Million in 2010” because I believe each and every verse can be used by God to bring people to Himself and to encourage His people to know Him more. And when people do get supernaturally turned on to the power and treasure of God’s Word, I don’t want them to feel they are alone, but to see a wonderful support group of many others who love and are memorizing God’s Word.

3) The Christian Life IS a relationship with God. However, not a "We choose the relationship terms with a new and improved God custom made in our image" that make memorizing Scripture useless and boring. Rather, true faith in Jesus invites us to discover, explore, and enjoy a vibrant, growing, multi-dimensional relationship with a real, never changing, historical, Biblical God who says, "Get to know me!" How well do we know God? Is He even worth spending time getting to know when the "trivial gospel" already offers us a guaranteed to get into heaven Jesus password, and there are so many other more important and interesting things to spend our valuable time doing.

He claims to be:

A) The Lord of Lords and King of Kings who has always been, is now, and always will be the supreme ruler of this universe He created!!

B)The giver of Life to all of us who are spiritually dead and must have Him living through us as much as the branch needs the vine to be alive.

C) The All-powerful Judge who alone decides who goes to heaven and hell, and who may damn for all eternity millions of us who have been encouraged to trust man made 100% guaranteed Jesus passwords for our eternal destiny.

D)The supreme Lover of our soul who desperately wants, and paid the price to be more intimate with us than any human could ever be.

E) A good master who the apostles and thousands of others throughout history have joyfully, sacrificially, submitted to as "dead to self & ready to serve" slaves.

F) A Perfect Father who wants us to come to Him as a dependant son or daughter who can our identity, security, and acceptance/love in Him

G)A Perfect friend, who is willing to befriend humans (Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Paul, and even you) on His terms.

H) Commander - in - Chief who is engaged in a dangerous battle with His and our enemy, and who is looking for brave, committed soldiers willing to risk everything for the joy and privilege of joining Him in this exciting, epic war He is destined to win.

I) A multi-trillionaire outrageously generous Father who has prepared and guaranteed our lavish beyond imagination retirement and promises to supply our every need and true desire here on earth and forever. (Obviously in love, He does not grant every request that comes from our lips in the way we, in our sinful, deceived, lack of perspective mindset, think He should)

Could you even dare to imagine how our upside down Christian culture would be radically transformed if we authentically believed this 9th (and probably least important of claims God makes about Himself). I will be the first to admit it can be damaging and embarrassing to presume on our relationship as an adopted child and heir of our rich heavenly Father without deeply knowing Him. However, how different would we be if we believed that deeply knowing our multi-trillionaire Father brings real financial peace!!!?

Why are we taught that believing in Jesus is all fine and good (and will be a helpful password when we die), but has nothing to do with the ALL - IMPORTANT financial peace here on earth. To have financial peace here on earth with a guaranteed fun, happy, stress-free, LONG (maybe even 30+ years) pre-retirement before stepping into eternity, you have to trust and properly serve another more reliable, easier to believe in god like the Almighty Dollar?

I pray that whether you join the 10 Million in 2010 campaign or not; or whether you even word for word memorize Scripture or not; you will have a deep, burning desire to get to know the true Biblical God in 2010 and join us in praying for a revival of Spiritual truth in our churches to save us from all the damning error and foolishness of today's "Trivial gospel"!

How "10 Million in 2010" works:

The best way I know of to document Scripture memory is through www.memverse.com which I have been using daily (it can be used less frequently) for almost 2 months to organize my own Scripture memory and encourage others. It keeps a running total of all verses memorized, helps people memorize, and has various tools for groups (churches, schools, families) to encourage each other in the group and inspire others outside.

Memverse.com has helpful blogs to explain how it works and leads you through setting up your Scripture memory.

After you have logged onto memverse.com, then help spread the word to others you believe would also benefit from memorizing Scripture, or would want to put their verses on memverse.com for personal benefit and/or to inspire/encourage others.

For those who would rather not use memverse.com, I would love to hear from you and am open to ways you can document verses you have or want to memorize.

What are some good ways of getting the word out and encouraging others to join us with "10 Million in 2010"? How can you spread the word?

Who do you think would most benefit from being a part of "10 Million in 2010"? I have several target groups in mind:

What are your thoughts about "10 Million in 2010"?

Are you joining us? Are you spreading the word to others? How has "10 Million in 2010 impacted you? We would love to hear your story.