FGFF Recommends: Seeds/Hide the Word

"Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You." (Psalm 119:11)

"But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season. And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers." (Psalm 1: 2-3)

If you're like me, one of my struggles throughout my Christian life has been to memorize God's Word in a consistent manner. I have made many valiant efforts in the past to consistently memorize His Word, but they have not come to fruition. I don't have any problems reading or meditating on God's Word or even memorizing some passages in Scripture for evangelistic purposes. However, in terms of memorizing Scripture and putting them in my heart on a consistent basis as Scripture commands us do, I have problems.

The Bible clearly states that we should be treasuring God's Word in our hearts, and if Christians don't make a consistent habit of memorizing God's Word, they may eventually fall to temptation and sin. Scripture is clear that memorizing God's Word is one of the keys to combating sin (Psalm 119:11).

I may have found the solution for my past failures in memorizing Scripture by memorizing Scripture that has been put to music. That's right, memorizing Scripture that has been put to music and listening to it over and over again. Do you recall in the past before you became a Christian how you could recall all the songs by your favorite recording artist even though its been years since you've listened to that song? The reason that you remember those songs is that you kept listening to that song over and over again. Moreover, it was also because you enjoyed the songs' lyrics and the way those lyrics were being presented. The same can be true for memorizing Scripture. In fact, by singing and listening to the Bible verses that you are memorizing you would be killing two birds with one stone. You would be memorizing Scripture and worshipping the Lord at the same time. Here are two resources that I highly recommend:

SEEDS FAMILY WORSHIP
The majority of the people that attend Grace Community Church, especially those that have children in our Children's Ministry, have known about Seeds Family Worship for a few years now. My wife and I found out about Seeds from my wife's cousin who has her children in our Children's Ministry. My wife's cousin was raving about Seeds and encouraged us to buy the CDS. I finally succumbed, with some reluctance, and I have been raving about Seeds myself ever since. The CDS are produced by Jason Houser and they also hold concerts throughout the year in different venues. Jason and the Seeds worship team just had a concert at our church a few weeks ago. If your church or ministry wants to schedule a concert with the Seeds worship team or want to find out more about them you can contact them at the following web site:

http://www.seedsfamilyworship.net/

HIDE THE WORD SERIES (SOVEREIGN GRACE MINISTRIES)
Did you also know that Sovereign Grace Ministries also has a similar memorization program put to music? Their "Hide the Word" series which is currently at "Hide the Word 8" is produced by the father and son team of Mark and Stephen Altroge. Sovereign Grace Ministries has consistently produced music that has been Biblical and glorifying to God, so it's no surprise that they would have this type of memorization program. Here is the link to their web site:

http://www.sovereigngracestore.com/category.aspx?categoryID=5

I currently have all the Seeds worship CDS and some of the Hide the Word CDS, and I try to diligently listen to them every day especially in my car as I am driving to work. The amazing thing about memorizing Scripture, is that once you get in the habit of doing it again, you will even start to remember the verses that you memorized a long time ago. So if you ever see my wife and I singing in the car, don't think we're weird. We are just praising and worshiping our Lord and hiding His Word in our hearts.