Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Monday, March 9, Galatians 1:1

"Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead)"

It seems to me like there is a trend in some Christian circles to veer away from the Biblical Gospel and adhere to some of the errors of the early "Church Fathers": those who came after the apostles. They did much good, but also moved into doctrines that were not biblical, and led us into much of the confusion we have within the church.

When thinking about this, it led me to re-familiarize myself more closely with one of the earliest letters in the New Testament: Galatians. Through it we saw how quickly the churches would wander to some false teachers, almost right after Paul would establish churches.

The doctrine here seems to be that "Judaizers" would follow behind him, telling the newly saved that they could only be Christians if they also followed the Mosaic Law.

This letter is commonly dated about A.D. 48 or so, probably only sixteen or so years after Christ was raised. If we compared that to our time, it would be about 2010-2011, so Christ's appearance and ascension on earth was very recent, and most of that generation was still alive.

I read also, that it was pre-Acts 15, where we saw the first Christian council in Jerusalem, headed by James, the half-brother of Jesus. Here Paul and Peter successfully defended the point that Christ redeemed us from the Law and saved us by grace through faith.

"But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses." (Acts 15:5)

"And after there was much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made a choice among us, that Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the necks of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they." (another good "7-11" passage from Acts 15!)

And we will find later in this letter that Peter himself was earlier caught up with something similar to this false teaching, so much that Paul had to rebuke him in front of the church.

I think sometimes, there is a "nostalgia" attached to things of the past. I mean, why not adhere to the teachings of the Church Fathers, since they were much closer to the Apostles than we are? And that's fine, if they are teaching the Biblical Gospel. But remember this: their teachings were not God-breathed. The Apostles were given special revelation and special gifts to have the words of Jesus brought to their remembrance so they could actually convey the truth to the world:

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26).

And He gave this power to Paul: "And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time" (1 Corinthians 15:8). We saw this first in Acts 9 when Jesus personally spoke to him, literally knocking him off his "high horse". This was confirmed to a very leery Ananias, a disciple in Damascus who was given a direct vision, and sent to heal the blindness of Paul. Jesus said:

"Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. (Acts 9:16)

And this little letter gives us more insight into how God used "the Apostle to the Gentiles" to right the errors other well-meaning, and not so well-meaning "disciples" made, who thought they might elaborate on the simple truth of the Gospel.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

*KJV used*

Memory Helps

"Paul, an apostle, (3wds)
(not of men, neither by man, (3 + 3 wds)
but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, (4+4 wds)
who raised him from the dead)" (3+3 wds)

I divided the verse this way just so you can memorize with a distinct pattern for help.

So the first three "three-word" phrases tell us a little about Paul.

The set of two "four-word" phrases explain how he got this title,

And last "3+3" describes the Father raising the Son.

If you look at it this way, it will give you a "memory rhythm", so you can learn faster.

And as always, if you want to see how I link the verse numbers to the verse, I put it on my web page because sometimes the explanations can get pretty long. And whenever I start a book or passage, I tend to give a more thorough explanation of my methods, like I did today if you want to take the time to read it.

Linking verse numbers:

You can make a word pictures linking the verse to the book and chapter. Because I am so familiar with the book, I have no need to have a picture to remind me of Galatians. To be thorough, if I wanted to add it to my pictures, I might include a picture of a "Gal": some familiar female in all my pictures.

For each chapter I rely on the Phonetic alphabet you see below, made famous by Harry Lorayne, and used in some modified form by thousands to make numbers and symbols "memorizable".

And for memorizing verses, I modified it somewhat by giving each number a "memory character": some sort of action figure, real or fictional which I use always. The system in the book is called the "peg" word system, where you have a permanent word that will always represent the same number. I modified it to "characters" because they always perform an action, which helps me remember.

For this one, I would use a "Tie", like a over-sized bow tie to represent chapter one, because in the phonetic alphabet system, T or D phonetically represents the numeral 1, and only the numeral 1. So, each of my characters in chapter one will be wearing a huge bow Tie.

For all "verses 1", I use Mr. "T", from "Rocky" and "A-Team" fame. Now, with my characters established, I simply link them somehow to my verse. Here, I simply have Mr. T presenting Paul the Apostle. I have a picture in my head of what Paul looks like, so they are both wearing huge bow Ties. They are next to a cross and a throne, because these are my common symbols for Jesus Christ and God the Father.

So, I burn that picture vividly in my mind, or even draw it out in stick figures. I would add a lot of "bling" to Mr. T. And as I draw or remember the picture I say the verse OUT LOUD. If you google it, you'll find it say that your retention is typically three times better if you do that. I've read it in memory books as well.