Hi, everyone. This is episode 1 65 on the podcast, and we thank you once again for joining us. Today's episode is gonna be a really short 1. We just have a couple quick announcements to make on this episode. And the first 1 is 1 that Always excited to make, and that is the August summer challenge. This will be our fourth annual summer memo challenge we've done psalm 01:03, ephesians 1. And last year, song 25. And this year, really excited to be doing
Romans chapter 6. If you're looking for some motivation to join this year's summer rem amortization challenge, maybe other years you've tried and given up or you didn't even try because it didn't interest you. But you're needing a little motivation. We'd encourage you to go back to episode 24 where we give 10 reasons to tackle our August summer challenge. But, Matthew, I think we don't need to
repeat all those 10 reasons. I think, though you have an eleventh reason maybe something that you've God that's fresh for you and that you can share with us to motivate us to to memorize this important chapter. Yeah. In our quickbooks books and parchment episode a few weeks ago, I mentioned from this book, the insanity of God, a great story that teaches us the value of memorizing scripture.
And, the author is reflecting on, his time in Russia and he was talking with people there, about how their faith, how the and faith survived how the church survived through communist persecution. And he was speaking of this event back in the fifties. So in the fifties, they had AAA number of small house churches that were spring up in Russia, but the believers who were part of these churches really had no interaction outside of their very small
group of 10 or 20 people. And, of course, the the leaders of these groups began to wonder, hey, how how are these young people going to meet other Christians so that they can marry other Christians. So they had this bold, some would say foolish idea of organizing, like a big youth conference in Moscow and inviting all of the young unmarried members of all of these house church that they knew from 18 to 30 years of age to meet and encourage 1 another.
And, of course, they're hoping that there would be some... They called us some spiritual cross poll nation between the different house church foods. And some people thought this is kinda foolish. Like, don't you think if you've got 700 young believers
in Moscow in the early 19 fifties. Obviously, the the communist government is gonna be aware of this, and they were actually because when the event was all over the 3 pastors who had led that were all arrested in sentenced to prison for 3 years each. But I know they think it was worth it. And 1 of the interesting stories they tell, so this this hasn't really been planned. But at the beginning of the conference, the young people were given a very interesting challenge.
None of them had owned a Bible. Boy, we take that for granted don't we, but they did not own a Bible. They never had him books or song books or any recordings of Christian music. So at that conference they were challenged to determine, you know, how how much bible truth is present in this group. So they said this will be like a game. Every day this week, we want you to gather in small groups. And we want you to see how much of the 4 gospel Matthew Mark Luke
and John. You know and have memorized it and in the group as a whole. What can you piece together. So in your group, see how much the gospel you can recreate? And then do the same thing with songs and him, and let's see how much of that can be reproduced by memory. At the end of the conference when they compared and combine the efforts of all the different small groups, the young people had recreated all of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John with only about a half dozen mistakes. Remarkable.
And they had recreated the lyrics of more than 1200 songs and him of the faith from their memory. So, Nick Rip in the author of the insanity of God book says it became clear to me in an instant why and how the Christian faith had survived and often thrived under decades of communist depression in the Soviet Union. I also understood what had enabled so many Russian believers to remain strong and faithful.
Yeah. What a great story. They had the word of God in their heart and We want it in our mind so that it can rest in our hearts and be active there. And I'm I'm excited about this. Mike, Romans 6 what a what a fantastic passage of scripture to memorize. I think it's gonna be a wonderful experience for us this summer. Yeah. Well, that story definitely inspires me to pick up the tap of memorizing again. It's it's at least we
can do. Right? And and what a chapter to have with us if we were 1 day persecuted or in car rated or anything or or even just... For some reason, it lose our ability to read. Right? Mh. Romans chapter 6 is an awesome chapter. I'm I'm sure it's I'm sure it's had a big impact on you in your life, Matthew. It certainly has in mind. It's been a huge part of me learning how to fight temptation. And learning about my union with Christ and
learning the nature of true freedom. And so I I think I think this will be a great time. Where We're planning to start the challenge on July 28 officially. There. There will be a post come on our website. Pratt called you website with a schedule. But, officially, we'll start memorizing on July 20 eighth, and then at the end of each of those weeks. So on on the Sunday night, we will drop an episode that covers the previous 4 or 5 versus that we that we collectively
memorized. So Of course, you can still... As says, we always say you can still benefit from those episodes, even if you're not memorizing, but I think the way to get the maximum benefit of both memorizing and the episodes is to do it altogether. And as Mike has just said, there's so much value in
scripts or memo. Yes fighting temptation, even just keeping our minds on an even ke, and the liberty to quote scripture and conversations with people, whether that's debates with un believers or or in our own preaching or something like that. We do want to have a a few extra prizes for you as well. Again, you'll have a choice, perhaps of some books And we also still have some of the to, practicality, prince of piece sweatshirt. They're lovely. And we'd be happy to be able to give
some of those away as well. Correct? Yeah. We have a small second limit in run of them. And, yeah. There'll be Dolby options for for choosing a prize everyone, though, who finishes and who lets us know at the end that they successfully memorized Romans 6 will get a prize, and you'll have some choice in in the matter, although there is a limited number of the sweatshirt. So once those are gone, you'll have to choose something else. But but, yeah, the the real value is in the actual chapter
that's memorized of course. Yeah. So anything else that we need to say about about summer challenge there Matthew. I don't think Soc said that's going to come out first on August the fourth So until that time, Mike? Yeah. Until that time, you and I are taking a holiday, not not together. I'm not sure that that would be a holiday, but we're taking a break from the podcast any case. I've got some travel plans, and, a mini holiday for our family plan.
And I don't know what you got going, Matthew, but we just we just feel our schedules need a little break. So we're gonna take a few weeks off. So don't forget about us. It doesn't mean the toxicology podcast has ceased when you don't see a new 1 come out on July the fourteenth, but we will be back with you in August Lord Willing. Thanks so much for tuning in. And we'll look forward to going through Romans 6 with you. Hey, man. We'll see you then.