Tips On Improving Your Devotional Life: Bible Memorization

Some of us are naturally good at Bible memorization, some of us are naturally bad at Bible memorization; and some of us just need to learn how to do it properly (or at lease ease the process). You can mix-and-match these tips, use all of them, or none at all; but hopefully they will at least inspire you to come up with a better method of memorizing scripture.

Tips for short passages:

1. Read short passage, say it as far as you can (out loud) without looking, repeat until you get it.

2. Read first line/sentence/part (whatever you want really) and do the process above. After you get the first part down, try to do the first and second part. Continue until you have all the parts down.

3. Print out the verse; and put it up in different places around the house.

4. Read the verse a couple times, every time you read the Bible. Constant exposure works wonders!

5. Memorize verses that are meaningful to you.  Let face it, they are easier to remember.

Tips for long passages (works particularly well with long chapters):


Step 1. Read as much as you have memorized of the long passage, as well as the next ten verses.

Step 2. Memorize whatever verse you are on, using whatever method you like.

Step 3. Without looking, try to recite as much of the passage as you can, including the verses you haven't memorized yet.

Step 4. Read as much as you have memorized of the long passage, as well as the next ten verses; again.

Steps 3 & 4 are the surprising key to this process.  It might not help a ton in the beginning; but once you get to those verses that you have been repeating for the past ten days, you will probably already have them memorized (and maybe be a couple verses "ahead").

Using the long passage process has been extremely helpful to me. A lot of times I can "recite" about five verses ahead of what I have officially "memorized".  I hope the process can help you too! Not only does this process take less time, and help you in long-term retention; it also helps you remember what verse comes next while reciting the passage. -I can't count how many times I have truly "known" every verse in a chapter; but was not able to simply figure out which verse comes next.  Reading large chunks often; helps remedy this problem.

If you often memorize chapters, and know what chapter you are going to do next, I suggest you start working on the next chapter when you get towards the end (last ten verses) of your current chapter.


Do you have any tips you would like to share?  Only a few of the tips have been covered, and Scripture memorization is pretty important, so there may be a part 2 of this article.  Happy memorizing!  And thank you to everyone who helped me compile these tips! :)

"I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you."
~Psalm 119:11

When Life Breaks Your Heart

“When you can’t see past the tears, trust His heart” – C.H. Spurgeon

Usually when we hear the term “broken heart” we think of it in terms of a broken romantic relationship, but the truth is our heart can be broken when anything our heart has hoped in is disappointed. We hope for a job, promotion, or opportunity and we don’t get it; we hope for a certain direction in life and are dissuaded by sickness, finances, family problems, or who-knows what else; we hope for happiness but often trials and heartache find us instead. Proverbs says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick,” (Prov 13:12) and when hope is disappointed the heart is indeed as if “sick,” we just tend to use the term “broken”. Emotional pain is very real… and you can’t put a band-aid on it. If it is not dealt with it can lead to depression and even physical illness. And then you can lose hope altogether which is why it has led some to their death or to the taking of their own life. It is possible to die from a broken heart.

However, as a Christian who believes in both the complete sovereignty and perfect goodness of God, I have often sought to understand His purposes for my trials. The path of pain is often mysterious but we do know that in all things God has one ultimate purpose, to conform His children to the image of Christ (Rom 8:28-29). Each time as I have allowed the Lord to work in my heart He has revealed things in my heart that He wanted to correct. This is not to say that we always bring hardship or pain on ourselves because of our sin, although that is sometimes the case. Often the Lord simply allows us to go through hard circumstances in order to grow our faith. If we never struggled, we would never grow. “No pain, no gain” is a motto that the Apostle Paul exemplified.

While there have been many things that I've learned through seasons of brokenness, the correction (teaching) has often centered around one question the Spirit whispers to my heart, “Beloved, where is your hope?” Psalm 42:5 says, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.” I chose to use the KJV here because I love the beautiful language of the command “Hope thou in God”. In Psalm 27:13-14 it says this, “I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait I say, on the LORD.” Without hope we lose heart, so we must believe. Believe in what? In the goodness of God! Hold on to your faith that God is good and that one day all will be made right. A.W. Tozer wrote, “Whether we are happy or unhappy at any given time is not important. That we be in the will of God is all that matters. We may safely leave with Him the incident of heartache or happiness. He will know how much we need of either or both.” Yes, feelings matter. And we shouldn’t just dismiss the hurt that someone feels. But feelings are not truth. We must look beyond how we feel to Christ who, by the way, suffered more than we ever could.

Jim and Elisabeth Elliot are two of my heroes. Despite their love and desire to marry they waited about 4 years before Jim finally sensed the Lord’s timing and leading them to be joined. Then, less than 2 ½ years later (when their daughter was only a year old) Jim was killed by the natives he was trying to reach with the Gospel. A few years later Elisabeth spent several years in the jungle with the very men who had murdered her husband teaching them the Scriptures. She remarried fourteen years later but then lost that husband to cancer after only 4 years. Having had her share of intense trials, loss, along with struggles with trusting God and forgiving those who had hurt her, she wrote this, “God never withholds from His child that which His love and wisdom call good. God's refusals are always merciful -- "severe mercies" at times but mercies all the same. God never denies us our hearts desire except to give us something better.”

I am awed by that truth, are you? It’s one of those truths that can be really hard to believe, but yet we must, for it IS true. And there is great comfort in that – that no matter what pain we go through, God has something bigger in mind. May God help us to embrace the hard lessons, for they are the way to growth.

I will close this by sharing my all-time favorite quote. This prayer by Elisabeth Elliot I have often found myself echoing, sometimes amidst tears and feelings of frustration:

Perhaps some future day Lord,

Thy strong hand will lead me to a place where I must stand

Utterly alone.

Alone, O gracious Love

But for Thee;

I shall be satisfied if I can see – Jesus only.

I do not know Thy plans for years to come

My spirit finds its perfect home sufficiency.

Lord, all my desire is before Thee now

Lead on, no matter where, no matter what – I trust in Thee.

My Strength is Made Perfect

    Well, I'm just getting around to finishing my post from 2 Cor. 12. I've had a hard time coming back to finish this post, but for some reason I feel in the mood tonight. Why God would give me this mood at eleven at night, I don't know, but it's here!

    We already addressed the first part of this amazing passage in v. 7-10, but here are the verses again, just so you can reread them. "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, 'My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.' Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ might rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."

    I have no intention of repeating what I already said, but we have been thinking about the concept of God's sufficient grace. As a quick review, it is important to keep that idea in mind today as we look at the second part of v. 8, because the two parts work together.

    "For my strength is made perfect in weakness". What a thought! There are several aspects of this verse that are comforting to an incredible degree, and I'd like to look at at least some of them. Again, this verse is incredibly precious to me, so pardon my extreme partiality! -Think of what God through Paul just said. His strength, the power of an all-mighty Creator, is made perfect in me, by what? My intellect? My superior moral compass? My tighter standards and rules? My theological understanding?

    It's made perfect in my weakness. Christ's strength shines in me the strongest when I am at my lowest, when I have no more I can give Him. When I am completely emptied of myself, God's power can be shown through me.

    That's amazing on two levels. One, how absolutely thoughtless of us to run dashing around trying to appear more spiritual and more perfect than our brothers and sisters in Christ, when in reality, Christ's strength in us is dependent, not on our perfection, but on our dependence. Only when we realize that we need a crutch, and that we can't walk on our own does the idea of Christ carrying us seem so sweet.

    There's a second beautiful aspect to the verse, and that is this: never, never are you too weak, too downtrodden, or too forgotten to be used by God. Never! When we are at our weakest, God can show His strongest through me.

    That said, it should make us think of something. If we want Christ's strength to reside in us constantly, doesn't that necessitate us remaining constantly in a state of utter dependence on God? If in my weakness Christ is strong, then shouldn't I remain forever weak in myself so that I can become strong in Christ? Is that a logical chain of thought?

    See, it's not fun to be weak. It's not fun to look your fear in the face and say, "I can't face you on my own. I just don't have the strength." It's much more fun to walk into temptation and spiritual hard times with the smug, self-confident swagger of a SuperBowl winning football team. It's much more fun to walk into church as the guy with the answers. It's much more fun to pick the toothpick out of someone else's eye than it is to pick the log out my own.

    But when I am weak, and I realize that weakness, that is when Christ can be strongest in me. That is when Christ is free to manifest Himself and his strength through me, and bring Himself glory in doing so. When I realize that I can't, that I'm not strong enough, I'm not big enough, I'm not tough enough to handle life on my own, that is when Christ can come in, and fill me with Himself.

    It is in our weakness that Christ shows His strength. It's in a nearly crying person kneeling in the dirt in Africa, it's in the shy girl at VBS, it's in the lonely highschool student. When we are at our lowest ebb is when Christ is free to show His power, and demonstrate Himself through us. When we walk through life confident in myself, in what I can do and I can say, I do not realize my need for Jesus in my everyday life.

    But when a terrible thing happens, or even a commonplace hard thing comes crashing into your life, and you don't know where else to go, and you know that you have nothing left, that is where God takes the broken, shattered vessels, with nothing but a willingness to be used, that He fills them with Himself, with His Spirit and His power, and He uses them as His instruments.

    My favorite quote by Eric Ludy is when He refers to Christ's as "little lambs, with the faces of lions." Because of the raging power of God, Christ uses us, these broken, weak instruments as His body on earth. Not because we are the strong, but because we are the weak! And because of our weakness, Christ is all the more able to shine through us. In our weakness, Christ demonstrates His strength by giving us, the weak of this world, the power to mock all the powers of earth and hell!

But God, Don't You Want Me To Be Happy?

Life does not go our way.

I’m not even going to use the word “often” because it really doesn't go the way we think it will at all. Nothing happens the way we thought it would, and while we can sometimes have a general idea of what’s ahead, the circumstances will still surprise us. More often though, there are times when life goes the very opposite of the way we would have desired. Like Job, we also sometimes begin to complain and question what God is doing. I was in this place recently, and here’s what the Lord revealed to me….

But God, don’t You want me to be happy?

“No dear one… at least not if it’s your definition of happy. My child, you do not know for what you ask. You think you ask for what is best and what will bring happiness and joy, but I alone know what is best for you. Your happiness is not MY goal. My glory and conforming you to Christ is MY goal. If your sense of happiness is defined by your expectations than you will live your life disappointed; but if you surrender and trust Me, hold on to both My sovereignty and My goodness you shall have peace and joy that no one can take from you. In this world you will have trouble, but do not fear, for I have overcome the world. I have a purpose and a plan that is bigger than you can see and it is for your good, just not the good that you have in mind. Trust Me dear one, I am good. I love you with a love that is deeper, wider and higher than anything in existence. I have forgiven you your sins, I have made you My child, I have cleansed and purified you and made you righteous. All this was through Christ’s work and none of your own. It is finished and done and you are perfect in Him. There is no spot in you. I delight in you and rejoice over you with singing. I shall never leave you nor forsake you, for I am yours by covenant. Delight in My love and walk in My steps. I am what you need, I am all you need, and I will satisfy you abundantly.” 

But God, don’t You want me to have dreams?

“Oh yes. I have lots of dreams and desires too. Do you want to know what my biggest dream is? It’s that what I desire might be your desire. You see beloved, your dreams come from a heart that is not pure, eyes that are not all-seeing, and a mind that is not all-knowing. Dear one, I know your desires and dreams seem so precious and important, I know that your heart aches with hardship and sorrow, with hurt and disappointment; but there is more that I have for you. I desire for you to desire none upon the earth besides Me. I dream of My glory being displayed in your life; I long for your heart to be fully given to Me. I gave up much for this dream. Actually, I died for it. Christ died that this passion of My heart might be fulfilled, that people could be redeemed from their sin and brought into fellowship with Me. I am the One you desire, I am the creator of all dreams. Beloved, My desire is towards you, will you not put your desire in Me and give Me your dreams?”

But God, don’t You want me to be healthy?

But God, don’t You want me to succeed?

But God, don’t You want me to have a spouse?

But God, don’t You want me to have good things?

“My child… I desire to give you many good things… but while there are many things that you and I can both call good, there is one ultimate good that I desire for you beloved, and that is Me. I am the “good thing” that you long for. If I give you something, is it not good being from My hand? Am I not good? If I withhold something “good” from you, am I not still good? If I did give you many other good things in this world you would not long for the greater good, that is, Me. What you think is good for you would lead to your ruin, it would merely feed your selfishness. So I may often withhold good things from you My child, because I desire for you to have what is eternally good – a heart that is undivided in its love for Me. What is your good is that you walk before Me in faith and obedience, for that is the way of life. Trust Me beloved, for I am good.” 

But God, I thought life with You was supposed to be happy!?!?

“Oh beloved, you are still looking at your life based on your feelings. It is faith you need, not happy feelings. Feelings change and deceive. I never change, I am the same yesterday, today and forever. Shall not I, the Judge of all the earth, do what is right? I am faithful. I will fulfill My purposes through you. I am good and will work all things for your ultimate good – conformity to the image of Christ. No, it’s not easy, but I bore the worst of it for you and made it possible for you to walk at all. And I will walk with you and carry you through. I will never give up on you. I will always forgive you, for you are Mine. Trust Me, not your feelings. Give Me your heart. In My presence is fullness of joy and at My right hand pleasures forevermore.”

While Job questioned, He also held fast to the sovereignty and goodness of God. He said, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10) and “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). That last sentence always amazed me. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” How can you trust a God who could bring you to your death, even a painful one like it appeared to be for Job? Because He is good. Even when we don’t understand, even when it looks impossibly difficult, even when it hurts, we can trust in a God who is sovereign, faithful and good. We must trust Him, for otherwise we shall find ourselves resisting Him.

May we find the grace to surrender to His purposes and rest in His everlasting love. That perfect love that will never let us go.

 “If we could see what God could see (which we never will, because we will never be infinite), we would see millions upon millions of purposes in every action of the Son of God. God is never doing just one thing in what He does with us. He is always doing thousands of things that we cannot see. He never has only one purpose in what He does. He always has thousands of purposes in everything He does… For those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, all of them – all of them! – work together for good.”  – John Piper

Do You Know Theology, Or God?

Piper really gets this spot on! :D

"You can read theology 10 hours a day, 40 years long and not know God as beautiful, all satisfying and highest treasure of your life" ~John Piper

No Zeal In The Reformed?

I would agree that in the Reformed spheres, there is certainly a need for more spiritual zeal. HOWEVER, it IS there. Here are some quotes from some of the most prominent Reformers to prove it:

 Charles Spurgeon- You do not know the beginning of true zeal, for the foundation of Christian zeal lies in the heart. The heart must be heavy with grief and yet must beat high with holy ardour. The heart must be vehement in desire, panting continually for God’s glory, or else we shall never attain to anything like the zeal which God would have us know.

Charles Spurgeon- “If you want that splendid power in prayer, you must remain in loving, living, lasting, conscious, practical, abiding union with the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Jonathan Edwards- “The happiness of the creature consists of rejoicing in God, by which also God is magnified and exalted.”

Jonathan Edwards- “To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here.”

John Calvin - “There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.”

John Calvin- “The gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life. It cannot be grasped by reason and memory only, but it is fully understood when it possesses the whole soul and penetrates to the inner recesses of the heart.” 

R.C. Sproul- “I was new Christian. My conversation had been sudden and dramatic, a replica for me of the Damascus Road. My life had been turned upside down,, and I was filled with zeal for the sweetness of Christ. I was consumed with a new passion. To study the Scripture. To learn how to pray. To conquer the vices that assaulted my character. To grow in grace. I wanted desperately to make my life count for Christ. My soul was singing, "Lord, I want to be a Christian.”

John Piper- “But to enjoy him we must know him. Seeing is savoring. If he remains a blurry, vague fog, we may be intrigued for a season. But we will not be stunned with joy, as when the fog clears and you find yourself on the brink of some vast precipice.”

John Piper- “Minimizing the importance of transformed feelings makes Christian conversion less supernatural and less radical. It is humanly manageable to make decisions of the will for Christ. No supernatural power is required to pray prayers, sign cards, walk aisles, or even stop sleeping around. Those are good. They just don’t prove that anything spiritual has happened. Christian conversion, on the other hand, is a supernatural, radical thing. The heart is changed. And the evidence of it is not just new decisions, but new affections, new feelings.” 

What Will Thou Do In The Valley?

“Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness,” ~2 Corinthians 9:10

“Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food”

God gives us all that we need for a spiritual relationship with Him. Simply put, Him, the Bible, and us.

“supply and multiply the seed”

He has the power, and WILL multiply what He has given us.

“you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness”

BUT, before He will “multiply the seed”; we have to put in effort. For example, we cannot expect a deep, spiritual relationship with God if we do not regularly read our Bibles, etc.  This reality is further emphasized by the following passage:

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.  And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” ~Galatians 6:7-9

To put this passage into more easy-to-understand terms:

God is not a God of the lazy, but a God of those who put in effort. If you put your effort into things that are of a sin nature, you will get results of a sin nature. But if you sow according to that which is good and comes from God you will get results that are good and come from God.  This won’t come instantly however. You may have to go quite a while of simply putting in effort before you get the results. But don’t worry, it WILL come, even if it takes a while.

If we think about this in terms of a spiritual relationship with God; we will come to realize that we need to put effort (such as reading our Bibles, prayer, etc.) into a spiritual relationship before we can expect results (spirit of wisdom, revelation in the knowledge of Himself, enlightened eyes of understanding, knowing hope, etc. See Eph. 1:17). 

In my personal opinion, I think we all go through ups and downs in our spiritual relationship with God; or at least I know I have. But one thing I have learned time and time again is that I need to SOW before I can REAP. So badly do we want to reap without sowing; but I am afraid that is not the way life works.

So I encourage you, if right now you are in a valley and not a mountain, read you Bible, pray, get in touch with you God and at the proper time you will reap a harvest if you do not give up.

Hebrews 2:3

We as Christians completely forget how AMAZING it is to be one of Christ's followers.  Like this verse says: 

"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?....." ~Hebrews 2:3

Listen To The Fish You Sluggard

Yes, I know I got the usual term a bit wrong, but it is meant that way.  Stay awhile and you might find out why.

How often do we forget to read our Bibles? -Or maybe some other excuse: busyness, sickness, tiredness, perhaps even disinterest.  But there are other times to read the Bible besides the scheduled morning & evening . The words of God are our comforter, our encourager.  Yet it is often the times when we need it most that we don't read our Bibles.

And this is where the "fish" come in.  You see, this morning I was over by my fish tank, just appreciating my decorative pet fish.  The fish quickly swims over to the feeding area and I can tell that he is hungry.  So I pick up the fish food; and right as I am doing that, he turns around and swims to the other side of the tank.  I sprinkle a little food in the tank but he does not realize that the food he so badly wanted is right there.  I tap the glass a bit, hoping to get his attention, but it wasn't working.  I thought "You stupid fish! Don't you realize that there's food right here?"

And then it donned on me; the thing I was accusing my fish of, we do ALL the time with God.  We are feeling just horrible, maybe we simply had a bad day, perhaps its something worse.  God sees that, and offers comfort all around the clock through His Holy inspired word.  It is our most reliable source of comfort and is often the very last think we turn to, or maybe we, like the fish, don't even realize its there.  We are hungry, God offers food, but we don't take it!

Now the purpose of this post is not to show you the similarities between mere fish food and God's word, but rather to prompt you to read the Bible when you need it most.

Psalm 12:1 says "Help Lord."  Charles Spurgeon writes on this verse that "The occasions for the use of this prayer are frequent...Spiritual warriors in inward conflicts may send to the throne for reinforcements.... Workers in heavenly labor may thus obtain grace in time of need.  Seeking sinners, in doubts and alarms, may offer up the same weighty supplication; in fact, in all these cases, times, and places, this will serve the turn of needy souls. "Help Lord", will suit the living and dying, suffering or laboring, rejoicing or sorrowing.  In Him our help is found, let us not be slack to cry on Him."



When did the Lord comfort you when you needed encouraged?  When are some of the times that the Lord has helped you?


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Tips On Improving Your Devotional Life: Life Application

Hey y'all!

So I was recently realizing that I need to improve my devotional life and work on applying the Bible to my actual life. Reading the Bible is great and all, but not as much if it does not show in your life.  So here are some of the things I did to improve my devotional life and apply the Bible to my life:

1. Keep A Bible Journal- Jot down what comes to your mind as you read, whatever the Bible inspires you to write.  It really helps your get more out of what you are reading and this is the first step of improving your devotional life and learning to apply what your learn to your life. At the top of the page write whatever chapters you are reading, this will help you reference whatever you write on the passage.

2. After you are done with Bible reading for that sitting skim over what you wrote, what can be learned from it?  

3.  For each thing that can be learned sum it up in 1-3 words and write it down.

4. Think of a practical way that you can apply it to your life, not something vague like "make an effort" but something more specific.  For example lets say your want to improve your prayer life.  Don't put down something vague like "Pray more often" or "Have longer prayers".  Instead put something a bit more specific such as "Keep a prayer journal", or "Ask at least one person per day if they have any prayer requests".  It is important to be specific otherwise it is very easy to forget.

                                     

5.  At the end of the day write down how you did for each "project". Rate how well you think you did on a scale from 1-10, write down what you learned.  Oh, but be careful not to do to many "projects" at once; otherwise you will have way to many projects on your plate at once!

I hope that helps!  Lets me know if there is anything else you would like me to write about! :D 

The Grand Scheme Of Things

So..... Last night I had a bit of a burst of inspiration while reading the Bible(which was probably also influenced from what I have been reading of John Piper and Charles Spurgeon) and so I wrote down everything! It mostly has to do with the relation between heaven and earth and then sort of switches points towards the end. Anyway, enjoy! :D

"The Grand Scheme of things.... Heaven, I think, is an everlasting place of worship. On earth, we have only fractional communion with God, and to further that should be our goal. But in heaven there is no sin, therefore nothing separates us from the Holy One. Only the great, ultimate communion and delight in the Lord exists. But not just that. -The delight is expressed more than ever before even thought possible here on earth. And that is worship, and that is the ultimate joy. The Holy Spirit will be "released" everywhere and in everyone. We will eat, drink, breath, and live in the Holy Spirit forever. We will have God our Father, Christ our brother(and Lord), our friends, family, and be in full communion with them all through the Holy Spirit, joined together in worship forevermore and through all eternity. 

This is heaven, and we get a taste of it here on earth. That taste is to drive us; motivate us. And the joy, that is, the taste, brings forth a love for Christ that is to inspire us to live for HIm, and be the instrument He uses to bring more into His joy.

Until we realise this(this is the part I am most not sure of) or at least to some extent, the connection between heaven, earth and a relationship with God I am not sure if we are REALLY Christians. IF this view is not enough, if the thought of worshiping God for all eternity does not sound like the best heaven but is nauseating, how can we possible be in a relationship with God? Doesn't He say "Depart from me, I never knew you" ? Granted, there are times when the seriousness of sin overwhelms us, and that sin temporarily removes us from the same joy we found once before; but this is not to be the case all the time. Both are necessary for only a person who realises he needs to be healed can be healed."

Biblical references: Hebrews 2:10-12, James 4:9-10, Psalm 51:17, Matthew 5:4, John 5:6-8, Mark 2:17, Matthew 9:12,

And also,  please comment; its what keeps me going! Why write to produce good, if no one will read it and therefore it will not produce good?