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New Weekly Class on Christian Living: Learn How to Not Sin

Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators, visited the Naval Academy during my first-class year. On a Sunday afternoon, he spoke to about twenty Christian midshipmen in Memorial Hall. He was a dynamic speaker. At the end of his talk, he said he would like to talk with those of us who really meant business with the Lord. A few of us took him to the chaplain’s office.

He said to us, “How many of you want to sin?”

None of us wanted to sin.

“I will teach you how not to sin.” That sounded good to us. Dawson quoted Psalm 119: “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word… Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:9, 11 KJV).

It was simple; all we had to do was hide the Word of God in our hearts. It seemed to work. In the next fourteen months, I memorized the 108 verses of the Navigators’ Topical Memory System.

When I was back in San Diego after my first year in Korea with the Navy, Doug Cozart was assigned to disciple me. I was impressed. I had a Daily Light devotional book; any verse I pulled out of the Daily Light, he could quote or give the reference if I read the verse.

The next year I memorized three verses a week, and the following year five verses a week. Around that time, I noticed that something wasn't right. I began to get suspicious: I was still sinning. “How many verses do I have to have in my heart to not sin?”

My problem was that I had been hiding the verses in my head, not in my heart. I was less like the Lord Jesus because of my arrogance about how much I knew of the Scriptures.

Beginning this Thursday at 7:00 p.m., I will be teaching a weekly class on practical Christianity in my home at 114 S. Howard St. The class is open to students and adults of all ages. If you read your Bible regularly, you already know what God tells you to do and not do. This class is for those of you who know the commands and want to obey them. That is practical Christianity.

Week 1: The “Read” Bible

Week 2: The Green Bible

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