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sonofadam777
Member



Joined: 2006/3/24
Posts: 108
Rochester, New York

 Bible Memorization, tools, tips, methods, etc.

I am looking for ideas from other people who have developed good methods of how to memorize scripture and get it in to their minds/ hearts. Has anyone used software that works well for them? What else have people used, etc.

We are starting Bible Quizzing in our church with the youth and I want to memorize along with them (entire books) as they are so I can be a good example as well as learn for my own discipline and relationship with God. Thanks. Doug


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Doug Renz

 2007/9/27 11:44Profile
MSeaman
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Joined: 2005/4/19
Posts: 772
Michigan

 Re: Bible Memorization, tools, tips, methods, etc.

I have some little cards I got from an organization called FAST. They have some with Scripture verses on them or you can get blank ones and write your own verses. They fit in your pocket and you can look at them anytime you are waiting.

Edit:
[color=0000CC]From the FAST program:
Step 2: How to Memorize
Perhaps the most effective way to memorize Scripture, is to use a verse pack. Find one with two inside pockets and a clear plastic outside pocket. It can be leather or vinyl, but make sure it is small enough to easily fit in your pocket. And make sure you are stocked with plenty of blank verse cards. Both cards and packs can be obtained at many Christian bookstores.
Write the verse you wish to memorize and its reference on one side of a verse card, and the reference only on the back. Next, slide the card into the clear outside pocket with the words of the verse facing out. If you keep your verse pack with you, you can pull it out any time you have a few minutes and work on a verse: walking down a sidewalk, sitting at a stoplight, waiting in line, etc. Redeem such moments carefully, and you will be able to learn countless verses without having to set aside any special times for memorizing. Always make it a rule to memorize every verse word-perfect.

Put recently memorized verses in one of the inside pockets, Newly learned verses need to be reviewed frequently, and having them with you at all times will be a big help. Blank verse cards can be kept in the other inside pocket, just in case you read or hear some beautiful verse you want to memorize. Simply pull out a card, and jot the verse down.

Daily Review
For most people, the hard part about memorizing Scripture is not actually the memorizing, but the retaining. An average person can memorize a verse in 10 or 20 minutes quite easily, but then he will go on to forget it just a few days later. Successful Scripture memorization requires one to do more than just memorize a verse--he must learn to engrave it on the tables of his heart, permanently. The secret is daily review!
Once you have memorized a verse, date it, and put it together with the other recently memorized verses in your verse pack. Review this group of verses every day--preferably during your Morning Watch. Don't miss a day! Look at the side of the card with only the reference, quote the verse, and then turn the card over to check your accuracy. When reviewing verses, it is extremely important to develop the habit of always quoting the reference before and after the verse. This will help cement the reference to the verse. After a couple of weeks a verse will become extremely easy to quote--but don't let up. It will take two full months, to get the verse permanently engraved in your brain.

Back Review
Once the date indicates a verse has been in your daily review group for two months, move it to a permanent back review file, that you keep at home. Work through these verses as often as you can--we recommend once a week, at first. Later, after you have accumulated several hundred verses, you may wish to move some of your best-known verses to a section for monthly review. As a rule, all back review verses need to be continually reviewed at least once a month--to keep them fresh and on the tip of your tongue. If a verse becomes a little rusty, give it some extra attention: put it back in your verse pack with your other daily review verses for a week or so.

Just Think...
If you merely memorized two verses a week--and used an effective review system--you would have over one hundred verses in less than a year. In ten years you would have over a thousand! Imagine--a thousand verses all perfectly engraved on the table of your heart, complete with reference, right on the tip of your tongue! Just think how the Spirit of God could begin to use you with that kind of Scripture stored away in your heart!
The key though, is consistency. You will need to set a pace and stick with it! Don't memorize too fast or too slow--two or three verses a week is about right to start with. And you will need to make a real effort to keep up with your review. It is daily review that moves a verse from the short term to the long term memory banks, and the back review keeps it there, fresh and alive. The goal of course, is not to just memorize a certain number of verses, but to make Scripture memory a way of life. To make it an integral part of your Christian experience. Two verses a week can become a thousand in ten years--but only if you are consistent. [/color]

end edit

[color=0000CC]2nd edit: to add link to sermon[/color]
Denny Kenaston has a sermon called How To Study the Bible that has some ideas too. You can find it:[url=http://www.charityministries.org/msg_detail.a5w?vlast_index=804]Here[/url]


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Melissa

 2007/9/27 15:07Profile
PaulWest
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Joined: 2006/6/28
Posts: 3405
Dallas, Texas

 Re: Bible Memorization, tools, tips, methods, etc.

Quote:
I am looking for ideas from other people who have developed good methods of how to memorize scripture and get it in to their minds/ hearts. Has anyone used software that works well for them? What else have people used, etc.



Hello, I am very pleased to contribute to a thread like this.

I can give you my personal experience through much trial and error. I have found that [i]nothing[/i] works -- no software, no memory programs, no flash cards, no scripture drills, no intense reading -- nothing at all can help in the way which is genuine profitable. All the abovementioned methods succeed in only getting scripture into your head. This is tantamount to memorizing the bones of the body from a college anatomy textbook. You can use such surface knowledge in the pulpit, but it won't do anyone any good, and God won't anoint it.

The best way to [i]memorize scripture and profit also from it[/i], I have found, is to [i]slowly[/i] read the Word of God with a heart that is humble and hungry. Chew the cud of what you read, spend a whole quiet time session meditating on a few verses if you must. You will not be able to blanket-memorize massive chunks of scripture verbatim, but what you do retain you will benefit from immensely. Little by little, work your way through the Bible; this method has shown me the greatest quiet times; it has yielded the most fruit afterwards. Take a lesson from a person that eats: a prudent man will eat a small meal, slowly, and he chews the food well. He may spend all of 15-20 minutes at the table, and he gets up when done. He finishes eating so that his body can now focus on [i]digesting[/i] what has been eaten. The body converts food into power during the digestion phase, not during ingestion. When we ingest we must make sure the food enters into stomach where it can begin to be metabolized; if it only stays in the mouth (meaning the head by rote memory), it will only turn to soggy mush and be rendered useless to the body.

Digested food is Scripture that imparts life to your spiritual system in Christ. Most Christians mistake massive ingestion for digestion, and they make themselves sick and make a waste of their time. Scripture, in these instances, exits as quickly as it enters, with no imparted nutrient and life. You can memorize truckloads of Scripture by rote -- whole chapters and books --and retain them in memory, and there can be absolutely no life imparted, because the morsels were never digested and processed.

Instead of looking for great ways to memorize scripture, we should instead be looking for better digestive aids. We need our reading to be profitable to our spiritual bones, and not just gratifying to our mealtime regime. Truthfully, I tremble at the thought of storing scripture like a squirrel does nuts. I've had my "scripture nest" raided too many times, and discoved all the work was for nought. But nobody can steal digested food; it becomes part of you. If it enters your heart, it won't depart, but if it stays in your head, it remains dead.

Brother Paul

[i](edit)[/i] I just reread my post. I see that I didn't really answer the original request of the thread's author, and all this kind of went off on a tanget, expounding Psalm 119:11 instead! I'm sorry. Disregard this entire post if it doesn't help you. I'll leave it here for anyone that may profit from it. Thank you, and again I apologize for not staying on track.


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Paul Frederick West

 2007/9/27 17:11Profile
PaulWest
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Joined: 2006/6/28
Posts: 3405
Dallas, Texas

 Re: Bible Memorization, tools, tips, methods, etc.

double post


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Paul Frederick West

 2007/9/27 17:12Profile
sonofadam777
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Joined: 2006/3/24
Posts: 108
Rochester, New York

 Re:

Paul,

I don't disagree with what you are saying... BUT... as the disciplines of just reading God's word, memorizing scripture even in bulk is a good discipline because God's word does not return void...

other have suggestions? or experience?

Doug


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Doug Renz

 2007/9/28 8:10Profile
Sistren_MML
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Joined: 2007/6/24
Posts: 18
Ft. Wayne, IN

 Re: Bible Memorization, tools, tips, methods, etc.

My sister and I have developed a method that we use for Bible memorization. It usually works really well but the main problem I deal with is the discipline of reviewing what I have memorized to keep it in my head.

I'll try to explain simply - and not be confusing! When I decide on a verse (or passage) to memorize, I usually go through these steps:

1. I start with the first verse and get familiar enough with it that I can say it to myself without looking. This part can take a little while and sometimes I break up the verse if is long until I have each part down; then I put the parts together.

2. Once I have the verse "memorized," I say it to myself at least six times without looking (although I usually check periodically to make sure I am saying it right.)

3. If I am memorizing a passage of Scripture, then I repeat the whole section of Scripture that I have memorized so far, including the verse I have just memorized.

4. I then try to say the passage of Scripture that I have memorized at least once a day for awhile. After a few days or weeks I have noticed that I only have to review it occasionally to keep it memorized.

This seems to work pretty well for us, but I understand that different people have different ways of learning things so it probably won't work for everyone. I hope it has been helpful though; and God's blessing on your memorizing!!


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Mikah and Morgan

 2007/9/28 10:23Profile
PaulWest
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Joined: 2006/6/28
Posts: 3405
Dallas, Texas

 Re:

Quote:
as the disciplines of just reading God's word, memorizing scripture even in bulk is a good discipline



I don't disagree, just be advised that the Pharisees [i]memorized[/i] the entire Pentateuch and they completely missed Jesus Christ, and we likewise can also miss the quickening of the Word of God by the Holy Spirit if our intentions are purely to satisfy for the sake of memorization alone. By all means, blanket-memorize in bulk if you feel this will better equip you against the world, flesh and devil...just be advised that such [i]will[/i] return void if it has not been processed...and not only that, it will work to your detriment. I know of ministers that have memorized huge chunks of God's Word and they have absolutely no authority or power at all, and they harden the hearts of those who hear them. Have you ever been on a thread where someone just keeps cutting and pasting scripture and indiscriminately posting verse after verse? What is your reaction? Don't lie; it's a form of repulsion, right? It bores you. You don't want read the verses because you know they've been synthetically posted, not coming from the heart and so you quickly scroll past it all. Apply the same to someone who memorizes scripture for the sake of memorization and then tries to use it for a specific purpose in public or private. God says, "No. You must [i]eat[/i] the Manna and have it become a part of you. If you try to store it up in your tent, the manna will rot." Unprocessed, unquickened scripture is deadly. The undigested letter hardens and kills.

I'm just trying to challenge you, brother, and open your eyes to perhaps a new consideration, a deeper concept of truth. This may fly in the face of everything you've heard about the fruits of memorizing scripture. As a student of God's Word and your brother, I feel I should alert you of this...and I think it can do no harm to you or anyone else who who reads this. Honey is good and sweet and profitable to the body...but there are proverbial warnings governing the ingestion of honey, and people who gorge themselves on honey for the sake of satiating the feat of mere memorization are not altogether wise. All I'm saying is memorize as much as is sufficient unto thee (Proverbs 25:16), but take the time to swallow what you have before putting more in your mouth, otherwise you run the risk of vomiting. Scripture-vomit may have substance, but it is not useful to the body, nor will it strengthen the heart.

Brother Paul


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Paul Frederick West

 2007/9/28 12:12Profile
MSeaman
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Joined: 2005/4/19
Posts: 772
Michigan

 Re:

Brother Paul,
I completely agree with your statements. The reason why I want to memorize Scripture is so that it will quicken my spirit and CHANGE me by His Spirit. Thank you for your wisdom in these things.


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Melissa

 2007/9/28 13:42Profile
MSeaman
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Joined: 2005/4/19
Posts: 772
Michigan

 Re:

Silly double posty... 8-)


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Melissa

 2007/9/28 13:42Profile
relewis111
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Joined: 2004/12/3
Posts: 51
Pittsburgh,PA

 Re: memorization

I have found a couple of effective methods for memorising Scripture. One that is especially good is picking a verse to fast with, that is while fasting, when I get hungry or distracted I repeat a verse thet the Holy Spirit has laid on my heart for that time. Another is to organize the Word of God into coherent threads that relate to one another or even pick topics. I have been blessed with teaching oppurtunities and organizing and then sharing God's Word has deepened it's meaning for me and given my mind a place to occupy within the Word of God. I've also kept index cards in my pocket at various times to pull out and review whenever I get a free moment, also you never know when you can pass those cards on to someone else.

One thing about memorising God's Word, if you are serious about your walk with Christ you had better expect warfare from the enemy and he doesn't wait for you to find it in a concordance. I have been attacked fiercly and have cried out to God, in His word; there is only one offensive weapon we have, the Word of God. Of what use are we if the Holy Spirit can only find John 3:16 or John 11:35 hidden in our hearts?

I hope I was helpful

Rich


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Richard E Lewis III

 2007/9/28 18:20Profile





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