Get Ready, Get Set, Let's Go!

Welcome, everyone, to 2013---a new year in which we can celebrate God’s goodness to us by memorizing and meditating upon His Word!

Perhaps you have felt the nudge to memorize Scripture, but you don’t know where to begin. Consider asking God to help you find a verse to memorize. It could be a verse that you’ve heard used in a sermon or one that you’ve recently read in your Bible reading. Find a verse that resonates with your soul, that is meaningful to you, that challenges you or comforts you or strengthens you. Choose a verse that you need, because it is so much easier to memorize when you feel a connection to it.

Personally, I keep a list of verses that I want to memorize---so many that it’s likely that I won’t get to them all this side of heaven. I star verses in my Bible reading, verses that I hear in sermons, and verses that I see in Bible studies, all of which I want to sear into my soul so that they can transform my spirit.

I first saw the following verses in connection with last year’s fall Bible study by Jennifer Rothschild, Missing Pieces: Real Hope When Life Doesn’t Make Sense. As soon as I heard them, I knew that I wanted to make them my first memory verses of 2013.

Habakkuk 3:17-18 (NIV)

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,

Though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,

Though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

These verses remind me that even when there seems to be no hope, I can still choose to rejoice in God Himself.  This is a battle cry of sorts to be recited out loud and often!

On Beth Moore’s blog (http://blog.lproof.org/), she offers a verse to memorize that is so appropriate for the start of a new year:  You crown the year with Your bounty, and Your carts overflow with abundance.  Psalm 65:11 (NIV)

What verse are you memorizing at the beginning of this new year?

The Last Verses for 2011!

What a year it has been!  A number of us have immersed ourselves in Scripture memory as a spiritual discipline in 2011; and we will never be the same!  On Beth Moore’s blog, she again invited people to write what memorizing Scripture has meant to them this year.  Here are a few excerpts:

My faith has been tested along the way, and God has been so good and so faithful. And I have been so thankful to have a switchblade of verses in my heart to use whenever the enemy attacks!

I never thought I would be able to memorize 24 verses, but almost every verse has a special meaning to me personally & my year has been richly blessed because of these verses.

This is my first year of memorizing scripture like this and I have to say it’s been amazing to see how God has used his very word to move in my life…strengthening me, encouraging me and just seriously touching my life and drawing me closer to him.

It has motivated me more than you can realize and has changed my heart! Throughout the year, God has put scriptures on my heart to memorize that later would be something that I desperately needed to work through some situations.

[Even though I didn’t memorize as much as I wanted] He took my well-meant verse commitments as an act of worship, and “grew me” in ways I could not have done myself, more than any well-executed plan of discipline could ever have done.

Some of my Scripture memory is almost like a conversation with the Lord. I would memorize a Scripture about crying out to God and the next Scripture I memorized would be His response to me!

I am overwhelmed with joy when I look back at the scriptures I was led to select throughout the seasons of this year – from prayers for power of the Lord in my life, to refuge in His Love, to peace in His presence.

His Word and the intentional memorizing of it this year has been water to my soul. Truly IT is living and active and powerful beyond belief!

I am in utter shock and awe that I memorized even 1 scripture, let alone 24 (actually almost 30). My life is forever changed. His word is in my heart and on my tongue, always. So grateful!

Memorizing scripture has…enhanced my prayer life to pray His Word back to Him. The Holy Spirit brings the Word to my mind to encourage, comfort, convict, and teach me daily.

God has blessed my memory work this year by making His Word come alive to me. I love having His Word on my thoughts and lips.

This has been a year of journeying with God in defeating many strongholds…the strongest of which is fear. The scriptures I have memorized have not only given me the confidence that I CAN remember His Word, but also been my prayer and call for His help. 

This past year has been an amazing journey of delving into Scripture and allowing God to speak His Word to the deepest places of my heart.

[Scripture memory] has become an intimate, private conversation between me and God.

God’s Word has been my refuge and strength. I especially love that when my mind wants to wander and worry, I can take control of my thoughts by reciting my Scriptures. The greatest blessing for me is that the Word is always with me, even when my Bible is not.

My spiral of verses… is like a journal of my year, for I chose verses that related to the circumstances at that time. As the year wore on, the verses took on new meanings and became even richer to me. On sleepless nights, I would start with Jan. and recite each verse. Tears of happiness would flow from the joy of God’s truth.  (I would never make it through all of my verses before I fell asleep.) It is a year I will cherish!

The journey of Scripture memorization this year has taken me to places I didn’t expect to go with the Lord.

God…brought so much healing to my mind through scripture memory. I praise His name!!!

 I really can’t believe I memorized 24 whole verses…When I think about them, say them, proclaim them…they release POWER. God’s Word is so powerful, and I feel like I’ve been injected with 24+ shots of pure, unending power.

I have had a wild year, full of ups and downs, but the amazing thing was that EVERY single scripture God asked me to memorize fit the situation I was in or I was about to be in! I love that part of Him. Through His divinely inspired, loving, faithful word, He prepared me, as well as equipped me for whatever I was going through or about to go through.

Tears are welling as I type and the words to one of my memory verses come quickly to mind, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” That a Scripture verse comes to mind so readily is a testimony worth shouting from the rooftops because I don’t think the same way anymore.

What a joy it has been to plant my Heavenly Father’s word into my heart. I have always said I couldn’t memorize His word, but He was so gracious to show me differently.

When I look back over the verses I’ve learned this year, it’s like looking at a scrapbook. The verses remind me of God’s faithfulness, provision and blessing through this past year.

It's obvious that God works when his people say Yes.  I am planning to memorize again in 2012.  What about you?

YouTube Tips for Memorization

Have you ever heard of Punky Tolson?  Neither had I, until I happened to see a four-part YouTube video that she made to give advice about memorizing Scripture.

I later looked at her blog and found out that Punky Tolson is a former actress who is currently in ministry with her husband, Dr. John Tolson.  She tries to memorize 24 verses a year and writes a blog, which, in part, encourages others to memorize too.

Here are Punky’s tips:

1. Relate.   Choose a verse to which you relate emotionally and spiritually.

2. Read it through.  Read your verse in several different translations for more understanding.  Ask yourself: What is the topic?  Who is speaking?  Is there a promise/ blessing/ action to take/ command to follow/ or sin to avoid in this verse?

3. Write it out.  Write it out on an index card. Write it also on several sticky notes, and post those notes around the house and on the dashboard of your car. 

4. Rehearse it.  Say your verse out loud; that way you are speaking God’s truth with your voice.  Divide your verse into word groupings, and learn it phrase by phrase, linking the phrases together.  Sing the verse.  Give the verse a topic, and recite the topic, reference, verse, and reference again when you practice.

5. Respond with it.  Pray the verse.

6. Rule with it.  Use your verse to replace negative thoughts that come to mind.  Live it—believe it! 

Many of these pointers we have talked about in previous blog entries.  I really like the advice she gives in her fifth tip---pray the verse.  Punky says that we should be dialoguing with God about the Scripture, asking Him to show us what it means in our lives, and asking for His help in making it alive and active in us.  “Lord, show me…..” and “Lord, help me…..”  are two phrases that we can use as we pray our verses.  We can also rewrite the verse as a prayer.  Punky says she posts a sticky note on her alarm clock with her current verse so that she can pray it before bed as well as first thing in the morning. 

If you would like to listen to Punky’s video tips for yourself, the URL is http://www.youtube.com/user/thetolsongroup

Organize Your Verses for Review

I’ve decided to get organized!  By that I mean that it’s time to put the verses I’ve been learning for the past three years, as well as the verses I learned as a child, into an organizational system that will help me systematically review them.  Review and retention go hand in hand; if the words are in your memory but you can’t retrieve them---it doesn’t do you much good.  According to my daughter, who took a cognitive psychology course last summer, we have to keep the pathways open so that retrieval is easy.  And the only way to keep those mental pathways open is to……(drumroll, please)… REVIEW.

I found myself in Office Max today, looking for the perfect organizational tools---a card file box and 41 cards with tabs.  I found the boxes, but none of them was particularly inspirational with color or design; there were laminated tabbed index cards as well, but they were pre-labeled A-Z, and I want to create my own labels, so I ended up looking but not buying.

According to Charlotte Mason, a British educator who lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s and whose educational philosophies and materials are popular with many homeschooling families today, with her method of review (which you can see at http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/), you can keep hundreds of verses fresh in your memory.  I’m hoping to prove her right.

Here is how it works:  Label one card Daily, another Odd, a third Even, the next seven cards with the days of the week (Sunday, Monday, etc.), and the last 31 cards from one to thirty-one.  Place the cards in the file box in the above order.

The verse that you are currently trying to commit to memory gets filed behind Daily and you work on it every day.  After you can say it well, file it behind either Odd or Even.  Then, as you are learning a new verse, on odd days you will review the verse behind the Odd guide card and on even days the verse behind the Even guide card.  When the newest Daily card is ready to be advanced to Odd or Even, take the card already in that spot and place it behind a day of the week card.  As the days of the week get filled up with cards, then one at a time they can be advanced to the numbered cards. 

As your card file box gets filled up with verse cards, you will end up working on four verses per day---the newest verse (Daily), an Odd or Even verse, a Day of the Week verse, and a Day of the Month verse.  For example, today is Wednesday, October 5; I would look at my Daily verse, the Odd verse, the Wednesday verse, and the verse behind the card number 5. 

The beauty of this system is that after you have memorized a verse, you still review it for a time every other day, then once a week, and eventually once a month.

If you already have a set of verses memorized, just start out by placing them behind the numbered tabbed cards and plan to review one a day. 

And no, I am not planning to take apart any of my precious spirals; I will rewrite the verses on new and colorful note cards—which will provide me with a good review in and of itself.

Now, if I can just find the perfect set of tabbed cards and an attractive card file box...........

The MemLok Bible Memory System

I didn’t know until recently that there were such things as Scripture memory systems.  I thought that all one had to do was pick out a verse, write it on a note card or piece of paper, work on memorizing the verse and its reference, and then review it occasionally to keep it in mind.  Apparently there are organizations which specialize in helping  people pick verses, memorize them, keep track of them, and review them.  Who knew?!

The MemLok Bible Memory System takes advantage of this age of personal computers to sell a fairly inexpensive program to download (currently the Family Edition is $29.95) wherever you use a computer. The motto of MemLok is “Scripture memory made easy through verse-picture association on flashcards. Fun!”  The verses that you memorize are made more retainable because each verse gets associated with a colorful picture. You can elect to have your verse flashcards only on the computer or you can print them off to carry with you and use in other places.

I think that this next feature of the MemLok system is extremely important---a way to monitor the review of your verses.  MemLok’s review is automatic, and it keeps track of everyone in your household separately.  The daily review has to be done in conjunction with the computer, obviously; you have a choice of unscrambling the words of the verses, filling in the blanks from a word bank, or typing out the verse completely without any prompts at all.  Your Completion Record keeps track of your progress, and it’s available to see at any time.  Review is definitely the key to retention, so a good method of reviewing is vital.

MemLok is preprogrammed to use four Bible translations (KJV, NKJV, NASV, NIV), 700 verses, and 48 topics.  However, you can add translations, verses, and topics as you wish.  Although MemLok recommends memorizing one verse each week, you can elect to memorize one a day or take them at a slower pace.  There appear to be lots of user choices with the MemLok system. 

Many homeschooling families are using MemLok, but its benefits are not confined to children of school age.  Individuals of all ages can benefit from this system of Scripture memory. 

I would love to see MemLok at work; in fact, I am going to recommend it to someone I know who is struggling with verse memorization and retention.  Perhaps it would appeal to you too.  You can get further information on this innovative Bible verse memory system at http://www.memlok.com/   

Those of you who are memorizing a verse for September 15, shout it out!

Scripture Memory: A Type of Lectio Divina?

Have you heard of Lectio Divina?  I didn’t know much about it until recently when I researched it in order to lead a lectio divina exercise at a women’s retreat.  I found out that it is an ancient method of looking at Scripture and meditating on a word or phrase that is given to you by the Holy Spirit.  It was kept alive by monks during and after the Protestant Reformation because the Protestant leaders soundly rejected it as a Roman Catholic practice.  Today it is experiencing a resurgence in the Protestant and Catholic communities alike, with groups like the American Bible Society promoting its use as a way for all of us to hear from God through the Bible.

There are four simple steps in the practice of Lectio Divina or “holy reading”:

#1.  LECTIO (READ)

       Read a short passage of Scripture out loud, after quieting yourself and asking the Holy Spirit to guide you.  Is there a word or phrase that especially moves you or causes you to stop and think or question?  What captures your attention in the passage you have read?

#2.  MEDITATIO (MEDITATE)

       Meditate on that word or group of words. How does the text relate to your life experience?  How does it touch you inwardly—your concerns, your memories, your ideas? 

#3.  ORATIO (PRAY)

        Ask God what He is saying to you through the Scripture.  What is it that He may be inviting you to do?  Is He inviting you to change in some way?  Pray about what you have received from His Word, giving thanks for this gift from Him.

#4.  CONTEMPLATIO (CONTEMPLATION)

       Rest in the Father’s arms.  Be still and let Him minister to you in the stillness.  Enjoy His company.  Just be present with Him.

As I gathered more and more information about the practice of Lectio Divina, I realized that as I memorize Scripture, I go through some of the steps listed above.  I don’t do it consciously, but it happens nevertheless.  This is the example that popped out for me.

I was memorizing Isaiah 45:2 in the New American Standard Bible ( I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars.) when the phrase “shatter the doors of bronze” was highlighted for me. The word “shatter” kept coming back to my mind.

I looked up other translations to see if there were any other nuances I could glean from their wording.  Shatter was translated variously as break down, break in pieces, make to shiver, smash down, and destroy.  The dictionary definition of shatter was “to dash, burst, or break into fragments.”

Then I thought about bronze.  How hard would it be to shatter something made of bronze?  How heavy do you suppose bronze doors (or gates according to some translations) might be?  So heavy that I couldn’t move them by myself?  So heavy that I would need someone else to open them for me?  Hmmm.

And it became clear to me that God was saying, “I am able to open for you all the “doors of bronze” in your life, whatever they might be (ie. fears, concerns, difficult people or circumstances).  I am strong enough to shatter them so they don’t keep you bound or outside My perfect will for you any longer.  Not only am I able to do it, I am willing to do it for you.  You just have to let me.” Wow!!

The first three steps in the practice of Lectio Divina were there as I tried to memorize the verse from Isaiah; I had read it out loud a number of times, I had “meditated” on a particular phrase, and I had talked to God about it.  The only step I left out was that of contemplation or resting in the Father’s arms.  I have an idea that more contemplation on my part would equal more hearing His voice as well.  

It’s time for the first of our September verses.  I look forward to seeing what you are memorizing!  And if you have found yourself meditating on certain words or phrases,  I invite you to share what you have learned with all of us.

A Woman of Influence

Amy Carmichael was born in the Northern Ireland in 1867, but she spent most of her life in India as a missionary, even though she was chronically ill.  It was she who founded the Dohnavur orphanage and mission and saved over a thousand children, some of whom were destined to be Hindu temple prostitutes, from a sad future. 

Although early in life she had lamented the fact that her eyes were brown and not the color she admired in others (blue), yet as she attempted to blend into the culture of southern India with her dress and darkening her skin with coffee, her brown eyes were an asset to her. 

Amy was also a poet, a hymn writer, and the author of thirty-five published books.  She died in India at the age of eighty-three.

Here are two separate quotations from her writings, both of which relate to the importance of knowing Scripture and using it to defeat the devil.   

Someone gave me a bit of brick and a little slab of marble from Rome. It was wonderful to touch one of them and think, Perhaps the Apostle Paul or one of the martyrs touched this as they passed. But how much more wonderful is it to think that we have, for our own use, the very same sword our Lord used when the Devil attacked Him. [Brooke Foss] Westcott says "The Word of God" in Ephesians 6:17 means "a definite utterance of God". We know these "definite utterances" - we have the same Book that He had, and we can do as He did. So let us learn the "definite utterances" that they may be ready in our minds; ready for use at the moment of need - our sword which never grows dull and rusty, but is always keen and bright. So once more I say, let us not expect defeat but victory. Let us take fast hold and keep fast hold of our sword, and we shall win in any assault of the enemy.

Thank God for the battle verses in the Bible. We go into the unknown every day of our lives, and especially every Monday morning, for the week is sure to be a battlefield, outwardly and inwardly in the unseen life of the spirit, which is often by far the sternest battlefield for souls. Either way, the Lord your God goes before you, He shall fight for you!

Indeed, as we memorize our verses, we are shining and sharpening our swords and keeping them ready for the inevitable attacks by the enemy, whose mission is to kill, steal, and destroy us.  Be ready!