An Interview with Romain

When it comes to memorizing Scripture and being able to remember and quote it, complete with its reference, my twenty-six-year-old son-in-law Romain Dupont is one of the best.  He has been a Christian since the age of eighteen, and his leather-bound French Bible is well-loved and well-used.  He has painstakingly hand-color-coded many Scripture passages by topic, and all the pages from Jean 3 (John) to Apocalypse (Revelation) are completely detached from the rest of the Bible—and have been for several years—because Romain has read and reread these portions of Scripture many, many times.

Romain’s approach to memorizing is much different from mine, and since he and my daughter Angela are visiting the States for a few weeks, I took the opportunity to interview him.

Why do you memorize Scripture, Romain?

The Bible is food for us as Christians.  It nourishes us and helps us to grow as Christians.

We also renew our souls by the words of God.  The word of God affects our intelligence and our thinking, and we need to renew that thinking and our behavior by meditating on the Word.  As it says in Romans 12:2, we are supposed to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Jesus used the word of the Lord as a weapon against the devil during His temptation in the desert when He said, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

 

I memorize Scripture to nourish my spirit (my heart), to renew my mind, to give me a formidable weapon against the devil, to know Jesus better, and to find out the will of God.

How do you decide what to memorize?

I memorize principally verses that concern Christian living, the things of God, my relationship with God, and what God wants to do in me.  If a verse fills a need for me or helps my relationship with God, I find several verses on the same topic and meditate on all of them.

You meditate?  What does that mean to you?

I think about the verses, and I pray about them because I want to understand the things of God.  I ask Him to make His words real to me in my spirit.  It’s like the parable of the sower:  First I need to hear and understand the word of God.  Then I receive the word very deeply with joy—the word or seed is not just on the surface or in my head, but in my heart.  I try to keep the words in my heart in spite of troubles that come or the circumstances around me.  After I have meditated on the verses, I know them by heart.

What kinds of topics do you use for meditation?

Some of my meditation topics have been the love of God, the blood of Christ, dependence on God, sanctification, faith, and prayer.

Do you have any words of wisdom for those of us who are trying to memorize Scripture?

There is no power in simply learning verses.  We must get the verses from our heads to our hearts.  My advice is to open your heart to God and ask for His revelation. 

Jesus said in Luke 10:21, “I praise you, Father,…because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children.” 

In I Corinthians 2: 10-14, Paul writes about the things that God has revealed to us by the Holy Spirit “who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.”

While memorizing, we can ask God to reveal to us His meaning of the verse for us personally, and the Holy Spirit will teach us.  Little by little the word will become part of our spirits.  When it’s firmly in our hearts or spirits, the next step is to confess it inwardly and declare it out loud.  Then live it out by practicing it.  Even though we may not feel it inside us, we need to remember that feelings are part of our souls (the soul is our mind, will, and emotions)—not our spiritual beings.  It’s important to act out what we believe and not what we feel.

Thank you, Romain, for your insights!

Memory Is a Melody Away!

When my children were small, they delighted in listening to a set of children’s tapes called GT and the Halo Express.  These stories and songs lulled them to sleep at night and  kept them company on long car trips.  Because of those tapes, both of the children easily learned a number of Bible verses.  Why?  Those verses were put to catchy tunes that were easily sung. 

I was raised on the hymns of the faith, and I know by heart the words to songs like these:

 

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee…

What can wash away my sin?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus…

Amazing love!  How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?...

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!...

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame…

Nursery rhymes set to song bubble up from my subconscious every once in a while, and I can still sing/chant the words to a high school football cheer from my teen years!  And those commercial jingles from another era of television—well, just start with the first word or two, and I’m off and running with the words and tune (think “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!”).  Is there any one of us who cannot sing the alphabet (a, b, c, d, e, f, g….)?

Why are these words so easily retrieved from my memory?  I believe it is because there was a melody to go with them—an underlying tune that helped imprint, so to speak, the words in my brain.  The tune helps me learn the words in the first place and it helps me to retrieve those same words from my long-term memory.

Is it possible to apply this principle to memorizing and retaining Bible verses? 

I found several sites on the internet that specialize in putting Scripture to music and then making it available for us to download or buy.  Here is a sampling of those sites:

http://www.biblememorymusic.com/ 

http://www.scripturesongs.net/

http://www.theblazingcenter.com/category/free-scripture-song

http://www.joyfulnoisescripture.org/

http://thewordinmusic.com/music/default.htm

Scripture put to music for children:

http://www.gthalo.com/

http://www.seedsmusicstore.com/

Have you ever thought about incorporating music into your Scripture memory work?  Make up a melody to go with your newest verses, or use an existing tune and give it new words from Scripture to help you remember, retain, and recall. 

Using Topics for Memorization and Review

It’s difficult for me to pass by books even when I’m grocery shopping, so when I stopped to look at a revolving display rack at Wegman’s and saw a slim and inexpensive volume simply titled Bible Memory Plan, I knew I wanted to buy it.

The premise of this book, by Pamela McQuade, is that anyone who wants to memorize Bible verses can do it, by starting slowly with short verses and building gradually to longer passages.  McQuade challenges readers to memorize one verse per week for an entire year, verses which she has pre-selected; each verse is labeled with a general category, and tips and encouragement for memorizing are included for each week. 

The author assigns a topic to each verse she suggests memorizing; Christian life, our God, salvation, God’s word, faith, and seeking God are the six categories she uses. This is my third year of systematically memorizing Scripture, and I have never thought to put my verses into categories like this for the purposes of reviewing or memorizing.  I think this is a great idea!

Here is an example from each category:

Christian Life—For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Phil. 4:13 (NLT)

            God’s Word--Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Ps. 119:105 (KJV)

            Our God—It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure.

2 Sam. 22:33 (NIV)

Faith—So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Romans 10:17 (KJV)

Salvation—If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

            I John 1:9 (NIV)

Seeking God—Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

            Matt. 7:7-8 (NIV)

If these classifications don’t fit you, why not make up your own topic list and label your verses accordingly.  I can think of other possibilities, such as promises to claim, sins to avoid, commands to follow, prayers to pray, the Holy Spirit, and prophecy.  Use your personal topics to help you review your verses and relate them to each other, which should give you another “hook” to help you remember them.

           

In the past, I have reviewed my verses in the order I memorized them, or in the order of their appearance in the Bible; I even made an alphabetical list of first words and/or phrases to force myself to come up with the rest of the verses and their references.  I have used the last few cards of my spiral to make an index or table of contents for the year’s verses and used that to help prompt my memory.  I don’t intend to forsake my former tried-and-true methods of reviewing, but now I have a new tool to add to my repertoire—topics!

The Impact of Memorizing Scripture

On the Living Proof Ministries blog entry today, Scripture Memory Team members were asked to describe what memorizing God’s Word has meant to them this year.

The answers were so moving and encouraging that I would like to share a sampling of them with you.

Memorizing God’s Word this year has:

… amazed me with God’s intimate involvement in my life — giving me EXACTLY (“chill bump” exactly) the scripture I needed to stand firm and grow in faith. Praise His Name!

… helped to keep me focused on Him and has challenged me.

… helped me see how God can use me in encouraging others with His Word more readily and with confidence.
… become a much needed spiritual discipline and comfort for me.
… helped me take every thought captive!
… given me strength and peace to face the most difficult challenge of my life.
… taken me to a much better place mentally most days.
… kept me steady. Thank you, Father, for your Word!
… caused me to quit believing the lie that I can’t memorize God’s word.
… forced me to focus on God’s character, His plan, His faithfulness rather than the things I see and am walking through.
… been a constant reminder of the pure goodness of God’s Word, the truth that fills my heart with joy regardless of my circumstances.
… made me realize how much I was STARVING my mind and heart for a word straight from Him. He gives me strength!
... is helping me to overcome an eating disorder which has plagued me for years.
… given me Scripture to speak to bring comfort and peace in unsettling times.
… refreshed my faith and has given me a new spirit of determination and perseverance in my ministry.
… given me peace without fear in my heart that I could not have gotten from any other source
... brought me to a place of dependency on God; I NEED Him for my daily Bread (to be my personal Manna).
… helped to redirect my mind during a most difficult season.
… reminded me anew that God speaks to me personally in every nook and cranny of my life!
… helped me be more silent and listen to God.
… let me know I am never alone.
… shown me how to find victory in the weak moments of temptation!
… been refreshing, a comfort, and it’s caused me to love Him more and more.
… given me warmth and security as I felt as a child in my mother’s arms.
… been the rain this thirsty soul has needed.
… drawn me closer to His heart.

… been like a life preserver among a sea of thoughts that could have drowned me otherwise.

 How has Scripture memorization impacted your life this year?

A Prisoner of War

Since yesterday was Memorial Day, it seems fitting today to remember the story of Howard Rutledge, POW in North Vietnam.  Rutledge died several years ago, but his book, In the Presence of Mine Enemies, 1965-1973---A Prisoner of War, remains as a testimony to the resilience and resourcefulness of the human spirit when sustained by the word of God.

I encountered his story in Robert Morgan’s book, 100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart.  Morgan writes that Howard was not particularly interested in spiritual things……..until he became a prisoner of war.  Then he became absolutely desperate to recall anything from his childhood relating to the Bible or church.  With the help of other American POW’s at the Hanoi Hilton, he reconstructed every Bible verse that he possibly could from the eighteen years he had spent attending Sunday School.  It was amazing that, as time went on, he could access more and more of the verses that had been deeply buried in the furthest recesses of his mind. 

Rutledge declared that he remained sane solely because of these Bible verses.  According to Morgan, “The memorized snippets of Scripture in his brain were potent. They faced down death, rallied his spirits, steeled his nerves, and tapped in the deepest strength known in the universe. They beat back the torture, stifled the despair, subdued the terrors he felt, and maintained his sanity even when he was immobilized for days in a stifling hut, chained to a metal frame, lying in his own waste, and covered with ants, flies, and biting insects.”(p. 20)

Hebrews 4:12 declares that “…the word of God is living and effective and sharper that any two-edged sword…”  Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”  “Is not my word like fire…and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” attests the Lord in Jeremiah 23:29.  In Isaiah 55:10-11, God’s word is compared to the rain and snow that water the earth, making it bud and yield seed. More precious than gold and sweeter than honey are the Lord’s ordinances, according to Psalm 9:9-10.  Jesus called the word more important than bread for mankind’s sustenance in Matthew 4:4.

 

In short, the word of God is living, effective, incredibly sharp, more precious than gold, sweeter than honey, and better than life-sustaining bread.  It’s a sword, a lamp, a light, a hammer, and life-giving precipitation as well as fire.

What God did in Howard Rutledge’s life through His word, He is willing to do for us too when we ourselves are prisoners of defeat, heartbreak, addiction, despair, destruction, and frustration, and confusion.  God uses His word to bring emotional, spiritual, and physical healing to us, if we are willing to bathe our hearts, minds, souls, and spirits in it.  

What life-giving verse are you memorizing today, my friends?

Get Into the Word and Let the Word Get Into You!

I love this message:  Get into the Word and let the Word get into you!  I heard Lysa TerKeurst of Proverbs 31 Ministries say this at a recent women’s conference, and it struck a chord with me.   

You’re probably familiar with the first half of this imperative:  Get into the Word.  Verses like 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV), “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth,” and Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV), “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart,” are foundational verses that emphasize that the Bible is inspired and alive and powerful and worthy of reading and study.

But how do we let the Word get into us?  We let it penetrate our innermost beings by meditating on it, by savoring it, by ruminating on it, by praying it, by immersing ourselves in it, by storing it in our minds and hearts so that God can use it to speak to us.  And that is what we on this Scripture Memory Team are doing---allowing the Word of God to enter first our minds and then our spirits through memorization.

Memorizing Bible verses is not simply an intellectual exercise; it is a spiritual discipline with rewards far greater than we can imagine.  It is an activity that speaks volumes of love to the Lord, for it requires sacrifice on our part---the sacrifice of our time and energy; it is an act of obedience because He has asked us to hide his Word in our hearts so that we won’t sin against Him (Psalm 119:11).

I memorized Psalm 51:6 when I began this journey of deliberately memorizing Scripture.  In the New International Reader’s Version, it says:  “I know that You want truth to be in my heart; You teach me wisdom deep down inside me.”  I so want God’s truth and His wisdom to be “deep down inside me.”  What about you?

Has God given you a verse of truth and wisdom to memorize this month?

The Transformational Power of Scripture

Gary Smalley was a featured speaker on a Webinar to which my husband and listened recently. Gary, a well-known psychologist, is a Christian and the author or co-author of many books, including The Blessing, The DNA of Relationships, The Hidden Value of a Man, and The Key to Your Child’s Heart as well as Guard Your Child's Heart: Establish Your Child's Faith Through Scripture Memory and Meditation. 

We have 20,000 to 60,000 thoughts each day, according to Dr. Smalley, and every thought seeps into our hearts or subconscious minds.  He declared that he wants a “forest” of Christ’s thoughts in his “heart”—a forest that overshadows the thoughts of the world, which he defined as pride, pleasure, possessions, and avoidance of difficulties.

Smalley went on to say that in order to think like Christ, our thoughts have to be centered around humility, love of God, loving others, and rejoicing in difficulties.  And then he began quoting Scriptures to make his point.  I realized that here is a man who, by his own admission, has been memorizing the Word for years. 

“The more passion we put into meditating on and quoting verses during the day, the more they become part of your subconscious (heart),” said Dr. Smalley.  He looks for every opportunity to think about God because for him, “God is like unexpectedly finding a cool, natural spring in the desert---my living water, my high tower.”

Gary Smalley decided to put God to the test five years ago.  Lustful thoughts had bombarded him for years, and  he had despaired of ever getting rid of them. But he asked God to show him a new verse that would put those thoughts to rest, and God gave him Galatians 5:13-14 ( ¹³ You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. ¹⁴ For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” NIV). 

Gary said that he meditated and thought about these verses for two solid weeks. One day he was in a swimming pool and two bikini-clad women entered the pool enclosure.  When he realized that his first unbidden thoughts were, “I wonder if they have anyone who loves them.  I wonder if they know that God loves them,” he knew that God was answering his prayer.  He reported that God is giving him a love of people to replace the lust that had plagued him, and today he is 99.99% free of lust as he continues to fill his mind with Scripture.

This should encourage all of us to dig into the Bible and to memorize Scripture and to meditate on it. This is not just an exercise; it is one of the ways the Holy Spirit is able to transform us closer and closer into the image of Christ.

Those of you who are memorizing, are you experiencing this transformation in your lives?  II Corinthians 3:18 says that the Spirit makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image (NLT).  The New American Standard describes it as being transformed from glory to glory. I pray that each of us is finding this call to memorize a powerful tool that God is using to change us bit by bit into His likeness.

And now, let’s see your "glory" verses!