Before I take off for the weekend, I thought I'd give an update on my scripture memorization efforts.  In my last post I mentioned that I have been spending time this week listening to the John MacArthur Scripture Memory System during my drive time to and from work.  It is designed to help the listener learn one Bible passage each week. 

I am really excited to report that it is totally working for me!  I listen to it for about 6-8 minutes in the morning and 6-8 minutes in the evening.  Basically, I listen to it during commercial breaks of my favorite radio station here in OKC, WWLS The Sports Animal.  I listen to the passage a few times and pick out the keywords.  Keywords are simply words that stick out to me.  I then listen to the passage and try to remember the keywords as John quotes the verse.  Once I have that down, I begin reflecting on the filler words.  Those are the words that come in between the keywords that help make the whole passage make sense.  Next, I say it with John from start to finish a few times.  Finally, I quote it several more times, trying to say it faster each time.  Once I get to my office, I open my Bible and check to see how I've done.

Here's what I've memorized since Monday morning of this week:

Psalm 103:1-4
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my sould, and forget not all His benefits.
He forgives all your iniquity
He heals all your diseases
He redeems your life from destruction
And crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies.

Jeremiah 9:23-24
Thus says the Lord:
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his richess,
But let he who glories, glory in this:
That he understands and knows me.
For I am the Lord, excercising
Loving kindness, judgement, and righteousness
In the earth.  In these things I delight, says the Lord.

Romans 8:28
For we know that all things work together for good
For those who love God and are called, according to His purpose.

Hebrews 4:12
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.

As I've said before, I don't consider myself to have some sort of super or photographic memory.  But I think the combination of hearing, speaking, and reading really work together to help me remember.  To me, by focusing on keywords, I am able to construct the verse in my mind so that I can organize it for recollection.

What methods have any of you found helpful?

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to be able to recall even the most obscure details and facts while others struggle to remember the simplest things?  I was taking my 4 year old daughter to vacation bible school at a friend's church last night and she started telling me about my dog Abby.  Abby was my dog when I was growing up and as I can recall, I've only told my daughter about Abby on a single occasion that took place at least 6 months ago. How in the world did my daughter remember not only my dog's name, but the other details I told her about?  To me it was an unimportant little chat we had.  I had totally forgotten about it until my daughter brought it up.

I don't know, maybe my daughter belongs in Mensa like that two year old girl in Aldershot, Hampshire, UK.  I think it is something else though.  I think that we remember the things that matter to us.  I also think that if we can somehow make an association with a memory, then we are much more likely to remember it.  I personally have to use some sort of association to help remember things.  When memorizing numbers I often find myself associating it with NASCAR driver or their sponsor. 

So why is this relevant?  Well, for me it became relevant on Monday when I finally decided to start using the John MacArthur Scripture Memory System I picked up about a year or two ago.  It sat on my bookshelf until Friday when I put it in my truck with the intention of listening to it on my way to work.  What I've discovered is memorizing scriptures from the Bible is not as hard as I thought it would be.  For example, this week's verse is (from memory now)-

    Bless the Lord, Oh my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name.
    Bless the Lord, Oh my soul and forget not all His benefits.
    He forgives all your iniquity,
    He heals all your diseases,
    He redeems your life from destruction and
    Crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. Psalm 103:1-4

I don't consider myself to be a memorizing machine.  Quite the opposite, actually.  But surprisingly, at least to me anyway, I was able to memorize it before I even arrived at work!  I then listened to it a few more times during the drive home just to solidify it, and voila, I had it memorized! 

I did it by associating certain parts of it.  The first line I already had memorized from an old hymn.  The second line was very similar and was easy to naturally learn.  However, the second line also contained a key word- Benefits.  The remaining portions of the verse told me about his benefits.  All I had to remember was that there were three benefits- Forgive, Heal and Redeem.  Once I remembered those single three key words then I associated a new key word with each of them.  After that, I just needed to remember the last line.  My key word here was Crown.  It served as my trigger to visualize a crown being placed on my head and from that I was able to remember Loving Kindness and Tender Mercies.

So now I'm pretty excited about memorizing scripture.  This morning I started on next week's verse which is Jeremiah 9: 23-24.  Again, I just used key words to associate the passage and it seems to be working.  I think I'll have it memorized by the time I get home tonight.  If I can do it, anybody can!

Darrell-Great Christian Bargains