Last week I spent a few days with a bunch of 40-something year old men who, by-and-large, haven’t given a whole lot of thought to the state and quality of their spirtual lives for quite a while. Almost to a man they had checked out of church. ”Irrelevant,” “offers answers to questions I’m not asking,” “everything in my life – and the world - has changed – except the church, it’s locked in a different age.” I would suggest that the stagnant nature of most churches that these men had rejected is the primary reason (surpassing even theological liberalism) for the decline in church participation – and, seeing Jesus and church as a package deal, the baby and the bath water go out the door. In a conversation with a couple of the guys one of them asked me if I really believed the Bible. I told them I did – I believe the Bible, I believe the table of contents, I believe the maps, I believe the whole thing. I told them that more than anything else Scripture has shaped my spiritual life; reading Scripture, studying Scripture, thinking through Scripture and memorizing Scripture – I have learned to love it all.
John Piper writing about the topic of memoring Scritpure noted that one of the reasons Martin Luther came to his great discovery in the Bible of justification by faith alone was that in his early years in the Augustinian monastery he was influenced to love Scripture by Johann Staupitz. Luther devoured the Bible in a day when people earned doctorates in theology without even reading the Bible. Luther said that his fellow professor, Andreas Karlstadt, did not even own a Bible when he earned his doctor of theology degree, nor did he until many years later (Richard Bucher, “Martin Luther’s Love for the Bible“). Luther knew so much of the Bible from memory that when the Lord opened his eyes to see the truth of justification in Romans 1:17, he said, “Thereupon I ran through the Scriptures from memory,” in order to confirm what he had found.
So here are a few reasons why so many have viewed Scripture memorization as so essential to the Christian life:
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Hey Steve,
Scripture memory has always been like digging up gold for me. It’s very hard but worth it. I’ve used the Navigators method, the method Dr. Piper talks about in his book “When I don’t Desire God” and am walking through the Fighter Verse method for families from Bethlehem Baptist. How do you go about regularly memorizing scripture? Do you have a process of reviewing scripture you have already memorized?
Check out http://scripturetyper.com
You can memorize verses by typing them; First while looking, then with every other word hidden, and finally without looking at all.
Blessings!
Brett
1. Have started this, but using the 1662 Book of Common Prayer for meditation and memory.
2. Also, that blessed Heidelberg Catechism.
Thanks for the post.
Hello Dave. I like your analogy of digging up gold – it is and it is hard work. I’ve done the Navigators’ method as well. Now, and for quite a while, I usually memorize texts that speak to me as I do my daily devotional reading. I write the text out by hand and I carry the slip of paper with me until I learn it. Not very flashy and no hidden tricks. As for retention – I regularly and randomly review the various verses I’ve learned. My greatest problem is that I will remember the verse – and almost always the book, but I’ll slip on chapter and verse.
I’ve found that memorizing the King James Version helps; the unusualness of the language helps stamp it into place. If you want to quote it later ina sermon or whatever, you can always “translate” it.
Steve,
Have you ever checked out the Fighter Verse program that Dave mentioned? (childrendesiringgod.org) I would LOVE it if we could do this in the deep end! I feel passionate,as I’m sure you do, about cultivating a love for God’s word early in life. You have a very willing volunteer to email should you and Charlene ever decide to do this:)