Review
Help for memorizing God’s Word
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman, August 31, 2009
Why should Christians memorize Scripture? “When we intentionally imprint God’s Word in our heart we have a continual reminder of how God wants us to live our lives,” according to “Treasured Verses – II,” one of the four CDS in the Mastering God’s Word (MGW) CD series. Mastering God’s Word
The MGW series includes four CDs each at a cost of $16.63: “The Path to Salvation,” “Why Worry?” “Treasured Verses – I” and “Treasured Verses – II.”
For more information call 650-845-AMEN (2636) or visit
www.MasteringGodsWord.org
A non-profit organization based in Menlo Park, Calif., MGW produces CDs to help Christians memorize Scripture.
The CD quotes Romans 12:2 (NIV): “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but 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.” It also says that “the discipline of Scriptural memorization is key in this transformation process of becoming more Christ-like.”
In “Treasured Verses – II,” the memorization work focuses on Col. 1:17; 2 Cor. 4:6; Heb. 4:12; John 14:26, 15:5; Psalms 91:5-6, 139:9-10; Phil. 4:8; and 2 Tim. 4:3-4. The interactive process includes:
- Hearing the Scripture reference, the verse and the repeated reference.
- Repeating the verse by sections, twice, after the speaker.
- Repeating the verse with the speaker – filling in the blanks, when he stops speaking.
- Repeating the verse with the speaker.
- Repeating the verse alone.
- Repeating the verse once more with the speaker.
The beauty of the process is that each verse is a separate track on the CD so that one can continually repeat the track until the verse is memorized, or can continue through the CD to work on all verses. Continued review of the verses is encouraged.
The format is such that one can work on Scripture memorization alone or make it a family or group endeavor. While driving to church, work or school, parents and children can have fun learning Scripture together.
Special verses
Following a brief introduction, Bible teacher Helen Carter recalls the special verses that have helped her and spoken to her throughout her life.
Carter began memorizing Scripture while a teen-ager attending a “little white clapboard country church in Baltimore, Maryland.”
She recalled the young pastor who came to the church “with a love for Scripture and a zeal to memorize it.” That young pastor drilled the young people of that church – including Carter – with memory verses, and “that’s how I got my start in Scripture memory work,” she said.
She spoke of Hebrews 4:12, which gives her “tremendous confidence in the power of Scripture.” It reads, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
“I’m convinced we haven’t even begun to tap into the strength of God’s Word,” she said. Some people, Carter said, talk about how a pastor or Bible teacher “makes Scripture come alive, but Hebrews 4:12 says the Scriptures are already alive, and we are the ones who need to come alive in it.”
Carter used Psalm 139:9-10, as an example of when God used Scripture to speak directly to her circumstances. This was the verse that comforted her when her son was sent to Vietnam:
“If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”
The “wings” spoke of the jet he flew; the “sea” spoke of the aircraft carrier he was stationed on. The “far-side” spoke clearly to his being on the other side of the world from her.
The first week he was gone, Carter said, these verses were on the front of the bulletin where her son’s wife went to church. Her daughter-in-law “sent copies to him and to me.”
Carter called 2 Timothy 4:3-4 “a warning to us today.” She said that if left to her human nature, she would fall victim to the myths spoken of in Timothy, but “the new nature God gives me” doesn’t want this.