I'm having one of those mornings when I can't seem to drink enough coffee. My mind feels groggy and my body slow. I keep pumping caffeine in hopes that more synapses will connect. (Which means this probably isn't a great time to be blogging to the world. Who knows what I might end up writing!?)Memorized Scripture works a similar sort of wonder on the synapses of my soul. Memorizing Bible passages doesn't come easy to me and my personal catalog of mentally accessible Scripture remains painfully thin. However, I can't deny the effect that Scriptural java has on my being. When my soul is groggy, confused or fearful, pumping Colossians 3 or Hebrews 12 (my java du jour) into the veins of my spirit has a way of bringing me to life. Drawing from memorized passages like these (passages, more than just singular random verses) quickens me to another reality in a way that just reading them from the Book does not. Routinely drinking in old favorites like Psalm 23 and the Lord's Prayer feeds my dependence on the Jesus life.
Here's to waking up and smelling the coffee! (My deepest apologies to all you tea drinkers out there...)
1 comment:
Scripture memory always takes effort. However, there is a very effective way to "picture" Scripture and never forget it.
We best remember what we can picture, the unusual, the silly, the ridiculous and what we can link to previous knowledge. Veggie Tales has made great use of this idea.
Following his conversion to Christianity, memory expert and former NBA player for the New York Knicks, Jerry Lucas, used his mnemonics techniques to develop a system for memorizing Scripture(See the Memory Book by Jerry Lucas and Harry Lorayne available cheap in used books on Amazon or new in the revised version; his Scripture memory materials are also available, but some are fairly expensive given the amount of art work).
The advantages (as opposed to rote memory) are that you use the mental pictures to 1) "access" the address of a verse you are trying to remember - like Google or word search 2) At the very earliest point in your memorization of the verse you will be able to picture the verse with little or no reference to the printed verse (a real advantage if you are standing in line a Krogers or cooling your heels in your doctor's office),
3)in contrast to rote, you have to think of the concepts in the verse to come up with the pictures to remember and 4)itis pretty much permanent even when you haven't reviewed for awhile.
I have a friend who used her photographic memory to get through college.Her comment (about the photographic memory) was "4 years of college down the drain!"
Lucas' system works. I had Col. 3:1 memorized the first weekend (You just didn't see my hand raised in the back of the sanctuary the next week!). Since then I have also memorized Col. 1:13 - Col. 4:8 during the Col. sermon series and am now reviewing (and making minor corrections - such as "my share" versus "my part" in Col.1:24, NASB). I also expect to be able to recall the main idea of each verse with its reference when I am finished.
When you check out Lucas' method, don't worry that the pictures will interfere with your attention on the verse, they merely act like training wheels on your first bike. When you have the verse firmly under control, the pictures are only remembered if you have a "senior moment" and to access a particular verse's "address".
By the way, Lucas graduated from Ohio State with honors using his memory techniques. As I remember it
was with straight A's. Believe me, I didn't do that! Unfortunately for my college transcript I didn't come across this until long after I had graduated. Living in Cincinnati and teaching in a Christian school for a few years, I heard about his two-weekend seminars on memorizing the Bible. I spent 23 years in independent churches which encouraged Scripture memory.
Lucas also taught the second graders at Cincinnati Christian School, the Multiplication Tables in two weeks using his memory techniques.
Chuck Swindoll commented that a biography of Henrietta Mears mentioned that Lewis B. Evans, former pastor of Hollywood Presbyterian Church, could quote the entire Bible! Not a challenge; I have a feeling he was pretty much alone on that one!
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