Tag Archive: memorization


For the next two weeks, I’m going to attempt memorizing Psalm 19. I used to know this one by heart, but since I’ve gotten away from memorizing (after I did the 1,000 verses last year, I quit). I need to relearn it! I’m hoping you’ll do it with me! There are 14 verses, one a day. :-)

I’m going to begin this tomorrow (Friday) because we don’t need to wait until a certain day to do things.

Some might say “Why not wait until Monday?”

Start whenever you can! I’m learning how to do this with all sorts of tasks. For example, when I need to do my laundry, I think to myself it has to be done in the morning; so when my mom asks me to start it at 3 or 5 in the afternoon I feel that it’s doing laundry the wrong way! The “start now” attitude goes beyond ministry and school! If you want to wait until Monday, go ahead, but I’d encourage you to start when you can.

Psalm 19

1The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

2Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.

3There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

4Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

5Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.

6His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

7The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

8The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.

9The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

10More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

11Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

12Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.

13Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

14Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

This is an adoration of the glory of God, a prayer to long for His word, and plea to serve the Lord with a ready heart. God uses those who are ready!

Though it’s not necessary, you can share if you’re doing the challenge with me as well as your progress via comments on this post or on your blog. :-)

~~Little Paragraphs and Deep Thoughts, Big Facts and Scrawly Notes That Churn ’Round In My Noggin~~

“Legalism is merely the futile attempt to do in our own strength what the Spirit of God means to accomplish on our own behalf.” ~ Leslie Ludy Set Apart Femininity

The form in which ideas are expressed affects what those ideas will be. (The MEDIUM is the METAPHOR) ~ Neil Postman Amusing Ourselves To Death

If you asked 2o good men today what they though was the highest of the virtues, 19 of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you had asked almost any of the great Christains of old, he would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philosophical importance. The negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not of primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian view of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself.  ~ CS Lewis, The Weight of Glory

It is a sin to be dumb! ~ John Stonestreet- Summit lecture

A real woman is a woman who recognizes that she has been exquisitely and perfectly created by a loving God for a unique purpose. Out of geniune gratitude, awe and a desire to please her Maker, a real woman joyfully embraces her femininity and submits every aspect of her identy to God’s original and unique design for her…Unlike feminists, we know God’s design for women. This gives us the upper hand. Will we use it? ~ Elizabeth Botkin So Much More

America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within. ~ Josef Stalin (from the opening of the documentary, Agenda) And what’s happening in our world???

The flood of rampant homosexuality will not ruin a nation. Why? Because rampant homosexuality is a sign that the nation is already ruined! ~ John Stonstreet Summit lecture

Godly womanhood, the very plance sounds strange in our ears. We never hear it now. We hear about every other type of woman: beautiful women, smart women, sophisticated women, career women, talented women, divorced women. But seldom do we hear of godly women- or of a godly man either, for that matter. We believe women come nearer to fulfilling their God-given funtion in the home than anywhere else. It is a much nobler thing to be a good wife, than to be Miss America. It is a greater acheivement to establish a Christian home than it is to produce a second rate novel filled with filth. It is a far, far better thing in the realms of morals to be old fashioned, than to be ultra modern, The world has enough womee who know how to be smart. It needs women who are willing to be simple. The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant. It needs some who will be brave. The world has enough women who are popular. It needs women who are pure. We need women, and men too, who would rather be morally right than socially correct. ~ Peter Marshall

When God’s Spirit is given His rightful place in a young woman’s life, He transforms her personality to reflect His beauty… He can overtake any kind of personality. . .You decrease, so that He might increase…~  Leslie Ludy The Lost Art of True Beauty      (This book was a great book for me. I tend towards shy, and for the first time, I realized I could go outside of myself- types are just types… but I recently went to http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp to take a personality test anyway. The test revealed my weaknesses and strengths. I am an INTJ – Which type are you?)

The Baha’i faith believes in one God, but there are many ways to seek/experience God. Minimize theological differences and work together for harmony of faiths, freeing slaves and seeking justice. Affirmative action. Socail Justice. Service to humanity is highest goal. Baha’i believes in one God in one person- unitarian theism- it’s roots are in Islam, but they also accept YAH, Jesus, and Brahma as the same person- these are just other names. ~Len Woods      (Is the new Zach Hunter “Be the Change” movement founded in Baha’i? Whether he knows it or not, unknowingly, yes. The affirmative action movement is combining various religions to do things in God’s name. Is there a way to do hard things the wrong way? Yes! Baha’i followers will be among those to whom God will say “Depart… I never knew you…” Pluralism is one of the worst of the false worldviews).

To understand reality is not the same as to know about outward event. The best informed man is not necessarily the wisest. The wise man will seek to acquire the best knowledge- to recognize the significance in the factual is wisdom. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer (He is a good writer, and I like his “Cost of Discipleship”, though his theology on salvation was messed up…)

“We live in a dictatorship of relativism… what people say and do becomes normal, but not right.” ~Scott Klusendorf.

Waiting for Godot is the Humanist’s dream. It’s about two guys waiting for a friend who never comes. Notice what the friend’s name is… GODot.” John Stonestreet on Beckett plays. (Seriously, look them up. They are hopeless)

“For I seek not to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order I can understand, study, and learn. “

Ideas have history, they come from somewhere. Ideas have feet, they will go somewhere. Ideas have consequences: they will do something to you or for you. Doc Noebel

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out it has no meaning. Just as if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would have no meaning. ~ CS Lewis

In the world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called Despair. The sin that believes in nothing cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, remains for nothing, and has nothing for which it will live for or die. ~Dorothy Sayers (Sounds like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World- a place so hedonist and so limited by… love)

This so-called tolerance is nothing but a huge indifference.  ~Alexis de Tocqueville

“We are all part of one. Intellect is error…” ~Bhagwhan Shree Rajneesh - (Haha If we are all part of ‘one’, how did we get away from that oneness into many religions? Just asking, Mr. Rajneesh)

Sloppy language makes sloppy thought possible. ~Michael Bauman

Be the first you, not the second me. Education is learning to think, indoctrination is teaching you how to think. ~Michael Bauman.

The probability of life originating from an accident is comparable to the probability of the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a print shop. ~ Edwin Conklin

He that knows nothing will believe anything.

If God wants to use you, he wants to use the real you. Not the person you want to be. God doesn’t use imaginary people. He wants you to be who He made you. Christians should not feel guilty by this… they are fogiven. What we feel is conviction.  Rowan Gillson (IPS)

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Read as many books as you can- I often wander the aisles of the library and pull of non-fiction books, take them home, and read them completely. You’ll never know how much you can know until you start to learn.

Early on in the year, I had a challenge issued to my readers:

Memorize as many verses as you can in 2011. Though three people (including me) took up the challenge, I believe having a binder (or, notebook or 3 ringer) full of verses to memorize is a good thing to keep around. It’s cool to have a hard copy to study when riding in the car, sitting around bored, waiting for a n appointment… Regardless of your goal- if you have one. Just try a bit at a time and see how many verses you can memorize.

This is my binder, it’s one inch thick.

To the left, you see my highlighter, that’s what I use to mark the verses I know. It has a ring on the cap for looping to the binder rings. Of course, you mainly see the title page, where I put some inspiring Churchill quotes and a ‘return to me if lost clause’. :-D

After the title page, I made two pages of columns with a check list. I’m the type of person who feels like they’ve done something amazing when checking things off. :-p

Highlighted= memorized

I copied and pasted KJV text from the internet, and gave each passage  a number, which is why 38 is in front of Ephesians 1:1-11. I count how many are in each section.  Section 38 has 11 verses. See what I mean?

 I really don’t go in order “cover to cover”. I skip around to whateve I feel like doing. I guess that means I’m a free spirit who doesn’t like routine. :-D haha 

I keep a litle notebook in the back of the binder to write out verses in, so I see if I have it down word for word.

 

Memorization Tips

You don’t have to be smart to memorize scripture. You just need to be able to read. :-) It doesn’t take more than 20 minutes every morning or evening to study the passage you’ve selected.

I’m working on 1,006 verses this year, which is going quite well. It takes determination to finish what you’ve started and stay strong through the whole process. Personally, I’m about 1/5 of the way through. I’d like to share with you soem tips I’ve learned.

Take a passage you’re somewhat familiar with, such as John 3. It makes it easy to know some of the verses before hand. :-o  (I’ve read Leslie Ludy’s books a lot, and one passage I became very familiar with was Philippians 3. That was my starting point). Then I moved to Philippians 4:4-9- read a lot at my church; then chapter 2, which was in a narration for a church play that was read several times. Knowing the outline REALLY helps. (When I’m through, I hope to quote the entire book of Philippians)

This next part took me about 4 days to complete~ I made a 3 ring binder (‘notebook’, if you’re one of my northwestern readers :-) ) of all the passages I wanted to memorize. I copy/pasted them off a Bible online, then put it in a document with bulleted numbers.

For example:

1. Genesis 1:1-15

In the beginning… (I would put the entire text here)

2. Phillipians 4:4

Rejoice in the Lord…

3. Ephesians 1

Paul, an apostle by the will of God…

and so on…

I highlight the verses I’ve done, and once the entire selection is highlighted, I move on. Easy!

I made a checklist so I could mark off the verses, and numbered the amount of verses in each chapter. It looked like this: (imagine those bullet dots as boxes) :-D

  • Genesis 1:1-15 (15)
  • Philippians 4:4 (1)
  • and so on…

I put the passages in a format so I’d memorize a few short sections (Like a single verse or up to three) at a time, then work on a long passage (Like the creation story) It helps keeping the Martha in you to stop trying to accomplish everything at once. Take it easy, but work wisely and diligently.

Work in sections. Divide your goal into small portions. Figure out how many verses you need to do this week, this month, until June, etc. Write it on your calendar so you remember. For example: I need to do about 82 verses in a 30 day month. That’s about 3 verses a day. I’m at 176 right now for a total so far, am I on track? (Are you good at math and logic? :-D ) Let’s say your goal is 300. Divide it by 12 to get how much to do in a month (25). That’s about one a day with a few breaks here and there.

Don’t EVER fall behind. I didn’t do anything for two days in January, and I felt like I was way out of the loop. If you don’t like the feeling of lagging behind, start working! Take your verse cards or binder (or your system of memorizing) everywhere you go.  Purpose to finish, and don’t allow yourself the option to even THINK you may not finish. 

Play games with it: don’t sit there and read “Jesus wept.” Jesus wept.” Jesus wept.” Jeeeeeeesuuuuuussss weeeeeppttt” “Jezz wep” “jesus wept” “JESUS WEPT” Make it a game. Don’t repeat like a parrot- think about what you’re saying. Write it out on a white board and erase it word by word, saying it everytime you erase something. Play unscramble games with the verse written one word per card in a pile. Use motions! These sound like things you’d use in a VBS or SS setting, but here’s the truth: It works! I’m serious!

Relate things to other things. If the verse lists things or has key qualities, find something they share in common to keep them in order. Are they alphabetical? Do they have the same last letter? (Give the knife here) Do they go in vowel order?(Adam eats it…) Do the words progress in numerical value (do not dare covet 2, 3, 4, 5) Do you need to have the first to have the second, the second to have the third? Does the word end with the letter the next word starts with (ThE EnD Dude) Do they start with the same letter as a color…and are they in color order? Be creative.  This is what makes it SOOOO much easier for me.

Do sign language as you read. (It’s fun and you’re multi tasking- and trying to recall two things at once)

(Thomas Kingo)

On my heart imprint Your image,

Blessed Jesus, King of grace:

That life’s trouble’s or it’s pleasures

Never may your work erase.

Let the clear inscription be

Jesus crucified for me!

He’s my life, my hope’s Foundation;

All my Glory and Salvation,

My Glory and Salvation!

Near the cross oh! Lamb of God,

Bring it’s scenes before me;

Help me walk from day to day

 With it’s shadows over me

On my heart hear imprint your image

Blessed Jesus , King of grace

(David Angerman)

How Marvelous Are the Works

How marvelous are the works of the Lord

How excellent are His ways

How wonderful is His glory and fame,

     ever the same, great is the name of the Lord!

Great is the God of Israel!

Great are the works of His hands

He alone is the King of Kings

Creation bows at His command.

Great is the God of Abraham 

 Perfect is His law

In majesty and in holiness

He rules, Lord of all!

Written in Red

In letters of crimson God wrote His love
On a hillside so long, long ago
For you and for me Jesus died
And love’s greatest story was told
 
CHORUS
I love you, I love you
That’s what Calvary said
I love you, I love you
I love you written in red
 
Down through the ages God wrote His love
With the same hands that suffered and bleed
Giving all that He had to give
A message so easily read
Oh precious is the flow
That makes me white as s
No other fount’n I k
Nothin but the blood of Jesus
 
I love you, I love you
That’s what Calvary said
I love you, I love you
I love you written in red
__________________________________
The above are some of the songs our choir is working on right now. Thought you’d like to read them!

Today, my brother was doing his spelling lesson, and the words on the list had silent letters. Surprisingly, some were “palm” “often”"almond”  “sandwich” “balm”  “folk” “talk” “walk” and “learn”. Are they supposed to be ‘pom, offen, ahmond, sanwich, bom, foke, tawk, wawk and luhn’? Haha. That was the laugh of the day. My name might as well be

I am pleased to announce that I am *ahead* on my memorization! It’s taking a lot more work than I thought it would. If I stay on track I will be done by November! Maybe I shall shoot for 1,500? Hmm, we’ll see!

Psalm 107:1-9 ESV

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
   for his steadfast love endures forever!
Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
   whom he has redeemed from trouble
and gathered in from the lands,
   from the east and from the west,
   from the north and from the south.

 Some wandered in desert wastes,
   finding no way to a city to dwell in;
hungry and thirsty,
   their soul fainted within them.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
   and he delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way
   till they reached a city to dwell in.
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
   for his wondrous works to the children of man!
For he satisfies the longing soul,
   and the hungry soul he fills with good things

Barnacles

I was reminded today of little crab-like creatures called barnacles.

As I studied this little creature, I found that they are a lot like sin in your life. Barnacles can be parasitic, clinging to whales, ships, and rocks. If left unmoved, the creatures can cause drag on ships and whales. (Rocks- well, they’re rocks. They just lay there). An 80,000 pound humpback whale can host up to 1,000 pounds of barnacles, and that’s definitely enough to slow the whale down. The whale, however, feels no pain. For a whale on it’s way to the feeding waters with more fish, barnacle-drag can slow it down. The journey stretches to a longer period of time, and sometimes, the whale dies. He has not made it to the feeding grounds in time.

Just like barnacles, sin in a Christian’s life will definitely slow the disciple of Christ down! The Christian may not realize how harmful a sin can be until they are dying. Though we are always saved once we put our faith in the Son, we will begin to backslide, missing out on what great things we could have done. God may even take us out of this world early, especially if our sin is disrepsect to parents.

Removing barnacles is painful for the whale, and takes a lot of effort for the ship’s crew to scrape them off. It is interesting to see that scraping sin out of our own lives is painful, but neccessary if we want to live a free, weight-free life.  Sin nature itself will make us think that sin is too hard to rid of. It is not. Hebrews 12:1 tells us:  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us…

A marathon runner doesn’t wear combat boots when running! He chooses the lightest pair of shoes he can find! He also wears special clothing that lets air in, but won’t weigh him down. God’s provision of grace lets us run the race with few distractions and weights. Keep your faith where it belongs: in God- not in believing that sin is okay- or doesn’t really harm you.

2 Tim. 4:7

I have fought the good fight. I have completed the race. I have kept the faith.

1,000 verses update:

I have memorized 17 out of 1,000 verses this year! :-D

I Challenge Thee…

…to manifest the spirit of Psalm 119:11 in thy heart!

I am trying to memorize 1,000 verses this year.  ^ I made this banner for the cover of a 1″ binder that holds the passages I have chosen so far. Deuteronomy 29-29 is my life verse, not the reference for “Thy word…” (Psalm 119-11). 

If you want to memorize say, 365 verses, or 500, or some other amount, that is fine too. Just make it a stretch. Personally, I am trying to memorize whole passages of scripture that aren’t too long, and have some familiar verses in them. That way, I can memorize them within their context.  The verses you choose to memorize are up to you. Have fun with it! Put them all over your house and drive your family nuts! Post them on your blog! Put them in the car!

You also do not have to do this all year long, you may set a six week goal, a two week goal, or specifically choose a passage to work on.

Care to join? Leave a comment and let me know how you will be participating. If you have a blog…

Here is the button for the challenge, but this brings a problem: I need someone to make the coding for me! That is one thing I can’t do! If you can make the HTML code, please let me know!

Otherwise, just upload as an image, put it in a widget/gadget, and link it back to http:// echoesinthewind.wordpress.com