How to Memorize the New Testament - Getting Sloppy

My memorizing journey started out with a bang and ended with a whimper.  I started memorizing every day of the week but went down to 5 days a week after a few months.  At the time I was in school and reading the Bible for devotions every day, but found the time for working on memorization 45 minutes a day.

During that 45 minutes I spent about 5 minutes memorizing one verse a day and 35 to 40 minutes in what I call recover study.  Recover study is going over 90 past memorized verses and refreshing myself so that I didn't forget what I already put to memory.  I explain this all in a video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJtG3nsjeWQ

Out of school I added to my Bible study.  I was teaching myself Biblical Hebrew, reading the Bible and reading books about the Bible - every day.  Years later, I cut down on memorizing to 4 days a week and then 3.  By the time I had 20 years in, I was burning out and felt like I needed to cut back on something.  I had memorized most of the New Testament books I wanted to and a few Psalms, so to keep my sanity, I quit memorizing but continued with all my other studies which at that time included preparing for sermons.

The memorizing helped me a lot through the years in my ministry.  I quoted verses in sermons, and also found that memorizing had helped me to remember and find passages I wanted to use in life and in sermons.

Ten years later I stepped out of being a pastor for a short time (it turned out to be much longer than I planned) and I taught in several local Christian universities.  But years without working on recovering scripture, while teaching in local universities, I began getting a bit sloppy in quoting the Bible.  When students asked questions about any topic, I had chapters and verses (in their own proper context) to help support whatever answer I gave (of course I only quoted a verse or two - not a whole chapter).  But those quotes began to get sloppy and I would forget what followed the verse I was quoting.  I found myself paraphrasing more and more and quoting word for word less and less.

That's what happens when you no longer keep up with what you memorized; when you no longer recover scripture put to memory.  And so after 10 more years of paraphrasing and being sloppy, I decided to go back to those books I had memorized, work through them again, get updated, memorize again if needed, test myself, push myself to be accurate word for word again.  I returned to my recovery process. 

LESSON LEARNED

Years ago, I pushed myself to memorize a good portion of the New Testament, and when I had enough, I quit.  For some reason, it didn't enter my mind until lately, that I didn't have to quit entirely.  At the time I quit I had a regimen of memorizing one verse a day which only took a few minutes.  However, it took me up to 40 minutes a day to cover past books I had already memorized, which meant working through and testing myself on 90 verses a day on verses I had put to memory.

For some reason it was all or nothing for me - it hadn't occurred to me that I could stop memorizing verses and cut recovery time in half or less.  It wouldn't be as good as a whole 40 minutes, but it would have helped a lot and helped me to quote better.

Memorizing the New Testament - Anyone Can Di It

If you are reading this, you have stumbled upon something you may be quite willing and more than capable to do.

FACE YOUR LIES

I am convinced that that more than anything else, what holds people back from taking on such a task are lies that say they can't for some reason or another.  And I am convinced the same lies fill many people who want to run 26 mile marathons but think they can't.  Here are some basic ones:
- I don't have the time.
- I am not smart enough.
- That's just too difficult.

The truth is, you do have enough time.
The truth is, you are probably more than smart enough.
The truth is, it is not as difficult as you think it is.
The truth is, you are selling yourself short.

MANURE

I think most of the excuses we use are designed to protect our habits, whether those habits are good or bad.  Think about it. 

A friend used to tell me, "I know that I am in 5 feet of manure and it stinks, but I don't want to get out of it  because it's warm."  The metaphorical manure piles we sit in are warm because we are creatures of habit, and we get used to the habits we make for ourselves - even the bad ones.

Moving out of manure is not easy.  We convince ourselves that we need and want the manure, and we think we are better off for it.

Think about the manure piles you have made for yourself - bitterness, overeating, love of money, lack of discipline, too much discipline, the desire to make everybody happy, being grumpy, feeling sorry for yourself, feeling better than others, getting attention from talking too much, getting attention from lashing out, turning inward, etc. and etc.

We build our piles and live in those piles.  We get used to our piles and feel most comfortable staying in those piles, even when those piles of manure are self-destructive.

The excuses you use to keep from reading the Bible, memorizing the Bible, and praying more regularly are simply protection of your warm manure pile.

GEAR UP FOR CHANGE

Stepping out of manure is cold at first.  You may have a moment of euphoria because you are clean for once, but believe me, you will feel cold and you will become tempted to return to the warmth of manure.

But in time you will be used to living a cleaner life.