Sunday, March 17, 2013

How to Memorize the New Testament - Set Realistic Goals

It's important to set realistic goals when trying to memorize 7,958 verses.  One website I came across had a schedule for memorizing the entire NT in 5 years.  I chose 20 years and discovered that even 20 years was too much for me. 

I believe that I could have memorized the NT in 5 years if:
1.  If I would only memorize 5 new verses a day (every day) and did not keep up with verses I had already memorized in the past.  I would forget most of what I had memorized in the past.
2.  If I had hours a day to memorize - which I don't have.  At best I was able to carve out 45 minutes a day to memorize, and most of that 45 minutes was spent in testing myself over past memory verses (90 in total every day) so I wouldn't forget what I had already memorized.
3.  If I had photographic memory or amazing skills in memorizing - which I don't have.

Because I don't have enough time or brilliance to memorize the NT in 5 years, I chose to try to memorize one new verse a day for just over 20 years.  As it became more and more stressful to forge out 45 minutes a day to memorize, I cut it down to 6 days a week, then 5, then 3, and finally quit altogether after I had memorized almost 1/2 of the NT.

GOAL ONE - ONE VERSE A DAY

I suggest one verse a day for anyone who starts memorizing.

GOAL TWO - 45 MINUTES A DAY

You won't be spending 45 minutes a day for a few weeks or even for a month or two.  At first it will be just 10 minutes or so a day.  But after you begin memorizing entire books, you will need the time to go back to review in order to keep what you have.

GOAL THREE - 20 to 30 YEARS

This seems daunting, but I have learned through experience that 20 years does come and go quickly - and it will for you.  After you have been going at it for awhile, you will be able to pace yourself better and set new and more realistic goals.  Even if you decide to go for 40 or 50 years, go for it. 

I have been in several 26 mile marathons, several 13 milers, and one big triathlon.  I was average for the marathons and came in last place for the long distant triathlon (1+ mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, 13.1 mile run).  In all these, I finished, I reached my goals, and I felt great when I reached the goals. 

In my triathlon, it didn't matter that I had come in last place, because while training, I set a realistic goal for my body and I reached that goal - and I loved it.  My goal was to finish this race without failing, and without slowing down from exhaustion.  Granted, most of the others were younger, had better equipment and could swim 2 times as fast as me.

In preparing, I considered my health, my age, the time I had for training, and so on; and in preparing, I adjusted my goals accordingly.

It's the same with memorizing the NT.  Forge out a realistic amount of time every day (you may have to cut out an hour of T.V.).  In forging out your time, consider your abilities.

GOAL FOUR - CONSIDER YOUR ABILITIES

Most people undersell their abilities to memorize.  A few people oversell. 

If you think you could never memorize so much scripture, you are probably underselling yourself.  You can do a lot more than you realize... most people can.  To you I say, "Stop telling yourself you can't do it, and try for a few weeks - you will be surprised."

To those who oversell their abilities, "Try out for a few weeks and when you realize you are not as good as you think you are, slow down a bit and reset your goals for the long run." 

Like running or swimming, you won't know how much you can do until you jump in and give it a try.  Because you are not used to rigorous exercise, you may sink or want to quit quickly; but if you start slowly and build up, you eventually get into the routine and once in the routine you will be able to learn how much you can handle and how much is too much.

GOAL FIVE - DO NOT LOOK AT THOSE AROUND YOU

If in this journey you find others who can memorize a lot better than you, don't get discouraged and quit.  In all likelihood, they will quit long before they reached their goals and you will then be able to pass them up.  When I was in the triathlon, there were several people who were much faster, younger, and better than I, but they quit during the triathlon for different reasons.  I beat them only because I endured and kept to the pace I knew I could handle.

In reality, you will probably not run into anyone else who will run the NT marathon with you.  Why not?  Most people think its too hard and too much.  But you will know better, once you start yours.

How to Memorize the New Testament - Dealing with Failure

I already told you the story of a preacher who used the Bible to stir up the crowd and to show off how "brilliant" he was.  I said told you how disgusting I felt it was.

I also wrote about the importance of endurance when it comes to memorizing the Bible.  I cannot stress this enough.  I am not the most brilliant person you will meet, but I have discovered that perseverance goes a long way in the learning (and in the memorizing) process.  I have memorized most of the books of the New Testament - not because I am smart or have extraordinary skills.  I did so because I memorized one verse at a time for 20 years. 

For every day I memorized a new verse, I tested myself on past verses (90 every day).  This was no great undertaking as some would think.  I failed to reach my goal of memorizing the entire New Testament; and I failed to memorize every day as I planned (by year 20 I was memorizing 3 verses a week); and by year 20 I quit.

At the beginning of 2013, after 20 years of not memorizing, I bought myself a new leather Bible and started rememorizing scripture I once knew.  It's coming back a lot better than I thought.  At the rate I am going I should be able to catch up to where I was 20 years ago within 2 or 3 years. 

I don't know if I will memorize any new material at that time.  Maybe I will, maybe I won't. 

What is my point?

Sometimes I feel like failure is a big part of my life.  In memorizing the NT, I failed.  But despite this failure, I did memorize a lot.  In areas like this, I discovered that it's better to try and fail along the way than never to try at all.  If I had never tried, I would not have any scripture memorized.

My Challenge to You...

Go beyond what I did.

By the way, see the video I did about memorizing the NT:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJtG3nsjeWQ

Saturday, March 9, 2013

The Key to Memorizing the New Testament

I teach classes in a Christian College.  In my classes, I tell my students that learning is not something that takes place overnight, but is something that builds up with time.    Bible knowledge is like that and any other learning skill is like that.  The more time you put in, the more you will get out. 

4 LESSONS FROM RUNNING

1.  I have often compared learning to running.  It takes honing your skills by continual practice, and that takes patience.  You cannot give up if you want to reach any goal.  Endurance is the key to learning the Scriptures, and by all means, if you plan on memorizing any portion of the Bible, endurance is the key. 

2.  Don't look at how good others are.  Several years ago I ran my only triathlon - 1.2 miles swimming, 56 miles biking and 13.1 miles running.  I was one of the oldest and one of the most overweight people, so when we swam, everyone passed me using freestyle.  I can't last using that stroke, so I used the breast stroke.  When I left the water (20 minutes after the last person) I hopped on my mountain bike for the 56 mile ride.  Everyone else had racing bikes which are so much lighter and go so much faster.  But I didn't care if I was the first or the last.  I just wanted to endure every part of this race.  By the time I was ready to run, everyone else was either done or close to it. 

When I came to the end line, the sponsers were taking down the finish line and no one else was there to cheer me on and to congratulate me.  But even though I came in over 40 minutes after the last person, I accomplished my goal - and I felt on top of the world.  If you want to memorize the New Testament or even major parts of it, don't think about how smart or how good everyone else is.  You just set your mind for endurance and do it for yourself.

3.  In running, your body is set to do its best by your early 30s.  After that it's a slow downward journey.   But, in learning, the only time your brain will start going downhill is if you get alztheimer's when you are old.  Until then, your brain only gets better and better - so use it.

4.  When you first start running, there is a lot of pain and frustration.  Your mind is not used to running and your body is not used to running.  Even if you are in shape and have been working out in other areas (such as body building).  When you first start running, you will need to put up with shin splints, aches and pains, exhaustion and a multitude of other issues.  But once you get into the groove, your body will not only get used to all this excersize, it will begin to crave it (at times).  Learning is like that.  Memorizing is like that too, but I did find that it didn't take very long to get into the memorizing groove.

MEMORIZING THE NEW TESTAMENT

If you want to memorize the New Testament, more than anything else, you will need endurance.  It's not all about being smart or having a photographic mind or anything like that.  It's only about endurance.  In other words, you don't have to be incredibly smart; you just need to hunker down for the long run.

Plan 20, 30 or even 40 years of memorizing in order to reach your goal.  And plan 30 to 45 minutes a day.

If you can grab onto this, you can and will memorize amazing amounts of scripture.




Sunday, March 3, 2013

Memorizing the New Testament - Arrogance

There are 7,956 verses in the New Testament.  That means if you memorize one verse a day you can memorize the entire New Testament in just over 20 years.

When I thought about that at the age of 22 (I was a Freshman in College), I decided to give it a try.

Two years later, I was still in school studying Missions and Bible at a Bible College which required daily chapel.  During one of these chapels a guest evangelist preached the typical Pentecostal message about the Holy Spirit.

He walked the stage back and forth, as many Pentecostal preachers do, trying to get the attention of so many older teens and early 20s who have spent their lives listening to these preachers and seeing their shows.  For these types of speakers, spirituality seemed to be measured by how stirred up one can get in a church service. 

The preacher in chapel (the guest evangelist) had something up his sleeve that none of us had seen before - something that would stir the young crowd into a tremendous spiritual frenzy.  At the end of a forgettable message, he quoted the entire 2nd chapter of Acts from memory (the 2nd Chapter of Acts is the Pentecostal's favorite chapter in the Bible, just like Calvinists hang out at Romans 9).  Quoting 47 verses from their favorite chapter threw the students into excited and spontaneous cheering.  All around me Pentecostal kids were praising the Lord, shouting and clapping.  And while everybody stood and cheered, I sat in my chair, ticked off at the whole thing.

Maybe I was that person with issues who didn't want to be carried along with the crowd.  I've always had to set myself apart from others.

Maybe I was just too proud to applaud someone else's accomplishments.

Maybe I needed to see a counselor and try to work out my issues with loneliness and feeling lost in the midst of crowds.

But then again, maybe I saw a man using the Bible to draw attention away from God to himself.  Maybe I was turned off to the fact that he had just become the center of attention, and the words he spoke had no other meaning than stirring up the crowd, and bringing everybody's frenzied attention to himself.

After chapel a friend oozed out how much she loved that preacher for his ability to quote an entire chapter of the Bible.  I told her I didn't like it, which got her angry at me and I could see that what I said upset her.  She snapped at me, "I suppose you could do that?"  She was implying that there was no way I could accomplish such an difficult conquest.  I didn't answer her, but I thought to myself, "Actually I could, and in fact, as he quoted that chapter, I was quoting the same to myself.  Furthermore, I could do better than that.  I could quote you the chapters before and after.  Better yet, I could quote to you entire books of the New Testament."  But I let her have her moment and I said nothing. 

Memorizing is not something to show off as a gimmick or to use in order to manipulate a crowd - and that's what I saw that day in chapel.  People were stirred up to cheer one man's accomplishment, not God's Word.  That day, God's Word gave the preacher the tool he needed to show off his ability like a circus performer.  He was able to use God's Word to get crowd wound up in a frenzy.  Because it was God's Word, it seemed spiritual, but in fact, it was not.  It was not spiritual and it was not proper - it was arrogant and it was manipulative.

Memorizing the Bible should not be for people to show off their abilities.  Memorizing the New Testament should not be for the sake of pointing people to the person who quotes.  Neither should it be used to stir a crowd into a frenzy.  Memorizing the Bible is meant to point people to the One who the Bible was meant to reveal - the God of Creation.  As John the Baptist once said, "He must increase and I must decrease."

Every once in awhile, in the middle of some movie or TV show, some guy will grab a pitcher of beer and drink the whole thing down while the rest of the bar cheers the fool on.  I guess quoting a chapter of the Bible to a group of cheering believers is the Christian version of chugging beer.

For video of this subject, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJtG3nsjeWQ