Activity from TheMoviegoer§↻

A million! You're killing it this week.

I noticed that too ... scorching your way up the charts ...

So, I have been getting up early in the morning and going over my latest chapter, then a previous chapter, and then shorter sections of either a trouble spot or new material. I average a little over 100k points each session, and I can’t figure out how I got to a million.

Hard work and consistency is how you get a 1m in a week. We've all seen your consistency and dedication. I've thought about trying for 1m in a week as well, but I think 800k was the closest I could get and maintain my sanity ha! Others have come close, but you're the first person I've seen do it without an achievement boost. I'm sure there are others on here who have done it before I joined the website as well.

Thanks, onfire247! You know it means a lot coming from you. I never knew it would take so much to learn a whole book. Worth it… even if I don’t make it!

I feel you! I've only got five chapters left of John, and they are all pretty short chapters. I will make it, and you will too.

I love it. I think John is a great book to memorize. I think I started with John, but then I began a study of Mark, and then I went that way. We probably we will finish close to the same time.

I love John, truly I do. But it is a nightmare to memorize. Here is memorizing John in a nutshell (16:16-19):

16 "A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me."
17 So some of his disciples said to one another, "What is this that he says to us, 'A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me'; and, 'because I am going to the Father'?"
18 So they were saying, "What does he mean by 'a little while'? We do not know what he is talking about."
19 Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, "Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, 'A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me'?

Here we have three variations of the same phrase "you will not see me" in three separate verses spread out across four very wordy verses. While the translators were probably trying to have variety while staying true to the original Greek, this type of translation plays havoc on memorization. You see stuff like this over and over and over in John. Not only that, but you'll see different variations of the same phrase spread out across different chapters as well. It is easy mix them up no matter how much effort you put into memorizing them. For the perfectionist in me, it is maddening!

But there is so much significance in John. You have the prologue that talks about the origins of Jesus before his birth. You have the bread of life narratives, the woman caught in adultery, the Good Shepherd narratives, the raising of Lazarus, the Vinekeeper pericope, and love as obedience to God's commands all over the place. I absolutely love John, but man I hate memorizing it ha!

Onfire247, I feel your pain. Mark has "some" similar passages, but this one seems particularly tricky. One thing I have started doing that has helped me (especially in the case of trying to recite a particular chapter that jumps around) has been reading a commentary on the passages as I memorize or refresh a chapter. For example, Chapter 7 of Mark has three narrative events that are building a theme. I didn't recognize much of the nuance of the overall thrust of the section or some of the nuances, however, now that helps me place some disjointed narratives.

Keep up the work Onfire247, I honestly don't think either of us realizes how helpful this will be when we have completed each gospel and then revisit it in years to come through memory.

Totally echoing your pain

Onfire, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this challenge.
I too am aware of those difficult sections, and it's just one of the reasons I'm still at the level
of learning key passages, rather than whole chapters of John.
I don't think I could survive without knowing John 14:1-6, 27.
I'm also concerned that in trying to learn all the narratives, my grasp on the most critical verses would be weaker.

I've been thinking along similar lines, Saintman. I haven't decided anything yet, but I've wondered lately if I should intensify my focus on a more narrow selection of verses, and truly be able to recite them instantly from memory, rather than to learn very long passages.

I want to quickly emphasize, it's a personal decision made between the person and God.

In my own case I've already invested so much time and effort on such a large number of verses that it would not be easy now to change course. I'm just saying, that I understand what you've said here Saintman, and I think that your thoughts are worthy of some consideration.

But each person will decided what is best in terms of how it relates to his / her own walk with God.

Good discussion. I’ve done most of John 10 through 17 now, and I’m finding it really helpful to have the more famous parts in the context of the narrative flow. But I hear what you’re saying about the translation, Onfire. The thing that gets me most is the apparently random mix between ‘the disciples’ and ‘his disciples’.

PeterP, I am often tripped up by the simple and impossible to figure logic of name(s) and pronoun(s). And he vs and Jesus has no governing rule or guideline. You just have to know it.

With very heartfelt respect to the discussion, I must also say that while I may find it tedious to work on seemingly insignificant parts of the narrative between more significant ones, I always come back to the fact that God didn’t provide a list of great passages. In his wisdom, He gave us narratives with seemingly odd and random details (… and they took him with them in the boat just as he was. And other boats were with him.), and He did it intentionally. This doesn’t mean we’re required to focus on memorizing them, but to me, it helps me get through those seemingly difficult passages.

Yes PeterP, that is annoying as well, as is the pronoun use TMG mentioned.

Personally, I mix my trek through John with passages and verses from other places as well. I think there is value in both individual verses and passages. The reality is anything can be memorized. In fact, I have that passage I referenced memorized word for word. It just takes more time at the beginning.

Lately, I've been trying something new. Instead of slowly building up a passage by reviewing one verse at a time per day, instead I will do my one verse once and then not touch it again until I have reached the end of the group of verses. Then I will take that group of verses and memorize it all at once.

So, for example, my latest passage was John 16:16-24. The first day I learned two verses once. The next day, I skipped those two verses, and did two more verses. I repeated that until I had reached the end of that grouping. The next day, I took that entire group and I did it over and over and over until I had it memorized as a group. I then put a bracket at the end like this (21). This indicates to me that I have to get that passage right 21 days before I move it up to weekly. By "right" I do not mean perfect, but rather that I know the narrative flow from one verse to the next without having to use a hint at the beginning. If I get it right, I reduce the number by one. If I get it wrong, I leave it where it is and repeat the passage again as many times as I need to have the narrative flow. Once I get it to (1), I will likely move it to weekly with a bracket of (7). Then bi-weekly (7). And finally, monthly where it will stay forever.

I've done this for about a month now, and I'm noticing a pattern. The first time I learn it in earnest, it will take me 10-15 times before I can do it from start to finish without significant mistakes. The next day, it takes me 3-4 times. By the third day, it is usually 1-2, and by the fourth day I can typically start removing numbers. My hypothesis is that although this is painful at the beginning, it will save me time in the long run.

I recognize this is more time that most are willing to spend on this website, and there is nothing wrong with that. Frankly, I find that after about an hour of memorizing practice my brain is done whether I want to be or not. I only say this to illustrate the importance of the beginning when it comes to memorizing. I am having a lot more success memorizing when I do large chunks of work at the beginning of a passage than I do slowly over time. By the third or fourth day the passages fly by because I am not wasting time trying to remember what was next. It just comes to me and I type it. So although I am doing, for instance, John 14, 15, and 16 every day right now, it really only takes me about 20 minutes to fly through that set.

You have to force your brain to recognize that something needs to be stored in long term memory, and the only four ways I found to do that are to.
1. Tie the memory with a strong emotion (anger works best).
2. Tie the memory to an absurd or disgusting visual.
3. Tie the memory to a smell.
4. Repeat the data over and over and over with slowly increasing intervals.
I find steps 1 and 2 work best with individual verses, but only 4 works well with passages.

Thanks everyone for your contributions. I love these types of discussions because they force me to think about memorization in different ways, which then gives me new ideas on how to make this journey easier.

Hi Onfire,
I have looked into those memorization techniques, and also the ones where you link each word to a location, like rooms in a house.
I have decided not to use them, for a few reasons...
These are secular methods, but we are dealing with sacred Scripture, which is of a higher
order. If I were to try to mix the two, I feel I would be contaminating the purity of Scripture.

Also, if we have faith that God will help us memorize and remember something, simply by reading, recall and repetition, God will honour that by increasing our ability.

And, lastly, if we exclude worldly garbage from our minds, (like movies, TV, social media), we will have a lot more space to fill with valuable Scriptures.

Moviegoer, yes, God didn't give us a list of most precious verses, but making such a list of your own favourites is not difficult.
I don't want to discourage you from memorizing whole books by any means.
Just for me personally, I'd rather know all the key verses in the New Testament than every verse in one book.

Thanks, Saintman! Likewise, I think passage memorization is incredibly helpful in so many ways. Also, I think memorizing entire books rarely works out practically. In other words, I don’t think that I will likely go around reciting the entire gospel as much as I would quote passages. Still, reflectively, I like the idea of solidly knowing the entire work as I continue to study and meditate on it.

Regarding memorization techniques, I am in favor of meditating on the passage itself, the verse itself, the meaning of the passage in context, and MOST of all the God who is the author of the passage. Philippians 4:8. I pretty much agree with what Saintman has written here.

But I also absolutely support and applaud (as does Saintman) those who are memorizing passages and chapters. (I too will continue to do the same, with those I've already begun learning)

... but at least for now I don't plan to add new passages / chapters

That concludes my thoughts on this topic :) The blessing of knowing Him I pray for all of us (Philippians 3:8-16) (Now there's a passage I need to know up to the level of instant on demand recitation ... for the sake of my own spiritual health and walk with God)

I appreciate where you are coming from Saintman. I have nothing but honor and respect for your continued dedication to God's Word, and I have personally learned a lot from your posts on here. If you feel that using methods outside of pure faith in God is taboo, far be it from me to dissuade you from doing what you feel comfortable with. Your success speaks for itself, so whatever you are doing obviously works for you. You also bring up good points that one should not forget that it is God who gives one the ability to remember anything, the importance of limiting the distractions of the world, and the necessity of depending on the Holy Spirit for guidance in all things.

You might be interested to know, however, that ancient Jews used memory techniques to memorize Scripture as well. For example, the Talmud talks about students who use the shapes of the Hebrew letters as a mnemonic to memorize certain moral teachings (this reappears in the 1300s). Likewise, early Rabbis would use techniques like dramatizing Scripture, putting it to song, or creating guessing games on the shapes of the letters. Some also chose to eat certain foods and exclude others because they assisted with the memorization of the Torah. In other words, they used whatever methods they could to assist with memorizing God's word. Jesus himself, since he was a Jew, may have used the methods as well, but this is speculation obviously. It is not speculative, however, that Paul used both the sacred and the secular in his pursuit of the kingdom of God. Indeed, he wrote many of his letters using Hebrew, Greek, and Roman argumentation methods, writing forms, and logic styles to get his message of grace across. Indeed, God uniquely equipped him with those traits because he needed an instrument who could communicate Jewish concepts to a non-Jewish mindset.

I'm also reminded of a story I heard once called the drowning man. It goes something like this. A man was stuck on his rooftop during a torrential downpour. Seeing the water rising and having now way to escape, he cries out to God for him to save him from drowning. Not long after praying this prayer, a family in a rowboat comes by, and when they see him, they cry out asking if he would like to get into the boat. The man on the roof shouts back at them, "Thank you, but I have prayed to God to rescue me." And the boat moves on. A few minutes after that, a guy passes by in a motorboat. Likewise, he asks the man if he wants a ride, and the man again refuses because he is standing in faith and waiting on God. Finally, a helicopter comes by, and once again the pilot asks the man if he is in need of rescue. Once more, the man refuses, choosing instead to rely on his faith. Not long after that, the water rises up and the house collapses, drowning the man. When the man dies, he goes straight to heaven because of his faith and is ushered into the throne room of God. Once he gets over the awe of being in God's presence, he asks God, "Lord, I prayed to you in faith for you to rescue me, and I stood in faith knowing you would rescue me, but I still drowned. Why did you let me drown, God?" The Lord answers him, "I sent a rowboat to save you, and you would not take it. Then I sent a motorboat to rescue you, and again you refused. Finally, I sent a helicopter to take you to safety, and once more you stayed on the roof. What more did you want of me?"

If there is one thing that the Bible (and life) has taught me is that God refuses to stay within any limits I try to put on him. This doesn't stop me from trying, of course ha! God moves in crazy ways through crazy methods sometimes, and he often blows my mind when he does so. I come from a strong faith background (Word of Faith, specifically), so I get where you are coming from there. It is my prayer that when God sends me a boat, I'll see it as from him and get in.

The way I see it, Jesus is the Lord of all creation, and that includes the systems that exist within his creation, whether they give glory to him or not. I also believe there is nothing I could do to profane his Word except to not obey it. To loosely quote Psalm 103, I am but grass that flourishes for a bit and then is gone. Trust me, there are parts of the Bible I would gladly change if I had the power, but sadly (and thankfully), his Word stands no matter what my flesh may wish or do. God speaks to different people in different ways because some people will only hear him in those ways. If God does not speak to you through memorization techniques, he will choose the methods that will work best for you. In my case, he has chosen a different memorization path for me than you, likely because we are destined to bring his message of grace to different audiences.

Amen!

Hi Onfire. Yes, our methods are different but hopefully we can both be used by God in the future.
Personally, for me it seems much easier just to read and recite verses and burn them into memory through repetition than come up with memory aids (which then also occupy memory space).
That just seems like too much work, especially when we are talking about hundreds or thousands of verses, each containing perhaps 20 words.

I do find it interesting to hear what methods others use, and that's
one of the great things about this website.

Hi Onfire, those memorisation techniques you mention can work. However, in a nutshell I would discourage people from attaching an absurd or disgusting visual to a Bible verse because it might cause one to sin - especially an immature Christian if they allow their imagination free rein with no bounds. No offence. Just a thought :)

My thoughts have been the same, as what Annette CN just said.

We are truly blessed to have so many different perspectives in the kingdom of God. I am glad that I have such established Christians on this website to sharpen my iron. Thanks for all your contributions to this website, and I am honored to call myself a member of it.

I also pray that I may learn, as God may desire to teach me, from the varying perspectives and experiences conveyed by people who are part of this website.

Hi, I've recently joined this website and I was reading through this. You guys are a blessing and I want to encourage all of you to keep up the memorization in your different ways. All of you, I believe, have millions of points on here, bearing testament to how hard you work at memorizing. Thank you for your hard work and contributions to God's kingdom!

Welcome, Carla_Bryant! Everyone here has played a significant role in keeping me encouraged along the way! We all have various goals and motivations, but the best goal is that we are all getting to know more and more of God's Word.

Yes, I agree wholeheartedly. Keep up the encouragement and always strive towards Christ.