Activity from joosep§↻

Good morning, all,
Here is my monthly report on my progress in the gospel of Luke. I mentioned before doing this as a blog posting, but I haven't had time yet to set up the blog. I think I'll be able to do that during the next few days.

For each chapter I've worked on so far (Luke 1-6) I've shown the total number of verses, and then how many verses are currently within each percentage range.

Please note, that the verses from 1:1-2:20 are a section of scripture that I worked on years ago, maybe in 2018-19, and that's why a lot of them are fully learned and/or in the 90% range.

Here's the report as of 5 June:

Luke 1 80 total verses
80-89% 2
90-99% 26
100% 52

Luke 2 52 total verses
60-69% 21
70-79% 11
80-89% 0
90-99% 18
100% 2

Luke 3 38 total verses
60-69% 34
70-79% 4
80-89% 0
90-99% 1
100% 0

Luke 4 44 total verses
60-69% 44
70-79% 0
80-89% 0
90-99% 0
100% 0

Luke 5 39 total verses
50-59% 16
60-69% 23
70-79% 0
80-89% 0
90-99% 0
100% 0

Luke 6 49 total verses
30-39% 7
40-49% 17
50-59% 24
60-69% 1
70-79% 0
80-89% 0
90-99% 0
100% 0

I've set two goals for the next 2 months:
1) Keep all these verses in Luke 1-6 current according to my review schedule; by that I mean, to faithfully review them when they come due.
2) Secondly, to have all of the verses in Luke 7-9 reach at least a progress percentage of 50% by the 5th of August.

There may be some out there who feel that I've taken on too big a task, and I'd just like to say, yes, it's a big task. I've accepted that the journey will be a long one. I'm hoping to have all of Luke at at least a 50% progress percentage by June 2024, if I can successfully follow a plan of three chapters every two months; of course, also keeping up with the reviews of all the verses which are in the earlier parts of Luke.

It's been a wonderful journey so far. I'm realizing that I've probably read Luke the least of the four gospels during the span of my Christian life; as you know, many people advise starting out as a Christian by reading John. Then it's also quite natural to start at the beginning by reading Matthew. Then, it's easy to take on Mark, since it's the shortest. I am simply trying to say, as I go through Luke, I'm realizing that this is the least familiar of the four gospels to me, and so I've been very much blessed by the "newness" of it and Luke's own perspective on things, which of course varies from that of the other three gospel writers. It's been a wonderful journey so far, and I'm very glad to have begun it.

The last thing I want to say is that I'm publicizing this because doing so keeps me focused on the goal which I've set. Keeping it private would make it much easier for me, in my own very fallible human nature, to change my mind and embark on some other project. This kind of thing is what has characterized a lot of my time at Learn Scripture dot net.

I am also working on other parts of the Bible, but I won't speak of it here, as this is about Luke.

When I set up my blog, I'll write something there and post a link :)

May God bless you all in your own scripture journey -- may your repetition of God's Word and your meditation upon Him and His ways lead you to a deeper knowledge of Him and a greater understanding of who He is and of His very character! Amen.

I made a mistake with Luke 3. It should have been:

Luke 3 38 total verses
60-69% 33
70-79% 4
80-89% 0
90-99% 1
100% 0

I sure with there were a way to edit these posts :) But that's one reason why I will set up a blog.

That’s a great blog post, and it’s good to read about your progress so far. I look forward to hearing more as you go. It’s a very worthy project, and also very daunting! I’d be interested to know how much time per day you think you’ll need to spend on this?

Thank you for your encouragement, PeterP!
I will start that blog in the next few days, and I'll address your question more in that setting.
But just off the top of my head, I think I'm spending about 3 hours per day.
I'm partially retired but I also work part time *from home* and so it's not so hard for me to find that amount of time :)

Gospel of Luke: I created a blog post containing the progress report which I shared in this thread above. The advantage of using a blog post is that I can share images. I'm using a blogging platform which I've never used before, so we will see how it goes. Anyway, here is the link for anyone who is interested:

https://telegra.ph/5-June-2023-Progress-Report-06-09

Thanks for sharing your post Joosep. It’s such an encouragement to me. I need to get inspired to finish verses again and not just start them. I’m concentrating on other areas just now (reading ) but learning verses has always been way more of a blessing to me. So I need to get back to spending more time on it. Your 3 hours is a challenge to me.

Glad to hear, JDJDJD. The approximate three hours is spread out throughout the day, usually :) I appreciate the feedback, it helps me to keep my focus.

LUKE MONTHLY PROGRESS REPORT

Hello all,
For those who are interested, this is my monthly progress report for the Gospel of Luke.
Due to some demands on my time at the moment, I've simplified the reporting a little. I still may pursue doing this via a blog in the future, but haven't decided that yet. :)

Luke 1
The progress percentages for the verses in this chapter range between 87 and 100.

Luke 2:
The range is between 75 and 100 percent.

Luke 3:
The range is between 68 and 77, with one outlier at 94.

Luke 4:
The range is between 72 and 79.

Luke 5:
The range is between 66 and 77.

Luke 6:
The range is between 58 and 70.

Luke 7:
The range is between 51 and 65, with one outlier at 89.

Luke 8:
The range is between 38 and 63, with one outlier at 88.

Luke 9:1-7:
The range is between 23 and 25.

I'll make a prediction now: God willing, I hope to bring one chapter a month of Luke up to at least a 50% progress percentage. (As I'm doing that, of course, I will also be reviewing the previous verses of Luke as they come due). My goal for 5 August is to bring all of Luke 9 to at least 50%. If I can keep to that plan, all of Luke will be at at least 50% by 5 October 2024.

After that, to get most of them up to 100% might take, conservatively until 1 January 2026.

I say "most of them" ... there will be a percentage of so-called "crippled" verses, verses which go backwards due to a low review score, or verses whose progress is slow because I don't know them so well.

All to say, that my goal is to have 80% of Luke at "Fully Learned" by 1 January 2026.

When 100% will be Fully Learned ... I think that will take many years and I don't want to try to predict it.

We will see how it goes; we will see if we are still on the planet earth at that time :) God knows.

In the meantime, the journey is rich and worth the daily effort.

As I've mentioned, I'm also working on other portions of the Bible.

I hope this post blesses you, and I pray for you all that we all will draw near to Jesus in humility and allow Him to conform us to His image.

My next report will be on 5 August.

Bye for now.

thanks for sharing your progress. Blessings!

thanks janet23!

👍 thanks and stay blessed 😊

Thanks for the update joosep! You are taking on quite the challenge, and I love it. Also, I did things a little differently for Mark (getting closer to 100% before moving on), but I really like your approach. There is something really helpful in taking on bigger sections of the narrative at one time. I think it would have helped me. One thing that I have been struggling with, and I am wondering how you approach it. Do you do any recitation verbally, apart from the site work? I did initially, but haven't been able to keep up. So, 1-6 are pretty solid, 7-10 are rough, 11-6 are solid (mostly because they are most recent). Thoughts?

Moviegoer, I haven't yet done any recitation, but I've had that in the back of my mind :) My wife will be an excellent candidate as the primary and sole audience member :) But honestly, thank you for reminding me about that, it's a very good idea.

Thanks for the update Joosep. I admire your commitment to a project that will last into 2026 and beyond, and I pray that God will bless you richly as you go.

Thanks PeterP, I pray that I will be faithful to my own words, and that's one reason I'm talking about it, to help myself to be persistent and faithful. Thank you for your encouragement.

joosep, it certainly isn't required, but I do wonder if there is a connection to improved memory based on each method (typing and recitation). I still struggle with both, but I believe they complement one another.

I was thinking about that today also. Not being any expert in brain science, but it seems each of these methoda (this website and recitation) comes from a different angle, perhaps each uses different brain paths, and so strengthens long term memory when both are employed.

One can also be tested using initial letters; for example if you take "For God so loved the world", you would be prompted with, "F G s l t w". That can be employed as a step toward recitation.

Here's an online link to a tool which can be used for that purpose. You copy and paste text into the tool and then you get a set of letter prompts:
https://memorizer.me/

thanks for this

My Luke progress report for 5 August:

https://telegra.ph/Luke-Progress-Report-for-5-August-2023-08-05

Thanks for the update, Joosep. I’m glad it’s still going well.
I’m interested in your ‘three young passages’ rule. How long are the passages you’re working with? Do you mean whole chapters? Or are you breaking up chapters into smaller passages for this?

It is good to read of your progress

Great to see the progress, joosep! I too am wondering about how you break down the younger passages. I usually break chapters up according to the section breaks provided in the print Bible. Is it the same for you?

Thank you to the three of you for your encouraging words :)

My passages are generally, if possible, ten to fifteen verses; but they might be a little longer if necessary. I try not to have passages longer than twenty verses.

Yes Moviegoer, often I follow the breaks in my printed Bible, but not always :)

I will just add, that one reason I try to limit the number of verses to ten to fifteen, is this: often, if it's a passage I don't know so well, I immediately hit the back button on my browser when I'm done and review it again, and perhaps even three times. If the passage is longer, there seems to be less value to doing that (at least for me, maybe my mind is just old)

Also for me, it's a bit of a psychological barrier. If I get up in the morning and see that I have four passages of 15 verses due that day, it's achieveable in my mind. But if I have three passages due of 45 verses each ... that's a little tougher to overcome.

Using my spreadsheet I can also easily postpone a passage to the next day, if I need to. By sorting my spreadsheet, I can then easily see which passages I didn't get to the previous day.

Can I just pause and say that I never thought I would memorize enough scripture employ a spreadsheet to track it. I also never expected to meet others who do the same! Regardless of how mechanically and methodically elaborate the process may be, many are learning, meditating, and proclaiming the Word. Praise the Lord! Protect us all from pride, and may we all encourage each other to keep up the good work. Thanks again, joosep for your work, sharing it, and straight up encouraging us to keep learning!

Really interesting and motivating. Perhaps there is room for some better tracking mechanisms that could be built in to learnscripture, not sure if there is much development of it ongoing.

thank you for the comments. It's necessary to invest some time into designing and building the spreadsheet (I use Google Sheets), but once that is done, entering new data and sorting, etc., are not actually all that time consuming. I find it to be very beneficial.

Yes, it would be great if some better tracking mechanisms could be built into the site itself.

It’s always fascinating to see how people organize their stuff. :) Great job being so diligent with this.

Thank you FinalAsgard. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. I've got to keep going.

I think I will make my next report in three months, on 5 November, and in a new post, since this one now has 29 replies :) Today I've been thinking, since this will take years to complete -- a quarterly report seems more suitable.

Enjoying your posts and looking forward to the next update. You definitely have me leaning towards starting a spreadsheet. Not sure how it would operate but I’m thinking on it.

JDJDJD, I'll put on my to-do list to create a new blog post with screenshots of my spreadsheet, showing the review queue, and try to explain using the screnshots how it all works.

But I'll do all that in a new post here on LSN (with a link to the blog). This one now has 31 replies, I suppose it's time to draw it to a close LOL.

But I thank everyone for their very encouraging words!

Thanks so much Joosep. That will be most welcome 👍🏻

Luke Progress Report for 5 November:
https://telegra.ph/Luke-Progress-Report-for-5-November-2023-11-05
The next progress report will be on 5 February 2024

Making good progress! But what was the reason to reset 10 verses back to the beginning? Was that one specific passage you decided you wanted more practice with?

PeterP, I reset part of Luke 1:67-80, which is Zacharias' prophesy. I've been going through Isaiah chapter by chapter (by going through, I mean more old-fashioned reading than I mean LSN reviews for memorization). As I do each chapter then I listen to a summary on youtube prepare by a particular Bible teacher. Here is his summary and teaching on Isaiah 32. https://youtu.be/Q1bR6OyshII?si=E6a6ucBPNYjVYY0K I reset the verses because I was struck recently by the correlation between some passages of OT prophecy and Zecharias' prophecy when his tongue was loosed. It made me want to repeat them all over again, so I reset them :)

prepared*
Zacharias'* I'm also 68 now, I do typos :)

You are so inspirational. Remind me of my Dad.( But he was a lot older than 68! 😂)

thank you JDJDJD, that's humbling

That’s such a great reason, ‘I want to repeat them all over again’. Your love for Gods Word shines through so strongly. Thank you.

thank you, I pray that in my heart I will (and we all) will truly fulfill those words. I've thought often lately about Jesus' quoting of the Old Testament, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind -- fourfold and four different ways to love God, and yet only one for our neighbor. That is not in any way to minimize the love we are to have for our neighbor(s). No. But there's a passion and a devotion to loving God that we are all to aspire to and to grow in. And if we do, we most certainly will also love our neighbor along the way!

Wow, Joosep!

It is always encouraging to hear what you are up to and about your process. Not because there is a particular process that should be followed, but rather that the process reveals much about your heart. Keep up the good work.

amen. Thank you!