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.
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.
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.
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 jumped back to one of your earlier posts to reply to only you about your JOY and need for John 14. I thank you for triggering such an important memory for me. John 14 brings such tears to my heart.... and i could have missed it. Not long after my youngest son died i started a painful task to clear some clutter in his room. While going through a stack of high school spiral notebooks--- ugh --- i thumbed through the pages--- just in case---- but tossed one across the room toward the black garbage bag near the door. Halfway across the room, the notebook hung in the air for an awkward amount of time. Then the pages fanned open, and the notebook dropped straight down. I knew i had just witnessed something... well... unreal. As i walked over I saw my son's handwriting in the turquoise pen he "borrowed" John 14: 23-24 written several times.... clearly memory practice for school. What a treasure.... I give thanks for that miraculous blessing. I could have missed that treasure. The paper- now old and yellowed stays in the Bible by my bed. And the scripture gives great comfort to an old woman. "Do not let your hearts be troubled...."
When i joined this site two years ago, John 14:23-24 was one of the very first i added. In time, I added more verses of John 14 just as you mentioned until i worked all the way thru. This chapter speaks to my heart and i love to review it. Romans 8:28 was also one of my early verses to learn. I am embarrassed to admit that i had to have the emotional fog lifted before i made the connection to my son's death on August 28.
BUT GOD...... is so good.... so patient.... and loves each of us so much.
Thank you for allowing me to share my John 14 miracle with you I will think and pray for you each time i read that chapter. May you continue to find peace and JOY as you store God's Word in your heart.
The value of this website to me has been in making the process of memorization more fun and easy, which means I will do more than I otherwise would have. It's especially helpful for the early/mid phase of learning when you need more help and prompting, but also for revising verses in an organized way. Luli, I want to encourage you in your goal of memorizing the gospel of John. π Knowing entire books of the Bible is extremely valuable, and I'm sure that will strengthen your faith and that you will be able to help others in their faith too! π
Yes, it would be nice to meet you all someday! I hope my spiel wasn't too pessimistic, but I think that in the years to come, almost every Christian will wish they had done more Bible memorization. Uplifting verses are especially valuable, because these are what will keep us going through dark times. π
Congrats Luli! π Regarding the percentages dropping, I would suggest to try resetting verses rather than following the program. Initially I followed the website program intervals. After 3 months or more passed without review, my accuracy was worse than the previous attempt and my percentage would drop as you mentioned. Leaving it at 3 months would result in further dropping and I knew I was losing grip on that verse. So I had to reset my progress often, because the review periods became too long to be effective.
Rather than know a lot of verses with an accuracy of 90%, I decided I wanted to know a smaller number of verses at 100%. (actually better than 100%) So I chose 100 key verses to learn very well so I can quote them at any time. Once I mastered those, I expanded it to 300+
Some of my favorite passages I may have reset 50 times or more, so the progress% means nothing to me, but I have them burned in my memory, which was my goal.
If your goal is to have the most number of verses completed on the computer system, then resetting verses will not help, but I would suggest that such a goal is probably not very useful for the real world.
Like when you are sharing your faith with someone? How many relevant verses can you quote on the fly? Or let's say hypothetically one day we are imprisoned for our faith and have no Bible. How many verses will we be able to recite to keep our spirits uplifted? The question for us on this website is: How well do need to know a Bible verse to be able to recall it under any circumstance? Is a score of 100% even enough?
Onfire thanks for that. I stand corrected, you do earn points. I suppose what I didn't like most about that method is that you get no choice of the next review date. It's either 12 months or not at all. Neither of those choices were appealing to me. My most common intervention is to "reset progress" before the intervals get too large and the verse gets lost in the system.