Bible Memorization, anyone?

Would anyone like to join me for a Bible memorization challenge during the last 5 months of this year?

The plan would be to memorize the book of Philippians.  That’s right, the whole book.

My plan is to use the approach that Dr. Andrew Davis uses, which you can read about in his booklet An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture (pdf – no charge).  Download the booklet and take a look (also available on Kindle for a few pennies).  He talks a little about the value of memorizing whole books of the Bible, and how he does it for long-term benefits.

I’m waffling on one part of his approach.  He actually memorizes verse numbers along with the text.  Now I’m sure you can imagine the possible downsides the this approach (especially in an era when the ESV Reader’s Bible is being so heavily promoted – although please note that English in sentences and paragraphs is not the way the books were originally written!).

Here’s what he says the benefits are:

This will help prevent you from dropping out verses or even whole paragraphs when you’re reciting the book all the way through. It will also help you in being able to pick individual verses out to quote to someone for ministry or evangelistic purposes. Finally, it will help you to be able to recall the verses as you are reading Christian books that cite them… you won’t have to look them up! … It actually makes memorization easier in the long run!

Well, he’s very convincing but I’m not sure if I’ll do this or not.  So we’ll call that part “optional”.

This time I’m going to memorize in English, although hopefully I’ll have time to read and reread the book in Spanish too.

Why Philippians?  Well, if you’ve listened to the news lately you can probably see why a book that talks about joy and hope in the midst of suffering would be appropriate.

The Details

Ok, so there are 104 verses in the book, and starting in August there are over 21 weeks to the end of the year.  That allows us to memorize 6 verses a week with about 3 weeks to spare in case we fall behind.

That way we should be able to memorize the book by the end of 2014.  If we follow Dr. Davis’ system, the next step would be to recite it every day for 100 days in 2015 (that takes us the end of April).  This shouldn’t take much/any “extra” time, since you can do it while you walk, drive, shower, etc.

Dr. Davis has even more suggestions beyond the 100 days to help you remember the book, be encouraged by the book, and keep your memory accurate.  The long and the short of it is that we will be able to enjoy this epistle anytime anywhere for the rest of our lives.

If you’d like to take the challenge, leave a comment!  It’s more fun to memorize with friends!