Last year I challenged you to read through the Bible, using the One Year Bible Blog. Some of you emailed me to say it was really helpful. Cool! If you have never done it before, I highly recommend it. And its not too late to start.
2010 will be a sporadic year for me with internet access. I think I will be on 5 continents this year and there will be many days when I will be without WIFI and unable to get the daily download. So I was thinking something different. Instead, I offer you a new challenge – memorize Paul’s letter to the Ephesians with me and my team.
Its a great exercise to memorize a book of the Bible because it gives you a chance to mediate on it as you memorize it and you also see the wider flow of the book rather than some isolated verses. Besides that, part of the CapeTown 2010 event that I will be taking part in later this year, includes a focus on Ephesians. You can download the Ephesians study plan here.
So, how about it? What’s the matter? ARE YOU CHICKEN?
count me in http://www.diningwithsinners.org/2009/12/01/one-year-ephesians-study-plan/
Thanks for sharing both of these ideas. Powerful challenges!
I’m in…. I love to memorize!
Andrew – A couple of years ago I memorized the book of Philippians with a small group. I was afraid at first but it turned out to be a great exercise and I really did memorize the whole book of Philippians. Having been a serious student of scripture for many years I was surprised how much more I understood and received from the text through this exercise. It took me about 4 months to memorize Philippians. I wasn’t working outside of the home at the time so I had quite a bit of time to work on it daily – I now work outside of the home and would have less time but could probably memorize Ephesians in a year. The following tips were very helpful to me: 1. Read the chapter or book over and over again to familiarize yourself with it and what it says. 2. Break it up into logical sections or paragraphs. (I found it unbearable to memorize verse numbers when memorizing long passages so I only memorized the chapter breaks when I memorized Philippians) I divided it by what I would memorize each week – usually around 10 verses a week 3. Memorize from beginning to end (in other words – everytime you memorize start from the beginning – it seems laborious but it is the only way to remember everything and the way it flows – plus it helps you retain what you have already memorized) You only memorize a few verses at a time but each time you add verses you start at the beginning 4. Memorize out loud, use inflection when you say the words (imagine how the author would have spoken) and say it over and over everyday. Have someone test you by looking at the text while you recite it. 5.Memorize word for word perfectly. 6. Review, review, review – they say if you review for at least 100 days it gets planted into your long term memory and you are more likely to be able to recall it.
ok… I’ll give it a go.
Well done Liz. I memorized Philippians a lot faster than you but it was 2 decades ago and i cant recite it anymore.
2 Tim was the funnest – only 6 weeks.
Thanks for the advic e on memorizing. I find writing it out or printing it out and sticking it on the wall of the bedroom (or bathroom) is also very helpful.
There was a guy, dang i wish i could remember his name, who memorized the book of Revelation and preformed it as an art piece. It was really cool… it was at the Vineyard. I was pretty Gobsmacked! That said, i’m pretty crap at it…. verses are one thing, entire books…. ummmm …. kudos my dear. Are you using a specific version??
Blessings. K8
I use the Net Bible. I used to memorize using NASB which is better than NIV for that purpose.
NIV is giving their version a makeover so you would not want to start on old NIV and switch to new NIV because it would totally screw with your mind.