If you’d like more information about the city of Medicine Hat – an overview of statistics and numbers and trends up to 2009 check out this report I have found online.  It is called “Medicine Hat’s Vital Signs 2009“.  Very interesting numbers.  It paints a nice view of town with some veruy interesting factoids.

I am trying endeavouring to memorize around 180 verses by January, in an effort to pass Grace Brethren Licensure review, which is quite rigorous I have been told.  How will I get there?  Read on to find out.

If you want an anecdotal look back at my memorization history (such as it is) check out Part 1.

So, I have been blessed by a number of situations where I have heard lots of very good ideas to help memorize Scripture.   First, I would like to say that one size does not fit all.  Everyone’s mind works differently, so I can’t guarantee results with what I have done.  You need to find your own way along this path, but researching what others have done does give you good ideas to try and see which will be best for you.

A couple of years ago, I sat in on a nice little seminar taught by my church’s worship pastor, Jason Strain.  He taught a session on Scripture memorization, and highlighted a number of ideas, including mnemonic devices, acronyms, and song.  I like song: it does work.  He even got into producing entire songs for our church to help memorize Scripture.  You can download them for free on the church website if you like.   The only downside I found with them was while I learned the verse very quickly, I didn’t learn the reference point or the verse number – so while it was now in my head, I couldn’t reference it for others.  Saying to someone, “It says somewhere in the Bible, ‘Salvation is found in no one else, and there is no other name under heaven, given to man by which we must be saved,” doesn’t have nearly the same impact as saying, “It says in Acts 4:12, ‘Salvation is found in no one else…” See what I mean?  Still, it’s better than no memorizing!

More recently, I was at our church’s “Discover Hope Lunch” where we introduce new attenders to our church and help them take the next step towards membership.  At the end of the lunch, I was sitting around talking to a couple of nice ladies and one of them took out a little business card wallet.  It was filled with Scripture verses printed onto business card paper.  She said she carried it everywhere she went and used it all the time.  What a neat little idea!  The next day I scoured three different Dollar Stores for such a wallet, and then went and bought some business card paper to print on.  I put together a dozen verses on “Scripture” and “God” and put them into the wallet.  What I have been doing is taking that wallet to work, flipping open a verse and sitting it on my desk right in front of my monitor.  This keeps the verse in my vision all day long, and it’s been working very well so far.  This week I have memorized 2 Tim 3:16, Psalm 119:105,  and Psalm 19:1.  Today my goal is to do two: Romans 1:19 and John 20:28.

In an effort to prepare for licensure with the Grace Brethren, I have been working on memorizing Scripture.  I’ve always just kid of absorbed Scripture incidentally, which has given me a lot of the Word in my heart but without address.  Heh.  Kind of like how people were before the invention of chapter and verse, hundreds of years ago.  But I digress.

I wanted to write a little about memorization.  Interesting trivia fact: the first piece of Scripture I memorized was NOT John 3:16!  Growing up in a home that didn’t put a high priority on God, it simply didn’t come up much.  In fact, my first memorized section of the Bible is also the longest I have ever memorized – and it came courtesy of Charles M. Schulz.

Yes, that’s right.  The creator of Peanuts.

He was actually a devout Christian, I have heard.  Whether or not that’s true, in his Christmas special, “It’s a Charlie Brown Christmas”, the question of the true meaning of Christmas comes up, and Linus, Lucy’s little brother recites Luke 2:8-14.  From the King James.  I watched that show so many times, that passage sank into my heart, and remains at the tip of my tongue.  It is a very poetic passage, recounting the angels announcing to the shepherds the arrival of the Messiah as an infant, and where he could be found.  Oh, to be a shepherd that night!  That would have been amazing!  Here it is, from memory:

And there were in the same country, shepherds – abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night, and lo – the angel of the Lord came upon them.  And the glory of the Lord shone ’round about them. And they were sore afraid, but the angel said unto them, “Fear not!  For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the City of David, a saviour: which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you: ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there was with the angel a heavenly host praising God, and saying: “Glory to God in the Highest!  And on earth, peace, good will towards men!”

I wonder how many other children have this passage riding in their hearts as a result of Mr. Schulz’s little animated special which has become a Christmas institution for so many North Americans.  The takeaway idea here is that when you are engaged emotionally and you are experiencing something on a number of levels, there is much more of your brain working on committing something to memory.  When I experienced Scripture in the context of a story, presented by a character of interest, and I heard it repeatedly voluntarily, all these things allowed me to commit to memory a big chunk of text effortlessly.

Next up: what’s working for me to memorize!

It has been finalized – I will be coming on staff at Community of Hope as a Church Planting Intern as of November 1.

I am very excited.  This is the opportunity I have been praying for, that God would give me a chance to experience full-time ministry before we actually leave to plant.  I had been wondering how God would provide for me the necessary experience to manage what we plan to do – the door was opened with the arrival of the Twins.  It took me 2 months to realize that the door was open (twins are rather diverting).  Then, we had to look at the financial realities of whether we could do it – it is still going to be very tight, but we believe in fath that God will provide what we need to complete home repairs and prepare to move to Medicine Hat.

The remainder of October will be challenging with many distractions.  I am starting to prepare my outreach ministry this month.  Our community group needs to sit down and figure out a covenant.  Cheryl is helping me to begin a program of memorization for Licensure.  We have our church planting assessment at the end of the month.  I have to prepare a mini-sermon that is supposed ot introduce the new church plant for that assessment process.  And I need to finish well at work.  Please pray for all these things.