Then God guided his people to recognize the exact sixty-six books that were to be included in the Bible. The preservation and survival of the Bible is as miraculous as its writing. Then God gave men, beginning with Gutenberg’s printing press, the technology to copy and transmit the Bible so that all people could have it. All because God has something to say to you.
Memorizing the Word
While many plans for memorizing Scripture are effective, a simple system has been effective for me. All you need is a pack of index cards and a committed desire to memorize God’s Word. It’s easy: write the reference of the verse on one side of the card and the text of the verse on the other. Focus on five verses at a time, and carry your pack of Scripture cards with you.
Throughout the day, whenever you have a few minutes, pull out your pack of Scripture cards and review them. Read the reference first, followed by the verse. Continue to recite the verse until you get a feel for the flow of the passage. When you are comfortable with the text, look only at the reference side of the card in order to test your recall.
It is important to recite the reference first, then the verse, and finish with the reference again. This will prevent you from becoming a “concordance cripple.” As a new believer, I was forced to look up every verse in the concordance at the back of my Bible. Sometimes, when I quoted a Scripture while witnessing, the person would ask me, “Where did you get that?”
I could only respond, “Somewhere in the Bible.” As you can imagine, that’s less than effective when sharing with others! By memorizing the references, you will speak with authority and gain the respect of your hearers when you quote Scripture.
When you master five verses, begin to study five more. Review all the verses you have learned at least once a week. As your pack grows, you will be encouraged to keep going in Scripture memorization, and you will experience its powerful effects in your life.
(For disciple-making resources, check out our website: www.replicate.org.)
A Final Thought
People ask me all the time, “Would you ever have thought you would be married with two boys, an author, a doctor, and the pastor of a megachurch?”
Honestly, the person who is most amazed at what God has done over the years is me. I’ve witnessed firsthand every heartbreak, every situation, and every encounter.
The follow-up question usually is: “What’s the secret to being used by God?”
My answer is simple: there are no secrets in the Christian life. The secrets are the obvious things: prayer, reading the Word, and obeying the Lord. When I got saved, I made a deal with the Lord. Up to that point, I was pushing the envelope of drug abuse, so I couldn’t lose in a sense, because I didn’t want to live much longer anyway. “God,” I offered, “if you save me, I will go after you with the same intensity I did to get high.”
For those who know anything about addicts, you don’t get in the way of someone trying to get high. I’d never forgotten what Paula told me years before about being a laser beam pointed in the wrong direction. I wondered, What could happen if I go all in after God?
Since the day I met Christ, I’ve never gotten over being saved. I think that was the apostle Paul’s secret to ministry. He never became blasé or matter-of-fact about the reality that Christ saved him. As an old man, facing death by execution, he still wanted to shout it from the rooftops. He was saved!
Sadly, many Christians have forgotten that they were at one time living in darkness. We become institutionalized and domesticated when we forget about the moment we went from death to life.
Never let it be said that we got over being saved. God made us different to make a difference.
Notes
1. C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (Cambridge: Samizdat Press, 1941; 2016), 24.
2. The doctor's name has been changed to protect her identity.
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Indonesia
4. A. W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous (Chicago, IL: Moody, 1955; 2015), 164.
5. Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1994).
6. Miles J. Stanford, The Green Letters (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1975; 1983), 6.
7. Ibid.
8. https://opioids.thetruth.com/o/the-facts/fact-1005
9. Allen C. Myers, The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1987), 512.
