Following Jesus

My Discipleship Notebook

The first section of My Discipleship Notebook (you can download part A (pdf) of it from the link above) is to memorize a Bible verse and to review it. What is the secret about memorization? Unless you have a photographic memory, the answer is REVIEW. Let me repeat that: Review, review, review! I still remember learning John 5:24 earlier in my life. It was in my version of Elizabethan English from 400 years ago, and sounded something like this, from the Authorized (King James) Version: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." Let's learn a verse in more modern English, from the Christian Standard Bible (2017). That's abbreviated as CSB. If you prefer a public domain version, you could use the World English Bible, available online, used earlier in some blog posts.

So, start off with the Topic. This is courtesy of Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators, the original (long) sequence of verses to memorize. This was foundational in my father's life, and a great blessing in mine as well. There is also a Moody Bible Institute course written by one of his disciples, Lorne C. Sanny, his successor, called Memorize the Word: A Key to Christian Maturity; a Bible Correspondence Course, which is also very good. Maybe it's no longer available, but I still have my copy, if you want the (shorter) sequence of verses to memorize.

Depending on the Bible version, there are as many as 31,102 verses in the Bible. God does not expect you to memorize them all. Not everyone can match Jack Van Impe (who died this year at age 88), the "walking Bible," who memorized all 31,102 of them. But Psalm 1 called the person who thinks about God's instruction day and night as happy or blessed. The following is from the New English Translation:

It says (Psalm 1, NET),

1 How blessed is the one who does not follow the advice of the wicked,

or stand in the pathway with sinners,

or sit in the assembly of scoffers.

2 Instead he finds pleasure in obeying the Lord's commands;

he meditates on his commands day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by flowing streams;

it yields its fruit at the proper time,

and its leaves never fall off.

He succeeds in everything he attempts.

4 Not so with the wicked!

Instead they are like wind-driven chaff.

5 For this reason the wicked cannot withstand judgment,

nor can sinners join the assembly of the godly.

6 Certainly the Lord guards the way of the godly,

but the way of the wicked ends in destruction.

The CSB puts it, "Instead, his delight is in the LORD's instruction, and he meditates on it day and night." The Hebrew word for "instruction" is Torah, and it means "Parental Guidance" or "Instruction" but is often translated "Law" or "Commands."

In order to meditate on God's Word, it is easier to memorize parts of God's Word than to carry a Bible that cannot be read in the dark unless it is in Braille. Day and Night during spare moments. To constantly chew on or mutter to oneself the words of Scripture.

So how do I start? It is really good to be able to memorize the chapter and verse with the words of the verse so that you can open the Bible to find it and the verses around it. My parents were really good at that and could quote four thousand Bible verses each before they died.

So start with the topic and verse reference. The first number is the chapter and the second number after the colon is the verse number (or numbers, if you memorize two at once, on occasion—the folks that invented the chapter and verse divisions sometimes broke up the thoughts in the middle of a sentence or paragraph). Say, "Assurance of Salvation, John Five: Twenty-four." Say that several times.

Then start saying the first word with it. "Assurance of Salvation, John Five, Twenty-four, "Truly." Now add the reference at the end, and ever after, "John 5:24." It's like a ship or airplane, "fore and aft." That means "front" and "back." Say that several times until you can say it without looking. Then add the first phrase with the topic, verse reference, first phrase and verse reference at the end: "Assurance of Salvation, John Five: Twenty-four, Truly I tell you, . . . . John Five: Twenty-four." It's Jesus talking. Now keep adding words and phrases until you can say the whole verse from memory without looking. Not only that, you will know where to find it! Think about how Jesus died for you and about our heavenly Father who sent him loves you. Because God is such a great God, he can save us completely, just like Hebrews 4:25 (CSB) talks about (about how he, Jesus can save us):

"Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them."

Intercede means talk to or pray for, which is what Jesus does at the Father's right hand, on our behalf, especially when we do something wrong and the devil tries to say we don't belong to God anymore. But we still belong to God, because of Jesus' powerful blood and never-ending life, which he gives us as a gift as well.

Jesus also promised, in John 10:27-30 (CSB):

"My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are on."

Don't think that just because you mess up that you can jump out of Jesus' hand. "He's got the whole world in his hands," a song says, especially the ones he's bought with his blood, and he will deal with evil later, so that more people can be rescued from evil before he permanently abolishes evil. That's in some other Bible verses. We could go on and on.

Now you can say the whole verse from memory:

"Assurance of Salvation, John Five: Twenty-four, Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life. John Five: Twenty-four."

Make it a point to review your new Bible verses and think about them every day. Also review the other verses you memorize, just up to 21 at a time. That is, review the new week's or half-week's memory verse, if you are memorizing two verses a week after the first week, plus your current review, plus ten from your "Back Review." Make little cards to carry with you around a rubber band (you might call it elastic band) or a business card packet, to make the verse or verses easy to look at during spare moments of the day for meditation. (After drawing the picture above, I found out the crucifixion may have been on the east side of Jerusalem, not the north side, at the city dump against a rock outcrop with places for posters dug into the vertical face, beside the Temple, at Gehinnom or Valley of Hinnom, always smoldering with fire, beside the steep slop of Zion hill, but this one is based on a topographic map, under half a football field away from the Garden Tomb opposite the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem, a favorite proposed location for Protestants, which I later visited.)

You know, I was needlessly upset about someone who "stole" MY Bible verse. It is a precious Bible verse and promise to me that I had discovered when reading through the Bible from First Chronicles 4:9-10. Someone else, the famous Bruce H. Wilkinson, also noticed it and wrote a book on it called The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life.

My wife and her mama like to listen to a song about it, "Bless Me (The Prayer of Jabez)" by Donald Lawrence & the Tri-City Singers, usually in the album version.

If you want to memorize the Prayer of Jabez, verse 10, or verses 9 and 10 sometime (Jabez is Hebrew for "Ouch!" which is what Jabez's mom named him), it is, I Chronicles 4:9-10 (CSB):

"Jabez was more honored than his brothers. His mother named him Jabez and said, 'I gave birth to him in pain.' Jabez called out to the God of Israel, 'If only you would bless me, extend my border, let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm, so that I will not experience pain.' And God granted his request.