Hi, everyone! I hope you are all doing well today!
Now that VBS is over, I’m trying to check the things off my mental checklist that I had been saving till later.
One of those is this competition with my teens to memorize the book of John.
I can hear many of you sighing, and some of you are saying to yourself, “I can’t do that.”
I said that to myself, too, for YEARS!
And then my son decided to memorize the book of Proverbs, and his youth leader introduced him to a VERY helpful website that explained that it is much more effective to recall a passage than to repeat it over and over and over and over….
Here’s the link to that website for those of you who would like to check it out.
So, here’s a picture of the index cards that I’ve written out to help me recall.
Jbwoh = John bore witness of him
TwhowIs, Htcamipbmpbm: fhwbm. = “This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.”
And so on!
It’s amazing how quickly you can recall a whole verse or bunch of verses, just by reading over them enough to familiarize yourself with them, then trying to recall the words with only the first letter of each word!
I’m sure my son can learn them faster than me, IF he applies himself. Therein lies the catch! So far, he is ahead of me, but we shall see…! 😊
Anyway, I haven’t read much in KJV for a long time, and things are jumping out at me because the wording is different, in addition to the fact that God’s word is alive! Hebrews 4:12
Like verse 15: “This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.” (And this phrase is repeated in verse 30, and part of it is repeated in verse 27. Sure sign God is trying to get our attention!)
So, if we go back to the Christmas story (Luke 1,2), we see that John was born before Jesus. He is somewhere between 5 and 6 months older.
Hence, the wording, “cometh (or comes) after me.”
But the apostle John writes his epistle to prove that Jesus is who He said He is, the Son of God, and therefore God Himself. If you don’t believe that, I challenge you to join us on this journey to memorize the book of John.
In verses 15 and 30, the apostle John records John the Baptist saying that Jesus CAME after him but WAS before him.
And in verse 27 he states, ” He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose.” This shows his recognition of his lowly, humble estate of unworthy servant to the very Son of God, even though he and Jesus, in His humanity, are cousins.
Mind blown!
There is so much more, but this is already long enough!
Who will join me on this journey to memorize the book of John? Any takers? Or perhaps you would prefer to read it several times and then study it word by word, phrase by phrase?
May the Lord lead you and guide you and give you peace and joy in knowing Him.
This is so neat! And very encouraging. I once set out to memorize the book of James while doing a Beth Moore Bible study challenge. After about 8 verses in however I began to lose commitment until eventually I quit memorizing.
Your post really sparks my interest though and I love the idea of getting kids involved, I feel like it’s a good time to try James again BUT with my kids this time!! Thank you for the inspiration!
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You’re welcome, Alicia! I’m so happy to hear that this post inspired you! God is good!
I think if you’ll try the first-letter-of-each-word trick, you’ll find it SO much easier to memorize! If you click on the link above and scroll down to the bottom, just before the comments you’ll find a converter box. You can copy and paste a chapter from James from your Bible app into the converter box, then click convert, and the tool will give you the first letter of each word just below the converter button. Then, you can just print it out. It’s easier than making index cards, but I just felt I needed the extra “mechanical” involvement of hand to eye for myself.
Looking forward to your victory report! Keep me posted! 🙂
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This is so neat! I checked it out, thank you so much for sharing!!
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You’re welcome! 🙂
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I like this method. I just started memorizing a few Psalms.
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Wonderful, Diana! I’d love to hear how it’s going and what the Lord teaches you through it! 🙂
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So far, it’s going well. It’s my favorite Psalm over all.
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Great! Which Psalm are you working on right now?
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91 at the moment.
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I LOVE that Psalm!
Enjoy! 🙌
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Thank you! 💙
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You’re welcome!
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I have found it so interesting when I return to the King James Version after other translations too. Maybe it’s because so many of the verses I memorized as a child are from the King James. When I do a search to find a verse, I often realize that the wording I’m remembering is from the KJV, and I didn’t realize it! Those words He gives us do go so very deep, when He plants them in our hearts! Blessings to you and your family as you study this summer!
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Yes, Bettie, I memorized from KJV when I was a child, too. I like to compare translations, because being a language major, I know that it is sometimes hard to know exactly which English word to use in translating, because other languages have words that mean more than just one English word.
I’ve also found it helpful to read other translations than what I am used to because there is something about familiarity with anything that can keep us from seeing things that are as plain as the nose on our face. That’s why stores like to mix it up and change things in the hopes that customers will see other things that they will then purchase. I don’t really like it when stores do that, because I don’t want to see other things. But with the Bible, I want to see everything that I can so I can know the Lord better and better each day!
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