You never know what the future may bring. In other countries, the Word of God has been taken out of the hands of the people. It has been made against the law to even have a copy of God's word in your possession. If that were to ever happen to you, where ever you may be living, wouldn't you like to know someone that could tell you what the Bible says from the beginning to the end? Better yet, how would you like to be that person? With this section of Make it Clear, you could be that person.
Many people would like to memorize the Bible, but don't know how to do it. In this section of Make it Clear I will share some memory techniques that may help you to remember the Bible. The technical term for this is mnemonics. We will start out with some easier memory systems and then move on to some that are a little more complicated but will help you to be able to commit the entire Bible to memory. I learned this in Bible college. My teachers name was Jack Lannom . He is the founder of a company that helps Christians to use their memories for the Lord. You may notice that I have a lot of quotes by him on the quote page. He is the person that told the class that everyone should write down quotes that they hear that they really like. Jack said to share this with other Christians so that they also could memorize Gods Word.
You may want to check out Jack Lannom's online store. He has a couple of courses on CD that will go into much more detail than these couple of pages on my website. The name of these courses are "You Are A Genius®" which is for children and "Memory Genius®" which looks like the course that I took in Bible College. Check them out if you are interested.
Charles Swindoll, Insight For Living/Dallas Seminary, said "I know of no other single practice in the Christian life more rewarding, practically speaking, than memorizing Scripture...No other single exercise pays greater spiritual dividends! Your prayer life will be strengthened. Your witnessing will be sharper and much more effective. Your attitudes and outlook will begin to change. Your mind will become alert and observant. Your confidence and assurance will be enhanced. Your faith will be solidified." "Seasons of Life" p 53
"I am convinced that one of the greatest things we can do is to memorize Scripture." Billy Graham, Personal Thoughts of a Public Man p. 88
First of all you need to realize that there is no such thing as a bad memory. Many people can't remember things because they have bad techniques of remembering them. This may surprise you, but you don't have a memory. The word was coined many centuries ago to describe an imaginary place in the brain where bits of information were stored. Many people still think of the word as a particular place in the brain. Don't think of memory as being a substance like a muscle within the brain which can be strengthened with exercise but rather a series of activities or processes whicn enable the mind to retrieve, record and recall past experiences. Memory is a function, not a place. Things that we remember are put on mental pegs. When we want to remember it, we go to the mental peg and pull it off just like you would put a coat on a coat rack and then later go to the rack and pull it off. Often when we try to memorize something, we don't properly put it on a peg.
This can be a lot of fun. The first thing to remember is that you must have a pretty good imagination. You must see these objects in your minds eye. If you can visualize it, you have half of the battle won. I will be giving you pegs to hang what you want to memorize on. There are a couple of things to do if you want to remember these things. Here are a couple of suggestions for you as you get started.
Exagerate things. Make them bigger than they are. Make many of them in your immagination if you want to. Just anything that will help you to remember it. i.e. If you want to remember a fly, see the fly as being six feet tall wearing a suit and tie. If you want to remember locust on your list you might think of millions of them instead of just a couple of them. You can make a car or a tree on your list come alive and talk to you if that will help. Use humor. Humor is great for helping you to remember things. In many cases, the more ridiculous things are, the easier they will be to remember.
Topical System
Visual Symbol System
Digital Letter System
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