by Amy | Aug 8, 2014 | Bible Reading, Blog, The Art of Faith
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Remember when I told you I was going to memorize the book of Colossians? I’m happy to report that I’m still going strong. And Derek is too. I think everything is more fun if we do it together. This included. Especially since there have been days when I wasn’t in the mood and he pushed me to memorize the day’s verse…and vice versa.
We are just a few verses shy of having memorized the first chapter. I was going to hold off on telling you about it until I’d gotten through the first chapter, but I am simply too excited to wait. I am so thoroughly enjoying this process I don’t know if I’ll ever quit. Here’s a quick list of why I’ve loved memorizing such a big chunk of Scripture all at once.
1. Every word counts. I know I kind of said this before I started, but now that I’m knee deep in this memorization game I’m really getting it. Repeating the words day after day has really forced me to realize how significant every single word is. Every word choice, it’s placement, the structure of the sentence….it all holds a deep meaning. Meaning that I have never realized before when I simply read through a chapter at a time.
2. I’m constantly meditating on the Word. No matter how much quiet time or Bible study I’ve done in the past, nothing has helped me stay focused on God’s words for us as much as this bout of memorization. Because I don’t want to forget the verses I’ve learned, throughout the day I find myself thinking about yesterday’s verse, reciting the whole passage, and mulling over the meaning in the verses I know. Since I add more each day there is always something fresh in my mind to meditate on. And in the meditation has caused me to…..
3. Gain a deeper understanding of the Lord. I feel closer to Him, even though lately I’ve been struggling with bad attitudes and small bouts of the down-and-outs. I feel like I’m gleaning an understanding of Christ’s nature with every verse I tack on.
4. I’ve learned new prayers. Paul writes this letter to folks in Colossians, even though he has never met them. Now, if you are familiar with Paul, you might have noticed that his introductions and opening statements can be somewhat lengthy. In the past I’ve tended to skip over these parts, which I considered frilly filler {tsk, tsk.} But now that I’m memorizing, I have been forced to look deeply at the meaning tucked inside the intro.
Paul is a great intercessor and a spectacular prayer warrior. He offers a real teaching moment in the beginning of this letter by telling the Colossians how he prays for them, what he says in those prayers and why. I have basically started to copy his words verbatim when praying for fellow believers. {Especially the sweet teenage girls I have the privilege of mentoring.} Where I used to get stuck and tongue tied, not knowing what exactly to ask or say–now I use Paul’s very powerful template for intercession.
“We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience.”
5. I’m banking money verses. What’s a money verse, you ask. A “money verse” is a key verse, one that defends your believe or is extremely usable in conversation, teaching, etc with the world. Colossians is jam packed with money verses and I’m learning them word-for-word and finding them really easy to interject into regular conversations.
I’m also tucking them away for days when my beliefs may be challenged. Then I’ll be able to pull out things like: Christ is the image of the invisible God…; by Him all things were created…all things were created by Him and for Him; God was pleased for all of His fullness to dwell in Him {Christ}–as in Christ was fully God in mortal form.
6. Scripture is coming up in conversations. Since I’m comitted to memorizing the whole book of Colossians it’s really easy to throw it into a conversation–even with a nonbeliever. When someone asks, “What have you been up to lately?” It’s the perfect opportunity to chat them up about how amazing the Word of God is and all the things I’m learning.
7. I’m on pace with the commentary. If you know me at all, you know I l-o-v-e reading commentary on Scripture. I like knowing the original Greek, I like knowing the cultural state and the political climate of the times. The New Testament has so much commentary it’s a huge undertaking to read it alongside a whole chapter at a time…since there may be several pages dedicated to two or three verses alone. Taking Colossians slowly, one verse a day, has made reading the commentary doable. Not overwhelming.
That’s my quick list. I’ll give you another update in a month or so. But really, you should start memorizing. It’s so worth it. Stop waiting and just start. The first day is really easy. Pinky swear. You won’t regret it.
Amy
by Amy | Jul 16, 2014 | Bible Reading, Blog, The Art of Faith
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I know I mentioned before that this is the Summer of Yes. At the time it was declared, back in the beginning of June, I was feeling like that was a great idea. I couldn’t wait to see what I could say “yes” to.
Then I had surgery. And the yeses in my life became very restricted. There have been a lot of forced no’s lately. No, I can’t pick that up. No, I can’t walk that far. No, I’m not allowed to carry that. No, I can’t…I have to rest for a while.
You see, as much as I had hoped to jump right back to my regular life {they say you can go back to “normal daily activities” as soon as you feel ready} I really haven’t been able to. When I went to my post-op the surgeon explained how the disc herniation was worse than they thought, since the bulge wasn’t off to the left or right–it was right in the center. He then went into detail about how in order to complete the surgery, he had to stretch and move all of the nerves running through my spinal cord. All of them. Stretched like rubber bands. It makes me queasy to think about it. And apparently, that kind of nerve manipulation will leave you sidelined for quite some time. Bummer. Especially, since my normal daily activities include tearing down walls, building things, tramping through fields on photo shoots, and jostling smiles out of stubborn children.
Okay. There’s that. When I started to thinking of something I could Yes my brain was taken back to a conversation I had had with a friend a few days before surgery. She told me that her 12-year-old cousin had recently memorized an entire book of the Bible. A whole book! 12! I put it off and tried not to think about it. I wanted a different Yes to happen. But this one kept gnawing at me. Could I do that? Would I? Should I?
You know the answer to that. After all, this is the Summer of Yes.
So, finally I gave in and began trying. I even researched a technique for memorizing large chunks of Scripture. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be able to recite an entire book of the Bible by October 13th.
You might be wondering why I said yes to this of all things. It sounds kind of boring, a little tedious, and definitely difficult. Lots of reasons. Let me enlighten you.
First of all, the Bible is the Living Word of God. The more time we spend with it, the more we are opening ourselves up to a deep communion with Him, the easier it is to hear His voice, and understand the possibility He has for us.
Second, Scripture wasn’t written verse by verse. Okay, so in a sense it was. I mean every book is, in a way, is written sentence by sentence. The books of the Bible, like most books, were written–usually–to a specific group of people, to convey a specific message, address an issue, explain something, etc. The content of a book flows, it makes a case, a broad point. Isolating a single verse can be dangerous since a verse’s true meaning often hinges on its context.
It’s easy to take a single verse and quote it and force it’s application to all kinds of circumstances. It’s a better practice to look at a verse in context by reading around it, to understand what is really being said.
And thirdly, when we commit something to memory we root it deeply in ourselves. I still remember the lyrics to songs from a musical I was in in 5th grade. I can recall facts I had to memorize for a science presentation in 6th grade. While those things are useless…memorizing–gaining a deep understanding–of a big chunk of Scripture isn’t. I believe that the more we understand our own beliefs, they easier they are to share with others, they easier they are to explain. I don’t like to spout of a “I think it says in the Bible somewhere–but I don’t know where…” when I’m in a conversation with someone looking for advice. I’d rather really {really} know what I’m talking about…and I think memorizing a book is a good place to start.
Oh, and this is the exciting part. I spent days thinking and praying over which book to choose. I finally settled on Colossians. I’m currently only two days in, but I figure, if I tell you guys it holds me more accountable. I’m using this method…in case any of you would like to try a big passage {doesn’t even have to be a whole book, maybe just a chapter} alongside me. And look–so far I can quote two verses. I pinky swear I’m going to type this next paragraph without looking at a source. Honor code.
1:1 I, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God and our brother Timothy. 1:2 To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ in Colosse. Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
Don’t be too impressed, I have a long way to go.
xo
Amy
by Amy | Oct 29, 2013 | Bible Reading, Blog, The Art of Faith
I learned about an amazing Bible study resource a few weeks ago at my Bible study. When I learn amazing, applicable things I like to share them with you. This one is good…and I apologize for taking so very long to get it up on the blog for you.
I’m guessing you won’t dispute that computers have changed the way we do things. I spend most of my day on the ol’ lap top. I make lists on it, I brainstorm on it, I conduct business on it. There is one point during my day that I almost always close the lap top, though. It’s when I sit down to do my Bible study. But now, that’s changing too.
Derek and I have come to the end of the Bible, and we are about to start again at the beginning. This time, digging deeper and approaching it with an attitude of study. We have read through several times, so we know what it says…now we want to go deeper. We want to know all the things that the text doesn’t say.
Sound weird? Here’s what I’m talking about. Much of the Biblical text can be enriched when we fully understand its context. That means understanding who wrote what books, understanding culture, political climate, and the use of words. This may come as a shock…but the Bible wasn’t even originally written in English. So even looking at the original meanings of the Greek and Hebrew words can give us a greater understanding of what is being said. Can you tell I get jazzed about this? Geeky, I know.
So tonight is the night that we flip back to Genesis and start at “In the beginning.” This time through we are armed with a very large commentary as well as our concordance…and a new electronic resource: Blue Letter Bible. Now that I’ve made a case for studying the Word, let me tell you about BLB.
Pretty much, it’s every Bible study resource you will ever need in one place. Yes, I did just say that we have paper copies of some of these things. I’m still old school. But the study tools at BLB are so easy and quick to use it’d be silly for us not to have the lap top on hand as well as our book resources. For years I’ve been a big fan of Bible Gateway. Many of you probably know of it and use it too. It’s a great site. But…BLB takes all the features I love and makes them even easier to use…and adds some extras on top of it.
You can search for any passage or word and choose which translation you’d like to use. For my example, I’ll use a traditionally misunderstood, scary verse. 1 Timothy 2:12. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. Once the text comes up it is separated into individual verses like this.
Beside each verse is a “tools” button. If you click there, you’ll get a box with six tabs across the top. This is your gateway to study bliss. You can see the original language translation, different translations, cross references, dictionaries, and miscellaneous tools like maps, video or audio clips.
My favorite tabs are the “Bibles” tab and the “Dictionaries” tab. I love that many translations of the verse will appear in the tool box instead of navigating you away from your original page of text. In the “Dictionary” tab you can select any word that appears in the verse you are examining to get more details about it. There are also options that will give you more information about the general topic a verse speaks to or an overarching topic.
For instance, in the famously misunderstood verse {1 Timothy 2:12} you can learn from the Dictionaries tab that the word “quiet” used in this verse actually refers to maintaining tranquility/peacefulness, not absolute silence, as many assume. Under the Commentaries tab you can learn even more about this verse by understanding the culture of the time. We learn there that in the churches of Paul and Timothy’s time, men and women often sat in separate sections during a teaching. Timothy’s congregation was having issues because wives were shouting out comments and questions to their husbands across the aisle, causing a stir in their congregational meeting time. Paul was simply insisting that women listen and remain tranquil/peaceful, so that everyone could have a better learning experience.
Suddenly, thanks to in depth study tools this verse doesn’t seem so sexist and scary. Just imagine what else you can discover. But seriously, Blue Letter Bible. Check it out.
Amy
