Hey everybody, Pastor Steven Anderson here from Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe,
Arizona.
I just wanted to make a quick video to explain to you the method that I use to memorize whole
chapters of the Bible.
Now there are lots of different methods out there that people use to memorize scripture
and whatever works for you, great.
But honestly, this is the method that works for me and I've taught this method to a lot
of other people and there are many of them who've literally memorized 20, 30, 40 chapters
using this method.
So it really does work and I believe that this method could work for anybody.
You know, I've used it to memorize hundreds of chapters of the Bible and I don't have
any specific talent where I'm really good at memorizing.
In fact, I know other people who can memorize scripture a lot better than I can.
So I think that this is a method that really can work for anybody.
And the thing that I like about it that I feel like sets it apart from other methods
is that it's something that you can do in the background, as it were, while you're going
about your daily life.
So if you're a really busy person like I am, this is a great multitasking where you can
use this method while you're doing other things and get a lot of Bible scriptures memorized
at the same time.
Now this method is designed for learning entire chapters of the Bible.
So let me go through it with you step by step.
So first of all, you're going to have to make yourself some flashcards.
Now this is kind of the one part of the method that does take your full attention.
You sit down and you write out flashcards of the verses that you want to learn.
Right now I'm learning the book of Daniel.
So I'm going through Daniel chapter two.
So I've got these flashcards that I made and I wrote them out by hand.
Now right away, some people might be thinking, oh, I'll just print them out on the computer.
Well I personally think that writing them out by hand is an important part of the learning
because step one for me is to sit down with the Bible and the three by five cards and
to write them out.
And while I write out the cards, I actually chant the words in my mind over and over again.
So if I were to be working on this card right here, for example, where it says the Chaldeans
answered before the king and said, there is not a man upon the earth that can show the
kings matter.
What I would do is while I'm writing the card, I would say each phrase over and over again
in my mind.
So I'd take that first phrase, the Chaldeans answered before the king and said, the Chaldeans
answered before the king and said, the Chaldeans answered before the king and said, the Chaldeans
answered before the king and said, I'd keep saying that over and over again while I'm
writing it.
Then I'd get to the next part, there is not a man upon the earth, there is not a man upon
the earth, there is not a man upon the earth, there is not a man upon the earth that can
show the kings matter, that can show the kings matter, that can show the kings matter.
And by saying it and looking at it and writing it out all at the same time, it really drives
it into your memory.
So I feel like making the cards themselves is step one in this process.
Then step two is to keep these cards in your pocket throughout the day and to just pull
them out whenever you get a spare moment and just take one phrase on the card and chant
it in your mind over and over again while you're doing something else.
So let's say you're a lady that's cleaning the house or cooking a meal.
Let's say you're a man that's off at work, turning a screwdriver, doing whatever.
This is something that you can easily do in the background while you do your work because
you're just kind of going about your business and saying over and over again in your mind,
the Chaldeans answered before the king and said, the Chaldeans answered before the king
and said, the Chaldeans answered before the king and said, and just chanting it over and
over again.
And then once you get bored with that phrase or you've sufficiently meditated on that phrase,
then you just move on to the next phrase and just go through it.
So this is something that if you do it throughout the day and you spend several hours doing
it, you can literally go through an entire chapter in one day, just one little phrase
at a time because every few minutes you just switch phrases.
Every few minutes, switch phrases.
And don't try to take too big of a phrase because if you take too big of a phrase, then
it takes too much of your concentration and the whole point is to be able to multitask
and do other things.
So let's say I were learning the verse, Act 542, and daily in the temple and in every
house they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
I would just take a little short phrase, just and daily in the temple and then daily in
the temple and daily in the temple and daily in the temple.
And I just have that going in my mind while I do other things and in every house and in
every house and in every house and in every house and in every house.
So once I get to the end of the chapter and I've gone through it just one little phrase
at a time, well, I still haven't memorized the chapter because you still have to kind
of put it all together.
So I like to go through it phrase by phrase, usually about twice or three times, just to
really drive in each phrase.
Then once I've gotten the whole thing quoted through a bunch of times, one phrase at a
time, then you sit down with the Bible at the end of the day or whenever you get a chance
and you sort of put it all together.
But because you've already quoted each phrase hundreds of times, putting it together goes
shockingly fast.
You'll sit down at the Bible and say, okay, you know, I've been quoting this chapter all
day, now it's time to put it all together.
And you'll find yourself able to stitch together, you know, five verses, 10 verses, 15 verses
in one sitting because you've already got the pieces ingrained in your mind.
It's just a question of putting it all together and it'll just go together surprisingly fast.
So by this method, I've literally memorized an entire chapter of the Bible in one day
while working a full-time job or while in school full-time.
It's really doable when you do this method.
So the next step after that, you've learned the chapter, is how do you retain the chapter?
Because obviously you don't want to just learn a chapter and then forget it and move
on to the next one.
You want to retain all the chapters that you've learned and you want to memorize whole books
of the Bible and keep these things in your mind.
So once you have the chapter memorized word perfect, and let me emphasize, word perfect.
Don't be sloppy, but get it word for word exactly right from the King James Version
of the Bible.
And once you've got it down perfectly, you quote that chapter every day for one week.
So once you've got it perfect, you quote it every day for one week, the whole chapter.
Then you quote it every week once for a month and then you quote it every month thereafter.
Now the mistake that a lot of people make is that they just keep quoting it every day
for several weeks and they think, oh, that'll be even better if I just quote it every day
I won't forget it.
But the problem with that method is that when you do that, you're keeping it in your short
term memory.
And what you want to do is you want to move this chapter from the short term memory to
the long term memory.
And you have to do that by stages.
So you're actually doing a disservice by quoting the chapter too often because you're keeping
it in your short term memory.
So what you want to do is just only quote it every day for seven days.
Then you wait an entire week.
Don't think about that chapter.
Don't quote that chapter for the whole week.
You say, well, I want to quote it.
Well, you know, work on something else because you need to wait that week.
Then a week later, quote it.
Now the first time you do that after waiting a week, it might be a little tough to quote
because you haven't quoted in seven days, but you know, work through it.
And the second time it'll be easier.
The third time it'll be easier.
The fourth time it'll be easier.
And by the time you've done it four or five times on a weekly basis, it'll be easy for
you to go a week and you'll be able to quote it perfectly after a week without any problems.
At that point, you switch it to a monthly rotation where you're only quoting it once
a month.
And then you just quote it once a month forever.
Although I will say this, after you've quoted it once a month for several years, there are
a lot of chapters that you can actually switch to only quoting once a year.
There are chapters right now that I have memorized that I only need to quote them once
a year because I quoted them monthly for so long, they got so far into my long-term memory
that now I only have to quote them once a year.
So the goal with moving these chapters from a daily to a weekly to a monthly rotation
is that, you know, it's just not practical.
If you're going to memorize whole books of the Bible, if you're going to memorize lots
of chapters, you're not going to be able to quote them all every day.
It's just too much to quote.
Whereas if you quote them once a month, that's actually very realistic.
For example, if you were to memorize a hundred chapters of the Bible, which is a lot of chapters,
okay, well, let's say you're quoting them once a month, then that means you would only
have to quote three chapters a day in order to retain a hundred chapters.
And that's a pretty realistic goal, you know, to quote about three, four chapters a day.
You know, that's doable.
You could do that theoretically.
So that's why you want to get it from a daily to a monthly thing.
So again, very important to retain what you've learned.
You quoted every day for a week, every week for a month, and every month for the rest
of your life.
That's how you do it.
And I hope that this method works for you.
Like I said, I've used it for years.
I've tried other methods, but this is the only method that really works for me effectively.
And so I hope that you'll give it a try and share it with others.
And I hope that this works out for you.
And God bless you as you memorize the Bible.