So I had to laboriously flip through the channels, one by one, until I found it.
Do you ever drive through a new city but can’t find a radio station you want? Or go to your library but can’t locate Juvenile Biographies?
Or been asked to read Micah 6:8 aloud in Sunday School, but you can’t find it (it’s after Jonah, before Nahum)?
Just how well do we know the bones of our Bible?
But this is 2011, we whine. My Bible is on my iPhone; I look up a verse by typing in the name.
Or I can google a few key words and find the scripture I need. Or if I have to, I can always flip to the Table of Contents in my hardcopy Bible.
Who needs to memorize the books of the Bible anymore?
And now as much as ever.
When we trade in our human memory for a digital one, we lose advantages of knowing our way around a Bible.
Why learn the bones?
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8 comments:
Memorizing God's Word is a vital part of growing in Him. My sister and I are partners in accountability. We are on the 4Th chapter of James. It has taken us a couple of years, but so worth while.
That is so wonderful that you are memorizing with your sister. It definitely makes it easier to stay on track when you have a partner.
For years I have memorized with my children as part of our homeschooling. But yesterday, as I was printing off more verses for this year, I was sad to think that next year I won’t have either of my girls here to memorize with. I pray that I’ll be faithful to continue memorizing without them because it has been such a fruitful spiritual discipline for me to keep God’s word in my heart.
Lisa - I just clicked back from reading your article. It is great! I grew up doing Bible drills in Sunday School and you are right, that knowledge is so valuable. Still, I find I have a lot to learn about the overall scope of the Bible; the different sections (Book of Laws, etc) and how they fit together. Thanks for your great tips and the helpful links, too. I'm inspired!
Courtney,
Sometimes we think those Bible drills are a waste of time when we’re young, but it’s nice when that knowledge sticks around with us as we age. It provides a good framework to build on. I’m glad you got that as a child too.
And there’s always more for us to learn; I’m right there with you. With all the great internet sources at our fingertips, I have no excuses now. :-)
Being a Sunday school teacher i can normally find the bones fairly quickly. However i have problems when i'm trying to think where a particular verse is located, i could probably quote it but i would have to look it up. Even my favourites, which are marked, to quote the chapter and verse i would have to hunt them down.
Beverley,
I have that problem too. And what makes it even worse is when I switch Bibles because sometimes I can locate a verse just by remembering where it is on the page, but now that I read from my Kindle and memorize verses from sheets of paper, I've lost that visual reference.
But oh well. Just more excuses. ha. I am working on improving this by including the scripture reference as part of my memorization recitations.
Couldn't possibly switch Bibles not even my daughters, but funnily enough she can find just what she's looking in hers - which is good to know.
Oh I'm totally with you on this one! I mean, I hadn't thought of it in terms of memorising scripture, more in terms of figuring out how to find somewhere (instead of GPSing), remembering people's phone numbers, etc. But "search" function is one thing I have not resisted, and I do miss the days when I actually kind of knew my way around the Bible without a search engine.
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