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| Psalm 119:11 Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee |
| Regular reading of the Bible is just like having regular meals every day. The Christian needs to grow and become strong in their faith and feeding on God's Word is just as important to your spiritual life as eating is to your natural life. If you really want to be the Christian that God wants you to be develop the habit of reading your Bible everyday. |
| If you were raised in a Christian home then it is quite possible you were taught the basic stories of the Bible as a child. Stories about Adam and Eve, David, Daniel, Abraham, Moses, Jonah, and all those. These are really important for you to know, know well, and know right. If you do not have a good background in these stories, learn them! Learn them accuractely because they are the illustrations of God's teaching and even a little error in them may cause you to miss the whole point of what God is saying. |
| One other suggestion would be for you to read through the Bible. Adults should be able to do it fairly easily in a year. If you are younger and have school work and other things that have to be done don't push yourself and make it a burden so that you give up. But begin at Genesis, put a book mark in your Bible where you are and just start reading. When you finish, start again. If it takes a couple of years, that is fine. |
| What I suggest is give God five minutes every day just for reading. Now once you get started it may go much longer, but make that the minimum. I think the best time is when you first get up in the morning, but that is up to you. |
| Reading and Memorizing the Bible |
| Memorization of the Bible is one of the most important things that you can do to become strong in your faith. It takes a little work, but things of value always do. Do it when you are young, when you get older your memorizing abilities often diminish. Here are some tips that I have learned from years of doing it. 1. Pick scripture to memorize that is important for you at the time. It will be much easier to remember if you are using it in your life. 2. Longer passages are easier to memorize because they flow together and make sense. Don't be afraid to take on a whole chapter, it is not as difficult as you may think. 3. Learn a verse at a time by breaking it down into short sections, saying each section over a number of times until you can remember it. Go on to the next section and do the same things. Then put the two sections together and repeat them over until you remember them. Then add the next section. It takes me about 5 - 10 minutes of concentrated effort to get a verse down really good. 4. Find a place where you can talk out loud. Hearing the verses being said makes your mind remember it that much faster. Also some people find it a good idea to begin going over it while you are looking at it. This means your eyes see it, your mouth speaks it and your ears hear it all at once. 5. Try memorizing while you walk or are doing something. The extra movement of blood caused by the exercise makes the mind work a little clearer. 6. Going over Scripture just before going to bed, or trying to fall asleep while you are going over your memory work really works. You will find that in the morning it will be clear in your head. 7. Singing opens up the right side of the brain and gives you great ability to memorize. Put your memory work to a song you know and see what happens. It is also a good way to remember the books of the Bible. 8. Find yourself a small New Testament that you can carry with you in your pocket or purse and pull it out anytime you are in a convenient place and have some time and work on new memory work. If you don't have a New Testament or you are memorizing in the Old Testament, write out the memory work on a piece of paper and carry that with you. 9. To make it solid in your mind meditate on it. Think about what it is saying and how you can use it in our life to become more like Christ. Make sure you know what all the words means. What is the sense of being able to say it if you don't know what it is saying? 10. Review, review, review!! I found it necessary to review memory work every day for at least two weeks after it is memorized or you will forget it in time. |
| Many young people are "turned off" when they come to the "boring" parts like the geneologies. Just skip those parts. It is far more important to keep reading then to get every word. It is like having a library. In it you have many different kinds of books. Some are reference books, like dictionaries, phone books, atlases which you don't read like a regular book. You just get it out when you need it. Some parts of the Bible are like that too and unless I am doing a detailed study that involves that section I just skip over it when I am doing my "through the Bible" reading. |
| Read Your Bible |
| Memorize Your Bible |
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| Here, You'll need this. |
| Psalm 119:11 Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee |
| Sounds like work doesn't it? But I guess if Jesus was willing to lay down His life for me I should be willing to give Him a little time each day, shouldn't I? |
| Well lets press on and look at how to study your Bible in the next Lesson 4 E 4. |
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