Wanna Be A Walking Bible?

“Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You.” (Psalms 119:11)

As of 5:15pm, on 26th April 2005, I finished my last exam in my student life! Officially liberated from having to study and memorize facts, formulas, definitions and theorems, all those data can now be deleted from my mental hard disk. Yay!

What now… What should I do with the extra memory space?

The youth group in my church, called the Sungai Ara Youth Hour, has been going through this book, Pursuit Of Holiness by Jerry Bridges. Having to teach the class, I read one of the chapters where I was challenged to commit Scriptures to memory in my personal pursuit for holiness.

I think it’s a really cool idea. I still remember the memory verses that I committed to memory when I was a little boy, just because I bothered to remember them! And I can still recall them whenever I want to, or whenever I feel I need to apply it in a certain situation in my life.

Those few verses that I did commit to memory came in very handy indeed. Imagine what good it can do if I memorized big chunks of bible verses!

Therefore, I took it upon myself as a personal mission to memorize bible verses daily, as though I’m preparing myself for an exam. Partly because it’s a good spiritual exercise. And also partly because... I am scared of getting senile before my age. (I think I may have Alzheimer’s. I seem to be forgetting things, or having trouble trying to remember stuff!) Maybe by keeping my mind actively absorbing things, it can be a good preventive measure. Hehehe...

Jerry Bridges mentioned the Navigators’ Topical Memory System, and I looked it up on the internet. I thought I could just download the bible references, and memorize them on my own without having to buy it. But… Of course Navigators are smarter than that! You have to buy the whole thing. And it costs quite a bundle!

I thought, “Ah, forget it. I can just choose bible verses on my own, and memorize them.” But then, how do I pick the verses? If I were to pick the verses on my own, I'll probably pick them discriminately. Then, I will end up memorizing only the easy stuff. If I were to pick the verses indiscriminately, how do I go about doing it in a balanced, strategic way? How do I make sure that I’m not committing random verses to memory, which may not be too useful for instant recall or application?

Ah, in the end, I think I’ll need some sort of a guide to help me. The Navigators’ Topical Memory System looks like a good one. But the problem is, I don’t know if I can acquire it in local bookstores. If I can’t do that, then I’ll have to buy it online, which costs quite a lot. Even if I were to buy it online, I don’t have a credit card to perform the transaction. Another option is, maybe there are other bible memory guides that are more easily attainable?

Got to check it out. I’ll find a way. I think it’s worth the investment and the effort. Not only because it will be useful to me intellectually. By hiding His word in my heart, it will help me in my battle against sin in my pursuit of personal holiness.