First Week Memory Challenge

1. Pick a small book of the New Testament like 1 John, Colossians, Titus, or Phillipians

2. Take a paper Bible and a yellow highlighter and read chapter one looking thoughtfully for a verse (or maybe a cluster of 2 verses) that are vivid and moving and hopefully give a sense of the main theme of the chapter.  There isn’t necessarily a right or wrong answer here on which verse to pick and it will be good for different people to pick different verses.  For those with years of familiarity with the Bible they may want to skip a passage that they already know too well especially if they already knew what chapter of the Bible the verse was in without having to use an electronic search tool.  You can go ahead keep doing this for the rest of the chapters or some more of the following chapters in the book or you can move on to step 2 and come back to step 1 later.

3. Download The Bible Memory App and put the verse(s) into the app using the NIV.  Feel free to trim off a conjunction that seems clunky when memorizing a verse on its own.  We want the language to be as natural in English as possible.  

4. Commit to touching the app at least twice a day and ideally four or more times a day.  Put the app in a prominent part of your phone.  Use the desktop version and the watch tool.  Meditating on Scripture should naturally change your appetite and where you go instinctively for dopamine but you can aid this process by choosing to either cut certain apps, websites, or other forms of media out of your life for a time period or even just making a customized commitment like opening the app before opening Instagram or Youtube.  

5. Make sure you watch the Bible Project video for the book you are doing at least once and consider finding a video on the genre (in this case for the epistles have this video and this one).

6. Every day make sure one of your touches of the Bible is not on your phone but with your paper Bible with one highlighted memory section in each chapter.  We want to make sure we are getting the context of the whole book so spend a little time exploring the context around the passages.  What themes and connections start emerge that bring light to your passages?  What light do your passages shine on other sections of the book?  If you want to mark other passages make sure and use a different color highlighter so you can always come back later and walk through the books you’ve done BRD on and easily review your memory verses in their context.

7. Follow this link to see an example of an exercise to tie the verses to their context and the chapters to each other with the result of a grip on the thematic flow of the book:  Chapter Context and Connection Exercise

8. This project is described as a solo experiment but you can easily turn this into a shared group experience as a family or a small group.  You might consider starting a chat group through text messages, WhatsApp, or Slack so you can have chat going on throughout the week.  A leader could provide occasional questions to draw this out.  The real good stuff is gathering together where we want to focus both on the text and what we are seeing but also what the text is doing in us.  Keep comments about the news and other things you’ve read outside of the Bible to a minimum.  Western people love abstracting and pontificating and we want to have real experience with God’s Word directly.

• Touch the app as many times a day as you can.  Try removing other dopamine delivering medias from your life or at least limiting them by doing the Bible Memory App first.  You could, for instance, make a commitment to only open Instagram or Candy Crush after you’ve reviewed at least one passage.  This should drastically impact your mental diet and spiritual health!