This Sunday will mark a significant milestone for me. With my recitation of Titus 3:1-15 I will have finally completed memorizing Paul’s pastoral epistles! It has taken me over two years to get the task done, but I have managed, by God’s grace, to stick with it. Perhaps more significantly I have kept up my review of all thirteen chapters so as to retain them.
It is difficult to express just how valuable this spiritual discipline is to one’s walk with God. As a result I feel more armed with the precious promises of God’s word for my spiritual life. I feel more equipped to fight temptation in my walk. I enjoy increased knowledge of God by seeing things I have never seen before. I find wisdom from these pages particularly for me as a pastor of a local church. I experience conviction of sin in different ways. I enjoy more of the Spirit in my life by letting this word of Christ dwell richly within me. And these reasons don’t begin to tell the manifold benefits of memorizing especially extended portions of Scripture.
Dr. Andrew Davis has written an extremely helpful booklet for equipping believers for memorizing whole chapters and books of the Bible. Among other things, he makes this plea for committing to memory more than just isolated verses here and there:
Jesus said, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) Paul said “All Scripture is God-breathed, and is useful for teaching rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness…” (2 Timothy 3:16) Memorizing individual verses tends to miss intervening verses that the individual does not feel are as significant. Furthermore, most of Scripture is written to make a case… there is a flow of argumentation that is missed if individual verses are memorized. Furthermore, there is also a greater likelihood of taking verses out of context by focusing on individual verses.
We have copies of this booklet available at our resource table on Sunday mornings or you may access the text online here. I commend it to you in hopes that 2010 may see you commit more Scripture to memory than at any time in the past.
curtheffelfinger.com 
It is so encouraging to know that my pastor so treasures the Word of God and endeavors to feast on its truth by committing it to memory. Your example has been such an exhortation to me in my own walk with Christ and my need to meditate and memorize His Word as my Daily Bread. I hope to also be better equipped to stand against the temptations of the Devil and know the sweeter relationship with Jesus that comes through knowing His Word. So thank you, thank you so much, Pastor.
Thanks ever so much,young lady, for your encouragement. God is good.
Congratulations, Dear Brother! What an achievement. Count it a blessing that God has given you not only a wonderful mind but also the will to engage it in such profitable activities. You’re a great testimony to all of us.
PS: is your brain tired?
Brain? No. Body? Well, that can be another story! Thanks for the encouragement and the comment. Pressing on in 2010 to selected Psalms. Sweet!
Pastor Curt, Congratulations on your memorizing of 1 TIM – TITUS. I praise God for pastors like you. I want to let you and your church know about http://www.memverse.com It organizes your Scripture Memory verses for you and lets you know scientifically proven ideal intervals for review to keep the Scripture for life. It also keeps track of groups, so you can encourage your members at Orlando Grace Church to memorize Scripture and everyone can encourage and inspire each other with Scripture Memory. Also, Orlando Grace church as a group could be a huge inspiration used by God to spur other churches and groups to also memorize Scripture. Could you imagine the impact on the USA church at large if memorizing Scripture was treasured in our churches, and our Almighty God was considered worth the time to get to Know through His Word!
Great to hear of your continued passion as you move on to selected PSALMS. I would be curious which are at the top of your list. My favorites which I will try to instantly order are: 1) 23 2) 100 3)103
4)34 5)119. I’m sure I’m leaving out at least one or two great ones from that list, but it was fun refreshing pleasant memories from those. May God bless you as you continue to seek His face more and more through His Word, and as you minister to His people for His glory,
In Christ, Phil Walker (573)822-4015