Know by Heart with J.J. Guitierrez

Why Christians Should Memorize Scripture

And we are definitely recording, and I'm waiting for the live stream. I'm going to push. So we are live. We are live streaming and now we are recording so I think we are good to go. I'm Terry cameras out here on behalf of creation fellowship CNT.

We're a group of friends who love to learn about our creator God and believe that the Bible when read properly rules out the possibility of long ages. We met for 10 years at the Creation and Earth History Museum in Santee, California, then and online our goal is to equip believers to defend their faith.

You can find over four years worth of our virtually their archives by visiting tiny url .com forward slash cfs archives that see like creation F like fellowship as like CNT and the word archives. Tonight we're happy to have with us, JJ Gutierrez.

She's a Christian off author, a law enforcement wife, and a homeschool mom, her ministry focuses primarily on helping other law enforcement wise with the challenges, unique to them, plus ministering to young women, but more than that, she loves the Lord and her passion is to help people hide God's word in their hearts.

She has developed some strategies that anybody can follow to make that a reality. And she's going to share those with us tonight. JJ Go ahead.

Thank you so much, Terry for inviting me I am going to share my screen, so that we can get started here tonight. Okay, let me expand this out. Why it's not doing it was it normally easily does it for me.

Apologize, I don't know why it's not clicking like it normally does but are you able to see. Yes, we can see it. Okay, I am going to because I don't like the way that this is doing this, I'm going to close it out.

No, I'm not really sure what's happening with this at this moment.

Let's see.

There we go. Yay. Thank you for your patience with that. I appreciate it. Yay. Here we are. So, I first of all want to say that I'm really excited to be here with you tonight. I am really passionate about storing God's word in my heart, and I really love to share ideas and methods with other people about storing God's word in their heart as well.

And I am going to share with you in a little bit about a method that I created and why I created it. But before we begin, I want to propose a couple of reflection questions for you as we get started. So just think about these for yourself.

And as we get as we get going. Why should Christians memorize scripture. That'll be the first question. The second one is, are you actively memorizing scripture. Now I'm going to do a little review, I think as Christians we probably all know that there are really important reasons why to memorize scripture.

And I'm not going to go over all of them tonight. I have selected just three reasons that are, I would say maybe my top reasons for memorizing scripture, and why I want to really share a memory process with other people.

But there are numerous reasons. So the first one is that when we memorize scripture, it helps us to triumph over daily temptation. Psalms 119 .11 says, I have hidden your word in my heart that I may not sin against you.

Being a Christian doesn't mean that we're immune from temptation or from sinful thoughts or desires. But when we have God's word stored in our heart, it can give us that power that we need in that moment to turn away from temptation or to turn away from sin.

And so that is one really great reason why we should all memorize scripture as Christians. The second reason is that scripture is a weapon, and we learn about that in the armor of God. In Ephesians 6 .17, it says, and take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

Now when I learned about what the word of God means in this particular scripture, I was really blown away. Early in my Christian walk, I didn't understand it. But I came to learn that in the Greek, there are three different terms that are used to describe the word that's translated as word in English.

And the first word is graphe, and that means the book. So you could just think of the whole book of God. This is the word of God, but it's the actual physical book that is translated there into the word, word.

The second one is logos. And instead of being like the entire book, it's the message that's contained in the entire book. So it's the message of the good news of Jesus. It's Jesus himself because he is the word.

So it's the message as a whole. So you've got graphe, which is the book, and then you've got logos, which is the message contained in the book. But the third one, which is the one that just really helped me to grasp this idea of how scripture can be a weapon, is rhema.

So the rhema word of God is the declared or spoken word of God. So it's more like the individual sayings. So it's individual Bible verses as opposed to a logos, which is the entire message of the Bible.

I'm going to read a quote to you because I just love this quote, and it really helps. So it's from Dr. David Jeremiah, and he says, So rhema of God means a saying of God. We could translate this verse of this way.

Take the sword of the spirit, which is the saying of God. So when we are in a battle and we're armored up and we're coming against whether it's the enemy or temptation or the culture or just things that we're battling within ourselves, it is the individual verses or the individual passages that are found in the scripture that then become that weapon or that sword against whatever it is that's attacking us.

Dr. David Jeremiah continues on and says, The Bible is not the sword. The Bible is the armory, armory filled with swords, filled with the filled with the sayings of God. So that means within the Bible, which is really exciting, there are multiple swords.

So every verse that we store, every verse that we memorize can then become a sword that we potentially may use in the future when we are coming up against battles in life. And we get a really great example of this from Jesus himself.

When we look at Matthew 4, 1 through 11, when he's tempted and he's out in the wilderness for 40 days and Satan comes to tempt him. And with each temptation, Jesus comes back with Scripture says, Scripture says, we know how it goes.

It goes on for three times. Jesus says, Scripture says, and then Satan flees from him. And so we can see that word of God, that word of God in action with Jesus. And to me, that is reason enough to memorize Scripture, reason enough to put the time and effort into memorizing Scripture.

I'm going to share one more quote with you because I think it's so good. And this is by William Gurnall. He says, A pilot without his chart, a scholar without his book, a soldier without his sword are alike ridiculous.

But above all else, it is absurd for one to think of being a Christian without knowledge of the word of God and some skill to use it as a weapon. And so I think that's just so powerful to think about how the word and that Scripture memory can act as that weapon for us.

The third reason, which really compels my heart to memorize Scripture is Psalms 119 105, which says your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And I think that we can all agree that we live in what seems like a pretty dark world right now.

We're in a world where lies are made to be truth and it can be very confusing, where our culture is trying to create doubt about Jesus and about God and about the very core parts of our beliefs in the Bible.

But God's word is our light. God's word is what can help us to navigate so that we don't stumble in the darkness, so that we don't stumble and find ourselves believing some of the false values or buying into any of these cultural lies.

So those were the three reasons, but there are many, many other reasons to memorize Scripture. But those are the ones that, like I said, are really near and dear to my heart. Also, memorizing Scripture allows us to take God's truth with us.

So I don't know if this has happened to you, but usually when I'm in the middle of a battle or something's going on, I don't always have my Bible with me. The battle isn't going on when I'm at church or doing Bible study or, you know, in the middle of reading my Bible.

It's usually when I'm out in the world and out with other people or I'm out doing something and I'm away from my Bible. And if we don't have our Bibles with us, we still need that Scripture to help us.

And so when we memorize it, that Scripture goes with us wherever we go. It's in our hearts. And so go ahead and. This I wanted to leave you with this one last thing about Scripture memory, I am going to read this to you.

But as I read it, I would like it if you could follow along with the words as I say them. This is a very powerful quote by Chuck Swindoll. And so as I'm reading this, this quote to you, just take a moment and let those words sink in about what he's saying about Scripture memory.

So it says, I know no other single practice in the Christian life. More rewarding, practically speaking, than memorizing Scripture. That's right. No other single discipline is more useful and rewarding than this.

No other single exercise pays greater spiritual dividends. Your prayer life will be strengthened. Your witnessing will be sharper and much more effective. Your counseling will be in demand. Your attitudes and outlook will begin to change.

Your mind will become more alert and observant. Your confidence and assurance will be enhanced. Your faith will be solidified. Very, very powerful reasons to memorize Scripture. So now we've covered some of the really strong reasons to memorize Scripture, but there's still a lot of challenges with memorizing Scripture.

And I've come across many of these myself. And as I show you the next slide, I'd like you to think, what have you come across any of these challenges in your own life as you have tried to memorize Scripture?

And so the first one is lack of confidence. I've heard this over and over again over the years of people saying, I don't have a good memory. I'm forgetful. I can't remember anything. I try and it doesn't stick.

So that's one reason. One of the challenges of Scripture memory. Another one is I don't have time. And the truth is we all have really busy lives. Being an American is just a busy lifestyle as it is. But I've heard people say, I'm too busy memorizing Scripture.

It just takes too much time. Or, you know, I rushed through my Bible study, but I skipped the Scripture memory part of it. So, you know, that's one another challenge. Another challenge is that it's too difficult or that it takes too much effort.

Someone might say memorizing Scripture is too hard. I try, but it doesn't work for me. It's really only for really smart people or theologians or those Christians who are Bible fanatics. And however, however, someone may say that, that it's just too hard.

And so then they they don't memorize Scripture. Another really common one is I don't know what verse to memorize. Like I want to and I sit down and I open my Bible and I don't even know where to begin.

And so you just get overwhelmed with like, I don't know where to start. And the next one is lack of lack of understanding about the power of Scripture memorization. Some don't memorize Scripture because they don't really understand the power that it's going to give them in their daily life.

But it's kind of one of those catch -22s because you have to memorize Scripture to be able to see the power of it in your life. And so I'm trying to help people understand how powerful it is to have Scripture stored in your heart.

And when they have never experienced it before, maybe sharing a personal story or something like that of how how a Scripture has done that for you might help encourage someone. And the last one is forced memorization from Bible study.

I think some have experienced what it's like to be in a Bible study and you have a memory verse and then you show up and you have to recite it. And it can be kind of intimidating. And maybe it's a verse that's not really speaking to you.

And maybe you don't really want to say it in front of other people. And so this feeling of feeling like you're forced to memorize might have might detour or challenge some people to really embrace the idea of Scripture memory.

And so, but the good news is, and this is what I want everyone to know, is that you are not alone. We are not alone to memorize Scripture. And that is because we have a helper. We have the Holy Spirit.

John 14, 26 says, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. And so I think it's so important that we understand that we're not on our own.

Kind of backing up a few years before I wrote the Scripture memory book, and I was beginning to teach Scripture memory to tween girls at the time. And I thought to myself, Lord, I've studied all these.

I mean, I've remembered I've memorized lots of scriptures over my lifetime, but I can't remember any of them right now. Like, I just felt like, where did they all go? And so I was really praying about that, really thinking like, Lord, like, what does that mean?

Like, I know I memorized these, but they're not coming to my mind. Well, several weeks later, after having that conversation in prayer with the Lord, I was with my daughter sitting in a car waiting for my husband.

He went into an appointment or something, and we were just sitting in the car waiting. And all of a sudden, one after another, scriptures just started coming to my mind, and I just started saying one after another, after another.

And I don't know where they were coming from. They were all scriptures that I had memorized. And I really felt like that was the Lord showing me that all of those scriptures I've memorized, they are there and they're in my heart.

And that he will bring them to me when I need them the most, when I need to remember them, that they're not forgotten. Just because I'm a human being and I have days when I can't remember, you know, days when it seems like I'm forgetting everything.

That's okay. I'm not perfect, but the Holy Spirit is there to help me in those times when I need to. So I felt like that was a little gift from the Holy Spirit at that moment. I probably couldn't do that again right now if you asked me to, but it was really a special moment in my life.

But I think, you know, I wonder if you can think of a time in your own life, maybe when you were suffering, when life was really hard. Or maybe when you were with a friend who needed comfort, or maybe somebody was asking you about Jesus and about your faith.

And then a scripture came to your mind and you remembered a scripture that was helpful. That is the Holy Spirit helping you. He's bringing to your remembrance what you have already put in your heart. It takes both of us.

We have to do our part and put the scripture in our heart. And then we get to rely on the Holy Spirit to bring it to us when we need it. And so I just think it's such a beautiful process. And I'm so thankful for the Holy Spirit and what he does for us when we memorize scripture.

The Know by Heart Memory Method: From Mindless Memorization to Internalization

So I'm going to talk to you a little bit about this process that I created, but I want to tell you why I created it to begin with. If you look at all of these beautiful young faces, these are girls between the ages of 12 and 17.

And over the last several years, I have taught Bible and scripture memory to these girls locally where I live. And back in 2020, right around the COVID time, we started getting together to do a lot of scripture memory with these girls.

And I started to notice that these girls, and I felt like this was something that would even happen to adults, even myself, did what I call mindless memorization. And that means you're just memorizing it just so that you could recite it back and you can pass the test and, you know, get your mark.

But it's very mindless, not really understanding how to put it into action, not really understanding the context of the verse. And so I went on a mission to change that for the girls that I was teaching.

And I wanted to help them to not only just memorize the scripture, but internalize the scripture. And that's what the Know by Heart Memory Method is really all about. It's about memorizing and internalizing the scripture.

And so I'm going to share with you the six-step process that I created in my books. So it's called the Know by Heart Memory Method. It's a six-step process. It's very simple. It's very repeatable. So once you learn it, you can apply it to any scripture memory.

And in fact, I have some blank sheets that I will be happy to share with you. They're not something that I've made public, but I would be happy to email those copies to you if you would like them so that you could try it out, especially to the men that are here, which I really appreciate that you're here.

But this process is also very transforming. It is not just about trying to get a scripture memorized. It is about understanding it. It's memorizing it and internalizing it. It's avoiding that mindless memorization.

It's about learning the Bible verse in its context. So whatever Bible verse that you're memorizing, you're trying to understand what it means in the context of where it's placed in the Bible, what comes before it, what comes after it, what are the cross-references that can help you to understand the context of that verse.

And I think about some of the most famous verses that even non-Christians know that could be on a coffee mug or on a T-shirt or something like Jeremiah 29, 11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

And I also think about another one, Philippians 4, 13. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. When you think about those two verses, how easy it is for individuals to memorize those Bible verses out of context.

And might not realize that when you're saying I can do all things through Christ, that doesn't mean I can do all things that I want to do. So maybe I'm involved in some kind of athletics or I'm doing something I've never done before.

And I am calling upon this scripture to think that the Lord is going to empower me or equip me to do this. When really what it means is that the Lord will give you the strength to do what he's called you to do.

Not necessarily what you're calling yourself to do or even Jeremiah 29, 11. And many people don't understand that that Bible verse in context has to do with when Jeremiah or the Lord was telling the people you're going to be in captivity for 70 years.

This wasn't I have a plan and a purpose for you and I'm releasing you today. It was no, you're going to stay here. You're going to live. You're going to marry. You're going to have children. You're going to plant gardens like you're going to stay.

But don't worry because I have a plan and a purpose in mind for you. And so those are just a couple of examples of scriptures that get memorized out of context many times. And then that leads to the third thing, which is a biblical application.

We cannot properly apply a Bible verse to our lives or even know how to use it as a sword or use it against temptation. If we don't even understand the context that it was in. Once we know the context, now we can understand the proper application.

So you might be getting you might be figuring out that this is a little bit of a Bible study combined with scripture memory as we go along here. And also what I learned from teaching, teaching young, young women or young girls is that learning happens in multiple formats.

So for most of us as adults, when we memorize scripture, we probably write a scripture out over and over again, where we might put it on an index card or we might try to say it over and over again. But there are other ways, especially for people who are visual or like me, like you like to do something with your hands, you're more tactile.

There is a way to incorporate other parts of our brain that can help us to really get that scripture cemented into our hearts and into our mind. And so we look at different formats of learning. We've got praying, reading, writing, examining, drawing, coloring and reflecting are kind of the array of things that you're going to use if you do the know by heart memory process.

So but most importantly, what I want you to remember is it's not about mindless memorization. It's about internalizing God's word so that it becomes a part of you and that you understand it and that you know it.

Pray, Read, Write, and Ask Questions

So I'm going to show you some sample pages as we go along of the six step process. And so the first step is called pray, read, write. Now, it's absolutely important that when you start to study a scripture and you start to memorize it to pray at the Holy Spirit for help.

Ask God to show you the truth that's in that scripture and to lead you into a process of being able to store that word in your heart because we are not alone. Right. We have the Holy Spirit. And then what we do is we read.

So and when I say read, we're going to read the scripture in the format. So in specifically in my books, and this is only because it's my preference. There is there's there's nothing better about any translation of the three translations that I'm going to share with you.

But I prefer the NLT version, the New Living Translation. So in my books, that is the version that I am utilizing for scripture memory. However, in this specific section of reading, you want to read a scripture in three versions to really get an understanding of the verse from different versions of the Bible.

So I've got the NLT, the ESV and the amplified version. And so that gives us three different types of translations. And as we read them, we can really look and say, oh, how did this one translation help me understand this verse or see it in the light that it was meant to be seen?

And so that's what we do when we read. We're going to read it and look at those three translations. Then we're going to write it on an index card. And so in the back of the book, or if you're doing this on your own with one of the blank worksheets and I'm going to give you an index card, write it on an index card and post it up somewhere.

That is still really, really a great way to keep that scripture in front of your mind. The other things that you'll find in the book, and this would be something I would recommend that you do on your own, and it is in the blank sheets as well, is to know your Bible facts.

Understand what book of the Bible it is in. Is it, you know, the Old Testament or New Testament? What is the genre of that book? So that can help you to have an understanding of the scripture. Is it poetry?

Is it historical narrative? Is it a letter? Is it a gospel? So understanding that will help. Also, who was it written by? Who is the scripture speaking to? Knowing the audience is really important to understanding the scripture as well and being able to understand it in context.

And then also looking at the background, which in my study book, I have all of that in there for those studying those scriptures. But if you were doing this on your own and you had your study Bible, you could look at the beginning of the book to try to really get an understanding of the background of the book or where that scripture is coming from.

So the next step is step number two, and this is where we get to have a little bit of fun. And we also get to go back to school. Oh, wait, you know what? I am really sorry. I'm going to go back one because I missed one really important point at the end.

I don't know if you can see it on the sheet, but question number two, it says, what questions does this Bible verse present to you? I think it's really important when we're looking at a scripture before we studied it, before we understand what it means is, what don't I know?

What do I need to know? Why did God say this? Is there a but at the beginning of it? What is that but therefore? What do some of the words mean? Maybe you don't have an understanding of some of the words or who are these people or whatever it is, or how can he say we can have peace?

I don't understand that. I don't understand how I can have peace in all in all circumstances. So you can see how formulating these questions right up front before you even dig into step two is really important.

And that's going to help you towards the end of the towards the end of the study. This is a five step process that you'd probably want to do over five days. I'd say do one per week. OK, sorry, on to the next one.

So this is the one where we get to do some fun things. So, again, we're going to write the verse again and then we're going to dissect. This is like going back to English class. I apologize. I am not an English teacher by any means, though I am a homeschool mom and I do teach English to my daughter.

I am not a trained English teacher. And I find it really funny when I teach this to adult women. When we're going through this, they're like, J .J., I don't remember what a verb is or J .J., I don't know what a pronoun is.

But when I'm with the kids and they're you know, they're in the process of learning these parts of grammar. So it's actually a little bit easier for them. So it's pretty funny. But this is where we're going to look and you're going to dissect the verse that you're memorizing.

And this can shed so much light on a verse. If you'll see in the little box, you can see that I have Psalms 119, 105. You're going to be led through a process of underlining your pronouns and circling and putting a box around your verbs and drawing arrows and really trying to understand like what is going on.

And there's something about mapping out the verse that also brings additional understanding. You begin to see things or at least for me, I begin to see things I didn't see when I just initially read it.

And then you're going to be directed to look up some words in a dictionary. In the teen girls book, I actually put the words down for them like I've already selected the words. But in the women's books, you are free to pick whatever word it is, two words that you want to look up.

And it's really exciting. To me, it's really exciting to look up words in the dictionary. And especially if you have on a Webster's 1828 dictionary or a Bible dictionary. And it really helps to add. Now, not everything's going to be in a Bible dictionary, but in the Webster's 1828 version, all the words are in there.

And it's amazing how much light is shed on a verse when you begin to dig into some of the words and get some more descriptors around them. I also love looking at the thesauruses. I can't even say the word, but it's like one of my favorite tools.

And that can also be very helpful. And so then when you're done with that, we color because coloring and helps our brains also to get that verse in in a different way. It's also very calming and soothing and gives gives the person doing the study a chance to reflect.

It's really an opportunity while you're coloring to really think about the scripture that you're memorizing while you're coloring. And so now we'll move to step three, which is examine the before and after.

So, again, we're coming back to you're going to write the verse again. So every day you write the verse again and that helps. And then we're going to read the before and after. In my books, I put down what to read before and what to read after.

If you're doing this on your own, you would really want to look at the scripture that you're memorizing and try to look. OK, because, you know, the Bible already has things kind of paired off or sectioned off.

You would want to make sure you read that whole section, at least to try to get an understanding of what's happening in the scripture. And then you're going to answer some questions about that, like who is speaking and who's being spoken to?

Is there a conflict? Is there a tension happening here? Is there a sin being highlighted? Is there a stated purpose? Is there a command being given? Is there a promise being given? And so you want to look at that before and after and try to see.

Do you see any repeated words or do you see a theme that's being repeated? Is there anything being compared to which you'll find a lot in poetry when you if you're memorizing the Psalms? Things like that are Proverbs.

You might see some of that in there. And then you'll wrap that step up with connecting the before and after to your memory verse. So somewhere in the middle and you want to connect it all together. How does that all fit together?

Symbols, Cross-References, and Context

OK, then we're going to move on to step four. And this time, when you are writing out your scripture, you're going to do it a little bit different and you're going to write symbols for some of the key words.

And you can see on my Psalm 119, 105, how there are some little symbols that are in there. So your word, you see the book is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And there is something very powerful about drawing a symbol and then reading your verse.

The more symbols you can put, the better. But some verses, I will tell you, are really challenging. So just get creative as creative as you can. And that will also help that verse to get into your mind.

And then this is where we would want to look at cross references again in my books. Those cross references are already there for you. If you are doing this on your own with the scripture on your own in study Bibles, you can look off to the side.

I'm sure that you've seen that and used that before. Oftentimes there will be cross references listed in your study Bible. And so you could find them on your own and go and look up those cross references that are there.

And see how do these cross references add insight to the scripture that you're memorizing? What additional information do they give you? I haven't shared this yet, but the teen book and the women's book, all of the Bible verses are specifically about a girl's identity according to God.

Because I feel like there's a huge attack on our world right now, especially on our teens and our young women for their identity. The enemy is trying to rob them and confuse them about who they are. So every scripture that is in this book that the girls or women, and my hope is that moms would do this with their teenage daughters.

It's all about identity. So I have some specific questions to do with identity in these books. But you would want to just ask yourself if you're not doing these, what additional insight am I gaining from this?

And then based on what you've learned, what truth are you learning about God and this scripture? And so now we'll go on to step four, which is putting it all together. So putting it all together is, I don't know if you've noticed, but we haven't done any personal application yet.

And this is not personal application yet. That will be our very last step. So here, what we're doing is we're putting it all together. We're looking at, we're going to write the verse and then we're going to go back to step one.

In that little section where I told you write questions about the verse, you're going to look at those questions and you're going to go, huh, did what I, the cross references, did the looking at the before and after, did dissecting the verse, did all of that help me to answer some of my questions that I had about this verse?

And then you can respond to that. And if they didn't, that's OK. You might not be able to get your question answered. You might have to do additional research if your question was beyond the scope of just that particular memory verse.

But you might find that you did answer some of your questions you had. And so you could write those answers there. And then you would want to summarize the memory verse. Just look at it. And how could you summarize it without writing the verse?

Like if you were to just walk up to somebody and tell them about this verse, what would you say? And so you would go ahead and write those down. And then specifically in the scripture memory books, it's asking about what did you discover about your identity?

So this is really about what insight have you gained about your memory, scripture memory? Let's see. I actually mean that to say step five. So I do apologize that it says I actually think I don't. This is actually step six.

This is step five. I apologize because I didn't change that at the title. But you can see it on there. And this is step six. So step six. Again, you're going to write that scripture out. And then you're going to this is where you're going to look at your personal responses.

This is where we want to look at what is the how does this scripture apply directly to me? And they're very specific questions. And I'm most tempted to question this scripture when remembering this know by heart verse will help me.

It specifically in the girls and teens book will help me stand true to my identity because. But if you're doing this on your own, remembering the scripture will help me. When and you can put what that when is.

And then you want to look at actions. What actions can you take when you're feeling attacked in that area? If you're feeling like you're in the specific area of the scripture that you're memorizing. What actions can you take?