Latest / Coffee and Bible Time Podcast / Memorizing Scripture for Everyday Strength | Josh Summers

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Memorizing Scripture for Everyday Strength | Josh Summers · Coffee and Bible Time Podcast

• 1:01
  Ellen Krause: At the Coffee and Bible Time podcast.
• 1:03
  Ellen Krause: Our goal is to help you delight in God's Word and thrive in Christian living.
• 1:07
  Ellen Krause: Each week, we talk to subject matter experts who broaden your biblical understanding, encourage you in hard times and provide life-building tips to enhance your Christian walk.
• 1:18
  Ellen Krause: We are so glad you have joined us.
• 1:21
  Ellen Krause: All right, welcome back to the Coffee and Bible Time podcast.
• 1:29
  Ellen Krause: This is Ellen, your host.
• 1:32
  Ellen Krause: Sometimes, memorizing the Bible can feel really overwhelming.
• 1:36
  Ellen Krause: We spend hours repeating verses only to forget them later.
• 1:41
  Ellen Krause: It can be very frustrating and makes us wonder if it's even worth the effort.
• 1:46
  Ellen Krause: But what if there were proven strategies to make memorizing scripture easier and more effective?
• 1:54
  Ellen Krause: In today's episode, we're talking with Josh Summers, author of Memorize what Matters, a resource that has helped countless people memorize large portions of the Bible.
• 2:06
  Ellen Krause: He'll share practical techniques that are backed by science and real life experience.
• 2:13
  Ellen Krause: Memorizing Bible verses isn't just about memorizing the words, though.
• 2:18
  Ellen Krause: It's about letting scripture take root in our hearts and impact every area of our lives.
• 2:24
  Ellen Krause: When we let scripture memory become a forgotten priority, we miss out on the transformative power of God's word in our lives.
• 2:34
  Ellen Krause: Today is the day to take a step toward that change, so tune in, grab a notebook and let's explore how we can memorize scripture with confidence and joy.
• 2:46
  Ellen Krause: Josh Summers is an entrepreneur and author who has lived and served in Asia with his family for over 15 years.
• 2:56
  Ellen Krause: From his tiny studio in Thailand, he has the privilege and responsibility of reaching over a million people each month through his YouTube videos, podcasts and written content.
• 3:10
  Ellen Krause: His most recent book, memorize what Matters, details his passion for memorizing God's word, which was born out of a terrifying experience of being imprisoned and interrogated for his faith.
• 3:24
  Ellen Krause: Please welcome Josh.
• 3:26
  Ellen Krause: Hi, josh, nice to have you back again.
• 3:32
  Josh Summers: Thank you, I really appreciate it, ellen.
• 3:49
  Ellen Krause: I'm so inspired by you because, after our last talk that we had, it really did inspire me, and I'm excited that we can continue this conversation about helping people understand the benefits and really why we should be doing it and how much it can help our spiritual life.
• 4:05
  Ellen Krause: So, josh, why don't you just start out by telling us what inspired you to make Bible memorization such a core part of your spiritual life?
• 4:16
  Josh Summers: Yeah, well, again, thank you so much for allowing me to share even just this part of my story.
• 4:21
  Josh Summers: I know that I'd shared this a couple of years ago when we chatted last, and I'll just briefly kind of walk through the fact that you know, my family my wife and my kids and I were in Chinaated us for a couple of weeks, and it was probably one of the hardest times in my life, but it was during that time that they had taken everything away from me.
• 4:47
  Josh Summers: So imagine, like, what would it be like if all of your devices your computer, your phone, if your Bibles were taken away and you had no access to any of that?
• 4:57
  Josh Summers: How much of God's word would you still be able to come up with?
• 5:02
  Josh Summers: In those moments and I actually had to face that, and it was quite honestly a really humbling moment for me when I realized, hey, I've been a Christian, I've been a church going follower of Jesus for, so you know, decades, and I was I was shocked by how few verses I could come up with, and that is what really stirred in my heart, this desire to decide hey, this is something that is important to me and I really want to start memorizing scripture.
• 5:31
  Josh Summers: And I think one of the things you know, people hear that story and it's like, oh well, I'm never, hopefully never going to be in that type of situation, and hopefully that's true.
• 5:41
  Josh Summers: But I do think that there are so many times in our lives when we do find ourselves without the word.
• 5:46
  Josh Summers: You know when we're a parent of a newborn baby just trying to stay up at night and you know, get this kid to sleep, and we need God's word, but we can't necessarily sit there and open it up.
• 6:00
  Josh Summers: And there are so you know, whether it's driving to and from work these type of times when having access to God's word could be so life transformative and yet, if we don't have it memorized, it would be so much harder for us to be able to access that word.
• 6:18
  Ellen Krause: Absolutely.
• 6:18
  Ellen Krause: I was really touched by the level of depth that you did talk about your experience and how terrifying it must have been to be down in this basement and being interrogated in a foreign country, because I was trying to think in my own mind like where would my mind go?
• 6:40
  Ellen Krause: I think I would, you know, have a state of panic.
• 6:47
  Ellen Krause: But then you must get to this point where, yes, like the only thing you have is to turn to God, right, and put that type of a situation into his hands.
• 6:55
  Ellen Krause: And I can imagine you had maybe a few things to cling on to, but not as much as you would have liked to have, right.
• 7:06
  Josh Summers: Yeah, absolutely, but I do think there is and it's easier to look at this in hindsight but there is beauty that God brings out of those hard times in life.
• 7:16
  Josh Summers: As much as it's hard to go through those moments, there is, I think, so much more that we learn about God and about our need for God in those moments of desperation, in those moments of really hard times that we wouldn't get if life was always just easy and, again, benefit of hindsight 2020.
• 7:37
  Josh Summers: Of hindsight 2020,.
• 7:39
  Josh Summers: But I do think that I'm better off having gone through that situation and I'm grateful for the Lord for taking me out of it as well.
• 7:57
  Ellen Krause: Yes, I love that because you can see God's faithfulness.
• 7:58
  Ellen Krause: It doesn't feel like it when you're in it, but he is actually working for it, for good, and you can definitely see that in this incredible book that you have written.
• 8:06
  Ellen Krause: You are a proponent of different types of Bible memory, so I imagine if you're listening to this interview, you're probably like well, I know how to memorize a Bible verse, but tell us about how there are so many different types and why using different ones is important.
• 8:26
  Josh Summers: Absolutely.
• 8:26
  Josh Summers: I think, when most of us, at least, that have grown up in the church or Juana or anything like that, we think of Bible memory, we think of just memorizing individual verses John 3.16, Romans 3.23, a lot of these verses that most Christians are at least familiar with or have heard of before.
• 8:42
  Josh Summers: I created an acronym POINT, you know like what's your point, and it stands for passages, outlines, individual verses, narratives or topical, and that's what helps me remember these different types of Bible memory and I love this because it kind of mixes things up for me.
• 9:03
  Josh Summers: I love to memorize verses, larger portions of scripture, so passages that would be chapters or books of the Bible.
• 9:10
  Josh Summers: But I recognize that not everybody likes to do that.
• 9:13
  Josh Summers: There's some people that love individual verses or topical.
• 9:17
  Josh Summers: When I think of topical, I think of things like the Romans Road or if you want to memorize a number of verses that you can have ready whenever you're going through a season of depression or a season of hurt, those topical verses.
• 9:30
  Josh Summers: But a couple of the ones that I think a lot of people skip over that can be really, really beneficial are narrative or stories.
• 9:38
  Josh Summers: Sometimes we think, oh, you know, it's good to just memorize individual verses, but you know, when it comes to interacting with people, a lot of times if I'm talking with somebody, you know, just in a random conversation on an airplane or I just run into somebody, trying to quote an individual verse is kind of awkward.
• 9:58
  Josh Summers: It might not necessarily fit, but if I'm in the middle of this I was like you know, can I tell you a story?
• 10:03
  Josh Summers: There's this story in the Bible that stories are so captivating and there's so many great stories that you can tell that are just these short stories from the Bible that you memorize.
• 10:14
  Josh Summers: You know some parable that Jesus spoke or something from the Gospel of John, these short stories that we.
• 10:22
  Josh Summers: There's a whole world of orality that deals with these short stories and then finally outlines One of the chapters even in the book.
• 10:31
  Josh Summers: I talk through the outline of the Gospel of John and I think there's a lot of value in being able to say I can't necessarily quote the whole story of Lazarus to you, but I do know for sure, ellen, that the story of Lazarus can be found in John, chapter 11.
• 10:47
  Josh Summers: And I know that because I've kind of done this visual outline of the whole gospel of John and it's so much fun because it can be done in like five minutes.
• 10:58
  Josh Summers: Like you can memorize the outline of John in five minutes and now I can flip to, I can say, oh, jesus walking on water, that's John, chapter six.
• 11:06
  Josh Summers: Or I know that Jesus was arrested in John, chapter 18, like being able to memorize that outline.
• 11:12
  Josh Summers: So, when it comes to memorizing the Bible, I think that you can have a lot of fun with it.
• 11:16
  Josh Summers: It's more than just, oh, I'm going to memorize one verse, I'm going to memorize these two or three verses.
• 11:20
  Josh Summers: Well, what if you were to try memorizing the outline of a book?
• 11:24
  Josh Summers: Or what if you were to tackle a chapter this new year and try something that pushes you a little bit beyond your comfort zone?
• 11:33
  Josh Summers: I think there are a lot of fun ways to approach memorizing scripture.
• 11:38
  Ellen Krause: There most certainly are and I have to say, when I read that outlining, it just never even occurred to me to do that.
• 11:47
  Ellen Krause: But I always kind of wondered how does our pastor, which I know I'm sure he's studied for years and he knows so much but I love that you, to be able to bring that to memory quickly and easily really can help in so many different ways, Not only with, like you said, being able to tell the story, but also, just as you're doing, bible study and finding it and being able to flip to it quickly, and I thought it was just like such an amazing method of being able to do that.
• 12:26
  Ellen Krause: So, josh, you also talk about how the word memorization you actually prefer the word internalization.
• 12:39
  Ellen Krause: Tell us what you mean by that.
• 12:44
  Josh Summers: Yeah, this is a conversation I've had a lot with a friend of mine named Keith Farron, because he talks about this same thing.
• 12:49
  Josh Summers: It's a focus, focus on.
• 12:52
  Josh Summers: I want us, you know myself, and then I want to encourage anybody who's listening or watching this now to to think about it Like we're.
• 12:58
  Josh Summers: We're wanting to memorize the word, not just the words, right?
• 13:03
  Josh Summers: So so we're going beyond just memorizing the words, because the reality is I, a lot of the techniques that I even talk about are stolen from the things that I've seen being used in the secular world to memorize decks of cards or to memorize.
• 13:19
  Josh Summers: I've met somebody who had memorized a Harry Potter book word for word.
• 13:23
  Josh Summers: Like you can memorize a lot of great, like a lot of things you can memorize, you know, just for the sake of memorization.
• 13:32
  Josh Summers: But when it comes to God's word, there's obviously an ulterior motive that we have here.
• 13:37
  Josh Summers: It's not to necessarily exercise our brain, even though that happens, and it's not necessarily to have that you know ready to share, even though that is also a side benefit of having memorized scripture to share, even though that is also a side benefit of having memorized scripture.
• 13:53
  Josh Summers: Memorizing scripture is about internalizing God's word and making it a part of our lives, so that when we are going through things and you know, the scripture talks about the Holy Spirit being able to remind us of the things that Jesus taught One of the like.
• 14:06
  Josh Summers: I believe that one of the best ways that he can remind us of something is if we have already internalized it or memorized it, and that's one of the reasons why I think it's a subtle mindset shift.
• 14:16
  Josh Summers: But I think it's important to think about the fact that it's not just memorization for memorization's sake.
• 14:24
  Josh Summers: We're doing this because we want to meditate on God's word and we want this to be something that is rooted deep in our lives.
• 14:34
  Ellen Krause: Absolutely.
• 14:35
  Ellen Krause: That reminds me of when I was younger I memorized Psalm 23,.
• 14:41
  Ellen Krause: But it wasn't until I was actually older and I had done like a study on Psalm 23 that I really internalized it.
• 14:52
  Ellen Krause: And now I feel like when I say, you know, when I'm reciting it to myself, in whatever circumstances it might be, I feel like I'm there right, Like I've entered into the psalm itself and it brings you closer to, I think, how God wants to use his word.
• 15:19
  Ellen Krause: He says it's active and alive, and that's really how it can touch you so deeply.
• 15:24
  Ellen Krause: Well, why don't we talk a little bit about some of the methods that you personally use to memorize?
• 15:33
  Josh Summers: Yeah, so I'm a little bit unique in this regard and, I'll be honest, a lot of what I have loved doing is maybe a little bit I don't know.
• 15:47
  Josh Summers: It might seem challenging to people that first hear it.
• 15:49
  Josh Summers: So I love what's known as the memory palace, and a memory palace, or they call it, the mind palace, is another way to say it or the method of loci, something that's been used for thousands of years, and it's just a great way to organize memory.
• 16:04
  Josh Summers: And so, for example, I have memorized the book of Galatians, and the book of Galatians is actually physically placed in my home here in Thailand.
• 16:14
  Josh Summers: My family and I live here in Thailand, and so I have chapter one outside and I can literally walk around my yard outside and I have verses placed in specific locations, and then I'm a very visual learner and so I put images in those locations that help me to remember the words for that verse.
• 16:34
  Josh Summers: And so now you know, as I'm walking through my yard, I can be reciting Galatians, chapter one, and then I walk up towards the entrance.
• 16:44
  Josh Summers: That's where chapter two is all the way up into our master bedroom, which holds chapter six, is all the way up into our master bedroom, which holds chapter six.
• 16:54
  Josh Summers: It's a technique that takes a little bit of practice, but it's really something that is available to anybody that's willing to give it a try and believe it or not.
• 17:02
  Josh Summers: A lot of times, when we're even just reciting scriptures, we're going on a walk, right?
• 17:06
  Josh Summers: I've known a lot of people that like to take a walk around their neighborhood and they'll do that same circuit every single day and if they recite the same things they inadvertently create kind of this mind palace where every time they turn that corner they're usually at a specific verse or every time they pass this house they can recite a certain place.
• 17:24
  Josh Summers: So a lot of it is just giving your mind something to hold onto.
• 17:28
  Josh Summers: We call it memory hooks, and you can do a memory hook through song, you can do a memory hook through visuals.
• 17:34
  Josh Summers: I love that location memory hook because I think our brains are very God designed our brains to remember location.
• 17:42
  Josh Summers: Well, I remember my childhood house.
• 17:44
  Josh Summers: I can still walk through it and, ellen, I don't know about you, if you can still kind of in your mind's eye, walk through the house that you grew up in.
• 17:51
  Josh Summers: It's amazing how well we remember that stuff and how much it sticks, and so taking and hooking information onto.
• 18:00
  Josh Summers: That can be really really effective.
• 18:03
  Ellen Krause: That's incredible.
• 18:04
  Ellen Krause: So when a time comes, then let's say you're laying in a hospital bed and you can't even hold a Bible, but then you can bring back to your mind you going on, that walk even though you can't, but it triggers the memory of those verses, right.
• 18:26
  Josh Summers: Exactly.
• 18:27
  Josh Summers: Yeah, I can make that journey again and have scripture be a part of that journey.
• 18:34
  Ellen Krause: That is just so cool.
• 18:35
  Ellen Krause: I was also just intrigued in the book, you know you use the example of actors.
• 18:43
  Ellen Krause: You know they memorize hundreds of lines for various different things and they have techniques and things to use.
• 18:52
  Ellen Krause: And you also talked about sign language.
• 18:56
  Ellen Krause: There's just there's so many different possibilities and literally I'm not even kidding you.
• 19:02
  Ellen Krause: This morning I was in the bathroom and I was reciting a verse and all of a sudden I see myself in the book.
• 19:11
  Ellen Krause: You talked about how to do a sign language for Lord with the and I like just did it and I was like, oh my goodness, like I only read about it once and I thought it was so cool.
• 19:23
  Ellen Krause: Are there any other techniques that, in particular, you find for young people, like maybe helping your children, are especially good for them?
• 19:40
  Josh Summers: Yes, absolutely.
• 19:41
  Josh Summers: I think, especially for those that may have just heard what I talked about with the mind palace and thought, oh my gosh, that is, I would never do that.
• 19:49
  Josh Summers: That's just not for me.
• 19:50
  Josh Summers: One of the things that I love and I learned this from an actor friend is what I call the first letter technique.
• 19:56
  Josh Summers: So a lot of us like to take and create flashcards and we'll put, let's say, the reference, let's say second Timothy 3.16.
• 20:03
  Josh Summers: And then on the back we'll put all scripture is God breed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training up in righteousness.
• 20:09
  Josh Summers: Right, and we'll have that on there.
• 20:11
  Josh Summers: And what tends to happen, whether we're adult or a kid, is that we'll start and we'll try to memorize, and in the process of memorization we might fumble over a word or we'll get lost and so we'll flip that card over.
• 20:28
  Josh Summers: And the problem is is that when we do that we let our brain cheat and we give our brain all of the information and suddenly it doesn't have to work to remember the verse that you've memorized.
• 20:35
  Josh Summers: So a trick that I learned from my friend that I love using it and it's amazingly effective and kids love this is if you were to take and just write out the first letter of every single word in that verse and put that on the backside of your memory card, if that's what you're doing right, and even the process of writing it out can be a lot of fun.
• 20:57
  Josh Summers: So, instead of all scripture is God breathed, it would be A-S-I-G-B right All scripture is God breathed.
• 21:04
  Josh Summers: And you write that up.
• 21:05
  Josh Summers: So what's happening is and it's fun for kids because it feels like they're decoding a little message or they have like this fun little secret message that they can share somewhere because it doesn't make sense.
• 21:17
  Josh Summers: I haven't even had a t-shirt that has all of 2 Timothy 3.16, just the first letters.
• 21:22
  Josh Summers: And people come up and they're like, what in the world does that even mean?
• 21:25
  Josh Summers: And it's a great conversation starter because I can tell them.
• 21:28
  Josh Summers: But when you're going through the process of review now, when you flip over, you're not giving your brain all of the information.
• 21:35
  Josh Summers: Your brain is still forced to recall it.
• 21:39
  Josh Summers: It's given a little hint.
• 21:40
  Josh Summers: You know that what the next word starts with a B or the next word starts with an A, but it still like forces your brain to remember what that word is.
• 21:50
  Josh Summers: So it's a great middle step between, okay, I'm memorizing it and then, before you can jump to okay, I've completely got this memorized, I don't have to look anywhere.
• 21:58
  Josh Summers: That middle step of a first letter can be effective, and it's, in my experience, equally effective for both adults and kids.
• 22:07
  Ellen Krause: I love that technique too.
• 22:09
  Ellen Krause: It's awesome.
• 22:11
  Ellen Krause: We actually came out with these little tiny mini notebooks that we use exactly for that, and then you can just fold it up, stick it in your pocket, your purse, your car, wherever, and you have a little bit of time.
• 22:24
  Ellen Krause: Open it up and it is.
• 22:27
  Ellen Krause: It's tremendously effective.
• 22:30
  Ellen Krause: The one thing I think, josh, that I personally struggle with and I don't know if it's just me or other people do too, but I struggle with remembering the address.
• 22:43
  Ellen Krause: Is that what you call it?
• 22:44
  Ellen Krause: Like the actual location in the Bible?
• 22:48
  Ellen Krause: Do you have any tips on that part of it?
• 22:53
  Josh Summers: Yeah, Well, one of the first things, because I have a lot of people ask me that.
• 22:57
  Josh Summers: One of the first things I like to remind most people and I have to be very careful how I say this but the chapters and verses are not inspired right.
• 23:08
  Josh Summers: Those were added later on.
• 23:10
  Josh Summers: And if you can recite a verse and even if you can tell me generally where it's at oh, this is in John, I think, maybe chapter three or four If you're reciting God's word and you don't remember the exact chapter and verse, I don't know about you, ellen, but I still think that's a win.
• 23:29
  Josh Summers: So my message in all of that is just to give yourself grace.
• 23:33
  Josh Summers: It's okay if you don't exactly have the chapter and verse, but if that is something that's important to you and I generally do like being able to know exactly which chapter and verse, but if that is something that's important to you and I generally do like being able to know exactly which chapter and verse, I will say if you're using like a mind palace type thing for me, I separate chapters based on location and so that makes it a little easier for me to know where that's at.
• 23:57
  Josh Summers: But I think, generally speaking, if you can find and this is something that I've actually created a little spreadsheet for myself, like number picture associations, right.
• 24:09
  Josh Summers: So, for example, the number 23 for me, because I love basketball, I always associate that with Michael Jordan, right 23, michael Jordan, they're kind of synonymous.
• 24:21
  Josh Summers: Maybe you associate it with, you know, lebron James or something.
• 24:24
  Ellen Krause: But Nope, michael Jordan, it is.
• 24:26
  Ellen Krause: Hey, I'm from Chicago area, so there you go.
• 24:30
  Josh Summers: Okay, so you got Michael Jordan, for me the number 19,.
• 24:34
  Josh Summers: My wife's birthday is on the 19th, so in my mind 19 is a picture of my wife.
• 24:41
  Josh Summers: And so if I'm memorizing a verse, and let's say it's verse, it happens to be verse 23, and I want to remember that it's verse 23,.
• 24:50
  Josh Summers: I might somehow visualize some aspect of that verse that has to do with basketball or Michael Jordan or something like that, and at first that might seem silly and and it will.
• 25:04
  Josh Summers: Sometimes it's the silly, the crazy, the absurd things that our brain really sticks.
• 25:10
  Josh Summers: It sticks to our brain easier.
• 25:11
  Josh Summers: But I promise you, over time those silly things will fall away and the the reference will stick.
• 25:19
  Josh Summers: But being able to create those images like numbers by themselves are difficult.
• 25:25
  Josh Summers: But if you can find ways to turn those numbers into images and then stick that to whatever you're memorizing, sometimes that can be a lot easier.
• 25:36
  Ellen Krause: All right, I'm going to have to definitely do some work on that, but I appreciate the grace, that's for sure.
• 25:44
  Ellen Krause: Oh my, so one of the things you know a lot of people do Bible memorization.
• 25:51
  Ellen Krause: But they get really frustrated when you know a year from now they can't remember what they had memorized a year ago.
• 26:01
  Ellen Krause: Tell us about.
• 26:03
  Ellen Krause: How do you kind of get over that?
• 26:09
  Josh Summers: Yeah, I mean there's a couple of things to share about this.
• 26:12
  Josh Summers: I actually have one friend.
• 26:13
  Josh Summers: He's a pastor in North Carolina, his name is Dr Andy Davis.
• 26:16
  Josh Summers: He's actually written another book on Bible memory and one of the things that he does that I think is really fascinating is he actually memorizes and then intentionally lets it go Like he intentionally says I'm, I'm not, I'm okay if I can't recite this a year from now.
• 26:36
  Josh Summers: And that may seem odd to most people.
• 26:38
  Josh Summers: It was really odd to me when I first heard it, but it kind of takes in this to count the idea that if we internalize God's word, we can also trust that God can use the Holy Spirit to bring that out.
• 26:52
  Josh Summers: Even if we can't regurgitate it ourselves when we want to, I believe that the Holy Spirit can pull those things that we've memorized even years ago, even from childhood that Psalm 23 passage that you memorized, ellen.
• 27:04
  Josh Summers: The Holy Spirit can pull those things that we've memorized even years ago, even from childhood that Psalm 23 passage that you memorized, ellen.
• 27:06
  Josh Summers: The Holy Spirit can pull that out when necessary.
• 27:08
  Josh Summers: So even if you've memorized something last year and you have quote unquote forgotten it right now again I just want to preach this message of grace, don't.
• 27:20
  Josh Summers: It was not worthless.
• 27:21
  Josh Summers: It was not a time wasted to have memorized God's word, because I still believe that the Holy Spirit can use that that you have internalized.
• 27:31
  Josh Summers: That being said, if that's something that you want to keep at the top of your mind and I am that way I want to be able to recite the passages that I've memorized.
• 27:43
  Josh Summers: There are some, actually.
• 27:45
  Josh Summers: There's there's science behind this.
• 27:46
  Josh Summers: It's called the forgetting curve.
• 27:48
  Josh Summers: When you first memorize something right, let's say it's at a hundred percent but very quickly that goes down.
• 27:55
  Josh Summers: You, you know, we experienced this in high school and in college, where we're just trying to cram things in, we can cram it in for a very short period of time, but that forgetting curve is very steep.
• 28:06
  Josh Summers: But what science has shown is that if we are able to review that piece of information at spaced intervals, that rate of decline for the memory becomes less and less steep over time.
• 28:22
  Josh Summers: So, in other words, if I memorize a piece, a passage, a verse, and then I review it an hour later and then I review it the next day and you know I forgot a couple words, that's okay.
• 28:33
  Josh Summers: So then I'll review it a day after that.
• 28:35
  Josh Summers: But as I prove to my brain that it has been memorized for that period of time, then I lengthen that period of time.
• 28:42
  Josh Summers: So an example for me would be I memorized the book of James back in high school and it's one of these books that I have recited at this point hundreds, maybe even a thousand times, and so I don't have to review that every single day.
• 28:57
  Josh Summers: I can review the book of James like maybe two or three times a year.
• 29:02
  Josh Summers: But I'm in the middle of first Peter.
• 29:03
  Josh Summers: Right now I'm trying to work my way through chapter three and I still need to go back and review chapter one and two.
• 29:11
  Josh Summers: One probably once a week, chapter two probably two or three times a week.
• 29:16
  Josh Summers: But being able to find a way to space out that repetition is the best way to ensure that you can turn something that is short-term memory into long-term memory, and you can do that manually through different journals.
• 29:30
  Josh Summers: There are apps that allow you to do that spaced repetition.
• 29:33
  Josh Summers: There's so many different tools that you can use, but utilizing that spaced repetition is what's really going to help you remember this in the long run.
• 29:43
  Ellen Krause: Excellent, excellent advice and definitely something that we should all put to use.
• 29:52
  Ellen Krause: I think in some respects I kind of do that not intentionally, but because I kind of am more scatterbrained to do it sometimes and then forget about it for a little bit and then come back to it.
• 30:05
  Ellen Krause: So who knew it was actually helping?
• 30:10
  Ellen Krause: Exactly wrap things up here, tell us how memorizing scripture has influenced the way you see the world and how you approach challenges.
• 30:31
  Josh Summers: Yeah, I think just being a little raw and transparent here, helen, these last couple of weeks have been actually a legit bit challenge for me.
• 30:42
  Josh Summers: Like sometimes I don't know about you or your daughters being online can be a challenge for me because it feels like I have.
• 30:50
  Josh Summers: I do have challenging weeks, just like everybody else does, and then I've got to jump onto these podcasts and onto YouTube and and smile and, you know, be positive, and life isn't always that way.
• 31:05
  Josh Summers: And I think you know, one of the things that I'm learning is that there are a lot of things in life, especially the Christian life, where there are things I know I should believe right, I know I should believe that I am God's handiwork, made in his image.
• 31:20
  Josh Summers: And yet the core belief like if you were to, if I'm really digging down, talking with a counselor the core belief is that I'm, I don't, I don't think of myself that way and I repeat this lie to myself that I am not good enough, that I'm a fraud, that someday everyone's going to figure this out and I'm going to be exposed for the world to see.
• 31:45
  Josh Summers: Like that's a legit fear of mine, and a lot of times it's those lies that we repeat to ourselves that that is our core belief, even if we tell ourselves no, I believe what the Bible says.
• 31:59
  Josh Summers: I've found for me that meditation on scripture is one of the only ways that I've been able to combat those lies that I have taught myself to believe over time.
• 32:13
  Josh Summers: And having that scripture not just reading it during quiet times, but having it so that I can meditate on it anytime, anywhere.
• 32:23
  Josh Summers: And I can look at Ephesians 2.20 and I can say I am God's handiwork.
• 32:27
  Josh Summers: I am God's handiwork, and repeat that verse over and over again, or you know any myriad of other verses that represent a truth that God wants us to know that it's easy to just read over.
• 32:43
  Josh Summers: It's so easy and I've done this time and again just to read over or to hear spoken in a sermon, but to have that internalized in a way that allows us to constantly meditate on it.
• 33:00
  Josh Summers: I mean, that's what it talks about in Psal Psalm to meditate on his word day and night.
• 33:04
  Josh Summers: One of the things that was very impactful for me was you know, we talk.
• 33:09
  Josh Summers: I grew up hearing Joshua 1.9, be strong and courageous, and thinking, okay, I've got to be strong and courageous.
• 33:18
  Josh Summers: And oftentimes we don't combine that with the verse that comes before it, where Joshua is commanded to meditate day and night on the word and I think that is what comes before we can be strong and courageous in our faith is do we have that foundation, those verses that we can meditate on and live by and to combat the lies that at least I'm constantly telling myself, unfortunately?
• 33:47
  Ellen Krause: And you're not alone, I can assure you of that, and I really appreciate your transparency because you're absolutely right, we have hard times and when you do, you're constantly in the public and you want to be encouraging to other people but at the same time, recognizing that you know we have challenges, and seeing you just sort of admit that, just sort of admit that, but at the same time to see how God can just turn that around and and you sharing that with us and and our listeners, just gives us incredible hope.
• 34:32
  Ellen Krause: That and encouragement that we there's so much to be had in in Bible memorization and internalization.
• 34:42
  Ellen Krause: So thank you so much, josh, for sharing this and there's so much more in this book.
• 34:52
  Ellen Krause: I want to say there are some books that I get that I consider like this book is going in my library as an absolute resource, and this is one of them because it has so many great ideas, and if you're struggling with memorizing it in one way, there's another way.
• 35:14
  Ellen Krause: There's, you know, for visual learners, there's ones for audible learners, there's.
• 35:19
  Ellen Krause: So there's so many different ways that you can approach this and I think your book is absolutely incredible, Josh.
• 35:26
  Ellen Krause: Where can people go to find out more information about you and the book?
• 35:31
  Josh Summers: Well, first of all, that was so encouraging to have you say that, so thank you very much.
• 35:37
  Josh Summers: It was a lot of fun to put all that together.
• 35:40
  Josh Summers: For those that are interested, ellen, I was debating whether or not to do this, and I really would.
• 35:47
  Josh Summers: My goal has never been to sell a ton of books, and so what I would love to do, if you don't mind, is people can go to memorizewhatmatterscom slash I'm just going to make it coffee.
• 35:58
  Josh Summers: So memorizewhatmatterscom is where you can find out more about the book.
• 36:01
  Josh Summers: But if you go to memorize what matterscom slash coffee this just for your podcast I am happy to give anybody a digital copy of the book for free.
• 36:10
  Josh Summers: Um, because my whole, the heart behind what I'm doing is I just want to equip people to memorize God's word, and if you don't have the finances to buy a book, I don't want that to be the thing that stops you from being equipped with these techniques and tools.
• 36:28
  Josh Summers: So if you go to memorizewhatmatterscom slash coffee, you're welcome to just download the digital copy for free, or if you want to purchase it, just go to memorizewhatmatterscom.
• 36:37
  Ellen Krause: Oh, that's so kind of you, wow, okay, listeners, we will have that link in our show notes.
• 36:55
  Josh Summers: You are definitely going to want to do that, for sure.
• 36:57
  Josh Summers: Well, josh, before we go, I want person, just because that's what I grew up in, but one of my favorites is the Reader's Bible.
• 37:05
  Josh Summers: Have you ever come across a Reader's Bible?
• 37:07
  Ellen Krause: No.
• 37:08
  Josh Summers: It's essentially a Bible that doesn't have chapter and verse markers, so it allows me to sit down and read through the book of 1 Peter as a letter that it was intended to be just one single letter, and so for my own personal study time I love just kind of that reader's Bible that doesn't break it all up into these sections but it's just like, hey, this is the flow of the text and it's really a lot of fun for me.
• 37:37
  Ellen Krause: Okay, that's really cool.
• 37:39
  Ellen Krause: Do you have any favorite journaling supplies that you like to use to enhance your Bible study experience?
• 37:48
  Josh Summers: Well, I'm not as much of a journaler as I didn't used to be.
• 37:53
  Josh Summers: One of the things that I have done is I do have actually a separate Bible that is a journaling Bible.
• 37:58
  Josh Summers: I'm sure that you'm sure that you're you or your daughters have, you know, one of these journaling Bibles.
• 38:03
  Josh Summers: Um, I have loved, especially with memorizing scripture, having space for me to write down what, uh what passage like a cross-reference that comes to my mind.
• 38:15
  Josh Summers: So it's actually the, the book, the Bible that I have actually doesn't have any cross references.
• 38:20
  Ellen Krause: It just has space, uh, on the sides for journaling and that's where I write in my own cross-references and that's been really rewarding for me because I love making those connections between different passages and scriptures I'm reading yes, you mentioned that in the book and I thought that that was really, really fascinating how, as you're memorizing, let's say, a new passage, and all of a sudden in your mind, you can see how it connects to several other passages that you had memorized.
• 38:52
  Ellen Krause: That's incredible.
• 38:53
  Ellen Krause: All right, Josh.
• 38:54
  Ellen Krause: Lastly, what is your favorite app or website for Bible study tools?
• 39:01
  Josh Summers: Yeah, I am very well, I think I'm old school.
• 39:03
  Josh Summers: I don't know how old school this is, but when I need to look at like, really do anything deep dive, I always go to blueletterbiblecom.
• 39:10
  Josh Summers: I think they've got a lot of great tools.
• 39:12
  Josh Summers: It allows me to do some you know, just basic etymology of different words and look, trying to understand where things come from, looking at different translations.
• 39:21
  Josh Summers: I think the Blue Letter Bible it's free too, and that's one of the best resources that I've come across.
• 39:29
  Ellen Krause: Awesome, yes, that is a great tool.
• 39:31
  Ellen Krause: We'll make sure we put a link in the show notes for that as well.
• 39:34
  Ellen Krause: Well, Josh, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing all these incredible strategies for memorizing scripture.
• 39:41
  Ellen Krause: It's really inspiring to hear how practical tools combined with dedication because it does take work can truly transform the way we engage with God's word.
• 39:53
  Ellen Krause: So, thank you so much.
• 39:56
  Josh Summers: Thank you for having me.
• 39:58
  Ellen Krause: And for our listeners.
• 40:00
  Ellen Krause: If you have found value in today's episode, we would absolutely love it and appreciate it so much if you could share it with a friend who might be encouraged by these insights as well.
• 40:12
  Ellen Krause: And be sure to pick up a copy of Josh's book Memorize what Matters.
• 40:18
  Ellen Krause: You will not be disappointed.
• 40:20
  Ellen Krause: We love you all.
• 40:21
  Ellen Krause: We appreciate you listening.
• 40:23
  Ellen Krause: Have a blessed day.