As I alluded to in my previous blog on discipline, I feel led to start my quest for inner transformation with memorizing scriptures.  Last week I took some time to find some verses having to do with discipline and wrote them on index cards to use as “flash cards” to aid in my memorization.  I confess my new flash cards sat on my bedside table, unused, for a week.

Frustrated, I set out to find a better way to memorize scripture.  What I really needed was a more advanced way technologically speaking, yet still simple and straightforward in method.  Praise God I found what I was looking for.  I am happy to share with you that there is an App for scripture memory!

This app is brought to you by the folks at Children Desiring God, part of the Desiring God ministry.  I am really excited about this tool because its very easy to use and has some really cool features.

There are 3 predetermined scripture memory formats you can choose to follow: Fighter Verses, Extended Memory verses, and Foundation Verses.  According to the fighterverses.com website:

The Fighter Verses focus on 1) the character and worth of our great God, 2) battling against our fleshly desires, and 3) the hope of the Gospel. The Extended Memory Set is designed for those who wish to memorize longer passages of Scripture. Still structured as a five-year program, this set will walk you through memorizing Philippians, James, Romans 5-8, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and one year of larger passages from various books of the Bible that are considered key to the life of faith. Foundation Verses are strategically chosen Bible verses for children preschool through age five. The pack includes verses designed to lay a firm scriptural foundation of basic Biblical truth that will pave the way for faith response.

Additionally, you can add your own verses under a “my verses” collection.  This part is really cool.  You can add the scripture reference and select labels or tags, some tags are predetermined for you to choose from or you can create your own tag to use. Then there is a button you tap that says copy text from web and when you press it, the app opens biblegateway.com where you can easily select the text then double press the home screen button to return to the app and copy the text right where you left off.  Its so easy!!

Now I have my collection of verses on discipline added into the app under my verses so I can access them anytime.  I also decided to go on and follow the preset plan for the Fighter Verses memory program.  It has me memorizing one verse a week, each week, for five years.  Yes this is a LONG program but I am going to try and keep with it.  I work well with structure predefined for me.

I’ve explained the high level concept for you but here is the best part about this app…

Once you are in one of the programs, either the predetermined three or “my verses,” there are all kinds of resources to help you memorize.  It lists the verse first then the associated topics underneath.  Below that you can label the verse “memorized,” choose from three different quizzes to take on that specific verse, the option to make the verse your phone’s “lock screen” which is one of my most favorite aspects.  There is also a place to share the verse on other social networks, text or email, a place for further study where you can read the verse in the context of the entire chapter, read a blog about that week’s memory verse on the official fighterverses.com blog, read commentary on that verse, and search for articles, books and other references to that verse on the desiringgod.org website.

Overall, I think the quiz section is going to be the best. It basically lists the verse with blanks in certain places so its like a fill in the blank quiz.  There is also a multiple choice version where there are 4 choices of words to select to fill in the blank.  I learn well this way so I am excited about the quizzes.

I also look forward to using this app a few years from now when LK starts playing with my phone, like most kids I see playing with iPhones and such, maybe I can start her out early learning bible verses using this app.  I can only imagine it will improve more and more as the years go by.

If my explanation of this app hasn’t sold you, click this link to watch a video of John Piper explaining the app.  You can get an app for the iPhone, iPad, iTouch or Android.

If anyone reading this is looking for a scripture memory aid this is the best one I have found.  I promise to let you know how its going if you promise to ask me how I am doing with my memorizing!!