Memorizing Scripture with Music

All through my years teaching my sons Bible verses and helping them to memorize them, nothing works as well, in my honest opinion, as singing the verse.

I personally like to make up my own tunes for the verses. It is a creative outlet for me, and can be a lot of fun to come up with just the right tune for the verse(s).

Either the tune comes right away to me, or it doesn't come at all. If  no tune comes, or I'm feeling a bit lazy, I'll check a great new app called Scripture Singer and see if the verse is available on it (more on this lovely **FREE** app in a little bit).

If all else fails, we resort to rote memorization or speaking the verse in a rhythm - which really isn't that bad of an option either.

A method which I like for organizing the scriptures we are memorizing is writing the verse on a  3x5 index card. All the cards go in an index card file, and we keep them in fairly a chronological order according to when we learned them.

Those that we know very well (and have repeated a bunch and mastered) are kept in the back. Those that are newer are toward the front.

The ones in the front we try to review every day. Those toward the back are reviewed once a week or less.

It's a simple method that works great for us.

The Scripture Singer App

OK, so this great app I mentioned earlier called Scripture Singer is available for both Apple and Android devices. Woot!

I know not everyone likes or thinks they can make up their own tunes to Bible verses. Well, you are going to love this app! It is a free app which has a LOT of Bible verses which are beautifully sung.

If you don't like making up your own tunes, or need a tune in a hurry, give this app a try.

There is something pretty amazing about music and memorization. I have used it over and over again as an aid in our homeschool.

All ages can benefit by memorizing scripture with a catchy little tune, and at the same time hiding God's word in our hearts. What a fun, and beautiful thing!

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Are You a Fan or a Follower: A Devotional

I had never thought about it before, but when I read the excerpt below, it made me really stop and evaluate my heart. 

Am I a follower of Jesus or just a fan?

What's the difference, you ask? Well, Kevin Idleman makes an interesting and compelling distinction. I shudder at the idea of being only a fan.

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“It may seem that there are many followers of Jesus, but if they were honestly to define the relationship they have with him I am not sure it would be accurate to describe them as followers. It seems to me that there is a more suitable word to describe them. 

They are not followers of Jesus. They are fans of Jesus. 

Here is the most basic definition of fan in the dictionary: “An enthusiastic admirer.”

It’s the guy who goes to the football game with no shirt and a painted chest. He sits in the stands and cheers for his team. He’s got a signed jersey hanging on his wall at home and multiple bumper stickers on the back of his car. 

But he’s never in the game. 

He never breaks a sweat or takes a hard hit in the open field. 

He knows all about the players...but he doesn't know the players. 

He yells and cheers, but nothing is really required of him. 

There is no sacrifice he has to make....

And I think Jesus has a lot of fans these days....But [He] was never interested in having fans. When He defines what kind of relationship He wants, “Enthusiastic Admirer” isn't an option. My concern is that many of our churches in America have gone from being sanctuaries to becoming stadiums. And every week all the fans come to the stadium where they cheer for Jesus but have no interest in truly following Him....

They want to be close enough to Jesus to get all the benefits, but not so close that it requires anything from them.” 
(Excerpt from Not a Fan by Kevin Idleman).


Are you a fan or a follower?

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A Devotional: Surrendering All to Receive All

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." - Matthew 16:24.

Here we have the words of Christ which tell us in order to live, we must die. 

We must surrender our life, our way, our dreams, our will. 

Lay them at the cross. 

Give all to Jesus. 

And in so doing, we will find life, peace, joy, fulfillment - everything we really, truly desire. 
In giving our life, we find it. 

It sounds a bit counter-intuitive, but that's God! 

He turns our thinking and understanding upside-down so that it is right-side-up.

Here is an excerpt of C.S. Lewis' writings that talks about this very thing.  I hope it is a blessing to you. And I hope it gives you the willingness to give all to Christ everyday. What safer place is there?

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Training Them Up: A Family Devotions Guide

The Bible says:
 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Prov. 22:6.

Who should train them up?
The father and mother, primarily. Well, the father and mother... and the Lord.

Training up children is ongoing. It's 24/7. And one of the best, most important ways to train them up and lead them to Christ is to have family devotions. Many years ago, the Lord was convicting my heart about the need for it. I wanted to do it.

But I struggled with the "how". I had never experienced family devotions.
What do you do?
How long should they be?
How often should we have them?
How do you DO family devotions?
This was my struggle when I was a baby Christian raising baby boys.

Up to that time, I had been reading Bible stories aloud every day since the boys were babes. We would cuddle on the couch and enjoy reading My Bible Friends and look at the large, beautiful illustrations. After a story or two, they were ready to wiggle down off the couch and head to something else. And unbeknownst to me at the time, we were having age-appropriate family devotions! We were spending time together learning about our amazing God, and it was all they needed.

It wasn't until they were a little older - I think my oldest son was around 5, that I felt the call from God to take the next step with family devotions. So, prayerfully, almost 15 years ago, I just decided to step in the waters by faith asking God to lead. 

We started with singing songs. We sang the songs they had been learning in Sabbath School - "Jesus Loves Me", "The Trees are Gently Swaying", "Happy, Happy Home", and others. They love to do action songs, so we did as many of those as we could. Then we would work on a memory verse. At this age, the verse was short and in a children's version so they could easily understand it. We then read our Sabbath School lesson story. We read the same story every day for a whole week. Young children enjoy repetition and it really helps them to learn it. I had a set of Betty Lukens Bible felts, and my children loved to see the story presented with the colorful felts. As the week progressed, they could help tell the story and put the felts up. Sometimes we might even act out the story.
At the end of our devotions, we would have prayer.

As my sons grew, our family devotions changed with them. We started memorizing the books of the Bible in order. (Hint: start with the New Testament it's much easier! Find a song you like that will aid in the memorization process. We also started memorizing larger pieces of scripture - even chapters! One activity we really enjoyed was making memory verse booklets. We stapled several blank sheets of paper together, and the boys had to write the verses out on one side and draw an illustration on the other. This works great for learning the Ten Commandments, Psalm 23, or something similar. We also used scripture songbooks which made it fairly easy to memorize a whole psalm or chapters like 1 Cor. 13 or Isaiah 53. 

The pre-teen and teen years have brought more discussion into our devotional time. We cover our basic beliefs again and study them out from the Bible. As their reasoning skills develop, it is crucial they not only understand what we believe, but where in the Bible it supports our beliefs. They need to be able to defend their beliefs from Scripture. We occasionally review previously learned skills, such as the order of the Bible books, by recitation, or by doing Bible drills (seeing who can find a certain chapter/verse first). We also keep singing the Bible songs and hymns. 

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>> Family Devotions Ideas by Age <<

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Babies

Children's Bible stories on your lap

Toddlers - Age 4

Bible stories with felts

Singing

Simple memory verses

Learning to pray

Ages 4-7

Bible stories with felts

Singing

Longer memory verses

Saying prayer

Ages 7-11

Bible stories read from Children's Bible

Acting out the story

Memorizing order of books of the Bible

Memorizing 10 Commandments

Memorizing chapters and whole psalms

Make scripture booklets for memory work

Learn scripture songs and hymns

Pre-teens and Teens

Bible drills

Fundamental beliefs study

In-depth Bible studies

Acting out the story

Singing hymns and scripture songs

Leading family worship

I've learned that devotions are a spiritual observance - a meeting with God in His word, in prayer, in song, and in worship. A critical aspect for family devotions is to HAVE FUN! Learning about God and spending time with Him should always be an enjoyable time. As for how much time to spend, it will depend on your children. Don't make family devotions a drudgery. It should be kept fresh, lively, and not too long.

This is how our family devotions have evolved over the years. Do you have devotions with your children? What has worked well for you? I'd love to hear about it!

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What the Bible Says About the Resurrection

They say there are two things for certain in life: death and taxes, but I would add a third to the list: resurrection. Now I have never seen a real resurrection, and I doubt if you have either.  There are cases of near-death experiences, and even people who have been "brought back to life" after being medically dead for a very short time. However, I don't categorize those as true resurrections. Is it a certainty that those who die will be resurrected?  And if they are resurrected, when will this be?  And where are the dead before the resurrection?  And what happens after the resurrection?  Lots of questions.  Does the Bible have answers to all these questions that we as humans are interested in?  Absolutely.  Let's start with the basics and go from there.

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What the Bible Says about Death

My father-in-law passed away suddenly two weeks ago today.  He wasn't ill.  In fact, he appeared quite healthy.  He had just finished his daily 11-mile bike ride, but it all ended soon after.  My mother-in-law found him dead in his chair after she came back from shopping.  Heat stroke?  Heart attack?  Aneurysm? We don't know.  All we know is he is gone, and we are all going to miss him very much.

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