Verses for Teachers #1

Nothing will drive steel into your soul like memorizing and meditating on God’s Word.

Nothing.

I have a new-found zeal for Scripture memory since discovering the app, Scripture Typer. I worked on Scripture memory a lot in my 20s and 30s, but have been less diligent in recent years… until I discovered Scripture Typer. These days, I am pretty much addicted to Scripture memory. It is a good addiction.

I believe every Christian would do well to set a lifetime goal of memorizing 100 verses. I believe every pastor would do well to set a lifetime goal of memorizing 500 verses. If you are Bible teacher, I’d recommend you set your lifetime goal somewhere between those two numbers. If you memorize two verses a week, you can do 100 verses in a year.

One of the things that makes Scripture Typer so powerful is it employs multiple methods to help you memorize. One of my favorites in recording the verse and then listening to it. Scripture Typer will play it in a loop, as many times as you specify. (I set it on repeating three times.) I listen to verses as a walk and drive, then work on them in the morning during my Quiet Time.

Scripture Typer will help you review your verses so you never lose them. At first, the review will be daily, then two days, then three, and so forth. You can reset back to one day at any time if you feel like you need more work on a verse.

Verse #1

Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.  1 Thessalonians 2:8 (NIV2011)

Here is the application: never try to teach people you don’t love. Never try to teach people you don’t share your life with. Never try to teach people you don’t send time with. Never try to teach people you don’t occasionally have in your home. Never try to teach people you don’t do lunch with from time to time.

Here is a good cross reference: He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.  Mark 3:14 (NIV2011) The Navigators call this the, “With them” principle. Jesus method for making disciples involved a lot of time. It involved hanging out.

Robert Coleman has done a careful study of Jesus’ pattern of discipleship. He says:

Having called his men, Jesus made a practice of being with them. This was the essence of his training program—just letting his disciples follow him.

When one stops to think of it, this was an incredibly simple way of doing it. Jesus had no formal school, no seminaries, no outlined course of study, no periodic membership classes in which he enrolled his followers. None of these highly organized procedures considered so necessary today entered into his ministry. Amazing as it may seem, all Jesus did to teach these men his way was to draw them close to himself. He was his own school and curriculum

Do you want to be a dispenser of information, or a disciplemaking teacher? If you seek to make disciples, memorize and meditate on the words of Paul: Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.  1 Thessalonians 2:8 (NIV2011) Then, in the power of the Holy Spirit, do something this week with the people you teach.