 Okay, well, now that we have been thoroughly convicted by Peter, somebody said that was convicting, I said take it up with Peter, he wrote it. I'm just telling you what he said. So now that we have hopefully thinking, well, I need to change some things, so my appetite for Scripture is where it should be, then we need to delight in it, right? And one of the best ways I know that we can delight in Scripture is through memorization. So in this session, we're going to consider the importance of Scripture memorization. Forty-five years ago, I met my, I didn't know he's going to be my husband, but I met my husband first day at Moody Bible Institute. I was going off to school, which used to be the school that you could go to to learn the Bible, but I don't know that I'd recommend it anymore. But anyway, Phil Johnson was my husband's roommate, and he said, my pastor's daughter is coming up here, and she tends to get in the wrong crowd, and I want you to missionary date her. And so Phil Johnson introduced us the first day. My mom took me to register as a freshman. And anyway, two weeks later, Doug Hekx asked me out. He was known as the Moody Monk there. But anyway, we hadn't, we started dating and we hadn't been dating too long. And he asked me if I had ever memorized any Scripture. And I said, yes, I am a Baptist minister's daughter. I know John 3 16 and the Romans wrote, man. And he goes, I'm not talking about that. He said, I'm talking about books of the Bible. And I found out later he had most of the New Testament memorized. And I was like, and the man, the disciples, him had the whole Bible memorized. And I was like, man, this guy really is a monk. And he said, no, I've never memorized a book of the Bible. And he said, well, you really should. And he said, I want to teach you how to do it. I want to share my method with you. And and so because I was hoping he would ask me to marry him. I memorized the epistle to the Colossians and it worked. He asked me to marry him. So and that was a journey that I started over 45 years ago. Now, as I mentioned in a little bit briefly in the last session, I didn't become a genuine believer until I was 30 years of age. And so I memorized the epistle to the Colossians. We got married, start having children. And as I said, I was living a life of hypocrisy. And I didn't I really kind of put that discipline down. And when God saved me at the age of 30, we'd already been married over 10 years. And I picked up that discipline again. I have to share with you before we get started that truly scripture memorization has been the most life changing spiritual discipline of my life. I have gotten to know God in ways that I don't believe I could through just mere reading of the word. It has helped me put off sin. It has helped me in Bible study. It has helped me in helping other women. And I cannot imagine life without it. And as long as God gives me life, breath and a mind that works, that doesn't get Alzheimer's or dementia or something, I do plan to continue to memorize his word for his glory. But what I want to do in the remainder of this time is really just ask and answer some questions and hope to motivate you to see the importance of scripture memorization. So you have, I think it is, I didn't look at the outline carefully, but we're going to talk about who should memorize scripture. Is scripture memorization really necessary for every woman and child that is attending this weekend? And then secondly, why should we memorize? What scripture should we memorize? When and then how? And by the way, I do want to say this before we get started. There is no way that I can share all of the material that I have. I do have a book out there on this and share a little bit more than I can share in our time we have together. But I will share the basics. So answer the question, who should memorize scripture? Scripture memorization really necessary for everyone. I'd like for you to look at Psalm one. Psalm one is probably a psalm that many of you could quote. Psalm one says, bless as a man who walks not in the council of the ungodly nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and night and he will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit and its season. Its leaf does not wither and whatsoever he does will prosper. The ungodly are not so, but they're like the chaff, which the wind drives away. Therefore, the ungodly will not stand in the way of the judgment nor centers in the congregation of the righteous for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly will perish. Now, ladies, notice in verse one that the psalmist says, it's the godly man who delights in the law of God day and night. He meditates on it. He's so delighted with it. He has such a desire for it that he meditates day and night. And you might say, well, Susan, my Bible says meditated. It doesn't say memorize. Well, the word meditate is a word in the Hebrew, which means to murmur in a low, murmuring tone of voice until it becomes implanted on your brain. Paul and Paul said, Jesus Christ, but we'll have gone to meet our brother. Paul and Paul said, Jesus Christ, but we'll have gone to meet their brother. That's meditation. Did you know that murmuring in the low tone of voice until it becomes implanted on your brain. And this reading that the Jew would do, they would do it over and over again. And it was done all day, day and night. In fact, did you know the Jews would memorize? It says the law of the, you know what that is? First five books of Moses. Anybody know what that is? Come on, girls. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Do you know anybody has those five books memorized? That's what the Jews would do. The law of God at that time would have included the first five books of Moses. Today we have 66 books, right? This pure milk of God's word, 66 books. And most Christians that I know today do not meditate on scripture. Psalm 119 says your servant meditates in your statues. Now, ladies, you cannot get away from Psalm one without realizing that the psalmist says it's the godly person that memorizes scripture, meditates on scripture. You might say, well, Susan, that's Old Testament stuff. You know, we're not under the, you know, under the old covenant. Well, you don't need to turn there. But that first book of the Bible I memorized, Paul says in Colossians three sixteen, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. You don't want to know what that means. The word lat means inhabit, and the word for word is lagos, which is the entire body of truth. You know what Paul was saying to the church at Colossae? They are to allow God's word to inhabit them. And ladies, we need to think biblically. That's one of our problems we have today. We go to the word of God and we immediately want, you know, the bottom line for us and we don't stop and think about the original audience. The people at the church at Colossae did not have a copy of the word of God. It was too rare. It was expensive. How were they to let the word of God dwell in them richly? If they couldn't get up in the morning and brew their coffee and get their Bible and start reading it. How were they to let the word of Christ dwell in them? They had to hide God's word in their heart. They had a special challenge to memorize scripture. And ladies, even as New Testament church progressed, do you know, according to church history, most men and women cherish God's word more than you and I do? Churchillian devoted his days and nights to Bible reading so much he memorized punctuation. Now I'm not going to teach you how to do that, OK? Don't worry. You're saying I'm out of here. I'm going to go home. Bezah could repeat all of Paul's letters in Greek at age 80. Kramer could repeat the entire New Testament from memory. Theodos the Younger could repeat any part of scripture exactly. As I said, I've only known one man that did that. And that was the man that discipled my husband, who's now gone to be with the Lord. He had the whole Bible memorized. Now, you might say, Susan, those are men. That's what men do, you know? I'm a woman. I'm changing diapers and feeding my babies and homeschooling. Francis Havergale wrote my favorite hymn, Take My Life and Let It Be. She memorized the entire New Testament, the Psalms and Isaiah in her teenage years. And then in the later years, she memorized all the minor prophets. Now, she died at the age of 43. No, she did not die of memorizing scripture. It will not. It will not kill you. She died of consumption. That was a disease back then when she lived. But, you know, when she died, she had 12,935 verses committed to memory. And you know how she memorized scripture? She and her sister would go on walks and they would memorize God's word as they walked together. They might say, Susan, that's that's a lot. But, you know, one man I know of, he came to faith in Christ. He decided to memorize one verse a day, just one verse a day. And by the end, by the time he was three years old in Jesus, he had a thousand verses memorized. Now, ladies, that's not that hard. I mean, Jesus swept. There's your first one. Rejoice evermore. There's your second one. Pray without ceasing. See, you've already got your first three. You know, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, you're going. Do you know the early church did not know about quiet time, daily devotions? My husband has said those words have ruined Christianity. Quiet time, daily devotion. Where did we get those words? The word was in them. It dwelt in them. It abode in them. Ladies, we have the written word. In fact, we have many copies of it, translations. I can go home. I have my grandpa's Bible. I have my dad's Bible. I've got, in fact, in my office, I have a whole row of Bibles. And if I don't have them there, you can get them on your phone. Any translation you want, right? You now you can get on Bible Hub or Bible Gateway and get common. We have so many advantages over the church at Colosse, and yet we're biblically illiterate. I meet women all the time that do not know where the simplest truths are in the scriptures, but they can tell me what's on TV tonight or what's going on on Twitter or Facebook, but they can't tell me what's in the Bible. So ladies, the answer to the first question, who should memorize scripture? It's really simple. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you should be memorizing His word. The godly man meditates day and night where to let the word of God dwell within us. Now, the second question we want to answer is why? You might say, Susan, why should I do this? I'm going to give you 11 reasons and they're biblical. OK, I didn't make them up. They're in the word of God. 11 reasons why you should do this. Number one, to be successful, and this is not get rich quick, OK? I'm not a prosperity teacher. If I were, I wouldn't be in this church. I'm sure they would have uninvited me very quickly, but to be successful, listen to Joshua 1A, this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. Do it day and night, meditate day and night and observe to do all that is written in it. Then you will make your way prosperous. Then you will have good success. Also, the Psalm we just looked at, talking about the Godly man who meditates day and night, he'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit and its season, its leaf does not wither and whatever he does, prosperous, prosperous. Now, ladies, this doesn't mean you're going to get rich, OK? It does mean whatever you do will come to spiritual maturity. You'll be blessed. Your family life will be blessed. Your personal life will be blessed. Your spiritual life will be blessed and happy. I don't know about you. I want to be blessed from God by God, don't you? What a great reason to memorize. Second reason you should memorize scripture is conviction of sin which leads to sinning less. Now, you're not going to be sinless, but sin less, conviction of sin which leads to sin less. Psalm 119 says, I word have I hidden my heart that I might not sin against God. Ladies, as you commit scripture to memory, things jump out at you that don't jump out at you at normal daily Bible reading. I know this because I've been memorizing for years now. I remember after the Lord saved me at the age of 30 and I had a terrible problem with anger before I got married. If you don't believe me, I asked my husband because he used to say, I'm going to put on your tombstone. She did it her way. So I kind of tells you what kind of wife I was. In fact, I remember one time in his first pastor, I got so angry with him. That's a decision that he made that I took my hands and I went down his arms and he had claw marks and had to preach in long sleeve shirts so that he didn't have to tell people, you know, my wife just clawed me because in a fit of rage. And so I remember when God saved me and I started memorizing the epistle to James. You know what I came to? James 119, the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. And I go, what does that mean? Oh, if Susan Heck decides to get angry, the wrath of Susan does not incur God's favor towards her. And you know what? I found that to be true because if I chose anger, I didn't feel God's, things just didn't go right. But that verse helped me more than anything to put off that terrible sin of anger. And so those things you don't see unless you're, you go over that murmuring, oh, the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God, the wrath of man. Ooh, I'm in trouble. I got to change. And so as you repeat it over and over and over again, if you have the Holy Spirit living within you, you've got to do business with that scripture. What am I going to do about this? Whereas when you just read it casually, it's like you can just gloss over it and be on to the next one. So a conviction of sin, which leads to sinning less. The third reason you should memorize, God's word has power to change your life. God's word has power to change your life. Hebrews 412 says, for the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the fighting of thunder, of soul and spirit and joints and marrow. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intense of the heart. Ladies, my words have no power, none. Yours don't either. God's word has power and it has power to change your life. I wish I could stand up here tonight and give you testimony after testimony after testimony of women that I have discipled or counseled who have taken the challenge of memorizing books of the Bible and to share with you what God has done in their life. I can think of one right now. She's in my church and I started counseling her years ago. Now we disciple. She's probably on her ninth book of the Bible. If you had seen her that first counseling visit I had in my home, I thought, in fact, I'm here thinking, Lord, help me, help me with this woman. And here she is now, a mature woman. In fact, I just asked her to help lead, facilitate in our fall ladies Bible study. But it's not me, it's the word of God. It has had power and her life has completely changed. The word of God has power to change your life. Number four, the fourth reason you should memorize. Do you know it's commanded of you? It's a command. There's over 600 commands in the Bible and this is one of them. Deuteronomy 6 says this, these words which I command you today should be in your heart. Teach them diligently to your children when you sit, when you walk, when you lie down, when you rise up. Ladies, how were the Jewish mothers supposed to teach their children the word of God if they didn't have it memorized, right? The godly man meditates day and night, right? They had to know the word of God. How can we, how can they be in our heart if we don't store them there? Ladies, memorizing and meditating on scripture is really not an option for a believer. Number five, the fifth reason you should memorize is because of the examples of the saints in the New Testament who memorized. The examples of saints in the New Testament who memorized. You might say, well, what do you mean by that? Did you know there's over 300 direct quotations in the New Testament that are taken from the Old Testament? They did not have a personal copy. Most of them did not have a personal copy of scripture. In fact, if you, I encourage you sometimes, it's a long chapter, but read Acts 7. Stephen preaches a masterful sermon. In fact, he gets killed because of it. When he's all done, he calls him stiff neck uncircumcised in heart. They always resist the Holy Spirit. They pick up these big stones and they kill the guy. But he preaches and he goes over a thousand years of Israel's history. And you know, Stephen, he quotes from Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Amos, and Isaiah. Because how did he do that? Because he knew the word of God. I don't know very many Christians that could do that. The sixth reason you should memorize scripture, and this is very important for you as a woman, is to transform your mind. Transform your mind. I have seen this happen over and over with the women that I counsel and disciple. Memorizing the word of God has changed the way they think about God, the way they think about their husband, the way they think about their enemies, the way they think about their marriage. They start thinking like God thinks. And that's a good thing, isn't it? You know, Paul says in Romans 12, 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore, brother by the mercies of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this world, but be what? Transform by what? Renewing your mind. Ladies, you will not renew your mind by Victoria's Secret catalogs or Googling everything to death, you know, or Twitter or whatever. That's not gonna renew your mind. In fact, most of that junk's terrible for your mind, but God's word will renew your mind. Ephesians 4.23 says be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Ladies, it will transform the way that you think. I know women that I have tried to help and they handle situations differently. They think differently about every situation in life now. They see it from a whole different perspective. In fact, one woman who memorizes scripture, she told me, she said, Susan, it's not only improved my thought life so much, but now she says I wanna use every idle minute. If I have five minutes there or 10 minutes here, she said I wanna be trying to memorize another verse. It's helped me so much. Number seven, the seventh reason you should memorize it, it will enable you to be a better counselor. It will enable you to be a better counselor. Now maybe you're saying, Susan, I'm not a counselor. Sure you are. Did you give some counsel to your husband before you left home? Yep, you know? Or do you counsel your children, your grandchildren? Have you given some advice to a friend lately? Right, encouraged a brother or sister, admonished a brother or sister? Sure, we all give counsel. We give counsel all the time. Psalm 119.97 through 100 says, oh how I love your law, it's my meditation all the day. Through your commandments, you've made me wiser than my enemies for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the old people because I keep your precepts. Ladies, when you hide God's word in your heart, you can speak with conviction and authority. Somebody comes to you and says, you know what? I have an abusive husband, or I have this, or I have that, and you go, well, wait a minute, I know, let me Google it. I know there's a verse somewhere that, you know, let me find it for you real, oh, I don't, you know, you can speak with authority and conviction can give counsel. It will help you to be a better counselor. Number eight, the eighth reason that you should memorize God's word, it will keep you from error. It will keep you from error, E-R-R-O-R, from error. Matthew 22, 29, very interesting passage. Remember when the Sadducees was, they're going to Jesus and they were trying to trip him up with a question regarding the resurrection. You remember what he says when he answers them back? You do err, not knowing the scriptures or the power of God. Why were the Sadducees in error about the resurrection? Because they didn't know the scriptures. Ladies, we're going to talk about this tomorrow, but we as women are more easily deceived. And so we need to study and memorize the word of God so that we are not swept away by false teachers. I think that's one of the biggest concerns I have today is the massive amount of women that are being swept away by false teachers. In fact, did you know this? Most cults and heretical teaching are the due result of scripture that is misused or taken out of context. Did you know that? What is going to keep you from casualty? What's going to keep you from error? I will tell you, memorizing God's word so you can discern truth from error. In fact, where I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, we're known as the Bible Belt, but honestly, we're the heresy capital of the world. All the heretics, I think, live in Tulsa. In fact, you may not know this, but that's where the word of faith movement started with Oral Robert. So it's right there. And I've counseled some of these women and I tell you, it's difficult getting them to think the Bible in its context because they rip verses out of their context to try to prove something that's not biblical. Ladies, we need to know the word of God to keep us from error and from false teachers. Number nine, the ninth reason you should memorize God's word it'll increase your love for God and your knowledge of God. It will increase your love for God and your knowledge of God. John says in first John five, two and three, by this we know we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and they're not burdensome. You know what John is doing? He's measuring our love for God by our obedience to God. Now ladies, we can say we love God. In fact, if I went around the room tonight and asked each one of you, do you love God? Do you love God? Do you love God? You probably all would say, yeah, I love God. That's why I'm here this weekend. I love God. I wanna know him more intimately. Then if that's true, if you would tell me tonight that you love God and you wanna know him more intimately, then why not take the challenge of memorizing some of the letters he's written to you? You thought about that? He's written 66 letters. Do you know what they say? In fact, I remember when I met my husband, back then we didn't have cell phones. I know life is hard to understand without cell phone. I think sometimes it was a better life. In fact, my husband this last year decided he was done with smartphones. So he went out and got one of those flip phones and I said, honey, this ain't gonna work. That's Oklahoma lingo. It's ain't gonna work. So he's sitting there trying to, have you ever had seen those flip phones like this? And he finally, after two or three weeks, he goes, you're right, this isn't gonna work. So we took the dumb phone back and got a smartphone. But when I was dating him, do you know what he did? We didn't have texting. I know it's hard to understand. He actually hand wrote letters to me, you know? And I would get out of my classes at Moody and I'd go to my post office box and there would be a letter from Doug Heck. And right now at home, I have a whole shoe box full of letters and he's also very artistic, so he'd draw pictures too. And I remember I'd read them. I'd put them under my pillow. I'd read them to my roommate. She probably hated me. And I would read them over and over and over again. Why? His words were important to me because I'm in love with the author, right? The writer of those letters. Ladies, God's word should be important to us because we love the author, right? I know of no better way to know God in his word than to memorize it. In fact, I've kind of make it a rule of mind. I don't teach a book of the Bible to the ladies in my church until I memorize it because it gives so much more insight and observation. I can hopefully understand the beginning from the end. It is the best Bible study method tool that I know of. And I would encourage you, for those of you that are teachers, that God has given you that gift of teaching, make that your habit. You'll see hopefully that the benefit of that. Number 10, the 10th reason you should memorize scripture, it will comfort you in your affliction. It will comfort you in your affliction. Psalm 119.50 says, this is the comfort in my affliction for your word has given me life. Now, ladies, I know we can open God's word any time. I know most of you probably have it on your phone, but I tell you, when my husband had his strokes September 26, and thankfully I wasn't traveling, I was at home, we were eating dinner and I asked him, I said, you sound like you've been drinking. And he goes, I don't drink, and I was like, I know you don't drink, what's the deal? And I still didn't get it, I didn't know what was going on. And so I went off to Panera Bread, the disciple, a lady in my church, and he called me and he said, I think you better come home. And I said, why? And he said, because I can't get out of my chair. And then my son called, he's a pastor in Wichita and he said, Mom, you need to get home, something's wrong with that. Then a doctor in our church called and said, you either get home or call an ambulance, your husband's having a stroke. So I remember that. And I was like all the way home, I was like, wow, you know, and flooding of scripture. And of course I'm praying. And I don't have time to get my Bible out or my Bible app or whatever. The word of God is the comfort in your affliction. I arrive home and he's stumbling, I get him to the hospital and get a wheelchair and get him in. And the first thing he did, he grabbed my hand, he said, Susan, we're gonna pray, don't call anybody in the church. He said, we're gonna pray and ask God to be glorified in this trial. Don't know what he has for us, but we want him to be glorified. Now I know you've had experiences like that. Even as a pastor's wife, there's time we get calls in the middle of the night or we need to be able to give people scripture and ourselves in times like that. And ladies, it will comfort you in your affliction. Do you know enough of God's word that you can comfort yourself or comfort someone else? If you know someone that's in the hospital and you've gone to minister to them, can you share scripture with them by way of encouragement? I don't know if this will ever happen, but I think it's very possible. I think right now we have a reprieve as Christians, but someone who was just telling me recently that Amazon has taken off all the books that have to deal with help for homosexuals. And I've heard some other things recently. In fact, a lady that handles some of my stuff, she said, Susan, I go to some of the things I've put on YouTube and she said, you have all these subscribers and all of a sudden you don't have any. She said, YouTube doesn't like anybody that's Christian. So they make it look like nobody listens. And I don't know if this is ever gonna happen, but there may come a time when we don't have the word of God. Some of these countries that get ready to go to Africa next month, some of these places, third world countries, they don't have a Bible. They don't have the word of God. We can't even imagine it in America. But ladies, it might happen. Somebody might take out all our power grid, then you won't be able to get on that smart dumb phone. But if that were to ever happen where we were persecuted to the point that our Bibles were taken away from us, would you know enough of God's word to give you comfort and hope? Do you know enough? If you didn't have a Bible to open up, something to think about. And last but not least, memorizing God's word will help you in your old age. And some of you are saying, I ain't that old, I'm not as old as you Susan. Well, you will be one day. Don't worry, you will be unless the Lord comes, takes you back home. But Isaac Watts who wrote a bunch of our hymns that we sing, he said this, as we get older, our brain shrinks and hardens from lack of use. And the best therapy for our brain is memorizing. And of course the best thing to memorize is God's word, he said. Ladies, that's so true even now. They have games that you can play to exercise your brain. We have a lady, she's no longer there, but she was in our church for a while, she's moved away, but she was studying to be a doctor. And I remember her telling me, she said, Susan, memorizing is really one of the best things you can do for your brain. And they say we die with like 10,000 brain cells unused, isn't that crazy? So why not use those 10,000 brain cells to start exercising your brain? In fact, I remember this with, may have told the story before, but when Debbie's dad was still living, we were in Texas, I was speaking and he was in a nursing home there and he had dementia Alzheimer. Anyway, we went to see him one night. He didn't know Debbie and didn't know who she was, but we were visiting and he said, who's that? He pointed to me and she said, dad, that's Susan, I travel with her and she teaches women the Bible. And he said, well, Jesus did say, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the father but by me. And I thought, here's a man, Debbie's dad, didn't know Debbie. In fact, she went back to see him the next morning before we left to head to wherever we were going. He still didn't know Debbie, didn't know she'd been there the night before, but he knew the word of God. Now, ladies, I don't know about you, but when I'm old, my kids throw me one of those places. You know, I want scripture coming out of my mouth, you know? And in fact, one of the ladies that disciples me, she's 86 and she says, Susan, who you are when you get old is who you really are. And I'm like, yikes. So I'm thinking, man, transform me now, Lord, make me sweet now. So, you know, when you get old, you just can't mask who you are anymore. But Debbie's dad really showed his character and I saw that with my own father as he aged, just how he just aged so sweetly and he knew the word of God and lived it. So ladies, you better start transforming your mind right now, get back, get onto that scripture memory. Well, the third question we wanna answer is this, what should we memorize? You might say, well, Susan, you've convinced me, I probably should start this discipline, but what do I memorize? Well, we know from 2 Timothy 3, 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and his prophet for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished under all good works. So all scripture is profitable, right? And so you can memorize anything you want, but what you might do, I would encourage you to do, if you have never memorized scripture, I would encourage you to start with something simple, like a Psalm, maybe Psalm one, maybe Psalm 23. If you struggle with depression, maybe Psalm 42, 43. If you struggle with loving people, 1 Corinthians 13. If you struggle with your tongue, in other words, controlling your tongue, you might wanna memorize James 3. Whatever your pastor's doing right now, my husband is preaching through Romans. We have several people in our congregation that are memorizing the epistle to the Romans. When I teach a book of the Bible to our ladies, the fall will be teaching 2 Timothy. I usually highly encourage them, they would try to memorize it. And so you might say, well, Susan, you're talking about chapters, you're talking about like, wow, that's a lot. I would encourage you not to get caught up in individual verses or random scripture. The reason is those types of programs are, I've seen them in counseling books and everything, but they will take a verse and pull it out of its context to prove something that is not biblical. Ladies, we have to remember, this is God's word. This is God's word and we must use it in its context. If I went home tomorrow afternoon and sent one of you an email and you were reading it, but you decided just to take the middle sentence out of my email and you could make that mean anything you wanted to, right? If you didn't look at what I wrote before and what I wrote after. And the same it is with God's word. Now, I will say this. If you decide after this session that I'm crazy, which I am, but that's a little much and you're gonna do the random verses, would you please, please, when you use the scriptures, make sure that you are using them in their proper context, okay? When you're sharing them with others or for yourself. Because remember, cults and heresies are formed due to scripture taken out of context. But I will tell you this, I know women that have memorized random verses and I know women that have same women who've memorized chapters and books and they will tell you that that is far easier than pulling random verses out to memorize them. Now, the next question, so to answer that question, you can memorize anything you want. The next question you wanna ask and answer is this. When do we do this? You might say, Susan, I don't have time to do this. When do I do this? Remember Psalm one, day and night. Remember Joshua one, day and night. I do it, you would be surprised. In fact, sometimes my husband says, I wish these women could watch you. Here you are in your bathroom, doing sit-ups, drying your hair and memorizing scripture all at the same time. You look like a freak show or something. But I do it all the time. Sometimes in the shower, you know what? I have a clear shower, you can put a verse up there and while you're shaving your legs and then you can get a whole verse memorized or ironing, I don't do much. In fact, my sister says, Susan, you're the only one that irons anymore. Who irons? Well, I still do. In fact, I was ironing some things in the hotel room. Was it this morning or last night? I don't remember. But Debbie did too, she ironed a shirt. But ironing, I mean, that can be really tedious work. Or vacuuming, vacuuming the house, do all things without murmuring and complaining. Good time to do that. Cooking supper is a favorite time for me to memorize. My husband usually flips on the news around that time. And so I'm in the kitchen, cooking our dinner. And I usually have my verses right here. And so while I'm stirring whatever I'm doing, I can usually work on my scripture memorization. I do it in the car, do it when I'm getting dressed. In fact, one time it was fun. I mean, I hate to tell you this, but I'm gonna be transparent and honest. So I was going down the street and the speed limit was 40. And I think I was going down the hill and I'd gone up to 44, 45 and I got pulled over. I used to back then, don't do this, don't do this at home. But I used to tape my verses to my steering wheel. You know, I take a page of my Bible and just tape it there. So the officer pulled me over and he goes, ma'am, I appreciate your scripture, but I'm gonna give you a ticket. And I was like, okay. So he gave me a ticket. But anyway, I do it in the car. I mean, the airplanes are becoming one of my favorite places because most times now we have delays or flight cancellations or we have long flights. And so it's a great time to memorize scripture. Often I will set aside time to do that, but really ladies, you would be shocked how much idle time you have. You're just doing mindless work and physical work, housework, and you could be memorizing scripture. I think women seem to have an ability at times to let their mind go in neutral. Why not fill it with God's word? Why not use that time for memorizing scripture? Scripture memory helps you make good use of your time waiting in long lines at the grocery store, doctor's offices, you know? But many times I've taken my scripture into the, while I'm waiting for the doctor, for my turn. In fact, if you might find that occupying your mind with God's word will keep you from becoming impatient or angry. So the win, anytime. There's lots of creative places and times that you can memorize. The last question I want to answer is this. How do we do this? How do we memorize scripture? You might say, Susan, I just, I can't do this. And I have met women in the last 20 years plus who've told me the same thing. And when I have given them the challenge, they have said they've come back, you're right. I can do this. I can do this. In fact, one of them's sitting here, Rose. Where are you, Rose? Yes, I remember the letter you wrote me that you did. And you said, I can't do this. And I said, yes, you can, and you did it, right? Are you still memorizing? I don't wanna put you on the button, nevermind. Okay. Hopefully she is. Okay, so how do we do this? I'm gonna give you three suggestions on how to get started. Number one, you gotta start. You do. Pick the book. What's your favorite book of the Bible? What's your favorite Psalm? You've got to start. That's why we don't ever do a lot of things, you know? We say we're gonna do it and we don't do it, but you've got to start. Secondly, the second thing you need to do is set realistic goals. Set realistic goals. What is realistic for you? I have set certain goals for myself and I'm pretty disciplined to do that. For me, I memorize a verse a day, sometimes more. But what is realistic for you? A verse a week, a verse a month. That's why we never lose weight because we say I'm gonna lose 10 pounds by next Monday. No, you're not, you're not, you're not. And especially as you get older, you're not. Let me just be here to tell you, it doesn't happen so fast. So that's not realistic. You're not gonna lose 10 pounds in a week, right? Bet you could set a goal for a half a pound or a pound, right? So what's realistic for you in scripture memorization? And the third thing that I think is important, even though right now in my own life, I don't have it or need it as much, but when I first started memorizing scripture was to find someone to hold me accountable. And so I would memorize books of the Bible with different women, some that discipled me, some that I was discipling. But right now currently I don't have anybody that holds me accountable. But when I first started, I wanted that accountability until I got that discipline in my life. So find someone to hold you accountable. Maybe memorize the same thing with somebody, somebody you're discipling, I know mothers and daughters or mothers and children many times will memorize scripture. My daughter one time was memorizing Psalm 119 with her children and she put it to music, to children's tunes so that they could memorize it together. Now there are different methods to memorizing scriptures and I wanna share the one that my husband shared with me. I know there's a lot of different methods, but this is the one that I have found to be very helpful. What I do is I put on with the recording devices now my phone when I first started it was a cassette tape and like who has cassette tapes anymore? I don't even know if any of them make those things. They still do, okay. Well now I just put it on my phone, my smartphone, but I have a recording app. And so I put on with my own voice as fast as I can right now, I'm in the gospel of Luke and I'm in chapter nine. And so just recently I put chapter nine on my phone and so it's on my phone and I put it on with my own voice as fast as I can where I can understand it, but it's fast. For example, this isn't Luke nine because I've only got through about verse 15, but let's say Colossians Paul and Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, Timothy our brother, saints in faithful brother of Christ, our Christ, our Christ, our Christ, our Christ, our Christ, our Christ. Now I put the whole chapter on and you might say, why do you do that? Why do you do it so fast? Well, because they have proven statistically that if you listen to things given at a fast speed, your brain picks it up easier and you really retain it more so than a slow speed. Now you don't want it so fast you don't understand what you're saying, but you want it fast enough where you can, and a translation too is very important. I memorized out of King James, I grew up with King James. I'm not a King James only person, but grew up with King James and at first when my husband was preaching, that's what he was preaching out. He now preaches out of New King James and all my books are written in New King James so don't worry if you're worried about the these and thousand thrices and I think I told you the story about our son when we were taking him to the playground and we were putting him on the merry-go-round and he was, I don't know how old he was, three or four, and he came up to my husband, he goes, daddy, daddy, I went around thrice and we're like, oh my, we have got to change translations for this child. So, but anyway, so you've got it on some type of recording device and then I just listened to it. And right now I try to listen to Luke nine. I'm just, you know, I'm getting dressed, brushing my teeth, I'm trying to kind of get the idea of what's going on. And then for me, I'm more of a visual learner than an audio learner. I didn't bring this up here tonight, but I actually just make a copy out of my Bible of the page. So right now I'm in Luke and so I would make a copy of the page and I carry it with me wherever I go. In fact, it's either in my satchel or it's at home, I think it's on the hotel bed. I left it there. But so I have it with me. It folds up really nice and I take it with me wherever I go. And so, but remember, I've already kind of, you know, thinking through Luke nine. So I, you know, start working on that first verse. You know, Paul and Paul said, Jesus Christ by the will of God, Paul and Paul said, Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother. And just like you would do line upon line, phrase upon phrase, praise soon you got a verse. Then you go to verse two, but you're still looking at verse one while you do verse two. And then you do verse three and then you go one, two, three. I mean, that's how it is. Then when you get it done, and usually what I do is when it's a smaller book of the Bible, I wait till I finish the whole book with the gospels and especially Luke, some of the chapters have 80 verses in them. When I get finished with the chapter or a smaller book of the Bible, this is where a lot of people drop out and this is the key to retaining it. Once I finish a book of the Bible or a chapter, I will review it every day for 30 days out loud. And once you do that, review it every day out loud for 30 days, you'll have it pretty much. And right now I still do try to review all my books of the Bible and I try to do that within a month's time just so I can keep up on all the things that I have memorized. So that's one of the ways. I know there are other types of scripture memorization methods and you have to find what works for you, but I will tell you this, the most important thing about the actual scripture memorization is the review. Because if you don't review correctly, you will lose what you have worked so hard at. Some people use three by five cards to put their verses on. That's a good method as well. You can carry it in the car, doctor appointments or anything like that. And again, I wanna say other things, but I don't know how much time, well my time's up, but you wanna stick to one translation. I would say that, don't change translations. Don't work on scripture memorization when you're tired, doesn't work. Don't work on scripture memorization when you're going through a deep dark trial unless you can just really concentrate. I've done that before, it's very difficult. When I went through the change of life, it was difficult, I kept it up, but it was hard, my brain wasn't as sharp. And so you wanna make sure that you're fresh, you're alert when you start memorizing scripture. And ladies, remember, there is no merit in scripture memorization. I mean, there's no, you're not more spiritual than anybody else, but it is one of the best ways to know God. And remember, you're not just memorizing words, you're memorizing God's words, right? These are God's words that you are memorizing. And again, as I said, I have a lot more I could say, but because of time I won't, but I do wanna close with sharing a woman's testimony on how scripture memorization changed her life. And I trust if I haven't motivated you, maybe my friend will motivate you, okay? She said, it's no favor asking me to share how scripture memory has changed my life. In Bible study on Wednesday, I actually shared with the women how having God's word in my mind and heart has changed my marriage. I'm the type of a woman who can have a complete discussion with my husband before he's in the door. I rehearse in my head what I'm gonna say, and then I rehearse his response, and then I hit him with a real good comeback so that when he does come in the door, it's as if one of your Oklahoma tornadoes has hit him. He doesn't stand a chance. Instead of the respectful wife that Ephesians five commands me to be, Eric has what I imagine Hillary Clinton to be like. Lovely, she says. Since I've been memorizing God's word, I've learned how to battle my flesh and take my thoughts captive. Now I don't have horrible fights with my husband before he comes home, or even when he comes home because I have filled my head and my heart with God's word. Now verse here and there is great, but when you have chapters or books memorized, by the time you get through reciting them, your heart is softened. And if it's not, start over. In this way you control your thoughts and you think on things that are true as Philippians four eight says, rather than feeding off the lies that Satan feeds us. And that's what they are, they're lies. Having scripture memorized in bulk helps you with idle thoughts and idle time. It's amazing how much easier it gets the more you do it. And that is true. Believe me, I'm no genius. My mother swears I'm ADD to this day, so if I can do it, anyone can. The neat thing about this, it's not gonna change your marriage, but your friendships as well. Because we as women dwell on assumptions and we are moody, we often fall prey to these things. It will change your life. I wish I could tell these ladies in person, but here, but I hope the above helps. And then she says, here's a quick PS to scripture memory. I fall asleep more easily now. As soon as my head hits the pillows, it's if my brain goes into action. I don't know why it goes into action. It hasn't been in action all day. So why does it go in action when I go to bed? I begin thinking about the next day, on my month's agenda, unfinished projects, all the chores I have to do. I can't sleep despite my exhaustion. Now I take my thoughts captive and I begin to say in my head the chapters I've memorized. Usually before I'm done, I'm asleep. And if I get through the chapters more than twice, I figure the Lord wants me to pray for someone. So my thoughts go that way. It's amazing. I'm not a genius and I have to work at staying focused. I have five children and I sew, I cut index cards in half, hole punch them and ring them. They fit great in my pocket or my purse. This way I review the old ad on the new. Also writing the verses helps me to memorize them and people can quiz me at any time, see if I'm distorting scripture. Anyway, if I can do this, anyone can. By the way, I did graduate in the top five of my high school class. Did I mention there's only six kids in that class? Father, I do pray that you would take these feeble attempts of my trying to encourage these ladies to memorize your word. And I pray that you would take them and use them for your glory and that you would stir the hearts of these ladies to desire to hide your word in their heart, not just so they won't sin against you, but so that they might know you. Lord, we don't know you like we should know you. You are a great God. You are an awesome God and we can't know you unless we know what you think and what you say. So Father help us to not only desire your word as we've already looked at, but to delight in it. And then tomorrow, Lord, give us grace as we look at discerning your word, being diligent in your word and doing the word. Give these ladies rest, refreshment tonight and a heart ready to listen tomorrow and bless our time together, Father, for Christ's sake, for his glory. Amen.