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An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture
Prepare to embark on one of the most rewarding exercises of spiritual and mental labor anyone could ever attempt. Many Christians have at least a few Bible verses committed to memory, but An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture encourages Christians to ramp up Scripture memorization. Daily procedures and techniques guide the reader through memorizing entire chapters and books of the Bible at one time. Author and pastor Dr. Andrew Davis has used these proven method to commit 35 books of the Bible to memory over the course of his ministry. "This very helpful little book inspired me to tackle the memorizing of Romans 1-8. By God's grace, I made it. Oh, how sweet and how terrible to live so intimately with the greatest truth in the world!" -John Piper Founder and Teacher, desiringGod.org; Chancellor, Bethlehem College & Seminary, Minneapolis, MN Dr. Andrew Davis has been Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church (FBC), Durham, NC, since 1998. He came to faith in Christ his junior year in college. In 1984, he graduated with a BSME from MIT, and worked for ten years as a mechanical engineer. Davis received his Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1990 and his PhD in Church History from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1998. He was married to Christi in 1988, and they served together on the mission field in Japan for two years. They have five children. The central passion of Davis’s life is the glory of God as revealed perfectly in the written word of God.
31 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 7, 2014
337 people are currently reading
732 people want to read
About the author
Andrew M. Davis
35 books48 followersAndrew M. Davis is pastor of First Baptist Church of Durham, North Carolina, and a visiting professor of church history at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Chairman of the governance committee of the Gospel Coalition, Davis has written articles for TGC's popular website and has spoken in plenary and breakout sessions at TGC's national conference. He is the author of An Infinite Journey, named by Tim Challies as one of the top ten books of 2014.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 126 reviews
September 2, 2016
This 30 page booklet is a quick course on Bible memorization, but could be used for any memorization program (I like to memorize poems in between Bible chapters). The first half of the book can be skipped if you are already highly motivated to memorize scripture.
The system is a little complicated, (I don't plan to memorize the verse number with each verse), but makes a lot of sense if you want to tackle huge passages. I'll be putting some of these ideas into use right away.
I much prefer this method of memorizing scripture to the ones where each word is an outlandish mind picture (i.e. the disciples are a dozen eggs). That system seems to rob the words of their beauty.
The system is a little complicated, (I don't plan to memorize the verse number with each verse), but makes a lot of sense if you want to tackle huge passages. I'll be putting some of these ideas into use right away.
I much prefer this method of memorizing scripture to the ones where each word is an outlandish mind picture (i.e. the disciples are a dozen eggs). That system seems to rob the words of their beauty.
January 12, 2022
Se você quer dar mais um novo passo na sua vida cristã, memorização bíblica é essencial. Nesse pequeno livro, Andy Davis ensina da forma mais prática. Estou aplicando esse método e estou amando!
January 20, 2021
Very practical and encouraging material is shared in this book. When one has a will, a plan, and the ability to put that plan into action, it’s amazing what can be accomplished. The author lives what he teaches and memorized upwards of 42 books of the Bible!
“The rewards of knowledge of God’s word and of growing intimacy with Christ will make all your labor in the face of these challenges worthwhile.”
“The rewards of knowledge of God’s word and of growing intimacy with Christ will make all your labor in the face of these challenges worthwhile.”
December 30, 2019
Very helpful!
April 20, 2020
A helpful booklet on how to memorize large portions of Scripture. I found the first part (encouragement) more useful than his actual method, which seemed like common sense.
January 15, 2017
Christians! We need to hide God's word in our hearts!
This book will give you biblical whys and practical how-tos of Scripture memorization. The author ends it with following words:
"It is my prayer that God will raise up a generation of people who do this labor, thus presenting themselves to God as those approved, workers who do not need to be ashamed, and who correctly handle the Word of Truth (cf. 2 Timothy 2:15). The lost people in our nation and the weak and immature churches which have so proliferated are in deep need of the meat of the word and those qualified to give it to them."
This book will give you biblical whys and practical how-tos of Scripture memorization. The author ends it with following words:
"It is my prayer that God will raise up a generation of people who do this labor, thus presenting themselves to God as those approved, workers who do not need to be ashamed, and who correctly handle the Word of Truth (cf. 2 Timothy 2:15). The lost people in our nation and the weak and immature churches which have so proliferated are in deep need of the meat of the word and those qualified to give it to them."
January 8, 2018
Helpful little book on how to memorize large portions of Scripture. Absolutely worth the $0.99 I paid for it. The section on how to memorize/recite longer books was a bit confusing, but I think I got it worked out.
January 26, 2020
Excellent. Have read several times. Every Christian should do this. He breaks it down so well, so that you know exactly what he do. He makes the practice so accessible, and he encourages you and challenges you at the same time.
January 8, 2021
It requires some daily dedication but I was able to memorize 2 Timothy. I would do my daily exercise while driving. The main gist is to start out memorizing the first verse by saying it out loud 10 times repeat until you got it memorized then do the second verse, once you have the second verse memorized append it to the first verse and repeat them out loud together 10 times until you have it memorized. Keep repeating this process until you've memorized the whole book.
Like I said it requires daily dedication, but it is doable. I have a very poor memory but I did what I thought I could never do. There are tips and suggestions in the full article.
Google the title, there are PDF versions out there. It's only 11 pages so printing is not a big task.
Like I said it requires daily dedication, but it is doable. I have a very poor memory but I did what I thought I could never do. There are tips and suggestions in the full article.
Google the title, there are PDF versions out there. It's only 11 pages so printing is not a big task.
February 6, 2023
Great little book on memorizing long portions of scripture. Much of the book is an encouragement for Christians to memorize long portions of scripture, and the last 20 or 30% is on how to do it. No special magic about the method, fairly simple and straight forward. The encouragements were helpful to me, as someone who was kind of on the verge of delving into longer memorization, now I'm all in! The practical method also is very helpful; I wouldn't really have known where to start without it. Heartily recommended if you're on the fence even slightly about long memorization, or if you wouldn't know where to begin!
July 14, 2014
A very basic booklet. It contains a good short introduction to why to memorize portions of the Bible. The technique is not anything innovative or especially effective; it's just rote memorization, and the author doesn't even try to suggest special techniques beyond repetition. I suspect, though, that was intentional, since the reason memorization doesn't happen for most people has more to do with will than ability.
October 9, 2018
You may be best served as buying this little gem as an E-book. It is perhaps too short to warrant the paper copy. However, with that said, it is the best approach that I have heard (and used) for memorizing scripture. It is so beautiful to memorize a book of the bible instead of a verse here and a verse there. If you can be faithful to this method, you can memorize a book of the Bible and be transformed along the way.
March 23, 2018
Davis gives a gift to the church with this brief, but helpful booklet. He helps those who desire to “hide God’s Word in our hearts” to do just that. He offers advice on how to memorize any book of the Bible, and how to continue to memorize as a discipline that leads to meditation. His principles are practical and doable. This one is a treasure.
June 27, 2018
Highly recommended
I wasn’t expecting this short read to be highly practical in the endeavor of memorizing scripture. He gives us compelling biblical arguments as to why we should all be memorizing God’s word, as well as the benefits and blessings that would flow out of our commitment to memorize. Not for us individually only, but for the body of Christ.
I wasn’t expecting this short read to be highly practical in the endeavor of memorizing scripture. He gives us compelling biblical arguments as to why we should all be memorizing God’s word, as well as the benefits and blessings that would flow out of our commitment to memorize. Not for us individually only, but for the body of Christ.
April 30, 2018
A timely read as our church is going through a series on how to nourish our souls, and one of the topics happened to be meditating on Scripture. No better way to do that than memorizing it! Now to choose my first book to memorize...
April 17, 2014
Good practical wisdom on how to memorise the Bible by book.
March 28, 2015
Short read. A helpful approach to Scripture memorization.
December 26, 2016
This is a great book for anyone wanting a systematic approach to memorizing whole books of the Bible.
January 2, 2019
Memorization Tips for College Students
The art of memorizing information is a difficult one to master. Most people struggle to learn all of the information they need for a test because they don’t know how to memorize it effectively. If you struggle to retain information after you read it 100 times over, you may be doing something wrong. Rather than giving up as a result of this, you really need to think about improving your memorization skills so that you can take tests with confidence in the future. A little effort could go a long way in the end. Here are some tips that you should be able to use to remember information better in the future.
One Step at a Time
You can’t memorize a huge set of information all at once. It just isn’t going to happen. Instead of trying to shove as much as you can into your mind at one time, you need to break up the information into small chunks to learn one by one. If you have a set of 50 vocabulary words to learn, study 10 of them a day over the course of 5 days. That way your brain only has a little bit of info to process at one time, making easier for it to retain everything for the future. Take on sections, not chapters, if you want to memorize something successfully.
Sleep on It
Your brain processes information while you sleep, so try to study right before you go to bed if you can. That way your mind can gather all of the information you just tried to shove into it and file it away in your long term memory. You may end up with some funky dreams as a result of this, but at least you will be prepared for an upcoming test.
If you can’t study before you go to sleep, try taking a nap after you study. If you can sleep for 90 minutes after you get done trying to memorize a set of information, you should wake up with some sort of memory of the info. Look over the information once again when you get up to refresh your memory, and then you should have it in your head for a little while.
Use It or Lose It
If you don’t make an effort to use the information you are memorizing, you will have a hard time remembering it in the future. If you are learning vocabulary words for your order essay online cheap, try to use them in a sentence. If you are learning about a time in history, refer to it in casual conversation. Just make an effort to work whatever it is you are learning into your daily life. This may seem a little forced, but it will help you connect the information with your real life. Then all you have to do is think about something that is familiar to you in order to remember the facts or words.
Conclusion
Memorization comes easier for some people than it does for others. If you struggle to retain the information you read, you may just need to take more time to learn it. You could also be struggling because you are not learning the information in the right way. If you are a visual learner, you need visual aids. If you are an audio learner, you need to hear the information, rather than reading it. Making little adjustments like this can have a significant impact on your ability to memorize things in the future. Once you get a hang of the process, you should have no trouble getting through it time after time.
The art of memorizing information is a difficult one to master. Most people struggle to learn all of the information they need for a test because they don’t know how to memorize it effectively. If you struggle to retain information after you read it 100 times over, you may be doing something wrong. Rather than giving up as a result of this, you really need to think about improving your memorization skills so that you can take tests with confidence in the future. A little effort could go a long way in the end. Here are some tips that you should be able to use to remember information better in the future.
One Step at a Time
You can’t memorize a huge set of information all at once. It just isn’t going to happen. Instead of trying to shove as much as you can into your mind at one time, you need to break up the information into small chunks to learn one by one. If you have a set of 50 vocabulary words to learn, study 10 of them a day over the course of 5 days. That way your brain only has a little bit of info to process at one time, making easier for it to retain everything for the future. Take on sections, not chapters, if you want to memorize something successfully.
Sleep on It
Your brain processes information while you sleep, so try to study right before you go to bed if you can. That way your mind can gather all of the information you just tried to shove into it and file it away in your long term memory. You may end up with some funky dreams as a result of this, but at least you will be prepared for an upcoming test.
If you can’t study before you go to sleep, try taking a nap after you study. If you can sleep for 90 minutes after you get done trying to memorize a set of information, you should wake up with some sort of memory of the info. Look over the information once again when you get up to refresh your memory, and then you should have it in your head for a little while.
Use It or Lose It
If you don’t make an effort to use the information you are memorizing, you will have a hard time remembering it in the future. If you are learning vocabulary words for your order essay online cheap, try to use them in a sentence. If you are learning about a time in history, refer to it in casual conversation. Just make an effort to work whatever it is you are learning into your daily life. This may seem a little forced, but it will help you connect the information with your real life. Then all you have to do is think about something that is familiar to you in order to remember the facts or words.
Conclusion
Memorization comes easier for some people than it does for others. If you struggle to retain the information you read, you may just need to take more time to learn it. You could also be struggling because you are not learning the information in the right way. If you are a visual learner, you need visual aids. If you are an audio learner, you need to hear the information, rather than reading it. Making little adjustments like this can have a significant impact on your ability to memorize things in the future. Once you get a hang of the process, you should have no trouble getting through it time after time.
November 4, 2022
Good but the author’s method isn’t mine.
I enjoyed this book and the author offers some good advice.
My only criticism is the author does not emphasize enough that this is their method and I think pushes way too hard in urging the reader to memorize entire books.
God can work wonders with one verse, and while God has pushed me to do long passages as well (and one entire book) I still sometime memorize verses in isolation with full understanding of the full context.,
Davis does properly emphasize that one needs to pray extensively. Memorizing scripture, both the desire and the ability are works of God.
Still every time he mentioned entire books I couldn’t help come up with reasons to disagree:
- Doxologies are fun (Jude 24-25)
- Psalms are easy to pray along to (Psalm 19 & 33)
- And most of the proverbs I’ve memorized are individual verses related to sin issues I might be having.
I do think I will test the authors method in reviewing long passages after I finish catching up on my anki flash cards. I re-did them all using a modified template based on LPCG.
I enjoyed this book and the author offers some good advice.
My only criticism is the author does not emphasize enough that this is their method and I think pushes way too hard in urging the reader to memorize entire books.
God can work wonders with one verse, and while God has pushed me to do long passages as well (and one entire book) I still sometime memorize verses in isolation with full understanding of the full context.,
Davis does properly emphasize that one needs to pray extensively. Memorizing scripture, both the desire and the ability are works of God.
Still every time he mentioned entire books I couldn’t help come up with reasons to disagree:
- Doxologies are fun (Jude 24-25)
- Psalms are easy to pray along to (Psalm 19 & 33)
- And most of the proverbs I’ve memorized are individual verses related to sin issues I might be having.
I do think I will test the authors method in reviewing long passages after I finish catching up on my anki flash cards. I re-did them all using a modified template based on LPCG.
June 19, 2025
A short treatise about memorizing extended portions of Scripture. This book was convicting, helpful, and encouraging. First, the author exhorts the reader to memorize Scripture by working through and breaking down various excuses one might have. Then, he makes the memorization schedule of a book approachable. One verse a day, read ten times, said ten times, then done. Review old verses first, then learn the new verse. He encourages the reader to memorize Scripture, makes it mentally manageable to do so, and then offers a bit of hope - it is ok to "kiss the book goodbye". Once memorized, the Word of God is in and on your heart, whether you remember the exact words or not. Kiss it goodbye, and take the challenge again to learn a new book and hide as much of the counsel of God in your heart as you can.
February 20, 2019
I am a big fan of memorizing Scripture and have dedicated my life to it. My saying is this with regards to memorization: "Verses are good. Passages are better. Chapters are best. Books are ideal." In saying that, I was a little disappointed with this book. I did not find his approaches all that insightful. What I did find insightful, however, was how Davis spoke of there being different "memorization seasons." For each person, s/he will find times when memorizing Scripture is a little more difficult. The important thing to remember is that the season is just a season and it will pass. The memorizer should not become discouraged.
February 5, 2018
Short and sweet. After providing biblical and personal motivation regarding the benefits of memorizing large sections of scripture he goes on to detail a straightforward approach to doing just that. It's not 'Scripture Memorization Made Easy,' more like 'Scripture Memorization Made Practical & Habitual'.
His approach sounds difficult to get started. It sounds like I need to really want scripture written on my heart. It sounds effective and worthwhile.
His approach sounds difficult to get started. It sounds like I need to really want scripture written on my heart. It sounds effective and worthwhile.
February 28, 2022
So exciting to find another with the same heart! I could share so much more on the benefit of memorizing Scripture, but it was encouraging to be exhorted to challenge myself.
"When Judgment Day comes, we will regret the waste of a single moment not used for the glory of Christ. We will, however, not regret one moment we spent diligently studying God’s Word and hiding it in our heart. We will only wish we’d spent more time doing this."
"When Judgment Day comes, we will regret the waste of a single moment not used for the glory of Christ. We will, however, not regret one moment we spent diligently studying God’s Word and hiding it in our heart. We will only wish we’d spent more time doing this."
July 24, 2025
This is the little book that first convinced me to try memorizing full books of the Bible, and for that reason alone, it earns 5 stars from me. Figured I’d read through it again as I try to get back into the habit.
“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” — Deut. 11:18
“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” — Deut. 11:18
March 4, 2023
Um método que é uma pequena chave, para um grandioso trabalho, um tdabakdi de vida, eu diria. O método ensinado é muitíssimo eficaz, mas exige dedicação, prática e muita disciplina. É simplesmente maravilhoso, mas como disse, é um trabalho de longo prazo, por toda a vida, aliás. Livro excelente, rápido e objetivo.
June 4, 2024
This is a great resource for anyone looking to memorize larger portions of Scripture. It provides a solid assessment of biblical teaching on scripture memorization along with extensive practical tools for doing so. I look forward to implementing some of these practices in my own Scripture memorization journey.
December 27, 2017
Helpful approach to memorization!
I think memorization is a difficult topic for most of us, as it seems impossible given the Bible is 66 books.. where do you start?
This book has provided a great way to start developing a healthy habit for memorization, one book at a time.
I think memorization is a difficult topic for most of us, as it seems impossible given the Bible is 66 books.. where do you start?
This book has provided a great way to start developing a healthy habit for memorization, one book at a time.
February 27, 2019
Practical and straight forward.
Going to try this method! The book discusses the importance of memorizing scripture and common excuses for not memorizing. Then goes into how to memorize long passages.
Going to try this method! The book discusses the importance of memorizing scripture and common excuses for not memorizing. Then goes into how to memorize long passages.
April 18, 2019
A challenging but seemingly achievable process. I'm going to try it to see if it works for me. The author is good at encouraging the reader to apply what is taught for the great benefit that it can produce.
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