Welcome to the resources page for Memorize What Matters: 12 Proven Strategies to Memorize the Bible. Feel free to scroll down to find all the available resources organized by chapter, or if you’d rather, you can download a PDF version of all the resources here:
Below are the various downloads broken down by each chapter of the book. You can navigate each chapter using the links here:
Prologue: Detained
The story of my family’s detention and interrogation in China is a long one, and since it’s not the primary focus of this book, I didn’t want to spend too much time on it. However, if you’d like to hear more of the story, I’ve embedded two podcast episodes below but in case it doesn’t load well for mobile devices you can follow this link: https://www.memorizewhatmatters.com/interrogated
Introduction: Build Your Boat
Having Jill Donovan on as a guest of the podcast was such a treat! She’s the one who first introduced me to the concept of “building your boat before it rains” and I encourage you to watch the full interview when you have time:
Unexpected Benefits
In case you needed it, here’s my proof that I ran the Country Music Marathon in Nashville back in April 2006.
What’s Your P.O.I.N.T.
In this chapter, I reference a couple of different people who have influenced my approach to Bible memory. Below are interviews with my friend Paul Van Allen and Dr. Larry Dinkins.
Paul van Allen memorizes a verse per chapter:
Dr. Larry Dinkins memorized the outline of all 1,189 chapters of the Bible:
52 Verse Download
If you would like to download our free collection of 52 foundational verses that every Christian should know (one for each week of the year), you can find that here:
The Understanding Pyramid
Although I don’t necessarily endorse the video, you can see the Gangnam Style video here. As I write this, it now has over 5 BILLION views.
Here is the graphic for the Understanding Pyramid.
A while back, I did an interview with my (now) friend Keith Ferrin where he heavily influenced my thoughts on how I approach understanding before internalization. It’s become the most popular video on our YouTube channel and it’s definitely worth your time to watch:
Finally, in this chapter I reference my favorite journaling Bible that I use to add my own cross references as I read God’s Word.
First-Letter Method
If you’ve never seen the first-letter method in action, it looks like this on a grid:
You can download a blank version of this kind of grid as a PDF that you can print off for yourself here:
There is also a very cool tool from Scripture Memory Fellowship called the Memory Grid Maker that automates this whole process (for certain translations).
Visual Outline Method
I’m going to link to a download of the John outline images below, but first I encourage you to actually watch through the explanation with my friend Dr. Larry Dinkins on YouTube:
Once you’ve done that, you can download a printable version of the John images here:
Speak It Out Loud
There aren’t any downloadable resources for this chapter, but if you have the time, I encourage you to watch this interview with Rachel Eernisse who talks about adding emotion to your recitations.
Memorize Like an Actor
For your enjoyment, here’s a photo of my wife and I at the Richard Rogers Theater in New York City as we enjoyed the play Hamilton.
For those who were listening to the audiobook version of Memorize What Matters, here is the graphic showing the hand:
Write Them on the Doorframes
There are a couple of resources to mention from this chapter that you can find on Amazon:
- Self-Adhesive Laminating Sheets: You can use these if you don’t have a laminating machine (do you?).
- Atomic Habits: This book by James Clear isn’t written from a Christian worldview, but it’s still worth a read.
You can also watch this video explanation of “Spaced Stacking” from the Bible Memory Goal YouTube channel:
Record and Listen
The two apps that I recommend for looping a passage that you’re memorizing are:
- Jam Looper (iOS)
- Loopify (Android)
Sing the Bible
I’ve written out an extensive list of all the best Scripture music resources on the Bible Memory website.
You can also check out Suno.com if you’d like to see how you can create your own AI music. Below is a video of what that sounds like:
Also, when it comes to writing your own music, here’s a song that I wrote for Psalm 13 while I was working through my own struggle of trying to hear from God:
Print the Page / Mark It Up
As I said in the chapter, I’m fairly new at the whole “mark up your Bible” thing. If you want to see what a maniac Bible journaler does, there is none better than my friend Faith Womack. Check out how she does it:
Puzzle Patterns
If you listened to the audiobook version, here’s my citation for the world record for finishing a 1,000 piece puzzle.
Also, when it comes to breaking down a passage of the Bible, there’s actually an interesting resource by Prof. Tom Meyer who created The Memorization Bible.
Mind Palace
For those who listened to the audiobook, here’s the graphic for the mind palace:
As I said in the book, the mind palace technique is something that I could (and might) write an entire book on. I don’t want to overwhelm you, but if you want to dive deeper into this method, here are the places I recommend you start:
- Example of Using a Mind Palace for Psalm 46
- How to Use a Mind Palace
- Advanced Techniques for Mind Palaces
Spaced Repetition
The idea of spaced repetition is so important! Here’s what your regular forgetting curve looks like:
And here’s what it’s supposed to look like as you introduced spaced repetition to move memories from short-term to long-term memory.
You can use manual techniques to introduced spaced repetition into your Bible memory review. Here are two resources I recommend for this:
If you prefer, there are some amazing digital tools which can accomplish the same thing:
Celebrate Your Wins
While I encourage you to find friends and family in your community with whom to celebrate and share about your Scripture memory, I would also love to have you join our online Bible memory community!
Join the Bible Memory Community
We have thousands of people from all over the world who inspire and encourage each other to keep making progress in Bible memory. It’s a safe place to ask questions and to post videos of you reciting what you’ve memorized.
Epilogue / Closing
I hope you’ve enjoyed this book! If you want continued motivation and resources, please follow along on YouTube or your favorite podcast player:
- Bible Memory Goal on YouTube
- Memorize What Matters podcast
Finally, now that you’re done with the book, I recommend you check out the next steps:
If this book has been helpful to you in your Bible memory journey, would you please take a moment to review it on Amazon, Kobo, Goodreads or whatever other platform you purchased the book from? Thank you!