"Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you...

with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God."  Colossians 3:1

It is a simply thing to accept Christ as Savior. Just a few words in prayer, seeking God's forgiveness and admitting that Jesus is Lord. There. Now I have salvation and will be with Him in heaven. Whoa....wait a minute! This simple act of contrition  and acknowledgement doesn't mean we go on with life as we know it and just make sure we attend church on Sunday. Or at least, it shouldn't!

I need to be IN the Word, or rather have the Word DWELL (live) in me. If I don't read God's Word, how am I supposed to hear Him speaking to me? How can a believer know how to live their life if they never crack open the Bible and study? Hmm. I know of people who think they are Christians because they believe in God, but have no understanding of what is actually said in the Bible and how it all fits together. Yes, I believe the simple truth of John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." I also think there will be many who "make it" to heaven by the skin of their teeth.

I cannot judge who is saved and who isn't. Thankfully that is not my job. My job here on earth is to know God, love Him and serve Him.....and be a witness for Him. You may have a different thought about this and that is fine, but hopefully we can agree that we need to follow scriptural commands.

So back to the Word dwelling in me....Many, many years ago I put together a 3x5" box to help me memorize scripture. I decided I need to revive that box! I have 7 indexes for each day of the week; Sunday through Saturday plus one marked DAILY that I keep in the front of the box. Then I have 31 index cards marked 1 through 31 representing each day of the month. Sounds complicated! I also have 85 3x5" cards with one scripture verse on each with the reference written on the back. These verses have been ones that I have memorized in the past, but as you can imagine by now they are all familiar but I can't remember them word for word or attach a book, chapter and verse. And most of these were memorized in the NIV but now our church uses the ESV.  I guess I will just stick with the NIV.

So what I do is place one card in the Daily spot and one in each of the day of the week spot as well as one in each day of the month spot. The extra's are placed in front. Each day I take out the Daily card and practice that verse. Then I remove the day of the week card for review and then review the appropriate day of the month card.

The next morning, I move the Daily card to the appropriate day of the week spot (moving the one in that spot to the appropriate day of the month spot. If you find over time that you have more than 3 verses in your day of the month spot, just move them out to the front of your box. In time, verses will be memorized for those times when you need them.

There you go! A painless way to work at memorizing bible verses.