Pressing On

with THE WORD

A study of the Scriptures to discover who God is, what He is like, and how to partner with Him now.

Filtering by Tag: verses to memorize

The simplest way to describe Jesus

My mentor, Joe, taught me how to study the Bible.  It involves a 3-step process: first Observation, then Interpretation, followed by Application.  I have since taught this method to many others over the last 20 years.  Teaching it typically involves a classroom or small group setting, but I have taught this 1-on-1 as well.  Broken up over 8 weekly lessons, there is plenty of opportunity for people to practice and ask questions as they learn how to study the Scriptures for themselves.

After teaching this method a couple of times in a classroom setting, Joe had an unexpected request for me.  He wanted the entire 8-lesson process to be condensed down to a 1-page handout.  He was meeting with someone soon to discuss how to properly Observe, Interpret, and Apply the Scriptures, and he thought a 1-page layout would be helpful as he talked through the process…and he was looking at me to create it.

I was pretty stunned at his request.  I mean…8 lessons…each about 7 pages long…about 8 hours of class time…down to just one sheet of paper?  After I sat down at my computer, I began to move through the five stages of grief as I hacked and slashed section after section.  It took some time, but I finally was able to bring the whole thing down to just 2 pages.  I decided that these two pages could be printed back to back on 1 page – thus fulfilling Joe’s request.  I felt both relieved and a little accomplished when I emailed the final version to him.

If someone asked you, “Who is Jesus?  Why do Christians care so much about him?” – how would you respond?  Better yet, if you didn’t have a lot of time in that moment (and couldn’t review your life story or crack open the Bible), what would be your short, condensed answer?

It’s best to think about these kinds of situations before we actually get there…so, what would you say?

I would suggest having two verses memorized.  That’s it, just two.  The first one is the most frequently cited verse in all of Scripture, even in the culture, so it can be a familiar touchpoint to the one who’s asking:

John 3:16
For God loved the world in this way: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

But then, I would suggest following up with a second verse that comes a couple chapters later:

John 6:40
For this is the will of the Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

These two verses clearly convey who Jesus is, why he’s so important, and what happens to someone who believes in Him.  In a brief moment, you can demonstrate that God loves us, Jesus gives us eternal life when we believe in Him, and His promise is forever – all the way up to the last day

I highly encourage you to memorize them both, so you’re prepared for any conversation that comes your way. 

But back to my example story with Joe…Sometime later, I asked how his meeting went and if the 1-page summary was useful.  Nonchalantly, he said that he didn’t end up using it.  Once again, I was stunned.  All the work and heartache I had put into that thing…and it wasn’t even used???  I bit my tongue, and we moved on to talking about something else.  It still bothered me for a while that all my efforts didn’t make a difference. 

However, even though Joe did not use the 1-page summary that day, it has been tremendously useful to me on many other days.  I keep a copy of that 1-page in my Bible, and it has become a go-to reference for me as I study God’s Word.  Additionally, whenever a new group completes the 8 lesson course, I present a copy of the 1-page summary for them to keep handy as well.  Just because my efforts didn’t get immediately used the way I expected them to, it didn’t mean that my efforts were wasted.  God has had other uses for the work I put in all those years ago.

I suspect the same will be true as you memorize the two verses.  You might not have an immediate, pressing situation where you need to share them.  But I am certain that God will take your efforts to memorize His word and use it later…maybe even in a way you wouldn’t expect.

Keep Pressing,
Ken