Prologue to "Memorized Verses"

Prologue

I became a Christian, long ago and far away, when I had two roommates who were active in the Navigators. The Navigators were (and are) heavily committed to God’s word and to evangelism.

Because of decisions that the local leadership made, the graduate students (there were at least 4 of us) were mostly left alone. We attended the general meetings and all went to church together, but they otherwise ignored us.

At that time, they had two “programs” that they wanted everyone who wanted to be in the Navigators to do: a Bible study called “The Design for Discipleship” and a set of verses to memorize called “The Topical Memory System." (TMS)

The TMS is a set of 60 verses. There are 5 major topics and each of those has 6 sub-topics. The expected rate of memorization is one verse a day, reviewing each verse for at least 30 days. I was not that fast.

However, these 60 verses, and about 120 more, are the foundation of my reputation as a “walking concordance.” Well, that and the ability to use the concordance and references in a normal Bible.

I am taking a long time to get to a point. Recently, pastor Tom recounted something that he had heard someone say. The person said that he thought that modern Christians were “perverting” the word of God because they do not spend long periods of time meditating on it. The criticism may sound harsh here. However, the remark, in its context, was a loving and compassionate word spoken in humility.

What struck me, as Tom spoke this, was that there are a number of verses that I have meditated on for years. The TMS verses I memorized 30 years ago. I dug out my old packs, and began to look at them.

I am going to post on them from time to time.