Marking my Bible so I remember what I read

In my recent post on memorising Scripture, I wrote of highlighting the verses I memorise in my Bible. I use a highlighter pencil, not a texta, so it doesn't bleed. And I write a whole lot more in my Bible as well.

Amy commented, "Praise God for the adults who made Scripture memory a key part of nearly every stage in my youth. These verses are still in my brain, although I can't always recall the reference. There is no substitute for Scripture memory and it greatly helps with Bible study, for interpreting Scripture with Scripture is the best way to understand the Bible. (It is especially helpful for BSF challenge verses!)"

That's my hope as well. I know that there are times when I am listening to a sermon and suddenly I realise, "Oh! That meshes exactly with that verse I learnt a few weeks ago." Or I am studying my Bible on my own and I realise "Ah! That supports or builds upon what I was reading a month ago." Every time this happens I thank God for reminding me that His word is authoritative and He didn't make any mistakes when he was "breathing" it out via the prophets and apostles!

I owe BSF a great debt for teaching me to see that the whole Bible is interconnected in this way. Before doing Bible study with BSF, I didn't really realise that one passage might connect to many other verses in the Bible, unless it was in the footnotes already as a direct quote. Well, I knew I could look things up in a concordance to study a key word topic, but it's not quite the same. (And I had used a reference Bible, but I didn't ever check out the references unless I was bored or told to.) Now, when a preacher mentions a verse that supports the sermon message, I am keen to look it up to check it out - and sometimes I've already realised the connection myself!

[Some of my recent mark-ups in Galatians are shown in the image at right. Click on the image to enlarge.]

In my personal study, I have learnt to do a quick search for which verse exactly I am thinking has relevance to the passage I am studying. Having a visual memory helps, since I have underlined many of these verses which, when I read them, struck me as critical for some reason or other. I just pick the book from memory, then flick through until I find the underlining that matches where I remember the verse being on the page, if I cannot remember the exact verse ref. (This gave me terrible angst when I gave my old Bible to my mother last year and bought a new one with bigger printing and hence different passages per page, but I am used to the new one now.) Once I have found the verse which connects to the passage I am studying, I write a little verse ref in the blank column at the side of the original passage. This way I am gradually creating my own, personalised, reference Bible!

The other thing I write in my Bible is the main principle (marked with a colon :) and/or an important application (marked with a pointed bracket >), as well as brief prompts for prayer. Yes, I do write in very tiny letters! I also use one of those clicky pencils, rather than a standard one, so it isn't ever blunt. It keeps me on my mental toes to identify the key principle of a sermon or lecture, particularly if the speaker isn't an organised one. And then I try to put it into my own words, because if I can't, then I probably haven't understood it properly anyway. Having said that, I often talk to Jeff about the sermon on the way home from church and we often draw other principles from the passage, and it is often these that I record in my Bible, because they are more pertinent to me. I really like to record the principle and/or application when I am studying the Bible on my own, because it helps me to be precise in my thinking about a passage, rather than just mumbling around in my head about it without coming to a solid conclusion.

Sometimes, I want to write a whole lot more than one sentence about a passage, and I use my other blog Following the Star for that. In the past I have also used a paper journal, but I find that I never re-read what I have recorded in them, so I haven't kept up with that.

I have recently begun using index cards to begin building my very own personalised concordance! I'm not interested in rivalling Strong, but I do want to develop a resource that I can go to to help me find verses which relate to a particular Christian character trait/behaviour, as well as verses which encourage me as to God's will for me in my salvation, and verses which teach me about God's nature, so that I can worship Him in Truth. I put a key word at the top of the card, then write down the verses on the lines below as I come across them. So for example, from my study of Galatians, I have cards labelled such things as Do Good, Freedom, Hope, Live by the Spirit, Love, Righteousness, Stand Firm (in faith) and Zealous.

As well as general underlining, I also circle in my Bible a lot of the words which I decide in my reading are key to the passage. So in Galatians, for example, I have underlined every occurrence of the words gospel, faith, free/freedom, justify/justified, righteous/righteousness, believe/believing, Spirit and promise. Then at the beginning of the epistle, I have written a note to myself: "Key words and ideas: sanctification by faith vs observance of law, sonship vs slavery, promises of God fulfilled in Christ Jesus..." etc.

Now every time I open my Bible, I am reminded afresh of what I have learnt from reading it in the past. And I give thanks to my God, who was so gracious in providing this precious tool for understanding who He is and who He is making me to be!