Lord of the Dead and the Living/ Bible Memorization

    Many years ago i was given a biography of Dawson Trotman, the founder of a Christian ministry called the Navigators. The primary emphasis of his life and of this ministry is personal discipleship and Bible memorization. Prior to reading I could not have told you where three verses were located and what they said despite, at that point in time, have been in the Church for twenty years, having listened to over a thousand sermons, and having participated in numerous Bible studies. After reading i was inspired to memorize over a thousand verses in the next several years including several entire NT books, six psalms and numerous passages. The problem with memorizing so many was that to review them took six or seven hours daily. However the Navigators' approach is to memorize the reference ( book, chapter and verse) along with the actual words of the verse or passage, and to state it both before and afterwards. As a result while i do not remember the words of many of the verses that I memorized i do recall the general idea and the location. This has served me very well in subsequent years.
    While we do not have a Biblical command stating "Thou shalt memorize," we do have powerful examples of this. When tempted in the desert, Jesus three times responded with quotations from the Old Testament. (Matthew 4). The Psalmist of Psalm 119 writes, "I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." ( v.11 ESV) The sermon of Peter in Acts 2 is laced with Biblical quotations from Joel, Psalm 16 and Psalm 110. This pattern continues throughout the NT.
   Memorizing Scripture is beneficial for prayer, evangelism, fighting temptation and godly counsel. Recently I have begun to add to my store with the following verses.
"That you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles." ( 2 Peter 3:2 ESV)
"For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be both Lord of the dead and of the living." (Romans 14:9 ESV)