Mastering the Bible

Former U.S. president Woodrow Wilson, who led America during the tumultuous years of World War 1, once quipped, "The Bible is the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God and spiritual nature and need of men. It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation."

After reflecting on how reading the Bible and applying its wisdom has changed my life, I couldn't agree more with Woodrow Wilson when he asserted that the Bible is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation. Praying and living uprightly, virtues that the Bible emphasizes, have a magical effect of cleansing us from a guilty conscience.

The Bible is indeed the supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God and spiritual nature and need of men. But imagine before Mum died early this year, I had grown so comfortable with staying at home and being provided for by my family that I was beginning to think that the Bible was losing its relevance in our modern world.

Come to think of it, the Bible is relevant in today's world given that people are still going to school, looking for jobs, getting married, bearing children, falling sick and losing their loved ones. Others are engaging in crime or going through divorce. And all of us are facing problems of one type or another.

All those issues, which the Bible addresses, are what make me think God's Word is still relevant in our modern world. On the issue of employment for instance, the Bible says that those who don't work should not eat. And on the issue of marriage, it warns us against committing adultery.

Truly, God's Word is as relevant today, if not more, as it was in biblical times. Prophet Isaiah was on point when he wrote, "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever." (Isaiah 40:8).

Over the past four months or so, I have been striving to master the Bible more deeply in an effort to live in the peace that surpasses all understanding. I have memorized some of the Bible verses that have comforted me. And boy, haven't I been comforted by numerous Bible verses!

In addition to that, I have drilled into memory the names of all biblical books and in the order in which they appear, something I thought impossible for me to do. Actually, I knew the names of all the biblical books; it's their order of appearance that was hazy in my mind.

And it's a 5-year old boy who challenged me to know by heart the order in which biblical books appear after he bowled me over with his ability to recite from memory the names of all biblical books. (Yes, you heard it right - a boy of 5 years!)

As I embarked on that seemingly impossible task, I thought if during my high school years I managed to memorize the first 20 chemical elements, starting with hydrogen and ending with calcium, then I could certainly know by heart the order in which biblical books appear.

The books that were difficult for me to master their order of appearance in the Bible are those of the minor prophets as well as the epistles of St. Paul. Luckily, I found some mnemonics that made the task easy for me.

For the books of the minor prophets, I used the mnemonic "Having Jesus Always Offers Joy" to memorize the first five books of the minor prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos...) and the mnemonic "My New Happy Zookeeper Hosts Zebra Manicures" to memorize the rest (Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk...)

As for the epistles of St. Paul, I used the mnemonic "Go Eat PopCorn" to memorize the order of four epistles (Galatians, Ephesians, Phillipians and Colossians). Having drilled the order of those four epistles into memory, I found the rest to be a cinch for me to memorize.

Besides knowing by heart the order in which biblical books appear, my other goal has been heeding what the Bible commands us. In fact, obeying the commands of the Bible pleases God more than memorizing its contents. Isn't it James who wrote in the Bible that faith without action is dead?

The Bible has a number of commands, some of which are hard to obey. Commands such as thinking noble thoughts, practising gratitude, forgiving those who wrong us, working hard in life, helping the less fortunate, always telling the truth and refraining from making false promises. I will be striving to obey those commands. So help me God.

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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on mastering the Bible, you might also enjoy another one on "Lessons From the Bible" which I wrote a couple of years ago. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.