NOTE: I received this book for free from Christian Focus for the purpose of this review. I was required to be honest in my review, and the opinions I have expressed are my own.

I would describe myself as a Christian for the best part of 30 years. Throughout that time, I have picked up a decent amount of biblical knowledge, but I still struggle to quote Scripture and am too reliant on Google to find the verses I am trying to recall.

Kenneth Berding’s book ‘The Bible by Heart’ is about discovering the Bible’s way to memorise it.

The foundation that Berding lays out at the beginning is that the most important part of memorising the Bible is truly valuing Scripture for the transformation it brings into our lives and the deepening of our relationship with God. This context helps the practical elements from becoming legalistic in their approach.

I really appreciate the practicality of this book. Chapters include Read, Listen, Sing, Display, Write, Pray, Share, Meditate, and Review to help memorise parts of the Bible.

These chapters and methods are presented for your consideration of different approaches and to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach. There are multiple ways to memorise Scripture, and some methods will work better than others for different people.

So, this isn’t about trying to convince you to use a certain method, but showing you that there are multiple helpful methods, some that will appeal to you and some won’t. The method of singing Scripture does not appeal to me, but the method of reading it out does.

Berding also includes helpful comments on translations in the appendix to address the hesitancy that one may have, as translations are updated and different churches use different translations.

One question remains: will I put this into action?

Here are some quotes that stood out to me:

“The goal of Bible meditation is attachment to God’s revealed truth and a growing submission to God’s will as revealed in Scripture.”

“Some benefits that the biblical writers mention about knowing Scripture: 1. Knowing Scripture revives our souls, makes our simple minds wise, rejoices our hearts, and enlightens our eyes (Ps. 19:7-14). 2. Knowing Scripture helps us revere the Lord and know our God (Prov. 2:5). 3. Knowing Scripture protects us from impurity and sin (Ps. 119:9-11). 4. Knowing Scripture produces spiritual solidity and blessing (Ps. 1:3). 5. Knowing Scripture allows us to perceive more clearly the path ahead of us (Ps. 119:105). 6. Knowing Scripture humbles us and makes us teachable (Deut. 8:3). 7. Knowing Scripture invites instruction, correction, and training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16-17). 8. Knowing Scripture fills us with praise and upright hearts (Ps. 119:7).”

Read this book if…

If you have been wanting to memorise parts of the Bible but are unsure where to begin or how to do it.

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Thank you very much for reading. If you found this encouraging and helpful, please share it with friends and followers. Let me know in the comments if you’ve read ‘The Bible by Heart’ and what stood out to you from it, Dan :)

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