Managing Your Memorization Schedule

Posted on July 20, 2011 Andy 86 comments

We recently introduced two new features to help you manage your memorization schedule but we have not really explained how they work. The two features are:

Reset Schedule - this is a button that appears on the 'Memverse Today' tab of the home page when you have fallen behind in your memory verse review.

Pending Verses - this allows you to set verses to an 'Inactive' status.

First, there are two definitions that you should understand.

1. Target Time - This is an option in your profile menu where you specify how much time you would like to spend memorizing each day.
2. Required Time - This is the time that Memverse calculates you need to spend each day to not fall behind on the memory verses you are currently working on.

The 'target time' has only two functions at the moment: 

1. to determine when to convert verses from 'Pending' to 'Active' (if you have checked the box on the profile page that allows Memverse to automatically convert verses from 'Pending' to 'Active' status when your required time is below your target time.)
2. to determine whether new verses start as 'Pending' or 'Active' when you add them.

The 'required time' is used in determining whether your verses are 'Active' or 'Pending' as outlined above.

It is also used to determine when to give you the option to reset your schedule. The 'Reset Schedule' button will appear when the number of verses you have due on any given day is more than 3x your 'required time'. For example, if your current required time is 10 minutes per day but you have 35 verses due for review that day, you can reset your schedule. Memverse will reschedule the verses into the future in such a way that you will have about double your required time for the next while.

If you are finding that you have too many verses to review each day but you are never seeing the 'Reset Schedule' button, then it's because you quite simply have too many active verses and you should convert some of them to 'Pending'. Take a look at the required time that Memverse thinks you need. If you don't think you can allocate that amount of time each day to memorization, you should reduce the number of verses you're working on.

Recommended settings

We recommend that you use the following settings:

• repetition interval = 1 year
• target time = about 3/4 of what you think you can manage each day (this allows for the occasional missed day)
• 1st letter prompts = 'Learning' or 'Never' (these are a big crutch and you won't really remember verses unless you stop using them)
• 'Always show feedback' should be unchecked. (this is also a big crutch and you're unlikely to become fluent in your verses if you always use it)
• 'Add verses as needed' - this is up to you. It's useful to have it checked because then you don't need to worry about converting verses from 'Pending' to 'Active'

Those settings above will work well if you're planning a long term memorization program as you will be less likely to get overwhelmed and you will really start to memorize the verses properly. With these settings, if you go away on vacation for a few days or take a break, you can then reset your schedule when you return and you will soon be back on track. I can't emphasize enough the importance of keeping your work load manageable. This is a marathon not a 100m sprint :)

These probably aren't the best settings for those of you who are working towards the Bible Bee competition but you can share your settings in the comments below.

Preparing for Bible Bee quiz

Posted on July 14, 2011 Alex Watt 164 comments

The Friday, July 15, Bible Bee quiz will be at 4:00 PM EDT on a new part of the site for live quizzes. We are still working on this but wanted to have something to try out for the first time publicly. If you can join us, that would be great! Questions will be from Week 6 (with one exception) and will be about 2/3 Primary verses. We hope the quiz will go faster with the automated system. As you prepare for the quiz, please take a few minutes now to upgrade your browser. This is very important as we are using newer technologies that are not compatible with some older browsers.

If you're not sure how to upgrade to the most recent version of your browser, please visit your Browser's Help Resources. There, you should find the most up-to-date instructions on how to upgrade to the most recent version:

• Firefox
• Google Chrome
• Internet Explorer
• Opera
• Safari

Also, please make sure that the Bible version you have set in your Account Profile is the Bible Bee version you want to use for the quiz. While you're there, you may want to take your version out of your display name as this will no longer be necessary.

If you have any questions, please let us know. To enter the quiz room, please click here. There is not much to see until we start. At 4:00 PM EDT we will start the quiz, but please make sure you arrive early so you can participate. It seems that the software does not handle late arrivals very well... If you cannot make the beginning of the quiz, you should at least have the page open on your computer so that you can jump in when you are available. Hope you can attend! Thanks.

Upcoming Bible Bee quizzes

Posted on July 05, 2011 Alex Watt 624 comments

The concept of Bible Bee quizzes on Memverse seems to be quite popular. :) Please mark your calendars and spread the word about upcoming quizzes: Friday, July 8, at 4:00 PM EDT; Friday, July 15, at 4:00 PM EDT; and Friday, July 22, at 4:00 PM EDT. I plan to lead the first quiz on this blog post (materials will be from Week 5, mainly Primary verses with a few Junior as well); the later two quizzes will each probably have a separate blog post to run on and other volunteers will probably run them. Update: Bethany will be running the July 22nd quiz and we are still looking for anyone who would like to run the quiz on the 15th. :) Thanks.

We expect each quiz to last about an hour and there will be fifteen questions. For ten of the questions (the first five and the last five), I will post a comment with the text of a Bible Bee verse passage in all five Bible Bee approved versions (NIV, ESV, KJV, NKJV, and NASB) and you will have a minute to post the reference. For five of the questions (they will be in the middle of the quiz), I will post a reference and you will have several minutes to respond with the reference at the beginning, the verse text in the middle, and the reference again at the end. Please also include your version to make it easier for scoring. For example, if I comment with Genesis 1:1, the correct response would be something like this:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 NIV

If you do not include your version in each comment, it makes it more difficult for the volunteers helping to score. Omitting a reference or your version will cost you a point for each occurrence.

You can receive a maximum of 12 points for each type of question. For details on the scoring for "recitations", please see below. For the questions where you post a reference for the verse text given, you will receive four points for the correct book, four points for the correct chapter, and four points for the correct verse number. For example, if you posted 2 John 1:9 instead of 1 John 1:9, you would receive 8 points.

Over half of the questions will be Primary verses and several may be drawn from the Junior verses.

If you would like to help score, please let me know after we finish the quiz by posting a comment with the text "helpscore" in it. Otherwise, it is difficult to keep track of who is helping. If you indicate that you would like to help score, I will have information about how to score and will assign you to a few people. You can then look for their answers on the page (CTRL + F in many browsers allows you to search and find their name and comments) and tabulate them on your computer. When you have a final score for a person, you will please post it in a comment with their name. When all scores are returned, this post will be updated with that information.

If you plan to be participating in the first quiz or have any questions, please indicate that in a comment below (unless you have already done so on the other blog post). I also welcome any suggestions. Hope to see you there! Thanks.

How we score recitations: The maximum score for a recitation is 12 points. Like the Bible Bee, leaving off a reference at the beginning or end of a "recitation" is a 1-point deduction, as is any one word error (one word omission, insertion, or change - like swapping "created" for "made"). You see above the correct response for reciting Genesis 1:1. Here is a 6-point recitation in NIV:

In the beginning He created the earth and heavens. Genesis 1:1

We start with 12 points, then evaluate the recitation: one point is subtracted for forgetting the reference at the beginning, another point is subtracted for using "He" in place of "God", two points are subtracted for switching "heavens" and "earth" (it was two one-word changes) and another point for leaving out "the" (second-to-last word). Additionally, we subtract a point because the response did not include the version. Please note that you cannot count more than 12 errors - i.e., no one ends up with a negative score on a passage. If you want to help score but have questions on how this works, please ask us for clarification.

Update: Thanks to Zachary Baas, Sarah, Phil Walker, AmyV, Hannah Cupcake, Simeon, Christian Alexander, and Rachel Crosswhite for helping with scoring. Below are the point totals. We even had a three-way tie (see the 88 pointers)! You all did great. I was impressed that we had contestants from Primary Timothy Track to Senior National Track and I think almost everywhere in between. I recognize that not all of you had to study some of these verses, but you all did fantastic! Congratualations! May every word that comes from the mouth of God truly be our bread. I want to highlight a quote from C.S. Lewis that was also part of our Sword Study recently:

[T]he Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.

Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. New York: HarperOne, 1980. Print.

May our study of Scripture be diligent and may it lead others to Jesus. If we are keeping it to ourselves, it is tragically a waste of time. But if we are doing it for God and letting the Truth influence every area of our lives so that others are being drawn to Him, it is because He has begun a work in us that He will continue to use for His glory (Phil 1:6), and that is no waste! Keep it up, all!

Josiah - 20 points
Simeon - 28 points
Simeon's sister - 28 points
Lauren Watt - 28 points
Olivia - 36 points
Clara K. - 36 points
BrookeNicole - 60 points
Ranch4Christ - 72 points
Rachel - 74 points
Emma - 88 points
Jamie - 88 points
BibleBeeJunior11 - 88 points
Hannah Cupcake - 89 points
Angela - 96 points
Phil Walker - 102 points
Rachel Crosswhite - 108 points
Sarah - 108 points
ChampionBuilders - 120 points
SavedByGrace - 132 points
Abigail Grace - 139 points
AmyV - 148 points
Christian Alexander - 150 points
Zachary Baas - 156 points

Thanks to Christian Alexander for catching a scoring mistake I made: I was giving 15 points maximum for references. This should be fixed now. If anyone else notices any errors, please let us know and we will work to rectify it as quickly as possible. Thanks.

Tell Someone About Memverse!

Posted on July 04, 2011 Dakota Lynch 105 comments

If you’ve been memorizing Scripture for very long, then you’ve probably already began to experience the amazing joy of having God’s Word hidden in your heart. After all, as we are told in John 13:17 obedience brings joy and none are more apt to obey God than they who have said with David, “I will delight myself in Thy statutes; I will not forget Thy Word.” (Psalm 119:16) It was once I personally began to realize this joy for myself that Scripture memorization became more than simply a personal part of my Christian life, but something I strongly believed every Christian with a Bible should do. Not only is it in your best interest if you desire to make your way prosperous and have good success (Joshua 1:8), but, to put it quite simply, the choice between memorizing Scripture and neglecting it is, in itself, a choice between obedience and disobedience (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).

When I began to encourage others to memorize Scripture, however, I was struck with a startling realization: apparently 99% of our world's population suffers from extreme memory loss. Almost every person I speak with either is unashamedly unwilling to put forth the necessary effort, or believes their efforts would be in vain even if they did try. It breaks my heart because at one time I used to make those same excuses and I know that if they only realized what they‘re missing out on, nothing on this temporary earth could keep them from memorizing God’s eternal Word (Isaiah 40:8).

What has been your experience as you’ve encouraged others to memorize Scripture? Have you discovered any particular techniques which seem to get people especially excited about Scripture? From somebody who has watched every one of his referrals go inactive, I would especially like to hear what some of our top referrers have to say and gain insight as to how you tell others about memverse. Keep in mind also that, if you’ve been trying to figure out a way to spread the word about memverse and Scripture memorization in general, you can always utilize memverse’s flyer by posting in on your church’s bulletin board or send out an email blast to your friends. And don't forget word of mouth still works pretty well, too!

Pending Verses

Posted on July 01, 2011 Andy 39 comments

You can now toggle your memory verses between 'Pending' and active status by clicking on the status from the 'My Verses' page. Remember that you can filter your verses by clicking on the magnifying glass on the right, next to the 'Feedback' tab, a.k.a. the only place to ever ask for help :).

I highly recommend that everyone trot over to the Account -> Profile page and update your target time. We recommend selecting one level below what you think you can manage. For instance, if you think you can manage ten minutes a day, select the 7 minutes per day setting because that will allow for the occasional missed day. We calculate the number of minutes per day to be roughly equivalent to the number of verses per day. So a setting of 10 minutes would mean you would review, on average, ten verses per day.

If you don't want Memverse to automatically convert verses from 'Pending' to active status over time then uncheck the box labelled 'Add verses as needed'.

My personal recommendation is that you let Memverse convert verses to active status as your daily work load drops below your target, rather than adjusting them constantly yourself. But if you're a competitive Bible memorizer (you know who you are!) then you might want to adjust the number of pending verses yourself.

July 1 Bible Bee quiz

Posted on July 01, 2011 Alex Watt 640 comments

Ben Watt is hosting the July 1st Bible Bee practice quiz at 4:00 PM EDT (8:00 PM GMT). We will use this blog post for the first one. We expect the quiz to last a little over half of an hour and there will be fifteen questions. For ten of the questions (the first five and the last five), I will post a comment with the text of a Bible Bee verse passage in all five Bible Bee approved versions (NIV, ESV, KJV, NKJV, and NASB) and you will have a minute to post the reference. For five of the questions (they will be in the middle of the quiz), he will post a reference and you will have several minutes to respond with the reference at the beginning, the verse text in the middle, and the reference again at the end. Please also include your version to make it easier for scoring. For example, if he comments with Genesis 1:1, the correct response would be something like this:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 NIV

If you do not include your version in each comment, it makes it more difficult for the volunteers helping to score. Omitting a reference or your version will cost you a point for each occurrence.

You can receive a maximum of 12 points for each type of question. For details on the scoring for "recitations", please see below. For the questions where you post a reference for the verse text given, you will receive four points for the correct book, four points for the correct chapter, and four points for the correct verse number. For example, if you posted 2 John 1:9 instead of 1 John 1:9, you would receive 8 points.

Over half of the questions will be Primary verses and several may be drawn from the Junior verses.

If you would like to help score, please let me know after we finish the quiz by posting a comment with the text "helpscore" in it. Otherwise, it is difficult to keep track of who is helping. If you indicate that you would like to help score, I will have information about how to score and will assign you to a few people. You can then look for their answers on the page (CTRL + F in many browsers allows you to search and find their name and comments) and tabulate them on your computer. When you have a final score for a person, you will please post it in a comment with their name. When all scores are returned, this post will be updated with that information.

If you plan to be participating in the quiz or have any questions, please indicate that in a comment below (unless you have already done so on the other blog post). I also welcome any suggestions. Hope to see you there! Thanks.

How we score recitations: The maximum score for a recitation is 12 points. Like the Bible Bee, leaving off a reference at the beginning or end of a "recitation" is a 1-point deduction, as is any one word error (one word omission, insertion, or change - like swapping "created" for "made"). You see above the correct response for reciting Genesis 1:1. Here is a 6-point recitation in NIV:

In the beginning He created the earth and heavens. Genesis 1:1

We start with 12 points, then evaluate the recitation: one point is subtracted for forgetting the reference at the beginning, another point is subtracted for using "He" in place of "God", two points are subtracted for switching "heavens" and "earth" (it was two one-word changes) and another point for leaving out "the" (second-to-last word). Additionally, we subtract a point because the response did not include the version. Please note that you cannot count more than 12 errors - i.e., no one ends up with a negative score on a passage. If you want to help score but have questions on how this works, please ask us for clarification.

We are working on a new Memverse live quiz feature with automatic scoring for use in the next few weeks.

Thanks Ben for running this quiz!

Comment guidelines: Please stay on topic as this helps everyone who scores your answers. Let's see how many people we can have participating with as few comments as possible. :) Thank you for your cooperation!

Please note: As Andy mentioned in the comments, please make sure you have 8 verses in your account (Learning or Memorized) so that your comments do not have to be approved.

Update: Thanks everyone for participating! We had a great quiz. Thank you to Ben for running the quiz, and to BibleBeeJunior11, Nina, Carissa, Bethany, and David Stelzl for all their help scoring. Below are the scores. (If you think we made a mistake while scoring you, please let us know and we will do our best to rectify the situation.)

Matthew Sinclair - 16 points
Audrey - 20 points
Elisabeth - 20 points
Andrew - 28 points
Simeon - 44 points
Jamie - 56 points
David Stelzl - 56 points
BibleBeeJunior11 - 76 points
Rachel - 82 points
Zachary McMahan - 94 points
Rachel Crosswhite - 95 points
Nina - 96 points
Sarah Stelzl - 105 points
Joshua Harrell - 119 points
Bethany - 124 points
Grace Mieczkowski - 131 points
Alex Watt - 132 points
SavedByGrace - 141 points
Christian Alexander - 168 points
Carissa - 171 points

Congratulations everyone! We hope you enjoyed the quiz. May God bless each of you as you hide His Word in your hearts through the Bible Bee - something far more important than your score in the quiz. We'll let you know soon about future quizzes. Thanks.

Bible Bee NIV Verse Tools

Posted on June 25, 2011 Alex Watt 19 comments

Phil Walker has compiled several documents of Bible Bee verses and prompterizations in NIV (1984 edition) and asked me to post them here.

Bible Bee verses:

Primary verses - PDF format

Junior verses - PDF format

Senior verses - PDF format

Prompterized verses:

Primary prompterized - PDF format

Junior prompterized - PDF format

Senior prompterized - PDF format

If you see any errors, please let us know in the comments and we will look into it.

Again, thank you to Phil Walker to compiling all the prompterized verses and the Primary and Junior documents! I have always found having a list of all the verses printed out very helpful.

Overloaded? Set Memory Verses to Inactive

Posted on June 20, 2011 Andy 73 comments

We have finally added a long requested feature. Memory verses can now be classified as 'Memorized', 'Learning' or 'Pending'. You can manually set verses that you don't want to be working on to 'Pending' status by clicking on the verse on the 'My Verses' page. Then click on the verses status and after a few seconds it will change from 'Learning' (or 'Memorized') to 'Pending' and will no longer be included in your daily memorization schedule.

If this sounds like a lot of work, the system is set up by default to work automatically. Once you set your time allocation on your 'Profile' page, Memverse will automatically add verses from your 'Pending' list once your work load (the number reported at the end of each memorization session and on the 'Memverse Today' tab on the home page) falls below your time allocation.

There are currently a few limitations to the system that will be fixed over time: If you're already memorizing a passage and you add new verses into that passage then the verses will be automatically reviewed as part of the passage and will no longer be classified as 'Pending'.

Whether you plan to use this feature or not, it is important that you set your daily time allocation so that Memverse knows roughly how many verses to present you with each day. If you currently have many more verses than you can handle, then this would be a good time to go and set some of them to 'Pending'.

Bible Bee practice quiz

Posted on June 20, 2011 Alex Watt 598 comments

We will be holding two more Bible Bee practice quizzes here on Memverse in the near future: this Friday, June 24, and next Friday, July 1, both at 4:00 PM EDT or 8:00 PM GMT. We will use this blog post for the first one. Each quiz should last about half of an hour and there will be fifteen questions. For ten of the questions (the first five and the last five), I will post a comment with the text of a Bible Bee verse passage in all five Bible Bee approved versions (NIV, ESV, KJV, NKJV, and NASB) and you will have a minute to post the reference. For five of the questions (they will be in the middle of the quiz), I will post a reference and you will have several minutes to respond with the reference at the beginning, the verse text in the middle, and the reference again at the end. Please also include your version to make it easier for scoring. For example, if I comment with Genesis 1:1, the correct response would be something like this:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 NIV

If you do not include your version in each comment, it makes it more difficult for the volunteers helping to score. Omitting a reference or your version will cost you a point for each occurrence.

You can receive a maximum of 12 points for each type of question. I hope to score very much like the Bible Bee for errors in the verse "recitations" (the middle five questions). For the questions where you post a reference for the verse text given, you will receive four points for the correct book, four points for the correct chapter, and four points for the correct verse number. For example, if you posted 2 John 1:9 instead of 1 John 1:9, you would receive 8 points.

Over half of the questions will be Primary verses and several may be drawn from the Junior verses.

If you would like to help score, please let me know after we finish the quiz by posting a comment with the text "helpscore" in it. (I plan to help orchestrate scoring for both quizzes.) Otherwise, it is difficult to keep track of who is helping. Having the "experience" of doing this once before, I think I have a better idea of how to do it. If you indicate that you would like to help score, I will have information about how to score and will assign you to a few people. You can then look for their answers on the page (CTRL + F in many browsers allows you to search and find their name and comments) and tabulate them on your computer. When you have a final score for a person, you will please post it in a comment with their name. When all scores are returned, this post will be updated with that information.

If you plan to be participating in the quiz or have any questions, please indicate that in a comment below (unless you have already done so on the other blog post). I also welcome any suggestions. We are working on a new quizzes section of the site to make this even better in the future. Hope to see you there! Thanks.

Please note: Sarah will be running the Friday, June 24th quiz. Thank you!

Comment guidelines: Please stay on topic as this helps everyone who scores your answers. Thank you for your cooperation!

Update (June 24): We had a great quiz today! Thank you to Sarah for running the quiz, scoring over half the questions, and tabulating the results. Thank you also to Bethany, Ranch4Christ, Hannah Cupcake, and Ben Watt for their help with scoring. Now for the scores:

Charity Harrell - 20 points
Stephen - 22 points
David Stelzl Jr. - 44 points
Lauren Watt - 53 points
Super401 - 63 points
Hannah Cupcake - 76 points
Joshua Harrell - 88 points
Rachel Crosswhite - 96 points
BibleBeeJunior11 - 107 points
Alex Watt - 112 points
Ranch4Christ - 124 points
Ben Watt - 143 points
SavedByGrace - 147 points
Christian Alexander - 152 points
Bethany - 167 points
Carissa - 177 points
Jamie - 180 points

Congratulations to all of you! Good job! Like we said last time, the most important thing is not your score in a quiz, but hiding God's Word in your heart. I pray all of you are doing that and hope to see many of you next week!

Bible Bee quiz

Posted on June 10, 2011 Alex Watt 510 comments

Today, June 10, at 8:00 PM GMT (4:00 PM EDT), we will have a Bible Bee practice quiz here on Memverse using this blog post. The quiz should last about half of an hour and there will be fifteen questions. For ten of the questions (the first five and the last five), I will post a comment with the text of a Bible Bee verse passage in all five Bible Bee approved versions (NIV, ESV, KJV, NKJV, and NASB) and you will have a minute to post the reference. For five of the questions (they will be in the middle of the quiz), I will post a reference and you will have several minutes to respond with the reference at the beginning, the verse text in the middle, and the reference again at the end. Please also include your version to make it easier for scoring. For example, if I comment with Genesis 1:1, the correct response would be something like this:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 NIV

You can receive a maximum of 12 points for each type of question. I hope to score very much like the Bible Bee for errors in the verse "recitations" (the middle five questions). For the questions where you post a reference for the verse text given, you will receive four points for the correct book, four points for the correct chapter, and four points for the correct verse number. For example, if you posted 2 John 1:9 instead of 1 John 1:9, you would receive 8 points.

Over half of the questions will be Primary verses and a few will be drawn from the Junior verses.

If you would like to help score, please let me know. Scoring the verse "recitations" will be the most difficult.

If you plan to be participating in the quiz or have any questions, please indicate that in a comment below. Hope to see you there! Thanks.

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who participated and especially to those who helped score: Chelse Brun, Zachary Baas, vburk, SavedByGrace, and Phil Walker.

Scores:

Lauren Watt: 12 points
David Stelzl Jr. and Jonathan Shabab: 36 points
Sarah Stelzl: 44 points
Phil Walker: 52 points (Thank you for helping verify blog comments and I hope your internet connection works better for you next time)
Josiah DeGraaf: 55 points
Daniel DeGraaf: 81 points
stump: 87 points
Joshua Harrell: 89 points
MurphyFamily: 95 points
Ben Watt: 97 points
Chelse Brun: 116 points
Jamie: 131 points
Clara K.: 132 points
vburk and Zachary Baas: 147 points
Abigail Grace: 153 points
runner: 161 points
SavedByGrace: 176 points

Congratualations to all! I had a lot of fun with this quiz and trust you enjoyed it as well. Keep hiding His Word in your hearts!

Note: My apologies for any scoring errors. If you would like me to double-check on your score, please let me know. Thanks.

Help Verify the New American Standard

Posted on June 03, 2011 Andy 36 comments

First, I'd like to thank those of you who are helping verify verses. It truly is a tremendous help and has freed up our time to work on other components of the site. At the moment, we are short of people to help verify the New American Standard version (NAS). If you're using that translation, and if you're the type of person with high attention to detail, then please consider helping to check that translation. Just visit the verse verification page and follow the instructions. The page does take a while to load since with all the new Bible Bee verses being entered we are struggling to keep up.

The Truth of God's Word

Posted on June 02, 2011 Dakota Lynch 3 comments

"Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come."

               -John 16:13

Charles Spurgeon once said that discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong; rather, it is being able to tell the difference between right and almost right. Just as our adversary the devil masquerades as an “angel of light”  hoping to deceive whom he may (II Corinthians 11:14), so his schemes are often very aptly disguised and it takes a heart and soul saturated with the Holy Ghost and God’s Word to discover the lies which are hidden beneath the surface. It took less than 50 words to trick Eve into taking forbidden fruit, and it was all because she failed to look any further than the few grains of truth scattered about the surface what Satan was telling her (Genesis 3:1-5).

As James reminded us in his epistle, “whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” (2:10) In other words, you have to walk in the whole truth or you’re not walking in truth at all. If we add to it, we implicate its insufficiency apart from us (Proverbs 30:6); if we diminish from it, we suggest that what God gave us is inaccurate and flawed (Deuteronomy 12:32).

“For ever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven.

               -Psalm 119:89

The truth cannot be changed. It is “forever settled in heaven”, and must be either accepted or rejected by all who hear it (Psalm 119:89; John 17:17). As we memorize Scripture together here on memverse, we do far more than just get into the Word; we are allowing God to actually get the Word, and thus the truth, into us! Our next task is to allow that truth to work its way back out in our everyday lives, being doers of the Word and not hearers only (James 1:22).

Tagging Bible Bee Verses

Posted on June 01, 2011 Andy 35 comments

 I think it would be a great idea if all the Bible Bee verses were tagged in a consistent fashion. If everyone follows last year's most popular approach to tagging the Bible Bee verses that would mean we would use:

Bible Bee 2011 Level 1

Bible Bee 2011 Level 2

Bible Bee 2011 Level 3

Any thoughts?

Two new features

Posted on May 31, 2011 Andy 13 comments

There are two new features that you might not have noticed with all the changes on Memverse:

1. Accuracy test results - at the end of the accuracy test the final results page will now show you the difference betweeen what you entered and the actual memory verse text. It shows every difference so even minor differences that wouldn't result in you getting the question wrong (e.g. incorrect capitalization, omitting dashes) are shown.
2. Reset your schedule - if you've ever gone on vacation you'll know that returning to hundreds of overdue verses can be quite daunting! On the home page, on the 'Memverse Today' tab, you can now reset your schedule. Anytime you have too many overdue verses you will be given the option to re-allocate those verses over the following few memorization sessions. This is for those of you who, like me, prefer to have a sense of completion each day as you gaze fondly at your progress chart.

Memverse Redesigned!

Posted on May 28, 2011 Andy 46 comments

Welcome to our new look!

I want to thank up front, Emeka Rajis (website) for the brilliant job he did redesigning the site. He did it free of charge so please give him a heartfelt thank you in the comments below.

Second, as with any change of this magnitude, there are going to be bugs that we couldn't catch. If you find one, please click on the 'Feedback' tab on the right of the screen to let us know about it. Please be sure to include your browser and version e.g. Firefox 3.6, Internet Explorer 8 etc. so that we can recreate it and get it fixed as quickly as possible.