This guest post was done by Kenneth Matthews. He was a member of the FBC group that memorized the Sermon on the Mount. I asked him to provide his thoughts on the last few months.

This is the second round of memorization I’ve done.  The first one was to memorize Philippians and now I’ve completed Matthew 5-7.

Personally, I have found it to be rewarding. It’s been helpful when I hear sermons on related matters because I can immediately recall other related texts. Many people memorize a verse here and a verse there and that’s good, but this practice helps you really understand the context of what you’re memorizing, rather than picking a verse and trying to apply it to something that may be completely out of context. Many times, verses we focus on memorizing are ‘warm and fuzzy’, but this practice forces you to confront hard verses and really examine the text. Second Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is inspired by God so we need to study all of Scripture, not just the parts we are comfortable with. It has also been convicting to study more of God’s Word and realize how fallen we really are and that it’s only by God’s grace through Christ that we can have a relationship with Him.

Contrary to what you might think, it doesn’t take much time to do. In fact, it’s been interesting to notice that just like exercise, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. The program divides the verses into manageable pieces of around 5 verses a week. I have found that it works well for me to practice the week’s verses when I’m waiting at red lights or repeat them to myself while driving, so if it’s something that you think you don’t have time to do, please reconsider.  If you can memorize the words to songs on the radio, why can’t you do that with The Word?