September 18, 2019 (Wednesday)
The Bible speaks of “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Consequently, there was a time when we had “sword drills” in Baptist churches. These were mainly done by children. The leader would order: “Attention!” Each child would stand at attention with his or her Bible at his or her side. The leader then said, “Draw swords!” The child would then hold the Bible in the palm in front of him or her, ready to turn to the verse about to be given. The leader might comment on the Scripture verse about to be commanded, and then, in a clear voice, would say the Bible Book, Chapter and Verse, twice, and then order, “Charge!” The person who found the verse would step forward, his or her Bible open to the verse, ready to be read. Many people had well-worn Bibles, especially if they participated in sword drills. In the process, they memorized many of those verses, and, if you could speak with one of them today, he or she would no doubt be able to quote some verses to you.
The verse, “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee,” tells us how to hold on to verses that help us in many ways as we journey through life.
At Bethel Baptist Church, Ingleside, we studied the book of Psalms, one by one, on Wednesday nights. There are 150 of them, and I wrote a blog about each of them. You can find them in the archives of this blog. When we completed our study, I sent each class member a copy of “25 Most Popular Verses from the Psalms.” Click here to see them.
The Bible is chock full of special verses that we can memorize. If we commit them to memory, they will always be there for us when we need them. Why not start today? The verses are found in all 66 books of the Bible, not just the Psalms. You can find them with simple searches here on the web. You will be glad you did.