Josh Summers | Bible Memory Goal
Join 10,000+ Christians around the world who want to memorize more of God's Word! Josh provides weekly encouragement and ideas that go beyond just rote memorization (repeating over and over). Learn how to internalize and apply the Bible in your life like never before!
if you miss this I'll be sad
Hey [CORRECTED_NAME GOES HERE], a late Happy Thanksgiving to you! I hope and pray that it was a meaningful time together with friends and family this year. I know it's been a challenging year, but it's good to look back and see all that God has blessed us with. You have a lot to be thankful for. For me, one of the surprising blessings from this past year came when I got to meet over 150 people from our Bible memory community in person in Dallas, Texas: We called it "Scripture Sync" and it was...
free book giveaway
Hey [CORRECTED_NAME GOES HERE], I've got so much to share with you this week, including an update on my family, a fun new interview with my friend Faith, and a giveaway of her new book! So be sure to read this email all the way through. It's been quite the week for me, to be honest. As a varsity basketball coach, we had an intense home game to prepare for (we won!), I was speaking every day for a local international school and to top it all off, my wife had to make an emergency trip back to...
I'm honestly just...tired
Hey [CORRECTED_NAME GOES HERE], I think there's a good reason why the Bible tends to use the metaphor of athletes and sports to help us understand life. There are so many parallels that make a lot of sense. One of my favorite sentences that Paul ever wrote in the Bible comes in his second letter to Timothy, considered one of the final letters he ever wrote. He says this: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. - 2 Timothy 4:7 Notice that Paul doesn't say...
a bold birthday idea
Hey [CORRECTED_NAME GOES HERE], the older we get, the less excited we seem to get about celebrating our birthday. My 8 year old boy is already counting down the days until his birthday in December. But me? I'd probably prefer nothing more than a simple family meal. I'd bet your the same way, right? It feels weird to invite friends to a party and ask them to "celebrate me!" Should they bring presents? Do you need a cake? It's all so awkward. But what if there was another option? I've heard of...
why don't churches do this?
Hey [CORRECTED_NAME GOES HERE], I have some good friends who are full-time church ministers. They're pastors, worship leaders, and children's church leaders. They wear so many different hats throughout the week and they're a good reminder to me: We need to be more thankful for our local church staff! Believe it or not, it can be a hard and stressful job. You can never please everybody and pastors often carry the burden of all the struggles they witness in their congregation. If you get...
reciting > reading (agree?)
Hey [CORRECTED_NAME GOES HERE], I know I've said this before, both in emails and on the Bible Memory Goal YouTube channel, but it bears repeating: The Bible recited from memory is so powerful! Don't get me wrong, I believe that God can use Scripture whether it is read, paraphrased, or even whispered. But when someone has meditated on a passage for weeks/months and repeated it a hundred times over, there's an intimacy with the words and a connection to the meaning that can't be understated....
Esther PDF, an interview + an announcement!
Hey [CORRECTED_NAME GOES HERE], this week is going to be a quick email update, with two big things to share and a new video interview you're going to love. First, if you missed the livestream with Larry Dinkins, it was a great training session going through all 10 chapters of Esther in less than 20 minutes. Even if you already know the story of Esther, this memory map is going to be such a useful tool! (link to the free PDF download below). But there was something else we announced publicly...
update on the Psalms Project
Hey [CORRECTED_NAME GOES HERE], last weekend we launched the Psalms Project with our community Patrons and so far it's been incredible! In less than a couple hours, we had all 150 chapters claimed for memorization. Now it's time to memorize! We had 64 Patrons participating as of Monday but that number is up to 77 as I write this. You're still welcome to join us if you want to take part! Learn more about becoming a Patron. Even if you aren't a part of the Psalms Project, I encourage you to...
he memorized Scripture (& almost started nuclear war)
Hey [CORRECTED_NAME GOES HERE], I think it's part of our human nature to to want to earn merit. We may denounce a "works-based gospel" - and rightly so - but in the deep recesses of our mind, we're still keeping a tally of our good deeds. Or maybe that's just me? There's the spiritualized approach to memory that says "You know, the more I memorize Scripture, the more I realize my own brokenness and need for God." And yes, this is absolutely true. No doubt! But there's also this other very...
memorizing multiple Bible translations?
Hey [CORRECTED_NAME GOES HERE], during our in-person event last summer, there was a fun session where we had a panel of 5 Bible memorizers on stage to answer a series of questions that were asked from the crowd. There were so many great answers, but there were so many questions that we didn't have a chance to get to get to all of them. This week, I sat down to answer a few of these questions including: Is there a problem memorizing different passages in different translations? What do I do if...
Join 10,000+ Christians around the world who want to memorize more of God's Word! Josh provides weekly encouragement and ideas that go beyond just rote memorization (repeating over and over). Learn how to internalize and apply the Bible in your life like never before!