The Diamond that is Mark Chapter one 

Mark Chapter One is our theme bible passage for this year.  It is like a beautiful diamond with many different facets.  We are going to be returning to this passage across the year to unpack many of its riches.  In fact we have already started!  In December last year we looked at Mark 1:1-8 to help us prepare for Christmas and saw the importance of thinking theologically, confessing sins, worshiping humbly, and expecting the Spirit. 

Through looking at this Chapter we will

• See that God prepared in advance for Jesus' coming.  
• Explore examples of the Words, Works, AND Ways of Jesus,
• Learn to discover the riches of other Gospel passages, and
• Grow in Content, Character, and Competency as followers of Christ.

As we begin this year, I encourage you to read through this chapter a number of times.

In fact, I would like to challenge you to memorize this whole chapter!!  

Here is an excerpt from an old blog post:
 

When will you memorize some more Scripture? Many people who have grown up in Sunday School may have memorized scripture verses at that time and memorized virtually nothing since.  But memorization is not just for children, it is also for adults (maybe even primarily for adults). 

Earlier in January I was reading an article on 'The New Yorker' website about the memorization of poetry.  You can read the full article here, but there was one paragraph that I thought was interesting:
 

The best argument for verse memorization may be that it provides us with knowledge of a qualitatively and physiologically different variety: you take the poem inside you, into your brain chemistry if not your blood, and you know it at a deeper, bodily level than if you simply read it off a screen. Robson puts the point succinctly: “If we do not learn by heart, the heart does not feel the rhythms of poetry as echoes or variations of its own insistent beat.”

How much more benefit could there be in the heart feeling the rhythms of God's word?

Memorziation is possible - some are better than others - but that is ok it is not a competition for perfection.  Memorization works through

• repetition (reading the passage out loud to yourself - seeing, speaking and hearing is 3x better than just reading in your mind!),
• concentration (avoiding distractions while you are doing it), and
• understanding (if you understand the passage you will find it easier to remember)

Here is a handy way to practice repitition: