Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Tuesday, October 21, Daniel 1

Chapter 1: Daniel is faithful to the ONE and ONLY God.

If you spent time yesterday reviewing the first six titles, the next step is simple. We "flesh out" Chapter One a little, linking "subtitles" for the various "points" within the chapter. Some chapters may only contain the point listed in the title itself, but others may have a few more, especially when you dig into the Gospels.

If it does contain only one point, you can add to the story line so you can "tell the story" to someone. It won't be word-for-word, but you'll find that the "points" you memorize will act as "memory sparks", and, depending on how thorough you get, you may find yourself giving a very accurate account, nearly word-for-word, for your mind retains a lot more than you think.

Here is the way I will "flesh-out" this skeleton. I will list the verse divisions for clarity, but I typically do not memorize that. I simply memorize the section titles in order:

Daniel 1: "Daniel is faithful to the ONE and ONLY God"
(1-2) Jerusalem in DONE in by Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar
(3-7) He takes captive the best ONES of the bunch
(8-16) Daniel and friends SHUN unclean food: Makes a deal.
(17-21) God blesses Daniel's faithfulness. He and friends become the chosen ONES of the Kingdom.

Notice that each subtitle either includes the number ONE or rhymes with ONE: "DONE in; best ONES; they SHUN; and the chosen ONES".

Now, you simply link these with a word picture, seeing the mighty "crown prince" barging into Jerusalem, kicking out the king and taking the best kids of the bunch, who push the food away and become the best of the bunch, maybe set on little thrones as leaders.

Well, that is the technical end. You have all day to do it, so give it a try!

Personally, I will spend today mulling over the chapter and memorizing this outline. I'm going to listen to a message or two on Daniel 1, and begin to tell the story to my pretty wife, a friend, and/or record my story on the voice mail of my cell phone. I will definitely include all the "one's and rhymes", to get them out of the front "port" of my mind and into my brain creases.

And tomorrow, I'm going to devote this contemplation on some thoughts I have learned today by prayerfully dwelling on this great chapter about the sovereignty of God.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps:

For the "brave of heart", this section will contain a "memory verse", if you want to augment your chapter knowledge with a specific verse quoted directly. You'll see it tomorrow as well. It can be included in your story-telling if you like.

Daniel 1:8a: "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank." (KJV)

The full verse is quite long, and for the purposes I have, this much of the verse gets the point across. We made a word picture Saturday that included the entire verse, so I'll simply repeat it here as a reminder:

Picture Daniel with one finger pointing to the "Son" of God and "shunning" the food. He will not "ate" the food because it will defile him, so he pushes it away. I used pointing to the "Son" with his "one" finger and "shun" because they rhyme with chapter ONE, and used will not "ate" instead of "eat" because this is verse 8, and "ate" rhymes with 8. In this way I link Daniel 1:8 to the verse. Also, to reinforce "8", maybe one of the drinks is V-8 juice spiked with wine!

And, a review of how to apply the phonetic alphabet technique:

For Chapter One, I will use a "Tie", because "T=1" in the alphabet, so it can only mean chapter 1, vowels fillers. For each verse 8, I use a familiar "memory character", which I use over and over again, so I know that when that character is in my word picture, I'll know the verse number. My friend "Vi in the V8" is mine for verses 8. She is always driving a car with a powerful "V8" engine in order to solidify the picture. And since V=8, Vi can only mean 8, she will help Daniel "shun" by "run"-ning" over the "defiling" food. Both are wearing huge Ties, to keep chapter one in mind. A sure way to link this verse to Daniel 1:8.