BibleQuizzer.net

This is the second poll of the 2011-12 Bible Quiz season.

Others receiving votes:
Scripture 5,
Faith SC 2,
Calvary SC 1

In 1999, with great anticipation I joined my church’s Bible Quiz team. I tried to start slowly, but I was asked to memorize 41 verses for the first quiz – in one month! The Lord helped me work on my verses each day, and I was surprised at the end to be able not only to memorize them but also to quiz out in my very first quiz. That became a mile-stone in my life, the beginning of a path I have never regretted. I quizzed for six years until I graduated, and then I coached for several years after that. Right now I am about to graduate from Seminary, get married, and in the next few years go as a missionary to the Middle East. Looking back, I can honestly say that Bible Quiz has been one of the greatest influences in my life.

In one way it was my sport. I well remember meticulously adjusting my light between questions, leaning forward on the edge of my seat, waiting for the exact second to spring, and then standing poised, quoting in my head and evaluating each possibility as the clock raced. Eagerly, my teammates and I would watch the list of remaining teams in each tournament, wondering how far we could make it. Sometimes we went all the way. I remember that in high school the “Athens Tournament” was my favorite day of the year.

But the quizzing itself was only the fun part: the accountability for something much bigger going on in my life. God changed me through the Bible. I spent time daily (or nightly) memorizing my new verses and reviewing. At school I walked around with bulging pockets full of 3×5 cards with my verses written on them. In 10th grade, when I memorized John, I remember sitting in the living room with Dad as he drilled me. I still have shoe boxes full of piles of verse cards rubber-banded together. After the first couple years I began to review my previous material – I didn’t want to lose it after all that effort! I would quote my chapters in the Pauline epistles while I washed dishes. And I would quote from John in the morning while I showered. I typically spent only 20 to 30 minutes a day (or less) of sit-down-and-study-time on Bible Quiz since I didn’t have time any more than most people. But doing a little each day made a big difference, and it helped me form some wonderful habits that have helped me all the way through college. I think I look back even more fondly on the memorizing than on the quizzing – although I still get itchy to compete at times.

More than anything, however, I appreciate what God did in my heart through His Word. Bible Quiz motivated me and showed me that I could do more with my Bible than I ever realized before. One of my greatest joys is meditating on chapters while I walk around at school, drive my car, or have my devotions. The Bible is not just something I have – now it has me. It is one thing to know a truth, but it is another thing to hear God’s actual words in your mind. The Holy Spirit brings back verses from the epistles and John constantly right at the moment of temptation or when I am sharing God’s message of salvation or encouragement. I have forgotten to some degree many of the chapters I learned, but others have become embedded by constant use. And no one can ever take them away from me.

During college, I did not memorize quite as much, although I did some. But this summer, God led me to start on a new adventure – one that thrills my heart: I am trying to memorize Isaiah. Every night I review while I drive home, memorize my next three verses, and then read a column or two ahead. I have discovered that doing a little a day goes a long way. Now I am working on chapter 19. Before the summer, the book was a mystery. But now some of the prophecies of Christ’s future kingdom are becoming good friends, and I am praying that God will change my life through this book, just as He has changed my life before.

Jeremiah 15:16 says, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.” Can I say from the bottom of my heart that you who know the Lord will never regret the time you invest in memorizing passages of Scripture? God’s Word is becoming part of me, and I have tasted and seen God so much more than I could have imagined otherwise. Thank you, Lord, for Bible Quiz!

So here I am, figuring out how in the world to even start in the telling of how Bible Quiz has impacted my life. For me, it’s almost like asking how breathing has impacted my life. I was not your normal quizzer. This isn’t because I had some outrageous skill level (there have always been quizzers more talented) or because learning the verses made me super spiritual (I am grateful to God daily for His grace); it’s because I grew up as the daughter of a great pioneer of Bible Quiz in the state of Florida. It wasn’t ever an activity on my calendar. It was instead part of my life. It invaded my home where, from the time I was five or six, there was a constant stream of high school students quoting verses. It invaded my memory as I walked around our swimming pool, diagramming sentences in my head to be able to remember my verses (weird, I know, but you have your methods, too). It invaded my family’s motor home, where students of all ages piled in to go to whatever the next competition was. It invaded my emotions as my three greatest crushes prior to my husband were all guys I met through Bible Quiz. My closest friends were teammates and opponents, my role models were older quizzers, my family’s dinner guests were often other quizzing families… and now countless competitions, several photo albums, many years, and over three thousand verses later, I am supposed to figure out a manageable something to tell you that is hopefully interesting and inspiring, and it makes my head spin. So I thought about it and decided to cover the three aspects of quizzing that I most easily return to, even though I am fifteen years out of high school. They are my dad, the relationships I built, and the verses I learned.

Paul West taught me everything I knew about Bible Quizzing (well, Matt and my mom helped, of course). He did this for a lot of people, before my time and after, and he was really good at it. He came up with methods to help us quote our verses until we could recite them with zero hesitation. He spent time teaching us strategies that would help us win. And every once in awhile, he would halt the comfortable chaos of everyone spread out across the room quoting verses to each other to tell us why a certain verse in the section inspired him. The first was done with great forcefulness, the second with great determination, and the third with great passion and usually a tear or two in his eyes. And in the process of doing these three things, he taught me things that have impacted my life profoundly. He taught us to value winning (and his teams were always good), but I still felt like he was most proud of us when we remembered other people’s names or treated each other kindly. He drove it home to us regularly that we would not be a winning team if we tried to quiz against the other teams (anyone can get up faster), but we had to quiz against the quizmaster by learning his cadence and keeping our focus on him. Now, years later, I sometimes hear God’s voice in my dad’s, reminding me that I will never follow Him properly by trying to keep up with the people around me but that I must look at Him with great focus, learning His cadence. My dad was also famous for saying that if we didn’t let God’s Word drop from our head down to our heart, we might as well be memorizing Shakespeare. This challenged me to think about the words that I could recite with zero hesitation and drove me to understand them.

I think I was in fifth grade when I started to write letters to a bunch of girls I met at a Bible Quiz competition in Tennessee. They were from Texas, and over the years my list of pen pals expanded to California, Virginia, Wisconsin, South Carolina, New York, and the list goes on. If you’re reading this, then you are likely involved in Bible Quiz in some way, so you probably understand the beauty of strategy (which I already talked about) and the beauty of knowing verses (which I’m going to talk about), but I always felt like the people from the other teams were really the amazing jewel that most people passed right over. Trust me – the kids on the other teams who you are praying to beat – they are usually (not always, but usually) every bit as cool as the kids on your team. They have their own inside jokes, their own teams that if pressed, they’d have to admit they didn’t like, their own traditions and methods… and they are worth getting to know. You might go to college with some of them (I did), you might go visit some of them and learn about different cultures right here in your own country (I did), and you might have some of the most inspiring conversations of your high school career with some of them (I did). My good friend Mandy from Wisconsin came to visit me in high school and got a trip to Disney World out of it. Then I went to visit her and got a night with a bunch of cool girls in a hunting cabin out of it (I think I got the better end of that deal). And during AACS competition my senior year of high school, the last question of a quiz determined which team would make it to the finals. I jumped, but Tami from California beat me. She answered the question right, which meant that we got fourth place (a gross disappointment for me), and instead of cheering, she turned and looked right at me, eyes full of tears, and said, “I’m so sorry.” She was awesome. I have no idea where my old trophies are from the years we won, but I will never, ever forget that moment from the year we lost. Your life will be richer if you get to know the people you’re quizzing against.

Finally, I am fifteen years out of high school, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the Scripture that I have tucked away in my brain and the knowledge it has given me of the Bible as a whole… because it wasn’t Shakespeare I was memorizing; it was the very Word of God, and it was and is full of Life, and its beauty has grown – not faded – over the years. When I think of the book of John, I think of the Savior who came for me and who evoked such wonder in His followers that one of them supposed that the world itself could not contain the books that should be written about Him. When I think of Acts, I am inspired by the stories of the pioneers of Christian faith. First Corinthians gives me page after page of answers to some of my doctrinal questions, and Second Corinthians gives me page after page of hope for my struggles. Galatians fills me with gratitude for the freedom Jesus died for me to have, Ephesians reminds me how to live my life on a daily basis, Philippians challenges me to live joyfully, contented, and with unity, and Colossians gives me the most beautiful word-picture of Christ that I know. Second Timothy gives me insight into the person who wrote so much of the New Testament, Titus gives me practical instruction, and Philemon keeps me running to the Master of second chances. First John makes me weep when I contemplate my Advocate with the Father, the One who is also the Propitiation for my sins. Second John and Third John both help me to understand my relationship with God in light of my children’s relationship with me. And Jude causes me to appreciate the strength that God gives. I cannot imagine life without these verses or these concepts. I love God’s Word. I love that it lives in me.

And this barely scratches the surface of what Bible Quiz has meant to me, but it is already way too long, and you have verses to memorize, so you shouldn’t be reading it anyway. So I will end by encouraging you the way my dad encouraged me – to show kindness to the people you come across and to let the Life-giving words that you’re memorizing sink beyond your head and down into your heart. Thank you for letting me share.

Jenni “West” Young The Master’s Academy Class of 1996 The Bible Quiz through the Eyes Series

In the same way knowledge of God’s Word through Bible Quiz also increased my awareness of other sin in my life. It became more complicated for me to ignore personal ungratefulness when I memorized “Rejoice evermore, Pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” The same is true with pride, selfishness, and lack of love. Constant involvement with God’s Word produced constant friction between my sin and God’s will.

The Lord has greatly used Bible Quiz in my life to challenge me spiritually and conform me more into His image through His Word. Bible Quiz is important and beneficial because it is inextricably linked to the Word of God. Because of how God has used Bible Quiz in my life I strive to encourage my brothers and other quizzers to stay involved in Bible Quiz and Scripture memorization, and I hope to quiz again in summer tournaments.

Besides the spiritual growth and Biblical knowledge that accompanied my experience with Bible Quiz came various other benefits that I enjoy to this day. Mentally, Bible Quiz increased my personal discipline and sharpened my mental faculties. Memorization in Bible Quiz aided my memory in other subjects and my ability to study long hours. Thus, Bible Quiz can produce significant educational benefits which I currently profit from in college. Bible Quiz can even have benefits for working a secular job. I worked as a waiter the first half of this year and know that my experience in Bible Quiz aided me in remembering the wishes of the guests I served. Memorization of God’s Word has also greatly aided me in sharing the gospel. Furthermore, Bible Quiz continues to benefit me in Scriptural knowledge and the ability to meditate on God’s Word. Though I can no longer quote even a quarter of what I once could, some verses remain and the familiarity with God’s Word remains. Ultimately, even if all these benefits do not attend your experience with Bible Quiz the interaction with God’s Word should be enough of an incentive to diligently labor to memorize the Scriptures.

So, to any quizzers out there who are reading this instead of working on your verses—go quote some chapters! Keep up the good work in Bible Quiz, and as you memorize and compete remember that what you are memorizing and quoting is the very Word of God through which the One, True, and Living God of the universe has revealed Himself.

The Scripture you memorize now will not only aid you in your present circumstances but will follow you throughout your life and equip you with an increased ability to let the Word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Besides that, you never know what other benefits could come from memorizing Scripture.

David Tyrrell Calvary FL Class of 2010 The Bible Quiz through the Eyes Series

My story in bible quizzing started in about 4th grade. At this point in time things like junior age quizzing were still a decade away, even Jr. High quizzing didn’t really take off until I was in Jr. High. Our church had quizzing every Sunday night before the evening service and so as a 4th grader every once in awhile I would pass on a football game and go up and watch. Before long, maybe by 5th grade I was able to convince the youth pastor to let me fill a pad every now and then. It didn’t take much before I realized this was something I really wanted to do and would end up doing for the next ten or so years.

I have always been pretty competitive and I had also grown up in a church that encouraged memorizing scripture through AWANA and other programs. So to be able to mix those two was a no brainer for me. Until my 8th grade year those younger than high school did not have the chance in our program to travel to any of the national tournaments. We did have the chance to watch some really good quizzers and I have to say these individuals more than anything else helped to keep me interested in quizzing. They helped model for me both the competitiveness and discipline it took to be a good quizzer, but even more than that the application and understanding of what they were learning to their lives. From my vantage point it seemed that quizzing helped to shape the life decisions they made. This is one of the great benefits of bible quizzing. Yes, it is a competition and we all work really hard to do well at it, but we are putting in effort to learn something that is beneficial long after the quizzing is over.

Bible quizzing provided me with some wonderful memories. I had the awesome chance to get to quiz together with some of my best friends. From 8th grade – 12th grade we had the chance to travel all over the country to Michigan and Illinois, California and Kansas City, Georgia and South Carolina. Sometimes those trips went as planned and sometimes 7 hours turned into 40+ hours driving through blizzards, cancelled flights, missing SCQUANIT and arriving well after midnight the morning AACS started – but we always had a good time. I built some great friendships that I still have – even being separated by thousands of miles – and learned lots along the way. We were also fortunate enough to have some really great success – and some failures – and these were lessons God used to show us what it was that truly mattered. Because as big as AACS or SCQUANIT or the CI are they are tools to help shape character and encourage young people to spend time learning and understanding the Bible.

After I graduated in 2005 I went to college at Northland and studied for a BA in 2009 and a MA in 2010. During that time I also married an incredibly wonderful girl. We certainly don’t know exactly what God’s plan is for us in the future. He has burdened us both to be a part of seeing the Gospel go around the world and so that is what we are living to do. For the past year and a half we have been living overseas and living as believers where we are and helping to see the Gospel reach more people. We have seen God teach us and grow us a lot. I am so grateful for the foundation I have in the Bible that came from bible quizzing. Wherever he leads us – whether full time ministry or another field – the time spent in studying the Bible will continue to be beneficial. Even five or six years removed I still constantly find passages I memorized coming to mind and shaping my thinking in life. In my opinion bible quizzing is a worthwhile pursuit on the way to knowing God and loving and serving Him.

I’m grateful for the chance to learn how to go deep in learning and memorizing the word of God and hope that “by reason of use” we are able to apply it to make wise decisions for life (Heb 5:11-15) living in a way that brings glory to God.