Notes for Ivy Grow Groups based on my talk to be given Ivy Kingsway 4th November
(Actually it’s officially MOVEMBER and I’m going for it. Will you join my team or sponsor me please at http://uk.movember.com/mospace/4760473 )
Start the night with an online memory quiz like this one http://www.allthetests.com/tests/flipmatch/puzzle.php3
(Or do it with a pack of cards?)
Or even the Christian version! http://www.biglightgames.com/-bible-games-for-christians/21339/12-apostles-quiz-and-memory-game.html
Who’s your GG Memory champion?
READ Joshua 1;6-9
DISCUSS What promises has God given you recently or in the past that you need to remember?
Read Joshua 3:14-17
Discuss:
In what ways do we have to sometimes get our feet wet in faith before we see the miracle? Why does God work like that?
Read Joshua 4:1-7
All the ‘Memory techniques’ I’ve ever read about all boil down to three simple steps: and I believe you can see them in what God had Joshua do so the people would remember.
1. Concentrate
You have to pay attention. Lots of the time we spend our energy trying to remember what we forgot. But if you took some of that energy and used it to try to remember at the START, you’d do a lot better. We didn’t forget that person’s name – we just didn’t even try to remember when we were introduced. We didn’t concentrate on them.
If you go into every important event with your eyes open and your brain alert, you can learn to notice people, facts and concepts. And noticing, paying attention, concentrating – is the first step to remembering.
No one ever got a great memory without focusing. If you pay attention when you meet people, if you focus on facts you have to learn, words that you read, you’ll be amazed at how rapidly your concentration grows.
Discuss: What miracles of God do we miss because we’re just not paying attention?
2. Convert
It’s easier to remember if you convert the information into something visual – a form that you can see. In other words, we have to start using some visual aspect of our minds.
God wanted going to teach Joshua and the people of Israel to remember a miracle for generations to come. So he gave them something they could see and remember.
MRI studies on the brains of memory champions show that their brain isn’t any better than anybody else’s. But when they’ve hooked them up as they’ve been working at remembering, they see it flashed up in visual areas other people don’t use as much, even if they closed their eyes. Creating pictures and seeing things – the visual cortexes get used. Sensory areas are stimulated even though nothing is actually happening other than them turning over playing cards. The difference is that their mind’s eye is at work to convert facts into a visual memory and if you do that you’re far more likely to retain the memory.
Discuss: What ‘memorial stones’ can your group set up to be able to look back to with gratitude for what God has done with you?’
Activity; Draw, paint (on stones?) some pictures or words that remind you of God’s power, provision and purpose.
So, concentrate, convert, and finally connect.
3. Connect
When you connect the experience to the information, you make an association.
We recall information that means something to us easier, we forget information that doesn’t – it’s the way our brains are wired up. So we have to connect the new data to something that’s important if we’re going to remember.
Connection is when we say, “That – means – this…”
PRAY: Thanking God for his faithfulness in the past – that gives us faith for the future.