When it comes to reading the Bible for yourself, it helps to have a pretty good memory. But for those of us who don’t have that luxury, which is pretty much everybody, there are a few tricks that we can pick up to make things a little easier. 

The first trick is: don’t try to remember so much.

That should be easy. Let’s look at chapter six and chapter seven in Matthew, and we’ll do the same thing we did last time. We’ll relate scripture to scripture. We’ll compare one paragraph with the next and see if they fit together in some way.

We can begin with verse nineteen of chapter six. I’m looking for something simple, so I read a few words and find that it tells me to store up treasures in heaven, and it even tells me a reason. Things in heaven don’t fade, they don’t decay, and they can’t be stolen.

That’s easy. Now let’s do the trick. I’ll put a handle on that paragraph, a little phrase or a word that helps me remember it.

Treasures in heaven. Or, store up treasure in heaven. Or something like that.

It sounds dorky, but a lot of really effective Bible study methods are so amazingly simple that they just get ignored. This is the Clark Kent side of Bible study, the quiet unassuming side that people look at and say, “That can’t be Superman, because he looks so normal with the dorky glasses and no big S on his shirt.”  

But it is.

Notice a couple of things about putting a handle on a passage of scripture. It can be called adding a title or summarizing. I like to think of it as a bumper sticker, just a few words that catch the main point.

But if you summarize, then you leave a lot of things out. You must. That’s the idea. Remember the billboards that said, “Got milk?” That was a summary, or a title. The billboard didn’t really say anything. It just got you thinking about milk.

Think for a minute about what the billboard didn’t say. Why should I have milk? Is there some advantage to having milk? If I have milk, should I get more? How much milk should I eventually acquire? What kind of milk, by the way?

Nobody put all that information on a billboard. They left it out, because they wanted everyone to remember just the tag line, just the summary, just the handle.

If they can do it, those fancy advertising geniuses, then you can do it, too. Leave things out. Get it down to a few words. Let those few words suggest a lot of information or a lot of questions for later.

Store up treasures in heaven. Why? Is there a special advantage to storing treasures in heaven? Why not store them here on earth? What kind of treasure are we talking about anyway?

You can get to all that later.

There is one more thing to remember, and this will make things much, much easier. Don’t worry about getting the right words.

Let me say that again.

Don’t worry that your little one or two or three word summary is the correct summary. There is no such thing.

That’s right. I said there is no such thing.

For example, at some point, you will have to combine more than one thought into a paragraph, all under one summary or one bumper sticker.

Verses nineteen through twenty-four make a good chunk of scripture for a single bumper sticker. But as he preaches, Jesus covers a couple of different thoughts here.

It’s all related. But it’s different.

We can leave something out and make a simple tag line. But what do we leave out?

Store up treasures in heaven, where moths don’t eat it and it doesn’t rust away to dust. And by the way, your eye is the lamp of the body, so guard what you see, so that you will always be filled with light. And you can’t serve two masters, so make up your mind to serve either money (which is a bad choice) or God (which is a more eternal choice, and by the way produces more light in your life, which is good for your eyes).

There! It all fits. But there are three separate ideas.

Store up treasures in heaven. That’s one. Guard what you see. That’s two. Serve only one master. That’s three.

What’s the right title?

Sometimes it depends on how a person feels as they read the passage. Maybe a verse will jump out at you. If it does, then pay attention to it.

This isn’t Bible study for college credit at the local university. This is personal time with the Word of God, and so it can be very much the way scripture speaks to you.

Ooooh! Two masters! That hits home today. I think that’s the point, as far as I’m concerned.

Tomorrow I can read the same verses and say, Ooooh! The eye is so important. My entire body, and my entire life, changes because of what I am looking at all the time.

That’s how scripture works. So don’t make it more complicated than it really is.

Here’s the review. You can slap a handle on a paragraph, just to make it easier to remember and easier to work with. Don’t try to get the all-time best summary. Just pick a few words and leave the rest out. Choose the words that are important to you, and don’t worry that someone else will see it different.

Now let’s play a game.

I need a title for verses nineteen through twenty-four. I’m going to stay with my original few words, store up treasure in heaven. Pretty simple.

The next passage is really great. Twenty-five through the end of the chapter.

Don’t worry about what you will eat or wear, because there are more important things, like your life. And God knows that food and clothing are important in their own way, so he will provide them. So don’t worry. Seek the kingdom, and don’t let all these other things distract you.  

So now what’s the tag line? What’s the handle?

This is a game, right?

My handle for this paragraph, then, is Don’t worry about things on earth.

Don’t ask me why. It just felt good. So then I can set my two titles side by side.

Store up treasure in heaven.

Don’t worry about things on earth.

Are the two paragraphs related? How? One seems to explain the other, or something. And I can see it, because I left out a lot and just looked at the few words, side by side.

So I can make a bumper sticker for the whole thing, and it might be: My treasure should be in heaven, not here.

It’s simple, when you use the little tricks.

Let’s do it again, but this time use two different summaries.

Serve God, and don’t let money try to be your master.

Seek the kingdom, and don’t let petty things distract you.

A little long, but there isn’t a limit to the number of words. There are no rules at all, because this is just a game that was invented to allow normal people to look at scripture.

And I can make a bumper sticker that combines them: Let God be God in my life.

Pretty average. You can do better.

Let’s try it again.

Seek treasures in heaven.

Seek the kingdom on earth.

Combine them: Seek what is important to God.

And again.

If you aren’t careful about what you see, your entire life will be dark.

If you aren’t careful about your heart, worry will rob you of peace.

Combine them: Be careful what you think about.

This is fun, in a geeky sort of way.

Let’s go on through chapter seven. Read the passage for yourself, and put some words on paper, little bumper stickers that might apply to a verse or a section.

I’ll suggest a few.

Somewhere in this chapter, you’ll find these:

Death may be popular, but it doesn’t end well.

Good foundations are hard.

Fruit don’t lie.

Judge Judy needs a mirror.

This is like a game. Match the goofy bumper sticker with the scripture that suggested it.

Too dorky for words. There’s only one reason to try this silly approach to Bible study.

It works. And it’s simple.

Okay.

That’s two reasons.