Congratulations 2023 qualifiers! Your hard work and time paid off, you qualified for the National Bible Bee Competition, and now you are anticipating many more weeks of study. As some of you navigate new waters, questions about the best way to approach this multi-faceted study might arise. Others who have been in this boat before may be endeavoring to improve their study methods. Wherever you find yourself, be encouraged that you have made it this far and continue to explore God’s Word with a desire to learn more.
In today’s post, you will be hearing from Josephine Haab, the grand winner of the NBBC 2019 Senior Division. Be encouraged through her words of wisdom. Let’s jump right in!
Hi Josephine! Thank you for agreeing to this interview. First off, I’d love to hear how your studies for the National Bible Bee Competition impacted your life as a participant and how what you learned continues to impact you as an alumna.
- Thank you for the opportunity to share, Rachel! The Lord has used the National Bible Bee to draw me close to Him in more ways than I can count, and I know He’s used it to impact so many people. Immersion in God’s word changes the way you think and act. We are utterly dependent on God’s Spirit, for He alone gives life and the flesh profits nothing. He has made it so that His word, dwelt in by His Son and blessed by His Spirit, is an overflowing channel of His grace, wisdom, and strength. At times it can be easy for me to assume I can get along pretty well in obeying, worshipping, and delighting in the Lord without investing a lot of time in Scripture. I know that’s not true, though — the Lord has taught me my need and His supply by personal experience. I’m a sheep. I’m prone to wander, quick to forget, quick to doubt and borrow trouble. His word, therefore, is my is all in all. “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Even as a Christian, my own thoughts about God and His ways can too easily be tainted by my own understanding, somebody else’s ideas, or my current circumstances. The Word is life. It is living and powerful and active. There’s no other way around it. Maybe if it were a static book that I could memorize and learn once and for all, I would only need to spend a limited amount of time in it. But instead, Christ dwells in the living and active word, meets His people in it, and makes it real in their hearts and actions by the real presence of His powerful Spirit. So this is the only way I’m going to constantly renew my mind, think His thoughts instead of my own, learn to properly worship and obey Him, be strengthened against sin and for God’s goodwill, and meet with my risen Savior. I need to immerse myself constantly in His word. The Psalm 1 man wasn’t doing the National Bible Bee, by the way — he was living his normal life in the fear of God and in the fervent love of His word. One other thing I would say is that, in God’s will and by His grace to my soul, this time in His word showed that it’s not primarily about me or even the blessings and joy and strength I get from His word. “For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.” Ultimately, we worship, serve, and delight in Him not because it gives us joy and strength and everything else we have, but because He is Jehovah, the Holy One, seated on the throne of all. All things are made for His worship and glory, and as those bought by His love, we must glorify, honor, and praise Him with all that is in us. There is no other way. And there is nothing else worthy of being called life.
That is so rich! The power of God’s Word amazes me. It truly is “sharper than any two-edged sword.” When you did compete at the National level, how did you allocate your study time between the different portions (study passage, memory passages, Hebrew/Greek words, cross-references) of the study?
- Studying looked different for me every year as I figured out what worked best and navigated school and normal life. But for my last year of Nationals, I spent the first portion of the study season focusing on the memory passages. I wanted to be certain I had them down cold, as they’d been a weaker spot in the past. I figured that the sooner I had them memorized and perfected, the more time I’d have with them until reciting them was second nature. While memorizing, I also studied the context, cross-references, and quotes for each passage. After this was done, I went on to the study passage and other topics. For my last year of Nationals, I would do 45-minute study blocks for each subject (the study passage, cross-references, Greek words, context). If I had some extra time for studying, I’d give 30-40 minute blocks to the topics I needed more work on. I kept reviewing my verses during this time as well, trying to tie them in with the study passage so that they helped me understand both it and the other memory passages better. It was interesting how the more I studied, the more everything cross-referenced everything else in one way or another. But that’s another topic in itself. 🙂
Finding what works for our individual schedules is so key. And, since you mentioned cross-references, how did you find ones that related to the Nationals study passage?
- I used blueletterbible.org (I searched for the verse I was cross-referencing, clicked on the ‘Tools’ button, and then clicked on the purple ‘Cross-Refs’ button). There would usually be some irrelevant or unnecessary cross-references. To narrow down my options, I’d ask myself, “Does this cross-reference relate to the whole verse I’m working on? Does it relate to the main idea of this verse? Does it shed light on a new aspect of this verse or else open up some historical context?” For example, 1 Peter 1:10 says that the prophets “prophesied of the grace that would come to you.” What’s the main idea here? It’s that the prophets spoke of what would come to pass in our own day — the bringing of the salvation and grace of Jesus Christ to us in this day and age. So I’m not going to choose every cross-reference from Blue Letter Bible that talks about prophets and the wisdom God gave them. I’m going to choose really specific cross-references like Acts 10:43 — “To Him, all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.” This one talks about prophets who spoke of Christ’s coming to bring salvation and grace so that it is available to everyone today, Gentiles included. I wanted to force myself to explain why I chose each cross-reference. It had to give me a clearer understanding of the truths within the study passage. I would read from one or two commentaries along with my studying, and if they had any cross-references, I’d usually add those to my list. I would also check some Quizlet sets or cross-reference documents people shared to see if they had any good ones I had missed. When there was a topic I felt was really important within the study passage, I would find extra cross-references on that topic by searching online or in a concordance — “What does the Bible say about this?”
Finding cross-references has always been one of my favorite parts of studying scripture – seeing how the Bible is one book interlaced with a common theme of pointing us to Christ. Another major part of the National Bible Bee competition is a large number of memory passages. How did you memorize these portions of Scripture and what did your review system look like?
- First of all, repetition. For each passage, I would say the first verse 3-5 times until I had it perfect, then do the same with the second verse. Then I’d connect the two verses and say them together 2-3 times. And so on, connecting each new verse to the previous ones. But secondly, I found that I could get much better at a passage in a shorter amount of time if I understood why it was laid out the way it was and why each phrase mattered in the context of the larger passage and message. That meant I focused on what might seem like a lot of little details (why does Paul give this specific proof of Jesus’ resurrection here? What is this word ‘Therefore’ pointing back to? How does each phrase in this passage contribute to the truths God is delivering to us in it?). I would then map the passage out in my head. Did I know the key arguments and points? How does each verse fit into the overall scheme and message of the passage? How does this memory passage cross-reference some of my other memory passages? This made it so that I wasn’t just working with each passage on a surface level, but analyzing it, reading about it in commentaries, and understanding some of why the Lord wrote it in this specific way and not another. I also would turn many of my passages into a prayer back to the Lord, and this refocused my eyes on their true value. I would be lying if I said that it wasn’t easy to slip into regarding each verse simply as words I had to get perfect. Yet as I meditated on and mapped out the passages, they were solidified more and more in my mind and soul. Each verse, each word, was there for a specific purpose and was there for me to lay hold of as precious and unforgettable. The Lord was gracious to me in causing me both to memorize and grow in my understanding of these passages and of His glory — even in the face of my weakness and sometimes weariness. As a good, powerful Father, He continually does the same for everyone who asks. “If any son among you asks for bread, will his father give him a stone?”
- A lot of what I did in reviewing built off of what I did in the memorizing stage. When reviewing the passage, I’d break it up into small sections, recite those to myself, and then put the sections together. As I recited, I tried to remind myself of how each verse I was saying fit into the structure of the passage, what the main message of the whole passage was, what was displayed about the Lord, and how this passage cross-referenced my study passage and other memory passages. This really helped me, because otherwise, it became way too easy for me to recite familiar passages on autopilot. I really wanted to be engaging with each passage as I recited it because that was a blessing to my own soul, and it also helped me with comprehension questions on the test. Also, the more each word and sentence became important to me, the more I was likely to savor it while I recited and not blank out or mess up. I also switched things up by reciting a passage as fast as I could (this really tested how well I knew what came next! It was helpful for me to throw a different sort of task to my brain and hopefully keep it limber. But often what helped me the most was reciting a lot to other people. I wanted to recite each passage a certain number of times perfectly before Nationals and had a system for keeping track of that.
Yes! Recognizing that each portion of the Word has been preserved and given to us for a specific purpose is so life-changing. We are so blessed to have an opportunity to internalize these Words of Life. As you studied and, I’m sure, encountered burnout, how did you get back on track?
- I don’t know how good I was at doing this on my own, but I do know that my family and a lot of friends helped me (even when they didn’t know how much they were helping!). Part of dealing with burnout was being willing to talk about the studying often with my parents and get their advice and godly perspective. I also had to be willing to take breaks even when it felt counterproductive. This meant doing all sorts of things with my family and not putting normal life on hold, which helped a lot. My mom talked with me about the importance of serving others and not focusing solely on my own goals while I was going through the study season. It was also really, really helpful to know that other people were studying the same portions of Scripture for the same reason. Checking up on friends or having them check up on me was a gift. There was one weekend I was really stuck in a rut — I was nowhere near where I wanted to be with cross-references and felt like my brain had turned off for the year. I had scheduled a phone call with a trusted friend for that Saturday, and after the call, everything seemed a lot clearer and more doable. And we didn’t even talk about cross-references! Finally, by not studying on the Lord’s Day, I was better able to keep my eyes on the Word made flesh. I was reminded (even in the middle of to-do lists and busy weeks and studying!) that worshipping the LORD, drawing near to Him, and obeying Him with joy is my purpose here and my life and delight forever. This could be hard at times, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Thank you so much for taking the time to give these words of wisdom and encouragement, Josephine! In closing, what is one final piece of advice you would give a qualifier studying for the National Competition?
- It was quite easy for me to burden myself with what other people were doing and compare my studying to theirs. It’s good to learn from others and the way they do things, but the comparison is too often rooted in both pride and discontent. It keeps us from glorifying God with our studying and keeps us self-focused. Don’t look at what someone else is doing or did in the past and immediately panic — “I’m not studying that way, I’m not as far as they are, I’m not getting the results they are!” Ask Him to lead you to what He would have you study and give you wisdom and perseverance. Make a detailed, written plan (one that works for you) for what you want to accomplish in your studying, how you want to do it, and when you want to have each goal completed. Commit your works to the Lord — and then buckle down and give your best, regardless of how you feel about your own abilities or what other people are doing. And pray for those you know who are studying along with you — pray for them the same things you pray for yourself. We might not know each other, but I’ll be praying for you this study season! Especially these verses — This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. And these — For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Interview by NBB Alumna: Rachel Sheppard
