A Review of the Scripture Memory Program Fighter Verses

Fighter Verses by Children's Desiring God

What is Fighter Verses?

Fighter Verses is a five-year Bible memory program which is designed to encourage believers to fight the fight of faith by memorizing God’s Word.  It is both a collection of verses compiled by Children Desiring God and a system of tools intended to help individuals and families memorize those verses.

The collection of verses can be purchased in a physical form or they can be purchased digitally (On the web | iDevices | Android). They also have songs designed to aid the memorization process, which are available on CD, iTunes, and AmazonMP3.[1] Having purchased Fighter Verses myself to use on both mobile platforms, this review will primarily concern itself with using Fighter Verses on a mobile device.

What verses come standard?

Fighter Verses, in standard form, comes with 5 packs of 52 verses each.[2] These packs are designed to be memorized with a passage a week (thus 5 years worth of scripture in the standard pack). This can be expanded by using the “Extended memory” packs. These packs, like their name, are for memorizing longer passages of scripture.
See Passages

  • Year 1 – The Book of Philippians
  • Year 2 – Romans 5-8
  • Year 3 – Assorted Passages: Colossians 1:9-29; Isaiah 53:1-12; 2 Corinthians 3-5; John 1:1-18
  • Year 4 – The Book of James
  • Year 5 – Matthew 5-7 (Sermon on the Mount)

Some of the verses which are included in the standard set are here (by category) to give the reader a sense for how the system is structured: See Examples

  • Battling Anger – James 1:19-20
  • Battling Anxiety – Philippians 4:6-7; Romans 8:31-32
  • Contentment – 1 Timothy 6:6-7; Philippians 4:11-13
  • Depending on Christ – 2 Corinthians 12:9
  • Discipline – Proverbs 3:11-12
  • Endurance – Hebrews 12:1-2
  • Eternity – 1 Corinthians 15:51-52
  • Faithfulness (of God) – Philippians 4:19
  • Battling Fear – Joshua 1:9; Isaiah 41:10
  • Forgiveness (of God) – Isaiah 43:25
  • Generosity – Acts 20:35
  • Goodness (of God) – Psalm 34:6-8
  • Gospel – Romans 3:23-24, 6:23
  • Guidance (of God) – Psalm 86:11
  • Humility of Christ – Matthew 20:26-28
  • Joy – Psalm 16:11
  • Life in Christ – Philippians 1:21; John 15:5
  • Love (of God) – Lamentations 3:21-23
  • Loving God – Deuteronomy 6:4-5
  • Obeying God – Deuteronomy 10:12-13
  • Praise & Worship – Psalm 96:1-3
  • Presence (of God) – 2 Chronicles 16:9
  • Battling Pride – Galatians 6:14
  • Provision (of God) – Ephesians 3:20-21
  • Salvation – John 1:12-13
  • Sanctification – Philippians 4:8
  • Security in God – Psalm 91 (over 7 weeks); Romans 8:33-39 (over 3 weeks)
  • Seeking God – Jeremiah 29:11-14
  • Battling Sin – 1 John 1:8-9; 1 Corinthians 10:13
  • Sovereignty of God – Numbers 23:19; Isaiah 46:9-11; Romans 8:28
  • Speech – Psalm 141:3-4
  • Spiritual Warfare – Ephesians 6:10-18 (over 4 weeks)
  • Suffering – 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
  • Supremacy of Jesus – Hebrews 1:3-4; Philippians 3:7-8
  • Trusting God – Psalm 37:1-4
  • Waiting on God – Psalm 27:13-14
  • Word of the Lord – Psalm 1 (over 3 weeks); Isaiah 40:8;
  • Work of Christ – Isaiah 53:4-6; Ephesians 2:1-7 (over 3 weeks)
  • Youth – 1 Timothy 4:12

close examples

Pros & Cons of the mobile applications?

Pros:

  • By virtue of being on a mobile device, it is available anywhere you can have your device and can be read in the dark (unlike paper cards).
  • It has all 5 years of the standard Fighter Verse collection.
  • It has all 5 years of the extended Fighter Verse collection.
  • It has “Foundation Verses” for kids with pictures. Example Picture
    FoundationVerses_Kids-Deut6-5
    Hide
  • It has the ability to allow anyone to add their own verses with categories.
  • It is available for both iOS & Android.
  • It is available in ESV, NIV, NASB, HCSB, KJV, LBLA & RVR (spanish)
  • It can remind you to memorize either weekly or daily.
  • It has a verse widget on Android to show your current verse on your home screen.
  • There are quizzes to help you memorize each with 5 levels of difficulty.
    • Quick blank mode (tap to reveal hidden words)
    • Type First letter of words (with blanks)
    • Typing the whole word (with blanks)
    • Word bank mode
  • It remembers the ones you’ve checked as memorized so you can go in and review just those verses.
  • It allows you to listen to the verse you’re trying to memorize.
  • It will sing the verse to you in a song (ESV only).
  • It has options to share the verse you’re learning on social media
  • It has links to devotionals on the passages at FighterVerses.com/Blog
  • It was developed by Bethlehem Baptist Church & Children Desiring God and is used and endorsed by John Piper. See a video with Pastor Piper about Fighter Verses.

Cons:

  • [Edited 4-15-14] There is a real “system” built in for review though it doesn’t have notifications about reviewing.
    • After contacting Fighter Verses about the review system they showed me how the current system works. It is clearly spelled out in the help menu, and they should be adding an easier way to understand the review scheme. See Scheme
      “The verses that you mark as memorized (by touching the “Memorized?” button) are the ones that available in under “Review Memorized Verses”. The app will schedule review for each verse based on when you memorized it and when you last reviewed it. The current behavior is:

      Verses memorized in the last 2 weeks are scheduled for review every day.Verses memorized in the last 2-6 weeks are scheduled for review every 2 days.Verses memorized more than 6 weeks ago are scheduled for review every 7 days (one week).After all scheduled verses have been reviewed, then the verse with the oldest review date is presented. This means that the review process doesn’t have an end.Your quiz score is also taken into account when scheduling review; if you score less than 100%, the verse will be presented for review sooner.” -Fighter Verses Support

  • Being sinful, we will be distracted from memorizing God’s word by notifications and other things which will be happening on our mobile devices.

 

Verdict:

It is my joy to heartily commend Fighter Verses to anyone of any age to aid in their memorization of God’s word[3]. My wife and I both love the program and have used it for many years[4].  Go get your Fighter Verses app now (iDevices | Android)!!

 


1. Songs are also available on the Mobile apps.
2. That’s 260 verse already categorized and compiled!
3. If you aren’t convinced about the importance of Scripture Memory, read this blog post by John Piper.
4.I also recently found Tyler Kinney’s method for tracking and reviewing verses and commend it to you.
David Christensen
David Christensen is a pastoral intern at Faith Church. He is married to his wife Kelly of more than 3 years. He regularly attempts to blog at http://HisGloryYourJoy.blogspot.com, and can be followed on twitter here.