I've just ordered a copy of The Joshua Code by O. S. Hawkins from Amazon.com. Hank Hanegraaff has been promoting this book on the Bible Answer Man podcasts, and that's encouraged me to start memorizing Scripture again.

I remember having to learn Bible verses in Sunday school and Christian schools, and the first verse I recall memorizing was Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." That was the start of first grade.

During my freshman year of college, I began memorizing Bible verses at the encouragement of a student down the hallway in my dorm. I would kind of pick-and-choose verses as I went along. Later on, I memorize Ephesians 4, which remains a favorite passage.

I don't know what translation(s) Hawkins uses in The Joshua Code, but I hope he's chosen a modern, accessible one. I did not grow up with the King James Version and have always found it difficult - and the American Standard Version we used in the 1960s wasn't much more accessible. In the 1970s, we adopted the Revised Standard Version, and it was pretty good. Then came the New International Version of the New Testament, and I was hooked. I bought the entire Bible in NIV the first week it was available in 1984, and it remains my to choice for Bible study.

That said, I've been using it for over 30 years now, and about 8-10 years ago I bought the New Living Translation, which is a refreshing read after becoming so familiar with the NIV. The NLT is not so good as a study Bible, definitely has some biases, and is a good devotional Bible or a good translation for extended reading.

I've recently acquired a New King James Study Bible, Second Edition, and have been using it for about a month. I like some things about it, but I still find the phrasing stiff, which is due to the translators trying to use Hebrew and Greek word order when translating the text into English. It is a technically very accurate translation, and I haven't yet detected any bias by the translation team.

I like to compare translations using bible.cc, which provides dozens of versions of the same verse, making it easier to really get to the core idea. I hope Hawkins does the same kind of thing - I'll know soon enough, and then I'll start sharing my thoughts on the 52 verses he has selected as ones every Christian should know.