These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, listed in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah.

• Genesis 25:13-15

The men had been seated before him in the order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest; and they looked at each other in astonishment.

• Genesis 43:33

“Take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel in the order of their birth—six names on one stone and the remaining six on the other.

• Exodus 28:9-10

I thought this would be interesting.  Why not take Bible verses that you may have memorized, and then shuffle the words and the quiz is to reassemble the words in the correct order?

Would that not be fun?  Okay, after you look at the jumbles, you may not think so, but before you give up, read the rules of how I present the verses that follow and the explanation of puzzle strategy between the Questions and Bible Reference sections.  Of course, once you look up the references, the answer is right in front of you.

I chose eight of the verses that are used in the standard Bill Bright’s “Have you heard of the Four Spiritual Laws” tract.  The questions are in Biblical Order, but the order in the tract are as follows, by question number: Law 1: 2, 3. Law 2: 6, 8. Law 3: 7, 5. Law 4: 1, 9.  Then question 10 is in the additional Scripture that follows Law 4, but I have often used it in conjunction with the fourth law.  Of note, there is one question not mentioned in the tract, and I hope no one has a problem with that verse.  All the verses are from the NIV.

One question is two verses.  One question is the second half of a verse, denoted by the letter “b” in the Bible Reference section.

For the questions, the words of the verse(s) are listed in alphabetical order, thus shuffling the words.  The words are each separated by a comma.  The capitalization is kept the same as in the verse.  Thus, the sentence starts with a Capitalized word. Note that one verse does not have a capitalized word, not starting a sentence.  Following the words is a list of punctuation that is found in the verse(s).  If the verse is not the beginning of a sentence, the punctuation will state “preceded by.”  When preceded by a comma or semicolon, the first word is usually not capitalized, but with a colon, it is.  The punctuation also lists the closing punctuation, “ending with a period (dash).”

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	all, become, believed, children, did, gave, God, him, his, he, in, name, receive, right, the, those, to, to, to, who, who, Yet [2 commas, ending in a dash]
2	and, believes, but, eternal, For, gave, God, have, him, his, he, in, life, loved, not, one, only, perish, shall, so, Son, that, that, the, whoever, world [1 comma, ending in a period]
3	and, come, full, have, have, have, I, it, life, may, that, the, they, to [preceded by a semicolon, 1 comma, ending in a period]
4	Jesus, wept [ending in a period]
5	am, and, and, answered, comes, except, Father, I, Jesus, life, me, No, one, the, the, the, the, through, to, truth, way [1 comma, a opening quotation mark, 1 extra period, ending in a period]
6	all, and, fall, for, glory, God, have, of, of, short, sinned, the [preceded by a comma, ending in a comma]
7	But, Christ, demonstrates, died, for, for, God, his, in, love, own, sinners, still, this, us, us, we, were, While [1 colon, 1 comma, ending in a period]
8	but, Christ, death, eternal, For, gift, God, in, is, is, Jesus, life, Lord, of, of, our, sin, the, the, wages [1 comma, ending in a period.]
9	and, been, boast, by, by, can, faith, For, from, gift, God, grace, have, is, is, is, it, it, no, not, not, one, of, saved, so, that, the, this, through, works, you, yourselves [3 commas, 2 dashes, ending in a period]
10	am, and, and, and, and, anyone, at, come, door, door, eat, hears, Here, I, I, I, If, in, knock, me, my, opens, person, stand, that, the, the, they, voice, will, with, with [1 exclamation point, 1 extra period, 2 commas, ending in a period]

The tenth verse above is my favorite verse, if I have one.

I will use some puzzle solving logic to explain how this verse can be deciphered, as an example for the rest of them.  Once you know what the verse is, the unshuffling of the words may only be a bit clunky if you do not use the NIV.

But in looking over the punctuation, I see that there are two periods and an exclamation point.  Thus, there are three sentences.  I will give you a hint in that one of the first words is the word “I”.  Thus, the other two capitalized words: “Here” and “If” start the other two sentences.

Then I have to ask myself if there are any words that are distinctive, words that you might not find in any group of a few sentences.  Yes, there are words like “door” mentioned twice, “eat”, “knock”.

There is “hear” and “voice”.  Those go together, not necessarily next to each other, and not in this case.

There is a possessive word “my”.  There are few nouns in the verse that can be possessed.

Then there are some prepositions and verbs.  Can you stand at and stand in?  Yes.  But can you come at and come in?  And what noun among the few can you open?

This verse does not have a common grouping of words like Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus, or our Lord.  But those four words are in one of the word lists.

But really, for those who have used this tract, now available through Cru and online, you probably have these verses memorized.  Looking for key words of common verses used in street evangelism and in praying with folks who come forward when there is an altar call, you may recognize the verses without getting bogged down in the multitude of words like “the” and “and”.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	all, become, believed, children, did, gave, God, him, his, he, in, name, receive, right, the, those, to, to, to, who, who, Yet [2 commas, ending in a dash]	John 1:12
2	and, believes, but, eternal, For, gave, God, have, him, his, he, in, life, loved, not, one, only, perish, shall, so, Son, that, that, the, whoever, world [1 comma, ending in a period]	John 3:16
3	and, come, full, have, have, have, I, it, life, may, that, the, they, to [preceded by a semicolon, 1 comma, ending in a period]	John 10:10b
4	Jesus, wept [ending in a period]	John 11:35
5	am, and, and, answered, comes, except, Father, I, Jesus, life, me, No, one, the, the, the, the, through, to, truth, way [1 comma, a opening quotation mark, 1 extra period, ending in a period]	John 14:6
6	all, and, fall, for, glory, God, have, of, of, short, sinned, the [preceded by a comma, ending in a comma]	Romans 3:23
7	But, Christ, demonstrates, died, for, for, God, his, in, love, own, sinners, still, this, us, us, we, were, While [1 colon, 1 comma, ending in a period]	Romans 5:8
8	but, Christ, death, eternal, For, gift, God, in, is, is, Jesus, life, Lord, of, of, our, sin, the, the, wages [1 comma, ending in a period.]	Romans 6:23
9	and, been, boast, by, by, can, faith, For, from, gift, God, grace, have, is, is, is, it, it, no, not, not, one, of, saved, so, that, the, this, through, works, you, yourselves [3 commas, 2 dashes, ending in a period]	Ephesians 2:8-9
10	am, and, and, and, and, anyone, at, come, door, door, eat, hears, Here, I, I, I, If, in, knock, me, my, opens, person, stand, that, the, the, they, voice, will, with, with [1 exclamation point, 1 extra period, 2 commas, ending in a period]	Revelation 3:20

When I came up with this idea, I thought it would be diabolical to solve, but easy to “write.”  You just rearrange the words in alphabetical order.  Right?  Nope, not so easy.

There is a little mind playing trick I was subjected to.  I was given a business card and on the back side of the card, there was a statement.  I was asked to count the occurrences of the letter “f” in the statement within something like ten seconds.  I quickly gave my answer, and the person testing me said that I was off by three.  Then, he gave me the card again, but the words were upside down.  I found the lost three “f” words, the word “of” mentioned three times in the statement.  In reading it, we mentally discard the preposition, and we do not see the “f”.

In eight of the verses above, I counted the words in the verse and the word list that I had provided, and I got a different number.  I got the same number for the other two verses, and I had to recount to make sure.  I was leaving out a “the” here or an “and” there.  And when I was off by a few words, I had skipped the letter “t” when going through the alphabet.  Only once did I miss a two-letter word, “to”.

But, I did have fun.  If I get too many negative comments, I can put the punctuation following that word in the word list.  And I may use shorter verses, not as well known, but as you add more words, you add more permutations in the reshuffling of those words.  Just a five-word sentence can be shuffled five factorial (5!) ways.  That means five times four times three times two times one.  Or 120 ways.  A six-word sentence? 720 ways.  Of course, most of the ways make no sense, but who has the time?  Then again, some of the ways become duplicates when you have a couple of words that are the same.

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The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	all, become, believed, children, did, gave, God, him, his, he, in, name, receive, right, the, those, to, to, to, who, who, Yet [2 commas, ending in a dash]	John 1:12	Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
2	and, believes, but, eternal, For, gave, God, have, him, his, he, in, life, loved, not, one, only, perish, shall, so, Son, that, that, the, whoever, world [1 comma, ending in a period]	John 3:16	For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
3	and, come, full, have, have, have, I, it, life, may, that, the, they, to [preceded by a semicolon, 1 comma, ending in a period]	John 10:10b	I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
4	Jesus, wept [ending in a period]	John 11:35	Jesus wept.
5	am, and, and, answered, comes, except, Father, I, Jesus, life, me, No, one, the, the, the, the, through, to, truth, way [1 comma, a opening quotation mark, 1 extra period, ending in a period]	John 14:6	Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
6	all, and, fall, for, glory, God, have, of, of, short, sinned, the [preceded by a comma, ending in a comma]	Romans 3:23	for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
7	But, Christ, demonstrates, died, for, for, God, his, in, love, own, sinners, still, this, us, us, we, were, While [1 colon, 1 comma, ending in a period]	Romans 5:8	But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
8	but, Christ, death, eternal, For, gift, God, in, is, is, Jesus, life, Lord, of, of, our, sin, the, the, wages [1 comma, ending in a period.]	Romans 6:23	For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
9	and, been, boast, by, by, can, faith, For, from, gift, God, grace, have, is, is, is, it, it, no, not, not, one, of, saved, so, that, the, this, through, works, you, yourselves [3 commas, 2 dashes, ending in a period]	Ephesians 2:8-9	For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
10	am, and, and, and, and, anyone, at, come, door, door, eat, hears, Here, I, I, I, If, in, knock, me, my, opens, person, stand, that, the, the, they, voice, will, with, with [1 exclamation point, 1 extra period, 2 commas, ending in a period]	Revelation 3:20	Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here are the Asidors singing Jesus Saves.

Here is Jeremy Camp singing Jesus Saves.

Here is Riley Green singing Jesus Saves.

Here is Cooper Alan singing Jesus Saves.

Four songs by the same title.  And maybe some of them are songs that you may not relate to, but remember that Jesus loves us before we are saved by His precious blood, and as the kind of gritty last song says, Jesus saved a sinner, but I am not going to stay that way.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.