Saturday afternoon: It’s a sweep! 50 out of 50 states! And His banner over us is love.
Friday Evening: Sisters, one of our Siestas worked up some stats but didn’t request it to be listed because it might not be 100% accurate. She felt like it was pretty close though. Listen, if it’s even in the ball park, it’s great fun! Take a look at this:
Siestas Scripture Memory Team Stats:
States: 48 out of 50
Countries or Provinces: 9
Books of the Bible used: 50 out of 66
Verses used most often: Isaiah 33:6 and Zephaniah 3;17
Book of the Bible used most: The Psalms
Number of Bible translations used: 16
Number of Siestas wanting a Jesus-kind-of-year: At 5:42, 2452 and counting!
Is that cool or what? Thank you, Dear Siesta!
Friday noon update: You guys are doing fabulously! KEEP IT UP! We’re looking for just a couple of hundred more from folks who signed up but haven’t had a chance to enter their Scripture yet. Stick with it, Sweet Things! Follow through! I wanted to tell you how timely and wonderful and providential I think our God is. Early in the holidays something (not small) happened that hurt my feelings so badly I almost couldn’t get over it. (Actually, I didn’t get over it very well. Still feel sore today but at some point you’ve got to get a grip.) God knew I’d have to look at about a jillion Scriptures in order to moderate all these comments. You cannot imagine how much He used them (is still using them) to help me push the reset button on my brain. I wrote several of them down and spoke others of them over my own life. He’s so faithful. Nothing is accidental. Anyway, I love y’all and want you to know that my soul is so often fed and encouraged here.
January 1st, 12:04 AM:
UPDATE: Way to go, Siestas! It’s 8:00 AM on New Year’s Day and we are off to a great start! Wanted to answer a question I’ve seen several times. Yes, of course, you can still join us! Sign up on the original “Anybody Game?” post then comment here with your name, city and verse. All are welcome! If you’ll read both posts, you’ll know exactly what to do.
Happy New Year, Beloved Siestas! It’s going to be a JESUS-YEAR for every single one of us who really wants one. And I WANT ONE. NEED ONE.
OK, Ladies! Let’s start memorizing some Scripture! Here’s what you do today (and on the 15ths and 1sts of the months that will follow): You will put your name, your city, and your verse (with reference and translation abbreviation) in a comment to this post . Try to resist making any other comments so that we’ve got almost straight Scripture down the post. It will be a feast for our souls. It will also be fun to see if any of us chose the same verse.
I will always post the verse I’ve chosen in case some of you are having trouble figuring yours out. (You’ll find it below.) You are welcome to memorize the same one I or any other Siesta chooses. However, you still need to put your name, city, and the verse in a comment to this post. It’s a vital part of the accountability. Don’t feel silly or like you’ve copied. That’s what the Body of Christ is for! Many of the first Scriptures I memorized were those I heard other teachers or leaders recite and I knew I wanted those words for myself. It’s a normal part of discipleship so feel free!
Ladies, I’m going to take this privilege that you’ve given me seriously. The ENORMOUS response to the Scripture memory post conveys how much we know we need to get some Scripture in permanent marker on our brains (so pleasing to God!) and what an important factor accountability is. SO, consider me holding you accountable. If you signed up on that post (“Anybody Game?”), I want to see your John Hancock on here two times a month for the next year. And I mean it. LET’S DO THIS THING. NO DROP OUTS. NO QUITTERS. We can do this! And we get to do this together!
Over 2500 signed up and I’m going to estimate that probably 100 accidentally commented twice SO I want to see at least 2400 comments on each 1st and 15th Scripture memory post. Try to do it within the first 24 hours of the post both times each month so you will stick with it and take it seriously. I have learned along the way that when you start putting something off, the power to obey and prosper in it begins to drain and soon we lose our fervor. Resist thinking to yourself by the third or fourth month, “Well, I’m not going to take the time to sign in but I’ll still memorize the Scripture.” I can almost guarantee you (based on experience) that you will not memorize 24 Scriptures by the end of 2009 without sticking with the accountability part of putting your name down each time. SIGN IN TWICE EVERY MONTH! Even come AUGUST!
Along the way I’ll keep cheering you on and will give you some Scripture memory tips if you need them. I’ll be cheered on myself by your priceless participation in the commitment. I’m so serious when I tell you that I believe we’re getting a HUGE nod from God on this. I sense divine DELIGHT.
OK, my Scripture is one I stumbled on in the NET (New English Translation) some months ago and fell in love with but didn’t memorize right then. I want to do it now as I see so much instability and uncertainty swirling (so unnecessarily) around Christ’s people. The verse is also great in the NIV if you want to give it a look but I’m going to memorize it in this version. Here goes:
“He is your constant source of stability (IS THAT GREAT OR WHAT??); He abundantly provides safety and great wisdom; He gives all this to those who fear Him.” Isaiah 33:6 NET
That’s mine. OK, what about yours? Sign up, Sweet Ones! Keep in mind that it may take a while for you to see your comment show up. We choose to moderate every comment to every post in order to protect our LPM blog from trash. It takes a while to get through several thousand comments when we suddenly have a big response! My blog-brainchild, Amanda, will be flying home with her family all day so I won’t have her help. I’ll get the comments on there though, maybe slowly but surely! And I will treasure every single one and celebrate your impending victory.
Would you pray with me as we launch this year’s commitment?
Our Abba and our God, from cities and states all over this nation and from other parts of this globe, we band together as one beautifully diverse sisterhood to offer You the praise You are so worthy to receive. We thank You for how You have taught us, sustained us, comforted us and even disciplined over the course of the last year and now we entrust every bit of it to You. Redeem what still hurts. Mend what remains broken. Heal what is still sick. We give what is behind us over to You but now we cast a deliberate gaze toward our future. We need You. We want You. We ask You for a pure, unadulterated JESUS-YEAR. We want to have one badly enough to make a joint commitment to hide Your Word in our hearts, to let it renew our brains, and become a Sword in our hands.
We commit this day to memorize or voraciously meditate on 24 Scriptures in 2009. Lord, we know from past experience that You alone can give us the unction to keep a single profound commitment for longer than ten minutes. We believe, however, based on Your Word, that You are the Initiator of all things faith (Hebrews 12:2) and that what You call us to do, You also empower us to do (Hebrews 10:23). We receive from You this day the anointing to memorize Your Word. We invite it to abide in us and bear much fruit. We ask You to make it powerful and healing to us. Transforming and beautifying. Bring forth a one-hundred fold harvest from every Scripture You sow into our spirits and cause us to be mightier in our battles than we’ve ever been in our lives. Start a fire in us that cannot be quenched even by death.
Lord, oddly as I type this prayer to You, it is approaching midnight on January 1st and all sorts of fireworks are going off right around my house as my dear neighbors celebrate the dawn of a New Year. I can see the lights out my breakfast room window and feel the whistles and booms of every bottle rocket all the way down in my chest. I won’t lie. It’s thrilling. But I hope something far more exhilarating is happening in the heavenlies. I pray that some mighty spiritual fireworks are going on over the houses of every single one of these women who love You and seek so desperately to please You…and many under very difficult circumstances. I sense Your own celebration. Your own anticipation. Because as unfathomable as this thought is to each of us, while we want a Jesus-year, You want an us-year. We are looking forward to You. And You, our Lord and our God, are looking forward to us. Mind blowing. We are so relieved that You think more of us than we think of ourselves. Help us to think more like You.
We love You so much, Lord. We want to love You so much more. More love to Thee, O God. More light to see Thee, Lord. Make Your Son the dearest thing in all of life to us this year. And every other thing of true value will be added to us. (Matthew 6:33)
In Jesus’ Saving, Miracle-working, Delivering Name,
Amen.
Tags: Scripture Memory
“He is your constant source of stability; He abundantly provides saftey and wison; He gives all this to those who fear Him”
Isaiah 33:6
Jodi Nairz
Paradise, CA
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding Proverbs 3:5
Sabrina Church
Kernersville, N.C.
This is my inspiration to make it through to the end.
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him. “If you continue in my Word, then you are truly disciples of mine. and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.
John 8:31-32
“Something” told me to double-check to make certain I was keeping up with all my posts. I have not. But the first one? My bad. Yikes.
Jeremiah 6:16
So now the Lord says, “Stop right where you are! Look for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path and you will find rest for your souls.
Isaiah 33:6 (NET)
“He is your CONSTANT source of stability; He abundantly provides safety and great wisdom; He gives all this to those who fear Him.”
Kelly McReynolds-EItzen
Tigard, OR
I will give them one heart and one way, that they fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. Jeremiah 32:39-41
Jamie
Birmingham, AL
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Colossians 4:6, NIV
Shauna Okongo
Tucson, AZ
Maddie
Slidell La
Jer 31:25
For I satisfy the weary ones and refresh everyone who languishes.
Psalms 139:7-10 NLT
I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your prescence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there.
If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your srtength will support me.
Tina H. Montgomery, AL
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
Matthew 7:7-8 NASB
Liz Gershon
Scott AFB, IL
“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” John 15:4
Denise
Zionsville, IN
colette Brentwood,CA Every word of God is flawless, he is a shield to all who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar. proverbs 30:5,6 niv
Habakkuk 3:19
Amplified
19The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk not to stand still in terror, but to walk and make spiritual progress upon my high places of trouble, suffering, or responsibility!
Psalm 92:1-2
NLT
It is good to praise the LORD and make music to Your name, O, MOST HIGH, to proclaim your name in the morning and Your faithfulness at night…”
Trying’ again 🙂
Zephaniah 3:17 NIV
The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will quiet You with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing!
Audrey Howie
Saint Joseph, IL
But he answered and said, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
Matt. 4:4 KJV
Linda
Greeley, CO
I think I have enough for the fun trip, but just making sure. I miscarried at 16 weeks on Dec 28, so this was my first memory verse. Our son Joshua Cade’s life verse we already had picked out! 🙂
Josh 5:14 NIV
Then Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence and asked, “What message does the Lord have for his servant?”
Kelly
Clarksville, TN
The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17
Barbara
Tomball, TX
“He is your constant source of stability; He abundantly provides safety and great wisdom; He gives all this to those who fear Him.” Isaiah 33:6 NET
Pam in Columbia SC
Nancy Eckhardt – Huntsville, AL
Hebrews 10:24 (NIV)
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
Joshua 1:9 (NASB)
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Lisette
Largo,FL
Isaiah 33:6
He is your constant source of stability; He abundantly provides safety & great wisdom; He gives all this to those who fear Him.
Linda
East Chain, MN
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Matthew 5:44-45, ESV
Chrissie C.
New York, NY
Joshua 1:9 NIV. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your GOD will be with you wherever you go.”
James 1:12 (NLT)
God blessed those who patiently endure the testing, Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him and have been called according to his purpose.
THANKS for letting me join late with the awesome Scripture Memory Team! I am so excited!
Isaiah 33:6 NET
“He is your (MY) constant source of stability; He abundantly provides safety and great wisdom; He gives all this to those who fear Him.”
Kim Kirkland
Fernandina Beach, FL
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NIV)
Lindsey – Grand Junction, CO
Julie
Russell, KY
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors as though God himself were making His appeal through us.
2 Cor. 5:20 NIV
Elaine
Tifton, GA
Proverbs 14:1 (NIV)
The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.
Hebrews 4:16 NIV
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Yukiko-Sagamihara, Japan
For of His fullness we have all received,and grace upon grace.
John 1:16 (NAS)
Beth Moss
Gig Harbor, WA
For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
John 1:16 (NAS)
Beth Moss
Gig Harbor, WA
Beth V said…
Beth V
Sugar Land, Texas
Proverbs 3:5-6–Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.
Titus 3:5-7 NIV
“He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”
Nikki Beaumont
Alabama
Colossians 3:12-18 NKJV
vs. 12 today:
Therefore, as the elect of God, Holy & beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, & forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; & be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching & admonishing one another in psalms & hymns, & spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord
Jamie in Illinois
Bridget – I’ve been memorizing this year but didn’t have a “forum” to participate or accountability – so count me in!
1st verse:
Rejoice Always, Pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NKJV
Therefore, brethren, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God that you will be able to take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.
But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3:13
Judi
Hilton Head Island, SC
NIV
“The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17 NIV
Erin Morrow
Ruston,LA
The eternal God is your refuge and dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms;He drove the enemy before you and thrust them out, saying, Destroy!
Deuteronomy 33:27 Amplified
Carolie
Chugwater, WY
Lohri
Plant City
Acquaint now thyself with Him & be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee. Job 22:21 KJV
Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:3
Jan
Canyon Lake, TX
The Lord is with you wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9
Georgia :o)
Middle, Tn
John 15:5
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13
Julie
Dallas, TX
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
John 14: 1-3 KJV
Shelly – Durham, NC
Psalm 119:11 (NKJV)
"Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you."
Kim
Corning, NY
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Acts 1:8 NIV
Mindy
Jacksonville, FL
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Psalm 118: 1 (NIV)
Dana
San Diego, CA
catch up verse…
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
Psalm 19:14 KJV
omega, houston