Finally!!!!!!!!
Are you ready, Sisters? Do you hear me cheering?? I have never been more excited about doing this.
I am on the verge of doing about 10 backward flips on my hardwoods. I said on the verge. Not quite doing it. Well, I’m doing it in my heart. That counts for a lot around here.
SO LET’S DO THIS THING! Now, promise me this! Promise me you will read this entire post before you leave a single comment. I know you’re about to burst and I am, too, and, for that reason, I’ll keep it as short as possible. It’s so important that we get our ground rules firmly established so that we’ll have a fabulous experience. Remember, hundreds of our participants this time around are brand new so let’s make sure everybody’s on the same page.
A few things you absolutely MUST KNOW:
*Your comment to this post is your official registration onto the team. Everybody starts at Verse 1 no matter when they begin the process. (Word gets around and we often still have people joining in with us even in March and April. We don’t mind how late they begin as long as they can catch up, memorize their verses, and document each one of them on the proper post as an official participant.) This launch post will remain right here in this January 1st 2013 slot all year long and each new person will need to make her first entry here. This is how we track who signed up when we get to the end of the year and it’s party time.
*Your comment must be strictly limited to the following 5 pieces of information: name, city, verse, reference, translation. I’ll say it slower now for those brand new to the process:
Your name (or first name if you prefer), city. Your verse for that two-week period written all the way out, the reference for it (where it is found in the Bible: Book, chapter, verse) AND the *translation you’ve taken it from.
(*For instance, is the Bible you’ve pulled the passage from a KJV, an NAS, HCSB, NIV or NLT? Or is it The NET Bible, The Message or another similar version? The translation almost always appears on the outside spine of a Bible. If not, you will find it on the first few pages. If you’re looking on line, you’ll get an option to choose a translation. Do so as it speaks most clearly to you. We aren’t fussing over translations here in our memory work. You also do not need to stick with one version throughout.)
Just those 5 pieces of information! They will comprise every comment to this post. And the moment you start scrolling through all of them, you’ll see why. Page after page after page after page of Scripture and each one telling a reader exactly where to find it. It is the most powerful sight to behold. This invites people who are not participating in the memory work to reap tremendous benefits by just reading the comments and taking strength from verses they may not have known existed. This way it has the potential to bless our whole community or any weary visitor to our blog. I’ve been in crises before and gotten on the comment pages and scrolled from Scripture to Scripture and practically wept with relief and fresh courage or revelation. That’s why it’s best to keep the SSMT comments as succinct as possible. If you’ve got an exclamation in you that you just can’t hold back, you can occasionally make the briefest comment like, “I really need this one!” or “I’m sharing so-and-so’s verse” but, please, no more than that.
Comments other than the verse-entries on the 1st and 15th of each month can’t be approved. I’m so sorry and I hope you’ll understand. Thousands of us will be doing this together so the moderation process is monumental from the administrative side. The verses will be all Lindsee and I can handle in the comments for our two SSMT days per month. Keep in mind: NONE OF THESE INSTRUCTIONS PERTAIN TO THE OTHER BLOG POSTS HERE AT LPM. We will be completely free to do our regular thing on all other posts! The really stringent rules are only for the 1st and 15th of each month in 2013 and in reference to Siesta Scripture Memory Team. I hope that makes sense!
*Your comment may take 24 hours to get moderated (or posted if you’re new to the blog process) and sometimes a bit longer if it falls over a weekend. We try our hardest to stay up with it but on those days when 500+ come in at once, it’s quite a task! But we love it! It just requires a little patience on all sides! Before you assume that your entry somehow vanished and you’re tempted to write it again, give it one full day and see if it shows up. Keep track of what time you posted it and double check the comments around that same time. The accidental repeats make it much harder to track participation through the course of the year so always double check. If you don’t find it a day later, by all means, post it again!
*Remember that you get to choose your own verse! That’s really important! The ease with which you can memorize a verse is greatly impacted by how much it means to you. The more you need it or want it, the more you’ll absorb it. If you come up dry at times, no problem! You can either share my verse or another in the comment line that really speaks to you.
*PRAY that God will bless you in this endeavor and will enable you to memorize His Word! Ask continually throughout the entire year! When I get stuck and frustrated that I can’t get my words in order, if I’ll stop what I’m doing and ask God to supernaturally infuse me and help me to concentrate, you would not believe how quickly a breakthrough will come.
Are you about to stuff a sock in my mouth?? I’m about 2 seconds from stuffing one in my own mouth. Melissa gave me two new pair of boot socks for Christmas so at least I have fresh choices.
All right, already! Here goes mine! In honor of our process ahead and how willing the Holy Spirit is to help us…
Beth from Houston Texas, But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26 NIV84
Here’s one more alternative if you’ve never memorized it for a new year! I just love it for January 1st:
You crown the year with Your bounty, and Your carts overflow with abundance. Psalm 65:11 NIV
May God’s grace abound to you, Sweet Thing. WELCOME! We have such a fabulous challenge ahead of us. GOD, GRANT US YOUR GOOD FAVOR!
So…what are you waiting for??? SIGN IN WITH VERSE ONE!
PS. I thought you guys might find it a bit amusing that I brought in the first 300 comments in the CAR on the way to the airport to catch my Atlanta flight for Passion 2013. Laughing. You keep your blog mama busy. I love you so!
Tags: Scripture Memory 2013
MarySue Wenatchee WA
“but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
Isaiah 40:31 NIV
Jenny Sanders; Wolfforth, Texas
Colossians 1:9-14 (NKJV)
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saint in the light.
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through HIs blood, the forgiveness of sins.
Catherine, Mill Creek, Washington – You crown the year with Your bounty, and Your carts overflow with abundance. Psalm 65:11 NIV
Brandon, MS
“I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out- plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed”
Jeremiah 29:11 MSG
Susie Hampton; Garland, TX
“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One Who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4, NIV84)
Psalm 141:2(NIV84)
“May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.”
Lynn Durham, Lancaster, KY
Exodus 15:11 (NASB)
“Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?”
Kristin, Austin, TX
Psalm 34:18 (NIV)
“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
Tammy Cincinnati, Ohio
You Crown the year with Your bounty and Your carts overflow with abundance. Psalms 65:11 NIV
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26 NIV84
Susan C., Longwood, Florida
Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.
Colossians 3:1
New Living Translation
Kim, Union City, Ohio
1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
I can handle anything with God by my side.
Sonie from Bixby, You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. Psalm 65:11 NIV
Sarah, Redding, CA
So, do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10 NIV
Ephesians 2:8 NIV;For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift from God.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
James 1:22 NIV
Colima, KLamath Falls, OR
May The Lord cause you to flourish, both you and your children.
May you be blessed by the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth
Psalm 115:14-15
Annie, Alabama:
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
Galatians 5:13 (NIV)
Frisco, Tx
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6, NIV
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2 NIV
Dayna from Bedford, VA “This is what the LORD says: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast number, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”2 Chron 20:15 HCSB
Cathy Bowers, Virginia Beach, VA
Isaiah 41:10 (HCSB) – So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Jacque from Chesnee, SC. John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Ruach HaKodesh, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything; that is, he sill remind you ofeverything Ihave said to you. Complete Jewish Bible
Katie from OKC, OK “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen . For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NKJ
Joan DeKoekkoek, Portage, MI
“He who was seated on the throne said,’I am making everything new!’ Then He said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy & true.'”
Revelation 21:5 NIV84
Leslie from Allen, TX
Psalm 20: 7-8 NIV
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.
Darcie from Sheridan, WY
God is our protection and our strength. He always helps in times of trouble. So we will not be afraid even if the earth shakes, or the mountains fall into the sea.
Psalm 46:2 NCV
candifer, SD
psalm 25:1-2 (NLT)
o Lord, i give my life to you. i trust in you, my God! do not let me be disgraced, or let my enemies rejoice in my defeat.
Kristin from Lexington, Kentucky:
“Oh, that we might know the Lord!
Let us press on to know him.
He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn
or the coming of rains in early spring.”
Hosea 6:3 NLT
Karen Stuber, Abilene, KS
James 4:4 – 6
4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?[a] 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”[b]
NIV 1994
Greenville, TX
Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NLT)
But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted by the riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not worried about the heat or bothered by long months of drought. Their leaves are always green and they never stop producing fruit.
Deborah, Burlington, NC
This is second posting.
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1 NASB)
Gretta – Rutledge, GA
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Cor 10:5 NIV
Isiah 40:31 (KJV)
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
James 1:1 NIV
Andrea, Grandview WA
Isaiah 61:1 NIV
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners…
Mathew 11:28-30 Come to me , all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gently and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Molly, Olathe, KS
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” Hebrews 2:14
Isaiah 43:18,”Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” NIV
Jcee Crawford
Frisco, Tx
Jeremiah 17:14
“Heal me, O’ LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for You are the one I praise.”
Stuttgart, Germany. John 16:33 (KJV)”These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Gail ~ Bremerton, WA
Do not copy the behavior and customs of this world but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Romans 12:2 NLT
Jenny, Lee’s Summit, MO
“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.
Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!”
Psalm 27:13-14 NKJV
Ashley, Calgary Ab-
Because of the Lords great love we are not consumed for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning: great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23 NIV
Janelle, Irving, TX
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.
Hebrews 11:1-2 NIV
Jonda, Georgetown, KY “Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge”. Ps. 16:1, NIV
Denise Cain from Anna, Texas, May the Lord richly bless both you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth, Psalms 115:14-15 NLT.
Jennifer Myrtle Beach, SC
“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:30 NIV
Kelley, Olive Branch, MS “God, the one and only- I’ll wait as long as He says. Everyting I need comes from Him, so why not? He’s solid rock under my feet, breathing room for my soul, an imprgnable castle: I’m set for life.” Psalm 62:1,2 The Message
Isaiah 61:1 NIV
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind u the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners