Hey Sweet Things! I’m putting this post up an evening early so I don’t have to be up and working at 7:00 AM on a Saturday morning off. Smiling. Thank you for understanding! Don’t stress if the comments aren’t moderated right away. We take it a little slower on weekends so nobody’s working nonstop.
I wish I had a way to add some great celebratory music to this post. You are officially halfway! Doesn’t that feel fabulous? Oh, come on, now. Let yourself feel it. Great job, Sisters! It’s not easy. We know we can do the second half because we have already done the first.  And we’ll do this next half exactly the same way: through the unction of the Holy Spirit. Just keep choosing Scriptures that are speaking to you in your exact season and need and they’ll come alive in the marrow of your bones.
I feel like I’ve been talking to you all day because I think of you while writing the lessons for the Bible study underway. We have hashed some things out in the Scriptures today, Sister. You just couldn’t hear them. I’ll just be glad when some of you are sitting on the other side of that page talking back. When I was at the taping for Children of the Day in May, we explained to the group that it would be a whole calendar year before the study comes out. The process takes a long time, especially because it involves both written work and video. We also have to dodge around a travel schedule that is set in calendar-stone a good bit in advance. But, in the twinkling of an eye, another month has already passed. The very last of the manuscript is due in December so you’ll not waste a prayer on me between now and then. I don’t get to write every week because I am on the road more often this time of year so each day I get to sit with my Bible open to 1st and 2nd Thessalonians is a gift. And a brain cracker at times.
You and I have plenty to do before next May, however! I so hope many of you are doing the Gideon Bible study this summer with us that our gifted sister, Priscilla Shirer wrote. It’s tremendously powerful. I saw one of you give her a shout-out today on Twitter with the hashtag #Siestaville at the end of it. It made me so happy. God has graced us with such anointed messengers at this hour in the Body of Christ, men and women alike. Hasn’t He? It has been my privilege to study under a number of them with you and to hear about many others from you. Our discipleship worlds are so much bigger when we’re willing to come together. Otherwise, we sit tight in all our own little corners and have no idea how many people God has gifted to serve the Body. We cheat ourselves when we separate ourselves.
OK, Sisters, are you ready to log in your 12th verses? I’m choosing mine from a sermon Curtis’s good friend, Jerrell Altic, brought in Curtis’s absence last Sunday at our church. His primary text was Mark 1 but he tied in a verse that really jumped out at me. I love the Book of Philemon and have taught out of it several times in the last two years but that’s the beauty of living words. A Scripture will suddenly pop off the page that had somehow been veiled from our recognition before. I’d been so taken with phrases like “yet for love’s sake” in verse 9 that I’d missed the treasure of V.6, and who couldn’t get distracted by a verse like the 15th? “For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever.” I bet some of you have a pretty slack-jawing testimony of that very concept under your own roof.
But when Jerrell referenced this verse, I knew it was my choice for our 12th round of SSMT. In fact, don’t tell but I jotted it immediately on the yellow notes app of my iPhone, took a screen shot and made it my screen saver right then. Sometimes a “now” word is like RIGHT NOW. Here it goes:
Beth, Houston. “I pray that the faith you share with us may deepen your understanding of every blessing that belongs to you in Christ.” Philemon 1:6 The NET Bible
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I want God to deepen my understanding of every blessing that belongs to me in Christ while I’m here plowing into some stubborn earthly soil with sweat sopping my forehead. Don’t you? I’m so thankful to be blessed but wouldn’t fleshing it out be a whole different prospect if we came to understand the depth and breadth of many of those blessings? To stand on them, act on them, pray from them, teach from them, love from them, and serve through them? Now we’re talking.
Colossians 2:2-3 gives a glimpse into the grandeur involved as the Apostle Paul prays “that their (and our) hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Look at that again: “the riches of full assurance of understanding.” We can’t soon wrap our minds around all that encompasses but we can instantly and actively start praying for God to deepen our understanding of the blessings that belongs to us in the One who embodies every divine and hidden treasure.
I’m making these prayers mine and I am looking for God to answer them. He wouldn’t dictate a prayer right there on the pages of the New Testament that He had no intention of responding to.
I love working through some verses and concepts with you, Sisters. You are so dear to me. Thank you for spending a little time around here and committing to something challenging in the midst of many priorities. I pray that every part of your life is invaded by the Word of God coursing through your brain. May God bring your harvest forth 100-fold.
It’s your turn, Sisters! Give me a hint about what Christ is doing in you right now through the selections of your verses. You are so loved.
Tags: Scripture Memory 2013
Rom. 8:15-17 NIV ” For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry,’ Abba Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our Spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
Sharon from Arlington, TX
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
James 1:27 (NIV)
Jenna, Kansas City
Finishing up Proverbs 31!
Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Honor her for all that her hands have done,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
Julie Garner, Boerne, TX
You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 16:11 (ESV)
Port Neches, TX
“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you.” Philippians 2:13-15 (NLT)
Vicki, Wilmington, NC
This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face. Selah
Psalm 24:6 NKJV
Judy Pauley
Norfolk, Va.
The Lord is like a father to His children, tender and compassionate to those who fear Him. Psalms 103:13
Rachel D., Meridian, “While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit” (2 Corinthians 5:4, 5 NLT).
Kim, Corning, NY. “Let us know; Let us press on to know the LORD; His going out is sure as the dawn; He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth” (Hosea 6:3 ESV).
Karen, Hewitt
“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation”. Psalm 95:1, NIV
Kristi, Lenoir City
Luke 18:27 NIV
Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
Kim, Pearland, TX
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.
Psalm 130:5
Blanche, Pearland, TX
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
Susan Clodfelter in Winston-Salem, NC
I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. Psalm 119:45 NIV
Amy, Snellville, GA
“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Colossians 1:9 (NIV)
Psalms 51:10 (KJV)
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Blair from Harrisburg, NC
We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.
Psalm 33:20-22 NIV
Courtney, Houma, LA
“Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” Psalm 50:14-15, TNIV
Paddy Plattsburgh, NY
…A time to be born and a time to die, A time to plant and a time to uproot,…
Eccl. 3:2 NIV
Lauren, Kentucky: Hebrews 4:16, HCSB: Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.
Carol
Albuquerque NM
Proverbs 2:10-11
10- For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul
11- Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you.
Proverbs 2:10-11 NIV
Tiffany, Chester:
“When He was reviled and insulted, He did not revile or offer insult in return; [when] He was abused and suffered, He made no threats [of vengeance]; but he trusted [Himself and everything] to Him Who judges fairly. “ 1 Peter 2:23, AMP
Stacie
Tenaha, TX
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 1:18 (NIV)
Katherine from The Woodlands, TX
Joshua 24:15 (NLT)
But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.
Stephanie Winder, GA
Psalm143:10 (ESV)
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!
Psalms 46:10, 11a. KJ
10 Be still, and know that I am God:
I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
Angie, S.D. 1 Chronicles 4:10 (ESV) And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, and that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.
Laura
Decatur,IL
It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
Ephesians 1:11-12 The Message
Elaine, Littleton, CO
Jeremiah 2:13 (NIV)
My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water and they have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
Lesley, Clinton, MS
The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4:9 NASB
Lynette, Nashville, TN: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15b ESV
Susie Johnson, Bloomington IN
You are my hiding place and my shield; I wait for Your word. (Psalms 119:114 NASB)
Dawn -Pampa, TX
Wait for The Lord ;be strong and take heart & wait for The Lord. Psalm 27:14. NIV
Susie – Garland, TX
“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”
Psalms 91:11-12 NIV
Ashley from Allen, TX
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”
– Matthew 22:37-39 (ESV)
Farrah, Jackson MS
Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. (Psalm 115:1 NIV)
Julie, Houston. “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11 (ESV)
“Be still and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.” Psalm 46:10 (NLT)
–Lori, Waxhaw, NC
Lisa, Greensburg, PA
“…take up the great shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”
Ephesians 6:16 (NEB)
Beth – Wynnewood, OK
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. Psalm 130:5 NIV
Julie, Newton, IA
“give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:38 ESV)
Sue from Kalamazoo, MI
God is not a man, that he should lie nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? Number 23:19 NIV
Kim, Grove City, Oh
Phil. 4:13 NIV
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Sharon from Van, TX
Whoever loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.
Psalm 34:12, 13 NIV
Betty, Waveland, IN: “I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.” Psalm 119:10 NIV
Psalm 138:8 “The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me;
thy steadfast love, O Lord, endures for ever.
Do not forsake the work of thy hands.”
Lori, Plano, TX – “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Duet 31:6 NIV
Lisa, Simsboro, LA
even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
Psalms 139:12 NIV
Dallas, GA
After spending time in the Tetons for the first time, I’m choosing Romans 1:20 NIV “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
But let all who take refuge in You rejoice; let them shout for joy forever. May you shelter them, and may those who love Your Name boast about You. For You Lord, bless the righteous one; You surround him with favor like a shield. Psalm 5:11-12 HCSV