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
Christine, Port Saint Lucie, Florida
Isaiah 41:10Â NKJV
Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
Chris
Canton, NC
“Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying, “Has not the LORD anoited you ruler over his inheritance?”
1 Samuel 10:1
NIV
Janell – frisco, TX. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (II Corinthians 3:18 NKJV)
Karen Edlund
Rochester, MN
Psalm 100:2 NIV
Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; The one who sows to please the Spirit, from that Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:7-9 NIV
Carol
Jena, LA
Kathi Johnson Spartanburg SC
When hard pressed I cried to the Lord. He brought me into a spacious place. The Lord is with me. I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? Psalm 118:5-6
Caroline Houston,TX
“For He is the living God; He endures forever. His kingdom will not be destroyed; His authority is forever. He rescues and delivers and performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions!” Daniel 6:26-27 NET
Linda, Holts Summit, MO
II Chronicles 20:17 NIV
You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow and the Lord will be with you.
I love this verse!
Katie Davila, Tomball, TX:
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us… Acts 17:26-27 (ESV)
Christa from AZ
I Peter 2:9 (NIV — personalized)
But I am a chosen person, a royal priestess, a holy daughter, God’s special possession, that I may declare the praises of Him who has called me out of darkness into His wonderful light.
Ruth, Shawnee, KS
Psalm 116:7 (NIV) —
Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.
Stephanie in Woodward, OK
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
Psalm 42:2
NIV
Stephanie
iWoodward, OK
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
Psalm 42:2
NIV
Becky Parrish, Lynchburg, VA
Share your food with everyone who is hungry; share your home with the poor and homeless. Isa. 58:7a CEVD
O Lord, You are great, mighty, majestic, magnificent, glorious, and sovereign over all the sky and earth! You have dominion and exalt Yourself as the ruler of all.
1 Chron 29:11, NET Bible
I can let go of fear(of everything)because of who He is.
His words are his heart. We desperately need to believe Him.
Mary Beth from TN, Philippians 3:14
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Tammy, Lawrenceville, GA Luke 1:45 AMP And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of the things that are spoke to her form the LORD.
Ali – Clearwater, Florida
“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Psalm 73:26 NIV
Corley in Conway, AR:
“The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” NIV
Because I am waiting for the fulfillment of a promise and clinging to the hope of its fulfilent in the next 2 weeks!
Merredith, Champaign ….. I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. Philemon 1:6 ESV
Gay
Round Rock, Tx
“Bring the whole tithe in the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”
Malachi 3:10 NIV
Lesley, Newbury Park, CA
“…being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6 (NIV)
Kathi Nitzsche
Lexington, OH
As the scripture says, “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.” And that word is the good news that was preached to you.
1 Peter 1: 24 & 25 (NLT)
Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him. 2 Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
Psalms 62:1-2 NIV
I pray that you may be active in your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.
Philemon 1:6 (NIV)
Elise–Newark
that should say “active in *sharing* your faith”
shelly
golden, CO
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yolk of slavery. Galatians 5:1 NIV
Pamela, Mechanicsville, VA.
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
gina
Johnstown, CO
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yolk of slavery. Galatians 5:1 NIV
Kim B. Thatcher, Az
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. Is 40:31 (NIV)
Jaye, Raleigh
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Matthew 13:44, ESV
Ambur, Fulton, MO ‘But blessed is the one who trusts in The Lord, whose confidence is in him.’ Jeremiah 17:7 NIV
Jan, Louisville, KY,
Col 2:7 rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, overflowing with thankfulness.
Michelle, Livermore, CA
“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
Galatians 3:3 ESV
Psalm 145:19
English Standard Version (ESV)
19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
Jessica from Sioux Falls, SD
Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:28-29 ESV
Susan, Durango
Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. 1 John:6, NIV
(Sorry I’m late! Forgot!)
Kate chalker
Highland, CA
Ephesians 5:8 NLT
For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!
i will sing to the Lord all my life;I will sing praise to my God as long as I live Psalms 104:33 NIV
Vanessa, Rockport TX
Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. (Psalm 63:3 NIV)
Helen Wall, Crystal City, MB Canada
1 John 2:2 (ESV)
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
Diane Miller, Longmont, CO
I will rejoice in Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and crying will be heard in it no more. Isaiah 65:19 NIV
Melanie Love, Mineola, Tx. A friend Loveth at all times. KJV
Sara, Dallas, TX – “The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.” Psalm 145:14 (NIV).
Margie Allen,TX
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, The Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the powers that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Philippians 3:20-21 ESV
Cindy
Columbia, MO
“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,”
Romans 5:3 (ESV)
Kym from Morrison
1Thes. 5:16-18: rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances,this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. NRSV
Eph.4:32 NIV
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Wendy, Wilson,NC
Psalm 130:5 (NIV)
I wait for The Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I put my hope.
Lisa from Leesburg “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” – Proverbs 3:5 NIV
For he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart. (Ecclesiastes 5:20 NASB)