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
Rebecca, Tacoma, WA
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)
CHRISTIE – GRAHAM, WA
“Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,”
PHILIPPIANS 3:13 NASB
Marilyn from Missouri:
I will extol you,my God,O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable. Psalm 145:1-3 NKJV
Bonnie from Dacusville, SC
Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.
Jeremiah 32:17 NIV84
Leanne Swanson, Billings, MT
“So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Deut. 31:6 NLT
Anita, Big River, Saskatchewan, Canada
“But thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15: 57 ESV
Katie, San DIego, CA
“We have this HOPE as an anchor for the soul firm and secure.” Hebrews 6:19a NIV
Bethany, Evart, MI Proverbs 8:35 NKJV
For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains
favor from the Lord;
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)
Cynthia, Missouri
Having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Phill 1:11 NASB
Teresa, Chadron, NE
“In a loud voice they were saying: ‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdome and strength and honor and glory and praise!'”
Revelation 5:12 NIV
Brenda, Houston,TX
My flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:26
Trina
Midland Tx
Romans 12:18 NIV
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Kimberly – Carlsbad, CA
“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”
1 Peter 4:5 NIV
Jen Smith, Clearwater, FL
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord, he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”
James 1:2-8 NIV
Michelle Prairieville, LA
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 ESV
Dawn Kornelson Airdrie, Alberta Canada
Be alert and sober of mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour 1 Peter 5:8 NIV
Keaton Lovell McCurtain,OK
For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there. (1 Samuel 1:27, 28 KJV)
Paula, Maine
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV
Remember that I have commanded you to be determined and confident. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for I, the Lord your God, am with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9 (Good News Bible)
Amy – Custer, SD
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Psalm 127:3 ESV
Stephanie Kilper, Stow OH
Let them praise his name with dancing
and make music to him with timbrel and harp.
For the Lord takes delight in his people;
he crowns the humble with victory.
Psalm 149:3-4 NIV
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 JOhn 1:9
Jenny, Tulsa, OK
Ephesians 2:10 (NASB):
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
Lauren Larsen
Tulsa, OK
Ephesians 5:1 NASB
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”
Anna – Conroe, TX
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
1 John 5:14-15 NIV
Laney from Tulsa
Philippians 2:14-15 (NASB)
Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.
Mindy – McDonugh, GA
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV)
Jennifer Craven in Winston-Salem, NC
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV
Linda, Stanley, WI
Linda, Stanley, WI
“Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. I Chronicles 29:12 NIV
Angie M – Macon, MS
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6, KJV
Lindsey from Edmond, OK
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. (Psalms 139:14 ESV)
Wanda
North Canton, Ohio
Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.
2 Corinthians 3:5 NIV
Sherry
Oklahoma
Ps. 91:2. ESV
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
Pamela Williams, Olive Branch, MS
And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
1 Corinthians 2:1 NIV
Nitsa, Eugene, OR. “I will cry to God Most High, to God who accomplishes all things for me.” Psalm 57:2 NAS
Melissa, San Antonio, TX
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
2 Peter 1:3 (NIV)
Romans 3:21-22 NIV
But now a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference…
Norka, Mississauga, ON Canada
“I will give thanks to you, O LORD,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
that you might comfort me.
Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the LORD God is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.”
Isaiah 12:1-2 (ESV)
Letha. Mountain Home, Arkansas. In Christ are hidden all the riches of wisdom and understanding. Colossians 2:3 NLV
Teri in Corpus Christi, Texas
Galatians 5:25 (NIV)
“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
Alice Wilmington De.
And be not conformed to this world:but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,that ye may prove what is good,and acceptable, and perfect,will of God Romans12:2 KJV
Mindy in Franklin, TN
I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. (Psalms 37:25 ESV)
The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Psalm 126:3 NIV
Janet Long Clinton, MO
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men
Colossians 3:23 (NASB)
Ashley B – Richmond, Va
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.
Proverbs 31:8
“Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10 NAS
Danyelle
Dayton, OH
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. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hears be troubled and do not be afraid.
John 14:26-27, NIV
Laura, Little Rock, AR. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. ” Ephesians 6:10-11 (ESV)