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
Maria – Katy, TX
Isaiah 30:15
“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength”
Mariposa Sivage, Albuquerque New Mexico –
For we are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph. 2:10
Natalie Christopher Olympia, WA
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
Colossians 4:2 NIV84
Brea B. – Gardendale, AL
I will sing for joy in GOD, explode in praise from deep in my soul! He dressed me up in a suit of salvation, he outfitted me in a robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom who puts on a tuxedo and a bride a jeweled tiara.
Isaiah 61:10 (The Message)
You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13 HCSB
Stephanie Parrish
Lynchburg, VA
“My brothers and sisters, when you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience.”
James 1:2-3 NCV
Michelle from Chesapeake, VA
But as for me, God’s presence is all I need. I have made the sovereign Lord my shelter, as I declare all the things you have done.
Psalm 73:28 (NET)
Dena K. From Columbus, OH:
Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Psalms 51:10 NKJV)
Julie, Chesterland OH
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV
Brandi K
Cape Girardeau, MO
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV
Jeanette, Fair Oaks Ranch, TX
Ephesians 3:17-18
So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. NIV
Karen True in Boerne, TX…
John 14:27 NIV
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
LoriAngela, Chilliwack BC, Canada
Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God, trust also in me.
John 14:1 NIV
Linda, BARTELSO, IL. Now therefore, our God, we give You thanks and praise Your glorious name. 1Chronicles 29:13 (HCSB)
I, Valerie, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven because everything He does is right and all His ways are just. And those who walk in pride He is able to humble.
Daniel 4:37 NIV (Beloved Disciple)
Lydia, Warman, Canada
Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
John 6:35 NIV
Kim
Warrensburg, MO
James 2:18-20 (NLT)
18 Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”
19 You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. 20 How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?
Judy, Hoover, AL
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10 (KJV)
Kathy: Hazlehurst Ms.
John 12:38 KJV
That the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled,
which he spoke, LORD, WHO HATH BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO
WHOM HATH THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?
Matthew 11:28(NIV)
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Cara, Oswego. “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. For human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.” James 1:19-20 NET
For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways. Psalm 91:11 (NKJV)
Joanne, Tomball
Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends. (Proverbs 17:9 NLT)
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 1 John 3:1 NIV
njc
Frisco
Judges 6:23 (NCV)
“But The Lord said to Gideon, “Calm down!
Don’t be afraid! You will not die!”
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away and behold the new has come. 2 Cor. 5:17
LisaT from Boonsboro, Mr.
James 1:9-10. NIV
The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower.
Marrissa, Orlando, FL
2 Corinthians 3:5-6
“Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
NIV
Carolyn, Austin, TX
“If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” James 4:17, NIV
Kathy, Syracuse, NY
Isaiah 55:9 (NIV)
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Kelly from Sherman, TX. “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.” Hebrews 11:39 NIV
Glenna, Cumberland House, SK “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. (Lamentations 3:22 NLT)
Shaunna Sturgeon
New Strawn, KS
This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11, 12 ESV)
Heidi ~ Oak Harbor WA.
The Lord is my portion, says my soul.
Therefore, I will hope in Him.
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him
to the soul who seeks him
Lam 3:24-5 ESV
Kathy, Jay, Oklahoma
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:9 NIV84
Hebrews 12:2 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. 1 Cor.12:31 ESV
Instead, God choose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chooses things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. I Cor 1:27 NLT
Melissa, Walla Walla, WA
2 Thessalonians 3:5 NASB “May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ.”
Sarah, Colorado Springs, CO
James 3:8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. NIV
Megan, St. Louis, MO
Mark 9:23, NKJV “Jesus said to him, ‘if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes’.”
Joy Nelson, Muskogee, OK
“But as for you, be strong and courageous, for your work will be rewarded.” (2 Chronicles 15:7 NLT)
Jacci, from Denver
So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders. Acts 14:3 (NIV)
Elizabeth N, Castle Rock, CO
Phil 1:3-5, ESV
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”
Brenna, Chatham IL
Hebrews 12: 1b-2
Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run with perseverance the path marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (NIV)
Rose in Dallas, TX
Psalm 73:28, NASB
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works.
Peggy from Homer, Il
James 1:17 NIV
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Carol from Farmers Branch,TX:
Proverbs 2:6, NCV:
“Only the LORD gives wisdom; He gives knowledge
and understanding.”
running late, but still in…..
Jennifer in Cincinnati, OH
Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
Carolyn, Terrace BC Canada
Psalm 132:3 (NIV)
Put your hope in the Lord,
both now and forevermore.