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
Jessica Cochranville, PA
Psalm 20:7 NIV
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
“When doubts filled my mind, Your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.” -Psalm 94:19 (NLT)
Blessed art Thou, O LORD:teach me Thy statutes.
Psalm 119:12 KJV
Karen, Colchester, VT
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 up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.
Isaiah 61:1 NIV
Esme Brown – Memphis, TN
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2 NKJV)
James 1:2-3 NIV
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Becky, The Woodlands, TX
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven. Matthew 5:16 (ESV)
Tammie from Ferris, TX
I will sing to the LORD because He has treated me generously. Psalm 13:6 HCSB
Rebecca R, Raleigh, NC “In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.” Ps. 19:4b-5 NIV
Psalm 103:4b-5
He crowns you with faithful love and compassion. He satisfies you with goodness; your youth is renewed like the eagle.
Tillie, Spring Branch, TX
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)
Verse #12
“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”
1 Cor. 13:6 (NIV)
“Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, And bless the Lord.” Psalm 134:2 (NKJV)
Leanne
Sallis, MS
What we are suffering now is nothing compared with the glory that will be shown in us.
Romans 8:18, NIRV
Donna Marina, Ca
Proverbs 21:23 NASB
He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles.
Bonnie, from Arden, NC:
“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.”
Psalm 42:1 ESV
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” James 1:2-3 NIV
Jeannie, Nashville, Tn.
“God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV (VBS Bible Verse)
Candy Seale, La Grange, Texas
Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children
Ephesians 5:1 KJV
Lisa S. in Montgomery, TX
2 Kings 20:5B NIV
I have heard your cry and seen your tears; I will heal you.
Heather W, Nederland, TX
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17 NIV)
Linda
Belton, Tx
Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
Psalm 55:22 ESV
Diana from Broken Arrow, OK 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1:17 NIV
lissa from granbury, tx
Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
Hebrews 12:1 ESV
Kathryn, Oceanside CA, “Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his presence continually!” 1 Chronicles 16:11 (ESV)
Paige ATL Proverbs 4:22. NIV
For they are life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body
” …if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.”
Colossians 1:23 NASB
Candi McDonald, Ft Bragg, NC
‘For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.’ Isaiah 64:4, NASB
Steph, Ontario, Canada
That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10
Toma, Antelope, CA
“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
I Corinthians 15:57 NIV
Dayna Vaczi, Overland Park, KS
Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:25 (NIV)
Stacey, Emily (age 13) and Ally (age 11) – Omaha, NE
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
3 John 1:4 (NIV)
I’m way late but here it goes. Holly Burlington, IA So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. (Galatians 4:7 NIV)
Peaise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Psalm 103:1 NIV
Dana
Boerne, TX
Alice, Marietta, GA
I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
1 Cor 3:6-7 (NIV)
philemon 1:6
that the sharing of your faith may become effective by acknowlegement of every good thing which is in you Christ Jesus.
Beth’s verse really spoke to me
Kim from Cincinnati, OH
“Everything is permissible”–but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible”–but not everything is constructive.
1 Corinthians 10:23 (NIV)
Skeet from Monroe, GA.
I Cor. 13:12 (NIV)
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
Kim
Trenton, TX
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. James 1:6 (NKJV)
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:14 (ESV)
Heather, London, ON
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3
Jen, Katy, TX
“Maybe so, but it is better to have only a little, with peace of mind, than be busy all the time with both hands, trying to catch the wind.” Ecclesiastes 4:6 GNT
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10 (NIV)
Katie R., Atlanta, GA
1 Peter 1:13
Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at His coming.
Christina from Waukee, IA
In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:19 NET
Angie W., Federal Way, WA
“the good hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD and do it and teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” Ezra 7:9,10 ESV
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Eph. 2:8-9 NIV
Katie, Harrisonburg, VA. ” The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold,”
(Psalm 18:2 ESV).
Andrea, New Brunswick, Canada
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23-34 NIV