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
Joyce
Sparta, NJ
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding has no limits.” Psalm 147:3-5 (NIV)
Georganaa, Leo, Indiana
“As a prisoner of the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:1-4
Bev van Vuure – South Africa – Nehemiah 6:3b (NIV) –
“I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?”
Meilssa Irwin; Franklin, TN
“When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.” Psalm 27:2 (NASB)
Lynn very late from Brandon,MS
My commandment is this, to love one another just as I have loved you. John 15:12(NET)
Mary Grace Harris, Bolivar, MO
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
Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord ! (Psalms 27:14 NKJV)
Janet, Holmes Beach, FL
I love the Lord,
because He has heard my voice and my supplications.
Because He has inclined His ear to me,
therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
Psalm 116:1,2 NIV
Michele Albert, Naperville, IL
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
-Romans 8:38-39 (NASB)
Jeannette, Land O Lakes, FL
Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world
Phil 2:14-15 NET
Ephesians 2:14-15 “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one man out of the two, thus making peace.”
Kristi, Alexandria VA. Psalms 16:3-4 NIV
I say of the holy people who are in the land, they are the noble ones in whom is all my delight. Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names upon my lips.
Lori, Kemptville, Ont, Canada
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Rom. 6:6 (NIV)
Michelle, from Carthage, TX
Let the words of my mouth and the mediations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Psalm 19:14, ESV
Sue. Carmel, IN
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
2 Cor. 9:7 NIV84
Lorie Z., Centreville,
“As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.”
1 Chronicles 28:9
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. (James 1:12 NIV)
Suzanne, Centreville, VA
Search for the Lord and for His strength; seek His face always. 1 Chronicles 16:11 (HCSB)
I actually have been dragging my feet on picking a scripture, at least that’s what I thought I was doing, then I read the blog from yesterday and POP, there was my verse…so grateful for this community… “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)
Psalm 130:5 ESV
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I hope
Dianne, Atlanta
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father Who is in heaven. For He makes Hi sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.'” Matthew 5:43-45 (ESV)
Ina from Lancaster, Pa
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens and I will give you rest.”
Matt. 11:28 NLT
Amy 7634, SF Bay Area
“They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.”
Rev. 17:14 (NIV)
Ephesians 6:17 (NIV)
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of Spirit, which is the word of God.
“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:5 (ESV)
Colossians 3:17 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. NIV
Andrea, Dublin, OH
Cameron – Maumee, Ohio
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
Matthew 28:18
Teresa, Tyler TX
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)
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity , but of power, love, and self discipline. 2Timothy 1:7. Just jumped in this year, participated last year and somehow missed the boat this year . I have got to slow down! :-).
Joy, Ks.
But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
1 Thessalonians 5:10-11 (NIV)
Kelli, Dover
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV
MaryJo
Indianapolis, IN
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Colossians 4:2 (NIV)
Julie Elrod Smyrna,GA: 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:5-7 NIV
Philippians 1:6
New International Version (NIV)
6 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.
Colleen ~ Frisco, TX
So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
John 8:36, NIV
Jodi, Sundown, TX, Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Gal. 1:10 NIV
Webb City, MO
The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.
Psalm 103:6,7 NKJV
Beth C., Huntsville, AL
Now, our God, we give thanks to you and praise your majestic name! 1 Chronicles 29:13 (NET)
Monica, Florida. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
Ramona Gellick
Medina, Ohio
Psalm 73:28 NET
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.
Leah Bush – Driftwood, TX
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind.
II Timothy 1:7
“But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.”
Psalm 73:28 KJV
Deidre
Hickory, Nc
Stephanie B – Springfield, MO
“Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath.” Ps 116:2 NLT
Shera, Lynchburg, Va.
Create a clean heart for me, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10. Lexham English Bible
Suzanne, Tenaha, TX
Ephesians 5:1 niv
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children. Ephesians 5:1
Lonnie G. Omaha, NE
Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. (Psalm 105:4 NIV)
Val from Snohomish, Wa
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. (1 Chronicles 29:11 NLT)
And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God,
Titus 2:12 NLT
Peggy, Yorktown, VA
Rest in God alone my soul, for my hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken. Ps 62:5-6 HCSB
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.Psalm73:28 (NET] Twyla McAmis,Cleveland,Tennessee