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
Â
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
1 John 3:18
Dear children let us not merely say we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.
Rebecca, Hallsville, TX
“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”
Col. 4:6 ESV
Melissa, Nicholasville, KY
“For in Him you have been enriched in every way – with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge.” I Cor. 1:5 (NIV)
Donna,Fort Wayne, IN
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2 ESV)
Cheya, Houston. “and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19 ESV
Romans 12:18 (NIV) “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”
Tajuana ~ Texas
Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4 (NIV)
Kelly from Hollidaysburg, PA
“Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” ~Genesis 28:15 (NLT)
1Peter2:9 (NIV)
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Anita
Justin, TX
Lise, Cumming, GA, Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16 NAS
Regina, Birmingham, AL – Let all that you do be done in love. I Cor 16:14 (ESV)
Janice, Tulsa. Don’t be afraid, because I’m with you; don’t be anxious, because I am your God. I keep on strengthening you; I’m truly helping you. I’m surely upholding you with my victorious right hand. Isaiah 41:10 (ISV)
Tricia, Conroe, TX
“But me, I’m not giving up. I’m sticking around to see what God will do. I’m waiting for God to make things right. I’m counting on God to listen to me.”
Micah 7:7, The Message
Jenny/Shalah, haslet, TX- Duo
Isaiah 48:17- This is what the Lord, your Protector, says, the Holy one of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you how to succeed, who leads you in the way you should go.
Carolyn R
Houston, Tx
Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7 NIV
Erin, Bella Vista, Ar
Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Ephesians 6:11 (NIV)
Diana, Cincinnati, Ohio. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 NIV
Stephanie
Madison, Ms
Luke 6: 37-38
NIV
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace adn truth.” John 1:14 NIV, Dusti from Van Buren, Arkansas
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 ESV, Martha from Van Buren, Arkansas
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12 NIV)
Lisa S, Plano TX
(06/15/13)
The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined.
Isaiah 9:2 NKJV
Liz, Nashua, NH
Phil 2:9-11 (NIV
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Lauren Mendoza Long Beach CA
“Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love”
Jonah 2:8 ESV
good morning to my sista’s this is my verse for the 15th of july…. Proverbs 3:5
TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL THINE HEART AND LEAN NOT UNTO THINE OWN UNDERSTANDING…. AMEN…
Gloria Johnson, Chisholm, MN.
“It is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us and put His spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guarannting what is to come”. NIV
Rachelle – Cedar Park, TX: With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in his God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. James 3:9 – 10 NIV
Leslie Tatum NIV Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Brittney, San Angelo, TX
Ps 103:7 “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.”
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. (Psalm 16:6 NIV)
stacey, tomball, psalm 103:12 NIV
as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgression from us.
Amazing, makes want to bow low every time I think of it.
DLynn; Argyle, TX
Psalm 51:6
Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;
you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
Lindsay from Tampa, Florida
take control of what i say, O LORD, and guard my lips.
psalms 141:3 (NET)
Lindsay, Albuquerque, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” Isaiah 43:2 ESV
Kelsie, Albuquerque, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Romans 12:12 ESV
Alysa, Albuquerque, “for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13 NIV
Kirby from Parsons, KS
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Galatians 5:22 NIV
Janet Anderson
Edmond, OK
“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
Praise the Lord praise God our Savior! For each day he carries us in his arms. Psalm 68:19 NLT
Dawn, Beavercreek, OH
“And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.”
Romans 5:5 (NLT)
Therefore, as Gods chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience Col 3:12 NIV
Susan, Atlanta, GA Be completely humble and gentle; be patient bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2 NIV
St. Catharines, Ontario, CANADA
Proverbs 31:17 NIV
She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.
Lee from IN – ESV – John 3:30 “He must increase and I must decrease.”
James 4:8a
Come near to God, and He will come near to you.
Patti, Fort Worth, Texas
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you or forsake you.
Deut. 31:6 (NIV)
Jodi Alley, Humble, Tx
That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:10 (NKJV)
Melissa, Locust Grove, GA
The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. Hebrews 7:18-19 NIV
Alexia- Champaign, IL
But he said to me, “My grace us sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
Ii Corinthians 12:9 NIV
Michelle, Watauga TX
Isaiah 60:6 (VOICE)
Herd after herd of camels will cover the land, caravans arriving daily from the south and southwest: Midian, Ephah, even Sheba with gifts of gold and frankinsense. They will announce for all the world to hear, “The Eternal be praised!”
(I may have posted this twice, but alas, I did not note the date and time posted in my little book so now I am at it again! I Think… I need an assistant! Glory be.)
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “B ut the righteous man shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16, 17 NASB)
Cheryl, Los Osos:
verse 12 – 2 Corinthians 12:9 NASB “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”