WELCOME, EVERYONE, TO THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE 2015 SIESTA SCRIPTURE MEMORY TEAM!
WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!
Allow me to introduce myself to you as your fellow sojourner for the next 12 months and your official cheerleader. It will be my pleasure to remind you often that, in Christ Jesus, you most certainly CAN be victorious in this adventure of the faith, this challenge of the mind and this discipline of the Spirit.
Nothing we’ve done on this blog since its inception has seemed to attract more outrageous favor from God. We are convinced that He loves it. God never misses a single individual going to the work of memorizing His Word but imagine His delight when a huge community of tremendously diverse women in age, background, and worship tradition band together in a pilgrimage of faith. You don’t have to stop and wonder if it’s God’s will for His words to abide in you. The Word of God alive, active, and abiding in us speaks to us, shields us, warns us, strengthens us, sanctifies us, equips us in our callings, and directs us in our decision making. It sharpens our insight and improves our discernment. It makes us wiser and, let’s be bold enough to say, even smarter. Our brains were hardwired to flourish across the board when nourished by the Scriptures. Above all else, Scripture abiding and thriving in us builds up our faith, for “faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) And, Girlfriend, we want to be women of faith. That faith erupts into works that were planned for each of us before the creation of the world. (Ephesians 2:10)
OK. I want to get right to it before I lose some of you so that no one will be unclear about the protocol.
The entry of your first verse is your official registration for SSMT (Siesta Scripture Memory Team). Everybody who joins us needs to start right here in a designated comment to this exact post. Even those who may jump in with us a couple of months late who are willing to work double-time to get it all done will start right here.
For a quick recap of our objective: Remember, we are committing to the memorization of 24 verses in 12 months. Two a month. We each get to select our own verses to align with our personal needs and challenges. Choosing a Scripture that resonates with you is immensely helpful in the memorization process. If you have trouble coming up with one of your own, you can always share mine or look through the other entries for ideas. You’ll find your SSMT posts right here on the blog at 8:00 AM on the 1st and 15th of every month in 2015. [Under the LINKS section listed on the right hand side of our blog home page, you will find all SSMT posts will store together for easy access. See “Scripture Memory Team 2015”.] If you haven’t had a chance to read all the instructions and hear about our end-of-year celebration, please go back and read the informational post then return to this spot. Questions unanswered here are answered there.
One of the most important things for you to know from the top is how to arrange your comment with the verse you’ve selected. We limit each comment to this information:
Your name, city, verse (written all the way out), reference, and translation.
SO, here goes mine! I’m obsessed with the Book of Ephesians right now so much of my memory work will probably come from those pages.
Beth Moore, Houston, Texas. “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” Ephesians 2:19 ESV
We’re fellow citizens with the likes of Peter and John and James and Stephen and Paul and Timothy and Barnabas and Joanna and Susanna and Lydia and Tabitha and just try counting all the Marys. We’re fellow citizens and members of the household of Middle Eastern believers confessing Christ in hostile climates, of Chinese believers meeting in house churches, of Eastern European believers finding hope in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have brothers and sisters in Thessaloniki, in Paris, in Belfast, in Riyadh, in Copenhagen, in Calgary, and Rome. We – right here in this community – are sisters to a household of God that stretches across this globe, saved by the blood of Jesus Christ alone. By grace through faith. “It is the gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) That’s what makes us family. We, beloved sister, are in gorgeous company. Let’s give our time on this planet as part of this household all we’ve got. Christ is so altogether worthy.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! One last thing before I say Go! Don’t panic or jump the gun and post a second time if you don’t see your verse published soon. I will be moderating all these launch comments by myself because I don’t want my staff to have to work on the holiday so I beg your patience. I’ll be hard at work on it but it will take me a while to get them all posted. As a rule over the next 12 months, only post a second time if it’s been 48 hours since you left the comment and you still don’t see it.
****I noticed that some of you posted verses earlier than this post was published and they came up on the SSMT informational comments. I should have doubly emphasized what time the posts will go up each round: 8:00 AM, each 1st and 15th. So sorry if I did not make that clear enough! If you submit your verse earlier than that, it unfortunately appears under the wrong post and, the way blog moderating works, there’s no way for us to transfer the comments over. If you left your 1st verse under any other post than this one, please add it here as well. This is the official registration post. I know it’s a bit complicated at first! Hang with it! So sorry for your extra trouble!
Hey, I am so glad you’re doing this with us. So much love to you.
OK, GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rachel Escamilla; McKinney, TX
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NIV)
Rachael of Wylie, TX
“Jesus replied, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matthew 22:37-39, NIV
Ivy of Wylie, TX, age 8
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16, NIV
Wanda Fisher, Greensboro, AL
Exodus 4:12 “Now go, I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” NIV
Lori Goodale, Lewisburg, WV
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ May rest upon me.
2 Cor 12:9 ESV
The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe. Proverbs 18:10, NASB
Susan, Wetumpka, AL
Andrea Beshuk from Jefferson City, MO: “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity,
but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7 NIV 1984
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)
Maria Durdee Paola, KS
Joshua 1:9 NLT
This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Cathy Jones, London, Ky
And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27 ESV
Lesley, Whitefield, NH
“Forget the former things, do not dwell in the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it spring up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” NIV
Psalm 27:8 My heart says of you, “Seek His face!” Your face, LORD, I will seek.
Dana
Lebanon, Missouri
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
(Romans 12:12) NIV
Deborah Miller, Mesquite Tx – Philippians 1:9-11: “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.” Life Application NIV
Philippians 4:13. I can do all things through Him that gives me strength. NIV
Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV
‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV
Jefferson Hills, PA – And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. – Romans 12:2 NASB
Jeanna Romans, Bel Air, MD
Ephesians 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Paula, Maine
But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Malachi 4:2 NIV
Ima, Springfield, IL
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:68 NIV)
Donna T., Memphis, IN
He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on a stand? Mark 4:21 NIV
Amy M, Fifty Lakes, Minnesota
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 NIV
Suzanne Wantland. Liberty Missouri. “Besides this you know what a critical hour this is, how it is high time now for you to wake up out of your sleep rouse to reality. For salvation final deliverance is nearer to us now than when we first believed adhered to, trusted in, and relied on Christ, the Messiah.” Romans 13:11 AMP
Laura
Hockey,TX
Isaiah 43 (ESV)
1-But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel. “Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine.
Mamo Cummings – Kapaa, HI – Isaiah 55:5 “Surely you shall call a nation you do not know,and nations who do not know you shall run to you, Because of the LORD your God, And the Holy One of Israel; For He has glorified you.” (NKJV)
Melissa Bagwell, Fort Worth, TX-O Lord, You have searched me and known me. Psalms 139:1 NASB
Christy from Muleshoe, Texas, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV
Dorothy Palmeer,Wilkes-Barre,PA. My verse is: John 15:1:Jesus says,”Iam the true vine,and My Father is the Gardner.
Kathy–Pittsburgh, PA
“For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.”–Romans 6:14 NIV
Abigail Regalado, Odessa, Texas
“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. MMay your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thess. 5:23 NIV
Kristy Grove
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV
Alison Bickel, Decatur, IL
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:1-2 ESV
Holly from Cape May
When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul. Psalm 94:19 NIV
Cindy Hopkins, Overland Park, KS
“For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.” Hebrews 3:14 NLT
Here I am, doing a new thing; Now it is springing up— do you not know about it? I will surely make a way in the desert, rivers in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:19 TLV)
Sheba Brown, Hayesville, NC “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14 NIV
Marcie S. San Antonio, TX Isaiah 43:18-19 (ESV)
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Monica Applegate, Amarillo, Texas
“Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Psalms 16:11 KJV
Philippians 4:8-9
8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. (Isaiah 43:19 NLT)
Amberly, Nashville, TN
“For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” -Psalm 139:13-14 ESV
Jessica Albers, Spring, TX
Isaiah 43:19
“Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.
Joanne Farley, Durham, NC
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13 NIV
Pam Lynch, Gent, Belgium:
“Het loon van de zonde is de dood, maar het geschenk van God is het eeuwige leven in Christus Jezus, onze Heer.”
Romeinen 6:23 (NBV)
Robyn Fornet, Kingwood, Texas
Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the rock eternal, Isaiah 26:4, NIV
Kristin Blatz, Kettering, OH “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (NIV)
From Blairsville, Georgia. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Psalm 103:1
Philippians 4:6-7 NIV Do not be anxious about anything but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
“Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the Lord. (Zechariah 2:10 NIV)
“The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.” Psalm 28:7 NLT