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) Â 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:Â
Your name, city, verse (written all the way out), reference, and translation.Â
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Leslie, Mount Vernon, OH. “You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head.”
Psalm 139:5 NLT
My work is too important to stop now and go there. I can’t afford to slow down the work. Nehemiah 6:3 CEV
Summerfield, Florida
1 Peter 5:7 NIV
Cast all your anxiety on Him, because he cares for you
Kelli Smith, Matthews MO
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
Ruth 1:16
Shandy G., Aliso Viejo, CA. “For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.” Isaiah 41:13 NIV
Samantha from Michigan
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Ephesians 2:10
Jessica Climax NC let the word of Hod dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and adminishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to The Lord Collossians 3:16
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1
That Christ may dwell in my children’s heart through faith, that they being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width, length, depth and height–to know the love of Christ that passes all knowledge; that they may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:17
Lisa Holland, Florence, SC, “but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.” Jeremiah 7:23 NIV
Elisabeth Clark, Hiram, OH. “Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that, is higher than I.” Psalms 61:1-2 KJV
“For my Father and Mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.” Psalm 27:10
Megan from Bossier City, Louisiana
“If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.”
Psalm 139: 11-12 NASB
Carol Marroquin, Hewitt, TX
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil –
Hebrews 6:19 NASB
Laura Best from Kenly, North Carolina “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait on Him.” Isaiah 64:4 (NIV)
Marie Gregg, joining in from Post Falls, Idaho –
“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” – John 15:9 (NKJV)
Alysa Dixon, Sutherlin, Oregon.
“For in Him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, We are His offspring.”
Acts 17:28 NIV
Jennifer from Independence, MO “Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For you are the God of my salvation; On you I wait all the day.” Psalm 25:5 NKJV
Julie from Thomasville, Ga. “I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies.” Psalm 18:3 NLT
Shellie Rushing Tomlinson
Lake Providence, LA
You are near, O Lord, and all your commandments are truth. Psalms 119:51 NASB
Kristi Wilkerson, Elba, Alabama “We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.” Colossians 1:9b-10 (NLT)
Zoe Burnett, Atlanta, Georgia. “When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.” Psalms 94:19 NLT
Becky Fisher, Fargo, ND “Nothing, you see, is impossible with God.”
Luke 1:37 (The Message)
Kaitlyn Renfro, Rowlett, TX. “The Lord’s loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23 NASB
Summerfield, Florida
2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT
Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life has gone, a new life has begun.
Marla, Grand Rapids, MI. But he gives us more grace. That is why scripture says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6 NIV
Ashlen,
Dayton, TN
But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (â€Isaiah‬ â€40‬:â€31‬ ESV)
Kathy Poole, Fleming, GA
“If we confess our sins,he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:9 NIV
Laura Baillie, Hope Mills, NC “Be strong and courageous,
all you who put your hope in the Lord. ” Psalm 31:24 HCSB
Christy from Madison, AL, “You’ve been traveling around this mountain long enough. Head north.” Deuteronomy 2:3 CEB
Annabelle Grace, TX
“In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”
Ephesians 1:5 ESV
Sarah Hatfield from Albany, Oregon. “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased. ” Revelation 4:11 (NLT)
Sheryl Pierce, Bloomington, MN “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29: 11 (NIV)
Nancilea, The Woodlands, TX
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 NIV
Holly Purcell from Sandy Hook CT. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.” (NRSV)
Alicia Lopez, Las Vegas, NV. “Do not merely listen to the word,and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22 NIV
Heb 11:1 – “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
“For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
Karen Brasher, Conway, AR. “How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!” (â€Psalm‬ â€139‬:â€17‬ NIV)
Joy Hoff from San Pedro, CA – as I’m turning 40 this year! “For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.” Deuteronomy 2:7, ESV
Manda Barnett, commerce, GA
” Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23 NIV
Lori Benson, Paris, TX. “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” Philippians 4:8 NASB
Terri Stewart – Grand Haven, Michigan
“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.” Psalm 68:19 NIV
Karen,Indep.Mo,”Set your minds on things above,not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:2
Lisa Vinson, Abilene TX
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Dena Swinson, Coweta, OK. “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.” 1 John 4:16b-17
Jessica, Nashville, TN
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8, ESV
“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper and
not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
Cathy Hare from Rowlett,TX – “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.” Isaiah 26:3-4 ESV
Donna Patterson, Pontotoc, Mississippi
“For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 NIV