*This post is coming to you a few days early as our staff travels with Beth, which you will read more about below.
Hey, Everybody! It’s May! We are making progress, Girls! By now you are getting some verses down in your bones. I was thrilled two weekends ago when we had our clandestine Siesta picture after the end of our Albuquerque Living Proof Live and a bunch of them brought their spirals. Talk about teacher’s pets! Here they are:
OK! I’ve done a little video – a really, really short one this time – where I say my verses to you while I’m on a walk in our woods so this stands as my official entry for Verse 9! I’m doing memory work right now out of Ephesians Chapter Four and it is so powerful. As you’ll hear in this segment, God seems to have a tremendous partiality to the number ONE.
Y’all, I love doing this with you. I love an SSMT year. You are so dear to us. By the time you’re submitting your verses, I’ll be speaking in London at Hillsong Colour Conference. Our whole LPM staff is coming and many of our volunteers. Melissa is with me and will be heading up a short tour with our volunteers after the Hillsong conference ends, giving emphasis to several figures in Christianity who had tremendous influence on Spiritual formation. We are looking extremely forward to it. Her suitcase weighed 10 whole pounds more than mine strictly from books. Made me grin. The girl is a book nerd if you’ll ever meet one. We were so sad Amanda couldn’t come on this trip but she needed to be home with her very busy family this round. We miss her like nobody’s business. Would all of you please pray for us as we labor in this gorgeous field of harvest? Please ask Jesus to pour out His Holy Spirit lavishly upon us and to give us such hearts of love for every person we serve.  When I say, ask Jesus to pour out His Spirit, I mean like GUSHES. FLOODS, TIDAL WAVES of Living Water. Understand what I’m saying? PRAY BIG. Get in there with your faith if you’d be willing and ask God to be enormously present among us here. Ask for many to be saved, many to be delivered from strongholds, healed, and made whole in Jesus. Ask for multitudes to awaken to the breadth and length and height and depth of the borderless love of Jesus. Thank you! I owe you a debt of love which I gladly, joyfully pay.
Ok, Girls! Hit it with those verses!
Christine, Murfreesboro, TN
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
(Hebrews 10:23 NIV)
Letha Miller. Cullman, AL. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Colossians 3:14 ESV
For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [foe His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless companionship]! Isaiah 30:18 AMP
Kalmazoo, MI
Psalm 145:21 (ESV)
My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.
Kathy, Birmingham
that according to the riches of His glory, He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, Ephesians 3:16 ESV
Julie, Madison, Ga
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Ephesians 5:1-2 NIV
Kelly, Merritt Island, FL:
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 NIV
Kristen Amensen, Liberty, MO
…and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. Colossians 1:12 NIV
Rebecca Crocker, Akron OH. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23, ESV
April Anstey, St. John’s, NL
The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him.
Psalm 37:23 NLT
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. 1Peter 3:15 NKJV
Judy Coles, Orabgeville, ON
Isaiah 41:10 NIV. 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.
Kelly, Auburn, Al – may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, Ephesians 3:18 NIV
the Lord does not look at the things man look at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1Sam. 16:7
Debbie, Orlando
Lamentations 3:22-25
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him.”
(NIV)
Colossians 2:6–7, NIV
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
Milan, MI
Brenda Lenz, Georgetown, TX – “Great is Your faithfulness, ‘The Lord is my portion’, says my soul, therefore I have hope in Him.” -Lamentations 3:23 (NASB)
Evan Stratton, Charlotte NC
“Know also that wisdom is like honey for you: If you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.”
Proverbs 24:14 NIV
Jan Morton
Hawkinsville, GA
Ephesians 4:3 (NLT)
Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.
Julie Webb City,MO
He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 NKJV
Hot Springs, AR
“He leads the humble in what is right, teaching them His way.” Psalm 25:9 NLT
Sheri -OR
Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. Jeremiah 33:3 KJV
Lora Leftwich, Indian Land, SC
continuing in Ephesians
Ephesians 3:18 …(that you, being rooted and grounded in love), “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, …”
John 9:3 (ESV)
Jesus answered, It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
Kelli Swisher
Beavercreek, OH
Anne Stinnette, Koror, Palau; “which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,” Eph. 1:20
You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
John 5:39-40 ESV
DeLand, Florida
Psalm 91: 1 New Living Translation
Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
Carla Langley LaFayette,Al.
Praying for you and your team Beth!!
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love, Ephesians 3:17 NIV
Angela Pisel, Hickory, NC. Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (â€Psalm‬ â€90‬:â€12‬ NIV)
Anne-Marie, Munich – Germany, 1 Cor 9.24 (NIV): “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”
Rene’ Pingel, Cape Girardeau, MO
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105 NIV
Gay
Round Rock, Texas
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You.
Psalm 139:11-12 NIV
Sheilah, Melbourne, FL
Isaiah 50:4-5
The Sovereign LORD has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back.
Carrie Lagas, North Potomac MD
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1:13 NIV
Jill , Clearwater FL ,
And the scripture was fulfilled that says , ” Abraham believed God , and it was credited to him as righteousness , ” and he was called God’s friend.
James 2:23 NIV I’m memorizing James
Janae – Riverside PA “Let us help each other to love others and to do good ” Hebrews 10:24 (NLV)
DeAnne, Talmage, KS “Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:2 NIV
Stephanie B – Springfield, MO
Isaiah 54:10 NIV
10 Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
Adrienne, Valdosta, GA
“If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”
James 4:17 NIV
Tara Condon, Madisonville, LA
And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19, NIV
Linda Dameron
Cape Canaveral, FL
“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.”
Proverbs 3:3-4 NIV
Vicksburg, MS
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgives you.
Colossians 3:13
NIV
Terri, Harrison Twp, MI
2 Thessalonians 3:2-3 NIV
pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith. But the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
Kenna, Overland Park, KS
Isaiah 42:16, “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.” (NIV)
Marleeta, Florence, CO
For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
Ephesians 3:14-15, NASB
Sherry
Indianapolis
“LORD, be gracious to us; WE long for you.
Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.”
Isaiah 33:2, NIV
Burlington, Ontario, Canada
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 nor forsake you.” (â€Deuteronomy‬ â€31‬:â€6‬ NIV)
Blenda, Hattiesburg, MS
Romans 8:14 Holman Christian Standard
All those led by God’s spirit are God’s sons.
Sue-Elise, Burkesville, KY – Colossians 3:13 (NIV) “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as The Lord forgave you.”
Holly Barrett, Crossnore NC
“It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 MSG