*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!
Marilyn Brown of The Plains,OH says:
He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Rom.4:25 NIV
Martinez, CA
“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
Allison L., Tulsa, OK
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
Philippians 2:12-16 ESV
Sherry Fisher, Murray, KY
Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.
1John 3:9 (NLT)
Beth C., Huntsville, AL
Do not grieve, for the joy of The Lord is your strength.
Nehemiah 8:10. NIV
Cherie, Pocatello, ID: “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephamiah 3:17 TNIV).
Psalm 199:41 NLT
“Lord, give me your unfailing love, the salvation that you promised me.”
Kristinia, Metairie Louisiana
In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God – 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Smithfield, NC
Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.
Philippians 2:14-16
Joyce
Sparta, NJ
‘One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.
Psalm 27:4 (ESV)
Laura Richards, North Las Vegas, NV
1 Peter 2:9 New International Version (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.
Mary Beth, St. Louis, MO
“And this is what he says to all humanity:
‘The fear of the Lord is true wisdom;
to forsake evil is real understanding.’”
Job 28:28 NLT
Virginia Beach, VA
Yikes, I started memorizing my new verse, but forgot to tell my sisters!
Hebrews 2:1
Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
Katie A., Fuquay-Varina, NC
Guard that good thing entrusted to you. 2 Timothy 1:14
Danielle S.
Garden City, KS
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Hebrews 10:23 NIV
Lynne Brown, Jackson, Alabama
“For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.” Romans 8:6 (NASB)
2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a Spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (NKJV)
Cecelia – Tustin, CA
With God’s power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine. Ephesians 3:20 (NCV)
Emily Lawyer
Arlington, VA
But the Lord is faithful; He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. 2 Thess. 3:3 (NLT)
“I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.
I will praise my God to my last breath!
May all my thoughts be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD.” Psalm 104: 33-35 NLT
But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.
John 2:24-25
Kendal
Tulsa, OK
Sandra Kent,Gwinn MI
Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your laws.
Psalm 119:29 ESV
Tammy from Alexander, NC
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17 ESV
DeQuincy, LA.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him,
Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV
Shannon Houston, TX
Hosea 6:3 (NLT)
Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.
Laura D. San Antonio, TX “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;” 2 Corinthians 4:8 NIV (2 of 6)
Julie, Naperville, IL
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
Galations 1:10 (NIV)
Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
NIV Psalms 1:1-2
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
Ann, Cataula, GA
Psalm 94:19, NASB
When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, your consolations delight my soul.
Jennifer – Milford, OH
5/1/15 … “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” Hebrews 10:36 (ESV)
Lora Colorado Springs, CO
Psalms 29:11 ESV May the LORD give strength to his people! May the LORD bless his people with peace!
” Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
Romans 12:12 NIV
Karen Leasure, Canyonville, OR
I will sing the LORD’S praise, for He has been good to me.
Psalm 13:6 NIV
Wichita, KS
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 3:12 NIV
Kerri Eyler, Woodsboro, MD
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
Lisa Walden – Grand Prairie Tx
Psalm 31:14 NIV
[14] But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.”
Lora Lovin Osburn
Morristown, TN
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.” Matthew 7:13 ESV
Rita Quinlan – Alva, Florida
“Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.”
Romans 8:10 – NLT
Karen Collier from the Eastern Shore of Maryland
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5 (NIV)
Tracie Nall, Bristow, VA
“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”
James 4:8
Alana McCullough, Lorton VA. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 3:12 NIV
Natalie, San Diego
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. I John 2:3, NKJV
Heather Huffhines, Austin, TX
Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children. Deuteronomy 4:9 (ESV)
Bethany Stephens, Garland, TX
God is not a man, that He should lie, not a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
Numbers 23:19 NIV
Sharon Crow, Winchester, VA
And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes”.
Mark 9:23 (ESV)
Emily York St. Paul, MN
For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. 2 Thessalonians 3:2b-3 NIV
Rose Gillespie, Hot Springs, AR
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Matthew 6:33 KJV
Debbie, Calgary AB. Canada
“To whom will you compare me or count me equal?
To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?”
Isaiah 46:5 (NIV)
Surayyah, Alexandria, VA
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28 ESV