Hey, Everybody! Drumroll please! Welcome to the 2017 Siesta Scripture Memory Team! The entry of your Verse 1 selection acts as your registration. Please read this brief post before you leave your comment so you’ll know exactly how to do it. We are not legalistic about much around here but I am a drill sergeant about the precise way we accept comments for SSMT verse entries. One perusal through the first several hundred comments and you’ll understand why. It’s such a powerful sight you will almost want to cry. Or shout. Or throw your head back and howl your loudest hallelujah. It just all depends on how you process a fresh glimpse of divine revelation. You’ll have before you a feast spread out lavishly on a huge banqueting table.  Keeping the comments to the bare minimum makes Scripture itself stand out on the page. If we add a lot of other verbiage to the comment, the verse is more likely to get lost in it.
Not only will your soul be fed by the entries of others, you’ll discover verses you didn’t even know existed and get ideas for future selections. Any time you can’t decide what verse to memorize, jump on the comments and see what resonates with you. Any time you feel bone-dry or downcast or distracted or discouraged or just plain directionless, open up the comments on any SSMT post and behold the words of the Lord. It’s so powerful I could slap my desk thinking about it.
OK, this is how the information should appear in your comment:
Name (first is fine), city: verse, reference, Bible translation.
(Don’t forget your translation! People love knowing exactly which translation your selection came from.)
So you’ll have a paradigm for how it looks, here is my entry for Verse 1 and you’ll see at the end of the post where I made a slight little addition to add some soul-deep conviction if you wish:
Beth Moore from Houston Texas: “Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved fellow worker.” Philemon 1 ESV
You get to choose your own verse according to what you need most right now, what resonates with you in your present circumstances or what God just simply seems to land you on. This year I feel like He’s leading me to use my 24 entries to memorize the one-chapter book of Philemon. It contains 25 verses but the last one is easy so I’ll throw it in with my 24th verse as my final entry. I’ve done stacks of spirals full of unrelated Scriptures for my memory work in previous years. Other times I’ve done several different chunks or one solid chapter. There is no wrong way to do it. It just all depends on what the Holy Spirit seems to be energizing us to do. If something about chipping away at one chapter through the course of the year rings your bell, you are so welcome to join me or you can look through the Scriptures and choose a different chapter of similar length. I so loved memorizing Psalm 25 several years ago. I recited it as recently as yesterday. It has 22 verses ready to go if you’d like to consider it. You’d only need to tag on 2 separate verses after you memorized the psalm to fulfill your 24-verse goal. Jude is another one-chapter book I memorized. It contains 25 verses but I will warn you in advance, take that one on only if you like a challenge. It is pretty wordy.
Let’s just add two little words this time to the front of the entry of our first verse: I commit! And go right ahead and add that exclamation mark at the end of it for the sake of some very appropriate enthusiasm. What you’re about to do bears FRUIT. God’s Word does not return empty. He sends it forth with accomplishing power and divine purpose. That’s worth anticipating with excitement. (In fact, Isaiah 55:11 is a fabulous Scripture to memorize if you’re still searching for a great launch verse.) I think we ought to add those two little words because I keep reading how allergic we’re growing culturally to making commitments of almost any kind. I’m sure you’ve read the same thing. But here’s the deal. We will never be mighty servants of Jesus Christ, alive and awake in the Holy Spirit, bringing glory to God the Father all while standing against evil rulers, powers and principalities without commitment.
Ain’t happenin’.
Nothing was tentative to those early New Testament believers about following Jesus. They didn’t fulfill their callings by being scared of commitment. They gave Him their lives. They bore His name. They testified to the death. Let’s do this thing, Sisters. Let’s do it deliberately. We’re not destined to be weak-willed women. We’re called to be stunningly strong willed about God’s will. So, here’s my official entry for verse 1 of the Siesta Scripture Memory Team challenge of 2017!
I commit! Beth Moore from Houston Texas: “Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved fellow worker.” Philemon 1 ESV
Your turn, sisters! Try to make each of your entries within 24-48 hours after the posts go up around the 1st and the 15th of each month. Also remember not to worry if you don’t see your comment posted for a day or so. Wait a while before you post the same verse a second time. We moderate all comments to filter through spam and trash and general nastiness so the process can take a little time. Here we go! I’m beside myself with joy. Thank you for the privilege to store up the very words of God with you. They are life and breath to us. Iron in our blood. Steel in our bones. So much love to you.
I commit. Jennifer from Baltimore, MD: “Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly. I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.” 1 Corinthians 9:26 NIV
Kathy, Houston, TX, Psalm 37:4 (NIV)
Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
I commit! Aj Schwanz from Newberg, OR
I, the elder, am writing this letter: I am sending it to the chosen lady and her children. I love all of you because of the truth. I’m not the only one who loves you. So does everyone who knows the truth. (2 John 1 NIRV)
“All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the the God who comforts us. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” 2 Corinthians 1: 3-4 NLT
Catrina Marshall
I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy.
Psalm 116:1
NLV
I commit! Elizabeth Moreno from Austin Texas
Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.
Psalm 141:3 NKJV
Thanks for sharing! I had something else planned until I read your post. Hope you don’t mind me copying. Perfect verse to start the year out with. 🙂
I commit!
Jennifer, Indianapolis, IN.
“In you, Lord my God, I put my trust.” Psalm 25:1 NIV
I commit! Charlie Carraway from Sopchoppy, FL
Make me know your ways O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation;for you I will wait all the day long. Psalms 25:4-5 ESV
I commit! Teresa Nelson, Martinez, CA
Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold onto you with My righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10 Holman Christian Standard Bible
I commit! Rachel, Mascouche (Canada)
« De toute votre pensĂ©e, tendez vers les choses d’en haut et non vers celles qui appartiennent Ă la terre. » Col. 3.2 French version Semeur.
I commit! Sherree from Mansfield, TX
No, dear brothers, I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. Philippians 3:13 TLB
I commit!! Michelle Parma, Ohio
This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to all of you who share the same precious faith we have, faith given to us by Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, who makes us right with God. 2Peter 1:1 NLT
I commit ! Lorie Torres from Ooltewah Tennessee Be gracious to me, O Lord ,for I am languishing: Psalma 6:2 ESV
Johnine from Anna, Texas
I commit!
“What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:31. NIV
I Commit! Susan from Dewittville, NY. “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion..” Philippians 2:1 NIV
I commit! Cindy W from Perrysburg,OH
“I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not from human origin.”
Galatians 1:1. NIV
I COMMIT!! Linda, Buckeye, AZ. “Set a guard, O Lord over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips (to keep me from speaking thoughtlessly) Psalm 141:3 AMP
I commit! 🙂
Audrey, Dallas, TX
“Neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 8:29 ESV
Dewana Fisher Fort Worth, TX Psalms 84:11 For the Lord God is our sun & our shield. He gives us Grace & glory. The Lord will within no good thing from those who do what is right. NLV
Candy B.
Midlothian Tx
So let’s not get tired of doing good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest if blessing
if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9 NLT
I commit! Charmaine from Nashville, Tennessee
To you O Lord, I lift up my soul.
Psalm 25:1 NIV
I commit! Jamie from Paramount, CA
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”
Ephesians 3:16-17 NIV
I commit. So do not be 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. Isiah 41:10. NIV
Gretchen, Gahanna, Ohio
I commit!!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come!
2 Corinthians 5:17 HCSB
I commit! Helen Roseberry from Riverside, CA:
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,To God’s holy people in Ephesus,the faithful in Christ Jesus:” Ephesians 1:1 NIV
I commit! Suzy, Wheelersburg, OH – I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress, my GOD, in whom I trust. Psalm 91:2 NIV
I commit!! Joyce Davidson from Big River, Saskatchewan, Canada
“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1 NIV
I commit! Debbie Laureen from New Port Richey, Florida
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Oh Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:14 NIV
I commit! Lisa Brouwer from Sioux Falls,SD
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. Eph 3:20 NIV
I commit! Jennifer from Harleysville, PA
“The Lord Almighty has sworn, “Surely. as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen.” Isaiah 14:24
NIV
Cheryl, Warsaw IN
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT)
I commit! Connie Kempf from Eugene, Oregon, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life-” NKJV
Sophia from Harleysville, PA
I commit! Robin Laber from Parrish Florida: “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”
Isaiah 43:18-19 KJV
Moulton, Alabama: Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. and when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. Luke 6:47-48 ESV
I commit! Patty Lincoln, Columbia, SC: “Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced.” James 3:17 MSG
I commit! Julie, Texarkana, Texas,”“Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
â€â€2 Timothy‬ â€2:22‬ â€NIV
I commit! Jeri Cook of Missouri City, Texas
So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.
Colossians 1:9 NLT
Paola Hernandez-Hoffmann St.Petersburg, Fl
The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfyving life.
John 10:10 NLT
I commit! Whitney from Greenville, KY : “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Psalm 27:13 NIV
I love it!!!
I commit! Deanna Columbia, South Carolina. “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” Matthew 6:34 MSG
Sophia from Harleysville, PA
I commit! “You surely know that your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit Lives. The Spirit is in you and is a gift from God.”
1 Corinthians 6:19 CEV
I commit! Jeanne Peterson from San Antonio, Texas “Then the LORD replied, Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” Habakkuk 2:2-3 NIV
I commit! Caroline from Spring TX: “Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way and got it all wrong, as you know.”
2 Cor 5:16 MSG
I commit! Lisa from Wakarusa, IN “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched- this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life.” 1 John 1:1. (NIV)
I commit! Jan McClure from Lexington,KY
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth,making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,” Isaiah 55:10 ESV
I commit! Valarie Pemberton from Franklin, IN
“Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”
1 John 2:6 NIV
Psalm 139:1 Oh Lord, You have searched me and known me. NKJ
Karen from Clarksville, I COMMIT! “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
Cecilia, Fort Worth TX
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. —Psalm 42:5 NIV