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! “Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.”
Isaiah 43:19 NKJV
Lori from Gorman TX: Psalm 25:1 AMP
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
I commit!
Louise Armistead. Semmes, Alabama
I am committed
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is external life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans:6-23 king James
I commit! Annie, Alabama
And above all these put on love, which binds everything in perfect harmony.
Colossians 3:14, ESV
I commit!!!
LeAnn, Spring, TX: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12 (NIV)
I commit! Kara Mackie from San Diego, CA: ‘In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.’ Proverbs 3:6 (NKJV)
I commit! “I command you – be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9, New Living Translation.
Eleanor from Saskatoon,SK., Can.
‘The Lord is close to the broken-hearted, He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.’
Ps. 34:18 NLT
I commit! SharDey Simmons from Saginaw, MI: “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.”
Lamentations 3:25 ESV
I commit! Amy Forret from Cedar Rapids, Iowa: “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this – not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way.” Romans 14:13 NASB
Laura from Christiansburg, VA. I commit!! “fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10 ESV
I commit!
Jayne. Canada
“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
I commit! Lori, Toledo OH
2 Tim 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, for the promise of life in Jesus Christ HCSB
I commit! Lindsay; Cleveland, MS “A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.” Proverbs 15:13 NIV
I commit! Wendy from Erie, CO: “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” Psalm 143:8 NIV
I commit! Vickie from Gainesville, TX “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,” Is 55:10 NIV
I commit! Melissa from GA. “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”
Isaiah 26:3 ESV
I commit! Christin from New Braunfels, TX: “I ask then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?”
I commit! Sara from Humble, TX: The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1, NIV
I commit! Joan from New Windsor, Maryland
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV
I am committed! Gloria, Van Alstyne, Tx: “O LORD, I give my life to you.”
Psalms 25:1 NLT
I commit! Kari from Lancaster, CA: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” John 14:27 NASB
I commit! Phoebe from Knoxville, TN: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28 NIV
I commit! Erica from Kalispell, MT: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” Philippians 4:4 NIV
I commit! Mary Robinson from Platte City MO “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger” Ephesians 4:26 ESV
I commit! Alissa Wise from Lexington, SC: “Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long.” Psalm 25:5 NIV
I commit! Tracy from Whitesburg, TN. “Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.” Ecclesiastes 11:4 (NIV)
I committ! Diane from Mansfield, CT: “God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; He does great things beyond our understanding.” Job 37:5 NIV
I committ Judy Bennett N Richland Hills Tx
Jeremiah 29:11 for I know the plans I have
for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare
and not for calamity to give you a future
and hope . New American Standard
I commit! Donna, Mtn. View, MO: “Hear my prayer, O LORD, Give ear to my supplications! In Your faithfulness answer me, And in Your righteousness.” Psalm 143 NKJV
I commit! Whitney Marchant from Grovetown, GA: “O Lord my God, you have performed many wonders for us. Your plans for us are too numerous to list. You have no equal. If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them.” Psalm 40:5 (NLT)
I commit! Rose from Columbus, Ohio:
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is
long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 King James Version (KJV)
I commit! Donna from York,Pa. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 NIV
I commit! Sherry Warrenton VA
“Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for Him to act. Do not worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. Psalms 37:7. NLT
Pam Milner, Caldwell, TX
18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 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
I commit! I’m Tami from Franklin, TN
” For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:8 NIV
Dawn -Pampa, TX
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past!
Isaiah 43:18
I commit! Terry from Odessa, FL:
“I will not abandon you or leave you as orphans in the storm — I will come to you” John 14:18, TLB
I commit! Cammi from Belton, Tx. “Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. ” romans 12:1, nasb
Kay Garrison, Chandler, Okla
I commit! I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your
partnership in the gospel from the first day
until now. Phillipians 1:3-5 NIV
I commit! Judy Osmond from Mississauga, Ontario: “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:2 NLT
I commit! Ashley from San Angelo, TX: “Trust in the LORD and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires.”
Psalms 37:3-4 NLT
I commit! Lynn from Orlando, FL
“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” I Thessalonians 4:13 (ESV)
I commit! Jennifer Wagenmann Centreville, MD So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Isaiah 55:11 KJV
I commit! Kristen Johnstone from Boulder, CO. “But I have calmed and quieted my soul,like a weaned child with its mother;like a weaned child is my soul within me.” Psalm 131:2
ESV
I commit! Linda from Justin, Texas: Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: “Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your stength!” Mark 12:29-30 NLT
I commit! Suzy from Orlando, Florida: ““But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13 ESV
I COMMIT! Valerie from Odessa, TX: “Be still and know that I am GOD: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Ps 46:10 NKJ
Sudie Norman from Orange Park, FL: “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus”sake.” 2 Corinthians 4:5 ESV