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! Debbie from New Lenox, IL.
“The God who made the world and everything in it- He is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in shrines made by hands.” Acts 17:24 HCSB
I commit! Stephanie from Deer Lodge, MT
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith can can move mountains, but do not have love I am nothing. 1st Corinthians 13:2
I commit! Cindy, Sulphur, LA
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! Heather Smith
Nashville, TN
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him.”
– Romans 12:1 (NLT)
I commit! Melissa, Raymore Mo
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. on the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 2 Corinthians 10:4 NIV
I Commit!!! Courtney Bethany from Toledo, Ohio. Paul a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our Brother, to Philemon our beloved fellow worker.” Philemon 1:1 ESV
Janice Orillia, Ontario
I commit! The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. Psalm 19:8 NIV
I commit!! Cassandra from Ventura, California. “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.” â€â€Isaiah‬ â€43:19‬ â€NLT‬‬
I commit! Peggyann, Crestview, Florida
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Romans 10:13 (NIV)
I Commit! Nicole Moore Big Piney Wy ” Simon, Simon, satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:31 NIV
I commit! Gail-Tyler,TX
The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8 NKJV
I commit! Kelly. Pensacola,FL. Psalm 63:1 O God, You are my God; earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh faints for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. ESV
I commit! Danielle from Oklahoma City “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” 2 Corinthians 1:4 NLT
I commit! Michelle Northam Portland, Texas
Isaiah 43:1- “But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Fear not for I have redeemed you; I have called by my name, you are mine.” ESV
I commit! Vicki From Des Arc, Arkansas “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
â€â€Isaiah‬ â€40:31‬ â€KJV‬‬
I commit. Robin Lyerly , Roswell , GA. 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 ESV
I commit! JA, St. Charles, IL
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” ESV
I commit! Kimberly Keech from Cary,NC: “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14 NKJV
I commit! Lisa from Breaux Bridge, LA
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
1 John 5:14 NIV
I commit! Ashley from Cypress, Tx
“These things I have spoken unto your that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 KJV
Sharon from Brooklyn, NY
19 Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people—that they would become a curse[a] and be laid waste—and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares the Lord.
2nd Kings 22:19 NIV
I commit! “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1 NIV
I commit! Beau, Midland, TX. “Consider what God has done: who can straighten what he has made crooked?” Ecclesiastes 7:13 (NIV)
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Rom. 12:12, NIV
Shannan, Elk City, OK: I commit! “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” Psalm 136: 1 ESV
I Commit! Terrie Taylor, Pensacola, Florida
“To You,O Lord, I lift up my soul”. Psalm 25:1 NASB
I commit!
Lisa Jones from McAllen, TX
Because it’s a new year…
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
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! Kathy Conroe, TX. Psalms 1:1-2 NASB
1.How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.
I commit! Cherith from Bristol, TN
“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”
-Romans 12:12- ESV
I commit! Cathy Rees from Webster, MN
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.”
Isaiah 43:18 NIV ©1984
I commit! Kristina, Birmingham, AL: “And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch is head.” 1 Samuel 1:11 ESV
I Commit! Sierra, Fort Thomas, KY.
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:16 NIV
Patty From Rockledge, FL. I commit! “Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1
I commit! Maymee from Augusta, KS. Don’t be afraid for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. Isaiah 41:10 NLT
I commit-Janet from Plano, Texas
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest. Luke 12:25-26 NIV
I commit! Eposi from Houston, Texas:
“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1 (ESV)
II commit! Jana’e from Arlington Tx, Isaiah 50:7 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a stone determined to do his will.
I commit!! Rebekah from Elmhurst, IL : “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33 NIV
I eagerly commit!!! Nicole Marsh-Mueller of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
“Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” -Genesis 2: 7
I commit! Jessica Dias Sam Diego, CA
Micah 6:8 New International Version
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
I commit! Jenny from Valrico, FL. “I am about to do something new. It is beginning to happen even now. Don’t you see it coming? I am going to make a way for you to go through the desert. I will make streams of water in the dry and empty land.”
Isaiah 43:19 NIRV
I commit! Christy from Knoxville, TN. “Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19 (NASB)
Is. 55:11 … so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what ac-
Compliant what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11 NIV
I commit. Karen from Ramona, CA
“The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.”
â€â€Psalm‬ â€9:9-10‬ â€NIV‬‬
Valerie
Clinton, Me
I commit! “You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.” 1 Peter 3:4 (NLT)
I commit! Dora from Birmingham, AL
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24 NIV
I commit! Katrina Hudson -Stilwell,Oklahoma
In the same way the Spirit also helps our weaknesses for we do not know how to pray as we should but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groamings too deep for words.
Romans 8:26 NASB
I Commit! Zoe from Dillsbirg, PA
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him.”
Romans 12:1 NLT
I commit! April from Las Vegas, NV:
“and provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”
Isaiah 61:3 NIV
I commit
Michelle Palm Bay Florida
“for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
â€â€2 Timothy‬ â€1:7‬ â€ESV‬‬