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! Lesa From Garden City, Kansas.
“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
JAN 1….I commit! Joanne Lim from Houston, Tx! “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things”- Colossians 3:2 NIV
JAN 2…”Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience”- Colossians 3:12 NIV
JAN 3…”And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him”- Colossians 3:17 NIV
I commit! Vicki, Broken Arrow, OK
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” James 1:19-20 ESV
Patty from New Orleans, I commit!!!!!!!! “Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.” Micah 7:8 (NIV)
I commit. Jane Kay Sutton from Brandon, Mississippi.
“He brought me out into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me.”
Psalm 18:19 ESV
I Commit!
Kimberly
Kiwoko
Let us draw near with a true heart in FULL assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with a pure water.
Hebrews 10:22
ESV
I commit! Yvonne Wheeler from Santee, California:
“The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him.” Habakkuk 2:20 NIV
I commit.
Kayley H from Quincy, IL
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”
â€â€2 Timothy‬ â€1:7‬ â€NLT‬‬
I commit! Beverly E. from Bristol, Tennessee. “I will praise you, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all your marvelous works.” Psalm 9:1, NKJV
I COMMIT! Chris from Baton Rouge. “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me–the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” Acts 20:24 NIV
I commit! Julie from OC, Calif.
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!Tori from Salt Lake City
Romans 4:17 (WEB)
“As it is written, ‘I have made you a father of many nations.’ This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.”
I commit! Kate Ivey from Edmond,
“In you, Lord my God, I put my trust. I trust in you; do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.”
â€â€Psalm‬ â€25:1-2‬ â€NIV‬‬
I commit! Danielle from Loveland, CO. 1 John 1:9 (NIV) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
I commit!
Debbie Symbalisty Calgary Alberta
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? James 4:1 NIV
This really spoke to me this morning because the truth of it hit me like a bomb. My inner battles tend to be about insecurity/neediness, needing to be “right”, needing to right perceived wrongs, etc. To the world, I am able to keep up a facade, but my family gets the harsh side of my tongue too often. Thanks for sharing your verse.
I commit! Josephine from Hondo: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (1 Peter 1:3 NET)
I COMMIT!! Donna Talasek from Angleton, TX
Strength and dignity are her clothing and she laughs at the time to come. Proverbs 31:25 ESV
I commit! Tawnia Kingfrom Houston Texas: “These things that I
have spoken unto you that my joy maybe in you, that your joy may be full. John 15:11 ASV
Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
For I know the plans I have for you, “declares the lord” plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
I commit !
I commit! Ashley from Spring Hill, FL. To you oh Lord, I lift up my soul. Oh my God in You I trust; Let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. Psalm 25:1-2
Jeanmarie; Archbald, PA Psalm 143:8 (NIV)
“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 entrust my life.” Psalm 143:8 (NIV)
Darlene, St Augustine, FL
No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame, but shame will come on those who are treacherous without cause.
PSALMS 25:3 NIV
I commit! Kathy from Lufkin, Tx
Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.
Psalm 105:4. NIV
I commit! Kaylee Jinks from Wichita Kansas. “To you oh Lord I lift up my soul. Oh my God in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exalt over me.” Psalm 25:1-2 ESV
I commit! Laura Decker, Clarks Summit, PA
“This letter is from Simon Peter. I am a missionary of Jesus Christ and a servant owned by Him. I am writing to those who have received the same faith as ours which is of great worth and which no amount of money can buy. This faith comes from our God and Jesus Christ, the One Who saves.” 2 Peter 1:1, NLT
Holly Barnes from Fairfax, MO. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:14 – 15
Sorry I originally posted under “Instructions” hope this can still count!
I commit! Angela from Winchester, KY. “I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I may not sin against You.” Psalm 119:11 NIV
I commit! Kristie from Carlock,IL “Lord, you have been in our dwelling place in all generations ”
Psalm 90:1 ESV
I commit; Jane, Cherry Valley, IL: Count it all joy my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, James 1:2, ESV
I commit! Kim, Amherst, OH Gal.5:1 NIV
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then,
and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
I Commit! Elizabeth from Columbia, SC “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances. For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV
I commit! Angie from Spokane, WA
“But now, this is what the Lord says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.'” Isaiah 43:1 NIV
I commit! Patty from Marion, Virginia. To You oh Lord, I lift up my soul. Oh my God in You I trust, let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. Psalm 25:1-2
I commit! Terri from Cibolo, TX. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD will never count against him. Romans 4:8 NIV
I COMMIT!! Denise Ciofani from Lexington, NC: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” NIV
I commit. Janice. Spring Arbor, MI. “In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth. No one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again’.” John 3:3. NIV
I commit! Victoria Lewis from Jacksonville, Florida. “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1 NIV
I commit!
Melissa from Houston, TX.
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
I commit!!!!
Jennifer from LaRue.
God made great and marvelous promises, so that his nature would become part of us. Then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world.
2 Peter 1:4 (CEV)
I commit! I forgot to say that the first time I posted!! “Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
and he will establish your plans.” Proverbs 16:3 NIV Judy, Tomball, TX
I commit! Sarah-Brookhaven, MS
Psalm 97:1 ESV
The Lord reigns, let he earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad.”
I commit!
Beverly, Prosper, TX
Where there is strife, there is pride,
But wisdom is found in those who take advice.
Proverbs 13:10. NIV
I commit! Callee from Houston: But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the LORD rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The LORD himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” (â€Exodus‬ â€14‬:â€13-14‬ NLT)
I commit! Julie from Lancaster County, PA,
Romans 8:1 NLT
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
I commit! The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, an ever-flowing spring. Isaiah 58:11 NLT
I commit! Rachael D from Perrysburg, OH “Comfort, comfort my people says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
Isaiah 40:1-2 NIV
I commit! Katelyn from Crowley, TX. “I pray that my children may grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18
I commit!
O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
Psalm 139:1 (NIV)
I commit!
Allison, Fort Worth, TX
O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
Psalm 139:1 (NIV)
I commit! Beth Super from Phoenix, AZ: “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls” James 1:21 (KJV)