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! Renee from NYC
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
1 John 4:18 ESV
I commit! Shara from Durant, Oklahoma!
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30 KJV
A great goal for the year of 2017!
I commit!
Psalm 21:1 NIV
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall NOT want.
I commit!!! Morgan from Jay, Ok.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. 1 Corinthians 13:1
I commit!
Job 38:1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
I commit!
Joanna Foss Jay, Oklahoma
Job 38:1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: ESV
I commit! Morgan Foss from Jay, Oklahoma.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or clanging cymbal. 1 Corinthians 13:1 ESV
I commit!
1 Peter 3:3 HCS
Your beauty should not consist of outward things like elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold ornaments or fine clothes.
I commit! Kristin (and my kids), Benbrook, TX
“A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.” Proverbs 14:30 (NIV)
I commit! Kathy Gifford from Lexington Kentucky. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. I Corinthians 2:9
I commit, Sandy from Radford Virginia. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.Eph4.31.niv
I commit Abby Parsons from Tamaha, OK. Psalm 40:2-3 (ESV)
2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.
Joanne Santana from New York:
“I trust in you;
do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.” Psalms 25:2, NIV
I commit! Jeri from Baytown, TX:
Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Gal. 1:10 ESV
I commit! Landrey from Jay, Ok
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23 KJV
Lee from Indiana ESV Ephesians 1:18 “having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints”.
I commit! Ellen from Sherman, Texas!
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30 KJV
I commit!!Mia Lambert from Fresno, California! “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 NKJV
I commit. Susan from El Paso, Texas
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 NLT
Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.
He must increase,but I must decrease. John 3:30 KJV
I commit! Emily from Harrisburg, NC
Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. John 14:1 NIV
I commit! Fynette Rooker from Cape Coral, Florida: “Even a fool is considered wise when he keeps silent, discerning when he seals his lips.” Proverbs 17:28 Holman Christian Standard Bible
Mary-Katherine Rogers, Ft. Smith, AR
“The LORD is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
Psalm 34:18, NIV
My mother passed unexpectedly yesterday and this scripture is that to which my family is clinging.
I commit! Terri Plumlee, Stamford, Tx
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him. 1 John 5:14-15 NIV
I Commit! Deborah Starkey, Proctorville, Ohio
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 1:3
I commit!
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble. That is why we are not afraid…”
Psalm 46:1-2a God’s Word Translation
I commit! Sharon Temple from Lakeway TX. ” in You I trust, O My God. Do not let me be put to shame nor let my enemies triumph over me.” PS 25:2 NIV
Beth Collins, San Augustine,Tx
I Commit!!!
“Sing a new song to the LORD! Let the whole earth sing to the LORD!”
â€â€Psalm 96:1 NLT
Susan Klapesky Houston, TX “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. ” Proverbs 10:19 NKJV
I commit! Theresa from Cheyenne,WY
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 1 John 5:14 ESV
Brooklyn New York: “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”. Galatians 5:1 NIV
I, Peggy Welch of Bloomington, Indiana, commit! Colossians 1:11-12 Amplified:
We pray that you may be invigorated and strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory, to exercise every kind of endurance and patience and perseverance and forbearance with joy, giving thanks to the Father, Who has qualified and made us fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints in the Light.
BUT, I pray to hep me plant it in my marrow: Oh Lord, please invigorate and strengthen me with all power according to the might of Your glory, to exercise every kind of endurance and patience and perseverance and forbearance with joy, giving thanks to You who has qualified and made me fit and qualified! In the Name of the Qualifier, Amen
I commit!
Mary, Orlando,FL
Acts 4:32 NIV
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.
I commit – Jackie from Rockwall, TX: The Good Samaritan: “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” (Luke 10:26, NIV)
I Emilie commit January 16, 2017 Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God, I will strengthen thee, yea I will help the , yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. KJV
I commit! Joni from Knoxville, TN.
Ephesians 3:1 NLT
“When I think of all this, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the benefit of you Gentiles …”
The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom should I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom should I be afraid? Psalm 27:1 (HCSB)
I commit!
Lynda from Dallas, Tx: “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night”. Psalms 1:2 NIV
I Commit!
Psalm 139:1 NLT
O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.
I commit!
Charlotte from Spartanburg, SC
Psalm 91:2 NIV
I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God , in whom I trust.
I commit! Jennifer Thurmond from Springville TN: “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them” James 4:17 NIV
I commit!
Valerie from West Bloomfield MI:
“You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues.” Psalm 31:20 NIV
Jen from Arizona and RVing USA: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” Luke12:32 NIV
Betty Fulkerson, from Montgomery Texas. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. Psalms 25:2(ESV)
I commit!
Gabrielle from Fountain, CO:
“So I will prove to you that the Son of man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Mark 2:10 NLT
Jodi from Houston. “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” Joshua 3:5 NKJV
I commit: Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will recieve the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
Colossians 3:23-24 ESV
Beth Belflower
Caddo Mills, Texas
James 1:2-4 (ESV)
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23 +24 NIV
I commit! Julianne Jones from Olathe, Ks. I will give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me… John 10: 28. NIV