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.
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Philippians 3:20-21 ESV
Beverly – Jackson TN
So excited to see you have joined SSMT! Love your verse
choice!
“Timothy, I thank God for you—the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.” 2 Timothy 1:3 NLT
Lee from IN ESV Eph 1:20 “that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.”
Rachael Allen, TX
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 (Holman)
Ruth from Shawnee, KS
“Consider Him who endured such oppression from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:3 (NIV)
Molly
Walker, LA
Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. NAS
Tauni, Roseville
I commit! “Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
Colossians 2:7
NLT
Jean, Moultrie, GA Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him. Romans 4:8 NIV
Joy from San Diego: the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10, ESV
Kim From SC
Psalm 27:14Â (KJV)
Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.Â
I commit! Fran, Opelika, AL
“Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved fellow worker.” Philemon 1 ESV
Tammy, Greeley, CO
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Romans 12:1 NIV
Meggie, Winnipeg, Canada
“Lord, through all the generations you have been our home! Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are God.” Psalm 90:1-2 NLT
Tanna from Edmond, OK
“…so that no one may boast before him.”
1 Corinthians 1:29
Rom. 12:5 “In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Rom.a 12:5 NIV
Mandy & Kinsey Helm
College Station, TX
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
Romans 8:12 ESV
Virginia from Elgin, TX
The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power & you will be changed into a different person.
1 Samuel 11:6
“Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and the Holy One of Israel; for He has glorified you.” Isaiah 55:5 NKJV
Merle I commit Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen
1 Timothy 1:17 NASB
Verse 5.. “Great is our Lord,and mighty in power;His understanding is infinite.” Psalm 147:5
Verse 5..” Romans 12:6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
March 1, 2017
Isaiah 1:19
“If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;”
Karen Russell, Yakima WA,2ND I Commit: 1 Chronicles 16:11(AMP)
“Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face continually [longing to be in His presence].”
Faith from Coeur d’Alene, ID
Ephesians 4:1 (NKJV)
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,
Psalm 42:11
(NASB)
Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.
For we walk by faith not by sight. 2 corinthians 5:7
January 15th
Give thanks I all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 Jesus calling
Feb 1st
Cast all your cares on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7 Jesus calling
Feb 15th
Pray continually 1 Thessalonians 5:17 jesus calling
Mary Ann from Magnolia, TX “I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted. And I will be filled with joy when we are together again.” 2 Timothy 1:4 NLT
Becca Gordon, Glasgow UK.
‘Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning ; great is your faithfulness.’ Lamentations 3: 22-23 NIVUK
“Draw me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, for You are my Strength and my Stronghold.” Psalm 31:4 AMP
Tori Elmer, LA
Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory.1 Corinthians 10:31 HCSB
karen, Warsaw, IN
He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.
2 Timothy 1:9 ESV
Shanon from LaSalle, Il. The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 1 John 3:16 NAB
Lee from IN – ESV Eph 1:21 “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come”
Carlie, Missouri
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters”
– Colossians 3:23 NIV
Theresa Villazon – Raleigh, NC
“Submit yourselves, then, to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
â€â€James‬ â€4:7‬ â€NIV‬‬
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction {evidence} of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
Rona Howard, Fort Worth, TX
In the presence of the God in whom I believe, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
Romans 4:17 ESV
I can do all things through Him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 NIV
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to Him
and He will make your path straight.
Proverbs 3:5 NIV
I COMMIT!
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall moint up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and be nor faint. Isaiah 40:31 (ESV)
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. ” John 14:27 NIV
Colossians3:17 ” 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.”
Tammy – Greeley, CO
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5 NIV
Brooklyn New York: “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Phillipans 3:13-14 NIV
catching up on logging my scriptures…
“The Lord said to me, You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.” Jeremiah 1:12
“Keep me safe, o God for in you I take my refuge.” Psalms 16:11
“The Lord is my strength and my son, he has become my salvation,”
Psalm 118:14
“I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord the maker of heaven and earth.” Ps. 121:1-2
“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet likes the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.” Hab. 3:19
I commit!!!
Catherine C. from Georgetown, TX: Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Philippians 2:3 (HCSB)
Rachael Allen, TX
Isaiah 40:8 (Holman) The grass withers, the flowers fade but the word of our God remains forever.