Saturday afternoon: It’s a sweep! 50 out of 50 states! And His banner over us is love.

Friday Evening: Sisters, one of our Siestas worked up some stats but didn’t request it to be listed because it might not be 100% accurate. She felt like it was pretty close though. Listen, if it’s even in the ball park, it’s great fun! Take a look at this:

Siestas Scripture Memory Team Stats:
States: 48 out of 50

Countries or Provinces: 9

Books of the Bible used: 50 out of 66

Verses used most often: Isaiah 33:6 and Zephaniah 3;17

Book of the Bible used most: The Psalms

Number of Bible translations used: 16

Number of Siestas wanting a Jesus-kind-of-year: At 5:42, 2452 and counting!

Is that cool or what? Thank you, Dear Siesta!

Friday noon update: You guys are doing fabulously! KEEP IT UP! We’re looking for just a couple of hundred more from folks who signed up but haven’t had a chance to enter their Scripture yet. Stick with it, Sweet Things! Follow through! I wanted to tell you how timely and wonderful and providential I think our God is. Early in the holidays something (not small) happened that hurt my feelings so badly I almost couldn’t get over it. (Actually, I didn’t get over it very well. Still feel sore today but at some point you’ve got to get a grip.) God knew I’d have to look at about a jillion Scriptures in order to moderate all these comments. You cannot imagine how much He used them (is still using them) to help me push the reset button on my brain. I wrote several of them down and spoke others of them over my own life. He’s so faithful. Nothing is accidental. Anyway, I love y’all and want you to know that my soul is so often fed and encouraged here.

January 1st, 12:04 AM:

UPDATE: Way to go, Siestas! It’s 8:00 AM on New Year’s Day and we are off to a great start! Wanted to answer a question I’ve seen several times. Yes, of course, you can still join us! Sign up on the original “Anybody Game?” post then comment here with your name, city and verse. All are welcome! If you’ll read both posts, you’ll know exactly what to do.

Happy New Year, Beloved Siestas! It’s going to be a JESUS-YEAR for every single one of us who really wants one. And I WANT ONE. NEED ONE.

OK, Ladies! Let’s start memorizing some Scripture! Here’s what you do today (and on the 15ths and 1sts of the months that will follow): You will put your name, your city, and your verse (with reference and translation abbreviation) in a comment to this post . Try to resist making any other comments so that we’ve got almost straight Scripture down the post. It will be a feast for our souls. It will also be fun to see if any of us chose the same verse.

I will always post the verse I’ve chosen in case some of you are having trouble figuring yours out. (You’ll find it below.) You are welcome to memorize the same one I or any other Siesta chooses. However, you still need to put your name, city, and the verse in a comment to this post. It’s a vital part of the accountability. Don’t feel silly or like you’ve copied. That’s what the Body of Christ is for! Many of the first Scriptures I memorized were those I heard other teachers or leaders recite and I knew I wanted those words for myself. It’s a normal part of discipleship so feel free!

Ladies, I’m going to take this privilege that you’ve given me seriously. The ENORMOUS response to the Scripture memory post conveys how much we know we need to get some Scripture in permanent marker on our brains (so pleasing to God!) and what an important factor accountability is. SO, consider me holding you accountable. If you signed up on that post (“Anybody Game?”), I want to see your John Hancock on here two times a month for the next year. And I mean it. LET’S DO THIS THING. NO DROP OUTS. NO QUITTERS. We can do this! And we get to do this together!

Over 2500 signed up and I’m going to estimate that probably 100 accidentally commented twice SO I want to see at least 2400 comments on each 1st and 15th Scripture memory post. Try to do it within the first 24 hours of the post both times each month so you will stick with it and take it seriously. I have learned along the way that when you start putting something off, the power to obey and prosper in it begins to drain and soon we lose our fervor. Resist thinking to yourself by the third or fourth month, “Well, I’m not going to take the time to sign in but I’ll still memorize the Scripture.” I can almost guarantee you (based on experience) that you will not memorize 24 Scriptures by the end of 2009 without sticking with the accountability part of putting your name down each time. SIGN IN TWICE EVERY MONTH! Even come AUGUST!

Along the way I’ll keep cheering you on and will give you some Scripture memory tips if you need them. I’ll be cheered on myself by your priceless participation in the commitment. I’m so serious when I tell you that I believe we’re getting a HUGE nod from God on this. I sense divine DELIGHT.

OK, my Scripture is one I stumbled on in the NET (New English Translation) some months ago and fell in love with but didn’t memorize right then. I want to do it now as I see so much instability and uncertainty swirling (so unnecessarily) around Christ’s people. The verse is also great in the NIV if you want to give it a look but I’m going to memorize it in this version. Here goes:

“He is your constant source of stability (IS THAT GREAT OR WHAT??); He abundantly provides safety and great wisdom; He gives all this to those who fear Him.” Isaiah 33:6 NET

That’s mine. OK, what about yours? Sign up, Sweet Ones! Keep in mind that it may take a while for you to see your comment show up. We choose to moderate every comment to every post in order to protect our LPM blog from trash. It takes a while to get through several thousand comments when we suddenly have a big response! My blog-brainchild, Amanda, will be flying home with her family all day so I won’t have her help. I’ll get the comments on there though, maybe slowly but surely! And I will treasure every single one and celebrate your impending victory.

Would you pray with me as we launch this year’s commitment?

Our Abba and our God, from cities and states all over this nation and from other parts of this globe, we band together as one beautifully diverse sisterhood to offer You the praise You are so worthy to receive. We thank You for how You have taught us, sustained us, comforted us and even disciplined over the course of the last year and now we entrust every bit of it to You. Redeem what still hurts. Mend what remains broken. Heal what is still sick. We give what is behind us over to You but now we cast a deliberate gaze toward our future. We need You. We want You. We ask You for a pure, unadulterated JESUS-YEAR. We want to have one badly enough to make a joint commitment to hide Your Word in our hearts, to let it renew our brains, and become a Sword in our hands.

We commit this day to memorize or voraciously meditate on 24 Scriptures in 2009. Lord, we know from past experience that You alone can give us the unction to keep a single profound commitment for longer than ten minutes. We believe, however, based on Your Word, that You are the Initiator of all things faith (Hebrews 12:2) and that what You call us to do, You also empower us to do (Hebrews 10:23). We receive from You this day the anointing to memorize Your Word. We invite it to abide in us and bear much fruit. We ask You to make it powerful and healing to us. Transforming and beautifying. Bring forth a one-hundred fold harvest from every Scripture You sow into our spirits and cause us to be mightier in our battles than we’ve ever been in our lives. Start a fire in us that cannot be quenched even by death.

Lord, oddly as I type this prayer to You, it is approaching midnight on January 1st and all sorts of fireworks are going off right around my house as my dear neighbors celebrate the dawn of a New Year. I can see the lights out my breakfast room window and feel the whistles and booms of every bottle rocket all the way down in my chest. I won’t lie. It’s thrilling. But I hope something far more exhilarating is happening in the heavenlies. I pray that some mighty spiritual fireworks are going on over the houses of every single one of these women who love You and seek so desperately to please You…and many under very difficult circumstances. I sense Your own celebration. Your own anticipation. Because as unfathomable as this thought is to each of us, while we want a Jesus-year, You want an us-year. We are looking forward to You. And You, our Lord and our God, are looking forward to us. Mind blowing. We are so relieved that You think more of us than we think of ourselves. Help us to think more like You.

We love You so much, Lord. We want to love You so much more. More love to Thee, O God. More light to see Thee, Lord. Make Your Son the dearest thing in all of life to us this year. And every other thing of true value will be added to us. (Matthew 6:33)

In Jesus’ Saving, Miracle-working, Delivering Name,
Amen.