SSMT Verse 24...and it totally snuck up on me...

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Ok.  So today is December 15.

That's ten days 'til Christmas.

It was the Christmas program at the satellite campus where The Actor is currently serving as part of his ministry internship.

It's also the date of a high school beau's birthday, but I'm not going there.

It wasn't until I sat down and glanced at the feed burner and saw today's LPM post that I realized what else today is.

It is the due date for the LAST SSMT memory verse of 2013.

Oh, I knew it was coming and had been mulling over what verse I would like to choose for the final verse.

But I was doing it with a 'oh, I've got another week or so' attitude.  I just was NOT paying attention to the calendar.

I was sort of leaning towards an Advent verse...something worth committing to memory that has to do with preparing the way, or expecting the coming Messiah, or some such thing.

But Pastor's sermon today knocked something a little loose...took the shade off of the lamp, so to speak, and I have been pondering one little, teeny,  heard-it-a-thousand-times-and-know-it-but-didn't-really-know-it truth all day...so my verse, which is another one of the 'familiar but never really memorized' varieties again, is actually connected to that epiphany.

I probably won't even begin to do it justice, but, well, I'll give it a shot.

He was talking about distractions, things that can render us deaf to God's voice and God's plan.  Number one on the list was 'Busyness'.

Yeah.  Can I just say that anytime I hear a message on the distraction of Busyness, it hits home?

Anyway, as I pondered what he was saying, I suddenly found myself having a little mental conversation with Jesus that went something like this:

Lord, what do I need to do?  Really?

Spend time with me.

Yeah, I know I need to spend time with You.  But what is the most important thing for me to DO?

Spend time with me.  

The second time, I got it.  I mean, the lightbulb went ON. 

And I wrote down " The number one priority in my life is to spend time with Jesus".

And, yeah, I know, that's a 'D'uh!'

But suddenly my concept of what it meant to 'spend time with Jesus' shifted.

It went from 'Make sure I sit down and read my Bible and pray' to 'He is the number one relationship in my life and I can't do anything unless I'm talking to him and listening to him and hearing his heart and sharing mine and...' 

You know.  Like we were married...or best friends... close and intimate.

That's a tough paradigm to live by.  But I got a glimpse of what it would be like to really make my relationship with Him a priority.  To feel about spending time with him the same way I feel about spending time with the people I love and cherish the most.

And I suddenly realized that, if I did that,  all the 'doing' stuff would somehow fall into place.  Doing stuff for Him will never equal just being with Him.

It was a lightbulb moment.  And I don't know how well I can squelch the tyranny of the urgent to spend time with him...my track record on that isn't good on any level...but, wow, my whole life will be different.

My lover spoke and said to me, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with  me." - Song of Songs 2:10 NIV 84

SSMT Verse 23: Be Holy

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

The next-to-last verse ...

I have been pondering holy since the last post...thinking about those things that are reserved, special, set apart.

I thought about it, baking for Thanksgiving, as I completely botched up the pie crusts.  Oh, they tasted alright despite the frustration I had trying to get them into the pie plate, but they were excessively crumby.  Maybe, I thought, pies shouldn't be quite so special.  I obviously need practice making them.

I thought about it as I pulled out the boxes with the good china...the holiday pattern...and wiped down the plates so we could use them for dinner.  In all the years that I've had a slowly increasing collection of festive, rather pricey, plates and cups and saucers and odd serving pieces, I've only used them about 3 times.  I'm kinda afraid of breaking them.

But what good are they in the box in the back of the cabinet?  Set aside for a special purpose...but if the purpose never comes, or they are so difficult to get to that they're just not used for the purpose, they are useless.  After dinner, I made room in the dish cabinet for them and put them on the shelf, where they can be reached.  When I get a minute, I will likely pull out the rest of the pieces and make space on the shelf for them, too.  So they are accessible and ready to use when the occasion merits.

And I had another little revelation.  Being holy, being set apart, being in reserve, doesn't mean doing nothing but hanging out, waiting for the call to come.  It means actively being ready to be used for God's purpose.  Being practiced up, so that I can execute whatever He calls me to do; being on the shelf and accessible, not buried away in storage.

And that's something to ponder...

You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own. - Lev. 20:26 NIV 84

SSMT Verse 22: Ecc. 1:1

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

We are fast approaching the last of this year's Siesta Scripture Memory Verse challenge...wow...
Today's verse is from the 'familiar but never actually memorized' category again...and when I decided this would be my verse for today and looked it up, I was surprised at how unlike my sorta kinda memory of the verse the NIV version actually is:

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven - Ecc. 3:1 NIV 84

I'm afraid the version of the verse in my head was mostly the Byrds.

See, I woke up this morning with a nearly irresistible urge to pull out the Christmas decorations and start festifiying up the house.

For some of you, that doesn't seem so weird...you may already have lights on the eaves and a tree twinkling away in a corner, but for me...wow.  I don't do Christmas before Thanksgiving.  It's an important distinction to me, and I really, really am set on that.  No decorations, no Christmas music, and no Christmas movies before we pause to thank God for the blessings He gives us every day.  We enjoy Thanksgiving as its own day before jumping into Christmas.

 Yet I found myself thinking, 'This is my house.  I could decorate now if I wanted to.'

I was surprised that the urge was strong.  And so uncharacteristic.

Especially given that the last 3 or 4 years have found me severely lacking in the Christmas enthusiasm department, for one reason or another or maybe a whole bunch together.  I wondered if I had come to the point in life where I decided Christmas was just not what it used to be.  I remember watching that happen with my elders; wondering how they lost that Christmas twinkle.  When I discovered it playing hide-and-seek in my own heart, I began to understand.  But it made me sad.  I didn't want to lose that part of myself that rejoiced with family and music and tradition and awe at the miracle of God coming to us; I didn't want the celebration to be something that I endured for the sake of the kids.

So, while this morning's urge was surprising, it pleased me.  I have not moved completely into fuddy-duddy-dom yet.  I was relieved even as I sternly told myself I had to get the house cleaned and straightened and ready for festifying first.

Because there is a time for every purpose activity under heaven. :-)

SSMT Verse 21: Hebrews 10:35-36

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Tonight was the sectional Royal Ranger commander pitch-in dinner; we do this every year about this time and, to be honest, while I like eating all the home cooked food and visiting with folks, it always seems to be something that requires more fuss and bother than I have time for.

I did cook for it and came home and cooked more (how did our school get signed up to provide breakfast for the theater festival judges in the morning?)...my kitchen is WRECKED. 

I think I'm going to do an unheard of thing and bail from the festival as soon as my kid is done tomorrow; come home and clean up the mess I made today.

But I digress.  Tonight was worth the fuss and bother and then some.

Our feature this year was a young lady who is on the worship staff at our church and is just launching out into her own ministry, Kat Holder.  She did an awesome job singing three of her original songs, and she challenged us along the theme of tonight's banquet, 'Top Shot'.  She kinda made a play on words...one of the things the Ranger Boys have to earn is something called a 'Cut and Chop' card, which they must have on them in order to use any sharp tools on any Ranger event; so she said that we would earn our 'Top Shot' card tonight. 

Basically, she anagrammed 'top shot' down the side of the card, then challenged us to consider what makes someone a 'top shot' in the kingdom.  She described her choices, but told us that we would probably all pick different words, depending upon where we each were  in our spiritual journey or how we saw our position.

We were also challenged to post photos of the cards to the Sectional Ranger Facebook page, but, well, since I'm not on that page I just decided I'd do it here:

One of the verses she mentioned tonight caught my ear and I scribbled it down. When I got home and read it, I decided that verse and the one preceding it would be the SSMT verse for Nov. 1:

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.  You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. - Heb 10:35-36 NIV84

SSMT Verse 20 - John 15:16

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

It's funny how some things all kind of dovetail together.

I had posted the first two posts in  the series on 'Lies the Enemy Tells Me'; then days 3 and 4 of the first week of the Finding Eve study guide instructed me to take a long look at... the lies the enemy told me.    On the Facebook page, Rita encouraged us to take as much time as we needed on this part; not to hurry.

There are at least two more posts coming on that series; but when I read "When you were told your first lie it was a direct hit against God's truth about you." I had to go back and look at the first lie.


And I was suddenly confronted with the idea that it wasn't a random attack; that that particular lie was told to me for a reason. What if...that lie was told to me because the Enemy was trying to drive me as far away from the truth as he could?  What if...that lie wasn't just a lie, but was the opposite of the truth?

As I pondered that, I found that a few lines down the page, she challenged us to pray, "Lord, I choose now to believe the opposite of those lies. I commit to you today that I am willing to believe in your purpose for my life. I choose the opposite of what all these lies have spoken."

What is the opposite of a jinx?

I was reeling.  This was new, uncharted territory.

There's a big difference between deciding something is simply not true and deciding that it is the exact opposite of the truth.

How would my prayer life be different if I really believed that the enemy told me I was a jinx because the opposite of it was true?

I looked at that verse I put on that post to counter the jinx lie; I'd used the ESV because that was what was handy at that moment, so I looked it up in NIV, thinking I'd use it for my next SSMT verse.  But somehow, it seemed a little less powerful in the NIV:

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-- fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

That reads as a linear thought -- you do this, then the Father will do that.  But when I read the ESV, it didn't seem quite so linear.  So I dug out my Greek/KJV interlinear and read:

Not ye me chose, but I chose you, and appointed you that ye should go and fruit should bear and the fruit of you should remain, that whatever ye may ask the Father in the name of me he may give you.

As convoluted and backward as that seems, it also appears that these are parallel thoughts, not linear.

For a better explanation, I pulled out the Amplified:

You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you - I have appointed you, I have planted you - that you might go and bear fruit and keep on bearing; that your fruit may be lasting (that it may remain, abide); so that whatever you ask the Father in My name [as presenting all that I AM] He may give it to you.

That breaks it down even more, with the semi colons, the thought becomes very clear:

I have chosen you  so that 1) you might bear fruit 2) that fruit will remain and 3) whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you.

The promise of whatever you ask is not dependent upon the first two phrases, it is parallel to them.  It is part of the reason Christ chose us ...chose me.

Notice, though, the implications of  asking something in Christ's name.  This is not just tacking on a formulaic, 'In Jesus' name I pray, Amen' on to the end of a prayer...this is standing in the place of Jesus in a situation, representing Christ in that situation and asking for what Jesus asks for.  That's a responsibility; that's relationship.

So I am breaking my little self imposed rule that I would memorize everything in NIV.  For this verse, I'm using the ESV:

You have not chosen me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.  John 15:16 ESV

SSMT Verse 19 - Hebrews 2:1

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I knew last week what today's Siesta Scripture Memory Verse Team verse was going to be.

The moment I read the second chapter of Hebrews for Suzanne's Online Study, verse one jumped right off the page at me.

It was another verse on the theme of being individually responsible for knowing God's truth and being intentional about sticking with it:

We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

If American Christianity has become an hour a week of First, Second and Last verse and a pastoral exhortation that just makes folks feel good about themselves, how can we be surprised that so many are drifting away?

We aren't paying attention, period, let alone paying careful attention.

Paying careful attention, it is implied, will protect us from wandering off into error...into that place where we do not know who among the religious leaders of our day are telling us truly what God wants us to hear...and who are telling us what they want God to be saying.

So.  Yeah.  Verse 19.  Because I need to be reminded to pay careful attention.

SSMT Week 16: Acts 3:19

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Wow.  Sundays are hard days to do blog posts.

So much going on...

This weekend was the annual women's conference.  I don't know that I have ever been in quite such a drained out, dried up place spiritually when the conference began.

But I expected something to change, something to give, something to break free.

And...maybe, just maybe, it did.

I know I feel like I have lain in a good gentle soaking rain.   The angst, the tension, the emotional knots are gone.

And I realized that the issues I carried into the conference...the things I wanted answers for...were all a matter of personal discipline and follow through.  When everything sifted down, it once more showed that my prayer life is simply not what it should be.

I mean, head smacking 'D'uh!  Again!  I have been here before!  Why can't I get this lesson through my head???'

So I have chosen for this week's verse one of the verses quoted in the conference:

Repent, then, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord - Acts 3:19, NIV 84

So I repent of self-sufficiency, of thinking I can do it in my own strength and ability, of being too busy to pray, of attempting to do ministry without sufficient prayer, and of just being a doofus in general.

It is time for me to really put prayer to work.

 

SSMT - Verse 17: Col. 2:8

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I keep having problems remembering to make a note of verses that I find between 'post days' for consideration as the next choice.

However, sometime in the past two weeks I did remember to scribble a reference on the back of my spiral notecard book.

When I looked it up, I realized it was perfect, as we have been talking much about the deception that is so prevalent in our society today in both the classes I teach at church.

Col. 2:8, NIV 84:

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.


It's an interesting follow-on to Verse 16,  and the thoughts I had about people being deceived by leaders they trusted.  This verse puts the responsibility to avoid deception squarely with each individual. Oh, those false teachers will face the consequences of falsely representing God,  but ultimately each person is responsible to make sure that what they are accepting is really truly based on God's truth and not on some human-based notion.

That pretty well shoots any excuses right outta the water, doesn't it?  See to it... 

SSMT - Verse 16

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Sometime ago, I found myself reading in Jeremiah, and came across a passage in chapter 14 in which God tells Jeremiah not to pray for the well-being of the people of Judah, for God was going to send judgment on them.  Jeremiah protested, saying in effect, 'But God, all the TV preachers and the preachers who write columns in the paper...our religious leaders...are all telling the people not to be afraid, that destruction isn't coming to them.'

God told Jeremiah that it didn't matter what all the church leaders were saying...because He did not speak to them at all; they were lying.  Furthermore, those folks who were telling the people not to fear destruction were going to fall victim to the very things they were denying.

As I read that passage, I'll confess I identified a bit with Jeremiah, wondering how fair it was, really, for God to punish the people when they had been deceived by the very ones who had the responsibility to tell them the truth.

And I felt God's response, 'They had My word themselves and neglected to keep it.  Had they kept it, they would have known the difference between a true proclamation and a false one.'

And He sent me to Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verses 6 and 7 (NIV 84):

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them upon your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  

Back in the day, I was a youth leader in a small denominational church.  And I remember several families who did not strongly encourage their kids to follow after God, telling me that the kids 'needed to make up their own minds' or some such thing.

I don't know where those families are today, and I wonder what happened to those kids.  Did they grow up to follow God?   If a prominent and respected church leader or, say, a TV celebrity, spoke something that was purported to be the word of God...and wasn't...would those folks who were raised in that way even know?

Is that not what has happened in our society?

It seems to me that the plain instruction of Deuteronomy 6 is that we should do everything in our power to pass our faith along to our kids, even if it means wearying them of it at times.

Because a generation that does not know the word of God will believe either anything or nothing.

SSMT - Verse 15

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I'm well aware there is no verse 14 listed here; just couldn't get it done as that was due the day we left for girls' camp.

Technically, this isn't due till tomorrow either, but since tomorrow is another full, booked up day I am posting here early and hoping to get a chance to link it up over at the LPM blog.

So...today's verse:

He will not let your foot slip -- he who watches over you will not slumber; - Ps 121:4  NIV 84

I would really like to memorize all of Ps. 121; maybe someday...

Meantime, this verse is giving me great comfort.  There are times when I just don't know if I'm doing the right thing or not; I'm trying but I'm way too failible.

So this verse is one of those that I need to remember when I'm afraid to step out into what he seems to be putting before me.

He will not let my foot slip.

Verse 13 - Numbers 6:24 - 26 (and a little rabbit chasing...)

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

One of the things I'm discovering on this 26 verse journey is that sometimes there is an obvious and direct line to the verse I choose; sometimes that path is considerably convoluted and vague.

Today's verse came after a series of subtle nudges and prods, which I'm not even going to try to recount.

And it is a very familiar passage; our pastor pronounces this over our congregation almost every week.  So it's not going to be a stretch to really memorize it...mostly just matching the reference with the passage.

Here's the passage:

The LORD bless and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace - Numbers 6:24-26, NIV 84

As I said, it's very familiar, but I wanted to make sure I have it learned.  But...the next verse really caught my eye:

So they [the priests] will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.

I was riveted by the concept that the priests put the Lord's name on the people  with  this blessing...and that it was the Lord's name that was the blessing/carried the blessing.

NOTE:  That was pretty much where I planned to stop.  But somehow I wandered down a rabbit trail...you can follow it with me if you like...


Standard translation practice is that the all-caps LORD (Strong's 3068) is used to translate the Hebrew unpronounced Name of God, which is often rendered as Jehovah or Yahweh in English and means self existent or eternal one.

A quick skim of Zhodiates,  paying attention to the little numbers, shows that the first time word 3068  appears in the text is Genesis 2:4   - This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.  When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens --   ( I'm switching over to KJV, because this is from Zhodiates...)


LORD is used as the active subject of a sentence several times in the following chapters, but we see that Abram ...built an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.  (Gen. 12:8) 

For Abram to have called upon the name of the LORD,  that name had to have been revealed to him at some point prior to the altar.  Perhaps when he was first called to leave his father's house in 12:1 - Now the LORD had said unto Abram....?

We first see God's declaration identifying Himself as the LORD in  Gen 15:7 - I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees...   which exactly identifies the One who sent Moses  in Exodus 3: 15 -  ...say to the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God  of Jacob, hath sent me to you:  this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations."

This is the name that the priests were to place on the people; and they carried both His name and His blessing; His name was in the blessing.

  

SSMT Verse 12 - Prov. 31:8 - 9

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

It's 11:57 PM; I am just squeaking this in tonight...

Can you believe we are halfway through?  Unbelievable.

I actually had another verse picked out.  One that made me squirm under the discomfort of conviction just a little.  But I wanted to verify the reference, and as I was flipping through the Bible on my way  to just make sure that was right, I came across another verse and I had to switch.

So, instead of the other, this week's verse is Prov. 31: 8 - 9.  The verses that come right before the Wife of a Noble Character.

Earlier this week, I came across a blog post about the gendercide that is happening on a global basis and was really grieved.  But, like most folks, I don't know what to do about the grief.

Somehow, this speaks to that....

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.  Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.

I think I am too guilty of allowing myself to feel too small.  I don't know what difference I can make...but maybe even just a little difference is enough....

Siesta Scripture Memory Team Verse 11 - Ps 38:9

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

We had a worship workshop today...all the worship teams from all the campuses came together for some group instruction and fellowship time.  I'd been looking forward to it; we were out of town and missed the last one.

I got more than I expected.

We began with worship, which was appropriate, and ended the worship with a time of prayer.  I could see what was coming; that our pastor was going to ask folks who were in the middle of tough circumstances to raise their hands, and for everyone else to gather round those folks and pray for them.  To be honest, I found my spirit kind of cringing. 'I don't have anything to offer anyone today,' I thought.

And heard an answer in my spirit, "Then that means you are one who should raise your hand."

That surprised me; we have had some rough moments, particularly in the parenting area, in the last few months, but nothing was in crisis mode now.  I didn't see myself as standing particularly in need of urgent prayer to make it through.

But in the next few moments, I saw multiple areas which were either a source of stress, something in which I am really needing direction or something that is grieving my spirit.  Each one, in and of itself, wasn't a big deal, but taken all together...well, it's no wonder I didn't feel like I could really minister to anyone.  I realized I was just plain tired in my spirit.

So, ok, I will be obedient.  I raised my hand.

And I expected my nearby fellow choir folks to come round, put their hands on my shoulders, and pray quietly for me, or pray fairly standard prayers of encouragement.

Which really would have been fine.  As I said, I didn't really feel like I was in a crisis of any kind; just tired.

But one of our campus pastors came to me and began to pray specific things...some which really could've applied to any number of folks, but she prayed for one area that was so specific that it could not have been random.  She spoke to a request that I have been putting before God for...well, a really long time, although I haven't brought it up often.  I  never even hinted at this request to anyone.

And she said that God was sending the answer; that I am to walk in expectation for it to come soon.

I fell apart.

Not because the request and its answer is such a big deal...but because it was secret and highly specific.  And I was reminded again that God really and truly knows me and hears my heart.

Today's SSMT Verse:

All my longings lie open before you, O LORD; my  sighing is not hidden from you.  Ps. 38:9 NIV84

Verse 10: Exodus 33:21

Last week, for some reason, I found myself reading down the Faithful Friday Faves summary list and suddenly realized that, although I have already memorized a fair number of those verses, and a few of them were lengthy passages that did not lend themselves to memorization,  there were several verses listed that I had never committed to memory.

So I decided that, if I didn't have a verse ready to go by the time the next one is due, I'd pull a verse from that list.

And, lo and behold, the second verse on the list was one that had actually popped up in various places in the last couple of weeks.  So I decided that it might be a good time to pull that one out and get it in the game.

Here's the tenth SSMT verse:

Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock." - Ex. 33:21

That has so many layers of truth on it that it'll take me the next two weeks just to ponder on them.

Verse 9 - Ps. 51:12

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

May first already...wow.

Time for the next SSMT verse.

This time, I found a likely verse in one of my studies sometime last week and marked it so I could find it easily when today rolled around.

Problem was, when today rolled around I couldn't remember which one of the studies it was.  The Girls Only lessons?  The Friends lessons?  One of the other books I'd been reading?

Um.....

So I picked up my teacher manuals and skimmed through the last few lessons to see if, perhaps, the elusive verse was notably marked.

Um....

But, in the looking around I found myself taken in by another familiar scripture that hit me in a whole new way.

So.  The May 1st verse it is.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. - Ps 51:12, NIV 84

What hit me this time was the second half of the verse... grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. We have heard much about the first part of the verse, David's plea for restoration after his huge moral failure, but that second part does not get much press.

But read it over.  A willing spirit to sustain me.  A willing spirit to sustain me.  A willing spirit to sustain me.  Willing to follow, willing to obey, willing to serve...and the willingness is, of itself, a gift of grace.


If the joy of the Lord is my strength, then that gift of willingness in my own spirit is my endurance.

And I'd never seen it quite like that before.

Verse 8 - John 11:40

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

It's been a rough week.   My Sweet Baboo doesn't do a lot of traveling with his job, but when he is gone life gets more stressful, just because he's gone.

Add to that the craziness of tech week preceding the high school musical's opening night, unexpected deadlines and bad weather and, oh yes, a nasty digestive virus, along with ongoing issues on many fronts that still are not approaching resolution and, well, as I said, it's been a tough week.

It's easy to get dejected and whiny and even anxious and worried.  So maybe I shouldn't be surprised at the verse that stood out to me as the next Siesta Scritpure Memory Team verse while I was reading John today; another one from the 'familiar but never really memorized' classification:

Then Jesus said, 'Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?'  -- John 11:40, NIV 84

If I believed....

Sometimes I wonder how deep my believing really goes.  On the one hand, what else is there to put my faith in?  If  God is not trustworthy, then there is no such thing as hope.  On the other hand, if God is trustworthy, then why do I stress over things I cannot change?  Why do I try to influence or manipulate things to an outcome that makes me comfortable?  Where is my faith?

I believe.  Help my unbelief...I want to see the glory of God, not what my own limited vision wants to see...

Verse 7 - Ephesians 2:10

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

So.  April 1st already....and, which means that it's time for the SSMT Verse 7.  This is one from the 'really familiar but never officially memorized' list... not sure why this is the one that set off the bells and whistles when I read it this morning, but I'm sure there's a reason...

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God created in advance for us to do -  Ephesians 2:10, NIV 84  

Maybe I just needed to remind myself that it's really not about me...

Verse 6 - Is. 64:4

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I sat down today, in the back of my head thinking I would post something about food or eating or some such thing, and my reading for today was in John chapter 6, where Jesus announces that he is the bread of life.  Perfect!  I read it carefully and, while I really enjoyed the reading and had a fresh recognition of the need to consume the Word, not one of  those verses jumped off the page and presented itself as my next SSMT memory verse.

So, I had some reading left to do in Proverbs to finish it up for this year's portion of the Bible Survey and I thought I  might find something there.  So I flipped back towards Proverbs, and, wouldn't you know, my eyes alighted on a verse on the way that DID jump off the page...

Since ancient times, no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him -- Is. 64:4 NIV 84

I think I'm starting to see a pattern here...it will be interesting to aggregate them all together at the end of the year and see if there really is an over riding message...

PS.  I'm turning the word verification back on...I didn't mind deleting the daily 'visit my site' spams so much, but when it gets vile and obscene then I'm done.  I didn't get any more 'real' comments without it, so, in the interest of keeping my blood pressure down, I'm axing the robots... my apologies for the inconvenience to anyone who wants to leave a real comment...

Verse 5 - Ps. 122:6 - 7

Posted By Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I stumbled across a verse today that I've heard repeated many times; I even have it underlined in the NEW Bible.

But sometimes something familiar suddenly comes into sharp focus.

Verse 4 was about building my own house and opening the door; today as I passed by Ps. 122 I suddenly realized that I should not be praying for my own house alone. And, although I surely must have noticed this before, it hit me fresh today that this verse isn't just an instruction TO pray but also an instruction of WHAT to pray.

A good passage; I've heard the first part all my life, I think, but it's time for me to commit the whole thought  to heart.  So here's my SSMT verse for March 1:

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: 'May those who love you be secure.  May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.' - Ps. 122: 6-7 NIV 84

Verse 4 - Micah 2:13

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

It's been just exactly a year since the contractor cleaned up his work, packed his tools and went on to other jobs.

Not because our job was finished, but because we'd gone as far as we could go with the resources we had.

All the resources we could muster together, actually.  So the project wrapped up at the end of phase 1.

Phase 2 is a new door.  On Leap Day last year, I posted a photo of the spot where the door is destined to go, and a list of the scriptures that I had written on the wall that will come down.

Today, as I pondered what my fourth verse for the Siesta Scripture Memory Team should be, I walked through the den and opened the blinds on the windows that will be replaced by a large, light filled sliding door, and realized I had gone slack on declaring the verses over the situation.

And it's no wonder...in the past year, the rest of the insulation for the project (along with a few boxes of other stuff...) has moved from the garage to the porch.  It makes sense for it to be there, but... I can't see the verses to declare them

I suppose we must be closer to being in a position to finish than we were a year ago; we've had a year to fill in the financial holes we dug to just get the room enclosed and stable.  But we're still a long way from having the resources we need to knock out the wall and windows and put in the door.

So I decided I need a warfare verse; a verse that I can declare every time I open the blinds.  So verse number four is Micah 2:13, which is visible in the middle of the wall:

One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out.  Their king will pass through before them, the LORD at their head.