Scripture Memory 2012: Verse 18

Thanks to my lovely sister, I found a new blog that I really like. It's called To Love, Honor and Vacuum: Real Marriage. No Pretensions.

The blog is written by a Christian author from Canada, and it is obviously mostly about marriage. I was so happy that my sister recommended it to me because like I told her, Andy has been easily winning the "best spouse award" around here and I want to give him a run for his money.

One of the most popular (and most "pinned") blog posts from To Love, Honor, and Vacuum is her post called, "50 Most Important Bible Verses to Memorize"


It's a great list of verses to memorize if you ever have trouble coming up with a verse you want to work on. It's also a great list to have your whole family work on (if you are that ambitious!). I really like the author's comments about memorizing the 50 verses (She also recommends a few chapters to memorize):

Look at it this way: if you spend one year memorizing the fifty verses, and the next year reviewing those fifty and memorizing a chapter, and then go back to those fifty verses again to make sure you have them down, and then the next year go back and do a different chapter, and so on, over the course of ten years you’ll have 50 verses and 5 chapters so committed to memory there is no way anyone could ever forget it.

And I think knowing fewer verses, but knowing them inside and out, is sometimes more beneficial in the long run than trying to make yourself learn a verse a day or something.

So, for my verse this time around, I wanted to use one from her list.

Megan L. from San Marcos "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

Scripture Memory 2012: Verse 17

In the book Discipline of Grace, Jerry Bridges talks about the importance of preaching the gospel to yourself every day. This helps us walk that line between trying to be good enough to somehow earn God's love and taking God's grace for granted. We are sinners, saved only by a costly grace through Christ alone.

Bridges recommends meditating on Romans 4:7-8 as one of the verses to use as you preach the gospel to yourself and I'm going to use it as my memory verse this time around.

Megan L. from San Marcos
Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.

Romans 4:7-8 NIV

Here are more verses about God's awesome and total forgiveness:

He washes you. (Psalm 51:7)
He takes your sin far away. (Psalm 103:12)
He seals your sin in a bag and covers over it. (Job 14:17)

He treads it underfoot and hurls it into the depths of the ocean. (Micah 7:19)
He wipes it out. (Isaiah 43:25)
He chooses not to remember it. (Hebrews 10:17)
He puts it behind His back. (Isaiah 38:17)

Lord, help us live as those who know the gospel and live according to its power!

Scripture Memory 2012: Verse 16

Whoops! In the business of our last week of summer, I totally forgot to post a verse! I'm going to miss summer, but it will be nice to get back into a more normal routine. Hopefully that means I'll get better about the spiritual disciplines in my life!! I'll post my verse in the comments. What is your verse this time around?

Scripture Memory 2012: Verse 15

If you're anything like me, you've been spending way too much time watching the Olympics and neglecting real life. Yikes! It's ironic that watching amazingly disciplined world-class athletes makes me want to sit on my couch and watch them on TV all day and then stay up too late at night. Lord, help me have some self-control!

Megan L. from San Marcos "He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he." Deuteronomy 32:4 NIV

Scripture Memory 2012: Verse 14

Summer time is a hard time to stay focused and disciplined (at least for me!). Here is some encouragement for us all to keep striving:

"It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer. The truth is that in order to enjoy the Word, we ought to continue to read it, and the way to obtain a spirit of prayer is to continue praying. Then less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray." George Mueller

Here's my verse:

Megan L. from San Marcos: "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me." John 14:21 NIV

Scripture Memory 2012: Verse 13

Summer time sure is a crazy, busy, fun time for us! To give myself a little break, I'm going to review a verse I memorized last year. It's one that I really need to meditate on more. It's so easy for me to get caught up in this temporary world and I so easily lose an eternal perspective on things.
 

Megan L. from San Marcos: "Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." Colossians 3:1-2 NIV

And to go with this verse, one of my favorite quotes:

"If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were precisely those who thought the most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this." C.S. Lewis

Oh Lord, that I will remember where my true home is and how fleeting life here on earth is!

Scripture Memory 2012: Verse 12

This was from Beth Moore's post exactly one year ago when she was doing the Scripture memory challenge on her blog:

 Hear bells and whistles and lots of music, maybe even a few beginning bars of the Hallelujah chorus: YOU MADE IT EXACTLY HALFWAY!!!! You are officially over the hump after you get this entry behind you.

Way to go, Sisters. Way to go! It’s a pretty good feeling, isn’t it? Don’t think for a second that the enemy didn’t try to steal away your focus and commitment. If you made it this far, you fought with him and won. This is a big victory. Celebrate it with your very faithful God.

Isn't Beth a great cheerleader!

I had no idea what to expect when I started this Scripture memory blog in January, but it's exciting to see that we are halfway done and there are more people commenting than just me and my mom. :-) Thanks, ladies! It's been a fun adventure so far!

So, here's my verse:

Megan L. from San Marcos: "Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." I Timothy 4:7b-8 NIV