January verses, Siesta Scripture Memory Team 2015.  (Living Proof Ministries, lproof.org)

My staff verse for 2015

Fruit, and the importance of Memorizing Scripture

I am reading through the Bible using a different system this year; it seems a little disjointed to me, since the reading bounces around the different sections of the Bible throughout the week.   So I started off my reading time as I should be doing every day, praying that He would reveal to me exactly what I needed to hear today. 

The passage this morning in Matthew 3-4.  Yes, that passage is chock full of things that the Lord wants us to know - the ministry of John the Baptist, and his encounter with the religious leaders of the day; the baptism of Jesus by John; the temptation of Jesus and how he resisted Satan using scripture. 

My first observation came in chapter 3, verse 8.  John is addressing the religious leaders of his day.  He could see through their façade of piety, and he called them on it.  Without going into the background of the Pharisees and Sadducees, he pointedly asked them if they were bearing the fruit that showed their repentance.   

If John were looking at me today, would he see any fruit that show that I am repentant?  Galatians 4:22-23 gives a list of the fruit that should be evident in my life as a Spirit-indwelled believer:   love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  I thought about it for a while.  Am I bearing fruit that is evident to others, both believers and unbelievers alike?  Sometimes I wonder what kind of fruit others are seeing. Is it good, nourishing fruit, or is it shriveled, rotten, under ripe, bitter fruit?  Is it fruit that I have in abundance, or are there only one or two pieces? My prayer is that the Lord will work in my life so I bear good fruit, and good fruit in abundance. 

The second observation that I made today is  from the temptation of Jesus.  One of the major reasons we memorize scripture is to combat Satan. For every temptation that Satan threw at Jesus, He responded with "It is written." THAT is what I need to be doing when I am tempted, especially when I am tempted to dwell in my past.  I am NOT that person any longer, God has re-created me into His image, and I need to reflect that. I am significant in His eyes.  Since I've joined with Beth Moore and Living Proof Ministries in memorizing 24 verses this year, my prayer is that God will reveal exactly what passages I need to memorize so that I have an arsenal to be used when I'm plagued by the temptation to think I'm insignificant.

Yes, the Lord did speak to me today in my quiet time, as I knew He would.  I need to meditate on His word and commit it to memory because it is through that discipline that the fruit of the Spirit is developed in my life.  His word is what I need to combat Satan, and to answer those who have questions.  Lord, help me continue to hide Your word in my heart so I may bear much fruit, and so I can say "it is written" when the tempter attacks.  

Welcome to 2015

Well, it's 2015.  2014 was a pretty eventful year - some major life events, lots of minor ones

First, the major:

• Graduated summa cum Laude with a BS in Interdisciplinary Studies from Liberty University
• Started a new job as Administrative Assistant to the Worship/Executive Pastor at my church
• Moved my daughter to Minnesota, where she is following the Lord's leading by attending Kairos, a discipleship training school under the umbrella of Reign Ministries. 

The minor:

• Tried my hand at several new recipes. Some were keepers, others not so much.  I think this year I need to expand my blog to include those, especially the successes, although most of them I've found in other places on the Web.  Most of them, however, I've made my own by varying ingredients to suit our tastes.  
• Finished one quilt, but have two more sitting, waiting paitently.
• Discovered that my job requires much more artistic creativity!  I've broken out my Cricuit again!  Now, maybe I'll actually get some scrapbooking done this year as well

This was a practice for gifts I gave out as Christmas gifts. For the gifts, I used gold lettering and mounted them in black frames.

 I'm really enjoying my job, but it is far more challenging than I thought it would be. I've been there about 3 months now, and I still make far more mistakes than I should.  For whatever reason, I'm so afraid of disappointing my boss, that the anxiety can be overwhelming at times.  I really need to work on that, and on trusting the Lord.  I'm really dealing lately with a lot of self-esteem issues, which is silly.  I've proven I can do things, and do them well, so what's my problem?  The job may become even more challenging this month.  If so, then I will learn even more to trust on the Lord, and do my best.

One of the things I really like about the job is that we have accountability groups every week.  We are held accountable for reading our Bible/quiet time; prayer time - specifically prayer time for our church and its leaders and  sharing our testimony and witnessing.  We have to choose and memorize a staff verse, and have been assigned reading - this year it's John Piper's Desiring God. I've started to read it, and have found a study guide on line that I'm going to work on as well. Because we have to memorize our staff verse, I've decided to join in with Beth Moore's Living Proof Ministries (blog.lproof.org) Siesta Scripture Memory Team 2015 (SSMT).   I played around a little today, and came up with this for my first verse:

 I think I'm going to try to do something similar for every verse that I memorize over the course of the year.

Last year I did pretty good with reading. In addition to reading for school, I also read Good to Great in God's Eyes, by Chip Ingram; Wounded by God's People, by Anne Graham Lotz; Transforming Together,  by Ele Parrot; and The Pursuit of God,  by A. W. Tozer.  I've started both Miracles, by Eric Metaxas, GodLess America, by Todd Starnes, and God's Pursuit of Man, by Tozer.  I don't know how far I'll get in those three, I'm going to concentrate on the assigned reading first. I hope to be able to blog after each chapter.

I'm really proud of Amanda and how she has let the Lord work in her life. She's learning a lot, growing a lot - not only mentally, but more importantly, spiritually.  It's exciting to watch her learn to trust the Lord for everything.  The program is totally faith based, so she has to raise funds. We are helping to support her some, mostly with her personal finances, but the rest come from donors.  Seeing how God provides is exciting - scary and challenging, but exciting.

What will 2015 bring? I don't know.  But the year is the Lord's and I'm leaving it up to Him!