The One Year Scripture Memory Team has been COMPLETED!!!

Thank you faithful sisters!

For joining in 

and encouraging others to continue 

to purposefully hide His Word within their hearts!

Scripture Memory Team Verse Twenty-Five!

Selah, The Cause for Pause...

October is the perfect month to refocus ourselves on living each day in an attitude of Thanksgiving.  Quite often our attitudes seem to be more focused on what we consider to be lack in our lives... and in the lives of others.

I love this verse from the Psalms that reminds me that I should consider pausing before passing through His gates - that I should consider pausing before entering into the very courts of God - to see if I am consciously carrying within my heart and soul the joy of thanksgiving and praise to Him, and in so doing... blessing His Name!

If nothing else, the wonderful knowledge that He has lovingly opened His gates and opened His courts that we may enter in through Jesus, should position our hearts in an attitude of Thanksgiving to Him!

Enter into His gates... 

with thanksgiving,

And enter into His courts... 

with praise.

Be thankful...

To Him...

And bless His Name.

                            Psalm 100:4

with love,

Scripture Team Memory Verse Twenty-Four!

Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, 

keep seeking the things above,

where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above,

not on the things that are on earth,

For you have died and your life is hidden 
with Christ 
                                            in God.                                           

                                      Colossians 3:1-3 (NASB)

Scripture Team Memory Verse Twenty-Three!

Completing my year long study on the Sovereignty of God this week.

Thought it fitting to devote myself to meditating upon this truth of God's revelation of Himself,

 to us.

I AM The LORD, and there is no other;

Besides Me there is no God.

I will gird you, though you have not known Me;

That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun

That there is no one besides Me.

I AM the LORD, and there is no other,

The One forming light and creating darkness,

Causing well-being and creating calamity;

I AM the LORD Who does all these.

                                                    Isaiah 45: 6-7 (NASB)

Scripture Team Memory Verse Twenty-Two!

Good Morning Girls!

I've been reading through the book of Colossians, 

as I begin to prepare myself for our study in September.

It's from here that my next memory verse comes...

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the LORD, 

so walk in Him,

having been firmly established in your faith,

 just as you were instructed, 

and overflowing with gratitude.  

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, 

according to the tradition of men, 

according to the elementary principles of the world, 

rather than 
according to Christ.

                                                                  Colossians 2:6-8 (NASB)

Scripture Memory Team Verse Twenty-One!

Happy and blessed August First Girls!  

The photo above was taken on my early morning walk this morning. 

It put me in mind of Psalm 19:1-2...

The heavens are telling of the glory of God;

And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

Day to day pours forth speech,

and night to night reveals knowledge.

It's from this Psalm that my verses, for these next two weeks, comes from.

The law of the LORD is perfect,

restoring the soul;

the testimony of the LORD is sure,

making wise the simple.

The precepts of the LORD are right,

rejoicing the heart;

The commandment of the LORD is pure,

enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the LORD is clean,

enduring forever;

The judgements of the LORD are true;

they are righteous altogether.

                                          Psalm 19: 7-9

Scripture Memory Team Verse Twenty!

I have been so entrenched in 2 Chronicles these days and more than likely, this is where God would have me to be for a while yet.  All I can tell you is that I've been completely undone by all that God has been showing me through His Word and by His Spirit and it's such an incredible, humbling, refreshing and powerful place to be!  

This morning, I almost posted some of my thoughts from 2 Chronicles in the Welcoming Room of Pure Grace, but as the morning unfolded, I realized it will have to wait until another time.

In the meantime, my memory verse over these next two weeks of summer is actually from Proverbs 4:7...

"Wisdom is supreme!  

Therefore get wisdom.  

Though it cost you all you have, 

get understanding."

"Though it cost you ALL you have...".  

This is how much importance God places upon us acquiring understanding and wisdom.  It's worth meditating upon, taking a good look at the reality of the way our lives are actually being lived... and then, walking according to the Word of God.  

"Though it cost you all you have... ".

with love,

Scripture Memory Team Verse Nineteen!

He has told you, O man, what is good;

And what does the LORD require of you,

But to do justice, to love kindness,

And to walk humbly with your God?

                                         Micah 6:8 (NASB)

Scripture Memory Team Verse Eighteen!

Yeesh!  I'm three days late!  But that's OK, I'm on my verse and I know that you are on yours as well!  The verse that I'll be meditating upon over these next two weeks is surely needed, and God knew that, and that's why it was given to me!  It's from the book of John and reads...

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful."

John 14:27 NASB

Peace is shalom, it's literal meaning carries within it the reality of 'nothing broken, nothing missing, being whole and complete'.  In Jesus there is nothing broken about us, there is nothing missing about us, we are whole and we are complete.  

I love how Jesus does not use the plural on 'heart'.  He is speaking to each one of us, individually.  Because we are whole and complete, with nothing broken or missing about us, in Jesus... our heart does not have to be troubled, nor do we need be fearful.  This reality and assurance is nothing that comes from this world, or anything in it... this 'shalom' comes only through Jesus... and His giving is a perpetual, constant, continuous giving... if we would but receive.

Praying that all is well with your souls as it is mine today,

with love to my sisters,

Scripture Memory Team Verse Seventeen!

But godliness is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.
                                                                                                      1 Timothy 6:6

Scripture Memory Team Verse Sixteen!

Over the past three years, at the beginning of the year, I have been asking God to guide me to one word that would define the year that lies ahead.  This year the word that I was led to is the word 'KNOW'.  It's amazing how this one word has truly been woven, in a very mindful, tangible way, throughout these beginning months of 2012.  It's a focus word that keep me walking this faith walk out with clarity of purpose and thoughtfulness.

There is such a vital difference between having KNOWLEDGE which is simply information, and to KNOW, which carries with it the deeper meaning of experience and understanding.  When God gave me this word for 2012, I had no idea that just a few short weeks later I would be asked to speak at the breakout sessions of the Get Real Women's Conference scheduled for November. I was asked to write out a bio for the conference and as I did I realized that this has been my life's message from the moment that He claimed me as His own.  

Here it is in part...

..."So often we are encouraged to study our Bible, but have never really been shown how.  I have had the pure joy of watching women, of all ages, develop an intimacy with God that comes through the study and knowing of His Word.  Know His Word and you come to know Him.  A woman who knows her God will not fall for a lie, because she has risen with the Truth.  A woman who knows her God stands firm, no matter the circumstance or trial, she displays great strength and takes action.  Instead of looking outside ourselves for these kinds of women, let's purpose in our hearts before God that we, ourselves, will go and be that woman amid this generation, knowing our God and living accordingly!  One by one, together, we will be a beautiful "planting of the LORD that He may be glorified." (Isaiah 61:3)

Isn't it amazing to know that we are, already, fully known by God? (Psalm 139).  It's now our responsibility to actively lean in, to take the time, to cease our striving and to KNOW that He is God. Beautiful!!!

My memory verse this time around may be short, but it keeps me focused, accountable and packs a whollop!

"...I know Whom I have believed...

                               1 Timothy 1:12

Come on girls!  What's your memory verse for the upcoming two weeks?  Looking forward to hearing from you! 

love,

Scripture Memory Team Verse Fifteen!

A Visual of the Principle of Blooming Wherever We are Planted

Hey Girls!  I'm just slipping in under the wire here! A few hours late and having to do this via iPhone!
Our Memory Verse spirals are beginning to get quite substantial as we reach our 15th verse today!
My hope and prayer for each one of you is that you are living in the joy and in the power of all that God has placed within you through His Word and by His Spirit!

My verse for this particular two week period comes from 1 Thessalonians 5:12...

 "... we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labour among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another." 

 I smiled at the last part... perhaps one way we can show our appreciation and esteem, 'in love', is to live in peace with one another! 

Looking forward to hearing your memory verses,

Love you! 

Cathie

Scripture Memory Team Verse Fourteen!

I hesitated in sharing this... can you believe it?  At this point in time, it just seems so fresh, so personal, so intimate.  And it is.  Thing is though... it applies to every one of us... and that's why I'm sharing it with you!  First of all though, first things first... here is my memory verse for these next two weeks...

"My beloved responded and said to me,

'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,

And come along.  

For behold, the winter is past...'"

                                   Song of Solomon 2:10 NASB

I would dearly love to just sit with you all for an evening, to teach and reflect upon this.  However, I'll just briefly share a few things that have been placed within my own heart regarding this particular verse and let you take it from there!  Let's read a little more of the surrounding verses before I carry on...

"My beloved responded and said to me,

'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,

And come along.  

For behold, the winter is past,

The rain is over and gone.

The flowers have already appeared in the land;

The time has arrived for pruning the vines,

And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.

The fig tree has ripened it's figs,

And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance.

Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,

And come along!'"

Just meditate for a moment on the fact that the Beloved 'responded'.  Whether it's a season of winter in our souls or in our circumstances, winter can be dark, cold, grey and bleak.  Our innermost being cries out for Life in the midst of it.  And then 'My Beloved responded and said to me... Behold, winter has past'.  When 'winter has past' it means that Spring has sprung and the grass has rize!  And I am almost certain that many of us welcome the news that 'the rain is over and gone'!  When Spring arrives, all things are bright and beautiful, all things are new. God, who is the Bridegroom, would have His bride, who is the church, who is us, you and me, to 'arise and come along'.   The signs of the arrival of the warmth and light of True Beauty is all around us, and we are to arise, walk with Him and take notice!

If you have spent any time with me at all, you know that I think of each one of the women in my life, regardless of age, as flowers... flowers in my garden of life.  I've written about you here and here.  You see, 'the flowers have already appeared in the land', the cross of Christ has resulted in not only His resurrection, but in our own!  We have passed out of death, out of the darkness of the earth, into the wonderful Light of the Living God!  We are the flowers, we are the colours, we are the fragrance and the beauty in the garden of God... and wonder of wonders... we are also His beloved!  If you could just see me right now, I am barely sitting on the remaining edge of my proverbial seat as I type out these words.  Honestly, God's Word just thrills my heart like nothing else!

Did you also notice that it is a time 'for pruning'?  Whenever you have the time, go and read through John 15 and see how the vine is pruned, who prunes it and why pruning is necessary.  It's beautiful!  God would have us to be abundantly fruitful in our particular blooming at this time on the kingdom calendar.  It's time to shed off the old and step into the new... He bids us to 'Arise', He calls us 'beautiful', and he beckons us to 'come along!'... 

As women of God, let's arise with our God, and take note of the Spring around us, of the women around us, and let's bloom for His glory and purposes!  None of us look exactly alike, our colours are different, our shapes are different, our heights and widths are different, even the 'where' of where we are planted may be different according to how we respond to darkness and to light... yet we all can bloom beautifully where we are planted and fulfill God's purposes for our being on the planet at such a time as this.

Together, we are a beautiful display of His splendour!

with love,

Scripture Memory Team Verse Thirteen!

Good rainy morning girls!  We attended church services last night, Pastor Steve gave an excellent message regarding faith, if you are attending this morning you are in for a blessing!

I am supposed to be ankle deep in pig manure right about now, I absolutely love Spring!  Later on this afternoon heading off to the Easter Presentation (showered and a change of clothes a requirement!).  

You will undoubtedly have noticed that the majority of my memory verses have come from the Psalms.  Although my Bible Study at the moment is the topical study on the Sovereignty of God, I am continually being brought back to the Psalms during this season of time... what a blessing!

Do you often take your memory verses and turn them into intercessory prayer?  There is nothing like it to ignite your faith and restore your joy.  These verses that I am committing to memory I have personalized for myself... God takes great delight when we take Him at His Word and apply it to ourselves!  Yet at the same time, these same verses are being prayed over each member of my family and others who I regularly pray for.  There is so much here... to pray for a humbling of heart that will result in the magnification of the LORD is powerful, leading to true fellowship in the LORD... and that's just one!

I will bless the LORD at all times;

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul will make its boast in the LORD;

The humble will hear it and rejoice.

O magnify the LORD with me,

And let us exalt His Name together.

I sought the LORD, and He answered me,

And delivered me from all my fears.

(I) looked to Him and was radiant,

And (my) face will never be ashamed.

                                                Psalm 34:1-5 NASB

Even though your particular blessing today may not be the delight of spreading around manure in your garden while it rains... may you still be richly blessed in the abundance and provision of your God!

love you!

Scripture Memory Team Verse Twelve!

Oh good grief! I am having to send this memory verse out over my iPhone, technology has never been my strong suit and I have spent the last five minutes trying to figure out how to position the curser without a slew of added features popping up, only to delete my first draft, (which I managed to also somehow paste in a prior dinner invitation by mistake!) I'm not even going to try and centre! However this turns out, just know that it was sent by faith with love! Blessed be the LORD, Because He has heard my voice of supplication. The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him. Psalm 28:6-7 NASB Blessings upon everyone of your precious heads!

Scripture Memory Team Verse Eleven!

Hi Girls!  Look at the beautiful reminder that I was given the other day... glorious!  There was a day when I would have looked at this and thought about 'Pots of Gold' and pretended that I was Judy Garland, wishing upon a star and waking up where the clouds were far behind me... you know, in that land where troubles melt like lemon drops... away above the chimney tops.  But now when I see this beautiful sight my thoughts are filled with the great love that God has for us, of His promises, and His faithfulness.

I've been thinking about the promises of God lately.  Like the promise of Him giving us rest... 

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, 

and I will give you rest.  

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, 

for I am gentle and humble in heart, 

and you will find rest for your souls.  

For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. 

                                           Matthew 11:28-30 (NASB)  

His promise stands firm, He will give us rest... yet we have a responsibility in this too... it's that we come to Him.  

My memory verse for the next two weeks is actually James 1:22-25 (NASB).  God would have me to be an effectual doer and not a forgetful hearer!  I am to live out the Word that has been placed within me and not simply hear it and delude myself into thinking that this is enough.  This is true rest in the midst of living out our days... being yoked together with Him is to cease from striving, to know that He is God, that if He is for us then who could be against us, it's to find rest for our weary souls and to live according to His Word, according to what we have learned from Him.  

Coming to Him, taking His yoke upon us, learning from Him and living accordingly... this is when we see the glorious Promise of God bursting through the clouds with a Beauty that takes our breath away.

But prove yourselves doers of the word, 

and not merely hearers who delude themselves.  

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, 

he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;

 for once he has looked at himself and gone away,

 he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.  

But one who looks intently at the perfect law, 

the law of liberty, 

and abides by it, 

not having become a forgetful hearer, 

but an effectual doer, 

this man will be blessed in what he does.

                    

 love,

 

Scripture Memory Team Verse Ten!

Life is full... and thus I am a day late!

I so appreciate all of you that have, so far, "stayed the course"... and if you have found that you have not, it is never too late to re-committ and join us on the 1st and 15th of every month!

My memory verse for this particular span of time is something that the Lord has been impressing upon me lately, a truth that, although a very familiar and much beloved portion of Scripture to me, still needs to go deeper into the very depths of my soul, and, the truth of it meant to be consciously carried with me every moment of my life here on planet earth...

"I will give thanks to You, 

for I am fearfully 

and wonderfully 

made; 

wonderful are Your works,

 and my soul knows it well."  

                                           
                                                 Psalm 139: 14 NASB

Scripture Memory Team Verse Nine!

Scripture Memory Team Verse Eight!

Words are so important. 

"How blessed is the woman who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, 

nor stand in the path of sinners; 

not sit in the seat of scoffers!

But her delight is in the (Word) of the LORD,

 and in His (Word) she meditates day and night.

She will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, 

which yields its fruit in season and its leaf does not wither;

 and in whatever she does, she prospers."

There are masses of words being spoken, continually, day and night in this world.

But it is God's Word that is my delight, it is His counsel that I seek day and night.

As my roots go deeper into Him,
His Word accomplishes a healing, strengthening, beautifying and fruitful work in me,

All to His glory and my good.
I am forever His grateful child.

*(I personalized this passage of Scripture to reflect the feminine)

Scripture Memory Team Verse Seven!

This morning, I thought that I would share with you a page from my journal.  It was written on Christmas Day morning, in the wee hours.  It's not meant to be written well, it's just the thoughts that I happened to be having at that moment as I read through the account of the birth of Jesus from Luke, thoughts that have led me to the verse that I will share with you at the end that will be my memory and meditation verse for the next two weeks.  So here is my journal entry, such as it is...

"Mary treasured all these things,

pondering them in her heart."

As I read through Luke 1 and 2, I thought upon Mary and how when the angel first appeared to her she was perplexed by his words yet, she received them and pondered them.  I thought of when the shepherd's came to her new born child and spoke the words the angel had declared to them regarding Jesus... Mary did not understand it all, yet she received, treasured and pondered these things in her heart.  I thought of when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple to present Him to the LORD, and both Anna the prophetess and Simeon spoke the word of the LORD concerning Him... and how Mary, not understanding it all, received, treasured and pondered these thing in her heart.  I then thought of Mary, more than 30 years later, standing at the foot of the cross, seeing her son's hands and feet pierced through, as He hung in absolute agony while His blood soaked the ground below Him.

Many women may have said to God... "I've followed You this far, but no more, NO MORE!  If this is the result, I stop here and go NO FURTHER WITH YOU!  I can bear NO MORE."  But Mary, after years of treasuring and pondering God's Word in her heart, stood at the foot of that cross, until it was finished... and just a few days later, on the other side of that cross, Mary was filled with her son - filled with The Son of God! 
 And she understood.

Mary is my example in this... God does not expect me to understand it all, all at one time.. He only asks that I receive His Word, treasure it and ponder it in my heart my whole life long, and One Day all things will be made known and I will see what I cannot see now.

To treasure His Word is a teaching all in itself as is the delightful act of pondering this Treasure throughout our days.  As I begin this New Year with Jesus, the verse that I will be meditating upon over the next 14 days is this...

"Blessed is she who believed 

that there would be a fulfillment 

of what had been spoken to her

 by the Lord."

                                      Luke 1:45

Now, let's lift up our heads, throw back our shoulders and walk boldly and with confidence into this New Year we have been given!  Knowing all the while that the One Who goes before us, also walks beside us and covers our rears (hems us in from behind - Psalm 139)!  

You are precious to me,

love,