Memory Monday checkin

Just a super quick checkin, this last week was insane so I have not been able to focus much on this first verse and certainly have not paid much attention to punctuation.  Let's see how well I did so far - still ignoring punctuation for now...

Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is this like it, Love your neighbor as yourself.  All the  prophets and laws Law and the Prophets are based hang on these two commandments.

Not too bad!  I have not yet started on the first week of the CLI course, insane week and all, so I do get another week with this verse!

Back to it!

 It has been several years since I use this blog, and about as many years since I didn't follow through with the CLI courses.  Well, now that I am not homeschooling my kids anymore there is no excuses and it is time to get back to it.  I plan to use this blog as my personal note taker/Bible study tool/memory verse tester, etc, etc.  If you happen to stumble upon this just know that it is meant for my personal use but if you can gain something from it, then join me in growing in the Word.

First task - enroll in the CLI Ethics course - check

Second task - download the Remember Me app and add these verses - check

1. Matthew 22:37-40
2. Exodus 20:1-17
3. Ephesians 6:10-11
4. Galatians 5:22-23

Third task - find a notebook to write out memory verses and start with the first verse - check

Also typing it out here because it is Memory Monday after all!

Matthew 22:37-40 (NIV)

Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.  All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments."

GROW- Daniel 7

Go to God in Prayer

Read - Daniel 7

Observations

This is a chapter filled with prophecy, and there is so much here to dive into that I am going to leave that to the Biblical scholars.  Instead I want to take a brief glimpse into God's court, this is the time to study from a sensory awareness perspective.

Daniel 7:9-10

“I watched till thrones were [d]put in place,
And the Ancient of Days was seated;
His garment was white as snow,
And the hair of His head was like pure wool.
His throne was a fiery flame,
Its wheels a burning fire;
10 A fiery stream issued
And came forth from before Him.
A thousand thousands ministered to Him;
Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.
The [e]court was seated,
And the books were opened.

Place yourself in this place, imagine the immense of the clothing and the hair.  So white that it is blinding.

Feel the heat of the fiery throne with wheels of blazing fire.  Then even more heat from the river of fire.

Now watch the flurry of angels - thousands and thousands are attending to God. What are they doing exactly?  What would you be doing if your only job was to attend to God.  

Then there were millions and millions standing before God.  Why were they standing there?  Because they were about to be judged by the all knowing and all powerful God. What would be going through your mind if you were before God waiting to be judged?  Fear of going to hell for eternity or excitement and anticipation of learning what rewards you will receive?

Write the Lesson

I hope and pray that you are a believer in Christ because He has already taken your punishment upon himself when he died on the cross.  Your debt is already paid.  All that is left is to be judged by how well you have lived out your life in Christ in order to receive your rewards in heaven.  

Exodus 20:1-4

And God spoke these things all these words, saying,

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image - not any likeness of anything that is from in heaven above, or anything that is from in the earth beneath, or that is from in the water below under the earth, 

Typing out verse 5 and 6 to try to get the words in my brain :-)

you shall not bow to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.

GROW -Daniel 6

Go to God in Prayer

Read - Daniel 6 

Observations

Most know the story of Daniel in the lion's den and the miracle God performed when He protected Daniel from the lions.  But the reason he was thrown in the lion's den in the first place is just as fascinating.

Remember that the Medes have taken over the kingdom, and Darius, the leader of the Medes has put Daniel in a high position.  Verses 1-2 tells us that there are 120 princes and only three governors to supervise the princes. Daniel was one of these governors.

Daniel 6:3 

Daniel soon proved himself more capable than all the other administrators and high officers. Because of Daniel’s great ability, the king made plans to place him over the entire empire.

Verse 3 tells us that Daniel was filled with the Holy Spirit and because of this he was doing a much better job than the other 2 governors.  The king was thinking of promoting him to govern over the whole kingdom!  

From Daniel's perspective, he was doing what was right in God's eyes.  He was filled with the Holy Spirit and very in tune to God.  He was able to be so receptive to God's guidance because of his devotion to the Word and his prayer time with God.  

Now imagine how the other 2 governors would react to this.  What is their perspective?  Even though they were also named as governors, they were not performing as well as Daniel.  Daniel is simply doing better than they were and it angered them.

Daniel 6:4

Then the other administrators and high officers began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling government affairs, but they couldn’t find anything to criticize or condemn. He was faithful, always responsible, and completely trustworthy. 

The governors found themselves jealous of Daniel and obsessed with finding some fault in him.  They were looking for a way to get him fired.  But because Daniel was so devout there was no fault in him.  

What was left to do but turn his goodness and his faith against him.  They came up with a scheme that tricked the king into making it illegal to show devotion to anyone other than the king. They knew that Daniel was devoted and would continue to pray, which would now break the law. What did Daniel do when he heard about this law?  

Daniel 6:10

But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God. 

Did he run and hide when he prayed?  Not at all! He never faltered and never changed how he worship God.  His main priority was to pray to God, to be close to Him, to worship Him.  So when this new law placed that relationship in jeopardy he did what he had always done and he continued to pray.  The priority to worship God remained Daniel's priority. He was willing to suffer the worldly consequences because he was not willing to let man and man's laws come between him and God. 

Write the lesson

The lesson for us in how to walk through life is laid out nicely in verse 4.

• be faithful to God and devoted to Him
• be responsible and always do the right thing.  If you are not sure what the right thing is, ask God 
• be trustworthy, never give anyone a reason to not trust you.  In other words, always be honest and dependable 

The lesson for how to respond to the world around us is in verse 10.  No matter what the world is doing or what laws are put into place, if they are against God we should not follow them.  Nothing should ever come between our relationship with God.  

I have only been doing memory verses here on Mondays but I decided this is not frequent enough for me.  I am using an app called Remember Me and it provides a few verses to review or learn daily.  I am reciting them to myself daily, but I need the extra help of writing them out to see if I am learning them correctly.  I will only type daily what the app tells me is due.

Today the only passage due is Exodus 20:1-17, but I still have only learned verses 1-4

And God said spoke all these words saying  "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness not of anything from that is in  heaven above, or of anything from that is in the earth below beneath, or of anything from  that is in the waters under the earth.

Memory Monday

 

Time to see how I did this week.  I haven't worked on new verses as much as would have liked, mostly worked on these...

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

He leads me to beside the still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me down  in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil

for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff they comfort me.

You anoint my head with oil,

My cup runs over

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil,

My cup runs over

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ,  and I no longer live, 

But Christ lives in me.

I live in this body by having faith in Christ

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God

who loved me and died for me.

2Corinthians 5:17

Therefore if anyone is in Christ 

He is a new creation

The old is gone, the new has come

Galatians 5:22-23

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faith, gentleness and self control

There is no law against these things

Against such things there is no law.

Exodus 20:1-4  (should be verses 1-17, but I have only worked on 1-4 so far)

And God spoke all of these words saying

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image - not anything in the any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or anything on that is in the earth below beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth.

GROW - Psalm 47

Go to God in prayer

Read - Psalm 47

Observations

Clearly this is a Psalm of pure praise.  A psalm of exuberant praise and worship.  The kind that gets you up off your feet and worshipping, not because that is what everyone around you is doing, but because you simply have to worship.   If you have not experienced this type of worship I encourage you to get yourself to a contemporary church service, especially if they have a live band.  There is just something about experiencing the power of the drums in person.  This video is one that has stuck with me for a long time, one that I will revisit when I need the power of the a bunch of Marines worshiping!

Write the lesson  

Learn to worship in the way the Israelites worshipped - with complete joy, unrestrained cheerfulness and holy enthusiasm.  All for the glory of God. 

GROW -Psalm 46

Go to God in Prayer

Read - Psalm 46 

Observations

Let's jump right in and look at the first two verses...

Psalm 46: 1-2

1 God is our refuge and strength,
    always ready to help in times of trouble.
2 So we will not fear when earthquakes come
    and the mountains crumble into the sea.

Here we are given a promise and a response.  The promise is that God is always with us, He is our strength and the only one needed in times of trouble.  Our response to having faith that God is in control is that we do not need to fear.  We don't need to fear natural disasters or persecution or even personal attacks.  No matter what, God is in control so we need not fear.  

Of course that is often easier said than done.  We experience fear and we worry, some more than others.  And that is the point here.  I saw a quote years ago that sticks with me. 

If you are worrying, you are not praying.

If you are praying, you are not worrying.

Keep this close to your heart and I am positive that you too will have less fear because you are too busy praying!

This Psalm also contains one of my favorite verses.  

Psalm 46:10

“Be still, and know that I am God!
    I will be honored by every nation.
    I will be honored throughout the world.”

 

This is a direct command from God - to "Be still",  I have seen other versions use the phrases "Be Silent", "Calm Down" "Stop your fighting".   In my Mama paraphrase I might say "Knock it off!"  God is calling us to stop and slow down.  Chill out and calm yourself.  But why?  So that we can turn off the world and be open to what God is trying to tell us.  Simply that He is God.

Write the lesson

As we draw closer to God our faith increases and we get to know Him more and more.  We begin to understand what it means when He says "I am God!"  When we know that, then we simply have no fear, no matter what this world throws at us.   He is God, He is in control, and He has saved from this world.