Today I want to talk about two of my favorite memory passages that I memorized for my first Bible Bee ever, in 2009. Actually, it was the first Bible Bee ever, not just for me! There were so many verses to memorize, stacks and stacks of cards, several books of the Bible to study for "general Bible knowledge" questions, and I was simply an overwhelmed thirteen year old! Long story short, I never finished memorizing the passages, I didn't even get halfway through them, but I did end that season with a love for memorizing Scripture and a handful of verses under my belt that I still remember to this day. Some of them will appear in later blog posts, because I just wanted to talk about two of them today!
Isaiah 26:3-4 (NKJV) "You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, For in YAH, the LORD, is everlasting strength." Honestly, one of the main reasons I love this passage is because it is so pretty and comforting to recite. It reads like poetry, and once you have it memorized, it flows off your tongue so easily! This passage assures us that, as long as we focus on God and trust Him, He will keep us and be our strength. I love that this passage also uses one of God's names, YAH, in it. That is just a name for God we don't hear very often! I would love to do a word study on it, to see if it is just short for YAHWEH, or if it has a significance all it's own. Psalm 56:3-4 (NKJV) "Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?" This is another passage I love reciting, because it is comforting. It is peaceful. I like to recite it when I'm frightened, or when I have the "heebie jeebies" from something I watched. It not only reminds me that flesh cannot harm me when God is on my side, it also reminds me to trust God (it says it twice!) and praise His word. I think it is interesting that it says "praise His word", because most of the time we only hear about praising God Himself. I certainly don't think that we should put the Bible above God, that is putting the creation before the Creator. However, God made His word quite perfect and beautiful, and we should praise the fact that it is His instruction book to us. God didn't have to give us the Bible, but the fact that He chose to should be a point of praise! It shows God's generous, loving nature. So, in God, I will praise His word! In God I will put my trust! I don't have the option to fear. What can flesh do to me? Don't be afraid to be creative, Nicole
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Welcome to my series about a few of my favorite memory passages! Today I'm talking about two of my favorite passages to quote. I'm only tackling two today because they each have so much meaning to me, and I know I'll probably write more than I intend to about them. :) While I'm not really going in order of favorites with this series, these two certainly rise to the top of my list of favorites! Be sure to comment below some of YOUR favorite passages, I'm always looking for new ones to memorize. :)
Ephesians 3:14-21(NKJV) "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." There are so many things I love about this passage, I hardly know where to begin! This beautiful prayer occurs right in the middle of the book of Ephesians. It's like Paul just stopped everything to pray for his dear church, and then continued on with his letter. I love the language and writing style of this prayer. Paul prays that we would be able to comprehend the width, length, depth, and height of Christ's love -- but he also acknowledges that Christ's love passes knowledge! We're supposed to know something that passes knowledge, and it's ridiculous and I love it! And I really love Paul's extravagant language toward the end of this passage: "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think..." We can't even comprehend God's ability to do more than we can even think of! God gave us these crazy, wild imaginations, but they can't even imagine all the things He's capable of doing! This passage really puts into perspective how weak and insignificant our minds are compared to God's. And finally, I love how this passage ends with a good, solid Amen. So be it. That's the end, God's just simply that big and you're simply that small. I love quoting this passage as it builds up to the grand climax at the end, and finishes with an Amen, because there is no more to say. 2 Corinthians 6:4-10 (NKJV) "But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." First of all, this passage is just fun to quote. It's just a great big list of who we are and what we do as Christians. I love how it emphasizes the "inconsistencies" we experience when we choose the crazy path of following Christ. Yes, we haves stripes, imprisonments, sleeplessness, needs, distress, etc., but we also have the Holy Spirit, sincere love, the word of truth, and the power of God on our side! The world sees us as deceivers, nobodies, dying, persecuted, sorrowful, and poor, but we know that we are truthful, known by God, living forever, strengthened by God, always rejoicing, and making many rich in the spiritual wealth of Christ. This passage tells us who we are, and that we are not defined by the way the world sees us. Their perception is skewed and twisted, but the way we are in God's eyes is the truth about who we are. This passage can be kind of hard to understand, especially since it seems like just a list of words when you first read through it. In fact, I'm sure I don't know everything there is to know about this passage, and I would LOVE to study it more (perhaps that will be a project for this summer...). But this is what I've gotten out of it so far. Thanks so much for reading, I hope it has blessed you in some little way! And hopefully the next installment of this series will be posted soon. :) Don't be afraid to be creative, Nicole Every Bible Bee-er knows the dreaded question. We pray that no one will ever ask us this, but it always happens eventually.
This is supposed to be a quick, chit-chat kind of question, but for a Bible Bee-er it can quickly turn into a 20-minute devotional study, complete with cross-references and the original Greek words. What is this horrible question?*cue the cringes* "So, what's your favorite Bible verse?" Throughout my years competing in Bible Bee, I would get asked this question in various ways, multiple times during the season. It seemed like each person who asked me got a different answer, depending on what verse popped into my mind first, or what I was feeling that day. Thinking back, I now believe that none of my answers to these people were correct. I made it seem like whichever verse I was currently talking about was my favorite, but in reality, they all were my favorites!! These are the inspired words of God, do you think He wants us to pick favorites among His commandments, examples, sayings of wisdom, visions, and parables, all of which were meant to guide us in our daily life? So, in order to better answer the question, "What is your favorite verse?", I've complied a list of my top 15 favorite passages. Yes, that seems like a lot, but believe me when I say that I had to do some MAJOR thinking and limiting of myself before I got the list down to only 15. I've decided to break this up into several posts, with each post containing 2-3 of the passages, along with a couple sentences about why I love that passage. I plan on preparing the first one to post very soon! I hope you enjoy these posts, and that they spark an interest in studying and memorizing the Bible for yourself! Time spent in the Bible is truly never wasted, and what you learn will come right back to you in the time of your need. Don't be afraid to be creative! Nicole |
AuthorI am a college student who loves being creative and resourceful. I have passions for knitting, subsistence farming, Scripture memory, and anything creative! I hope this blog will prove to be a good creative outlet for me, and inspiring for you! ArchivesCategories |