Standing Up For Your Faith and Week 4 of Challenge

I am behind on my memorizing challenge in picking new verses to memorize. I hope everyone has been able to memorize along with me. I have picked verses this week to go along with something that happened to my Dad the other day at a restaurant. Before we get to that let's recap the last three weeks.

Wk 1:
Ps. 119:11
Matt. 22:37
Wk 2:
Prov. 3:5-6
John 3:16-18
Wk 3:
Ps 23:1-6
Isaiah 41:10

First I must say I come from a family who loves God and has taught us to know and love God. My Mom and Dad are Christians and they raised us setting a good example as Christians. Dad and Mom the other day sat down at a restaurant to eat and when their food came my Dad prayed over their meal. They are not flamboyant, they quietly hold hands and Dad or Mom says the prayer.  On this occasion though, at the table next to them, a gentleman told my Dad that he couldn't  pray and to stop. Dad said the man had been drinking to much he thought, but still he told Dad to stop. My Dad politely told him to mind his own business, but the man continued to blame Christians for all his troubles. Dad finally told him to mind his own business and he was sorry the man didn't know Christ. The man stopped at that and my parents prayed and ate their meal. My Dad and Mom were not ashamed of their faith and did not cower when accosted for that faith, and that is the point to these verses I decided to memorize this week, that I am not ashamed of my God and my faith. I will not cower when persecuted. It would have been probably easier for my Dad to just stop with out praying but that would be denying the importance of his love for God and his Faith. What would you have done? I would hope I would have done the same as my Dad and maybe even told the man I would pray for him. I think this man does need prayer and I hope Dad has been praying for him. We are to love everyone even those who persecute us, and the best way is to pray that they come to know the love of God and hopefully we can be the one to show them that love.

The verses for this week are:

Rom. 16:1 NIV "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile."

Phil 1:21 KJV " For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

Matt. 5:10 KJV "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Hope you are still memorizing the Word with me. Let me know how it is going for you.

Wk 2 of Challenge New Verses and Book Review

This is week two of the memorizing the Word Challenge. Week one went well for me. Week one's verses were
Ps. 119:11
Matt. 22:37
I hope you are memorizing these with me. If you have any suggestions of verses to memorize let me know in the comments.

This weeks verses are ones that some might already know but are imporant to remember in our walk with God.
Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV 5" Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
John 3:16-18 KJV "16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.  18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."



These verses explain how much God loves us and has made away to Him through His son Jesus Christ. Then we also see that if God walks with us daily and all we have to do is trust Him and lean on Him and he will direct our way. He makes a promise that if we trust and lean on Him then he will direct us in our walk through life. Simple right. Well it is simple but we being who we are don't always do this. Trust is easy when everything is going good, but we stumble sometimes when life gets hard. We try to say we are trusting but also try to figure things out on our own. We need to memorize this verse so that when things come up and we stumble we can recall this verse and follow it. God knows we are human and will fail sometimes and the other verses tell us how He has already made away to be forgiven through Jesus all we have to do is believe and give our hearts to Him.

I hope you will continue the challenge this week and memorize these verses with me.

I wanted to include a book review of a book that I love and think is great for studying.

Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan
The book talks about how awesome it is that God who made everything loves us and loves us enough to give up his precious Son for us. He helps us to understand more about God and his love.  You need to read this book it will change you in a positive way. I recommend that everyone read and study this book, it brings you closer to God and helps you grow in your faith.

Leave a comment and let me know if you are memorizing the verses and how it is going. Also leave a comment on what you think of this book. If you have any suggestions of books let me know also.

New Challenge

I have been thinking for awhile that I really need to get back to memorizing Bible verses. I kept telling myself my memory isn't what it use to be and I don't know if I can remember the verses now like I did when I was younger. Really if you think about it we remember all sorts of things that are really useless, like what happened last night on our favorite TV shows.  Sometimes I think we fill our minds with the wrong things. We need to know God's word and as the Bible says to hide it in our hearts. "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." Psalm 119: 11 KJV Our hearts and minds should be on God and knowing his word helps us grow in our walk with him. I read in a book one time, when I was a kid, that we should memorize God's word so that if they ever took our Bibles from us we would still have his word with us. I thought at the time that they would never take the Bible from us but now as I get older I am not so sure. I want to delve into God's word with a renewed passion and let God speak to me through his word. I also am challenging myself to memorize at least two verses a week. As Christians we need to start arming ourselves to be able to stand up for our faith and our God.

My two verses for this week are Psalm 119: 11 and Matthew 22:37

"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." Psalm 119: 11 KJV

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind Matthew 22: 37 KJV

I hope you will join me in this challenge. Let me know if you are going to try and learn and memorize along with me.