John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
The Fighter Verse of the week. See their website and commentary here: http://fighterverses.com/set-4-core-esv/week-47/
Scripture memorization is an important key to maturing in the faith. It is also an essential ingredient for meditation on the Scriptures since it allows us to have God’s Word readily available in our minds for mulling over while we are driving or doing other things where we can’t have an open Bible in front of us.
One of the best resources for Scripture memorization in this technological age is the Fighter Verses Program developed in conjunction with Desiring God Ministries. They provide apps for both iPhone and Android platforms.
There is a basic 5 year program with one verse a week for five years. Each week, you are notified through your app that a new verse is ready for the coming week. Here is their description of this program:
The Fighter Verses focus on 1) the character and worth of our great God, 2) battling against our fleshly desires, and 3) the hope of the Gospel. This five-year memory program is a revision of the original program (now called the Legacy Set), and includes many verses from the original set as well as many new verses.
Their extended program features longer passages still in a 5 year format. Here is their description:
The Extended Memory Set is designed for those who wish to memorize longer passages of Scripture. Still structured as a five-year program, this set will walk you through memorizing Philippians, James, Romans 5-8, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and one year of larger passages from various books of the Bible that are considered key to the life of faith.
If you would like to get started in this program, here is the link: http://fighterverses.com
Here is a link to my website where I provide some other memory programs that are available. http://www.faithful-men.org/p/resources-memorization.html
Spirit of God, Descend Upon my Heart by George Croly
1. Spirit of God, descend upon my heart; wean it from earth; through all its pulses move; stoop to my weakness, mighty as thou art, and make me love thee as I ought to love. 2. I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies, no sudden rending of the veil of clay, no angel visitant, no opening skies; but take the dimness of my soul away. 3. Has thou not bid me love thee, God and King? All, all thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind. I see thy cross; there teach my heart to cling. O let me seek thee, and O let me find. 4. Teach me to feel that thou art always nigh; teach me the struggles of the soul to bear. To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh, teach me the patience of unanswered prayer. 5. Teach me to love thee as thine angels love, one holy passion filling all my frame; the kindling of the heaven-descended Dove, my heart an altar, and thy love the flame.
“For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” (Colossians 1:19–20, NKJV)
Jesus Christ is the fullness of God. It pleased the Father that all fullness should abide in him. And then there is the need for reconciliation. One of Jesus Christ’s missions is to reconcile all things to God. This includes both the things that are on earth and the things that are in heaven. And he accomplished this reconciliation through the blood that he shed on the cross. Why is there need for reconciliation? Because when sin entered the universe and ultimately the world and mankind, a great chasm was opened that separated us from God. Jesus Christ bridges that chasm and reconciles all things to God. God takes back from Satan that which he had stolen from God in the first place. And now there is peace through the blood of his cross.