2024 Memory Verses
It’s November again, and we will be celebrating Thanksgiving again in almost 4 weeks. I believe that the basis for true thankfulness is a recognition of the faithfulness of God. God has made many promises to those who have believed in the salvation freely given to them through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. The greatest of those promises, in my opinion, is the promise of spending eternity with Jesus Christ in Heaven. Whatever God promises, He will do. If it hasn’t been done yet, it will be. You can trust in that because God is faithful. Our first memory verse for November 2024 reminds us of that.
Lamentations 3:22-23 - It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
Our second memory verse reminds us to continually praise God and give Him thanks.
Hebrews 13:15 - By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
Our memory verses for October 2024 both deal with faith. True saving faith is obviously critical for anyone who wants to spend eternity in Heaven. That faith needs to be an unwavering belief that I am a sinner, that Jesus Christ paid the price for forgiveness of my sins (past, present, and future), and that I have accepted that free gift of salvation that Jesus provided for me. There is nothing I can do to earn salvation. I just need to fully and solely trust Jesus Christ for it.
Although faith is invisible, the results of faith should be seen in how I live each day. We can not possibly please God without believing in Him and the salvation He freely provides to us by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:6 - But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Our memory verses for September of 2024 deal with our relationship with Christ and the visible results of that relationship. Our first memory verse teaches us that we are changed when we accept the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary as our only way of salvation. We become “a new creature” that is “IN Christ”.
2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Once we are “IN Christ”, we need to seek to serve Him faithfully and constantly. Our good works do not save us, but they do show others that we have been saved and have changed. In this month when we celebrate Labor Day, let us remember that our Labor as Christians is to let the light of Christ shine through us.
Matthew 5:16 - Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Our first memory verse for August of 2024 reminds us that we need to live in such a way that those people around us realize that we are different from others they see each day. Our faith in Jesus Christ needs to impact how we live and that should be obvious to those who see how we live. Whatever good works that we do should be done for the glory of God, and, hopefully, those that see those good works will glorify Him also.
Matthew 5:16 - Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Sometimes, probably often, we struggle with what to do. We just can’t figure out what the right thing to do is. We need wisdom. The true source of wisdom is God, and true wisdom is based on His Word. What we need to do is ask Him. Our second memory verse tells us that.
James 1:5 - If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
In the United States, on July the 4th, we celebrate our independence, our freedom, our liberty. Since 1776, the citizens of this country have been free from the domination of other countries, and that is certainly worth celebrating. We should never take the freedoms, the liberty that we have in the U.S. for granted. However, there are greater freedoms and a greater liberty that you have, if you have accepted the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary as your ONLY means of salvation. Our first memory verse for July of 2024 teaches that truth.
2 Corinthians 3:17 - Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
The salvation freely given us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the central truth of the Bible. The second memory verse for July 2024 teaches that if you really want to be free, believe and accept that truth.
John 8:32 - And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Our memory verses for June of 2024 teach about the way of life that God expects us to live. We live in an evil time. Isaiah 5:20 says “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil;” Don’t get caught up in those practices in today’s world. Be an example of a Godly life to those that are around you and see how you live. God will be your "sun and shield" if you walk circumspectly and uprightly.
Ephesians 5:15-16 - See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Psalm 84:11 - For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
I once heard someone compare the words we say to a tube of toothpaste. Once you let the toothpaste out of the tube, you can’t put it back. It is the same with our words. Once we say them, we can’t take them back. We can apologize for what we say, but the words are still out there. The person (or persons) who heard them might have trouble forgetting what we said. God wants us to be a good listener, not prone to speak too much or to speak harshly. Our first memory verse for May of 2024 reminds us of that.
James 1:19 - Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
Our second memory verse reminds us that God wants our words, and even our thoughts, to please Him. That’s a high standard but one for which we need to strive.
Psalm 19:14 - Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer
Although Easter was actually in March, it was the very last day of March. So, our memory verses for April of 2024 both deal with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The Pastor of the church we attended on Easter Sunday entitled his message, "The Essential Resurrection". His three main points were that the Resurrection is essential to the Christian Faith, Life, and Hope. It is perhaps somewhat easy to take the Resurrection for granted. Sure Christ rose from the dead, but what if He didn't? What if He died on the cross and was buried, but that was the end of the story? Our first memory verses for April of 2024 deal with that question.
1 Corinthians 15:13-14 - But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 14 - And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
In fact, verse 17 says that the result of no Resurrection would be that "ye are yet in your sins." But, as 1 Corinthians 15 shows, Christ WAS raised from the dead to live forever more. There were over 500 witnesses of this truth. Christ was the first to be raised from the dead and never die again. If you accept that His sacrificial death on the cross paid the price for your sins, then you are saved and will be raised from the dead to live forever in Heaven with the Lord. Our second memory verses for April tell us of that truth.
1 Corinthians 15:22-23 - For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 - But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
The Resurrection truly is essential to the truth of salvation. The Pastor, near the end of his Easter message, said he read once that "If there is NO Resurrection, then everything else is meaningless" and, "If the Resurrection IS true, everything else is meaningless." If you want to be saved and spend eternity in Heaven, you need to believe that "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:" (1 Cor 15:3-4).
Have you ever heard the word “prepper”? It has probably been around for a long time, but became more commonly used in the mid to late 1990’s, just before what is often referred to as Y2K (the year 2000). We are again seeing a lot of “prepper” type ads and books today warning us to prepare for disasters to come. I must confess that I am about 5% “prepper”! It certainly is true that we live in a turbulent world, and there certainly are a lot of things that might threaten life as we know it today. However, I believe that the most important preparation that anyone can make for the future is to come to faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary as our ONLY means of salvation, our only way to spend eternity in Heaven. As Pastor Woodruff said in a recent sermon, let us focus on the eternal, not the temporal.
Our 2 memory verses for March of 2024 remind us of that truth! Our victory is in Christ!
2 Timothy 1:12 - For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
1 Corinthians 15:57 - But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is hard to believe that it is February already! In just a couple of weeks it will be Valentine’s Day. Love is so critical in the life of every born again Christian. We need to love God, and show that love every day in how we live our lives. Pastor Woodruff has suggested a theme for this year. “Love God and others more, in 2024.” Our first memory verse, actually 2 verses, for February 2024 describes the kind of love we should have for God and others.
Mark 12:30-31 - And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
If you are married, the most important “other” in your life is your spouse. The second memory verse for February 2024 gives the husband the ultimate standard of love for his wife.
Ephesians 5:25 - Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
That is how much God loves us, so much that He, through His Son Jesus Christ, gave His life for us. That is real love. God set the bar high, higher than any frail, sinful human being can meet. However, we need to strive for that kind of love every moment of every day.
Happy New Year! Do you realize that there are groups of people that are watching what you do every day? Our first memory verse for January 2024, Hebrews 12:1, refers to “a great cloud of witnesses.” Coming right after Chapter 11, which is often referred to as the “Hall of Faith” because it is filled with a list of saints that stood firm for the faith, the writer of Hebrews is likely referring to those saints here in this verse. From Heaven, they evidently can see what we do each day. However, there are others that are watching also, only from the Earth. I think that unbelievers are closely watching those that they know, who claim to be Christians. Some of them are trying to figure out why you believe what you do and why you live the way you do. Some are more cynical and are looking to find faults in your life so that they can call you a hypocrite. This should help challenge us to be diligent in “laying aside” anything that damages our Christian testimony (weights and sin), and to “run with patience the race that is set before us.” If we do that, we will please God and the “cloud of witnesses” in Heaven and frustrate the Earthly witnesses who seek to find hypocrisy in our lives.
Hebrews 12:1 - Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Our second memory verse tells us to get our priorities straight. Seek God first. Seek to show the righteousness of God in your life. When you do that, God will help you live right and will bless your life. It may not be with riches, but the blessing of God is better than any material thing.
Matthew 6:33 - But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.