2024 Memory Verses

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.