Memorize a Bible Verse a Week in 2025

Posted on December 20, 2024 by billbushauthor

Want a great New Year’s resolution? I invite you to join me in memorizing one Bible verse a week in 2025.

The 52 verses we will study and memorize will:

  • Help you understand the Bible better.
  • Give you confidence in your Biblical understanding.
  • Make you more effective in your walk with Christ

The verses have been chosen to provide a broad understanding of what the Bible teaches.

  • We’ll learn: The Golden Rule, the Great Commission, and the Lord’s Prayer.
  • We’ll gain a biblical understanding on topics like creation, prophecy, the resurrection, racism, money, and gaining grit.
  • We’ll answer questions such as: What does it take to be a great leader? Is there proof the Jesus is God’s Son? How can I be happy? Can Christians lose their salvation?

By signing up to the email newsletter, you will receive a verse a week, along with a short explanation/devotional about the verse to provide a brief context and understanding. From there, you can memorize the verse during the week, meditate on it daily, and do a deeper study on the verses that intrigue you the most. The amount of time you put into this each week is up to you, but know you are joining dozens of other people on this journey.

To sign up for the weekly email and to receive a list of the 52 verses we’ll be memorizing, go to the website billbushauthor.com, choose One Minute Bible Blast from the top menu, then click on the “Sign up here” link in the center of the page.

Direct link to signing up.

Direct link to the 52 verses.

After you sign up, you’ll need to confirm, so if you don’t receive an email, make sure to check your spam folder in case your email service filters it out. Then please mark it as “not spam” so it’s visible each week.

If you have any questions now or during the year, shoot me an email at billbushauthor@gmail.com, or reply to any of the newsletter emails.

Thank you! I can’t wait to see what God does in each of our lives as we hide His Word in our hearts (Psalm 119).

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Watch for Where God is Working

Posted on December 15, 2024 by billbushauthor

Positive/Biblical thoughts help us live healthy, godly lives while negative/unbiblical thoughts create stress and lead to the majority of our mental, physical, and behavioral health problems. Some estimates range from 75 to 90 percent of our illnesses come from our thought life.

In John 5:17 and 19, Jesus says, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working…the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

To think positively/biblically, we need to see how God is constantly working all around us. The problem is that we often don’t recognize what He’s doing. We aren’t paying attention.

And we don’t help create an atmosphere where He is honored.

In his book, Holy Moments, Matthew Kelly describes a Holy Moment this way: “A Holy Moment is a single moment in which you open yourself to God. You make yourself available to Him. You set aside personal preference and self-interest, and for one moment you do what you prayerfully believe God is calling you to do.”

Recognizing God’s work around us includes two steps: Watching and participating.

Jesus said that God is always at work, and He saw God in action and joined Him. If you’re not seeing God at work, you’re simply not paying attention.

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Get a Grip on the Bible

Posted on December 8, 2024 by billbushauthor

Positive/Biblical thoughts help us live healthy, godly lives while negative/unbiblical thoughts create stress and lead to the majority of our mental, physical, and behavioral health problems. Some estimates range from 75 to 90 percent of our illnesses come from our thought life.

In Deuteronomy 6:6-9, God tells His people, “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

In other words, God was telling the Israelites that it takes strong commitment and intense focus to follow and obey Him. We take His Word casually to our own detriment.

A helpful way to learn the Bible is to engage with it in five ways: hear, read, study, meditate, and memorize the Bible.

When Satan approached Eve, he asked her, “Did God really say?” When he tempted the Messiah by quoting Scripture, Jesus quoted Scripture back. Eve sinned. Jesus resisted.

If hear, read, study, meditate, and memorize were each one finger of our grip on the Scriptures, then how many of those digits do you want holding on when Satan comes to you and asks, “Did God really say?”

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I am who God says I am

Posted on December 1, 2024 by billbushauthor

Positive/Biblical thoughts help us live healthy, godly lives while negative/unbiblical thoughts create stress and lead to the majority of our mental, physical, and behavioral health problems. Some estimates range from 75 to 90 percent of our illnesses come from our thought life.

As you think, it is important to make a distinction between who you truly are—the real, multifaceted, unique you—and the person you have become through toxic choices.

Isaiah 43:1b says, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine!”

Ephesians 1:4 says, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”

One way to think godly is to believe the truth that you are who God says you are. No matter what you’ve done, no matter what others have said about you, and no matter what negative thoughts you have about yourself, God says He chose you before He created the world, He called you by name, and you are His.

Believe it!

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Whatever You Think

Posted on November 24, 2024 by billbushauthor

What we say and do are based on what we have already built into our minds.

Scientists can measure brain activity in our subconscious 7 to 10 seconds before we make a decision. This is an indicator that often we are not making a choice based on our conscious thinking. That’s important because it means that whatever we put into our mind days, weeks, and years prior to making a decision will influence and maybe even dictate our actions.

Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

This is another example of how technological advances support what Scripture says.

If you want to live your best life, if you want to think and act like God wants you to, then following the prescription of Philippians 4:8 is your tool to wire your brain for success.

Because what we say and what we do are based on what we have already built into our minds.

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Mind Over Matter

Posted on November 17, 2024 by billbushauthor

When God created our world, He said all that He created was good. When He created humans, He did so in His image and said we were very good.

Because we were made in God’s image, our God-wired default is love. But we have a choice—live in love or fear.

2 Timothy 1:7 says, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

The choice is ours.

We can’t always control the events and circumstances of life, but we can always control how we think and react.

Scientists can now map how our brains change moment by moment, developing pathways that either improve or hinder our future selves. Thinking activates genes and affects how chemicals, proteins, and the wiring of our brains change and function.

Positive/Biblical thoughts help us live healthy, godly lives while negative/unbiblical thoughts create stress and lead to the majority of our mental, physical, and behavioral health problems. Some estimates range from 75 to 90 percent of our illnesses come from our thought life.

So choose carefully, think positively, and react godly because your mind controls your body, not the other way around.

And because you were designed to live in power, love, and a sound mind, not in fear.

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Our Hearts Are Changing

Posted on November 10, 2024 by billbushauthor

When you were 15, did you ever look back at your ten-year-old self and think you had been immature and ignorant? Did you do the same thing at the age of 20 about your 15-year-old self?

Most of us look back at our younger versions and can see how we’ve grown, matured, and changed.

Because your heart is ever-changing, it’s a bad idea to “follow” it. What it means to “follow your heart,” or follow your emotions or follow your inner-desires looks different at each stage in life. Honestly, following your heart can look different depending on the day, your mood, or even what you’ve eaten.

In order to live godly, consistent lives, we need new hearts, as we’ve discussed in previous blasts, and we need to surrender our hearts and our will to God.

1 Peter 3:15 says, “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…”

Honor Christ as Lord. Then, and only then, can you trust what your heart says.

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Our Hearts Are Conflicted

Posted on November 3, 2024 by billbushauthor

We want to follow our hearts, but our hearts give us mixed signals. Many people ignore the conflicting desires and simply follow their emotions. We can’t do that as believers.

As followers of Christ, we wrestle with the desires of our flesh and the desires of our spirit. We want to do what God wants us to do, but we also are drawn to do things we shouldn’t. Our hearts want both.

Jesus says in Matthew 22:37, “…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

Loving God with all of our heart doesn’t come naturally. It’s a decision that demands hard work.

Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Loving God and having a pure heart are choices we make, but they aren’t things we can do on our own. We need God’s help, because, as we saw in a previous One Minute Bible Blast, our hearts are deceitful and wicked (Jeremiah 17:9).

David understood this and cried out to God in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (NIV)

Only when we can honestly say to God, “Your will be done,” and only then, will Psalm 37:4 become a reality in our lives: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

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Our Hearts Are Corrupt

Posted on October 27, 2024 by billbushauthor

They have a good heart. It’s a quaint saying, but it isn’t Biblically accurate.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9.

Jesus confirms the fact that our hearts, our inner-most being, are corrupt, in Matthew 15:18-20: “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person…”

It’s easy to point out where others sin yet miss our own shortcomings because we deceive ourselves. Or more accurately, we follow our hearts, which are corrupt and lying to us.

All of us battle the desire to do things we ought not do.

Proverbs 21:2 says, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.”

The solution? A new heart.

Ezekiel 36:26 says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (See also Ezekiel 11:19; 18:31)

You may have a good heart compared to someone else. But you don’t have a good heart. Not unless God has given you a new one.

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DO NOT Follow Your Heart!

Posted on October 20, 2024 by billbushauthor

Follow your heart. That’s a great line in a story but terrible advice for real life.

Why? Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (NIV)

Following our hearts often leads to self-destruction because we don’t realize that our hearts are corrupt. We all want to do things we ought not do.

This leads to our hearts being conflicted.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” (ESV)

The Bible is clear that we are constantly in a war between our spirit and our flesh—taking up the cross to follow Christ while wanting to indulge in our self-centered desires. Follow Jesus or follow our hearts.

Plus, our hearts are ever-changing. Following your heart may look different today than it will a year from now, a week from now, or even tomorrow.

The solution is found in Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (NIV)

We should guard our heart, not follow it.

The next three weeks we’ll look at how our hearts are corrupt, conflicted, and changing.

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