Week One

Here we are in the week called one,
Journey 2012 has begun,
Join this most amazing study
Reading the Bible with a buddy:)

Week 52

Yes, yes -- it's really true
We have arrived at fifty-two.

I hold the experience very dear
that I journied through the Bible
    with my friends last year.

And now a little spiritual food
as we start this week
    in the book of Jude.

Tuesday will start us out real strong
as we listen to the music
   of Moses' song.

Wednesday, Esther reveals her plight
her courage and plan
  bringing insight

Thursday we'll soak in David's life
giving us an example in
    good times and strife.

Thursday we'll hear about God's above
as we read the story of
  a couple's love.

Friday the future will be more clear
as we search the scriptures
   with courage, not fear.

We'll end our Journey, with the life of Paul
An example of dedication,
For one and all.

I'm hoping we all
Into the Bible will delve
once again together
in two thousand and twelve:)

Love to you all - Linda

week 51

We'll have FUN

With fifty-ONE

That rhymes!!

Week 50

Whooo-hoooo! Made it to the 50s!

Week 49

Down to the last month!!

Week 48

5 more weeks! The end of our Journey is in sight!!

week47

A new week; a fresh start:)

Week 46

Rain rain go away!!!!!

Week 45

Sorry I'm late everyone!  Busy last 24 hours:)

Week 44

Here we go -- into November:)

Week 43

Blessings for the 43rd week:)

Week 42

10 left!

Week 41

Happy Fall:)

Week 40

Wheeeee! We made it to 40:)  12 weeks to go in our journey:)

Week 39

One more week and we're in the 40s!!!

Week 38

There shall be showers of blessings:)

Week 37

There's that little phrase again in 1:3 (at just the right time) God has a plan -- now I need to rest in the "right time" events He has for my life.

I thought it was interesting the emotions that God wants his people to fall into (it's for elders, but I think it applies to each of us): live a blameless life (oops -- not doing so good there), not be arrogant or quick-tempered, not a heavy drinker, violent or dishonest. Enjoy having guests (I wouldn't have thought of that), love what is good (covers a lot), live wisely and be just . . . encourage others. When you read this, well -- it's kindof like the people you enjoy being around:)  Safe people, fun people, good people -- and hopefully, people that will model what God's presence can do, so those emotions keep emoting out!

1:16 Such people claim they know God, but they deny Him by the way they live. (food for thought --- I want to live a life that shows my love to God and my love to others -- easier to say than to do many times)

I was thinking about 2:7 Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching - - I was thinking that was to be studious and intentional with your presentation of the gospel -- don't just through something together. And music can be a presentation of the gospel - so to take the time to think through how to make music work for people is a good thing.

The part on slaves -- I was thinking of the example we had with Joseph; God sure blessed him. But there are countless slaves that were also abused too - - their reward is stated in 2:13.

3:1,2 -- OK, be careful what I say about our government leaders (sigh) sometimes I'm not good at that.

and I love the picture of God washing away my sin - - giving me new life and birth through the Holy Spirit. 3:4,5 Verse 6 talks about His generosity -- Paul has that right, He didn't have to pour anything out to me - - I sure don't deserve it, yet He gave me the gift of the Holy Spirit! That's just awesome.

Week 36

Ooops! a little late getting this up! Hope there are no early morning risers today:)

Week 35

Can you believe it? 18 weeks to go!!! That's amazing -- I don't want it to end; well maybe the Monday section can end -- gotta dig dig dig to make that day work for me!!

Week 34

WEEK THIRTY-FOUR! Can't believe we've come this far:)  What a great way to spend the year 2011!!!

Week 33

Good stuff last week -- on to the new week! Hurry back Chris! Can hardly wait to hear how God spoke to you from the mountains and in His other book:)  Sher, looking forward to hearing how He speaks to you this week to:) We are BLESSED!

Week 32

Here we go again -- had some great posts last week, let's see what this week brings:)

Week 31

Enjoy the week of reading!!

Week 30

WOW! 29 weeks down! 23 to go!! Is that right? my math is a little rusty:)  Anyway, sure having a wonderful time journeying through the Bible with you guys! (all except Monday -- Leviticus is SUCH a challenge!!!)

WEEK 29

A NEW WEEK:)

Week 28

I was just thinking this morning how I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas for this week:):)

Week 27

Yeeeee-haaaaw! Over half way through this amazing book! I'm so blessed to be traveling through it with my friends!!

Week 26

A new week with new insights!

Week 25

OK - I'm ahead of the game on this week, as I read Sunday by mistake on Saturday! Chris -- we'll be rootin' for you on your 1/2 marathon tomorrow!  Hebrews 12:1!!!

Week 24

What a beautiful ending to a God-filled week. He was there, even when we weren't aware:)

Week 23

HEY! Enjoy the SONshine this week:) Sure enjoying it right now!!!

Week 22 second try

OK -- I'm doing somthing wrong -- I can't find anything to click on to enter a post -- other than editing an old post (sigh) I tried clicking on 3 comments, on home, on old post, new post -- not sure what I'm doing wrong --

Anyway -- yeah, I thought it was pretty sick that they got a virgin to warm David up -- what was wrong with one of his wives for the job? or as Sher said -- warm up a blanket.  Seems like some warpage of minds to me!

Poor Israel -- waiting for David to act -- I can just see their heads turning in mass from one possible kinglet to another! Finally David found out what was going on. By the way -- does it seem to you that David had a weakness in holding people accountable? Like his sons whom he never disciplined him (vs 6) or the fact that he left some of the tough calls for Solomon, when David had granted grace?

Week 22

Sounds like Paul held an evangelistic series; had some amazing results - - went on to the next venue, then found out that his new believers had heard a new doctrine from another preacher!

Apparently the new preaches was calling into question Paul's credentials, as he spends quite a bit of time documenting his call to the ministry - - not by man, but by God.  Before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace.  What a blessing for Paul to know that his drive to ministry is driven by God, not himself, not someone else's plan for him - - but GOD:)

I love how the apostles got the big picture: how Peter was heading up the ministry to the Jews, Paul was heading up the ministry to the Gentiles. How they worked together, held each other accountable, kept their focus on His mission - - and not their own spotlight. This says to me that the early church was truely God-centered.

And now on to the law/grace question all over again!  In Galations here, it sounds like the law was done away with 3:24 "The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith."  and "the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised."

But then you line that up with Romans (specifically Rom 3:31) and it is pretty clear that the law wasn't done away with -- that there is still a purpose for it.  Here's my take at this point -- we'll never be able to obey the law, no matter how hard we try - - it's pointless!  God gave us the law so we'd have a clue what his loving universe looks like (love to God/love to man) But, if our focus is on Jesus, and his gift of fulfilling the law in our place; if we claim His gift by faith and ask for the Holy Spirit to guide us, we'll naturally become more and more like Him - - wanting to please Him:)  So the focus needs to be faith in Jesus; abandoning our lives to His will -- and He'll give us those new hearts! YAY!  What a wonderful Savior to do all the work for us! Why do I make it so hard??

When I began to learn to fly -- I took a look at those aeronautical charts -- and my eyes glazed over. There was no way I understood all the circles, the lines, the numbers - - it was overwhelming.  But, as I concentrated on flying -- as I started going on trips that used different parts of the charts, it all started to make sense.  If I'd concentrated on only the chart at the beginning of my learning; I never would have understood how to land a plane, how to use the right rudder, how to land safely at an airport.  But, as I trusted my instructor to give me the parts of the chart piece by piece; I was able to look at the chart with understanding:)  The chart didn't make me a pilot, but the chart pointed how how to safely get where I wanted to be.  I couldn't wad up the chart, just because I thought I could trust my instructor to tell me everything; the chart is what confirmed the truth of what my instructor said!

OK -- enough rambling -- I just kindof got caught up in something that made sense to me:):)

Week 21

Another week! More GREAT posts:)

Week 20

Go technology

Week 19

Here you go:)

Week 18

here we goooooooooo...

Week 17

You gotta love the SUNSHINE today!

Week 16

A week of Sonshine ahead:)

Week 15

A New Adventure lies ahead:)

Week 14

Wishing you all some "awe" moments this week:)

Weak 13

Have a blessed week FULL of adventures with HIM!

Week 12

Week 12 ahead:)

Week 11

All right you bloggers! We're over 1/5 or 20% done with our 2011 Journey through the Bible! I'm havin a BLAST going through with my friends!!

Week 10

Hang in there everyone! If we can make it through the Levite and concubine -- we can make it through ANYTHING!!!  I love traveling through the Bible with friends:)

Week 9

here wii go! (hee hee!)

Week 8

here we go!

Week 7

Here we go:)

Week 6

Here we go everyone! a new week!

Week 5

Can hardly wait to hear all of your comments this week:)

Week 4

Sunday, January 23 on:)

Week 3

Sunday - love these 2 chapters in Romans. In my version (NLT), there are 2 words that jump out at me: underserved privilege. So many times I take the gift of God's grace for granted  - - it's a privilege.

Job 3 & 4

Hey Everyone!  Thanks to Juli Ferguson -- I now know how to make daily blogs!  Yeah! no more scrolling down!

We had a GREAT discussion today on Job 3 & 4 during the Thurs am Bible study!  Looking forward to hearing from all of you on tomorrow's blog!  (I'll have to get up mighty early to post before Chris:):)

Day One - Romans!

Hey ladies!

So begins our journey through the Bible in the year 2011!  I'm very excited to see how this all works - as I've never blogged before:) so any suggestions are MORE than welcome!  I really hope that you guys post some stuff too -- the more people that participate - the more fun it will be!

Starting with Romans was a treat for me, as Derrita W., Juli F., and I just finished plowing through Romans - - so it was fun to read through 2 whole chapters without stopping to check commentaries & stuff!

I appreciated Paul's boldness about not being ashamed of this Good news (vs 16), I rememeber many times where I've been careful not to say too much or how I said something about my religion - - just because I wanted to make sure I'd fit in with the crowd! Not Paul -- man, he's a man on a mission - - but it's because he cared about people -- all people (and you'll see the word "all" many times in Romans as he talks about people).

I also carefully looked at his list in verse 29 -- and, unfortunately - found some things that God is working on in my life (sigh) -- the Christian walk is a Journey of Surrender, that is for sure.

I thought that Chapter 2 had really really good advice for us Christians - - so put the word Christian in place of Jew and put the word unbeliever in the place of Gentile - - it brings it a bit more closer to home!

OK everyone -- it's your turn!  As we travel through week one -- if something sticks out as a new thought or a really important concept - blog away!   Linda