Bible study

Y’all….We made it! Christmas is behind us & 2016 is before us. Looking back we had an eventful year. From a grandbaby turning 1 year old, to news of a new grandbaby, to my sweet E.A.’s journey to getting married, Miss Neenee turning 12, her playing the trumpet in the band & lots of other wonderful things . We clearly have been blessed beyond measure. And one thing is sure. Time is not slowing down for anyone.

Year end is a time of reflection. However, it is also a time for planning & looking forward to the new year & all it has to hold. This is a perfect time to take inventory of things in your life. It’s also a time to make goals & focus on making the next year the best one yet.

Today, I want us to focus on our spiritual life & doing some cleaning out & dusting off. Here are some noteworthy things to focus on this year:

Prayer-Melanie over at Southern Melle has made a 31 day scripture writing challenge on prayer. I emailed her & asked could I use her scripture challenge for all of us. And y’all, she said yes & I was clearly delighted! What an awesome way to start the year, or anytime you want to focus on prayer.
Reading your Bible– Ok, so Melanie at Southern Melle is on my radar today! She also has made a weekly Bible reading plan for 2016. I love this because I have tried to do the daily Bible reading before. Then, I would get behind, never to catch up. And I would just quit. I am super excited about this one. It will be a better fit for me.
Applying the Word to our lives– The thing that comes to mind first are 3 “let us” verses.

Hebrews 10:22-24 let us draw near with a true heart…

Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope…

Let us consider one another…

Also, what about your monetary giving? (II Corinthians 9:7) I kid you not, when I say, when I am giving like I should, to the church, things just seem to go a lot better for me as a whole. I have no great explanation for that except when you obey God, you have His favor. And who doesn’t want that?

4. Finding your talents & sharing them– Do you love children? Teach a Bible class. Are you good at organizing? Be on a VBS committee. Do you like to cook? Sign up for a food team. Do you enjoy visiting with others? Start going to the nursing homes. Are you an encourager? Send cards to the sick & shut in. There are so many things at our church to be involved in. You can just about bet anything you enjoy or excel in, you will find a group of people already doing that same thing. You can do these things on your own, with your own family, as well. Just be involved & let your light shine. (Matthew 5:16)

5. Be more thankful. You just don’t know how the Lord will work in your life if you become immensely grateful. You get so much more. You become humble. You start to see that nothing is a sure thing. You begin to see how much you need the Lord. You have the reassurance you are not in this life thing on your own. You have Jesus to turn to & depend on for your every want & need. From there you will get the peace that you have no idea where or how it comes to you, it just does. (Philippians 4:7) And that’s a beautiful way to live.

6. Have faith. That sounds pretty easy. But is it? As soon as something bad happens we are questioning God like nobody’s business. Seriously though, God takes care of us in ways we don’t even know or understand. Just trust. No matter what. No questions asked. (Matthew 17:20)

Thank you for coming by & visiting with me today. Y’all just don’t know how much you bless my heart. Until next time, I have to be going because I should be washing clothes.

**A BIG ‘ol thank you to Melanie from Southern Melle for so graciously letting me use her ideas. Go on over & visit her. She would love to have you.

photo credits: http://www.crosscards.com, http://www.southernmelle.com

Does anyone besides me live in the land of convenience? We schedule everything, to our leisure. My Mamaw used to wash clothes on Tuesdays. Every Tuesday, she would go out to the cellar & crank up that old washing machine. It was one of the old ones that had the wringer you put the clothes in. Similar to this one.

Now, I can load a ton of clothes in my high efficiency washer & schedule when I want it to wash. It can wash right then. Or I can schedule it for 3hours or 6 hours to commence to getting our clothes clean. Convenience. Then, there is my dishwasher. My Mamaw did not have a dishwasher. She hand washed everything that passed through her sink. Right then. There was ne’er a dirty dish in her sink. My dishwasher will allow you to schedule the washing of the china (which is actually Corelle), at 3 or 6 hours. What ever is best for me, is just fine with the dishwasher.

There are some things that we must not do out of convenience or leisure. Bible reading is one of them. Not saying reading the Bible in your leisure time is not a great way to spend your time. Just saying it should be a priority, not something you leave to do if you have time. Reading the Bible is a wonderful way of having your faith strengthened. Prayer is our avenue we use to talk to the Lord. And he wants to hear from us & what we have to say. The Bible is the Lord talking back to you. What kind of relationship would you have with someone if you were the one doing the talking all the time? You never took time to listen to what the other person had to say. That’s why I believe it is so important to make time to listen to the Lord daily. We should be hungry for his word. Not, something we just check off our daily list of to dos.

II Timothy 2:15

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (KJV)

II Peter 1:4

⁴by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

What kind of promises are these that Peter talks about? If we don’t read our Bibles, then, we won’t ever know.

Satan tries to

Limit your Bible Study

Because he knows your

Bible study will

Limit him

Melanie over at Only a Breath, has begun a faith series about reading the Bible. It starts today. Go on over & see what she has to share about Bible reading. I will be joining her for this wonderful series. I hope you will make a little time to be with us.

We had a funny thing happen to us Sunday night. We attended church at a sister church. The churches in our area sponsor Campaign for Christ. Which is like an area wide meeting or revival . The preacher spoke about faith. He spoke about how to have faith, having faith, & how faith works in our lives. It was a wonderful night. There was 1,013 folks in attendance. It was a great night. (Did I already say that?) We really enjoyed ourselves. Afterwards, Miss Neenee suggested we stop for ice cream. I placed our order & waited for the deliciousness to arrive. After awhile, the carhop came out to the car. Of course we were excited to see her. She came bearing sundaes! As I was handing the treats to my daughters, I noticed her name tag. You know what her name was? Faith. Coincidence? I think not.

I hope you all are having a wonderful week. My past weekend was full of little boys playing, rippin’ & rompin’. We made a trip to see the ducks & to the park. Even though there was a fare amount of ballin’ & squallin’ their eyes out when we were leaving. Fun was had by all. (Hey, sometimes little kids don’t want good times to end.) And by Monday, I was going to work to rest. Thank the Lord for sweet grandbabies. Amen. Until we go on more adventures, I have to be going, because I should be washing clothes.