The Lord is my Strength and my Song

Good Morning Everyone!

Just popping in here real quick.  Life just does not slow down, does it!  I have actually been looking forward to the school year this year so our family will stay put for a while and not be traveling--and maybe I can get something done!  But oh yes--how we do tend to forget how very busy we are once homeschool has started up again!  Ah well, it is always nice to at least THINK we are going to have more time at a future date, right? ;)

I wanted to invite all of you to join me in an upcoming memory challenge that I will be participating in.  Now I know what you are thinking--how am I going to fit in Scripture memorization when I was just complaining about how busy we are?  Good point!  And I honestly have to confess that I am not alway successful when I set about memorizing Scripture.  In fact, if I am remembering correctly, I believe that I have only succeeded two out of the last four Bible chapters that I have tried to memorize.  But you know what?  I have decided that two out of four Bible chapters memorized is FANTASTIC!  And besides that, the time I spent meditating on God's Word, and the verses that I did manage to memorize from the chapters that I "failed" on are never wasted.  They are never a failure.  Every minute spent reading God's Word to me is a success!

That being said, this next memory challenge is small and doable--only six verses!  I think I can do that!  And I think YOU can do it too!  We will be memorizing Isaiah chapter 12--I confess that Isaiah is my absolute favorite book in the entire Bible--SO many encouraging promises in there!!!

So spend some time thinking about it.  Better yet, spend some time praying about it!  And one of the most helpful things I have found in Bible memory success for ME is to join in with a memory group. Being part of a memory group is encouraging and helps keep you going when you are feeling like throwing in the towel.  And with the wonders of the internet, if you don't have a Bible memory group near you (I don't!), you can still have the encouragement of one in an on-line community! :)

So go check out this link--and read all about it.  And after you read about it, prepare to join us as we memorize Isaiah 12!
Why Should I Memorize Isaiah 12?

Have a beautiful week with your beautiful Savior!


~Susan

True Freedom

 Happy 4th of July Everyone!

I love celebrating the 4th!  I love everything about it--picnics, family togetherness, parades, and fireworks.  But most of all, I love what it stands for--Freedom.

Freedom is a wonderful thing.  Our country was founded on the foundation of religious freedom.  People for many years have fled to the shores of our great land to escape persecution for their religious beliefs, and they have thrilled to finally see that lamp of Lady Liberty lifted beside our shores.

But in spite of the wonderful freedom to be found here, there is one freedom that our country can not provide--and that is freedom from the grave.

 God is the first one who gave humans freedom.  Way back in the Garden of Eden, He gave His newly created Adam and Eve freedom to choose.  Freedom to choose to obey Him--or to listen to the deceiver.  They were not created as robots who could not help but follow the programming.  Genesis 2:16 & 17 tells us "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die."

We know what happened next.  And it's not pretty.  They disobeyed, and now they had a new freedom--the freedom to die.

But that's not the end of the story!  Our rescue is coming!  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."  John 3:16 & 17

And if you skip to the back of the book, the best is yet to come!

"I saw the Holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.' " Revelation 21:2-4

No more death.

At last!  After disobedience and "earning" the right to die, we will be rescued by our Savior.  Rescued from this world of sin.  Rescued from tears and mourning and crying and pain.  Rescued from the grave.

One year ago today, my dear friend lost her son to his battle with cancer.  He was young--younger than my own son.  And for now, he sleeps in the grave.  But his Jesus is coming back for him!

"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you!  See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. . . "  Isaiah 49:15 & 16

For now, sleep dear Jethenro.  Your rescuer is coming--and He brings with Him true freedom!

How to Know Your Calling

Good Morning Everyone!

Have you ever wondered how you are supposed to know what your calling is?  What God is calling YOU to do with your life?

The Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:10 that God planned ahead of time what we were supposed to do.  It reads like this:
     "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

Today I would like to share with you a very short video--just five minutes long.  This video is made by Christian writer Kim Cash Tate.  She talks fast and packs a LOT into those five minutes, so fasten your seatbelt because here we go!

Your Calling in Christ

Wasn't that video good?  I had to keep pausing it as I watched, simply so I could take notes and write down the list of things Kim was sharing!

I also found in my study this morning a quote I wanted to share with you--this is by E.G.White and is found in the book "Christ's Object Lessons" p. 402:

     "It is not the length of time we labor but our willingness and fidelity in the work that makes it acceptable to God.  In all our service a full surrender of self is demanded.  The smallest duty done in sincerity and self-forgetfulness is more pleasing to God than the greatest work when marred with self seeking.  He looks to see how much of the spirit of Christ we cherish, and how much of the likeness of Christ our work reveals, He regards more the love and faithfulness with which we work than the amount we do."

This is my prayer today.  That even in the smallest duty, that I would please God.

Blessings on you today as you walk with your beautiful Jesus!

~Susan

Bible Journals--Reading Through the New Testament

My Matthew 11--Jesus promises to carry my burdens!

Hi Everyone!

I thought I would share an idea we are doing in our home school recently, just in case it is a good fit for anyone else out there. . . 

With the coming of the New Year, it is always a good opportunity to have a little re-evaluation of your home school.  Just a time of reflection of what is working, what is not, and what perhaps you want to do more of or even less of.

One thing that always stands out to me when I evaluate our home school, is that my ultimate goal is to lead my children to Christ.  Yes, I know--I cannot choose Christ for them.  If I could, I would, trust me!  :)  But while it will be up to them whether or not they choose to follow Jesus with their lives, while they are still living under my influence I feel strongly that I need to teach them about Him.  

And what better way to learn of Him, than straight from His Word?

I read somewhere recently that there were just 260 chapters in the New Testament, and there are 262 week days in a year.  So if a parent read with their child just one chapter per day during the week, you could read your way through the entire New Testament during the course of a year and still have two days "extra" for make up days.  That thought really struck me.  I have read the entire Bible through myself several times, but I have never read through the Bible with my child.  Of course, the goal is not to read THROUGH the Bible--the goal is to learn of HIM through the Bible.  Finishing the last page is not the reward, but knowing Him is.

With this mulling around in my mind, I thought about how I could apply this into our lives, into our home school.  And as I thought about it, I became convicted that I needed to do this, and the key would be doing it WITH our daughter, not as another assignment for her to do by herself.  To read through the New Testament together, discussing and sharing as we went along.  

So God gave me a plan.  It is simple, but I don't know but sometimes the very best plans ARE the simple ones.  And it has been such a blessing to me even in this short time that I would not hesitate to recommend this idea even to adults just doing it by themselves, if you don't happen to have a child handy! ;)  And it does not matter that we are a ways into the New Year already--we did not start at the beginning of January because I had not even read about this idea until the month had already started.  Remember that the goal is to get to know Jesus, not to finish by a certain date.  For materials all you need is a notebook of some type--don't worry about being fancy, we are just using a spiral notebook--and your Bible. :)

So here's the plan:

1)  Read through a chapter together--for my daughter and I, we are actually reading the chapter and at the same time listening to it on the dramatized Bible, so we are reading AND hearing.  I love the dramatized Bible!  We listen using a free Bible Gateway app.

2)  Draw a picture from the chapter.  This can be anything you want--either something literally from the chapter, or something that the chapter made you think of that is more of an application of what that chapter is talking about.  And yes--stick figures are just fine!!!!  Even for adults!

3)  Write a verse.  Choose any verse from the chapter--the one that speaks most to your heart or stands out the most to you.  Our verses that we write end up in a way being the caption for whatever picture we draw.

4)  Write something that you learned from that chapter.  This might not be a "something new that you didn't know before" kind of thing.  Just anything that that chapter is trying to teach.  The big picture summary, the thing that God speaks to you about.

5)  Write a question about that chapter.  Sometimes my daughter will have very literal questions such as "How many 10 year olds were there in the crowd?"  But it is also a good time to really apply this chapter to your life and give yourself a question to think about.

And there you have it--our little Bible Journal plan.  I am being blessed by doing this, and I love to see our daughter reading and learning how to think about and apply the Bible to her own life.

An example of Matthew 13 from my daughter's Bible Journal, and the same chapter from mine.  This time we choose different verses to illustrate.  Sometimes we end up choosing the same verse.  Always we share when we are finished with our page.

My daughter's Matthew chapter 1.  I love how she illustrated Isaiah giving the prophecy!

My daughter's Matthew 4.  I love her "Something Learned"--that the devil knows the Bible.  Shouldn't WE study and learn the Bible as well?

Well, that's it for our Bible Journals.  I hope you will find this idea encouraging to get into our Special Love Letter.  It will be a blessing to you if you do--God has promised!

~Susan

Thought for the Day

A thought for today--from some of my Bible study this morning:

"When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God.  He bids us, 'Be still, and know that I am God.'"
---Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 58

A simple thought--quietness.  But how often it is difficult to find!

Pausing. Stopping.  Sitting.  Being.  Listening to God's voice.

May you have quietness today, and hear Him speaking to you.

~Susan