Planning to read through the Bible this year using YouVersion.com. I love the fact that it is available online and also on my iPhone. Email me if you’d like to join me. It would be great to have some folks to journey with this year through the Bible.
Sweet! I finally figured out how to blog from my iPhone. This will be a huge help in my quest to be a more consistent blogger in 2009!
I am looking forward to catching up on some reading the next several days while we are travelling and enjoying some down time hanging with our families. Matt Willmington recommended “Leading from the Second Chair“. Since that is the chair I currently find myself in…I am going to check it out.
Check back here for some thoughts from the book over the next few days.
**Please note that we would never dream of giving Emma Diet Mountain Dew at this point in her life. However, she was very helpful in carrying some things out to the car today..including this mostly empty soda bottle. One day she will be old enough for Diet Mountain Dew and she will make Mommy and Daddy very proud the first time she asks for it!!**
God has really been speaking to my heart this week about just how tremendously blessed I am. Here are a few of the places He has shown it to me…
1. One night last week I spent about 3 hours straight wrapping Christmas presents. That wasn’t even all the presents we are giving. Thank you Lord that you have blessed us in such a way that we can bless others!
2. Tuesday Emma and I spent all day in my closet. Typically Clint and I do a major cleanout right around the end of the year. This year I decided to really dig in…clothes, shoes, purses, dresser, closet, etc…nothing was safe. Thank you Lord that it took me all day to go through all of my stuff…and that all of the stuff I am giving away takes 5 trips down the stairs.
3. Just realized that this week was the 8 year anniversary of my college graduation from the University of Memphis. Thank you Lord for the gift of a great education!
4. Clint and I are having a blast celebrating our first Christmas with our baby girl. Emma has made Christmas more exciting than it has ever been before. Thank you Lord for blessing us with our precious daughter!
5. We had a great time hanging out with all of our friends from Freedom Church at Bikes or Bust this week. God is doing some amazing things through Freedom and our family is pumped to be a part of it. Thank you Lord for allowing us to partner with a church that is seeking to reach those that are far from you so that they can experience life in Christ!
I’m sure that I’ll have plenty more of these moments in the next several days…I’ll look forward to sharing some more!
Every once in a while I have the privilege in participating in a blog tour for a new book. This week the blog tour is for Living Rich for Less by Ellie Kay. If you know me at all, you know that Clint and I are super focused on being good stewards of the financial resources that God has blessed us with. Clint is the financial counselor at our church and we love looking for creative ways to save money so that we will have more to give away!
This was a great book with a lot of practical ideas about how to give, save, and spend smarter. The front of the book even claims to teach you how to save $30,000 this year. That might be true if you implement all of the ideas, but even if you don’t save quite that much, I still think it is well worth your time to check it out.
I think that people of all ages and walks of life could get a lot out of this book. There are many people who are focused on becoming debt-free, but even if you aren’t there yet, everyone in our society has been affected by the current state of the economy…and would love to learn how to stretch their money this holiday season.
I have two free copies of this book for the first two people that I hear from. Let me know if you want one by emailing me and I’ll get it to you! Read it…and then pass it along to help someone experience financial freedom. I’d also recommend purchasing some copies to give away as Christmas gifts!
I posted here about the Advent Readings I am doing this year based on the passages put together by Mars Hill Church to focus on the themes of hope, peace, joy, and love. This week all of the readings are about peace. Our reading for yesterday was Isaiah 42:1-9.
I always teach out of the NIV because I mostly speak to groups of students, however, I usually like to mixup the translations I read during my quiet times. Last night I was rereading this passage from Isaiah on my iPhone using the YouVersion software from the iTunes free app store. It is put together by the folks at LifeChurch. There are over 40 different translations in 20 different languages in their software. I decided to read the passage in a few different translations and decided I really liked the way it was spelled out in The Message translation. I don’t ever teach from The Message because I think it is too loose of a translation, but it was a great new look at a familiar passage. Check it out:
1-4 “Take a good look at my servant.
I’m backing him to the hilt.
He’s the one I chose,
and I couldn’t be more pleased with him.
I’ve bathed him with my Spirit, my life.
He’ll set everything right among the nations.
He won’t call attention to what he does
with loud speeches or gaudy parades.
He won’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt
and he won’t disregard the small and insignificant,
but he’ll steadily and firmly set things right.
He won’t tire out and quit. He won’t be stopped
until he’s finished his work—to set things right on earth.
Far-flung ocean islands
wait expectantly for his teaching.”
5-9God’s Message,
the God who created the cosmos, stretched out the skies,
laid out the earth and all that grows from it,
Who breathes life into earth’s people,
makes them alive with his own life:
“I am God. I have called you to live right and well.
I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe.
I have set you among my people to bind them to me,
and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations,
To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light:
opening blind eyes,
releasing prisoners from dungeons,
emptying the dark prisons.
I am God. That’s my name.
I don’t franchise my glory,
don’t endorse the no-god idols.
Take note: The earlier predictions of judgment have been fulfilled.
I’m announcing the new salvation work.
Before it bursts on the scene,
I’m telling you all about it.”
