Wonders Never Cease

One of my teachers has a poster in her room that says, "Wonders never cease, as long as you never cease to wonder." I just love how true that quote is. I think that it is completely applicable to every aspect of life, including our Christian walk. So many times, we just wander through life thinking, "There's got to be more than this." But if you think about it, there are so many things in life that truly are miracles. There are so many evidences of Christ everywhere, we just have to look. There is so much more to life than what it seems.

A Refuge

Psalm 62:8 ~ Trust in Him at all times, you people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.

I came across this verse a while ago while I was reading through Psalms, and I put it on a notecard on my whiteboard. I really liked this verse because I love the part about pouring your heart before God. He already knows what we are thinking, but He still is willing to listen when we need Someone to talk to. He is the only Person who will always listen to you. No matter what you're going through, He understands because He was tempted too. This is a comfort to me, and I hope it will comfort you too!

Day 5515

Well, today is the 5515 day I've been alive. I've been doing well with my Bible reading plan so far. In the introduction to the reading plan, Professor Horner says that once you read 10 chapters a day for awhile, you will feel like you've been starving yourself. It really is true. It's amazing to read 10 chapters from completely different parts of the Bible and see how they all work together.

I am not looking forward to midterms this week at school. Ugh. I guess it's good motivation to do well so I won't have to take finals in June. I have been convicted a lot lately about witnessing at school. It can be hard to stand out in a good way. It seems like people either stand out in a bad way or blend in with the world. I am praying that God will help me to do a better job of being in the world but not of the world

I really need to get back to running. I've only run a handful of times since cross country has been over. Although I'll probably be running this week because that's what I do to relieve stress and midterms will probably create a lot of that.

Well, I should probably clean my room and study now...

Professor Horner's Bible Reading System

Last night at church we talked about Bible reading plans for 2012. One that really caught my eye was Professor Horner's Bible Reading plan. My first reaction to seeing this plan was, "You have got to be kidding. I do not have time to read 10 chapters a day." But I feel like I need to be challenged, and I know that even though I read my Bible every day last year, I did not spend enough time in God's Word. I know that this will be a challenge, and that it will be hard to read my Bible on the nights when I'm up late studying, but I think that this is what I need to do to grow in Christ. I will be posting in the future to talk about how this plan goes.

Bible Reading Plan

I haven't exactly figured out what Bible reading plan I'm going to do this year. I think we're talking about different plans at church tonight, so hopefully I'll be able to think of one then. But for now, I've just been doing the one I did last year. I've had kind of a hard time actually thinking through what I'm reading, so I decided to get a journal and take notes. But now I've had a hard time being motivated to take notes. So, I thought if I posted some of my notes each week on the blog, that would keep me motivated and accountable. So, that's what I decided to do. So far this week I've read Genesis 1-21. Here are some of my thoughts:

• While reading the creation account I was reminded of what we had been talking about in Sunday school. We have been going through ten truths of the gospel, and the first truth is "God is the sovereign Creator of all things."
• When I read about the fall of man, I was reminded that we are all sinners. If Adam hadn't sinned, we would have still fallen into sin. It's part of human nature.
• It was also very encouraging to read about God's faithfulness to Noah, Abraham, and Lot.

Well, this wasn't very many notes this week, but hopefully next week I will be more motivated to take notes.

Happy New Year! (and a slightly late Merry Christmas;) )

Well, I haven't done near as well as I had hoped with keeping up with my blog. Oh well. I hope that everyone had a great Christmas! I neglected to even do a Christmas post, but I hope y'all had a great time with family and friends meditating on the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And I also hope y'all have a great New Years Day!
Whenever it's New Years, people usually talk about new year's resolutions. Last year, my main resolution was to read my Bible every day, and I was successful. In addition to that resolution, I have two more scriptural resolutions this year. I would like to try to live according to the character traits in Proverbs 31 and 1 Corinthians 13. Lots of times, we look at other people and judge them according to biblical things, but we aren't living them out ourselves. I know that I haven't done the best job lately. So, I encourage you to look at these two passages and try to live by the traits they list. One good way to do this is to pick one trait each day to focus on.
I hope that everyone has a great new year! (and that no one is too tired to go back to school;) For those of you that don't have to start school until Tuesday or Wednesday, don't take it for granted!)

Happy 2012!!!!!

Better Late Than Never, I Suppose

Well, it has definitely been a while since I've posted. I've been really busy lately, but everything has finally started to slow down. I don't even know where to begin... Cross country season finished, and it went well. I was able to improve on every race, and my last one was about 25 minutes flat. High school has been going well. We just finished our first quarter. I can't wait to get a couple days off for Thanksgiving next week! Which brings me to another point. What are you thankful for? I have thought a lot lately about how much I have to be grateful for. A friend of mine's mom just died, and I realized that I take it for granted that I even have a family. I have so much to be thankful for, and I can't believe that I ever take it for granted, but I do.

I am super excited for the holidays. I have actually been listening to Christmas music, which I normally don't do before Thanksgiving, but I couldn't help it ;)

I have really been meditating on Ephesians 1:3-6, which says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved." Our Sunday school teacher talked about how everything we do should be done to give glory to God. I was really convicted that I don't think about giving glory to God before I make decisions, but this verse has really helped me.

I hope everyone enjoys the holidays!