Happy Monday!

For this week we're reading Exodus 29-Leviticus 10. Wow, it feels like we're moving really fast! :o) We're going to memorize Psalm 3:1-4.

Psalm 3:1-4

1 O Lord, how my adversaries have increased!
Many are rising up against me.

2 Many are saying of my soul,
"There is no deliverance for him in God." Selah.

3 But You, O Lord, are a shield about me,
My glory, and the One who lifts my head.

4 I was crying to the Lord with my voice,
And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah.

Thinking Out Loud

Today I bring you some random things I’ve been thinking about this past week or two. A wee bit of what I’ve heard, seen, and thought.

Firstly, God makes the most beautiful things! We had an ice storm last week and everything was covered in a layer of ice. It was so amazing! The trees looked beautiful with drips of ice stuck to the branches and everything shone beautifully in the sunlight. I was struck with how much God appreciates true beauty. Not just landscapes, He also takes wicked men stained with sin and turns them into something wonderfully clean and pure. He is truly incredible!

Secondly, at church Sunday the sermon was on obedience to God and His commands.

1 Samuel 15:22

Then Samuel said: "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.

John 14:15

If you love Me, keep My commandments.

Am I really following God's commandments? Because if I claim to love Him then I will. Something to think about...

And the last thought I bring is the old saying “cleanliness is next to godliness”. Why bring this up? Cause I’m very lazy about cleaning my room and am thinking I need to straighten up. Hopefully if I keep this old saying in mind I’ll be motivated to actually spend more of my free time cleaning. :o)

~Review Week~

Hello again, everyone!

Everything has been so busy this month, we've decided to just review Psalms 1 and 2 this week instead of moving on to Psalm 3. We'll also be reading chapters 8-28 in Exodus. (Can you believe that we're already in Exodus?!)

I'd also like to encourage comments! It's nice to know that people were here. ;)

Joy in a World of Pain

For school this year I've been reading The War between the States, a really interesting history book on the American Civil War. As I've continued, I've read accounts of horrible things done by both sides during this devastating war, things that have made me feel sick. In addition to this book, I read Finnikin of the Rock; and Duncan's War, the first book in a trilogy about the Scottish Covenanters.

While I really enjoyed Finnikin of the Rock, I'm not recommending you read it. Unlike the Hunger Games, it can easily be related to real life, and the truth is hard. The whole time I was reading it I kept thinking, "I'm so glad that I live in a world of peace instead of a world of war. America is safe, and these horrible things don't happen here."

But I realized that I was wrong. This world is so broken, so full of sorrow and pain. And I don't know about you, but I can't deal with pain. At all. My heart gets numb, and all I can do is cry and try to hold myself together until the pain leaves. And this, from only secondary sources of pain. I haven't actually had to deal with personal pain myself.

And then I was handed a book. One Thousand Gifts. And I started to understand better how you can be hurt and still live with joy in this world of pain.

The Big Truth in that book is, "Our God is good." He delights in giving good gifts to His children. And His purpose is always to make us better and more like Him, even through really hard circumstances. He disciplines us because He loves us. No matter what happens, He will shape everything for His good purposes, and He is in control. And that is a very comforting thought to me.

Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-3 – The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, Thou knowest.

We’ve all heard this before. When we were little a lot of us sang “Ezekiel cried them dry bones”. But as I was reading this again I started thinking about how Ezekiel answered God. “O Lord God, Thou knowest."

If I was in a valley full of dry, dead bones, and was asked by God if they could live, what would I respond? I hope I would respond that “all things are possible with You, Lord.” But since I’ve never been in any such situation, how can I know?

Or have I been in similar situations, just not as obvious? When we question an “impossible” situation as if there is no good way out, are we telling God that we don’t think He can make the dry bones live?

“O Lord God, Thou knowest.” Indeed He does, and praise His Holy Name that He knows everything that has happened, is happening, and will ever happen, and it’s all in His control, even when we don’t understand it!

Exodus and Psalms 2

I'm looking forward to another good week studying, and this week we will be reading Genesis 37-Exodus 7 and memorizing the end of Psalms 2. I can't believe we're already ready to finish Genesis! It helps motivate me when I feel like I'm accomplishing things. :o)

Psalms 2:7-12

7 "I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord;
He said to Me, 'You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.

8 'Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.

9 'You shall break them with a rod of iron,
You shall shatter them like earthenware.' "

10 Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;
Take warning, O judges of the earth.

11 Worship the Lord with reverence

And rejoice with trembling.

12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,

For His wrath may soon be kindled.

How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

Hope everyone has a good week in the Lord!

In His Hand

'But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord,
I say, "You are my God."
My times are in Your hand;
Deliver me from the hand of my
enemies and from those who persecute me.'
~Psalm 31:14-15

This has become one of my very favorite Bible verses. If I had to pick a life verse, this would probably be it. It both comforts and humbles me.

I get very easily carried away with school and schedules and places to be and things to do, etc. etc. Life in general just carries me away and turns me into a person who is just marking things off her daily checklist without really enjoying every moment of the time that God has given her.

How often have you gotten up in the morning with concrete, constructive plans for the day only to have your beautiful plan torn from your hands, ripped up and sent through the paper shredder, and then sprinkled over your head just for good measure? (OK, I went overboard with that. Sometimes it does seem that way to me, though!)

I think that this is God's way of telling us that He already has plans for our day, and His plans are better than ours. WAY better. And when God rearranges my day, I am humbled and reminded of Him, and I stop thinking only of my plans.

In Proverbs 27 we read,

"Do not boast about tomorrow,
For you do not know what a day may bring forth."

We can't know what will happen tomorrow. We may plan a family vacation for months only to have it cancelled because we all get sick. But God does know the future, and His plans are good. And our times are in His hand! Although the scenery of our life will change, we will always be standing on the same firm ground.

Good Morning!

Hello again!

This week we're planning to continue our reading of Genesis in chapters 16 through 36. Hopefully you've also already finished memorizing Psalm 1, so we'll move on to Psalm 2. This Psalm is longer, so this week we'll do just the first 6 verses.

Psalm 2:1-6 NASB

1Why are the nations in an uproar

And the peoples devising a vain thing?

2The kings of the earth take their stand

And the rulers counsel together

Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,

3"Let us tear their fetters apart

And cast away their cords from us!"

4He who sits in the heavens laughs,

The Lord scoffs at them.

5Then He will speak to them in His anger

And terrify them in His fury, saying,

6"But as for Me, I have installed My King

Upon Zion, My holy mountain."

Called to HIS Purpose

Isaiah 43:1-3 – But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.

This verse was used during a recent sermon at church. It wasn’t the main point of the message; he just read it in the middle. But I thought it was very encouraging, especially the first verse!

“But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine.”

Wow. The Lord that created thee. The one, true God who created everything. He that formed thee. And He says “Fear not”. If only people would listen to that! I know so many people who worry about so many things, things that they can’t even control. Even worrying about their salvation, which in some ways is good, but not when it’s excessive. Sometimes God uses fear to draw people to Him, but sometimes it’s the devil pulling them away.

“I have redeemed thee”. How comforting that God has redeemed us! “I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine.” Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!! That He has called such wretched sinners as we is a miracle in itself, and it has only happened by His incredible mercy, grace, and love for us!

The Great Question

"Who am I, and why am I here?"

This one question has and continues to consume the lives of hundreds of people. Desperate to know who we are and to find the reason for life, we've filled ridiculously large history books with our effort to find the answer. And every time we think we’ve hit on the answer, another twisted belief system forms, leading thousands away from the truth.

Recently I did a fun Sunday school exercise where my teacher asked us to describe ourselves in three sentences. She wanted us to describe not what we looked like, but who we really were.

It was hopeless from the very beginning!

We scrambled through answers out loud, each time discarding them as not a description of who we really were. Some sample answers were things like ‘I’m blond’ which was discarded because even when our hair had turned gray, we would still be ourselves. Some mentioned what they liked to do, their preferences, but we threw those ideas out too. Eventually you would not be able to run track or be on the swim team anymore.

But after thinking about it, I realized the answer. It was the one thing that would never change about me. And I saw that looking into myself for answers, like people are so fond of doing, would never work.

Who do you ask if you want to know what a watch is? Or if you’re confused about what a piano is? Who do you ask if you want to know what anything is, really?

You ask the maker, the creator of that thing.

And God says that I am His chosen child. My identity is found in Him. Not in myself. So in knowing God better, I will know myself better. After all, we were made in His image!

And what something is is bound closely with what it was made for. Like a watch was made for telling time and a piano for making music, we were made to give God glory.

So who are we? We are children of God, made in His image and likeness.

And why are we here? We are here to give glory to God, and to enjoy fellowship with Him forever.



26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

~Genesis 1:26-27

Hey Everyone!

This week we’ll start our Bible reading with the first 15 chapters of Genesis, and we’ll start our memorization with Psalm 1. It only has 6 verses, which means it will only take us one week to memorize the entire chapter! :o)

Psalm 1, NASB

1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stand in the path of sinners,

Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

3 And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season,

And its leaf does not wither;

And in whatever he does, he prospers.

4 The wicked are not so,

But they are like chaff which the wind drives away,

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the wicked will perish.

Welcome to our blog!

Hello everyone!

We (Emily and Kelsie) started this blog as a place for us to post some thoughts as we endeavor to memorize and live by the Holy Bible. Starting on January 1st, we're going to read through the Bible from cover to cover, and we'd like to invite you to join us!

We also would like to use this blog as a place to hold us accountable for memorizing Bible verses. Every Monday we plan to post the verses we will be memorizing for that week. We would love it if you would participate in this too!

Other posts that we plan to write center on what we believe and why, and what we are currently learning as we walk with God.

Just to let you know a little about us…

Emily is a homeschooled Junior this year. She lives with her parents and younger siblings, 2 sisters and brother.

Kelsie is a homeschooled Senior this year, very much looking forward to graduation in May! She lives with her parents and 2 older sisters.

The 2 of us have been good friends for about 5 years. We both enjoy reading, crafting, playing piano, and hanging with friends.

We hope that this blog will be an encouragement to all who read it, and that it will help the two of us as we strive to glorify God in every word, deed, and yes--blog post. :o)