If you remember my post last Monday, you will remember I asked for some feedback. And I didnt really get as much of that as I would have liked so I am a bit upset with you guys. 

But not that upset, because you get puns as your punishment for not being helpful and you'll see that its not much of a punishment at all.... 

Seriously though, hope everyone has a great week! Comment with your favorite!

But hey, reading the Bible is important. I still dont read as much as I would like, but I am getting better. See, the bible is spiritual "food" that we need to keep us healthy. If we are not getting fed, then we will starve, even if we dont intend to, thats just how it works. Another way of putting it is to say "The bible is not cake for special occasions, it is bread for daily nutrition." True!!

I am currently bouncing between Jeremiah and some of the smaller New Testament books... If you are looking into reading more and also comprehending more of what you read, these tools below might help you. However, please don't get overwhelmed, what works for me may be totally different than what works for you. 

First, I recommended to a reading plan that I have used for years. Freshman year, we had soooo many snow days in January it took me 26 days to read through Ultra Trim KJV I got. I have been slowly going through again, I started a new sheet in September but am not that far along. I don't read any thing specific, to be honest, not even everyday, but it's nice to read a book and check it off and keep going. I'm not saying this is the only plan, or anything like that. Here is a pdf to it. 

What specifically works best for me is to listen to the KJV played at 2x the speed by KJVCrazy as my eyes dart around my recently reviewed NLT Study Bible. I love this thing!!

Did you know that sometimes the Greek and Hebrew say different things? Looking at this NLT Bible I can clarify these, get insight on characters, and lots of extra information that makes the fast paced reading very intense and worth my time. 

I also like to get background/ overview from videos done by the Bible Project. They put an entire book into a few minutes and its a good balance between "indeptth analysis" and "looking at the larger picture." I  have downloaded a few so I dont lose them. 

Now onto the verses that have stood out to me, finally!!

1 Thessalonians 1: 10 // And they speak of how you are looking forward to the coming of God’s Son from heaven—Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. He is the one who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming judgment.

^ Being rescued from the undiluted wrath of God is pretty significant. But is it significant to us? How much do we look forward to Jesus to return? Are we ready?

1 Thessalonians 3​: 6-13 // But now Timothy has just returned, bringing us good news about your faith and love. He reports that you always remember our visit with joy and that you want to see us as much as we want to see you. So we have been greatly encouraged in the midst of our troubles and suffering, dear brothers and sisters, because you have remained strong in your faith. It gives us new life to know that you are standing firm in the Lord. How we thank God for you! Because of you we have great joy as we enter God’s presence.  Night and day we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith. May God our Father and our Lord Jesus bring us to you very soon. And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people. Amen.

1 Thessalonians 4: 3-8 // God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways. Never harm or cheat a fellow believer in this matter by violating his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before. God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

^Rejecting God. We can either cling to God in the areas we struggle, or reject him. 

1 Thessalonians 4: 16-18 // For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died[h] will rise from their graves.  Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words

Luke 5: 1-9 // One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God.  He noticed two empty boats at the water’s edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets.  Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.” “Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear!  shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking. When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m too much of a sinner to be around you.” For he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were the others with him

^We disagree with God sometimes right? And how beautiful it is to respond "Because you say so Jesus, yes" This verse (5) reminds me of things we like to forget-- We forget that God wants to meet with us individually. We forget that we can depend on God in the deep. And We forget that we must go into the deeper waters to being in the "catch", places where we might get hurt and where we say "This doesnt make sense". 

Acts 4: 13-20 // The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber and conferred among themselves. “What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it.  But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.” So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”

^The last verse of this is great. Nothing could stop them, yet today the gospel message seems so.... stoppable. 

Matthew 22: 29 // Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.

1 Timothy 5: 8 // But those who won’t care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers.

^Worse than unbeleivers is pretty intense. But I think we all struggle with areas we dont want God to mess with, I dont think its limited to family. 

2 Timothy 2: 23-26 // Again I say, don’t get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights.  A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people. Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants.

2 Timothy 4:2  //Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.

^The attitude stands out. We need to be welcoming and nice. 

Titus 1:16 // Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good.

2 Peter 3: 11 // Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live

^If it freaks you out that there is a place of undiluted wrath, you should set the example. Or in other words, if you say your faith matters to you, you better act like it matters to you.

2 Corinthians 5:20 // So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

The first thing I told my dad once I got internet in Costa Rica was that flying was fun. Amused, he replied "Thought you would enjoy flying - It's the most fun you can have with 2 1/2 feet of leg room."

I didnt know that you werent supposed to look enjoy flying :/ 

But I did. Costa Rica was lots of fun, but I loved being up in the air amidst the clouds so much and looked forward to flying again on the way home. I bribed my group to switch seats with me so I was at the window each time we switched planes, and literally like half my pictures are just clouds and stuff :)

*here are tiny little cities and the cars scurrying over the face of the earth*
*here is the sunrise from like 32000 feet*
*here is a rainbow I saw from above* 
*here is the blue blue ocean and the shadows of the clouds*

I loved looking at the shadows of the clouds. Such an amazing perspective!! Whats not to love? 

The first flight was D.C. to Houston. Then we flew to Liberia, C.R. from there. I would love to give you pictures of the ocean and stuff, but for now, here is DC to Texas. More photos soon!

Yay for a film :)

I came across this one like three? four? years ago.... and its still great. I promise. 

Also I would like some feedback from you, my awesome friends. So often this blogging thing feel like me rambling to myself instead of a dialogue, instead of community. Please, please do leave a comment. 

1. ​I have changed the blog theme and added new pages. Do you like them? How can I make them better?
2. Trying to send out posts by 8 really isnt working so I might try switching platforms to something that sends them automatically whenever I publish something. Would you rather I send them out later instead?
3.  I'm sure youre all familiar with all the poor graphics up there in the in the top left corner of my posts. These images are something I have *always* had, but do they need to go? Should those be a sometimes thing? 
4. And then just general feedback. What do I need more of? What do I need less of? 

Thats all for now. Thanks for helping me out- enjoy the film!