Mandy’s Monday (”Can you read this in the next month?”)

Back in February I went to a Pastor’s Wives conference at Sandy Cove, which I have mentioned before in previous posts. I decided to check out a break out session on reading through your Bible (“Divide and Conquer…the Bible” by Judy Reamer), even though the session was going to be a DVD showing and not a live person. It was a motivational and instructional talk on reading through your Bible.  It was a two part session and the first one was all motivation for reading through your entire Bible. Many of the things she said reminded me of my CIU days in the Bible teaching program (LOVE THAT PROGRAM/MAJOR!!) It is so true that seeing the Bible in its entirety, the totality of its’ story and message brings the Bible to life! But I had to go to the second session to get to the recommendations and ideas that were to help me to read through the Bible even several times a year!!

So here is what I learned and have been putting into practice recently:

1. Purchase a large print double column Bible in soft cover. (I must say Brian mocked me for buying another Bible!)

2. Take the cover off, leaving the binding in tact. Then divide the Bible (with a sharp knife) into four sections!

3. Make new covers for your Bible pieces using file folders and Elmers glue. (I got cool colored folders from WalMart-a different one for each part of the Bible)

4. You need a bookmark ( I made matching bookmarks from the leftover folder pieces)

5. Now set a plan to read 15 pages a day. With the suggested Bible from the DVD you will read through the Bible 3 times a year if you read 15 pages a day.

6. This is your reading time not your study time! Just read, don’t study, just read. You will come back!

The reason for dividing the Bible into four parts is psychological! If I handed you a Bible, big or small, and asked you to read through it, you would feel the weight of all the pages and all the tiny print! But if I hand you a book that is similar to the novels you see today and said “can you read this in the next month or so” You would probably think “yeah I can do that!” And so dividing your Bible into parts makes it more attainable.

Large print, double column and bookmarks help you keep your pace of reading quickly! Use the bookmark as a guide your eyes as you read down the page and keep it moving at a steady pace.

Just read, don’t study helps you move through it. I loved the way I was challenged to have this as a reading time and pursue another time as my digging in study time. Often when we decide to read through the Bible we get burdened with the thought that we must think deeply and meditated the entire way through. And we should be thinking deeply and meditating but if our goal is to read the Bible in its totality then it will benefit us to have a separate study time from our reading time.

So how is it going for me? Well I started in May in the New Testament and I am almost all the way through it. So I have almost read one of the four parts in a month. I have been enjoying seeing the big picture and reading through books such as Romans in a day or two. I think my goal maybe to read through the Bible once this year (before May 2009) and move from times of 15 page just reads to study times. Currently, that is what fits with my available “free” time

Want to give it a try with me?

Strawberry Fields Forever

Since living in Pennsylvania our family has developed a June tradition - strawberry picking!! For several years now we have headed out to the near by farm (not even a mile from our house) to pick, eat, pick, eat, pick, eat… wonderful strawberries. Each year we have to take a ton of pictures to record the event and this year was no different! Owen really enjoyed the eating and the smushing of the strawberries, and was he fun to watch! Emma was inspired by the day to write the following story:

First typed as seen on the paper:

picking sorawbeerrres

wrieten by Emma Moore

“Hi my name is Emma I am going to pick sorawberrrves

sorawbeerrves is fun

I like it

it is fun fun fun

Do you like it too?

Yay you do

it was hot

I got a dek”

Now with the helpful translation

Picking Strawberries

Written by Emma Moore

“Hi, my name is Emma.

I am going to pick strawberries.

Strawberries is fun!

I like it! It is fun, fun, fun!

Do you like it too? Yay, you do!

It was hot! I got a drink.”

To cap the day off we joined in on another Pennsylvainian tradition - having strawberry shortcake for dinner. Not with dinner, no FOR dinner!!

Enjoy the pictures

InsideOut People

I have begun to be a contributor on a collaborative blog www.insideoutpeople.com seeking to encourage conversation and life change in being authentic followers of Christ who are making a difference in their immediate community and the global community. I want to encourage you to go there and check out what the other contributors have to say, it is challenging on all levels.

We were asked to each give a perspective on what it means to be an inside out person. I want to share my posts here as well as encourage you to go there to read others.

“Full of It”

What are you filled with? What am I filled with?

At first that seems like a difficult or weird question to answer. But if I ask someone else to describe you or me, they are probably going to use some words that begin or end in “full”! And honestly on different days I might be described in different words…one day I may be described as “joyful” but another, “spiteful”, or “full of love”, or “playful”, or acting in “hurtful” ways, etc.

We describe each other like this because we see the things coming out of a person as what describes the stuff that is on the INSIDE. What’s on the inside COMES OUT, one way or another. We can pretend for awhile (and we all have done it), but the stuff in there will spill out. So what’s in there??

“…Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” -Colossians 1.27b-29

So the biggest concerns for me are…

first, is Christ in me and is he my hope?

second, is HIS energy working powerfully within me?

and third, HOW am I working and struggling with his energy spilling out of me to others?

If Christ is in me people should be able to call me “Christful”. Certainly it is less complex to say that someone is “joyful” rather than “Christful”. But the more you and I get to know the Christ of the story (the living Christ understood through the Scriptures), the more we become like his character, his thoughts, his heart, his everything! Are people seeing you and I spilling over with Jesus and describing us as full of Him? Are we living out the life of Jesus in other lives, with those who are hurting and those who are rejoicing?

This describes the basis for my understanding of being an Inside Out Person and describes my mission, my purpose, and my cause for my life and all the relationships in my life. I need others in my life to challenge me and encourage me to be living this way! So join us as we go through the ups and the downs of seeking to be Full of it!

Mandy’s Monday - God’s Rule in Relationships

I have been so encouraged and challenged while working through Colossians in Study & Share this semester! It has always been Brian’s favorite book of the Bible and so each time I spend time in it I feel like I am getting to know him better as well

Last week I had the privilege of teaching Study & Share on the passage Colossians 3:18-4:1. Now if you are familiar with the book you may realize immediately that this is the passage that lists several relationship “rules” - wives submit to your husbands, husbands love your wives, children obey your parents… Not an easy passage to cover in my mind, and sometimes not a popular one either. But I found my time there to be a real blessing!

In Colossians 1 Paul greets the Colossian church and then begins to tell them how amazing Jesus is! (He is the first born from the dead, He is preeminent and in Him all the fullness of diety dwells!!) Colossians 2 has that amazing passage on Christ’s work at Easter bringing us from death to life. (You who were dead in your trespasses…God made alive, canceling the record of debt, nailing it to the cross, setting it aside!)  With Colossians 3 Paul explains how we are to live a life that is alive in Christ.  If you are like me, even though you are alive in Christ there are times when we choose to live in the coffin. Paul tells us how to get out! (Put to death - slander, immorality, anger… put on - compassion, kindness, humility…) AND THEN comes the instructions for our personal relationships in the home.  The Lord Jesus wants to affect every area of our lives, so that we might be fully alive in Christ!

Following the Lord’s instructions in our relationships, allowing Him to rule in our relationships is really choosing to trust Him and not ourselves.  When we realize our ultimate faith and trust are in the Lord, it puts our earthly relationships into perspective.

I am not going to share everything I was encouraged by, I will save that for the pod cast.  So check back if you would like to listen

If you have not done it recently, read all the way through Colossians in one sitting and soak it in!  Seeing it in its entirety is GREAT!

Transitions

When I typed that title I thought of the lenses that change tinting according to the sunlight exposure. I’m not really going to write about those lenses except to note that they are a reactionary transition as opposed to a proactive transition. They are built to react to the sunlight and offer protection and comfort to those who are wearing them.

So what does that have to do with anything?? Glad you asked!

This is a time of major transitions in and around our lives:

1. Spring is now in full gear around our town, and it is BEAUTIFUL!! I am so thankful for the season changes and the transition times as winter struggles with spring and the beauty that God has built into that time is shown.

2. Our ministry is moving into a new facility for youth and children. We have been blessed to be able to build a nicely equipped auditorium for student ministry with a cafe, kitchen, lobby, and office facility! What an exciting time this is! During this time we are also re-casting our vision to Drink Deep of Christ and Flow to Others from Campuses to Continents.

3. Our church is in the process or transitioning Senior Pastor leadership. Johnny Miller made it known a few years ago that he is nearing the end in his current role. So we as a church are looking for the healthiest way to keep moving the ministry forward as we evaluate the current strengths and weaknesses and determine the profile of a potential new Senior Pastor. A very important time in the life of a local church body! Thanks for your prayers!

4. Yesterday Greg and Allison Despres made the public announcement that they are transitioning to a new season of life and ministry, moving to South Carolina.  Greg has been leading our student ministry team for almost 9 years and is the one who initiated the contact for Mandy and I to move up here (with just Addie at that time) over 8 years ago.  It has been a great season of our life to work alongside of them and grow deep in friendship.  We have experienced and learned so much together.  And being so far from family they are like our family, coming to the hospital with coffee and dunkin donuts when Isabelle had her first seisure, sharing holiday meals together, helping one another with house projects, borrowing things back and forth, caring for each other’s children when things come up, and COUNTLESS other things!  Our whole family has shed tears on this one (although I think Owen was crying because he hit is head!) and we have more tears to shed as we help them do what needs to be done to move a family.

So with every life transition, there is a bit of healthy reaction and healthy proactive movement.

With the coming of spring, you put away the heavy coats, clean up the wood pile on the porch and start working on the yard again…complete with planting a garden, because you know the fruits will come in the summer!  I can’t wait until I can take a bite of those juicy home-grown tomatoes!

With the moving into a new facility you order the things you need, recruit help to move, re-cast the vision, and look forward to continued fruit to come through expanded ministry opportunities.

With the process of looking for a new Senior pastor, you rejoice in all the fruit that God has given through the ministry and seek God for the direction of the future, realizing that HE is the one who causes growth and will raise up the person to continue the abundance of fruitful ministry in our community and around the world.

And with the transition of the Despres’ we, through the tears, rejoice in what God is doing to expand His Kingdom.  Realizing that He is growing a beautiful garden year after year.  We anxiously work and await the Spirit of God to bring a bumper-crop of fruit both in the Despres family in South Carolina and in the ministry of Calvary Church Student Ministry as we continue the vision, and continue building the ministry team for the future.  The unknown sometimes causes us to be fearful, but as we follow God, the one who knows all things, we can cast fear of circumstances aside and pursue Him with a greater passion, knowing that He gives and takes away, but He always provides.  We worship Him in this transition!

Thanks for your prayers as we all TOGETHER build the Kingdom of God, being the life of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit both locally and globally!!

Cousin Camp - Week 1

In my house you will currently find seven sleeping children ages 14 months, 23 months, 4, 4, almost 4, 6 and 8!! We have just completed week one of what we are calling Cousin Camp 2008, and there is one more week to go. It has been both wonderful and exhausting to have our extra family members here! I put up a few pictures on our gallery of the things that went on here in week one. We hope to enjoy more fun times in week two before Grandma arrives to take the Williamsons back home.

A few observations:

- It takes a long time to get everone in the car!

- I get some crazy looks when I am out and about with 6 or 7 of them!

- The most exhausting moment of the day is dinner time!!

- At 8:30 on Sat. morning Brian and I were sitting down to a pancake breakfast after all 7 had finished theirs - this is a result of little ones waking at 6 something each morning!! Even on SATURDAY!

Week two should be fun!

Mandy’s Monday (on Wed.) - I Just Wanna Celebrate! Part 2

If you have not seen the comment my Aunt left on Part 1 of this post, you ought to go give it a read. I found it inspiring!

So here are the descriptions I found in Colossians that address what happens to the believer through and at Easter:

(insights taken from Colossians 1:13-14; 19-22; 27; 2:13-15)

Our Condition Before:

Domain of darkness

Alienate

Hostile in mind

Doing evil deeds

Dead in trespasses

Uncircumcision of flesh

Record stood against me

Legal demands

What God did at Easter Through Jesus Christ:

Delivered us

Transferred us

Forgiven us

Reconciled us

Made peace by the blood of the cross

Presented us

Made known

In us

Canceled our debt

Set it aside

Nailed it to the cross

Disarmed the ruler & authorities

Put them to shame

Triumphed over them

Our Condition After:

Kingdom of his beloved Son

Redemption

Forgiveness of sin

Reconciled

Holy

Blameless

Above reproach

Hope of glory

Alive

Trespasses forgiven

Canceling record of debt

AMEN!! I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE!

Mandy’s Monday (I know it is not Monday - so lets just pretend) - I Just Want to Celebrate! Part 1

I am aware that Easter is done and gone, but I have to revisit it in this blog. I had wanted to share these things before now and life just got in the way - you know how it is!

For Easter my friend Shannon Diller put together an Easter mix and passed it out. I just love Shannon’s musical mixes. The girls and I really enjoyed his Christmas two cd mix as well! So on the Easter mix is the song “I Just Want to Celebrate” and it has become my theme song these few weeks. I play it two or three times in the morning while dropping my kids off at school, to set the tone for the day and get everyone pumped (of course my girls tease me for always playing the same song!)

What do I have to celebrate - well let me tell ya

Leading up to Easter I was preparing to teach at Study & Share a review lesson on Colossians 2:6-23. When I realized that I would be teaching the week of Easter I was really excited! Colossians may not be the normal place you would turn to read and study on the week of Easter but oh it fits beautifully!! We can go to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and read about what happened to Jesus at Easter, but when we go to Colossians 2 we discover what happened to us at Easter. If you want to look at it personally here is what I sugest you do:

Read through the following verses Colossians 1:13-14; 1:19-22; 1:27; 2:13-15

Do so THREE times making a list of:

1st Descriptions of us before placing our faith in Jesus

2nd Descriptions of what Jesus and God did at Easter

3rd Descriptions of us after Easter and placing our faith in Jesus

Then compare the before and after!! Wow now that is something to CELEBRATE!!

At Easter I went from being dead in sin to alive in Christ! I just want to CELEBRATE another day of living!!!

Next week I will share the descriptions I found in Colossians, but I will wait in case you would like to look at it on your own first.

Side note - here is a