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?

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

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!