This was another full but exciting month here! Once again, it almost felt longer than a month. I'm kinda enjoying that. Maybe that feeling will stick around for a while. ;) So, like always, I hope you enjoy reading about some of my favorites from the month and will jump down to the comments to let me know about some of yours! Favorite Events
A Favorite SongA Favorite Verse"Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; To shew that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him." ~Psalm 92:13-15 A Favorite Book
How was September for you? What were some of your favorite things that happened? Do you have any favorite books, songs, or verses that meant something to you this month that you'd like to share?
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Who loves fall around here? I know I do! The cooler weather, the new flavors of coffee coming out, the fallish scents, sweaters. And books. Somehow fall and books just seem to go together so perfectly. So, point being, that is exactly what we are, Lord willing, going to be celebrating around here in just a couple weeks! This is something that I have so enjoyed reading before, and I am now even more excited to get to be participating in it for the first time! *holds in excitement and tries to refrain from using too many exclamation points* Basically, it will be hosted by Kate Willis over at onceuponanordinary.wordpress.com. Over there, you'll find links to each of the participating blogs, where each day we will all be sharing (on our own blogs) our top five favorite books for that day's genre. (I'd recommend starting over at her site for the fullest enjoyment of the party!) There will also be a daily ebook deal, not to mention an exciting giveaway! It's not something that you'll want to miss! Oh, and just a little warning. Be prepared to possibly be leaving with a long list of books that you want to read. Though I don't know all the books that will be shared, these ladies have some wonderful Christian fiction reads that you'll want to check out! Looking forward to seeing you there! What are some things that you like about fall? Are you looking forward to the Five Fall Favorites blog party?
Do you ever find yourself working on school, perhaps deep into trying to understand a math problem or finish a project or writing a paper, just to look up and start to wonder what this is even good for? Sometimes it's not that we don't want to be diligent or that we don't want to learn, but we just can't help but want to know why we are doing what we are doing. God put a basic need for purpose in each of us. So, today, as many of us are back to school, I'd like to look at some of the reasons we should study each different type of class in school. I'm not a teacher and don't have any sort of professional knowledge, but these are just things that I've noticed or been shown that have helped me when I find myself wondering if all these hours I'm putting in is just a waste of time. I hope that maybe you will find them just as much of an encouragement as I have! MathThis seems to be low on most people's list of classes they enjoy, or maybe not on the list at all. I'll admit, math doesn't come super naturally to me. But there are some things with even math that we can find purpose in! One is that it gives us practical skills so that we can be better consumers and stewards of what God has given us, whether that be budgeting money, using measurements in a recipe, understanding statistics, or building things. It also allows us to see how orderly God is. God created math as a language to explain His creation; He not only made the things we can see, but He also made the mathematical principles to explain them. Studying these principles can allow us to see just what a thorough, orderly God He is! Math, in turn, teaches us to be more orderly. Whether it's lining up the numbers correctly to sum them or working out a long algebraic equation, we have to be neat to be the most efficient. To get the right answer, we have to follow a set of steps. When we practice being neat and orderly in a math class, it can help us to think that way in our daily lives. 1 Corinthians 14:40 backs this up: "Let all things be done decently and in order." EnglishThis is one of my personal favorites, but this is also one I hear alot of people say they don't like as much. English has a way of teaching us to think more critically though. We read selections of literature and form opinions of them. We write papers and have to research them and share what we've learned and what we think in them. Writing those papers and essays also helps to teach us to express things in the best, most effective way possible. That skill of expressing things in the best way is further honed when we learn things like grammar, spelling, and vocabulary. What's an article or novel with a promising premise that has spelling mistakes, incorrect subject-verb agreement, and uses words incorrectly? No matter how good it's message may be or how intriguing the story it tells is, those things are going to turn people away. Especially when we are writing about Christ, it is vastly important that we have a good testimony and don't turn people away simply because of our refusal to follow good grammar, spelling, or use of vocabulary. ScienceJohann Kepler, a prominent scientist in the 17th century, described that he was simply "thinking God's thoughts after Him." This is such a good picture of exactly what science is! God has created so many wonderful things in our universe, both things we can see like plants and animals and things we can't like gravity or the attraction between a proton and an electron. When we discover how they work, we are simply getting a glimpse into what God has known all along. What's amazing to think about is that He has given us it all to enjoy, even the things we don't know yet by allowing us to have the pleasure and mystery of figuring them out! How loving He is! When we study science, we get a glimpse at just what an amazing God we have. He's orderly and runs everything according to laws and principles, He's creative, He's precise, and He's loving and caring for everything that He's made. This brings us to praise Him! Whether it's the human body, physics, animals, or chemistry, it all brings us to see His character even more. Not only is science to glorify God, but it's also to benefit mankind. When we study science, we can invent things that can change the course of history or make something easier and faster or further God's kingdom. The movable-type printing press is one of the best examples of this. When Gutenberg invented this and printed a Bible off of it, it not only took away the tedious work of copying the Bible by hand, but it allowed God's Word to become available to an increasing number of people. As advances in printing have continued to be made, people who have the Bible translated into their language have a much greater chance of owning their own copy of the Bible, maybe even multiple copies, and meet with God through His Word each day. How amazing! And all because God used people who were willing to study science and invent something that would ultimately glorify Him and benefit mankind. It may not feel like we're going to make the next best scientific advancement by studying a middle school or high school textbook, but those we did make those advancements had to start by learning the basics. And for those of us who don't become the inventor of the flying car or any such wonder, studying science still allows us to learn about our Creator, glorify and praise Him in a new light, and better understand the world God has given us. HistoryHistory teaches us the mistakes and successes of the past so that we can apply that to the future with knowledge and wisdom. When we have learned to recognize trends in other time periods or places, we can better recognize them when we see them happening in our own time period or nation and be that much farther ahead to stopping problems before they arise. Though God's wisdom is what is most needed to know who to vote for and what to stand for, an understanding of the past greatly enhances our ability of discernment in politics or current events. History also teaches us to think critically about what we stand for and why as well as what we don't stand for and why. This helps us not to just accept everything we hear but to search it out to find the truth. BibleI know not everyone gets to go to a school or be homeschooled with classes specifically set aside to learn the Bible, but many of us do. For those of us who don't, God has a reason He put you where you are, and He wants you to still search Him out and learn about Him. Even we who do have the privilege of taking Bible classes shouldn't use it as an excuse to not study the Word of God for ourselves. I think the purpose of Bible classes is fairly obvious, but in case, it's to be grounded in God's Word. It's easy to complain that Bible class is unnecessary or boring because you have personal devotions, family devotions, attend church, go to Bible study and whatever else already. But review is important. To remember things long-term, whether it be Bible verses we're memorizing or details of a Bible story, we have to review. And what better thing could we have fixed in our memory than our Creator's Love Letter to us? When we apply ourselves to listening and studying It with an open mind, even when we feel like we already know it all, we are much more apt to gain something that God can use in ways that we may not see. ElectivesThe purpose for electives is probably the most clear of all, but electives allow us to explore our interests and learn and understand things that can benefit us in what we are specifically interested in. Even foreign language classes can be used to better understand a culture or be able to point someone who speaks that language to Christ, even if it's just knowing enough to offer a gospel tract in their language. Music, cooking, typing, or whatever it is, you never know how God can use that later in your life for His honor and glory. If you are still in school, have you gone back to school yet? What is (or if you're graduated, was!) your favorite subject in school?
The meaning of the rainbow has been distorted in our modern-day culture, but God originally intended for it to be a beautiful thing, a beautiful reminder of His promise to never flood the entire earth again like He did when Noah was alive. Besides being a reminder of that promise though, it's also something that can remind of us attributes of our Heavenly Father and the gifts that He's given us. A couple weeks ago, my pastor preached a message about this. He shared something that each of the seven colors of the rainbow (which he pointed out was God's number!) can remind of us, and I thought that I'd like to share them with you, referring to my notes from his sermon! By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth? ~Job 38:24 VioletViolet can remind us of God's royalty. One of the places in Scripture he shared that had to do with this was in John, when the soldiers mocked Jesus at His crucifixion and put the purple robe on Him. In Revelation though, He comes in majesty and power as the King of kings. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war... And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. ~Revelation 19: 11;16 IndigoIndigo can make us think of the ocean. Only about 30% of the earth is land, which means that about 70% is ocean. 70%! That's more than double the amount of land there is, and think of how much land there is on earth! Of all that ocean, only about 20% of the ocean has been explored by man. And think of how many fish and creatures we've discovered just in that 20%! Our loving, caring God takes care of each of those creatures, not to mention all the ones that man hasn't discovered yet. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. ~Psalm 95:5 BlueBlue, like the sky, can remind of us Heaven. Jesus returned to Heaven, but He is soon coming back for His children! And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye mean of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. ~Acts 1:9-11 GreenGreen reminds us of life. It specifically tends to make us think of life in grass and other plants. God made every single blade of grass on our planet! And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. ~Genesis 1:11-12 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. ~Psalm 23:1-2 YellowYellow reminds us of the sun. God keeps it going, even though we don't think much about it. The sun is extremely powerful and a marvelous thing though. If you got the brightest flashlight you could, you wouldn't even be able to see 10 miles away, yet the sun is 93,000,000 miles away. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD's name is to be praised. ~Psalm 113:3 OrangeOrange reminds us of the glowing orange sky and clouds at sunset. When we see it, we ought to remember the Creator who made it. For the color orange to shine through, God had to part all of the other colors in white light out as it traveled through the atmosphere. He specifically picked orange to be the one left that we see! RedRed reminds us of the blood of Jesus that He shed on the cross for us. He gave His blood so that we could have eternal redemption. When God first created us, He knew that He would have to take our punishment on the cross and redeem us if He was to have fellowship with us like He desired, but He still chose to create us. What love! Anyone can be saved because of it. Anyone who we share the gospel with has the opportunity to be saved because of it. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: ~1 Peter 1:18-19 What are some things that the colors of the rainbow remind you of?
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