Hello! Long time no blog! I'm excited to share what we've been up to in GFG recently. When I was asking the Lord what His focus was for the girls this year, He made it simple-"Read the Bible with them Lea. Straight through. That's it." I remember saying, "Are you sure about that God? I'm worried they might get bored. You know how teenagers can be..." Then I recanted and apologized pretty quickly. Who was I kidding? When God tells us to do something, that's it. There's nothing better. If I opened the Word with the girls, He would do the rest.
The more I thought about it, the more excited I got at what God was going to do with us. Just read through the Bible. Simple. It was time for the girls to take ownership in what they believed. I felt pretty strongly about this since I had hung on the coattails of my mom's faith for years. I repeated what I was taught by her, by my Sunday School teachers, by my youth leaders, pastors, friends, etc. for years. But the scary part is I never once looked it up for myself. I mean, we're talking about my eternity here. Shouldn't I have checked into what they were saying at some point? My mom's faith wasn't going to get me to Heaven. My pastor's faith wasn't going to cover me. How long was I just going to take others words for it? What if they were wrong? Shouldn't I have checked it out for myself? Don't misunderstand! My mom was awesome. She had faith like a rock. She was more knowledgeable than anyone I knew and she loved God. But, when is it time to cut the cord and start learning it for ourselves? You know? How long are we going to trust others?
It's time to take ownership. And once you start reading...WOW. WOW. WOW. To read our history, where we come from, how Christianity began, how the Old Testament and New come together, the symbolism, the depths that it goes, it's awesome. It begins to answer so many questions. God will grow our faith as we begin to read His story. Our confidence in who we are in Christ comes when He teaches through His Words-His story and plan for our lives. Why in the world would we want to read anything else?
There's a million ways to read through the Bible, you can do a 3 month plan, a 6 month and 1 year plan. Or you can do what we're doing and just keep reading until you finish! At the end of this post are a few links to help you out if you're interested. Of course you can just google plans as well. Also, if you have an iphone, search Bible apps-the very first one that comes up is fantastic! Several of the girls are using it now. It also has a plan to read through the Bible as well.
Whatever you do-just read. Give it a try. Come on this journey with us. The Holy Spirit will teach you. Learn for yourself who He really is and what He is really all about it. I challenge you to no longer go on what others have told you and find out for yourself.
The Holy Spirit will teach you. He promises! John 14:26 "But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative-that is, the Holy Spirit-he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you."
So that's what the next blogs will be about. What the Holy Spirit is teaching us. And WOW. Is He teaching us. But don't take my word for it!
Lea :)
Here are a few plans for reading through the Bible:
http://www.ewordtoday.com/year/amp/bjan01.htm
http://www.gracebaptisturbana.com/Read_The_Bible_in_6_Months.pdf