2009 marks my 4th year through the Bible, and my 5th time. The first time through goes back to my first marriage and a strong Catholic faith, and a Bible my parents bought me in 1986. That first experience took me two years to completely read the Bible through (and it wasn’t because it was a Catholic Study Bible, including the Apocryphal and Deuterocanonical books).

But I digress, as I often do.

In 2006 I decided to buy and attempt to read through “The One Year Chronological Bible: The New Living Translation.” And, other than occasionally missing a few days and playing catch-up, have successfully gone through three times.

The neat thing about this particular Bible is that it is ordered, not like most Bibles, but chronologically, from the dates events in historical order. So on January 19th, began the book of Job, after the 50th chapter of Genesis.

Having missed yesterday’s devotional, with too much excitement over my first day of student teaching yesterday, I read yesterday and today’s devotional, and as I’ve journaled through the years, I really relate to Job. I have a new blog for that (student teaching) experience as well, to reflect on what I’m learning, as well as to update anyone who might be interested. (another digression, my apologies).

Oops. Just noticed I’m late to get myself and my daughter ready for school. Will complete this entry later…or maybe not. But there will be more blogs, this I can assure you.

A buddy of mine forwarded this to me and I thought it better-than-cute-enough to post:

Cell phone vs. Bible:

Ever wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like
we treat our cell phone?

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?

What if we flipped through it several times a day?

What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?

What if we used it to receive messages from the text?

What if we treated it like we couldn’t live without it?

What if we gave it to Kids as gifts?

What if we used it when we traveled?

What if we used it in case of emergency?

This is something to make you go….hmm…where is my Bible?

Oh, and one more thing.

Unlike our cell phone, we don’t have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill.

Makes you stop and think ‘where are my priorities? And no dropped calls!

I finally (re)connected with a divorce recovery support group. Though they’ve only got a few weeks left in the study, and won’t be starting another one until september, this morning’s discussion and prayer, focusing on forgiveness, reminded me I hadn’t updated my blog (I should say, “His,” blog) since December 24th, 2007.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that I’ve been struggling with a lot of issues this year, but curiously my last blog entry had to do with the topic of forgiveness. And it’s a lesson I seem to have forgotten, along with a new year’s resolution to focus more on the Lord and what He’s done for me.

This short message is (for me) a “call-to-action,” as it’s time to “get back into the battle,” of waging war against the fleshly desires I have, even while going through the motions of (attempting to be) living the Christian lifestyle. So, as I thought I would have liked to have done 6+ months ago, I’m re-committing time to even short “lessons learned,” and attempt to add something of value to this blog daily. If only as a place my friends and family can visit to see how their brother, son, co-worker, alumni, etc. is carrying on “the great commission,” of bringing Christ to the world in his daily life.

DivorceCare: Divorce Recovery Support Groups