The Bible reading for today is Job 6-9.

If you’ve been following along in the Bible reading plan, we jumped from Genesis 11 to Job 1 yesterday–this will be the fun of reading the Old Testament in a roughly chronological format.  We’ll stay in Job for the next 10 days, a book full of poetry and great truths about God.  I’d love to hear what ideas, questions or challenges arise as you read.

I’m thrilled to announce that Nancy Hawley will be sharing her thoughts on ‘Beauty, Vanity and the Christian Self-Image’ at our next Sisters Together gathering at the end of the month.  She knows both the value and fleetingness of beauty and will help all of us think Christianly about our self-image.  And we’ll enjoy, as always, yummy food as we sample and learn some new recipes for making ‘Fabulous Sides’.  Mark your calendars for Thursday, January 28th, 7-9:15pm at the James’ home!

Over the next couple weeks I’ll be doing some thinking about Women’s Ministry and how to better use this blog to connect women from the church–please send me your thoughts and let me know if you’d like to help!  Many hands make light work (whether cooking, cleaning or writing a blog).

Stay warm!

The Bible reading for this weekend is Genesis 4-7 & Genesis 8-11.

Decluttering…is wonderful!! Your description of the girls’ room reminds me of one of Karil’s favored lines of A&E Pride & Prejudice, “Shelves in the closet. Happy thought indeed!” In my own ways as a singleton, I’ve been hard @ work to strip out the unnecessary nouns in my home [roommate exempt ], w/ a particular focus to get as paperless as possible. And, as you said, the dimness to this world & the brilliance of Christ’s sufficiency daily is such an extraordinary gift. It’s so freeing to be liberated from our clutch on things & it makes evaluating what to keep, what to scan, what to trash pretty simple. I think about Mark & Ruthi Brucato or Victor Kuligan & his family & the measures they take to pack up life into a pallet & venture off to Italy, to the southern tip of Africa, to live life in pursuit of souls for God’s kingdom. I’m challenged to take a like-minded approach to life & the missions we’re engaged in locally.

Today & tomorrow’s reading cap off the 1^st of 2 main sections of Genesis (1-11; 12-50). We begin to get a glimpse of God’s character & what pleases him as we watch Cain & Abel approach him w/ offerings & deal w/ His response (love ch 4:7), we see the line restart w/ Seth, we witness the LORD’s grief over the greatness of man’s wickedness (ch 6:6=heartbreaking), we look on as flood waters rise & fall, we see words & concepts of “covenant” & “alter” make their debut, the sky & our eyes welcome the rainbow while our hearts cling to God’s Noahic covenant, “an unconditional divine promise never to destroy all earthly life with some natural catastrophe”, and our jaws drop when we see the explosion of languages commence @ the Tower of Babel. It’s a busy time in the beginnings of the world & Monday will begin our opportunity to learn from Job’s life.  It’s been good for me to be reminded, as Emily wrote, of what is true, what is most important.  I hope your time in God’s word has been encouraging to you as well.  Thanks Emily & Happy New Year all!

The Bible reading for today is Genesis 1-3.

The aftermath of Christmas gifts and decorations has spurred a massive decluttering in the O’Donnell household–we rearranged the girls’ bedroom (to make room for Charlotte’s ‘big girl’ bed–thanks, Becky!) and tossed lots of ‘notes’, candy wrappers and stray socks.    We got rid of the crib, mattress and bedding (trust me, you didn’t want it!), shoes we’ve outgrown and clothes that are never worn.  The girls announced, “This is the first time we’ve had clothes in a closet!”.  Moving on to toys, baby clothes and home decor items that fill the basement and are highly unnecessary. . .

But the more important ‘housecleaning’ is taking place in my heart.  Getting rid of unnecessary distractions, a reordering of priorities, reminders of how easy it is to be deceived, distracted and discouraged in the Christian walk.   Other things ’seem’ to satisfy besides God alone, other things ’seem’ more important than God’s glory and holiness seems so impossible.  But when I turn to the very words of God and am convicted by the grand truths found there, the things of earth do go strangely dim. 

The Bible reading plan starts us at the very beginning today and will quickly take us through Genesis and beyond.  If you need reminding about what is true and most important in this life, why not begin reading with me today.  As always, if you’d like me to e-mail you a copy of the reading plan, leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you.  Happy New Year!