So Long 2016, Hello 2017

This year has been a year to remember. Or a year to forget. I haven't decided which yet.

I feel like we have been on a celebrity death watch since Sunday. George Michael dying, unexpectedly. Then Carrie Fisher on Tuesday. Her mom, Debbie Reynolds, the next day. It's been a hard last week of the year.

I don't make resolutions, so you won't see a list of any here. But I do hope to get on here more frequently in the upcoming year. I also hope to get back into cross-stitch and actually finish some of my old WIPs (that can almost be called UFOs at this point, lol).

So, what I will leave 2016 with is this:

Thank you for being the year you were
Please don't repeat yourself in 2017

Happy New Year!!

New Cross Stitch project

It's been a long time since I picked up needle, fabric and thread and while this is a kit I am looking forward to a new finish in the new year.

This is Floral Cross.

I actually started this a few weeks ago, but the colors weren't there that I needed. Go figure! It's a kit afterall. So last weekend I stopped at Michael's and picked up the 2 missing colors. Which also meant I had to frog some of what I had already stitched.

Christmas Time

I miss what Christmas used to be. A time spent with family, gathered around the table eating a meal lovingly prepared by several members. This time of year just hasn't been the same for me since, well, the 1990s. I mean, yea when I was a kid it was about the presents. But let's face it, mom had to come up with some pretty interesting hiding places to keep me from snooping and finding them. I always found them. I always knew what we were getting before they were even wrapped and under the tree...until she started leaving them at her friends' homes, lol. But at some point it became about time with my family. Whether there was snow on the ground or not, I didn't care. I just wanted Christmas morning to arrive so we could pile in the car and head to grandma's!

Grandma went to heaven in 1993. Christmas has never been the same.

The family started doing their own things. Aunts and uncles became grandparents and turned their attention to their grandchildren (rightly so). And the family just kinda stopped being a family at Christmas time.

When I moved back to Florida in 2006, I was building relationships with my dad's side of the family, as an adult. We would either go to my uncle's and spend Christmas with them or to granny's to spend it with her. We eventually started spending this family day with my sister and her family: step-mom, nephews, granny, cousin, aunt and uncle. Well, when dad went to heaven in 2012 this too seemed to slow down. Sure, my cousins would invite me over. 

But it just hasn't been the same.

I long for a time when I can have a proper home (not this dinky single-wide trailer I call a home) and open it up to family for Christmas. To gather them around my table and have a meal, lovingly prepared by several members of my family. And of course, to exchange gifts and watch the excitement in the grandchildren's (grand niece's and nephew's in my case) eyes!

I pray that God will continue to bless me in that this can come to fruition.

Fear Leads to Life

Recently, I decided to do Bible roulette. Not the typical way I read the Bible, but I felt the need to just let God guide me this time. Anyway, after saying a prayer I opened my Bible to see what I needed to read that morning. It opened to Proverbs 19:23.

"The fear of the Lord leads to life, an he who has it will abide in satisfaction; 

He will not be visited with evil." (NKJV)

Of course, the version I read was the NIV:

"The fear of the Lord leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble."

But after looking at a few translations, I found the NKJV was the one I preferred. I think because of the word "evil" being used.

So, I then decided to do a quick word study and looked up the following words: fear, life, satisfaction, abide. Here's what I found:

fear (Hebrew = yir'ah) - reverence

life (Hebrew = chay) - alive

satisfaction

• this word gave me some difficulty as the Strong's only showed  2 occurrences in the book of Numbers. So I went a little further and found another word.
• satisfied (Hebrew = wabea (saw-bay'-ah)) - satiated
• of course I then looked up satiated (Hebrew = ravah) - make drunk; fill; soak

abide (Hebrew - lun liyn (loon leen)) - continue; dwell; endure

So from this I got the following:

Reverence of the Lord leads to being alive; and he who has it will continue to be satiated;

He will not be visited with evil.

I am finding that by doing word studies the Bible begins to make better sense to me as I read it. After watching "The War Room" (for the second time), I realise that I need to be more studious in my reading of the Word. I need to read the parallel verses. I need to do word studies. I want and need to be ALIVE in Christ.

Maybe I should let Him guide me ALWAYS!

What's in a name?

I began reading Exodus again yesterday. Yes, again! I lost my place so I started over. Is that silly or what? Nah!!

Anyway, I didn't make it past verse 5 in the first chapter! D'oh!! I couldn't get past the names for some reason. So it made me think "Why are names so important in the Bible anyway?" I began to do a little research on each of the names of Jacob's sons. There was: "Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin; Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher." (Exodus 1:2-4, NKJV). I looked up the meanings of each name.

Reuben = behold, a son
Simeon = obedient; listening
Levi = attached or pledged
Judah = praised
Issachar = reward; recompense
Zebulun = to honour; to dwell (zaval) or gift; dowry (zeved)
Benjamin (hebrew: Binyamin)= "son of the right hand" or "son of the south"
          (this one is interesting because he was originally named Ben-oni, which means "son or my  
          pain")
Dan = judgment; he judged
Naphtali = wrestling; my struggle
Gad = fortune; luck
Asher = happy; blessed
Joseph = may he add

It's been said that people tend to live up to the meaning of their name. I can see where this is true in Levi as he became the father of the priestly tribe. Benjamin, or Ben-Oni, too as his mother died shortly after his birth.

Think about the name you were given. Have you lived up to its meaning? My name is Julie Ann and according to www.biblical-baby-names.com, Julie means "soft-haired", "youthful" and is Latin for Julia (which I have been called as well.). Julia can be found in the Bible in Romans 16:15. Ann means "grace" and is a derivative of Anna (Greek) or Hannah (Hebrew); found in Luke 2:36, 37. I can say that my hair is not that soft, I do appear youthful, and grace, well it's a work in progress, lol.

How to Read the Bible

What is the best way to read the Bible? Do you start at Genesis and read through Revelation? Or do you follow a specific plan such as Matthew 24, Daniel and Revelation to understand better End Times? Maybe there's a better way. No matter how you read the Bible, you should do just that: read the Bible. Study the Bible. Learn the origins of words that may have been taken slightly out of context through several translations.

Oh, and find the Bible version that best works for you.

Personally, I enjoy the New International Version (NIV) and the King James Version (KJV). The KJV because I love the sound of the words in old English. We don't speak with thou's, thy's and thine's anymore, so it can be a bit more challenging at first. Have you ever read Shakespeare? Yeah, it's something like that. I also am prone to read the New King James Version (NKJV). The idea is to find a version that hasn't removed verses because we have to face it, some versions are incomplete.

Here is a list of some of the more popular versions:

• King James
• New King James
• American Standard
• New International
• New Living Translation
• The Message
• Amplified

So, as I begin to read Exodus - because let's face it, sometimes you just have to start at the beginning - I will try to write encouraging thoughts from my readings. I will try to get on this blog more often and hopefully get to a point where I am on it daily - as the title says "Just Julie Daily".

Even angels long...

What things do the angels long to look into according to 1 Peter 1:12b?

"Even the angels long to look into these things."

There are many things I long to look into. Especially things pertaining to my salvation and eternal home in heaven. I fall short on a daily basis. Something I am all too aware of. Yet no matter how short I fall, Jesus is right there to pick me up.

So, I wonder if all of the things I suffer in life are preparing me for that life. It seems like a lot when I am going through the storm, but I have to stop and remember what Jesus did, on that day, on the cross, for me.