In my quest...

In my quest to be more active on this here blog, I let January slip by me, lol! Anyway, been keeping busy with my job. Not teaching this semester due to low enrollment, but hopeful for Fall term. Gives me a few months to maybe rework some of what I do in class.

Went to a memorial service this morning for a dear old man from church. Gonna miss him a lot. It's like losing my dad all over again. The irony of today is it also happens to be my late grandma's 93rd birthday. I miss her all the time. After the service and visiting with the family, I stayed back (well got some lunch in between) for worship rehearsal. So invigorating! The more I listen, the more I have grown to love contemporary Christian music.

I've been reading in Isaiah. It's interesting how while reading certain verses from Revolution pop into my head. Maybe not the exact verse, but what I remember from reading that very daunting book. The Women's group I go to on Wednesdays will be wrapping up Sweeter than Honey this week and then delving into Matthew for a 30-day challenge. I'm looking forward to it. I also will be going to a new old Bible Study. New study, old group. We're doing something by Rick Warren. Should be fun and interesting. I am really trying to get more involved in studies and such at church. I need it as much as I want it.

Until next time ~~~

January 1, 2017

This year will be a year of deepening my relationship with Jesus!

This morning, we had a wonderful worship service at church with a guest sitting in on the drums. He is 9 years old - and man can he play drums! Unfortunately, the video file size is too big to include on this post.

Anyway, this evening, my other half and I sat around the dining room table indulging in a little sparkly. I kept my limit to 2 glasses. While I was hesitant to try it because it's a red, Cold Duck is actually not that bad. Mind you, I don't really drink alcoholic beverages often and when I do it's typically just a glass or 2 of wine. Here's a couple snaps of of the flutes filled. I looked in several stores for flutes with New Year's designs already on them to no avail so I made my own. I used Puffy 3D Glitter Paint. It served it's purpose!

Enough about the alcoholic beverage. On to more important things: Jesus!

So after I finished my 2nd glass, we continued our discussion on Jesus but delved into actual Scripture. Yea, we discussed Jesus and Bible over bubbly. Remember, Jesus turned water into wine.

I reviewed the message from church this morning with my other half (he doesn't attend) and then we talked about my new Bible. He gave me a Holman Christian Standard Bible (see image below) for Christmas. I am loving it so far!

I read aloud Proverbs 31 beginning at verse 10 (the Virtuous Woman) and then the book of Ruth. It was pleasant sitting and discussing Biblical concepts and verses with him and I look forward to spending more evenings doing the same - minus the bubbly, lol!

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.