Chronological Bible Study

2008-01-15T22:12:00-04:00

This is the Bible Reading Plan that goes with the Chronological Bible study I will be posting.Creation State
Genesis 1-11
(Think: creation, the fall, the flood, the tower of Babel)

Patriarchal Stage
Genesis 12-50, Job
(Think: forefathers or four fathers)

Exodus Stage
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
(Think: exit us from Egypt)

Conquest Stage
Joshua
(Think: conquering)

Judges Stage
Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel 1-7
(Think: cycles of sin, oppression, repentance, redemption)
(Image: judge on a motorcycle)

United Kingdom Stage
1 Samuel 8-31, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings 1-11, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 1-9, Psalms, Song of Solomon, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes
(Think: 1st king was tall; his name was Saul, David, and Solomon)
(Image, tall king, shepherd boy king, wise rich king)

Divided Kingdom Stage
1 Kings 12-22, 2 Kings 1-25, 2 Chronicles 10-36, Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Joel, Obadiah, Nahum, Isaiah, Micah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Lamentations

Captivity Stage
Ezekiel, Daniel

Return Stage
Ezra, Esther, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

Gospel Stage
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
(Think: good news!)

Early Church Stage
Acts

Epistle Stage
Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, Revelation
(Think: letters)

John 4: 4

2008-01-15T22:58:00-04:00

Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'"

(NIV)

Are you starving your children? Are they hungry? I'm not talking about their bodies. I'm talking about their spirits. Start your homeschool days with prayer and the Word to make sure you put God first. If your children leave home and require more knowledge about history or math... even if they can't pass the G.E.D. test- you may be embarassed but that can be corrected.

But if they leave home without having the basic spiritual knowledge they need, then you have neglected your most important duty to God.I'm so thankful that my Mama grounded me in the Word. I had hard times but I knew who to turn to in my hours of need. My faith wavered but it never failed me- in fact it only grew stronger when I grew hungry for the spiritual food I'd been fed all my childhood and searched out the Word for myself in those lean times.

Feed your children well- on the Word of God and they will NEVER go hungry. The Word says,
No one whose hope is in you
will ever be put to shame,
but they will be put to shame
who are treacherous without excuse.
Psalm 25: 3

Mama never gives up...

2008-01-15T23:00:00-04:00

Isaiah 55:11

There is a funny story I like to tell about my mama's persistence. Since it is my story, I'll repeat it here:

Isaiah 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

My mom used to contact the Navigators, an international Christian outreach ministry to college campuses, military bases, inner cities, prisons, and youth camps, whenever my hubby and I were...well, anywhere.

In 1980 I got married and was living in Holland. We had just moved into a Dutch townhouse when a skinny little blonde woman knocked on my door. "You don't know me but your Mom called our organization, The Navigators. . ."

Then we were sent to Oklahoma and had just gotten moved into a tiny little rental house behind a park. A big burly seargent came to our door and said, "You don't know me but your Mom called . . ."

Then we were transferred to Texas where we moved into an even tinier little trailer way out in the woods. One day a tall brunette knocked on my door. "You don't know me but your Mom called . . ."

And then their were the devotionals that just kept coming:
"Daily Walk", "Closer Walk", "Family Walk". . . Now The Navigators minister in many areas on the world wide web. View ways to grow at their website: >Grow -The Navigators

Now we are both maturing Christians with a home church. Visit it on the Internet:

New Covenant Fellowship Home Church

More about Mama. ..

Tattered Books

2008-01-13T11:53:00-04:00

Books have always been my best friends. Over the years, I have found some of my favorite ones around the house by looking for their tattered and torn covers on shelves, dressers, or end tables. Their physical condition has always been relative to their usefulness in my life- the more tattered the cover, the more indispensible the book. I have read them, scanned them, carried them, consulted them and loved them dearly.Now let me introduce them and share them with you, my new friends, in this regular feature. Let me tell you what I liked and what I disliked about each one. Just like my human friends, they may have some things I must ignore to enjoy their companionship. I'll tell you which parts worked for me and which parts did not.

Most of the books I like are either inspirational or instructional because I always seem to need the motivation to do and the knowledge of how to do. They are books that help because I need lots of help. I bet you do, too.

I am constantly searching for new friends, literary and literally. So if you have a book, a special tattered friend, please write and share your review so that I can consider it for this feature.

From the wisdom of

2008-01-15T23:26:00-04:00

If you wait for perfekt conditions, you'll never get anything done.

How to de-clutter a very nasty room....any nasty room.

Put on an apron and a comfortable outfit. If you don't have an apron, it's ok. Clean anyway.

Get these four containers for things :

hamper: for dirty clothes
clothes basket: for clean clothes
trashcan: for trash
cardboard box: for clutter

clutter: anything that is not where it belongs, including things that don't have a home yet.

This is VERY important. Never leave the room until you are finished. That's what the four containers will be used for. To keep you from having to leave the room to put away the clutter.

If you like, put on some good music. Carmen, or Stephen Hill. Bluegrass is pretty uplifting. Videos WILL distract you so CDs are preferable.

Clean the largest horizontal surface in the room: In the bedroom, this will probably be the bed. In the dining room, it will probably be the table. In the living room, it could be the couch or a big coffee table.

Do this by putting anything ON it in one of the four containers. Do NOT leave the room.

Then you are going to go around the room clockwise, throwing everything that is out of place in one of those four containers. QUICKLY now. If you come across something that belongs in this room, just leave it for now. Really. We'll get back to it.

Now take the trash and put the container back where it lives in your house. Empty the bag and replace the liner if you need to.

Now put the hamper of dirty laundry in the laundry room or where ever it lives at your house.

Now put the clean clothes away. Fold, hang. Hopefully, this will NOT take all day. If it is too much to do quickly, leave it for last.

Now put away everything in the cardboard clutter box that you KNOW where its home is. At our house, shoes go by the back door, toys go in the toy box, school supplies and books go in a school supply and book box on a shelf in the living room.

Now. Look at what you have left in the clutter box. Is it worth it to pick this stuff up? Could you just throw it away and still wake up happy tomorrow? If not, why doesn't it have a home in your house? If it's really important, give it a home now even if it's a temporary home in a cardboard box under a bed.

Here's an idea:

Make a folder on your desktop computer and put in it a document- word or even just notepad which is on every Windows computer called House Locater. Now just type in word pairs like : cute socks from junior's second birthday party fourteen years ago that i can't live without : cardboard box on tallest shelf in hall closet. If that takes too long, put junior socks hall closet box.

Now you can use the find feature on your computer to locate junior's socks when he gets married and you want to pass them on... tuh dah!

Assistant de-Clutterer today was Sandy Ashley.

Confessions of a Really Really Lazy Housewife.

2008-01-14T20:54:00-04:00

You have to get it to the point-like that Rice Krispies treats commercial -where the woman pretends she’s working hard and she’s really reading and lounging. What the commercial doesn’t show is the setup. Set-up is essential to household peace but you can’t go from chaos to peace overnite, especially if you’re living in squalor. But you can achieve it ‘bird by bird’ as famous author, Ann Lamott would say. insert Lamott quote here. You clear one spot at a time.In the beginning you might have to work five advancement days a week but not hour to hour. That would make you give up right away. You wouldn’t be able to see the forest for the trees, or as in this case you won’t be able to find your socks in the huge pile of mixed up clean and dirty and donated laundry. So you work a couple hours, take an hour or even two to gel in front of the computer or television, whichever is your bag, then work some more. The gel time is the reward for the work time. Slowly you progress. You can find socks every day now and all the children have been trained to put their shoes on the front porch. So you move to M-W-F work weeks.

Eventually, with your steady plodding you get to Tu-Th Weeks! Yes, literally a two day work week. The bad news is you HAVE to really work on advancement days and you have to maintain on the maintenance days or you will go back to squalor.. The good news is that nobody and I mean nobody, even dear hubby, really has to know you’re not slaving away to keep your home cozy only TWO days a week.

The rest of the time you’re breezing through little routines that have become habits that are as easy as driving on automatic pilot. Every body has done that that drives. You know what I mean, when you start home from work and get to thinking about the to-do list or your friend who wants to go to lunch tomorrow or you’re listening to that new Joyce Meyer partner tape and getting a real revelation. The next thing you know, you’re pulling in your driveway and hanging up the keys. You don’t know how you got there but you got there smoothly. It was no work at all. And home-making can be that way once the set-up is done.

Set-up means everything has to have a place, even the children’s routines. They have to know what is expected. I even explain the two day advancement theory to them. Real life examples come in handy. I sat at the computer the other day almost the entire day. The children were uncooperative and I wanted to write anyway. Dear hubby called and said hello, dear. on my way home. need some milk? etc? yes, dear, thanks so much. mmwah [kiss] see ya in a minit. Get up, yell, let’s clean up -Daddy’s on his way. Got the visual area clean really fast with every body hopping. Dad comes in and says, wow ya’ll worked hard all day. I smile. the kids go play. Next day, advancement day: do you remember yesterday? when dad thought we worked soooo hard?...

Third Rock from the Sun

2008-01-13T22:18:00-04:00

Sometimes beginning to live the Christian life and walk the victory walk is like an episode I saw of Third Rock from the Sun.

In this episode, Dick hits a chipmunk and is riddled in guilt [the young Christian begins his new walk riddled with guilt and condemnation]. He decides that his way of life must change so that no animal will ever again be hurt because of him or his companions. He has authority over his roommates so he forces them to rid their lives of products that may have caused pain to animals [the young Christian trys to rid his life of all sin or what he considers to be sinful activities**.]This is more difficult than he anticipated as he had not realized the extent to which animal byproducts (shoes, pesticides for the ants, ham sandwiches, fur coats) had invaded his life and the life of his companions and he also has not anticipated that some of his companions (fellow employees) would not want to cooperate with his efforts to rid the world of these vices. [Sound familiar, little Christian?]

As some of his companions refuse his demands all together [what?! I like my surf and turf] and the others irritate each other with pointing out the minutest failings they perceive in each other’s attempts to meet the standards [can anyone say legalism, denominational rifts, etc.?] Dick begins to realize how much he himself will have to give up, i.e.; suffer for his cause.

And what if his efforts prove futile, which they do (chippy is eaten by a hawk when he has recovered and is released to the wild. Dick then kills the hawk while defending the chipmunk.)

He is unable to continue in his extremist efforts and so caves to his peers and underlings -sitting down to eat meat in a fog of pesticide.

Many times, young Christians in their extremist efforts to become all that they desire to become for the Lord, in the noblest of efforts to conform to their idea of what the image of Christ really is, forget that they cannot ride on the whims of emotion for long.

What goes up- must come down and so it is with ‘feelings’- the mountain of elation is often followed by descent into the valley of despair.

Having not been able to accomplish it all, they throw in the towel and backslide or at least come to a wrenching halt in their progress. Instead we must as more ‘perfect’ [defined as mature in vines * ] Christians, guide them into the more gradual process of replacing wrong language with right language, walking in faith instead of feelings, and moving toward the happy medium.

God has promised to bring mountains down and valleys up and to guide us in the straight [defined as level] path. Christ has done the work for us and made the yoke easy but progress is made line upon line, precept upon precept.

Precept by precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little… Isa. 28:10

It was the way I finally began to lose weight when all the diets failed to produce any visible **. I started over and tried only one thing and let Christ help me with that one thing. I replaced sodas with water. Then when that had become old hat, a habit, I began drinking enough water, at least 4 bottles [20 oz] daily. As that became automatic, I replaced a menu item such as fried chicken with a grilled chicken breast. Over time, I learned to push away a plate -very difficult if you were raised during the ‘clean plate club’ era- before I felt full. It felt good although it was months later when I finally stepped on the scale and it no longer swung well past 150 but stopped short of that mark. And the best part was I hardly worked at it.

Habits can be friends instead of taskmasters. [Charlotte Mason reference needed here.] Help young Christians keep walking by slowing down the pace without dampening the enthusiasm. Let their enthusiasm rub off on you and inspire you while you teach them temperance [self-control]. God has promised that those who diligently seek him WILL be rewarded and we are. But diligently doesn’t mean working harder- it means not to ever quit. If you become diligent, you will find persistence becomes a habit. And if you are persistent, you will get past the first faltering steps of the victory walk to run well the race that is yours for the prize that is set before you.

Moms' Survival Guide toc