January 14, 2017

Greetings My Friend, Winter has arrived! Today's high is going to be 14 degrees so keeping the house warm is more of a challenge. Little Daisy has taken her little body over to the heater and has sat by it a few times already even though she has on a warm fleece coat on her. With the cold we got 3 inches of snow which makes the house brighter. I find that I am sitting with my warm throws on me to keep warm and while I sit I found myself looking up Bible apps. The one I was using was upgraded and it was difficult for me to understand it so I started looking around the app store. I found a new app called Logos and I believe it will take me further in my Bible study. I am still doing the Bible in a year, in the last while I have started learning new ways to take my study deeper. I have learned to circle words that stand out, to map the sentence where I diagram my thoughts more which is staying with me longer. The Logos app has videos I can use to learn more in depth. There are all kinds of reference books for me to access so I am excited. I used this app this morning and now I need to rethink my journal writing and I need to decide if I want to write in long hand or to journal on the app. I like my journal format a lot, it is helping me keep tabs on my emotions, it opens my heart to talk to God more so and the questions and answers that pop up and I am guided by the Holy Spirit. I will more than likely find a way to make notes in my Bible, on line and keep up with entering things in my journal. One of the entries I put in the journal is "What does the Holy Spirit say" This heading helps me to stop and listen to the God whispers on my heart. The next entry of "How can I serve others today" teaches me to focus on how to apply what I learn in my reading to ministry. When I first met Junior he was involved in Amway I learned some great things. I have always loved learning and felt that I needed to get a degree in something. I started out thinking I wanted to be a Nursery School teacher, then I had an English class that taught me about journal writing and writing took hold in my heart, later I decided I needed to make more money than teaching preschool children so I took accounting classes and I entered the business world of banking. Amway taught me that education is not always the formal type but educating yourself can be more useful. Slowly I discovered that I could study God's Word and grow in that, I was intrigued and I find through the years God been teaching me, growing me and I love it. This app is another growth period for me taking me deeper than I have been. The diagraming is exciting me to no end, back in high school or junior high, I hated all the diagraming, this however is awesome. I guess age helps, the idea of going out of my comfort zone is fun too. I find as I look back on my years reading through the Bible that I changed reading plans, for a few years I read the Chronological Bible and it helped me to understand the sequence of events better because the Bible is not in sequential order. For a few years now I have read the Bible through and listened to the Bible being read at the same time, I like this since the laws and all the dimensions are overwhelming to me and my mind starts to drift or I begin to skip those sections. Revelations is hard to grasp period so the reading to me has helped me to begin to absorb some of the lessons in Revelations. I have even begun to identify many of the people in Jesus' genealogy as I read through them in the 4 Gospels too. The Logos app does not have the audio so I will see how well I do with the more difficult parts of the Bible. A New Year, a new reading plan that takes me deeper, life could not get any sweeter. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet