A Little of This and A Little of That

Hello friends,

Thank you for praying for Erin and I, we both seem to be on the mend and getting back to "normal" life...whatever that looks like! I go to work, I write, I read, I go to church, I do homework for my Sunday school class, I watch movies and (if I'm feeling really well) I might just go with my roommates to get groceries! It may not seem very exciting, but it's the life that God has given me right now and I'm very grateful for it.

I am really enjoying writing a blog post for Broken but Priceless Ministries each week. I am studying the book of Ephesians and relating it to chronic illness. However, as I read Erin's posts and as I write my own, I see that they apply to much more than chronic illness. I may be slightly biased, but I see that as we write about our own personal experiences with chronic illness and what the Bible has to say, those same lessons can be applied to many aspects of life. We all go through struggles, and we all need to hear Biblical truth in relation to suffering. If you need encouragement, click here and sign up for our blogs to be delivered to your inbox.

I'm particularly excited about what God taught me as I was writing Wednesday's blog post. Ephesians has long been my favorite book of the Bible. Through my study of it each week God is teaching me new things and helping me see things from a new perspective. More importantly, I'm getting to know Jesus better as I spend time talking with Him and reading His Word. He teaches me so many things, yet I can only write a portion of it. I'm sure many of you have experienced the same thing as you've prepared for a Bible study or a class you were teaching. The teacher always learns more than the student!

The middle of September I realized that my priorities were getting mixed up. I wasn't spending as much time with God as I wanted; as I looked at my life and what occupies my hours I realized that Facebook was a problem. I was wasting too many hours that could have been filled with better things. I deactivated my account and made a new one so that I can continue to be an admin for ministries I'm a part of. Can I tell you how freeing that was?! I spend significantly less time on Facebook and significantly more time with the Lord. Mission accomplished! Sure there are things I miss about it, but not enough to reactivate my old account. It is now scheduled for permanent deletion!

In all of my new found time to spend with God I am amazed at how He is teaching me the same things in several different ways. (Don't you just love it when He does that?!) The things that I am learning in my Sunday school class, the things I am studying for my blog posts, the things I am reading in my own time with the Lord and the books I am reading are all meshing together to the point that I can't remember where I read something! When God does that in our lives, He must be trying to tell us something important. It's a clue for us to take notice and listen up!

The last time I was at the Christian book store they had a copy of The Message on sale. If you haven't heard of it, The Message is a modern "common language" translation of the Bible. I've read excerpts of Scripture in The Message before, but I've never read entire chapters and books. I'm currently using The Message as I spend time with the Lord and it has been food for my soul! I've been reading the Bible since I could read and passages have become so common to me that I don't comprehend them like I should. When I read from The Message it is almost as if I'm reading the Bible for the first time. I see things from a new perspective, I'm shocked at some of the intensity of the language and I find the common language easy to relate to and apply to my life.

If your own time with the Lord feels routine, I encourage you to change things up. Read a translation that is significantly different from the one you are used to; try listening to an audio version of the Bible; try reading it out loud to yourself or to your family. Breaking the routine can create fresh intimacy with God and deepen our relationship with Him. Try it, then come back here and leave a comment telling us what you did and what you learned because of it. Let's learn from each other!