NIPTO, Day 141

Gooooood morning! It's a beautiful morning here... if you're a duck.
It's just raining, raining, raining. But I love rain. It's soothing. And the lightning was sweet last night.
Okay. Let me start from when I stopped blogging yesterday.
I drove to the house where I was babysitting. It was fairly uneventful. The Honda's muffler is not doing it's job and consequently is... loud. But it's getting fixed today. Hallelujah! ;)
The kids were good. Cora went to bed at 7 and Soph, Riley, and I watched a movie. Then Riley went to bed at 8. Neither of them made a fuss. Good kids, eh? Soph and I read some books and ate some ice cream! And then all of the adults got home. Ruthie drove me home and I went inside and said Hi to my parents. Mom told me that Hannah had poked her head in to say that she was getting coffee with some people. So I called around to see where they were. Then I drove the Saturn to Starbucks and got some Refresh tea. I'm coming to love that tea. And it's a lotttttt cheaper than coffee! (And I just got way sidetracked looking at how much it is to buy tea online. It's really cheap. I'm going to get meself some Refresh tea. YUM.) Soooo I hung out at Starbucks with Erin, Adam (for a little bit), Hannah, Alex, Kaytee, and Brandon. It was fantastic. Brandon told us what was happening with the youth group and with Generation Akron and it's all fantastic. I'm SO excited.
So we hung out at Starbucks until they closed. At 11. (I'm thankful that, even though it was a Sunday night, Starbucks is open 'til 11.) Then we stood outside for... 15 minutes? and then we went home. And stood outside (in the rain) for another 5ish minutes. It was all funtastic. I like those people a lot.

At the end I asked Brandon what we were reading for NIPTO next. Here's how the conversation went:
Me: What are we reading next for NIPTO?
B: Keep reading Ephesians
Me: I'm done with Ephesians
Kaytee: Abby, you're such an over achiever
Me: Not really...
B: I thought we've only been doing Ephesians for 2 weeks.
Me: I've done it for three?
B: Read Acts.

So Acts will be the next book we go through.

But before we get started on Acts, I wanted to share a post that I read at (in)courage this morning. It was a fantastic reminder. It was titled Note to Self:

soak up each day. slow down and be present in the moment. make realistic to do lists (it doesn’t all have to get done today!). notice the little things. appreciate beauty. ignore the mess. laugh at yourself. linger over coffee. enjoy today. today is all we have.

Goooood reminder. Thanks (in)courage people :)

Alrighty. NOW we'll get started on Acts.

Acts 1:1-11
1In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

Acts was written by Luke. So his "former book" is the book of Luke. And this was a letter written to Theophilus (sounds a little like "the awfulest"). And in the book of Luke, Luke wrote about Jesus. It is one of the gospels. Yeah.


3After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

After Jesus died, he came back to life. And during those 40 days that he was alive, he proved to the disciples that he was alive. And he talked to them and taught them about the kingdom of God.


4On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

So everyone was eating together. And Jesus told them not to leave Jerusalem. He told them to wait for the "gift" that God has promised. What was this gift? The Holy Spirit. It's kinda crazy to think about. Before then, no one (besides Jesus... who is part of the trinity) had ever really experienced having the Holy Spirit live inside of them. Crazy.


6So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
7He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

Everyone thought that Jesus was going to be king. They thought that he was going to overthrow the  authorities of the time and give the kingdom (Rome? Not sure.) back to Israel.
Jesus basically told them that that wasn't what he was doing. But not really. He told them that they didn't need to know what God was planning.


8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

This is a pretty famous verse. It's a pretty sweet verse too!
We receive power when the Holy Spirit "comes on us." Power. And we are called to be witnesses in... everywhere? To the ends of the earth. I want to go to the ends of the earth. Which might possibly be in Thailand or... somewhere in Africa... or in my back yard?

9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

Uh... bye, Jesus!

10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

They were all looking up to see where Jesus was going and these two guys popped up beside them. They asked the disciples (or whoever was there) why they were looking up into the sky. I would've been like, "uhm... did you just see Jesus float up there? That's where I'm looking..."
But the "men dressed in white" reminded them that this was Jesus. He left to go to heaven. And they told them that he'll come back down in the same way that he went up. A little scary, but I'm thinking that it was reassuring for the people who were there.
This shall be continued tomorrow :)
 
Alrighty. I think I'm going to go to the grocery store and library with my mom. Not really sure what we're doing the rest of the day! I know Uncle Tom is coming back this afternoon, but I'm not sure what we're doing. I guess you'll find out tomorrow ;)
Byeee.