NIPTO, Day 250

Today was a good day! A very good day...
I did school. Ate lunch. Wrote most of a paper. And went to Tarbucks with my best friend.
That was fantastic. We hadn't done it in a long time. And it was way overdue. And the coffee was delicious (Toffee Mocha. YUM!). And the talk was great. I love her. She helps me through soooo much. Love you, Kayt!
Kaytee and I then sat in her kitchen for about... three hours. And it was great. I love her so much. Have I mentioned that??

Yeah. Then I came home and ate dinner and watched Twitches with the Karen girls. And now I'm blogging.
Tomorrow is going to be a marathon day. Eh. PSAT, Alpha "all day" thing, then Halloween at the Ham's. It should be super fun, but I just won't have any down time. But it'll still be fun :) (I should also take the over 1,500 pictures that I have on my camera... )

So NIPTO? Yup.
Hosea 6:1-3
¹ "Come, let us return to the LORD.
       He has torn us to pieces
       but he will heal us;
       he has injured us
       but he will bind up our wounds.


The Israelites said they would return to God. He had kind of ripped them apart, but they knew that he would heal them. He injured them, but they knew he would heal them and take care of their wounds.




 ² After two days he will revive us;
       on the third day he will restore us,
       that we may live in his presence.


They knew God would revive and restore them so they could live in his presence. They knew that it would be awesome to live in God's presence.



 ³ Let us acknowledge the LORD;
       let us press on to acknowledge him.
       As surely as the sun rises,
       he will appear;
       he will come to us like the winter rains,
       like the spring rains that water the earth."


The Israelites knew they had to acknowledge God. They wanted to press on to acknowledge them. They knew that God would appear. Like the sun appears each day. Like the rain came in the winter and spring.
Now let's see if they keep it up...


And now, I must away to bed. Tomorrow is the PSAT and I have to get up early =/
Lamesauce test! haha
I'll probably blog again late tomorrow night.
Sooooo yeah. Later taters!

NIPTO, Day 199

Hey-o! I'm going to have to work quickly if I want to publish this NOW. Because I'm at Panera, and the internet is limited to a half hour between 10 and 1... So everyone can get a connection. So I'm going to do NIPTO and then say anything else I need to say if I have time :)

Acts 18:18-28
18Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea because of a vow he had taken.

Paul stayed in Corinth for a while. And then he wen tot Syria with Priscilla&Aquila. The people he had met earlier... they were tent-makers like Paul.
But before he left, he got his hair cut. OFF. (I'm getting my hair cut off on Friday!) But he had his cut off because of an oath that he had taken. Oath, vow, same diff...


19They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. 21But as he left, he promised, "I will come back if it is God's will." Then he set sail from Ephesus. 22When he landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch.

They went to Ephesus... and Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. I'm not sure if it was because they weren't allowed to go into the synagogue or for other reasons, but he left them. And went into the synagogue. And talked and reasoned with the Jews there. They asked him to spend more time with them, to stay a while, if you will. But he said no. When he left he promised that he would come back if it is God's will. And then he went to Caesarea and went to the church there and then went to Antioch.



23After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

He was in Antioch for a while and then kind of... "region hopped" or "church hopped" or something. And he went to the churches and encouraged and strengthened the disciples there.


24Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.

There was a guy in who came to Ephesus from Alexandra. He was smart and knew a lot about the Bible. He was passionate about God and taught people about Jesus accurately. But he only knew about John's baptism.
He started to talk in the synagogue one day and Priscilla and Aquila hear him and invited them to come to their house and he did and they explained things a little more accurately to him. Or more adequately. Whichever. =P


27When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. 28For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

Apollos (the guy from the section above) wanted to go to a different city. The brothers&sisters encouraged him and wrote to the people there for him so they knew he was coming. When he got there, he helped them. He helped the people who, by grace, had believed. To the Jews there, he refuted them. He proved them wrong. He made sure they knew what was true according to the Scriptures. So yeah. He seems like a cool guy.
 
The end for that.
 
Today I am at Panera with my sisters (kind of) having God Time. And drinking a mocha! :)
Here's my picture... artsy. I know =P

Yum!

A'ight. I'm going to read my bible. And probably journal. On paper. And if I finish that I'll probably steal Walking with God from Katie... :)
Hope you have a good Wednesday!

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.

NIPTO, Day 101

*yawn* Good morning. I'm tired this morning. But I'm up, and that's all that really matters, right? Well. I guess being focused matters. And I feel focused. (Kind of.)

I have something to say about  A Million Miles In A Thousand Years. It has short chapters. Does that make it a terrible reason to like it? (It's not the only reason I like it, but it's definitely a contributing factor.)
When books have short chapters, I feel accomplished when I read them. When books have long chapters, I feel like I read a lot, but I'm only on chapter 3. Like the book I'm reading for school. I just got to chapter 3 and I'm already at page 37. That's basically 20 pages per chapter. I would much rather you break things into smaller chunks because I feel more accomplished when I read.

Speaking of feeling accomplished when one reads because of breaking things into small chunks, I'm trying to do that here. I do it sometimes, but I don't do it sometimes.
But I try. =P

I would definitely click on this link for Day 17 of 100 Days of Holiness. Because it's a good one... Now I'm going to leave you hanging so you have to click on it....
(You don't have to be participating in 100DOH to read the devotionals! And they're good little, takes less than a minute to read, devotionals.)

Mmmmmm... I feel an ADD moment coming on!
So my grandma made coffee this mornign. Because that's what she does pretty much every morning. And I love the smell of coffee. It reminds me of Oreos. Because sometimes on Saturday mornings, my mom will make coffee, and we'll sit at the kitchen table and drink coffee/dunk Oreos in coffee and eat them. It's wunderbar. Oh yeah. I'm breaking out the English/German translator! haha I'm a beast. I know. Actually I don't. =P




Okay. You ready for NIPTO? Cuz I am. 


Romans 11:25-32
 ²⁵I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
   "The deliverer will come from Zion;
      he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
 ²⁷And this is my covenant with them
      when I take away their sins."

Paul's good about not letting people be ignorant. He usually tells them what's going on up front...but sometimes not. But usually. 
Israel has been hardened so that we can be saved. It's so much related to yesterday's post. Then Israel will go back to God. The deliverer is going to come from Zion (Jerusalem) to return the Israelites to God. That was the covenant that God made with them. God doesn't break promises he makes.  



 ²⁸As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, ²⁹for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.

I guess the Isralites weren't great carriers of the gospel. But they voted how other people wanted them to! I don't get verse 29 in its context. It's a great stand-alone verse. We can't give our gifts or our calling back to God. That's what makes the question "Do I really want to know God's will for my life?" soooo important. Once you find that out, there's no turning back. You can pretend you don't know what it is, but that's going to get you in the end. God will get you. (He will get you like you got me. That is a promise. BOOOOYAH Matilda quote! haha) 


³⁰Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, ³¹so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you.

We're all disobedient, right? (Don't lie. You know we all are.) We do the exact opposite of what we're told sometimes. We do that to God sometimes. Sometimes a lot. It doesn't get us anywhere. (Look at Jonah as an example!) But we receive mercy from God. Jonah did too. When other people are disobedient, they're still able to receive God's mercy. (I'm thinking of Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie when they're talking about mercy and compassion! (I ♥ Veggie Tales))
It even says that they're able to receive God's mercy as a result of God's mercy to us. Interesting...


³²For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

This is basically what I get from this: God made us all disobedient. (He gave us free will.) So that he could have mercy on everyone. It's kinda fantastic, isn't it?!


I'm going to eat breakfast. I'm hungry. Then I'm going to do chemistry and algebra... and read Alas, Babylon (a strange "apocalyptic" type novel that has to do with Russia bombing the US... nuclear style... yay... not.)  and do Spanish and practice piano! And then go to my sister's piano lesson... and then dance :)
It should be a good day. And I should get a lot done if I stay on task... Heh. That's always the hard thing! Hope you have a good day!