NIPTO, Day 118

Hello readers!
Today was a crazy busy day!
Started the day out kind of lazily.... and then mowed the grass. All of it. It was wet. But the yard looks faaaantastic if I do say so myself. =P
Then I got ready for the day... and took some pictures. Annnd then we waited while Dad worked some... then we went to Akron Music to get a couple of things (like new guitar strings!). They're having a moving sale so a there's a lot of stuff for not very much money :)
Then we went to Marc's to get some last minute presents for the dance teachers for the recital tomorrow.
Then we went to a grad party of a friend that we knew way back when. It was fun to listen to the 'rents talk about the "old days" :)
Then we came home and re-grouped and went to Kevin's graduation party. It was fun to see people that we haven't seen in a long time. Like Kevin himself... and Julie and Jen and Cathi and Steven.
Hannah and I ate and watched people play ping-pong. And then we played carpetball. I'd say that Hannah dominated. But I didn't do that badly. Then we just chilled with people and talked. It was fun :)

Now we're home. We're watching So You Think You Can Dance from Thursday night.
Chillin' on a Saturday night is nice :)

Romans 16:17-27
¹⁷I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. ¹⁸For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.

This is Paul's closing statement to the Romans. There were so many people in their community at the time that were against Christianity. A lot of people at the time literally worshiped the emperor. He thought he was so important that people should worship him. This might not even be referring to non-christians. Looking at it more closely, it seems like these people are coming from inside the church. He says that these people weren't "serving our Lord Christ" which could mean they were worshiping the Emperor. I don't know. (You just get walked through my logic. My hopelessly flawed logic!) He's telling them to at least not be naive. Because the people that are deceived are the ones who are naive. 


¹⁹Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.

I think this is sweeeet. The first word. EVERYONE. Everyone has heard about your obedience. Everyone. That's everyone. CRAZY, right? Yeah. They were so obedient that Paul was filled with JOY. But he indicates that they aren't very discerning. It seems like they aren't the brightest crayon in the box when it comes to being wise about good and evil. Just my opinion/what I am getting from this. 



 ²⁰The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
      The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

The God of peace will soon CRUSH Satan under YOUR feet. He's not going to use his own feet. He's going to use YOUR feet. Or our feet. Whichever. But it's impressive. 



 ²¹Timothy, my fellow worker, sends his greetings to you, as do Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my relatives.

Some more greetings :) I greet my sister. And whoever else reads this blog!



 ²²I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord,

Woahhhh. Paul didn't actually write all of this. Tertius wrote this down. So he gets to give a shout-out! WOOT! I feel like this is a PARTAY! =P



 ²³Gaius, whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy, sends you his greetings.
      Erastus, who is the city's director of public works, and our brother Quartus send you their greetings. ²⁴May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you. Amen.

There were a lot of people that wanted to give a little "Hey! We're thinking about you!" mention in this letter. :)



 ²⁵Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, ²⁶but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him— ²⁷to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

This is all to God. Simple as that. This letter was written for instruction. It was written for encouragement. But it was also written as praise to God. He was obviously working in that church in Rome. Otherwise they wouldn't've needed this letter. 
God is working in our churches today. These letters can be applied to our churches today. We don't always do that though. We sometimes think that these were written to specific churches for specific purposes. And they were. But the principles in them are still applicable to the church today. God's word is living and is extremely powerful. But we lock it away. We kill it. We make it dead. 
God's breath is in the word. It breaths his power and majesty. 
Embrace the Bible. It's powerful. 


Now. After leaving you with that little morsel of information... I think it's time for me to sleep.
Actually, one last thing. I found an article today. It's about Zachary Levi. He's the guy who plays Chuck on Chuck. If you haven't already read it, I would STRONGLY recommend that you read it. And you should really just click on it here =D   It's a great article!

I'm going to go to sleep now. Hope you had a nice Saturday :)

NIPTO, Day 117

Hello my minions readers!
Today has been a fabulously lazy day. So far. Maybe I'll clean my room. We'll see.

I went on a walk this morning. It was kind of muggy. But still nice.
Today is the lassst day of school for the school district here. So people are excited about that. As in a school bus just drove by and there was excessive yelling and honking =P

Caleb's graduation party is tonight... should be fun! Maybe I'll get to drive a little bit tonight too. Not to the party though. That would involve highways. I'm not fond of regular streets yet, let alone highways.

I went to Panera to check in about my application. The manager that I wanted to talk to had already left. Booooo. I'll check back on Sunday when he's working again. Yippe. I applied at Target sometime last week. I got an e-mail saying that there weren't any openings. I might just apply again. Just to be sure.

WE JUST GOT A POSTCARD FROM KATIE! Awesome. All the way from Germany. =D

I guess I'm going to do NIPTO now. And then I think I'll start cleaning my room. EEK.

Romans 16:1-16
 ¹I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cenchrea. ²I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me.

Basically: This girl is AWESOME. So help her if she needs it. Because she totally deserves it. She helped me out a lot.


³Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. ⁴They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. ⁵Greet also the church that meets at their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.

Priscilla and Aquila apparently risked their lives for Paul. Paul and all of the Gentile churches were extremely grateful to them. Apparently these two people also had a church that met at their house. 
I think it's cool that Paul took the time to greet so many people by name. Not just in a generalized group. Some of them were in generalized groups, but they weren't big groups. I'm guessing. 


⁶Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you. ⁷Greet Andronicus and Junias, my relatives who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.

He greets people who have worked hard for the church. He greets people who have been in prison with him. People who were Christians before he was!


⁸Greet Ampliatus, whom I love in the Lord. ⁹Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys.

People he loves. People who are fellow workers. Friends. All by name. It's so cool!


¹⁰Greet Apelles, tested and approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus. ¹¹Greet Herodion, my relative. Greet those in the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord. ¹²Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord. Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord.

Apelles was a person who was tested. Which generally means hard times. But he was approved in Christ. Which is sweet. 
Relatives, households, hard working women, another hard working woman. You don't really hear much about Christian women in the New Testament. They're there, but they don't get talked about much. I just wonder who these women were and what they did and how they acted. They had to be amazing people.  


¹³Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too. ¹⁴Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the brothers with them. ¹⁵Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and all the saints with them.

Rufus and his mom must be pretty amazing people. His mother was a motherly figure to Paul which is sweet. 
Again, more people by name! These people don't really have anything associated with them besides "the brothers with them" which would just be another church maybe? 
And then more people.  


¹⁶Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings. 

Or, ya know, a bro hug is fine too. ;)


Our Secret Screen came yesterday. I don't remember if I talked about this at all. So I'll take a picture and let you see how it works :)

This is what it looks likes from the garage

There's this bar at the bottom that you lift up...

you lift it down&out

And it rolls up into...

its secret place at the top of the door frame

Then you just pull it back down and make sure it latches!

Voila! We have a screen for our garage door!!

I promised Katie that I would upload some pictures of our ROSES that actually BLOOMED this year. They didn't bloom at alllll last year! So there are a TON this year.

There are lots of them! (These were taken a couple weeks ago)

And they're pretty!

I like these ones :)

It seems like there are more of them! (These were taken this morning after my walk :)

SPIDER. Had to post. It was cool!

Aren't there about 50 bajillion of them?!? (see that circle thing in the upper right hand corner? There are birds living in that!)

I had this song stuck in my head after listening to it ONCE. So listen at your own risk. It's like the theme song for the World Cup. Which starts in 6 days.



Alrighty! I've gotta go. Caleb's graduation party, you know :) Hope you enjoyed the pictures and video!
Adios!

NIPTO, Day 116

(6:30 PM)
Goooood _______ <-- insert whatever time of day you're reading this!

I was going to go on a walk just now. But it's thundering. And it doesn't look so hot outside. Actually, it looks pretty hot outside... It doesn't look very good for walking!

Today has been a semi-eventful day...
I slept in. (Glorious! Even though I didn't get my morning walk in, it was nice to sleeep)
I finished a book. (My Sister's Keeper. It didn't end how I expected it to. I cried too. Sad sad ending.)
I helped Mom&Hannah clean out the school room/rearrange it.
Dad just put up our "Secret Screen" at the garage door. It works! YAY!

(9:30 PM)
I went on a walk anyways. It didn't rain. Really. It sprinkled a little. But not too much. My clothing didn't get wet. I'm rambling.

I'm a little angry. But there's nothing I can do about it... so I should really let it go. But it's hard to let things that hit close go. Maybe I shouldn't let it go... maybe it's something I need to address... I just don't know how. Ya know? Especially since there are people I love involved. It makes confrontation so much harder.

(11:25 PM)
Wow. That was crazy. There are some things in life I just don't understand. And I'm realizing that I may never understand most of these things!
OOOOOOOOKay. I'm doing NIPTO now. I need to chill out. Breathe. Breathe God in. Exhale stress and anger/other negative emotions.

Romans 15:23-33
 ²³But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to see you, ²⁴I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.

Basically: I want to visit you, but there's no work for me to do. But I still want to see y'all. So I'll drop by when I go to Spain. (Which is somewhere I want to go byyyyy the way!) And then hopefully you can help me out a little after I've spent some quality time with you! :D (AYT-->Abby Yackley Translation)


²⁵Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there. ²⁶For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. ²⁷They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.

Sooooo Paul's headed out to Jerusalem. The other places mentioned were generous and willing to help those in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it. Happy. Willing. It says that they owed it to them. Because the Gentiles shared the Jews' spiritual blessings. They at least owed their material blessings to the Jews.  Interesting. 

²⁸So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this fruit, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way. ²⁹I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ.

He had to finish what he was doing. And he had to make sure that it was fruitful. Only then would he go to Spain. But he knew that when he did go to Rome, he would come with the blessing of God.


 ³⁰I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.

He doesn't say rid me of my struggle. He says join me in my struggle. 
Joining in someone else's struggle is as simple and complex as praying for them. I feel like I'm joining in a couple people's struggles right now! 

³¹Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there, ³²so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed.

He was persecuted. But people were in prayer a lot for these people who were out on the front lines of the battle. 
Paul didn't want to go to Rome unless it was by God's will. And if God's will included being persecuted (no one knows how) then he would go through with it. But he wanted God's will for his life. He was willing to give up so much in order to do what God wanted him to do. 
I'm selfish. There are things in my life that I don't want to give up. Sometimes you have to give everything up... and I'm not sure if I'm ready for that.


³³The God of peace be with you all. Amen.

I'm praying that you have God's peace right now. Whether it's just slowing down and sensing God's presence or peace in a relationship, I'm praying that you have it. 
Heaven knows (literally) that I need God's peace right now! 



I hope you all had a good Thursday! I'm going to sleep now. Because it's late. And I'm tired. And kind of emotionally drained.
Good bye!

P.S. Again, there wasn't a visible 100 Days of Holiness Day 33 post. Hm.

NIPTO, Day 115

Good morning/afternoon/evening! (Hah. I think I'm just going to say "good day" from now on =P)
Yesterday was kind of crazy. We had rehearsal at 3:30. We didn't get home til after 7. It was a long rehearsal.
They didn't ACtually start until later because 3 of the girls had graduation last night and couldn't stay for the whole thing. So they went over their dances first. And we went over our dances because one of the girls in our class was graduating. SO. Yeah. But it went well. I didn't mess up too badly. There was a little bit of "what do I do next??? I DON'T REMEMBER THIS DANCE!" but it didn't last for too long.

Then we came home and ate dinner and I veged out. Hannah and I watched a bunch of videos on YouTube... the 'rents went on a walk... we watched Glee. Then I went to bed... kind of. I read a little bit :)

Hannah and I are going over to Z&D's house to help their mom out for a while this morning. (I love those baby girls! They're adorable! And those big boys too. I wouldn't quite describe them as "adorable," but they sure are cute :)
After we help there, we're going over to another friend's house to help clean because they have a graduation party coming up on Saturday!
So it should be an eventful day! Actually, I might not finish this post until we get back. Huh. We do have to leave soonish... and I do have to get ready... and there is a lot of Romans to go over today. Did you know that we're almost done with Romans?

Well. I guess I'll hop to it and see how much I can get done before we leave :)

Hah. I did NOT get this all done before we left. It's about 11 pm.

Today went well! It was fun to help out Angie with the kiddos. The girls are so sweet& the boys are CRAZY. But they all balance out! I held Em almost the entire time. She's so cute! I have a couple pictures of Hailey that I want to put up :)
Cleaning went well too! Just in case you were wondering. (And Katie, I know you were wondering and were dying to hear all about it =P)

No Day 32 post @ 100 Days of Holiness. :(

I guess it's NIPTO then sleep. And hopefully sleeping in in the morning!

Romans 15:14-22
 ¹⁴I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.

Paul's telling us that we're able to teach each other. That we're competent. I guess I am able to teach others... I mean, I help with the teen bible study at Urban Vision... That's teaching. And it's exciting to see when someone grasps a concept they've never gotten before!

¹⁵I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me ¹⁶to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

I think this is almost a disclaimer. Kind of like "I was kinda strong on some points, but that's because the Holy Spirit told me." Or something like that. Either that or it's just by grace. There's a great word in the last sentence. Do you know what it is? Sanctified. The Greek word (because Imma freak and love Blue Letter Bible) for sanctified is hagiazō. In Greek, it looks like so: ἁγιάζω . Pretty, isn't it? Yeah. Just thought I'd point that out. Because it's a word I like.

 ¹⁷Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. ¹⁸I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— ¹⁹by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

In the NASB verse 17 talks more about boasting in the things of God. Kind of self explanatory. 
It's interesting. In this letter to this church in Rome, Paul won't write anything except what God has accomplished through him. huh.
Don't you think our lives should be more like that? To be hesitant to talk about anything except what God has accomplished through us? We're so consumed with what we've accomplished that we sometimes lose sight of what God has accomplished and what he wants to accomplish.  


²⁰It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. ²¹Rather, as it is written:
   "Those who were not told about him will see,
      and those who have not heard will understand." ²²This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you.

He wants "fresh blood" so to speak. He wants a clean slate that no one has written on yet. No preconceived notions. So Paul went to the places that had never heard the gospel. When there's a clean slate, there's a lot of room for making an impression.
Because of this desire to take the gospel to places that had never heard it, Paul wasn't able to visit Rome very often. They had a well established church (I'm assuming) and they didn't need his help. Except maybe a kick in the rear end via letter ;)


Mmmmmmmmkay. I'm going to go to sleep now. My sister is probably going to wake up and read this =P
Crazy +6 hour time difference.  Good night/morning!

NIPTO, Day 114

White Rabbit.

 ()()
 oo
 (   )*

Hah. That's horrible.
Today is the day that Alice In Wonderland comes out! But that's not the reason for the rabbit. If you're unfamiliar with "white rabbit" it's a game that my family and a few other families at church play. On the first of the month, you try to 'get' people by saying "white rabbit" to them first. Once you've gotten them, they can't get you back. It's something we've been doing for a longgg time. Now you are informed. :)

Rehearsal is today. I'm soooo excited. I love rehearsals. I said this in my last post. But it's just so much fun!! Big stage. Big lights. Loud music. It's exciting!

Wow. My father is ridiculous. He's walking around the house with two pairs of sunglasses on. Why? No one knows.

The ants have begun to invade our house. Mostly our food pantry. Ew. Hannah and Dad have been vacuuming them up for the past 2 days. They should really all go away.

Wow. I'm such an ADD blogger. I go from one thing to the next... look something up for the blog but then get sidetracked. Then come back to the blog and realize that I should be done blogging by now. But I'm not.

Back to Alice in Wonderland. Because it's coming out today, here is Alice's Theme. It's one of my personal favorites :)



Wow, Abby. Congratulations. Now you're racing against your computer's battery life to finish this post. Heh.
Or not. I decided to wait to finish this. So it is now afternoon. I just finished lunch. I'm watching The Court Jester. Fantastic movie! A comedy of errors, if you will.


Now. NIPTO.

Romans 15:7-13
⁷Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

By accepting one another, we bring praise to God. It's really quite simple, don't you think?


⁸For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God's truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs ⁹so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy, as it is written:
   "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;
      I will sing hymns to your name."

Jesus became our servant so that he could confirm the promises that were made. So that we, as Gentiles, could glorify God because of his mercy.


¹⁰Again, it says,
   "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people."

We're called to rejoice with God's people. And what a rejoicing that is! 


¹¹And again,
   "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,
      and sing praises to him, all you peoples." ¹²And again, Isaiah says,
   "The Root of Jesse will spring up,
      one who will arise to rule over the nations;
   the Gentiles will hope in him."

We are to sing praises to God. 
Isaiah, waaaaaaaay before the time of Christ, wrote that "The Root of Jesse" would spring up. A lot of people may have interpreted this as David, but really, Isaiah was talking about Jesus. They would've thought it was David because he was a "real" King. He ruled the nations. People didn't expect Jesus to be the messiah. They were expecting someone like David! God uses the "unexpected" people for his work.


 ¹³May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

God is a God of hope. As we put our trust in him, he will fill us with joy and peace so that we can overflow (and therefore share?) with hope. 


I'm encouraged. After reading that last verse. And challenged. Challenged to trust God.
And now it's time to go get ready for rehearsal! YAY!


P.S. Today is Day 31 of 100 Days of Holiness :)