NIPTO, Day 104

"Gooooood morning everyone! Today's the day! The sun is shining, the tank is clean...... *GASP* the tank is clean. THE TANK IS CLEAN!"
Oh. Wait. The sun isn't exactly shining... The "tank" (house) is clean. But that's a good thing.  Annnnd it's supposed to rain from about 1-9pm today. Which is basically when Hannah's party is. But it'll be okay. We'll get this thing worked out. Weather.com isn't always that accurate, right? (heh... heh.) OOH! I just heard my dad say downstairs that it looks like it's going to "roll on by us"! YAY!


Man. I just got a swift kick in the pants. Thanks to 100 Days of Holiness. These devotionals usually give me a boost or a kick when I need them. It's almost like they know that "at about this point, these people are going to go through something like this." It's kind of ridiculous. Because the Day 20 (today's!) devotional was exactly what I needed.
Thank you 100 Days people!


Katie, my sister, is in Germany right now. She's been there for almost a week. She left a week ago today. She was supposed to go on a hiking trip today, but the "Hurricane Projectile Sneezer" hit her roommate earlier in the week, and Katie got some form of what she had. So she's staying home from hiking today. But she's going to Berlin and Potsdam tomorrow. I think. You can read her blog (that hasn't been updated in the past day *cough*cough*) here :) Check it out. She's funny. I love her!

I think NIPTO is in order. And then breakfast. And then setting up more for the graduation party. And then the graduation party! WOOT!


Romans 12:9-21
 ⁹Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

This begins a section that is headed "Love" 
Don't fake love. Be sincere. Hate what is evil. Yes. There is a command to hate in the Bible. Cling to, for your life, what is good. 

¹⁰Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.

I like this "brotherly love" stuff. I would say I'm devoted to people with a "brotherly (or sisterly) love."
Honor one another above yourselves. That's a hard thing to do. Our world to day is so "me" centered that it's hard to constantly be in a mindset to put others before yourself. For me at least.  


¹¹Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

I see all of these as mini commands. Because that's what they are. Don't get boring. Stay excited for God. Serve him with everything you have because it will make life more exciting!


¹²Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. ¹³Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

This is a good series of things that are sometimes really hard to do. 
When you're hoping, it usually means things are down. Be joyful.
When there's affliction, things are definitely down. Be patient.
And just be faithful in prayer. Because it gets you through a lot. 



¹⁴Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. ¹⁶Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Bless and do not curse those who persecute you. Rejoice with the people who rejoice! Mourn with the people who mourn. Don't fight. Live in harmony with one another. Don't put yourself so high up that you feel like you can't associate with another person. That's called being conceited. Don't do it.  
(That sounds a little hippyish, don't you think? Live in harmony with everyone... I thought so while I was typing it. haha)


¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Because that won't help you at all. 
The next part is difficult. And impossible. Because to do right in the eyes of one person is to do wrong in the eyes of another. 
My reasoning would be: Do what is right in God's eyes and that's all that really matters.


¹⁸If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

The key phrase here is, "as far as it depends on you" because there is only so much you can do.  (Again, this is a little "hippy" but still Bible :)


¹⁹Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.

God's got your back. He'll get people back. He has holy wrath. (I'd be scared of that)



²⁰On the contrary:
   "If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
      if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
   In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."

In the end, doing the "love your enemy" thing really works out. You're nice to them, you feed them, you give them something to drink... you're heaping burning coals on their head. Intensity right there.

²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

And lastly, don't let evil overcome you. Overcome evil with good. Because that's good. (Lame. I know.)


Okay. Well. I'm starving, so I'm going to go eat breakfast. Annnnd then do all that stuff that I had up there. So. I will try to take a ton of pictures and post some of them on here so you can see how awesome this party was! :D
Thanks for reading today!

NIPTO, Day 103

I'm not sure how to start this post. So I guess I'm starting with uncertainty. In my writing... not as a general topic. Even though that would make a fantastic blog post the more I think about it.

To be honest, this is the third time I have sat down today to write this post. I just haven't been able to get past the introduction part. Sure, this morning I got some videos and stuff. But nothing really meaningful. I'm kind of realizing that writing every day can get kind of draining.
It's a fantastic thing to do, but it gets tiring. Sure, I'll still write every day. I'll try to make what I write good quality. But I can't guarantee anything.
I'm only me. And I can only do so much. I can only handle so much.

Today has been a little bit of a whirlwind. Of activity and emotion. Activity being that Hannah's graduation party is tomorrow! So most of today was spent cooking and setting up for that.
Emotion being, I basically got stood up. Which disappointed me. It was something I was looking forward to, and I was let down. I got upset. And then I remembered that, even though I can't control what happened, I can still control how I respond to what happened. I had angry thoughts going through my head at a rapid clip. Then I reminded myself that there was no place in my mind for spiteful thoughts. Jesus wasn't spiteful. He might have been angry, but he was righteously angry. I was not righteously angry. I was just regularly, worldly angry. So I decided that it needed to change. I prayed for a little bit, and I felt much better. I was definitely still upset. I still am kind of upset. But I don't think those things will fade until I've had a chance to talk with the person involved. But God helped me through it so far. He'll help me the rest of the way through it.


I'm listening to music right now. It is amazing. It's seriously some of the best music I've heard in a while. Go here to check out Ian McIntosh.  I bookmarked this page a while ago while I was reading a blog. I don't remember which one. But he's good. And so is his music. Such Beauty is an amazing song. I might have to go back and listen to it again. So good.
This has some of his more recent stuff. Along with the older stuff. I haven't listened to any of the recent stuff yet. I just haven't had the time in the half hour that I've been listening! haha (Yeah. I get passionate about things in half an hour!)


It's YouTube time!
This was a song that I learned one Sunday afternoon a while ago so I could play it at Encounter that night. It was a good time learning it. (Bands are great... sometimes.) Tenth Avenue North is an awesome christian rock band. This is a song about never being alone, really. It's fantastic. Listen to it. (Listen to Ian's music too! Listen to all of it! It's all good stuff!)


Barlow Girl's song "Enough" goes perfectly with the Day 19 devotional for 100 Days of Holiness.
Sorry. That was kind of a lot of links for 1 sentence. But hey, they all go together!


Booooooo. I'm hungry. And once again, it's late at night and I don't want to eat anything. Plus I've already brushed my teeth&everything. Way to be lame, stomach. Way to be lame.
*sigh* I'll just eat a lot in the morning... oh. And there's going to be fantastic food at Hannah's party too. Forgot about that. ;)


Methinks it's N'O time! 


Romans 12:1-8

 ¹Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

Ahhhh. The classic "living sacrifice" verse. I feel like this verse has been picked apart so much, that I don't really have anything to say about it. Except for the fact that if I think about it a little bit longer, you'll have a freakishly long paragraph. 
I guess my main thought about this is that we have to submit everything we do to God. As a sacrifice, we aren't entitled to keep anything back. And letting it all go to God is worship. Mmmmhm. 


²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

This is another almost-over-picked verse. It's very popular among youth groups. Especially since the world has slipped into a pretty ugly pattern. 
As Christians, we are called to break free from this pattern. By praying and constantly renewing our minds, we are able to "test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will." 
It's pretty spectacular to think about. We are capable of doing this with God's help. And that's exciting. 


³For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

My first thought was "underestimate yourself." Then I thought, "No. That's not what we're supposed to do. Don't think too highly of yourself in the first place. Don't underestimate your abilities. Maybe underestimate how important you are. But not your abilities"


⁴Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

It's laughable to think that an eye could do what an ear can. Or that a leg could take the place of an internal organ. (Yeah. I'm going a little extreme. Just for dramatic effect!)
We are all part of a larger body. The body of Christ. We're separate entities, but we all still work together. We don't all have the same function either. That would kind of defeat the purpose of "separate entities" right? Yeah. It would. :P


⁶We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. ⁷If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; ⁸if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Basically: don't stop people from doing what they're good at!!! Let them use their gifts to their full potential! That's all.


I feel like I wrote that quickly. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. (I spelled necessarily right the first time. I am a happy camper right now! haha)
Because I finished this post (mostly), I get to finish A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. If you haven't put it on hold yet, GO DO IT! It's a fantastic book. I'm excited to finish it and see what other little gems are hidden and how I can apply them to my life. It's a great book. Go read it! (Yes. I am plugging for a lot of things in this post... sorry!)

Okie-doky! It's getting later and later, so I guess I'll wrap this post up and call it a night. I'll try to take a ton of pictures tomorrow at the partayyy and post some of them. If I don't post them here, I'll at least post a link to them on facebook.
Goodnight all!

NIPTO, Day 102

Good morning lovely blog readers! (Good afternoon to my sister :P)


On the way home from dance last night, my sister and I were singing this song. And so I thought it would make a good blog video. (Not me and my sister singing it! haha)

 
Its a good song. I really like to sing it. Their costumes in this movie are ridiculous. Especially when you take them out of context.

Uhg. I'm sore from dance last night. I don't think we really did anything out of the ordinary, but I think I pushed myself harder. So I'm sore. My back is especially sore... huh.

It's kind of funny. Because 100 Days of Holiness could be over if I had started with NIPTO. Wow. Starting NIPTO seems like forever ago. It was 3 months ago. Which is kind of a long time. That seems not so long ago, but it was. Weird. Today is Day 18 of 100DOH. Which is over 2 weeks. Time goes by so fast. Adults always tell me that time goes by even faster when you're older. But I'm not sure if that's completely true. That devotional reminds me of the NewsBoys song "I Am Free"
I miss Peter Furler as the front man of NB. Michael Tate just isn't quite the same.

I'm still reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It's still really good. It's all about stories. And how we're living and stuff. It's good stuff. I was reading last night before I went to bed and there was a paragraph that was fantastic. Let me see if I can find it. Found it:

"The most often repeated commandment in the Bible is 'Do not fear.' It's in there over two hundred times. That means a couple of things, if you think about it. It means we are going to be afraid, and it means we  shouldn't let fear boss us around. Before I realized we were supposed to fight fear, I thought of fear as a subtle suggestion in our subconscious designed to keep us safe, or more important, keep us from getting humiliated. And I guess it serves that purpose. But fear isn't only a guide to keep us save; it's also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life." - Donald Miller

It's just stuff like that. It's a really good book. Go put it on hold at the library. It's a good book. READ IT! 'Kay? 'Kay.

You know how sometimes they say "It's go time"? Well. I'm going to start using the abbreviation for NIPTO and start saying "It's N'O time"! hahah I'm so funny. I know. =P

So this is only 4 verses. But I think there's something powerful to be said in them. These four verses are a doxology. A doxology, by definition, is and expression of praise to God. So here I gooo

Romans 11:33-36
 ³³Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
      How unsearchable his judgments,
      and his paths beyond tracing out!

God's wisdom goes beyond anything we can discern. We aren't at all able to find out on our own why he does things. His paths are our paths, but sometimes we don't know where they're going. But God knows. 


 ³⁴"Who has known the mind of the Lord?
      Or who has been his counselor?"

The answer is no one. No one knows the mind of God. No one can tell God what to do. It's just how it is. He's that amazing. 


 ³⁵"Who has ever given to God,
      that God should repay him?"

You might be tempted to say, "I've given to God. He should repay me!" But in reality, anything that we've given to God, he's given to us first. Any praise we give to God is us giving him no less than he deserves. 
This makes me think a little bit more. Do we give God enough? I think the answer is no, we can never give God enough. Well. Maybe that's not true. If you fully, and I mean fully, give your life to God, that's enough. But I'm talking everything. Every thought, every action, every emotion. It all has to belong to God. 
Are we capable of that? I don't know. What do you think? 


³⁶For from him and through him and to him are all things.
      To him be the glory forever! Amen.


From him. Through him. To him. All things are. 
See? We can't give him any less than everything we are because he gave everything to us. Crazy, isn't it?
To God be the glory forever and ever. 
Amen. 


My dad is on the phone with people from LT (Life Training) right now. They're discussing LT stuff. It's exciting!
I've been thinking about how I'm going to blog while I'm at LT... I'll probably have internet access. But will I have my computer? No idea. Will I have free time every day? Probably not. I'd have to get up early to do this... or stay up even later. (I'd probably opt to get up early!)
It'll be a challenge... but I think it'll be good.
I think I'm going to eat breakfast and read more of A Million Miles in a Thousand Years... And then do school stuff. And then graduation party stuff. Yup yup!

I'll be back tomorrow!

Banana Phone anyone?

Before Katie left, we made a video. A Banana Phone video. Are you ready?

Written, directed, and filmed by Katie Yackley
Jeff Yackley as himself
Hannah Yackley as herself
Abby Yackley as herself
George as himself

Enjoy!

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!