Been a few days since I was here. I changed my high speed Internet provider, and that ate up a lot of time as I got everything working correctly. Catching up from being away also kept me in high gear. I am officially a week behind where I should be in my writing projects, and I’m not sure I’ll get much work done on it today.
90 DAY BIBLE UPDATE (or as I have seen it called in other blogs, the "Overachiever’s Bible Reading Plan":
I am now on Day 40 and am in the Psalms. I am listening as well as reading, and I have been once again overwhelmed by the beauty of the words of praise and sometimes surprised by the gut-wrenching honesty of the psalmists. There is something about hearing them as well as reading that makes the Psalms all the more powerful. Psalm 19 really blessed me as I reread it this morning, particularly the following verses:
The instructions of the Lord are perfect,
reviving the soul.
The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The commandments of the Lord are right,
bringing joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are clear,
giving insight for living.
Reverence for the Lord is pure,
lasting forever.
The laws of the Lord are true;
each one is fair.
They are more desirable than gold,
even the finest gold.
They are sweeter than honey,
even honey dripping from the comb.
They are a warning to your servant,
a great reward for those who obey them.
How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?
Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
Keep your servant from deliberate sins!
Don’t let them control me.
Then I will be free of guilt
and innocent of great sin.
May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
(Psalms 19:7-14, NLT)
HIS WORD IN MY HEART
On Wednesday, I attended the first of two classes on memorizing the Scriptures. Years ago, I used to quote the Bible without hesitation. I knew the words and the chapter and verses. Over the years, I seem to have lost that ability. Of course, I’m sure age has something to do with it, but I also think the practice of multi-tasking has had a huge affect. The brain doesn’t stay focused in one area for long before it darts off, out of habit, to something else. I love technology, but I think it has contributed to the multi-tasking habit and is detrimental in many ways. Another thing that I believe has hurt me in the memorizing department is that I’ve been using multiple versions in my read-throughs of the Bible. Wonderful for reading and getting deeper meaning. Bad for memorizing because I’m not sure how verses go. The pastor teaching the class (who can recite many of the books of the Bible from memory) agreed, saying that we should decide on a version for memorization and stick with it while working on this discipline. For the class, we are memorizing Psalm 1 this week, but I plan to work on Psalm 19 (above) next.
If you’re interested in working on your own memorization of Scripture, the book we were given in the class, His Word in My Heart by Janet Pope, is very helpful. There is also a web site for those who want to work on this discipline.
COOL GADGET!
I loaded my audio Bible (purchased through Audible.com) onto my iPod because burning the CDs would take forever. I have one of those hookups that turns the radio in my car into the speakers for my iPod, but I had troubles with it causing my iPod to jump forward to the next section (each section is about an hour long). I think it was the power surge when I started the car. For music it doesn’t matter, but it does matter on any audio book. So I was listening in my car with one ear bud (since two is illegal!).
Last night I was in the Brookstone store at the mall, and I saw the "ishell," an MP3 sound case that is a mobile speaker for an MP3 player. It is so cool. I popped in a 9 volt battery, plugged it into my iPod, and I had instant sound while driving my car. Oh, and it is pretty too. I bought the bright blue but there is hot pink and fluorescent green and black and white.
Well, it really is time I got to work. Happy Saturday, everyone.
-rlh-
WOW that ishell is really neat. I’d like speakers for my iPod sometime. I have an iTrip for the car–it attaches and wirelessly feeds the sound into a blank station on the car radio. I’m actually not clever enough to figure this out–my husband works for a hi-tech company and got it for me.
Camy