Greetings! I'd like to just say a few words before I post our final assignment for 2009. I trust that each of you have been able to celebrate this holiday season with a great sense of God's presence in your life. I hope you read the entire book of Luke as it is such a wonderful presentation of the entire life of Jesus, bringing His passion and purpose on earth into our daily lives even in the 21st century!
Final Assignment: Clean Out, Give Up, and Sell Off! This is a perfect weekend to clean out your closet! For every piece of clothing or kitchen utensil that you received, consider giving away the same piece or utensil to your local charity. For every unforgiveness or unmet expectation, consider journaling about it and giving it up for good. Clean the slate of your heart and start 2010 emotionally fresh and new. (Why not?) And finally, look around your home and office or even in the trunk of your car or storage unit and consider having a garage or Ebay sale! Books, coats, toys, and fitness equipment can make for a great "slush fund," donation, or college books fund.
This is the week to set aside 30, 60, or 90 minutes a day and clean out, give up and organize a sell off so that you can start 2010 with a no-junk-drawer, no excess in my closet/garage/storage unit/trunk/make-up drawer. This last assignment will cost you nothing but TIME! Give yourself the gift of clean, fresh, and ready!
Happy New Year!
Love you all,
Becky
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OK, I did this one as I stated last week.
ReplyDeleteI have a houseguest here for a few days this week, and you can actually finally see the guest bed and the floor in the guest room.
I have my crafts all set up (I am a craft wannabe) and ready to go.
I can now take care of other closets in the house, because the worst room in the house is liveable once again.
Thanks Becky for the encouragement all year, for cleaning out many areas of our lives.
Love you and may God bless all the members in 2010.
Laura, You are a blessing!! I have loved reading your posts this last 2 quarters and even prayed for you this morning before I checked into the blog. I love this weeks assignment and already started with the many Christmas boxes I was saving for my children. (they wanted very little) I noticed the many cookbooks I haven't used in years, and the many entertaining things that just don't come out of the closet anymore so I will start with those. Today we are tackling the guest house closet. I am actually looking forward to this assignment my garage is a disaster with over flow. What a gift for my husband to come home to a garage not full of junk. The assignment I like the best is unmet expectation; journal about it and give it up for good. (Let go of the things that didn't quite work, or the things I said I was going to do and then didn't, (forgive myself). Thank you for helping us all be better stewards. Living a life that is pleasing to God. Christmas day I woke early to pray and read the bible. I had 14 people coming for a formal Christmas dinner and none of the usual help. I remembered the Luke passage about being a Martha when Jesus wanted me to be a Mary. The readings of the bible stayed with me all day long.
ReplyDeleteZechariah 8:2..My love for Mount Zion is passionate and strong, (interpretation: God loves me)
8:9 Be strong and finish the task!
8:12 For I am planting seeds of peace and prosperity among you.
8:16 Tell the truth to each other. (where do I need help ask for it)
8:19 So love truth and peace. (embrace peace, don't be frazzled and let go of extra stuff that will bog you down) Flowers never made the table and the table cloth was not perfectly ironed, people were more important than presentation. Cookies instead of souffles.
Psalm 144:1
Praise the LORD, who is my rock. He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle. He is my loving ally and my fortress, my tower of safety, my rescuer. He is my shield, and I take refuge in him. He makes the nations submit to me. and finally Psalm 144:15
Yes, joyful are those who live like this! Joyful indeed are those whose God is the LORD.
At 1 am I put the last piece of crystal back in the cupboard, mopped the floor, and put a egg casserole in the refrigerator for breakfast the next morning. As I did these things I felt full of JOY for all the blessing in my life. God gave me the strength to finish the task.
Robbie...What a great report! What a delight to see it all come together through Bible verses, new attitude, tireless love for others, and the joy of being loved by God (and how it propels us). You are an excellent student!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
Thanks for the prayers Robbie.
ReplyDeleteAnd the wonderful Scriptures posted.
Blessings in the new year.
Sorry to have missed the final call! Thanks for this quarter! We did do a clean out and a good trip to Goodwill and the workout room is ready for use for 2010! Yeah!!! This weekend will be the office so that I can approach 2010 feeling uncluttered in my daily routine. Hallelujah! Love you Becky! Looking forward to CYL 2010. Robbie - I loved your post too!! Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to have missed the final call, as well. An elderly neighbor was taken to the hospital, and I was there with her on the afternoon of the call.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Becky, for your wonderful coaching throughout the year. We all have benefited greatly from your wise counsel. I know I have been a rather silent member of the group for the last several months, but I have followed along in the background. With an unusually heavy load of students in my classes and the addition of my own set of college courses, I took on more than I could handle well, struggled to "get by" with less sleep than I needed, and even short-changed my quiet time. I don't feel good about that, and I know that God doesn't want any of us to take on more than we can handle.
When my priorities are straight, life is much richer, and when I begin the day with my "appointment with the king," the rest of my commitments fall into place. After much reflection and prayer, I am ready to begin 2010 with new resolve.
Laura, thank you for your faithfulness to the group and to the Lord throughout the year; you are a great example. Robbie, thank you for your wonderful posting; those scriptures are certainly great ones to carry with us as we strive to live for the Lord.
As I end this post, I will leave you with the scripture that our guest pastor based his sermon on last Sunday; it has resonated with me all week: "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:13-14).
Happy New Year, everyone, and may God richly bless each of you.
Wanda
Thanks to all of you faithful bloggers. The rest of us really appreciate you taking the time to write, share and pray. May God bless all of you in the new year of 2010. Thank you Becky for your wisdom .By the way Becky,in the very beginning of 2009 you mentioned that your ministry was in debt for a bible give away in China. Did that ever get paid off? I am sure I missed the answer earlier this year.
ReplyDeleteMy whole house needs to be cleaned out like you mentioned so I will use my Michigan winter to do that :-)
Wanda , I hope you get some rest soon. I think it is funny I complained so much and had so much trouble with just one paper for my last class last spring. I appreciated it so much that you guys prayed for me. At the time I did not know how many classes Becky was taking ( CONGRATS again and a huge WOO HOO to BEcky for her graduation ) and how many you were taking Wanda. Hang in there, it is wonderful on the "other side" .
ReplyDeleteI am so touched by Laura and Robbie's scriptures. I felt that God just wanted to let me know "Your going to make it". Sorry about not doing the assignments for the last two weeks. I was at my mother i laws and then went to see my parents. So, I was driving on both weds. Sad to see the end right now. Am in the going to orgonize my prayer note book and get my desk back into some order. Love and WOOOO HOOOO.
ReplyDeleteMy last post in this blog. I reflected over the last several months and have come to the conclusion that spending time with God every morning makes all the difference. There is nothing better than being in the center of God's will. I started the month with several goals to keep my Christmas simple and God honoring. In one area I chose not to obey I purchased a few more gifts that I found that I thought were perfect. What's the big deal I convinced myself. The big deal was gifts add to the hecticness of the season, time buying, wrapping and the then opening them. On Christmas Eve my non christian neighbor broke her ankle. It saddened me that God gave me an opportunity to help her and if I had done my prayer journals earlier in the week instead of adding presents I would have been able to help her more. It was in my prayer time that God revealed this to me. If you have your daily bible read Dec 31st. It is a perfect ending to this year. I loved every verse but a few stood out more. Revelation 22:7
ReplyDeleteBlessed are those who obey the words of prophecy written in this book.
22: May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's holy people.
Psalm 150 (my new psalm to memorize)
Praise the LORD! 2. Praise him for his mighty works;praise his unequaled greatness!
6. Let everything that breathes sing praises to the LORD!
Proverbs 31:25-31
Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised.
Thanks to all of you who have been on this journey with me. Jesus makes all the difference. Have a blessed 2010 listening to God speak love and truth into your life.
It is apparent that written commitments are more meaningful, more convicting, more unsettling to us when we don't keep them. I love the accountability of a group blog...one day we'll all meet each other--perhaps at the end of year CYL Spa Day? Hope so. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteBecky
All: Looks like I will be coming next quarter.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is the one who supported this, he said he knows what Becky means to me.
Saturday we found a new puppy. God worked that out. We had so wanted a new one after putting the other one down in December.
And finally, I have been able to secure a Work from Home job.
This allows me to gain some income, take care of my Mom who is having two cataract surgeries, and go back to Bible Study Fellowship.
I am going to need to keep employing the skills we have learned here as I take on all these things.
Blessings to everyone, and thanks for all your helpful posts.