Welcome to Bible in 180 days 2013!!!

Welcome to this awesome experience of reading through the entire Bible in 180 days....

Ok so a little bit about myself and why I decided to do this challenge with you:

I was raised as a good girl with Christianity all around me on a daily basis, we went to church on Sundays, Sunday school, religious studies at school etc etc I thought of myself as a Christian, but realized that actually I was doing a lot of things ‘real’ Christians don’t do...I messed up (and still do) on a daily basis and have fallen and will fall short many times..... I had never read the Bible cover to cover and it started bothering me the older I got, oh don't get me wrong, I tried a few times! But never seemed to be able to get pass Genesis (I know it is very very bad!). I spent time in the Bible on a regular basis and thought that would be enough, I was sure with going to church and reading here and there I by now have read through the entire Bible...right?(oh I was so so wrong!)

My journey led me to South Korea for a year and at that point something happened that pulled the rug out from under me…I felt lost and was struggling silently with my faith (never turning away from it but questioning it) as I was posing the age old question of WHY did it happen to ME? Luckily for me I was in the company and presence of faithful people and through them I got the answers of WHY ME (and no I didn't like it :)). I learnt of the 90 day challenge and decided to do this, I mean what else could I do I had LOADS of time on my hands! I joined in with MomsToolbox who were helping us through the reading plan and actually stuck with it. Reading the Bible in 90 Days is an amazing, exciting and awesome experience, but it is also one that takes commitment and determination. And you have to be honest with yourself (and be prepared to find out things about yourself that you might not like that much)!!!

During that time I began to have a thirst and hunger that was only satisfied when I read in my Bible and have to admit that when I don't read I feel kind of lost...it feels like something is missing (thi sis now two years ago almost and I still have that thirst!!!).... A switch took place in my heart. Instead of just reading to finish the book, I began to read because it connected me to God in ways I had never truly experienced. It changed me and God poured out blessing after blessing, which He has been doing my whole life I just never took the time to see and appreciate it. I wasn't satisfied during the weeks that followed....I was ready to do it again. I wanted to see what God would show me the second time and what I might have missed the first time. After I did the challenge I also studied Matthew, read through Luke, Proverbs and Mark. But and I still couldn’t get enough, hence the fact that I wanted to do it all over again…So I spoke to some of my friends and people at church and most said they might find 90 days a bit to hard so I decided to develop a reading plan that would be for 180 days. We had such an amazing journey when we started this in January 2012. So I decided to do it again in 2013 and hopefully for many more years to come!

As Pastor Brandon had said millions of times before, you can’t understand God’s word by merely reading the new testament. You have to understand the old testament too. I was amazed at the amount of questions I had and the answers I received and for those I didn’t get answers, it really doesn’t matter anymore… It was amazing the things that "spoke" to me.

What you can expect from me:

- IF (it is your choice :)) you commit to reading along with me I will commit myself to you and pray for you by name.

- I will be reading with you. I'll be facing the same struggles and distractions as I don't think I would be able to encourage anyone if I am not going through the reading plan with you.

- I will be emailing you at least once a week. I will however try to send my SOAP (what is SOAP? look here SOAP) devotionals on a daily basis. My role is to encourage you so therefor I will not explain scripture to you (I am most definitely NOT qualified for that!hahaha) But as you can see from the below comment Pastor Brandon will be happy to answer any questions!Yippeeee.

- You can expect confidentiality so if you email me directly it will be just between the two of us, but if you post a comment on the blog that is obviously public.

- You can expect me to be your personal cheerleader! I want to see you succeed. I want you to experience the fullness of what God has in store for you. However, I'm not going to be beating you over the head if you don't make it. I will celebrate with you no matter how long it takes or how far you get! God will reward ALL of your effort!

What YOU need to do:

- Your main commitment is to READ from your own Bible every day (in any language!). It takes about 30 minutes to an hour a day to complete the reading. It may vary from that depending on how fast you read and how many distractions you have (which you will have many!). You must read; listening doesn't count (I tried listening and I got soooo distracted!) You may use any translation you wish. I will provide the reading plan which you can print and use to tick off every day as you read along. If you have questions just make a note of it and come back to it when you have extra time or direct them to your Pastor (or ask Pastor Brandon in the comments tab).

- You MUST check-in every Monday. This is for accountability. Simply post a comment on the check in blog I will set up just to let me know if you are on track, behind, need extra support, etc... You can also email directly if you are a "quiet" one. That's OK, too!!! You can obviously post whenever you feel like it, what you are learning and what God is showing you, but that is OPTIONAL. You can encourage others in the group and pick up encouragement from them as well. The main thing is: you MUST check-in in some form.

When and How!

When: This session will start Tuesday 22^nd January. I wanted everyone to get back to their normal routines before we started this, and also I don’t start anything on a Monday…To me it just means setting myself up for failure (those diets started on a Monday NEVER works hahaha). I also worked in a day off every week which falls on a Sunday (I prefer to have day off as I still spend time in my Bible with church etc) but you are welcome to change that to another day in the week, or even to not have a day off.

I hope you will join me in doing this. I can't wait to see how God blesses each of you. I can hardly sit still. I can't wait to see what I learn this time around. I'm so excited!!! I know it's going to be a hard journey at times (we are all pulled in so many directions), but with the encouragement of each other....we can do this! We can do it together!!!