Early Bird

At the new year, I shared that I planned to start getting up before my kids every day so that I could spend time consistently studying the Bible. I reported later on that it had been going well; I have been getting up around 6:00 a.m., about 30 minutes before my kids start stirring.  Yes, they get up early, but it's because I put them to bed early.

Almost this entire time, though, I have to confess that the time "5:30" has been on my mind & heart. After a convicting lesson on worship & prayer in my Sunday morning Bible study, I finally acted on my conviction, which I believe is from the Holy Spirit. 

I am professing this here in an effort to keep myself accountable. This is not going to be easy for me, but I did it all of last week, and I loved it! Having an additional half hour to pray and read and meditate is a perfect way to start my day. Not to mention, I have been squeezing in some workouts too. If that's not a recipe for a good morning, I don't know what is! 

Speaking of meditating, Ben felt convicted that we needed to implement some kind of "system" to our weekly scripture memory. We have been doing this for over a year together, and Ben has been doing it even longer; we've never had a system for choosing passages/verses... until now. His conviction is that we need to be focusing on memorizing verses useful for evangelism, that is, sharing with a non-believer the Good News contained within the 100% truth of the Bible. ALL of the Bible is The Gospel, but Ben has done lots of research and has come up with a list of key verses for leading someone to a relationship with Christ. So far, the verses we have memorized are as follows:

Romans 1:20-23

Ezekiel 18:4

James 2:10

Matthew 5:48

Romans 3:20

Romans 3:23

Romans 3:10

Now, go on a treasure hunt and look them up for yourself! I challenge you to memorize these verses and pray for an opportunity to share them with someone who does not know about Jesus.