Day 56: 309 days left…88 books to go!

Simple Abundance  The Blessing of Health (Nov. 24th)

•  "Money is going to have to buy a lot in the next few weeks, but it can't buy the gifts that count most:  good health, a loving and supportive marriage, healthy chidren, the fulfillment of creative expression, and inner peace."
• "'One of the most sublime experiences we can ever have is to wake up feeling healthy after we have been sick.'"  Rabbi Harold Kushner, Who Needs God
• "If you have a healthy mind, a healthy heart, and reserves of stamina and creative energy to draw on, the world is literally lying at your feet."

Simple Abundance  When You're Sick (Nov. 25th)

• "Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promises only; pain we obey."  Marcel Proust

Simple Abundance  Rx if for Harried Hearts and Frazzled Minds  (Nov. 26th)

•    "Sometimes none of it makes sense.  Sometimes it just is.  But if we can hold on long enough for this night to give way to another day, all shall be well, even if it's different from what we had expected.  Even if it's different from what we had hoped for and believed with all our hearts would happen...

All shall be well,
And all shall be well,
And all manner of things shall be well.

Dame Julian of Norwich

  Reminds me instantly of hymn, "It is well with my soul" and the proverb "This too shall pass."

Simple Abundance  What Women Want  (Nov. 27th)

• "A nap is not to be confused with sleeping.  We sleep to recharge our bodies.  We nap to care for our souls."
• "'No day is so bad it can't be fixed with a nap.'"  Carrie Snow 
  

Day 56: 309 days left…88 books to go!

Numbers 29-36  End of the Book

•  "...and you may be sure that your sin will find you out."  Numbers 32: 23

Finished with the book of Numbers...on the whole, neither Leviticus or Numbers had a lot of content that I found enlightening...but they do serve an important historical purpose and they do shed light on what life looked like for the believer before Jesus came to earth...

Acts 17-18:23

•   One of my dad's favorite passages..."Now the Bereans were of more noble character thatn the Thessalonians, for they received the messag with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."  Chapter 17, 11
• POWER CHAPTER:   "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.  From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them, and the exact places where they should live.  God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.  For in him we live and move and have our being.  As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'  Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone- an image made by man's design and skill.  In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.  for he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.  He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."  Chapter 17, 24-31

Day 53: 312 days left…88 books to go!

Numbers 26:52-28

•  "May the Lord, the God of the spirits fo al mankind, appoint a man over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd."  Chapter 27, Verses 16 & 17

Acts 16:16-40

•   Such an amazing story in this chapter...
• "About midnight Paul & Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.  Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken.  At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose."  Chapter 16, Verses 25 & 26  But Paul & Silas didn't escape and when the jailer realized the prison doors were opened & went to kill himself for this happening on his watch, they said,  "Don't harm yourself!  We are still here!"  Verse 28  and the jailer responded with, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?  They replied, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved- you and your household.  Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.  At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized.  The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God- he and his whole family."  Verses 30-34  And Paul & Silas were acquitted the next day...
  

Day 52: 313 days left…88 books to go!

Simple Abundance  True Thanksgiving

•  Happy Thanksgiving Americans!