The Story: pages 389-394 (only finish the sentence from the bottom of pg 393)
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be My witnesses, telling people about Me everywhere – in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.” Acts 1:8
Oh my friends how I have missed you this week!!!!! There were so many things I wanted to tell you! God is amazing, period. He is good and gracious and kind and loving and He is all ours!
I’m very excited to be starting Season 3 of 365 Life here on the blog today. If you’re unfamiliar with this program you can find its back story here and the Season 3 Reading Plan here and Outline here. Last week we finished Season 2 of 365 Life as we read through the Bible Alphabetically in the English Standard Version, today we’re starting the New Living Translation. If you, or someone you know, is interested in having the entire Season 2 of 365 Life Blog Postings they’re available here as a Kindle e-book.
I’m also delighted to say that Sean was able to get a great many copies of The Story from our church over the winter so we’re hoping to get those into as many people’s hands as possible this summer at the Demolition Derbies. So, I will also be including page numbers for that along with the Word of the Day so anyone who is using that form of the Bible will be able to follow along with us as we go. 😀 Please be praying for God’s will to be done with the Derby side of the ministry this year. We’ve been feeling God nudging us to go bigger this year and that is, of course, intimidating to an extreme level; and yet, exciting to an extreme level too. Oh the plans He has for us, plans that we haven’t seen yet but only glimpsed from a distance…
Anyway, enough business talk! Let’s move on to today’s Word of the Day, shall we? 😀
In today’s reading we find a new beginning. The beginning, it’s a great place to start in any book, right? In the very beginning God created the heavens and the earth, in this beginning He has come down from heaven to earth, changed absolutely everything they’ve ever known about Him, and then He went from Earth back to Heaven leaving His apostles to tell His story (which is History) to the world. My friends, nothing has changed since then. His story is still being told today by His apostles – you and me. He walked side by side with them and He walks side by side with us. (Acts 2:25 “I see that the LORD is always with me. I will not be shaken, for He is right beside me.”) 
Oh my friends, He is RIGHT BESIDE YOU! If that’s not a message you need today then I don’t know what is! NO matter what you’re going through, no matter how awful or awesome He is RIGHT BESIDE YOU. If you’re in the mud and the muck, He is RIGHT THERE saying, “OK, we’re going to get out of this”. If you’re on the mountain top, He is RIGHT THERE saying, “See, I told you we’d get out of there.”
No matter where you are and what you’re going through the power of the Holy Spirit is right there with you, ready to guide your way out of a mess and into a message of how He saved you from the mess. We ALL have been called to be His witnesses, not just to Jerusalem, not just to our friends and relatives, but to the ends of the earth! Each and every one of us has a story to tell, a testimony of how Jesus has come through for us in some way or another. Those stories need told!!! Whether in a movie, a book, a blog, a Facebook page, a conversation, or our lives, the story MUST be told. HIS story must be told. The story of Jesus didn’t end on the cross or at the ascension into heaven. (Spoiler alert) The book of Acts doesn’t end. Every single letter written by the apostles has a greeting at the beginning and a salutation at the end… every letter except Acts. Acts ends abruptly and with no salutation. In fact, in the Greek it actually ends with a word that anyone with half a brain wouldn’t end a Greek sentence with. (You know like how proper English doesn’t end sentences with prepositions, like “with”.) 😉 The book of Acts has no end, because the acts of the Holy Spirit aren’t finished. The Holy Spirit is here to help us, to be with us and in us and to guide us into all Truth. He’s here because we need Him.
And I for one am ever-so-grateful that He is with me! Grateful enough to start a blog, and spend thirty minutes a day reading His Word and then writing about it on the blog so that SOMEBODY else who may be going through the same muck that I am might, perhaps, benefit from the Words I read and the Words the Holy Spirit speaks to me while I’m reading them. This is MY testimony, this is MY message, this is MY telling of His Story – and it’s a beautiful story.
Don’t forget to tell yours to someone today. I know you have one.
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Because it’s Sunday and I’ve been saving them for a week, here are my Sunday SHMILY’s! 😀
My flowers from Mother’s Day.
The picture Anna drew during Children’s Church.
Flowers on the side of the road.
A smile in my ketchup packet during Gabe’s graduation from fifth grade celebration dinner.
That little black spot on the road the tread from my tire!!! 
Gabe, Anna and Skippy super bored and hot while waiting for me to try and change my tire on my own. You know, because no one was stopping to help me.
God would just so have it that the sheriff from Boone county was just *happening* to be on his way home from Indy and saw me and HE stopped to help me. Thank You Jesus!!!
Tamar Knochel 