EVE!!!

Oh, it is a lovely, cool, sunshiny morning...how I hope and pray that Chapter One has your heart excited and your mind 'birling' away!!! :)

While sitting here reading with my study partner, Ruby...
read a quote by C.S. Lewis, "...still taking our natural selves as the starting point." That seemed so fitting with our beginning chapter of Eve. I'm going to be birling on that for a bit, hopefully!

Looking forward to Tuesday, but y'all remember to post here any time and let's CONVERSE!

Our first!

First....Thanks for everyone's patience while getting the blog set up for posting! Still having problems, call or email me.  :)
This evening we skimmed thru the intro and shared a little of our thoughts along the way.
As everyone reads the intro chapter, if you have a favourite part (something that really jumps out at you), please share!

For me...page 19, last P, last sentence: "the New Testament anchors a woman's identity and purpose to her relationship with Jesus rather than to her parentage, her marital status, or her children."
LOVE that!!!We are who we are as defined by Him! Not "how" we are living relationally (dysfunctionally?) in our lives here, but first and foremost with Jesus. THAT relationship function is what determines all the rest for His purpose. Note to self: God has a plan, go with that!

As for the question section, we were for the most part, very similar in our first responses! Loved Laurie's "Who was that?" question to herself when thinking about something that was said or done in a situation. Got me to thinking this evening, how often I "mean" something one way, but boy does it come out another! ;)

We also read Psalm 13 in the NKJV and The Message....what a difference!
Praying for us all in this study that we can grow in our trust of God (as David was in Psalm 13) that no matter the situations God allows in our lives, we know we are constantly in HIS care and love! New steps of trusting...
Chime in and enjoy chapter ONE..."see" you Tuesday

Birl Beginnings...

We are all so excited about beginning a new study together, and adding this blog as an addition to our journey together! So, I wanted to share just how this blog design came about. 

While sitting on my deck (surprise!), I got out the computer to get started. I began praying for our upcoming time together, for His blessing on the use of this technology, and if He really wanted us "here" in blog land for HIM to give us a "cool" name...one that reflected our desire to grow, to move further along with Him and to see freshly all that we think we already know. Well, I sat and nothing came! hmmm... SO, I just went to a thesaurus web site and asked God to please maybe use this? Well, of course He did!!! Right there the "word of the day" was BIRL.
A new word to me, and soooo approriate in the description of our hearts in pursing Him. To change, have things 'turned' around to see Him more clearly in this turmoil of a world we live in.

Then, I went to Biblegateway to get a verse that might reflect this new word and our blog....can you guess what the 'verse of the day' was!?!?!  Yep, 1 Peter 1:13   
As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy.””
 Then, as He was providing everything quicker that I could ask, I thought a picture would be nice....something that would be kinda book-looking, but not boring. WooHoo, that swirling (birling?) bookcase you see is a picture that I have from my trip to London with Terri a few years ago when we were in the Victoria & Albert Museum. This whole blog took about 10 minutes to put together! 

So, we can start with thanking Him, know that He has provided the very design of this place where we can share and grow together. Still excited?!?!?! I am, too!!!
  ~jeanie