MY FANTASY SERIES AND PROJECT

This is the fantasy series and project I am working on writing as we speak. I am currently in the planning stage, so stay tuned for more information.

Cover Image Credit: Image courtesy of sattva at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Cover Credit: Layout only by Stacy Duplease and Remembering Your Present, LLC 2014. 

BLESSINGS COUNTED LIST AND THE 34 x 365 BLESSING CHALLENGE: A REMINDER

Welcome to the 34 x 365 Blessing Challenge and the Blessings Counted List Reminder

You can read more about this challenge here: http://rypstories.blogspot.com/2014/11/blessings-counted-list-introduction-and.html

Essentially, I've chosen to try to count at least 34 blessings per day every month between November 2014 and the end of December 2015.

I hope you will join me in counting your own blessings. It doesn't have to be a crazy number of 1,000 blessings per month (34 per day, in other words) you choose to count. It can be as little as 3.

BLESSINGS JOURNALING EXERCISE OR PROMPT
Are you counting your blessings? How many per day is your goal right now?

THANKSGIVING BLESSINGS COUNTED CHALLENGE
I hope you are trying to count every day as many blessings as possible between now and Thanksgiving.

END OF YEAR BLESSINGS COUNTED CHALLENGE

I hope you are trying to count every day as many blessings as possible between now and the end of the year.

Can we do anything more productive with our days or our lives than count our blessings and acknowledge how fortunate we are? 

(IMAGE CREDIT: Stacy Duplease and Remembering your Present, LLC)

THE NEW BLOG POST SCHEDULE IS...

THE NEW BLOG POST SCHEDULE IS:

Monday: Blessings 

Tuesday: Devotional

Wednesday: Blessings

Thursday: Devotional

Friday: Blessings

(IMAGE CREDIT: Stacy Duplease and Remembering Your Present, LLC 2014. Kara.)

TRYING TO KEEP THINGS SIMPLE

I have decided to keep all of my writing here on this blog. I will post everything here and from time to time will post these posts to my other blogs. You can find everything here in one convenient place, though.

(Image credit: Stacy Duplease and Remembering Your Present, LLC 2014.) 

KEEPING THINGS SIMPLE

You can find all of my writing here at the blog listed below:

-- 

Stacy Duplease

agodlyvision@gmail.com * rememberingyourpresent@gmail.com

Blog & Website:

http://RYPStories.blogspot.com

A JOURNALING PROMPT ABOUT THE LAST YEAR: THE IDEAL YEAR

A Journaling Prompt About the Last Year: The Ideal Year
Written originally: 2012-11-19 09:48:54
THE IDEAL YEAR JOURNALING EXERCISE
If you could have lived the ideal year over the last 365 days, what would that have looked like?
1. Journal your response in your journal.
2. Think on this ALL day long and write whatever comes to mind. Do not censor yourself. Write it down even if it doesn't make sense or sounds silly.
3. At the end of the day, write at least an one paragraph summary of your perfect/ideal year the last 365 days.
4. Why did you come up short of this? Why? Be specific and list as many things as you can.
5. How did you succeed in living the ideal/perfect year? Explain why. Be specific and list as many things as you can.
6. What have you learned for next year? Be specific and thorough.
7. List and least ten blessings from the last year. List whatever comes to mind. Then, explain why each was and is a blessing.
Do this as many times as you can between now and the end of the year. Do not look at your previous answers first. Do this exercise. Then, look at your previous answers. What changed? What didn't?
--Stacy Duplease
http://BlessingsOfTheBible.blogspot.com and http://StoriesOfBlessing.blogspot.com
Sent from my Amazon Kindle Fire HDX Tablet

A Journaling Prompt About the Last Year: The Ideal Year

A Journaling Prompt About the Last Year: The Ideal Year

Written originally: 2012-11-19 09:48:54

THE IDEAL YEAR JOURNALING EXERCISE
If you could have lived the ideal year over the last 365 days, what would that have looked like?
1. Journal your response in your journal.
2. Think on this ALL day long and write whatever comes to mind. Do not censor yourself. Write it down even if it doesn't make sense or sounds silly.
3. At the end of the day, write at least an one paragraph summary of your perfect/ideal year the last 365 days.
4. Why did you come up short of this? Why? Be specific and list as many things as you can.
5. How did you succeed in living the ideal/perfect year? Explain why. Be specific and list as many things as you can.
6. What have you learned for next year? Be specific and thorough.
7. List and least ten blessings from the last year. List whatever comes to mind. Then, explain why each was and is a blessing.
Do this as many times as you can between now and the end of the year. Do not look at your previous answers first. Do this exercise. Then, look at your previous answers. What changed? What didn't?

--Stacy Duplease
http://BlessingsOfTheBible.blogspot.com and http://StoriesOfBlessing.blogspot.com
Sent from my Amazon Kindle Fire HDX Tablet

(Image credit: Stacy Duplease and Remembering Your Present, LLC 2014)

DAY 3 OF THE BLESSINGS OF PAUL DEVOTIONAL BIBLE STUDY SERIES: STRONG

Written 2014-11-18 11:01:34, Tuesday

The devotional Bible studies covered in The Blessings of the Bible blog will cover three main subjects:

1 The life of Paul (Life) (L)

2 The writings of Paul (Writings) (W)

3 The themes of Paul (Themes) (T)

So:

Life

Writings

Themes

for short. (LWT)

We have covered the first two in Day 1 and Day 2. Now, we will cover a theme of Paul's writings today in Day 3.

Today, we will look at the theme of STRONG/STRENGTH. 

JOURNALING QUESTIONS AND PROMPTS

Please do not cheat and read ahead. Take a sticky note and cover the rest of this devotional Bible study if you need so you aren't tempted to read ahead. Answer these questions first. Do not skip them. 

What is strength? Define it.

How are you strong? Explain.

What gives you strength? 

Who gives you strength?

Now, read ahead. 

The following verses are verses which talk aobut where our true source of strength should reside. 

Colossians 2:7-8 Expanded Bible (EXB)

7 Keep your roots deep in him and have your lives built on him. Be ·strong [established] in the faith, just as you were taught, ·and always be thankful [abounding/overflowing with gratitude].

8 ·Be sure [Be careful; Watch; See] that no one ·leads you away [takes you captive; captivates you] with ·false [deceptive] and ·empty [worthless] teaching that is ·only human [L according to human traditions], which comes from the ·ruling spirits [elemental spiritual forces (demons); or elementary teachings] of this world, and not from Christ.

Expanded Bible (EXB)

The Expanded Bible, Copyright © 2011 Thomas Nelson Inc. All rights reserved.

Strength does not lie within. It cannot be found there. We are not strong--unless God gives us His strength. If we think strength comes from anywhere but from Him, we are fooling ourselves. Any strength that does not come from God as the main source is false strength. 

We get our strength from God--through our faith, which is the source of our strength. God is the source of our strength and it is in Him we place our faith. In other words, faith in God is our strength. It isn't found in anything or anyone else. 

JOURNALING QUESTIONS OR PROMPTS

Have you ever realized your faith in God and His Word is what makes you strong? Explain.

Where and who have you been trying to receive false strength from--and why? 

How can you focus on your faith as the source of your strength? 

HOW THINGS REMAIN THE SAME

HOW THINGS REMAIN THE SAME

Written 2014-11-16 12:39:35, Sunday

I have decided in the last week to dedicate my time in the Word for a significant time in the future, to studying the life and writings of Paul. I want to become an authority on each. Hence, I've started to do research on Paul, his life, his writings, and his death.

It is not known for sure how or where Paul died. It is believed he was beheaded in Rome for his belief and teachings about Jesus Christ. He was executed because people disagreed with him. 

This is disturbing. 

People wanted to force him to believe what they believed. They thought they knew more than him. Furthermore, they thought they knew what was best for him and that they should think for him. 

Do you hear how wrong that is? This gets me wound up and I have a great deal to say about that. However, I then stop and think. Isn't this what people in the United States, and all over the world, think about Christians today? And, isn't this what we have allowed as Christians through not wanting to offend? Through refusing to take a stand? Through not living the Word?

Wait a minute. 

Beheadings by a blade.

No. Things haven't gotten worse. They also haven't gotten better. 

Ecclesiastes 1:9 Expanded Bible (EXB)

9 ·All things continue the way they have been since the beginning [L Whatever is will be again].
    What has happened will happen again;
    there is nothing new ·here on earth [L under the sun; v. 3].

Expanded Bible (EXB)

The Expanded Bible, Copyright © 2011 Thomas Nelson Inc. All rights reserved.

I researched Paul's death yesterday and I spent some time on this and got upset because of what I re-learned. People disagree, so they decide they want to murder another because of their beliefs. Murder. Not agree to disagree. Murder. Behead. Execute. For just a disagreement. 

I thought we learned in kindergarten how to get along and how to properly settle disagreements. Needless to say, when I went to bed lasted night, this went through my mind... Beheaded for a disagreement. Murdered because they did not know how to reason or the honk logically. 

Then, at four this morning, cell chirped, which let me know I had either a text or a notification of some kind. Was it weather related? I wondered. I debated on ignoring it, but what if someone had an emergency of some type? Ugh. So, I looked at my phone and saw this: 

 

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/11/16/new-isis-video-purportedly-shows-beheading-american-hostage-peter-kassig/

You don't need to open the link, unless you want. You can see what it's about just by reading the verbiage of the link. 

Kassig converted to Islam when in captivity and they still murdered him. He was American. 

They killed one of their own because of a disagreement. 

What amazes me is how Christians aren't talking about this. 

DAY 2: STARTING TO READ PAUL'S WRITINGS

DAY 2: STARTING TO READ PAUL'S WRITINGS

Written 2014-11-16 10:33:13, Sunday

The purpose of this blog post series, a devotional Bible study series, is to learn as much as possible about the Apostle Paul, who wrote more of the New Testament of the Bible than any other writer. He is the one who spread the Good News, the gospel message, about the life of Jesus Christ and how He is our Savior and redeemer, to Europe, as we know it today. And, from there the Church grew and spread. 

Therefore, we're going to take a look at both the events of Paul's life in chronological order, but also his writings in chronological order. We will start with the first book of 1 Thessalonians since it is the oldest writing, but we will also continue to look at his life before then. 

Day 1, we learned how he (Saul/Paul) was present when Stephen was stoned to the point of death. He was a supporter of the stoning at the time (Acts 7:57-59). We will learn what brought him to this point, what happened between Acts 7:59 and the time of 1 Thessalonians. In other words, we will look at both the man and his writings for our look at Paul. 

Paul's writings were letters to different people and different groups of people. 

Through his writing, we learn the most about his life. This is why we will start to look, not just at the Paul part of his life, but at the Saul part as well. Both parts made up the same man. We need to look at both so we understand more of his perspective, and can see through his eyes and not our own perceptions, every step along the way. 

JOURNALING QUESTION:

What do you know about Saul and what do you know about Paul? Please answer before we continue. Be thorough.