Busy, Engaged, and Technology, OH MY!

Hello blog world!  I am finally back!  I wish I had a good reason as to why the blogging stopped, but there are no excuses.  I should have been keeping up with my writing about this Radical experiment but I just haven't.  I do want to assure you, though, that I have kept up with reading through the Bible in a year, praying for the world, and spending my money for a purpose.  So how does one get back into blogging after a month off?  My plan is to give a quick update on my life, then spend a few days writing about my Bible reading.  Today I will begin to recap the readings from the Old Testament, and then in the next few days will work on the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs, Operation World, and a finances update.  Once I have caught up on where I've been, I will return to the format of writing about my daily reading and prayers.  Here we go...

Over the last month, I have seemed more busy than usual.  It is just that time of year at school... it comes in cycles.  I also love spending time with the girls in my church group, so many evenings I am having dinner with one of them.  Those relationships are so great and I love spending time with each of those girls!  I haven't even been going to the gym, I've been so busy.  Then, just about the time I thought I might start blogging again (because I was always thinking about it, even though I wasn't doing it), my roommate got a new phone that somehow kicks me off the internet.  I do my Bible reading early in the morning and usually would blog at the same time, but I couldn't get on the internet in the mornings anymore because my roommie was home with her phone.  I think for the most part we are getting around that now, but it still comes up every now and again.  And, of course, with this new man in my life, I have been spending time with him.  I am in no way complaining!  He is wonderful and I love him dearly.  Last Wednesday night, after three months of dating, my sweet Timothy proposed to me!  I know this seems like a short time, but we are so confident in the Lord and His working in our lives.  Our families are very involved, we have tons of people praying for us, and we truly both recognize that as good as our love is, God's love for us is way better.  We are planning a June wedding, which means there is a lot of work to be done and we are pretty busy.  I think that about does it for me.  Now on to the important stuff!

Judges
In Judges 13, Samson was born to parents who were visited by a messenger from the Lord.  They dedicated their son to the Lord and no razor ever touched his head.  Then he started having woman problems.  He married a girl who betrayed his secrets to her family so that he lost a bet, essentially.  Because he was angry he killed 30 men of her family and gave his wife to his best man.  Samson defeated the Philistines and then met Delilah.  She also betrayed his secrets so that his enemies knew his strength came from his hair.  The Lord gave him one more moment of strength and he killed many Philistines when he died.  Because there was no king, people were doing whatever they thought was right in their own eyes.  A man named Micah made an idol and then made a Levite his priest.  The Danites came and took his idol and priest, rebuilt and city, and settled in the land.  Then there was another Levite who had a concubine.  He went to get her from her father's house and as they were traveling, they stopped in the city of Gibeah.  The men of Gibeah wanted the old man who had taken in the Levite and his concubine to send the man out to them so that they could know him.  The old man refused, but sent the concubine to them.  They abused her all night and then left her dead at the door.  The Levite cut her into pieces and sent her to all the land, so that the Israelites rallied together against the people of Benjamin who lived at Gibeah.  Then they had to figure out where to get wives for the men of Benjamin because the Israelites had sworn that no one could give his daughter in marriage to Benjamin.  So they advised the men of Benjamin to go and snatch (literally) women from Shiloh as they came out to dance in the vineyards during an annual feast of the Lord.  The book ends by again stating that there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Ruth-
I loved reading this book in just two days.  It is short and a familiar story, but it was really amazing reading it with a new perspective.  Now that I have Tim and am moving toward marriage, the relationship between Ruth and Boaz is beautiful to me.  Ruth was gleaning with other women, but Boaz saw her and started asking around to find out more about her.  Then he began to provide for her- made sure she had plenty of grain, let her eat with him, even sent her home with extra food.  She continued to work diligently to provide for her mother-in-law.  Then Naomi gave Ruth instructions to let Boaz know that he was a kinsman redeemer.  When he found out, he thanked Ruth for choosing him and then basically won her from another redeemer who was closer in line than Boaz.  They had a son who was the grandfather of David.  What a story this lady has!  She is continuously faithful and the Lord provides greatly for her.

I will recap 1 and 2 Samuel in another post.  This one is long enough!