A New Year has begun!! Welcome & Instructions

Today is January 1st and the New Year has begun! I am so excited to begin our 2nd year at The Bible in a Year - and Beyond and am thrilled that we have so many new people that are joining our group!

We have several new posters joining us this year - Sandy, Kathryn and Jody - welcome to our group ladies! We also have several returning posters from last year - Tammi, Miriam, Pamela and, of course, myself. I am so excited to learn together with all of you this year!

Anyone else who has decided to participate with us by reading the same plan as us, and reading the blog because you need the accountability but don't necessarily have the time to do posts - we welcome you too!! If this describes you - PLEASE comment on this post below and let us know that you have agreed to follow along with us. We can't help hold you accountable if we don't know you're doing this!

Also, everyone (posters and followers) PLEASE comment at least somewhat regularly on the posts. This helps keep you accountable and helps you to feel part of the group (especially followers), and is a huge encouragement to the posters who have taken the time to post their thoughts. Comments do not have to be in depth. They can simply say "Great post", "Amen!", "Chapter x verse x jumped out at me", "very convicting", etc. Takes 5 seconds but increases what you're going to get out of this blog substantially. The more you put in, the more you get out, in these types of situations. And I really want you to feel involved in this group, even if you're not posting - so please comment!

Posters - here are the "instructions" for the posts.

Please put the date and your name in the title of your post.

Please include today's reference at the top of your posts and tomorrow's reference at the bottom of your posts. Please add the links to Biblegateway's corresponding Bible passages. (see previous posts if this sounds confusing)

Please put the following labels on your post - the book(s) of the Bible the readings were from, and "Your Name's Posts".

What type of post you do on the day's readings is up to you. You can do a SOAP (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer), you can do a devotional in a different format, you can ask questions, you can summarize, you can talk about a portion of scripture that stood out to you, you can reference commentaries or sermons you felt made good points about the passage, the choice is yours!

Also - please do your post the previous day/evening (or numerous days earlier - whatever works for your schedule!) and then postdate it to sometime during the middle of the night so that it's ready to go for those of us who are early risers.

If for some reason you are unable to post on your assigned day, please email me and I will do your post for you. The goal is to have a post up every single day, but I realize that life happens, so please just let me know if you cannot post after all (earlier is better, but better late than never). If you need to change how often you're posting for whatever reason (having a baby, busier than usual, extended holiday etc), just let me know!

I am on holidays right now actually and until Monday evening I have no internet access (yes, this was a scheduled post!), so I am unable to answer any questions until then - but if you have any, please ask and I will answer as soon as I can.

I will soon be asking for you all to post a short testimony so we can get to know each other a bit better and know how to pray for each other, so you can start preparing a bit for that.

Thank you all for participating in this blog - I am so excited to see what God will do in our spiritual lives this year as we make this journey together!