Winter blurs into spring; projects blur into each other. And blogs sometimes fall silent while we trace the trail assigned us. (Texas and Minnesota being the destinations in the last 7 days.)
But always there are those moments in between…when we remember what’s really important.
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| Seattle skyline as seen from the hotel that will be hosting GYC. |
Into the midst of our overflowing life, Tasha brought back from the most recent trip an idea destined to radically change our summer… Exactly how it was born, I know not. But a friend (and fellow GYC ECOM member) from Canada had something to do with it, and now the 5 of us are getting geared up for a challenge. 🙂
In the simplest terms,
The book of Acts:
28 chapters
1,007 verses
24,308 words
in 300 days.
And not just because GYC 2012 is going to be all about the book of Acts.
Because we want to enter in to the life of Acts.
Since after all, the book is still being written.
So here’s the big question:
You want to join us?
Yes, you.
Consider it an investment in your mind. An investment in your spiritual life…
Three verses a day isn’t really that many, but only the absolutely determined will actually pull it off. And it will take more than 10 minutes a day. But what if it changed your life forever?
You don’t think you can.
I know you can. You should. And we’d love to cheer you on. (and hear you cheer for us!) 🙂
So here’s the plan:
1: Subscribe to our memorization and review schedules with any calendar application (iCal, iPhone/pad/pod, Android, Google Calendar, Outlook, etc) using the subscription links below.
OR:
Download and import these two .ics files (calendar will be static however, and won’t update if we change or adjust anything) (click the link, and on the page right click file and select “download”)
2: Just a suggestion… Get yourself an audio bible so you can listen at least an hour a day… to the chapter you’re working on, plus ahead and behind.
3: Let us know you’re with us!
GYC, here we come. 🙂
p.s. If you can’t keep up the pace, or if you’re reading this post late and we’ve already started, no worries! Take it at your own pace, or jump in in the middle… So what if you only have half the book memorized by December! You’ll never be sorry.
p.p.s. Hint #1:
You’ll notice the memorization assignments fluctuate between 2 verses and 5. Three verses a day is the average. The daily dose is split by logical thought breaks, not by number of verses. But no worries, until the second half of Acts, 30% of the days have no new memorization assignments at all. They are just for just review. So if you can’t seem to grasp 5 new verses in a day, do three. There are review days coming. Just check the schedule to make sure you’re roughly on track. 🙂
Hint #2:
If you’re jumping in in the middle, or you get way behind, skip a chapter and get back on schedule. (or ahead) Nobody said you couldn’t come back to something. Your morale will stay higher if you don’t feel like you’re always trying to catch up. 🙂
You’ll notice the memorization assignments fluctuate between 2 verses and 5. Three verses a day is the average. The daily dose is split by logical thought breaks, not by number of verses. But no worries, until the second half of Acts, 30% of the days have no new memorization assignments at all. They are just for just review. So if you can’t seem to grasp 5 new verses in a day, do three. There are review days coming. Just check the schedule to make sure you’re roughly on track. 🙂
Hint #2:
If you’re jumping in in the middle, or you get way behind, skip a chapter and get back on schedule. (or ahead) Nobody said you couldn’t come back to something. Your morale will stay higher if you don’t feel like you’re always trying to catch up. 🙂
______________________________________________
Subscribe to our memorization schedule here: (iCal)
webcal://p08-calendarws.icloud.com/ca/subscribe/1/cS21hHbOrOSRPcrfC_vHp4S3zfxv2eraV8XHi_Y611coj2Kk-d1VkgfOuDCZFzE5HgkyjHBVp7wNB7fCfTP1ZbgAOpQkPQmRIol2o1zJvn4
And to the review schedule here: (iCal) (Yes, you will want both.)
webcal://p08-calendarws.icloud.com/ca/subscribe/1/m5O5AqFpbyrgRnIlMho_YblamjH87rWrjeij1jiE0NOsWjypR4DHbBUntICR19xWSBiqT4hCdE8_CK-FKCq7E_dDTDu-MmoNWGAyNKO9ATY
Or subscribe with Google Calendar:
Memorization: https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/8ko4ui9l5gjl6l825bencd20q0%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
Review: https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/h0cet12jp99d2kufm7n97s615c%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
Memorization: https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/8ko4ui9l5gjl6l825bencd20q0%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
Review: https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/h0cet12jp99d2kufm7n97s615c%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
Or check out the Acts: Memorization tab on either thenebblettfamily.com or seannebblett.com
Go get yourself an audio bible from a place like this.
Or, listen to it streamed on demand, here.
Or, download an audiobible app for your iDevice here.
Or your Android. here.
March 2, 2012 at 10:23 pm
Oh Sean…this couldn't have come at a better time. What a neat idea! With God's help and by His grace you can count me in. 🙂 I'm excited to see what the Lord will teach all of us through this project. Thanks for extending this offer to others.
March 2, 2012 at 10:39 pm
Yay! 🙂
March 2, 2012 at 11:38 pm
Yess!! An idea fit for the theme. I'm actually working on memorizing the NT front to back, but haven't reached Acts yet… I think I'll jump to Acts for this. I hope many more hear about this challenge, and take it! Will be sharing. 🙂
March 3, 2012 at 3:26 am
Whew! The girls are game… I don't know if I can do three verses a day and remember it. My brain is a little old… ha! Maybe if I was teaching James to memorize it I would at least have a half a chance. Hmmmm have to think about this. Thanks for putting the challenge out there.
March 3, 2012 at 3:53 am
Whew is right. 🙂 We've never done anything on quite this scale ourselves, but it can't hurt to try! We're going to give it everything we've got. But even 10 chapters (or 5!) would be a great goal, so there's no losing this one. And I'm willing to go out on a limb and say our minds will all benefit from this exercise. The idea is simply, memorize something! We're so excited to have you all join us! 😀
March 3, 2012 at 3:54 am
Go for it! 🙂 This is going to be great!
March 3, 2012 at 4:17 am
Wow! That is quiet the challenge, but since it just never hurts to try your best at good things, I'll do my best! 🙂
March 3, 2012 at 7:41 am
Sean – thank you! I'm definitely in and excited about the possibilities – it is encouraging for me that a unity in mission, goal and purpose exists among so many young people around the world. We are nearing home… together.
March 3, 2012 at 10:22 am
Hey Sean – wow! That is a bit of a challenge. Is there some way to do this with Google calendar instead of outlook, though?
I shall do my best in trying to memorize it…
God bless ya! Thanks for putting the challenge out there. It's a great idea!
March 3, 2012 at 1:32 pm
Absolutely! 🙂 By the list of calendars on your Google Calendar page, press the little down arrow to the right of "Other Calendars" and then click "Add by URL". Paste the calendar address links above into the box, and away you go. 🙂
March 3, 2012 at 1:40 pm
Exciting for us! Our little dream has almost tripled in size… 🙂 the possibilities are endless.
March 3, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Good! 🙂 Welcome, Elyssa.
March 3, 2012 at 1:57 pm
I'm in, and all for it!!! Thankfully I have an MP3 player now so I can listen when I'm even going on trips.
I'll do my best to memorize it. Oh and I'll get my family to do it with me!! I'm so excited! 😀
March 3, 2012 at 2:07 pm
Hmmmmm… It looks like the import failed here. Any idea what I did wrong? 🙂
March 3, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Oh yeah I forgot to tell you what I did! Well I did the same this you told Michelle to do. 🙂
March 3, 2012 at 3:08 pm
I'm in for the long haul this is going to be such a blessing! PTL for the challenge
March 3, 2012 at 3:26 pm
K good. And it worked?
March 3, 2012 at 3:27 pm
Welcome bro! 🙂
March 3, 2012 at 9:13 pm
I'm in!!! 😀
March 3, 2012 at 9:41 pm
yay! 🙂
March 3, 2012 at 9:52 pm
This is quite the challenge! But I don't suppose it'd hurt to give it a try. I've been thinking I should do more scripture memorization. 🙂
March 3, 2012 at 10:21 pm
🙂 Do you suggest KJV versus NKJV?
March 3, 2012 at 10:32 pm
I think whatever you read most often… I'm doing KJV, but that's wide open. 🙂
March 4, 2012 at 12:03 am
Okay, thanks for the help! 🙂
March 4, 2012 at 12:26 am
Perfect timing. I just finished Revelation in about seven months. Not quite as intense. I'm up for the challenge. In His strength we CAN do it!
March 4, 2012 at 3:28 am
I am going to join you, and I am going to tell other people about the challenge so that they can join us too! I love memorising scripture, but it will be much more fun doing it with other people!
March 4, 2012 at 3:54 am
Honestly, when I first read this last night my initial reaction was NO way, it's just too extreme. Even now in my head I have a long list of very good, logical reasons why I shouldn't attempt this.
But if I truly believe the Kingdom of God to be a radical one, what makes me think I can receive it in my heart without making equally radical decisions? Like you said, it'll take more than ten minutes–why does my heart have such a problem with something that will cost me more than 10 minutes? Did I think there should be a limit on the time God is allowed to have access to in my life?…
Over and over today I've asked myself these questions and a host of others… and it amazes me what a struggle it was to actually make the decision, but, on this leap year, I've taken the leap–and regardless if I make it through chapter 1 or chapter 28 by Dec., already I sense God's blessing on this, because I firmly believe that when we say yes to anything that will pull us deeper into His kingdom, He blesses our efforts, however feeble they may be.
So thank you. Although I haven't even started memorizing, already God has done some serious heart-work in me through your challenge.
March 4, 2012 at 4:24 am
Hmmm, wow! What a big challenge. December is an eternity away! This will definitely test my self-discipline! Looking forward to doing it!
March 4, 2012 at 4:39 am
Hah. Read this last night, and thought. Nope. Half the things I've already committed to are hopelessly falling through the cracks, I'm not going to commit to one more thing that will just end up in the "unfinished project" bin.
Then today at potluck the complete stranger I was conversing with started randomly talking about treasuring God's word and storing it up in our hearts in preparation for that time when our Bibles may not be available to us…
Uhm…alrighty then! Point taken, Lord!
I'm here to commit! Let the hundred other "important things" suffer if need be. A good GPA isn't going to soothe a scripture-hungry heart.
Thanks for the radical idea, guys! Count me in. 🙂
March 4, 2012 at 4:43 am
That's the spirit! 🙂
March 4, 2012 at 4:46 am
Yes!!! Love it. Welcome, Beth. 🙂
March 4, 2012 at 4:50 am
You've hit the nail on the head, Sara. This is heart work… Perhaps you'll be comforted to know we're just as nervous as you are. 😀 But we're also incredibly excited. How far or how fast doesn't matter nearly so much as letting the creative Word do what it does so well. Recreate.
March 4, 2012 at 4:53 am
So glad to have you join us, Christella! 🙂 Quite a little collection of friends from Down Under. And don't worry… as of tomorrow, December is going to start speeding towards us at blinding speed. 😀
March 4, 2012 at 4:54 am
Oh, absolutely! Thanks for adding to ours! 🙂
March 4, 2012 at 4:55 am
Amen!!
March 4, 2012 at 5:46 am
Hey Sean – for some reason it won't let me import it. There's some error or something that comes up and says that there is something THING that is blocking it from importing it… 🙁
March 4, 2012 at 5:57 am
Amen!
March 4, 2012 at 5:59 am
This comment has been removed by the author.
March 4, 2012 at 6:00 am
Praise the Lord, Beth! I love the way God works.
March 4, 2012 at 9:44 am
Thanks for telling me about it, Bek! I'm going to see if I can convince some of my friends to join in too!
March 4, 2012 at 9:50 am
Yes, praise God! What a wonderful story! 🙂 Love that bit about a good GPA not satisfying a 'Scripture-hungry heart.' That's how I want to view things!
March 4, 2012 at 3:10 pm
Nope. It says: "Could not fetch the url because robots.txt prevents us from crawling the url." :-/
March 4, 2012 at 3:14 pm
I got the same error… robots.txt prevents it from crawling the url. Any chance you can export it so that we can somehow download it and import it as a file? Or maybe you can think of a better option?
March 4, 2012 at 3:28 pm
I'm in! There is sooo much power in the Word of God…
March 4, 2012 at 3:41 pm
Welcome Swarthy! 🙂
March 4, 2012 at 4:47 pm
K. My apologies, ladies. 🙂 I've set up a Google Calendar with the same info, and have added Google subscription links to the post above which are guaranteed to work. You can also see the calendar on its own tab on either of our blogs.
March 4, 2012 at 5:05 pm
It worked! Thank you, Sean! Now I shall begin memorization 🙂
March 4, 2012 at 5:20 pm
I'd like to try! However, I'm having a bit of trouble with the calendars. I've never used Google Calendar before, but I followed your instructions in the reply comment to Michelle on how to import them to Gooogle calendar, and both are showing in my list of "other calendars", but I can't figure out how to actually see them. Any suggestions? Thanks!
March 4, 2012 at 5:32 pm
Never mind to my previous comment. The updated Google URL worked! Thank you
March 4, 2012 at 5:53 pm
We're game for that!!! We'll be starting today. It's a big challenge but hey we need these kinds of challenges to stretch our minds and make us more familiar with the scriptures. God will help is and I'm exited to see what we'll learn. Onward christian soldiers marching as to war…with the word of Jesus going on before!!!
March 4, 2012 at 9:56 pm
This comment has been removed by the author.
March 4, 2012 at 10:04 pm
Here's a good website that helps in memorizing and reviewing! 🙂
http://www.memverse.com/
March 5, 2012 at 3:44 am
I'll join! And I'll be particularly interested to see what happens to my poor memorization skills. 😀
March 5, 2012 at 3:27 pm
Count me in! After thinking about it for three days, I can't say no…
March 5, 2012 at 3:49 pm
This is definitely a metanl stretch. I started memorizing about 6 months ago, I think, and I've added 100 verses so far and have been _greatly_ blessed by it. I've seen improved mental capability and, of course, having God's word in my mind has proven a blessing, over and over, through trials and difficulties.
Adding 1000 verses this year is an exponential jump. It's one of those things, though – Would I actually _regret_ doing it? No. And, worst case scenario, if I _only_ memorized half.. Would that be a loss? Not at all.
I'm in.
Also, I noticed something interesting in the comments and commitments. Where are the men? I am _very_ excited to see all of the commitments from our sisters and I am just surprised to see so few of our brothers responding. I'm hoping they're just being silent and will chime in here shortly.
March 5, 2012 at 4:14 pm
Great! So glad you're joining us! 🙂
March 5, 2012 at 4:15 pm
Amen!
March 5, 2012 at 4:16 pm
I'm looking forward to the same. 🙂
March 5, 2012 at 4:27 pm
🙂 yay!
March 5, 2012 at 4:29 pm
Right there with you! In the end, it's really not about 1,000 verses at all… If we all only got 300, we'd be rich. It's about the Word of God changing whatever it touches… And that's what I want. Change…
March 5, 2012 at 5:03 pm
I can get can the app for the plan and calendar…
March 5, 2012 at 5:13 pm
use the iCal or Google Calendar links to subscribe with either Google or iCal/iCloud account, information will sync to smartphone's calendar app. 🙂
March 5, 2012 at 5:53 pm
Thanks for the challenge Sean! I find it more profitable to study with a community of faith, with like minds passionately seeking the same purpose. May we encourage each other, learn from one another, pray for the other, and hold ourselves accountable, as we grow in the faith, grace, and knowledge of Jesus Christ, every day in the pursuit of holiness!
March 6, 2012 at 12:40 am
I'm here brother – ready to set my mind to the plough. I love it. I'm still workin on having the NT done by the time i'm 25 😉
March 6, 2012 at 3:19 am
I read this post the first day and wished I was brave enough to give it a try, but since I'm pretty much only home to sleep and on the streets so much I told myself it wasn't possible. Then tonight as I was at my prayer partner's house I told her about what everyone else is doing and she asked if she could join me. Somehow we have decided to do our best. And like so many have said, our goal is the whole book, but if we don't get the whole book than I know that I will be blessed by what I do.
March 6, 2012 at 4:01 am
Amen!
March 6, 2012 at 4:04 am
So glad, Ashley! You are right on track. This isn't about 1000 verses, even if that is an exciting goal to work towards. It's about saturation. And if that means 1 verse a day, you still win. 🙂
March 6, 2012 at 4:06 am
Ahh… welcome, brother. 🙂
March 6, 2012 at 2:23 pm
Here I come. Lagging behind a bit, but I just now heard about it. I'll give it my best.
March 6, 2012 at 2:31 pm
Yay! Welcome Jenae! 🙂 I was just sitting here thinking somebody needed to push us up to 50. 🙂
March 6, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Wow! We have that many? Praise the Lord! Welcome JJ…I was just thinking I should make sure you had heard. 🙂
March 6, 2012 at 4:37 pm
This is quite the challenge, but you can count me in as well 🙂 Hopefully I can catch up to where you guys are soon since I just found out about it today!
March 6, 2012 at 5:19 pm
You can count me in to. Just thought I should let you know.
Jessie
March 6, 2012 at 5:43 pm
I would love to be a part of this challenge! I just learned about this, so I'll have a bit to catch up on. Thanks!
Samantha Clark
March 6, 2012 at 11:19 pm
It's great to see you taking up this challenge, Michelle! 🙂
March 7, 2012 at 3:50 am
Hi Sean,
We've never met, but after reading this challenge on a friend's Facebook I'm made (even more) excited for GYC 2012 and thrilled to get it started sooner with this inspired idea for radical Scripture memorization – count me in!
Blessings,
Melinda
March 8, 2012 at 2:00 pm
Welcome to all four! 🙂 And if we've never met, be sure we do at GYC in Seattle. 🙂
June 11, 2012 at 1:38 pm
I just read this now and I know it's a bit late. But I'm up for it 🙂
Patricia Aitcheson
June 11, 2012 at 1:58 pm
Yay, Patti! 🙂 So glad to have you join. 🙂