Yooooo... I have been missing-in-action for three weeks now, with no explanation on here, instagram, YouTube, or otherwise. Sorry about that! I'm gonna fess up (lol), and let you know why I was MIA, real quick, before we get into this post today. When I took that break back in December, I realized a couple things, that apply to this situation... 1 - That if I'm not inspired, or don't know what to write about, it's okay to not write anything. I would rather give you guys inspired work 9/10 times, than pollute my website with uninspired, obligatory writing. I've learned that I can totally tell when someone's just doing something because they have to, and not because they want to :P And the work that they do when they want to do it, is usually much better quality, and overall just more valuable to the reader. 2 - This kinda goes along with the reason above, but it's still a little different... It's that I have to put my own personal life, and my personal work in quizzing/school as a higher priority than sowing into other people (even though I really enjoy that). And, more than just putting it as a higher priority on a list, I have to make the decision to continually act on that, and be inline with it, in my everyday life. I can't give other people, what I don't have, or what I'm not thriving in right now (as unfortunate for my post consistency as that may be :P). But, honestly, I think I've done pretty well overall with posting consistently for the past almost-year. My first two years of writing this blog, it was like, maybe once-twice a month, so... :P. I love you guys though, and I know that even when I don't post every week, that's not the base of why you guys seem to like this blog, and TBQJ in general. So, to wrap this up, I want to thank you all again, from the bottom of my heart, for your amazing, loving support! SO TODAY, we're going to be doing the sequel-post to the "Highlights of Corinthians #1" post! And as I explained in that post, this series is a little different from the Highlights of Luke (or whatever it was called... LOL) post series that I did last season, because I'm just picking passages/verses from anywhere in the material, and not going through it systematically. But lets go ahead and jump right into it! :P Number One: 1 Corinthians 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." This is a pretty well-known, simple, easy verse, right? But if you think about it, it's extremely profound, and informative, about how we do this "life" thing :P. For one, it reminds us of our priorities, and our ultimate motivations for doing the things that we do, while we're here on earth. Just like because the FIRST commandment is to "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your mind," the most important thing in our lives is God, and our relationships with Him - because it affects every other relationship, and every other thing you do. So, if we've got things we have to do, that we might not necessarily LOVE, or that doesn't seem directly spiritual, God says to apply those things and include those things, in our walk with God, by doing them for His glory, and serving Him, in whatever it may be. When we do that, we're not doing it for the praise of other people, or to make ourselves look good. Rather, we're inviting God into another area of our lives. And how many of you know, that where God is, and where you're honoring Him, He's gonna be able to bless you OVER-abundantly! Pretty cool, huh? Number Two: 2 Corinthians 3:17 "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Again, the seemingly simple and "overused" verses, are usually extremely profound and powerful, if we let the Holy Spirit teach us/show us a few things about them. In this passage, as I'm sure all of you know, because you're freakin' awesome (;P), it's talking about the Old and New Covenants - the Law, and then free and redeemed relationship with God. It says that even after Jesus died and ushered in our perfect standings with God the Father, a lot of people are still living under the condemnation and bondage of the Law, and that Covenant. And this is still, unfortunately, extensively running rampant through the Church today. Even though Christ removes that veil, and gives us a revelation of grace if we turn to Him (verse 14-16), a lot of people still don't understand the huge difference between the two Covenants. When they don't understand this, they are in total bondage, condemnation, and a wrong understanding of their standing with God, and how God feels about them now (because in Christ, they are completely holy, regardless of their performances). BUT, YOU GUYS--- Where the Spirit of the Lord is, where we let Him impart the truth of the Gospel to our hearts, there is total freedom! Freedom to have direct relationship with God, freedom from leaning on our own ability, and our own strength, and freedom to use the power that God's put inside of us through the Holy Spirit. It's crazy how something this foundational, is easily misunderstood by a lot of people. But through the Holy Spirit, and through other people on behalf of the Holy Spirit, I believe that God intends to bring understanding to the entire church. Amen? Number Three: 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" I guess all of the verses I picked are well-known, and popular... Oh well :P. Like I talked about in my Newsletter yesterday (you can catch the next one by joining the E-mail family right here! It's pretty lit ;)), identity and purpose are two of the most "gritty" things we can talk about. It's extremely essential to living to the fullest, like God wants for us; He wants us to live abundantly, and to thrive, in who He's created us to be, and in all of His blessings and promises, and gifts. And this verse beautifully illustrates the inner change that immediately takes place in each of us, the MOMENT that we receive salvation, or "accept Jesus into our hearts", as the Baptists say :P. Therefore, we don't have to expect ourselves to be OUTWARDLY changed, and like Christ, and perfect, the moment we get saved, because the outward change comes gradually. One of the biggest, most important, and life-changing things that I'm learning right now (especially as I'm studying through 1 John and the gospel of John, too - I would really encourage studying those ones!), is that our changing, and transformation, can only come from the inside-out. As we progress in our walks and relationships with God, as we see who He is, and who He's really created us as, we are involuntarily changed to look like and resemble Him (2 Corinthians 3:8 mentions this as well). And I think that this goes along with the previous verse that we were talking about, too. Because in the Old Covenant, people were in bondage to their own (imperfect) performances. Whereas under the New-(literally fantastic, LOL)-Covenant, we are free because of Jesus' perfectly perfect performance. Old Covenant: Doing the right things, in order to have the hope of eventual relationship with God New Covenant: Having a direct, right-now relationship with God, who (through that relationship) changes us from the inside-out, so that we do the right things without even having to try hard This is so cool. I pray that if you haven't gotten a revelation of this good, good news, that God would reveal it to you in a way that brings you SO MUCH freedom in your life, because it is one of the most important things that you could ever understand about our God, this life, the next, and our own identities in Christ Jesus. On that awesome note, guys, I hope that you have a fantastic week, that your quizzing is going (and will continue to go) great, and that you keep quizzing, and living victoriously!
Love you guys, but God loves you so, so, so much more. I'll see you later! Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory
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Hey y'all! TBQJ Vlog #13 coming right up... Enjoy! Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory Hey guys! Today I'm going to be talking a little bit about something that a lot of quizzers have trouble with, and that I've had trouble with, too! It's a very common issue, something that stunts a quizzer's progress, and/or their motivation to keep working hard - and it's especially common around this time of the season. So what is this thing we'll be talking about? Well I guess you can see from the title, that it is none other than... REVIEWING! :P Yeah, yeah, big surprise, I know. But it is actually one of the most (if not the most) important things to learn how to do, if you want to be the best quizzer that you possibly can. But before we hop right into that, I just wanted to mention really briefly, about something that happened this past weekend, that has never happened before, in the history of TBQJ.... I posted THREE SEPARATE YOUTUBE VIDEOS in two days! These three videos were, in order, "Vlog #12 - The Aspects of God", "My Testimony, Part 1", and finally, "My Testimony, Part 2". And I'm so excited for you guys to see them! If you haven't seen them yet, you can check out my YouTube Channel ("Mallory Leake"), scroll down to the previous two posts, or click/tap on the "Vlogs (Season 1)" category, in the sidebar. I really hope that you enjoyed them if you have already seen them, and that you will enjoy them, when you watch them after reading this post :P LOL BUT ANYWAYS, lets get into the awesome topic, of REVIEWING..... First of all, if you didn't know, reviewing is really important. Often, it's the single stepping stone between 20th place, and placing in the top ten, or even the top five (or higher ;)). Also, it saves you a TON of time, especially if you're memorizing any amount of the material. Why? Because you won't have to go through the process of re-memorizing a bunch of stuff. And that's usually not much fun :P. And for something that important, and something that vital to your success as a quizzer, it's actually pretty darn simple, and easy! So I'm going to be showing you a few different ways that you can learn how to review like a pro in no time. Kinds of review: Basically, a quizzer learns the material in one of two ways; memorized, or learned-in-essence. This generally depends both on how competitive the quizzer is, and what question type(s) they specialize in (and sometimes, even what kind of studying they've done in past years, and what kind of studying they learned to do first, when they first started quizzing). Here are a few of the main ways that you can actually go about reviewing the material, for each of these ways: Memorized:
Learned-in-essence:
Three extra tips about reviewing:
Like I mentioned in a previous post, I think it was 10 Result-Focused Study Hacks, a super fun post by the way (:P), doing recall/review FIRST is extremely effective - probably a lot more than you think. It's like doing cardio first thing in the morning, before breakfast - it's really hard and it sucks, but you'll be surprised by how big, and rewarding, the results will be. Doing review, especially recall practice, when you haven't seen/thought about the material since the previous day (or a few days ago :P), then your brain will have to think a lot harder, and eventually, your recall speed and accuracy will be really, really good!
Learning it in your spirit, and learning it in regard to how it actually pertains to you and your life, and the people around you, is the absolute best way that you can go about really remembering something. Why? Because it will mean something to you on a whole different level. If we study our quiz material, whatever it might be, like a textbook in school, then it will only penetrate our intellectual side. But, if we look at it, study it, and quiz over it like it's supposed to be (as the Word of God), then it will penetrate into our spirit. And only then, will God be able to teach us about something that's in our quiz material - and only then, will quizzing begin to have an affect on the rest of our lives.
There's no need to have a whole, elaborate reviewing plan - that just gets confusing and discouraging, most of the time :P. Instead, we can go about it in a super simple, straight forward way, and still reap a ton of great results from it! Here's a way that you can do that: Take the material that you're studying right now, and count how many chapters you have in total. Next, take the total number of days THIS WEEK that you'll be able to study (be real, too - don't set unrealistic expectations or goals, if you have a super busy week! :)). Next, figure out how many chapters you'll be able to, and want to, work on really reviewing this week (remember to take into consideration any quizzes/tournaments you may have coming up!). And finally, separate that many chapters into each of your studying days this week, and WRITE IT DOWN! You don't want to forget your plan, after all of the hard work you just did, to figure it out ;). But of course, a plan is always just a plan, unless you put in the dirty work, and get it done during the week. You can do it!!! Well, my friends, that is the post for today. I hope that this helps you in your quizzing journey, and that you are now better equipped to study and review more effectively, this week, this season, and in the seasons yet to be! :P
Don't forget to check out those new YouTube videos I just posted a few days ago, if you haven't seen them yet, and I will see you guys in our TBQJ Newsletter this Sunday, and then back again next Monday, for another exciting "God-centered, quizzing-oriented" blog post! Keep quizzing and living victoriously, because it is your birthright that no one can take away. You're a beautiful, beloved and treasured, perfect, holy, strong, and courageous child of the Most High King of Glory, today!! I love you guys, but God loves you so much incredibly more <3. Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory Hey guys! Today the extra videos that I promised you a while back, are officially live! So, without any further ado, here is my testimony, parts one and two... Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory Hey guys! Here is Vlog #12, over 1 Corinthians 13 ("the love chapter"). Enjoy! Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory |
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