Scripture Challenge for 2013

Today I wanted to share what we will be doing for the 2013 Scripture Challenge. I was very touched by Psalm 40:3 which says "He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD." My desire is to "sing" hymns and praises through words, songs, written devotionals, etc., and that God takes the words that He gives me and use them as He desires. My prayer is that I glorify Him in all things and that many are drawn to Him and "put their trust in the LORD." Casting Crowns has a song that sums it all up. It's called "Until the Whole World Hears." With that strong desire, I felt that we need to continue studying the truths in old hymns. Thus for 2013, I will be continuing our study of hymn stories and Biblical truths found in the hymn chosen for each study.

This year I will continue by picking an old hymn as God leads me and then providing information on the author of the hymn and a bit of background on the hymn. I also will continue to share scriptures that are applicable to the hymn and prepare a study over the scripture and truths from the hymn. Our study will always be taken back to the Bible.

Album, ATC, Cards--What Will You Use?
So, what will you use for your album this year? What have you used in the past? Maybe you are new to these challenges and would like some ideas. You can:

*Create ATCs and put them on a holder

*Create any size scrapbook page and put in an album
*Create cards and mail to someone that might need to hear the words you have for them
*Or create anything else you can think of; let your imagine run wild

Of course, if you are doing pages, you can create any size and use any album you want! You can do hybrid or digi pages; this is your album. You can create anything you wish. These are just ideas!  I will be doing 6x6 pages as I did for 2012. I really love this size for these challenges, and they make a great album for the coffee table!

If You Participate, Do You Have to Create Something?
Absolutely not! :) You can just study God's Word and keep notes. You do not have to create a thing! I personally love the creating part and someday my kids can have these pages too as part of my faith legacy. For those of you not creating pages, etc., you may just want to keep a journal of each hymn and scripture along with your study notes.

What if You Want to Study with People at Church?
Wonderful! Please have them study along. However, I ask that you not copy my work. I also ask that you have the participants print the study directly from my blog post each time. It takes me many, many hours to prepare these studies, and they are inspired by the Lord. The studies are copyrighted, and I pray that you respect that. Thank you! For more information, please see the section below titled "Will this challenge be hosted on other sites? What about posting on my own blog?"

Now let me share a bit about how this challenge will work.
**I will post two studies a month beginning Sunday, January 13, 2013. Mark your calendars, and see the entire 2013 calendar below! :)
**Challenges will be posted usually by 5 p.m. Eastern Time on challenge Sundays.
**My post will also share some thoughts, the hymn, and scripture or scriptures that I chose (usually from the NIV), and a picture of my page.
**Then you will study your Bible and find scriptures that are meaningful to you based on the study and truth posted for that week.
**I love using Biblegateway to look up single keywords in the Bible. It is a great resource for this study.
**Then you will create your page using your selected scripture/thoughts based on the study for that week.
**Feel free to look at the 2012 Hymn and Scripture Challenge to see how the study will work.

Is there a time limit to complete the challenge?
No, there is not a time limit to complete the challenge. This is for you so that you can study and learn to apply God's truths to your daily life! You do what you can when you can. On occasion, I may offer RAKs, and at those times there will be a deadline. Watch out for those. :) You may join this challenge at ANY time throughout the year!

Do I need to sign up?
No, you can just subscribe to my blog to get the updates.

Will this challenge be hosted on other sites? What about posting on my own blog?
No, you will only be able to find the challenge here on my blog. Please do not copy the post to other websites or your own blog. You may certainly link the study but do not copy the study. Feel free to post a quote but not the entire study. Remember, this study is copyrighted. Thank you! And make sure you subscribe to my blog if you haven't already. :) If you have friends that you think may be interested in joining us, feel free to send them the link to this post! For more information, please see the section above titled "What if You Want to Study with People at Church?"

Where can we share our work?
A lot of us will be sharing on our blogs and in various galleries such as Splitcoaststampers, 2Peas, Scrapbook.com, Flickr, Pinterest, etc. Wherever you share, you can use this keyword and it will help others find your work more easily--HSCRC13. I will also use inlinkz.com for this challenge so that you can leave a link to your work here on my blog for others to see.

Is there a blinkie for this challenge?
Yes, but let's call it a button instead of a blinkie. :) It's a miniature version of the picture at the beginning of this post. I did not make one that blinks. It is a "stand alone" button that I created using a free kit from Two Peas in a Bucket called "Hearts-n-Crafts." You will find this button in the sidebar of my blog and below this paragraph. Right-click and save it to your computer to add to your blog. I also ask that you link it back to this post or my blog. Feel free to add it to your message board signatures too. I hope you like it.

2013 Hymn and Scripture Challenge Schedule:
Challenge 1: January 13
Challenge 2: January 27
Challenge 3: February 10
Challenge 4: February 24
Challenge 5: March 10
Challenge 6: March 24
Challenge 7: April 14
Challenge 8: April 28
Challenge 9: May 12
Challenge 10: May 26
Challenge 11: June 16
Challenge 12: June 30
Challenge 13: July 14
Challenge 14: July 28
Challenge 15: August 11
Challenge 16: August 25
Challenge 17: September 8
Challenge 18: September 22
Challenge 19: October 13
Challenge 20: October 27
Challenge 21: November 10
Challenge 22: November 24
Challenge 23: December 8
Challenge 24: December 22

To see all of the current challenges thus far for 2013, please click here.

Whew, sorry this post got so long. Book mark it. It will be the "main information page" for the Hymn and Scripture Challenge. Please e-mail me if you have more questions, and I would love to know your thoughts on this upcoming challenge. Feel free to leave comments here! Blessings, and see you January 13th with our first hymn and study for 2013!