Today is the second anniversary of Passion to Know More website!

Whoo hoo!

It has been a fun two years.

I like teaching Bible classes a lot. I like the interaction with the class and experiencing the students getting excited about the Bible! I try to connect the timeline of the Bible with historical, cultural and geographic information. I try to include small interesting facts they have never heard before. I try to get them to see the big picture too. They learn things they did not know and it makes the Bible come alive for them. And I know if they learn the information, then they share it with their family and others.

It is like a ripple in a pond.

I'm trying to do teaching on Passion to Know More website.

The point? To encourage people to read the Bible.

Social Media: Besides the blogs on the Passion to Know More website -

Passion to Know More is on Facebook (public group). If you go to the page and like it, posts will show up on your timeline. On Facebook I share blogs, Scripture verse pictures, Bible trivia, Did You Know facts, quotes by Christians, and sometimes a song or a random thought.

On Instagram I mostly share Scripture verse pictures and blog posts.

I have chosen to affiliate with only one organization - Christianbook. I think that is because I love books! The affiliation with Christianbook was because I knew I was going to recommend a lot of books and sometimes gifts and I figured I minus well see if I could recoup some of the cost of this website. Although I don't want to get into pushing product on you. I'm just recommending some things which have impacted me.

If you go through the link on any of Passion to Know More's pages and shop for anything on Christianbook, a small percentage of the sale goes to this website. Last year I recouped about 1/5 of the cost I incurred. This year I'm close to being dropped as an affiliate for lack of sales. So if you are going to order a Christian book or a gift, please consider clicking through any page of this website to go to Christianbook. Although they charge shipping, the prices are usually way cheaper than buying the same thing in a store and the total cost is usually less. The exception to this is if a particular author is solely affiliated with a big chain Christian store and then their books and CDs are cheaper there. [I am torn telling you the prices are usually cheaper on Christianbook because I worked in a Christian bookstore which went out of business. It couldn't compete with the internet prices. So please support both your local Christian store and this website.] You have to go through Passion to Know More for this site to get credit.

I have a gazillion ideas on things to write about. Many blogs about the history of the Intertestamental period (the time period between the Old and New Testaments) when God prepared the way for our Savior to be born. Learning about this time period has just made reading the New Testament come alive for me! Lots of geographical blogs - I am dying to write a blog on the Via Maris trade route and its impact on the spread of the gospel. Things like numbers in the Bible and ages in the Bible. I want to write about the Church at Antioch which I have been researching. The 9 historical eras of the Bible. I'm bursting with ideas! It is just hard to find the time to do the research with everything going on right now in my life.

This past year I have seen the number of Passion to Know More readers dwindle down considerably. And that has been hard for me at times.

I think I may have told you that last year I had a 3 month period where I suddenly acquired tons of readers overseas on different continents in many countries. These weren't hackers bouncing off the site, these were real people reading what I wrote. I was shocked and going whoo hoo!!! At one point 50% of my readers were overseas! I couldn't explain why they came or how they came and then they disappeared overnight. Literally. I was crushed. Where'd they go? Although I haven't a clue why they came and where they went, it showed me He was involved in this. That was a God thing.

December 12, 2016

January 23, 2017

For awhile I had a reader in a particular city who spent a lot of time reading what I wrote. I know a person in that city and this person is, I'm not sure how to put this, maybe a witch or into some occult practices. Now I don't know if it was this particular person reading things I wrote, but again, I got super excited. They have since quit reading, but a seed may have been planted.

I had a whole bunch of interactions with Jehovah's Witnesses, King James Only People, and atheists this year. Oh my.

In just the last couple months Tauren Wells liked Passion to Know More's tweet on his song Hills and Valleys!

And Eric Metaxas Show @EricMetaxasShow on Twitter retweeted my tweet with my blog on Positive Christianity! Eric Metaxas is the author of many historical books, including one of my favorites, Bonhoeffer. (Affiliate link.)

It has been a great year!

But it does bother me some that after two years of working on this that I'm losing readers.

I often wonder and pray, 'Why am I spending all of these hours doing this if only a few are going to read it?' And the Lord has repeatedly told me it isn't about the numbers. The words persevere and obedience and endurance keep coming to mind.

And so this last year I have thought a lot about how people measure success. How do we measure bearing fruit? The world will tell you success equals sheer numbers. The number of followers. The number of likes. The number of comments. The number of shares. The number of times something has been re-tweeted. The amount of sales.

But I have come to realize that isn't what this is about.

I don't think God's measuring stick is the same as the world's measuring stick.

I don't know in what ways God is using Passion to Know More. I just know He is.

I know it will impact some people and probably most of all it will impact me. As I research and read and learn in order to write a post, I am transformed in my thinking and in my heart. The teacher always learns more than the students. Smile.

I have made some new friends through this. One in particular - sweet Elisabeth. I am sure God has brought us together for a reason. I would love to meet you in person one day and give you a big hug! Two people have been huge supporters of mine. A big thank you to Joshua and Sam. I have kept in contact with you and got to know you better through this and that makes me grin. Cyndee has been a cheerleader from the beginning, given me advise, and brainstormed with me. I have greatly appreciated it. Some women in past women's Bible study groups continue to cheer me on - Melva, Lori, Nancy, Robin, Beth - thank you. And thanks to Tim in Chicago; co-worker, Kathy; and Yandle Multimedia Photography for your encouragement! Some high school classmates like, share and comment on things I post and I just want to tell Marcie, Lisa, Anne, and Randy that your friendship and support has meant the world to me. Truly. Feeling loved right now.

I have tried very hard to keep the right perspective while doing this - to be authentic and to show you my failures in my spiritual journey along with times when I've had breakthrough moments. I have tried mostly just to teach and tried not to get preachy. I hope you have found my words to be genuine and see me as being real. I want to keep the "me" out of this - by that I mean the intention from the get-go was for Passion Know More to be for His glory.

I ask you to pray to that end. May His will be done.

May we all continue with a passion to know more of Him.

"He must increase, but I must decrease."

John 3:30

... to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

Third year here we come!