ABOUT HILLSEED JOURNALS

Have you ever been immediately drawn to something? Something that just makes you feel connected? That has always been me when I visit the mountains. I have never lived in the mountains, but visited frequently growing up for family trips. When I was around 12 years old, my family visited Colorado for two weeks to stay with a local ministry. I was hooked! And by hooked, what I really mean is that I sobbed the entire 3 day trip home in the car because I didn’t want to leave.

Several months later,  my family as I knew it was shaken and torn apart; and yet that same familiar pull to the mountains would lift my spirits time and time again through such a dark, sad time in my life. Years later, my then-fiancé (now husband) and I found ourselves wanting more in our faith and we found a wonderful church that welcomed us with open arms. At the time, going to church most Sunday’s felt like enough to me.

Then there they were again, the mountains. What do they say? The mountains are calling? Yeah, calling me in the world-renowned mountainous region of central Indiana. ;) Somehow the mountains found me again. But it wasn’t really the mountains, was it? I joined a group after church service one Sunday with our incredible Discipleship Pastor and I told him I noticed Jesus went to the mountains a lot. He just smiled at me and said “you should explore that more”. 

And so, a seed was planted.

I started getting really curious about it.

So you mean to tell me that Jesus hiked mountains frequently too? Wait, AND He would hike these mountains alone? Not only that, but now you’re trying to tell me He delivered some of His most infamous teachings on the tops of mountains, He prayed to God on the mountaintops, He helped others climb mountains, the ark landed on a mountaintop after the flood, Moses led the Israelites from slavery through a mountainous journey to the Promised Land. Oh, and what’s this whole “faith can move mountains” bit? 

You see, this is the seed that eventually led to the birth of Hillseed Journals. A seed planted through the work of the Holy Spirit and absolutely zero of my own doing. 

Where do I start? How do I make sense of all of this?

I had no idea where to start. I tried looking for other Bible studies on the topic, but something always was missing. Well, turns out, what was missing was my confidence in reading the Bible.

That little seed started to take root.

“Let’s do this!”, I thought. Oh wait, no, I have to learn how to confidently read and reflect on the Word. I started by reading the entire Bible in chronological order and then I spent time trying to research and understand different Bible reading techniques and wrote up what stood out to me. (This took years.)

From there, I used BlueLetterBible to search for keywords so I could find every nook and cranny of mountains mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. (Spent another year or so on this.)

Suddenly, people in my church groups, my friends, co-workers, and others were asking if I’d share my Bible studies and methods with them. There seemed to be this immense interest in learning how to read and reflect on scripture in a way that was also life-giving as it is promised to be. 

So yeah, this may have started with mountains, but the mountains were just the seed. Mountains were the seed that planted a desire to grow my faith through the living, breathing, Word of God - and to share that with you.

Wherever you are today, even if you’ve never opened your Bible before or you’ve read your Bible 50x, Hillseed Journals were created for you. They are created to make reading your Bible the most inspirational and life-giving part of your day. It’s just a seed, and I pray that this seed takes root and grows for years to come in you.

May the mountains call you to a deeper relationship with our Father in Heaven.

In faith,

Lyndsey