A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Faith

Does it Matter?

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I finally have a moment.  My goal had been to write this all out on Friday.  I had a different post in mind but through a series of events, the weekend is almost over before I had a chance to sit down.  The word prompt we are playing with is matter.  Matter is stuff in some ways and in others is feeling/thought.   Does it matter? leans more to the latter than the former.

 It’s been a hard weekend of physical work and some mental work as well.  We’ve been working on bodywork on my car, I’ve been trying to move a garden around… and it’s mental game of moving things around and seeing how it all fits.  It’s not all fitting as I had planned so it gives me opportunity to talk with my 19 year old and say .. What do you think?  And he’s given me some fantastic ideas!   I love that I can just talk with him and have helpful conversations with him.  🙂  

but anyways, onwards to working out the poetry for this week’s prompt!

Does it matter? text over image of body work on silver car

Does it Matter?

Tentative plans made
a friend to visit on a
cloudy Sunday afternoon.

but then life intervened
with the serious threat of rain
and a car needing some body work.
and a hubby who
expected quietly, my help.

So I sanded,
I asked tons of questions,
because body-work specialist
is the farthest thing from my purview.

then I watched hubby
apply stinky stuff that
stops the rust from growing.

I learned to apply
whatever that stuff is you put
over the sanded metal.

Then I learned you need to sand
that stuff smooth before you
can apply a primer coat with
smooth strokes going in
one direction only. Calm,
light strokes, done smoothly.

forget I almost did!
All the masking I did.
We don’t need paint overspray
on windows and door-jams!

and so, does it matter
that I skipped a date
with a friend, tentative
though those plans were?

I think so.
I had a tired man smile
at me tonight and tell me
for being newbies at this,
we did a bit of a hack job
but it will do! 🙂

and you know what
it does matter!
It matters that family smiles
and my friend
another day we’ll do tea.
We’ll laugh and share stories
and that too will matter.

History Points the Way

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Every week Miss Kate provides a word prompt for her intrepid followers.   The words vary from week to week and occasionally she asks for help in providing them.  Today she provided the word history.  History is such an interesting word, as it not only encompasses the past, but it points the way to the future. 

history points the way

History Points the Way

it starts in the very beginning,
this threesome creating out
of nothing, something.

a threesome combined in unity
creating a garden, with
animals, and plants.

and made in their very
image, we find a man
and a woman crafted with love.

a promise made
after lies believed and
hidden ones found

this deceiver would not
win, he could bite and inflict pain,
but a final ending would be death.

many words were written, using
various people in all life situations,
that contain the promise over and over.

a son would come, a prophet, priest, and king.
this son would inflict the death knell,
over and over we are told this truth

the question i suppose is this
will we see this truth in the words written
or will we find a way this discount them?

will we, if we believe the words, take the time
to seek out the multitude of promise
written in their various forms?

history, points the way,
do we know our own history?
this history of his own people.

take the time,
suss it out,
it’s worth it indeed!

person holding opened book
Photo by Eduardo Braga on Pexels.com

God Speaks

Acts 3:22-23

22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ 

Hebrews 10:19-22

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Rev. 1:4-5

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

So Defeat Wasn’t

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So Defeat Wasn’t was inspired by one little furball named Ivy.  She’s a fun, interesting cat.  VERY much my hubby’s cat though I provide all the necessaries for her. Today was flea treatment day and she’s VERY unhappy with me.  First I caught her, then I confined her, then I had the AUDACITY to put wet stuff on her!   She’s been mad at me all night.  Would hardly even come for supper. The funny part was… hubby wasn’t involved this time  (normally he helps) and she wouldn’t go anywhere near him and kept giving him the stink eye.  She’s a handful and challenge and helps me to be inventive!  🙂 

so defeat wasn't

So Defeat Wasn’t

It sat there,
staring at me.
Written all over it’s face
I have beaten you!

One three pound cat
determination roiling in her
tiny, lithe body.
You won’t get me in
that tub! YOU WON’T.

It sat there,
staring at me.
Written all over it’s face
I have beaten you!

That book I want to write
it keeps playing tricks
with my brain, but I can’t
get it figured, so it ends.

It sat there,
staring at me.
Written all over it’s face
I have beaten you!

Black and white body
twisting to squirt a
foul smelling scent
caught up in a trap.

Little did they know that
defeat isn’t always what you think it is.
Sometimes seeming defeat
turns it’s head upon you.

A towel and gloves are wonderful
things against a determined mite.
Perhaps another book presents
itself, in the form of poetry not stories.
One black and white being
finds itself confronted with a tarp
wrapped around a live trap so no harm, no foul.

This makes me think of one who
thought they had won!
Jesus died, on the cross,
Evil was victor!
but then tables turned
death was beaten.
So defeat… wasn’t!

Making A Scene

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Oh, it’s late at night after a busy day doing stuff.  I’m becoming more convinced that I’m dealing with some arthritis in my right knee.  So I’m considering bringing a kneeling pad along to work for when I have to get down on the floor to shelve or move something.  I’d rather not be making a scene at work when a knee decides to flair up in pain so mitigating the “scene” aspect of growing older appeals to me.  🙂   

Anyways, that whole aspect of making a scene led my brain down some other paths which of course led to this poem.   You can find other people reacting to this word prompt at Miss Kate’s. 

making a scene

Making A Scene

Making a scene it
happened this way.

I plunked down some nano’s
on my cart, a rather loud thump.
Accompanied by a look of
dismay and a mild bit of vexation
evident in voice and actions.

My manager, standing opposite,
said “no words, no words needed!”
And then continued
“I haven’t had time to speak to
said stock boy in question”, the one
I KNOW fails to rotate product properly.

Making a scene it
happened this way.

Son, talking in living room
with his dad and suddenly he
bolts into the back yard, leaving
dad hanging, wondering what happened.

A cottontail screamed as the oldest
household cat, carried it into the
middle of the backyard.
The lad leapt to the rescue
capturing said cat and allowing
one, looked about six weeks old,
cottontail to bolt off.

Making a scene it
happened this way.

Death on three trees,
on a hill.
Celebrated/remembered yearly
in churches across the world.
Predicated by one snake
conversing with one lady
confusing her mind, and she in response,
turned the mind of her mate.

It’s hard some years to know this fact
that this scene, this death,
and yes, eventual life raised.
Was predicated by action that
“I” would have taken. Her confusion
would be my confusion. Her turning
of her mate would have been mine.

And so knowing this
at times
is difficult. Knowing that
strong internalization of
that willingness to be confused
by the whispering of the
not true God.

It’s Coming this Rewind

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Okay, so I’m finishing this in the wee hours of the morning as I fell asleep.  We’ve been packing to go camping in the morning.  I’ll need to be up in five hours gasp!   Anyways, rewind it’s a hard word to come up with something you know?  BUT I think I got it figured out with “It’s coming this rewind”.     To rewind is to take a step back and try again.  Or possibly to put something back into it’s original positioning?   

Anyways, let me know what your thoughts are eh?

It's Coming this Rewind

It’s Coming this Rewind

A co-worker is having fun
he’s cleaning out the basement at work
slowly and surely
moving out the old
tidying up the relatively current
and making the off-season into groups
for ease of finding it.

Yesterday, we laughed!
He brought up a bunch of glasses
back from the 80’s and
a whack of 8-tracks.
the young men at work had
too much fun trying on glasses
and pulling off different stances.

Oh, but we laughed
and it was like a temporary
rewind on life sharing humour
with each other.

The glasses made their way
to the local thrift store that minds
the needs of the poor in the community.

The 8-tracks found their
way into a co-workers collection
(I think) or perhaps a potential
money-making venture.

But the laughter made it’s
way into our hearts
and made the rest of the workday
lighter and easier.

Isn’t it funny how a moment
out of the ordinary can reset
an entire day?

Consider then how the world
has been slowly failing.
Yet in a twinkling of an eye
the Lord will return and
the world will be made new.

It will experience a total rewind
in essence.
Everything will be made brand new.
I can’t even conceive of what that
might mean since I live in a world
steeped in sin.

What will happen when all the effects of
sin are removed?
Will carnivores develop the teeth of
grass eaters?
What will mosquitos feast upon?
The scream that plants give out when
cut or pulled will that cease?
Fair wages for hard work? Or perhaps
no work at all for pay cause utopia?

So it’s coming this rewind
of heaven and earth.
In the meantime, let’s enjoy
those moments of rewind that
are presented eh? 🙂

God Speaks

1 Corinthians 15:50-53

50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 

Acts 4:5-12

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It’s been a bit but today I am working a short shift and feeling sorta awake!   We’ve had a busy weekend away and I’m feeling like just perhaps I can get back on track.   Anyways, today we are looking at Acts 4:5-12.  It continues the story of Peter and John being brough before the council. 

5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Acts 4:5-12

The Players

5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family.

So we have the rulers, elders and scribes gathered.  Specifically Annas the high priest along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander and those of the high-priestly family. 

Annas – appointed by the Roman legate Quirinus to be the high priest of Judea. He served for 10 years.  This son of Seth’s death is unrecorded. 

Caiaphas – son-in-law to Annas, also served as high priest three years after Annas stopped serving.   He served for about 18 years. He’s also known as Joseph, son of Caiaphas. His family was known for opposing the Pharisees.   

John and Alexander – We don’t know much about these two.  John might have been Johanan ben Zaccai, who is reported to have been at the height of his fame forty years before the destruction of the Temple, and to have been President of the Great Synagogue after its removal to Jamnia.  And Alexander may have been Alexander, the brother of Philo magistrate of Alexandria.   But there is no real proof as to who they really are. 

And as to who the members of the high-priestly families were?  No one really knows.  There was a lot of politics involved in those days with people struggling for power and/or influence. 

The Setting

 7 And when they had set them in the midst,

So here are Peter and John, surrounded by all these people of influence. They will be questioned these simple disciples of Jesus. I’m not sure where they were questioned other than somewhere in Jerusalem.

The questions

they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 

Kinda makes sense you know?  These people of influence seeing these common men talking and raising up controversial issues.  They’d want to know who told them to do this.  Who gave them authority to talk and to heal people?

The answer given

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

See the power of the Holy Spirit?   Peter was not quelled by the august people surrounding him (or maybe he was but the power of the Holy Spirit filled him so he didn’t act like it).  He spoke out clearly and boldly to them proclaiming the power of Christ.   He gave a brief synopsis of Christ’s death and resurrection, and how Jesus is now the cornerstone of their faith. Salvation comes through him alone!

Do we clearly understand this?  And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Jesus Christ, son of the living God, is the only path to salvation.  By him we shall be saved.  No one else can do this job.  No other can be the propitiation for the wrong we do in our lives.

This one that it is so easy for us to reject is the very cornerstone upon which faith is built. 

Trust in him today! 

Follow the Series

 If you are interested in the rest of the series you will find them here eh?   

A Choice To Make

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Oh, I guess it takes a sleepy afternoon before I can get the words together for the Five Minute Friday word prompt provided by Miss Kate. A choice to make asks the question if the decisions made are actually our own to make.  Does the ability to make plans we want show more than we think of?

A choice to make, text over picture of roses

A Choice To Make

A choice to make
t’is mine you know
should it rain or should it snow
off to work I choose to go!

But who chooses if it rains
or snows? not me!
There’s always a reminder
that there’s someone greater than I.

Plan I now to concert go
dressing up with heart aglow
hubby said he’s come with me
a simple Sunday date you see?

But who creates and allows to
be, all the creating in the world?
Mimics we are of the creator true
without him… what would I do?

Beauty to behold in a garden
choices made every spring
Gardenias, Hollys, or Poppies?
Perennial, Biannual, or a yearly new?

But who designs the size and shape
and colourful hues?
Not me. Not you, though manipulate
we might. The palette made, another’s might!

So many choices we make
that seem to imbue some control,
but if thoughtful consideration made,
You’d realize that ultimately
plans were made before we even had
the option. Decisions that even
allow us a choice to make.

Even the choice to follow the
Lord can’t be possible
without God himself making
some decision about our life first!

yellow sunflower macro photographyt
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

God Speaks

Jeremiah 29:11-14b

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord,