A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Faith

What does God say about Tomorrow?

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The world still seems rather frantic about what tomorrow will bring.  I was thinking about that tonight and wondering what I could do with the world tomorrow.   I also had in my mind what I’m learning in Deuteronomy about how people are God’s inheritance (not property, land or stuff).  So let’s see what God has to say about tomorrow.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.  James 4-13-17

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. …  Matthew 6:25-34

Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.  1 Pet. 5:7

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.  Isaiah 41:10

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”  Rev.21:3-4

What God says about tomorrow

Our tomorrows are so covered by God, just as our todays are.  He knows what he has in store for us. He holds our entire future (and us) in the palm of his hand.  Know we know a bit more about what God says about tomorrow.

Come join us at Miss Kate’s for this one word prompt. It’s a fun time with good people. 

I Love to Tell the Story

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Lift up Your Hearts has brought me another wonderful song to share with you.  I love to tell the story can be an upbeat song or a quiet melody of praise remembering the truths we know. 

i love to tell the story

Lyrics

I love to tell the story of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love.
I love to tell the story, because I know ’tis true;
It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do.

Refrain

I love to tell the story, ’twill be my theme in glory,
To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.

I love to tell the story; more wonderful it seems
Than all the golden fancies of all our golden dreams.
I love to tell the story, it did so much for me;
And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee.

Refrain

I love to tell the story; ’tis pleasant to repeat
What seems, each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet.
I love to tell the story, for some have never heard
The message of salvation from God’s own holy Word.

Refrain

I love to tell the story, for those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.
And when, in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song,
’Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.

Refrain

History and Author

Did you know the words from this song come from an old poem called The Story Told?  That poem has some 42 verses, and I love to tell the story has only four so a lot was left out! 🙂   Katherine Hankey is the author.  This particular song comes from the second part of her poem, another song “Tell me the Old, Old Story” comes from the first part of her poem. 

Ms. Hankey was born in London, England in 1834.  Her dad was a wealthy banker.  Part of the “Clapham Sect” along with her father, Katherine wrote her poem during a lengthy illness. The first part is titled, The Story Wanted and was written in January, 1866. The second part, The Story Told, was written in the following November.

The Clapham Sect was a group of wealthy Christians who pushed for the abolition of slavery and promoted foreign and domestic mission work. 

Digging Deeper

Whenever I sing this song I do so with gutso.  I love the melody and the words are easy to remember.  In more serious moments it does cause me to question if I really do.  Do I love to tell the story of Christ, his love for me, and that message of salvation?  Too often I fear I don’t.  It’s just too easy to keep to my own way.   It’s a good reminder to actually push myself a bit.

For All The Saints

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For all the saints is another hymn from the Lift up Your hearts hymnal. I don’t recall singing this lovely hymn very often as I was growing up.  I’m trying to recall where I picked it up… perhaps in the Baptist church I attended for a while.  They had LOVELY hymn sings every month which were a whole lot of fun.  🙂

Lyrics

For all the saints,
Who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith
Before the world confessed,
Thy name, O Jesus,
Be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Thou wast their rock,
Their fortress and their might;
Thou, Lord, their captain
In the well fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear,
Their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O blest communion,
Fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle,
They in glory shine;
All are one in Thee,
For all are Thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

And when the strife
Is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear
The distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave,
Again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

From earth’s wide bounds,
From ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl
Streams in the countless host,
And singing to Father,
Son and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

This Hymn has many stanzas, to see them all visit The Cyber Hymnal. 

For all the saints

History

Will­iam W. How is the author of For all the Saints.  He was the son of a lawyer and became an Anglican Priest.   He eventually became Bishop of Wakefield.  How was known as the ‘Poor Man’s” bishop.  Author of more than 50 hymns he is known to have said “A good hymn is something like a good prayer—simple, real, earnest, and reverent.” (source)

Thinking Deeper

Can you imagine writing a song with 11 stanzas?  What all would you say in such a song?  Author William How covers saints, evangelists, soldiers, apostles and martyrs. He not only shows the work they do, but the struggles they have. This reminder is given for all these hard-working folks: the King of glory is coming, a better day awaits. 

Christ is Made the Sure Foundation

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I was leafing through Lift Up Your Hearts hymnal and saw Christ is Made the Sure Foundation and started singing.  My hubby looked at me oddly since we were also watching a TV show at the time.  🙂   Good to prove to him I can multi-task eh?  🙂

Regent Square, the Tune I grew up singing.

Lyrics

Christ is made the sure foundation,
Christ the head and cornerstone;
Chosen of the Lord, and precious,
Binding all the Church in one,
Holy Zion’s help forever,
And her confidence alone.

All that dedicated city,
Dearly loved of God on high,
In exultant jubilation,
Pours perpetual melody,
God the One in Three adoring
In glad hymns eternally.

To this temple, where we call Thee,
Come, O Lord of Hosts, today;
With Thy wonted lovingkindness
Hear Thy servants as they pray.
And Thy fullest benediction
Shed within its walls alway.

Here vouchsafe to all Thy servants
What they ask of Thee to gain;
What they gain from Thee forever
With the blessèd to retain,
And hereafter in Thy glory
Evermore with Thee to reign.

Laud and honor to the Father,
Laud and honor to the Son,
Laud and honor to the Spirit,
Ever Three and ever One;
Consubstantial, co-eternal,
While unending ages run.

Westminster Abbey, This tune is new to me

History

The author is this lovely hymn is unknown.  It was translated by John M. Neale in 1851 for the hymnal Med­iae­val Hymns.  Generally it is sung to either the tune Westminster Abbey (a new tune to me) or Regent Square (which I grew up with).

Christ is Made the Sure Foundation

One of the things that is good to do when considering what song to sing to look at the words.  Consider well the first verse of this lovely hymn. 

Christ is made the sure foundation,
Christ the head and cornerstone;
Chosen of the Lord, and precious,
Binding all the Church in one,
Holy Zion’s help forever,
And her confidence alone.

Isn’t that just good theology?  Seeing who Christ is… chosen of the Lord, his precious one (beloved son). Christ who holds all the church together, one in whom we have confidence. That hope we have in Christ keeps us all-together and reminds of us the help we have in him.  A good song eh?

In Times Before

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In times before
The end of the world.
People stood in wonder.

Never before had they seen such a thing.
People rising into the air.
The dead being gathered up.

A booming voice
like one of thunder.
Not a quite rapturous event.

And suddenly people
All around were surprised
And in awe.

That hidden aspect of God
Contained within all
That they had so zealously surpressed.

They knew
Without a shadow of a doubt.
It was all true.

God did exist.
Here he was coming down.
In the air. Calling his own to him.

And those left standing
Had no answer.
They knew he was Lord.

This once in a world’s time event.
The end of it all
Was something never seen before.

In times before…..

Never Seen Before

Scripture Speaks

So I wrote this in somewhat less than three minutes.  It just kinda popped out of me as soon as I saw Kate’s word prompt.   I hope you like it!  If you don’t, please be kind anyways!  🙂 Just maybe you might decide to join in on the fun!

13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

1 Thess 4:13-18

Review: The Unbreakable Faith Course

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FTC disclaimer review

Conversation, it’s one of the things I love best as my lad grows older. Conversations about God, life, purpose, people and whatever else he (or I) am learning about.  It is absolutely fantastic.  Recently we’ve been reviewing an apologetics program called The Unbreakable Faith Course.  It’s been put out by Pilgrim’s Rock, LLC… and it is causing lots of conversation in our household and I love that.   I can’t wait to tell you all about in this review for the Homeschool Review Crew. 

The Unbreakable Faith Course

What I am Reviewing

Pilgrim’s Rock, LLC is the designer of the The Unbreakable Faith Course.   With this course you’ll receive online information as well as two books.  These books are called God the Reason and The Box.  I received these books as PDF’s but there is an option to get the physical books as well.    This is a credited Christian apologetics course.  Their goal is to help teens, young adults and families take on a biblical worldview so we can show and talk about God’s infinite excellence to those around us. 

viewing The Unbreakable Faith Course

How we used it

Our goal was to do The Unbreakable Faith Course with the whole family.  My son wanted dad to be involved.  My husband works long hours into the early morning hours, which made working out the logistics a bit of a challenge.  🙂  What we ended up planning was two-three days a week we would read “The Box” together, and watch one video. We ended up missing watching videos since life sometimes get complicated with later than normal shifts and a need for sleep!  🙂   

The first thing I did was connect with Staples and get them to print off the PDF’s.  These are fairly large books and I didn’t want to print them all off at home.  My son and I read hard-copies of books easier than using e-readers.  

How far did we get?   We’ve watched three videos, and I’ve read the first two chapters of “God the Reason”, and have finished “The Box”.    My son has been steadily reading one chapter a week.  The Box is mostly finished, and he’s about to start on God the Reason.  

The Box

The Box book cover

The Box, written by Craig Biehl, is covered in the first lesson.  17 chapters, much of which is a conversation between Mr. A and Mr. C.   It is broken up into three sections.

  1. Answering the Faith of the Atheist (9 chapters)
  2. Answering the Faith of the Agnostic (5 chapters)
  3. Concluding Remarks (3 chapters)

The book closes with acknowledgements, about the author and resources for parents.    The Box demonstrates how to have a conversation with non-believers.  The conversation is at times stilted but that’s to be expected when you are “setting the scene”. I did find it to be a bit repetitive at times. My son sometimes struggled with the authors not taking everything thought into account.  Many of his questions were about “what if this” and “what about that”. He’s a bit of a perfectionist so wording matters to him.

Presuppositional apologetics are a big part of The Box.  If we get to the root of a person’s thought process, the better we are able to ask questions to help them see truth and deception. 

God the Reason

God the Reason

God the Reason is the larger of the two books.  It has 15 chapters with distinct sections.

  1. God is Eternal (6 sections)
  2. God Needs Nothing (5 sections)
  3. God Cannot be Known unless he reveals himself (five sections)
  4. God is Boundless perfection (7 sections)
  5. God Does not Change (2 sections)
  6. God is Undivided (3 sections)
  7. God is Spirit (3 sections)
  8. God knows everything (4 sections)
  9. God is Wise (3 sections)
  10. God is True and Truthful (3 sections)
  11. God is Good and Love (4 sections)
  12. God is Holy (4 sections)
  13. God is righteous (4 sections)
  14. God is infinitely powerful (6 sections)
  15. God Rules over all (8 sections)

There is a conclusion, two appendices, acknowledgements, works cited, and two indexes.

This book was very much appreciated.  Easy to read and understand.  I love the short sections contained within each chapter with the clear headings of what they were about. This book was also written by Craig Biehl and really helps people understand the nature and majesty of God.

The more we understand the nature of God, the more we are enabled to import worldview truths to those around us. 

reading from God the Reason

Course Set Up

This is a self-paced course.  Take it at your own speed, but if doing it for a credit needs to be finished within 36 weeks of start. 

self-paced

One of the many helpful aspects of Pilgrim’s Rock is they give you a tour of your dashboard. Helping you to understand the many different parts in this presuppositional apologetics course.

dashboard tour

Your lesson work is set up in such a way that you need to complete each section before heading into the next one.  This ensures that you can’t jump ahead, though… if you really want to.. it is possible. 🙂

Unbreakable faith course lay out

We haven’t gotten to the point of taking a test yet.  It is important to note that these tests are timed.  You have 36 weeks to complete the course from the time that you start it.  

Pilgrim's Rock, Timed Tests

The structure of the course is to read chapters of God the Reason and The Box. These readings and chapters are followed up by a quiz.  These quizzes can only be taken once.  I loved the questions that my son came up with, they showed he was understanding the chapters he read.  I do regret that the course itself asks no questions to help you understand what you are reading or how it all fits together into a cohesive unit. 

unbreakable-faith-course-calender

Watching videos is a great way for my lad to learn.  He’s generally audio-oriented so having video just adds.  He did mention that he would like to have a transcript of the videos as well.  His intention is to watch the videos again, and if he had the transcript he could circle the parts of the transcript he wanted to remember for the quiz. 

pilgrim's rock - unbreakable faith course

They have different pricing options depending if you need credit or not.  The course is designed for individuals 15 years or older.  As I read through it and listened to my 14 year old, I think the age range is pretty good.  My son didn’t seem to struggle with it at all, but it’s definitely not geared for elementary students. 

pilgrim's rock logo

So What Did we Think?

My thoughts: “I really like how God the Reason is done. Short chapters with smaller sections that reinforce the main topic. The videos do a good job of supporting this book.  I would really like if the test could be printed out and wasn’t timed.  I absolutely adore the fact that my son asks great questions with this course.  That in and of itself makes this an excellent course.”

My son’s thoughts: “It’s okay.  I don’t like the conversations in The Box, I like just straight-forward writing. I like the videos.  I like when mom can read God the Reason to me and I can listen and ask questions.“

Dad’s thoughts: “They approach apologetics from a different perspective then I would, but they don’t do a bad job.  It would be good if it came with questions, or at least conversation starters.”

watching unbreakable faith

35 members of the Homeschool Review Crew have taken a look at Pilgrim’s Rock, The Unbreakable Faith Course.  You can check out their reviews at this link or by clicking on the image below.   

The Unbreakable Faith Course {Pilgrim's Rock, LLC Reviews}

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Understanding Deuteronomy

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You may recall that last month I studied Philippians as I walked on my treadmill.  This month I am doing Deuteronomy.  I never expected it would be so fascinating!   Let me tell you some of what I’ve been learning and pondering.  

Understanding Deuteronomy

An Overview of Deuteronomy

Part of understanding Deuteronomy is knowing where it falls in the bible.  It’s the fifth book in a series of books called The Pentateuch.  It’s part of the history of Israel. 

Deuteronomy contains sermons by Moses, acts of grace and covenants between God and his people. You’ll see laws for religious observance, laws concerning leadership, as well as civic and criminal law.  Before I dove completely in I reviewed what Bible-At-A-Glance had to say. 

Thought from Deuteronomy

What I am Doing

Once a day I walk on my treadmill.  Monday through Saturday I play listen to teachings on Deuteronomy as I walk.  Visit my playlist. 

I used to just walk and listen but found that I was missing a lot and sometimes the teaching would just fade into the background as I got distracted by thoughts or life.  Therefore I figured out a method to help with that.  I post one or two lines on twitter or facebook so I can remember points that struck me.  Interestingly enough, some of those points have resonated with others and discussions have occurred.  More thinking!  

we don't remember the Lord with statues but with a meal together.

I find myself looking forward to the daily interactions with people via facebook or twitter.  To catching glimpses of how others react to the truths I am learning.  But most importantly I love thinking deeper about the things of God.  Of having questions raised and answered. Particularly lately I am enjoying seeing how the Old Testament connects to the new and how it can inspire conversation and continued thought. 

Understanding Deuteronomy

What Have I Learned?

Deuteronomy repeated points out God’s care for his people.  From giving them rules to live by (many of which are repeated in the New Testament), safe places to go when accidental deaths occur, to reminding people that false testimony has it’s consequences.  

I’ve been challenged to think about how we treat the leaders in our church, to talk to God first when I struggle with issues, and how we set up doing service within the church. 

I’m looking forward to learning more.  It’s kinda find it funny actually, when I thought about studying a new book and Deuteronomy was placed firmly in my mind my biggest thought was WHY?  Why Deuteronomy?   And now I’m learning so much I can’t imagine stopping.  🙂

Understanding Deuteronomy

Why not stop by and join me?  You might find yourself completely intrigued like I am.  🙂  You just might find that understanding Deuteronomy really isn’t as hard or as distant as you originally thought.

alphabet

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