A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Christian living

The Other

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Currently I’m listening to a story where a dad has to make a choice. Fulfill the treaty as he AUGHT to with his oldest, obedient daughter, or send off his youngster, a girl who was prone to cause no end of trouble. I haven’t reached the point in the story where he makes that choice, but I’m tending to think (given the nature of the book and the author) that he’ll send off his troublesome one. That he will strongly consider giving “the other”.

The story is causing me to pause in my thoughts.

Other

Understanding The Other

Lately I’ve been reading the devotional My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. Chambers challenges us to think about what it means to give our utmost for the Lord. It’s not always as easy a decision as we think it is.

Today’s reading gave me this challenge “Worship is giving God the best that He has given you.”

When I get something that is a blessing to me… a card from my hubby, a compliment from my son, a monetary gift from someone, my inclination is two-fold.

1. to thank them and
2. to keep it my own.

Oswald though says “Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love gift. take time to meditate before God and offering the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship.”

Deliberate. Giving back. Doing the OTHER.
So not just saying Thanks God that was awesome and then hoarding it in.

But taking the time to genuinely praise and worship him and offering it back. Therefore if God blesses me with plentiful rain and an abundant harvest I need to THANK him for it. Not take it for granted. I need to take that abundant harvest and allow him to use it.   If he blesses me with good health, then I need to use that good health as a praise offering to him.   Not just merely going about my business without giving him a thought.

It’s a deliberate act on my part.  To consider those blessings given, praise him for it, and offer them back to him as worship. 

It’s an outside focus.  A focus that is non-worldly, not self-centered 

It’s The Other.

31 days of free writes

This post is part of the Write 31 days Challenge. 

Showing Hospitality

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Hospitality is the word of the week over at Miss Kate’s. Come join us won’t you?

I am always amazed at people who can anticipate needs before they are even known.   That is how I see the gift that showing hospitality is. 

I know that everyone is responsible for all the gifts. God grants them to some believers as gifts, abilities that naturally flow out of the abundance of goodness he gives us.  But just because some are granted a gift doesn’t mean that the rest of us can ignore them.  They are all fruits of the spirit.   They are all part of us in one measure or other. 

So here I am… able to welcome people into my home but having to stop and think my way through what I need to do. 

  •  offer coffee or a drink. 
  •  have a treat on hand. 
  •  clean the house (or at least make the effort)
  • a place to sit
  • and the list goes on.

Hospitality doesn’t flow naturally out of me.

showing hospitality

I go and visit my sister and this gift seems to flow out of her seamlessly.  She’s learned well this art of meeting the needs of those visiting. Conversation is a given on a variety of topics.  I’ve visited with members of our church and observed Mrs. S do the same.  Comfortable, feel at home, meet your needs and conversation as naturally as breathing. 

I talk myself through everything and limit the people who come into my house by request. People who just stop in have to take me as I am.  🙂   Outside my home I have no problems.  I think less about offering to help or meet a need or offer support.  Yet here, maybe hospitality?

I find it odd.

This dichotomy.  The having to think it think it so much when people are over, yet if I am out visiting, helping, listening, providing comes naturally.

What makes the difference?

Bigger Than Business

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Many of you know that I have a small business raising rabbits.  As a small business person, it is sometimes difficult to live out my faith in a world that does not encourage me to do so.  To that end Bigger than Business helps me to live out my faith while still being a business woman.  Even if you don’t have a business, you will find the principles found within the stories, a boon to living out your faith honestly. 

Bigger than business

About the Book

Bigger than Business brings you eight inspiring and thought-provoking stories of Christian business owners from six continents living out the purpose for which God created them in their unique business settings.

Through their transparent, true-life stories and the wisdom they convey, you will become better equipped to fully and effectively serve God right where you are – in and through the business that God has entrusted to you, thereby fulfilling the purpose for which God created you.  With renewed enthusiasm, you will have greater clarity, commitment, courage, capabilities, and confidence to continue to build and grow as your ministry, the business that God has entrusted to you. 

Bigger than business

What You Get:

Eight chapters make up this trade paperback book produced by High Bridge books.  Jeff Holler gives us eight stories of business owners, complete with their failures, lessons learned, and triumphs to help us live out our faith in the business environment.

  • Rising from Ashes – Rasa Floors
  • Transforming Mindsets, Improving Lives – Psychology Cafe
  • Bumpku – Jacto Agricola
  • Contentment?  yes…and no.  – Barnhart Crane and Rigging
  • Healing hearts – Amahoro Ava Hejuru Cooperative
  • Clearing the Path – Global Palm Resources Holdings Limited
  • Getting to the Heart of business – Suchy Messtechnik
  • One More – Hobby Lobby

I love that the text is a comfortable size to read.  🙂  I think even my hubby could read it without his reading glasses.  Always a bonus when you can do that.   Jeff does everything he can to make his material easy to read and understand, complete with section headers, well laid out quotes and stories, with truth woven between the conversation of the business owners.  You can tell he spend a good amount of time with each business. 

Bigger than business

Each chapter is closed off with a series of questions.  These can be used for personal reflection or as part of a larger group discussion. It’s good to take the time to reflect, to see if there are things that need modification in your own life, as you see the lives of fellow believers. 

Bigger than business

My Opinion:

Only three of the businesses featured in Bigger than Business have I heard about.  It was very interesting to me to learn the stories behind the names I knew.  I was fascinated by the business in Brazil… that agriculture business made me very curious indeed. 🙂

It was fascinating to watch the owners realize their strengths and weaknesses and work on improving what they needed to, and how important God was in that process. 

This is definitely a book worth getting.  It’s always good to see how people live out their faith in the nitty gritty of life.  It’s not always easy being a business owner and doing it, in today’s environment, in a way that pleases God.  These businesses will open your eyes to how that is done.   

I love that personal reflection questions were included with every chapter.

Bigger than business

Bigger Than Business: real-world stories of business owners living their purpose.
Jeff Holler
High Bridge Books
Trade Paperback, 246 pages, non-fiction
Business, Christianity, Faith, Stewardship

Reviewed for: Ascot Media.   

Bigger than Business website.

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The Christian’s Obsession with Christ

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One of the things my hubby pastor says frequently “I need to preach Christ”.  That means regardless of the scripture passage being used, Christ is to be preached.  He is central to the entirety of scripture.   He is woven throughout the fabric of our history, from the beginning of the world until it’s very end.  Christ is always to be found.

Therefore, Christianity is Christ. This is the central theme of this chapter from the Faith-Shaped Life.

The Christian's Obsession with Christ

Throughout the gospels this truism is seen most clearly.  Jesus doesn’t tell people in Matthew 11 to some other being in order to find rest.  He says “come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”.   He calls people to himself. 

Jesus was very much aware that he was the answer to people struggling with the affects of sin in their lives. 

It’s so True

Consider how God took care of all the details when his Son died.  How he made sure all scripture was fulfilled, that Jesus had a witness, and more.  God gave us his everything.  So we have EVERYTHING… not just what we need, but everything possible.  It’s all tied up in Jesus. 

In John 15 Jesus tells us that he is the vine and we are the branches.  He is the ONE that gives us the life that we need to flourish. 

This means that if we are struggling, the first thing that we must do is turn to Jesus.  We need to look to him for the answers.  

And wow.. it’s so easy to forget that eh?   We find ourselves down in the dumps and what do we do?  Everyone has their own thing.

 I know what I do!   I make myself busy and force myself to be involved in the world around me.. even if all I want to do is curl into a ball and stay away from the world.  But that’s not turning to Christ first.  That’s me making decisions about what I think I need to do.  It’s the same advise I give to others who struggle.  Stay involved, don’t shut yourself away, community is there for a reason. 

When perhaps, if I turned to Christ first, if I looked to him for the answers, he might have another solution for me.  A solution that would be better in the long run instead of a short term solution.   If instead of losing myself in an electronic game, tv show or book.  That instead, I took a walk and spent time just talking with God.  Or spent time perusing scripture. 

I need to remember when I am struggling to look to Jesus.  In him I can find the solution I need.  How about you?

Confident, I Stand

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Miss Kate provides us with a one word prompt challenge every Thursday night at 10 p.m.  I find these really fun to do.  This week the word is confident.  I hope you will come join us. 

Confident, confidence, 

 late 16th century: from French confident(e ), from Italian confidente, from Latin confident- ‘having full trust’, from the verb confidere, from con- (expressing intensive force) + fidere ‘trust’.

In the course of one week, confident/confidence means different things.

Confident

Confidence in Skillset

Confident I type, assuring a gal that yes, when breeding a rabbit only two fall-offs are necessary and NO, you don’t need to introduce the buck to the doe four hours later.  One breeding time is sufficient to have, 31 days later, a healthy litter of kits.  This assumes that the doe is fertile, not overweight, and doesn’t have a scare during her pregnancy, and of course, that the buck is fertile.   I have been breeding rabbits for more than 15 years and have mentored many people into the craft that is bunny raising.   Confidence is not a skill I lack in this regard.

Confident

Confidence in Choices

Confidently, trusting my lad, on a snow day, after a recent long chat, I give him carte blanche in choosing his learning activities for the day.  True to my trust, my lad happily comes to me with a plan for the afternoon.   Taking apart a clock radio, sewing on shoulder flashes on his uniform, and building a stand for his crossbow.  Good learning in all that, so on a day when our student has the day off school, I have a mild headache, the lad is still learning well. 

Confident

Confident, I Stand

Not quite as confident, and actually falling into a pit of despair was the start of my week.  I’m still shaky from that day… but Tuesday when I still coming out of that pit, a timely reminder was given.

Faith comes from hearing the word, faith comes from knowing the truth and believing it in.  Faith is not based on emotion.  So when my emotions are completely out of whack, feeling lost and alone in the world, my faith is not in question.   What I mean is that, though I may not feel like I have faith at the moment, doesn’t mean that my faith is non-existent.  It just means my emotions are all crazy and that Satan is doing an excellent job of hitting me where it hurts the most.   But faith is not based in emotions.  God promises that those who seek him find him.  He doesn’t say, the emotionally always stable who seeks him find him.  He doesn’t say “they find him and then he leaves them when things are hard.”  The bible is clear.  If you seek for God you WILL find him.  That is a fact.  Real, true knowledge.  The truth of that statement hit me like a ton of bricks a year or so ago. And that truth remains with me still.  

My confidence (emotionally) is starting to come back, but until it does completely, the truth of who God is remains.   His steadfastness, his surety, his known providence and care remain the rocks that I stand upon when things are hard.   Upon him… I am confident. 

Made for the Journey

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Made for the Journey: One Missionary’s First Year in the Jungles of Ecuador is unexpected look into the life of missionary service.   Why unexpected?  I knew the book would be about her experiences in the Jungle but I wasn’t expecting the raw honesty.   Elisabeth Elliot unabashedly speaks to the truths of God at work in the shock of first-year missionary work.

From the Publisher

In this deeply personal account of her first year as a missionary, Elisabeth Elliot shares the challenges she faced as she worked in the jungles of Ecuador to bring the Word of God to a people virtually untouched by the outside world.  With fascinating detail, she captures the stark realities of life in the jungle, the difficulties she encountered while developing a written language for the tribe, and her confusion when God didn’t “cooperate” with her efforts to accomplish what she believed was His will. 

What You Get:

19 chapters that walked you through Elisabeth first journey to the jungle and her day to day life during her first year there.  

She introduces us to the people she is there to serve, rivals in mission work, the joys and challenges, the totally unexpected and the heartbreak.

The fun of a lad wanting to fit in.

Along with the struggles of working with (or against) other missions.

The laughter in retrospect after a really difficult journey.

And joy in laughter.   It’s a lovely thing.

A book of memories without being preachy.  It’s like sitting down with your favourite missionary, over a cup of tea and hearing the real stories.   The hard truths and the real struggles, and the moments when you shake your head, hold your heart and wonder WHY.

My Thoughts:

I read this book over the course of three days, when I started it I kept thinking that my mom and mom-in-law would thoroughly enjoy this read.  As I kept reading though I thought… I needed to read this.  I needed to understand the hardship that missionaries sometimes have to go through, and how much new missionaries have to learn in the field.  I needed to see that God sometimes doesn’t do things the way you thought he would, because honestly, sometimes I forget that.

In the end… A timely read about God’s goodness .. even in ways unexpected.  Would my moms enjoy this book?  YES, they would, but you know what… so will you.   God’s mercies run through the pages in this deeply personal memoir that is so well written. 

Go read it.  See God at work.

Click on image for amazon listing.
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Four Ways to Remember the Reason for the Season

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4 Ways to Remember the Reason for the Season

Tis the season to be jolly fa la la la la la la la la.

It is the season to be jolly, it’s great time of the year, this time of hope that we are in.  There is so much to see, do and be involved in.  But think.. What’s the real reason?  It’s the hope of the Saviour… not coming as a baby, as important as that is, but as the Saviour of the world. We so need to remember and to contemplate what that really means,.  🙂

It’s hard not to get caught up in the busyness of the seasons.  In this post I will talk about some of my joys of the season, as well as some ways to remember the reason for the season. 

My Joys:

In the baking of cookies.  Papernauten anyone?

In the putting up of a Christmas village.. I do have to admit this year, I’ve reduced my Christmas village.  We are trying to light our load abit and I’ve needed to cut my village.  A hard decision but it all needs to fit into ONE bin.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember, to focus on the fact that Christ came to earth FOR US.  And not just for a generic us but for a specific ME.

Four ways to Remember the Reason For the Season

So the question arises.   Just how does one remember what truly is the reason for the season?

These are things that help me
1. Doing a daily advent activity.   Often we have used a Lego Advent Calendar.  🙂    What can I say… it’s fun to put together Lego as one thinks about the events of Christmas.  But lately we just have those dollar store chocolate Advent Calendars and read scripture daily.  Different passages that speak to the true meaning of Christmas, and the story of Jesus’ birth. 

2. Spending time alone.   YES.. alone… in fact sometimes I will squirrel myself away like a little spider, getting away from the noise and bustle of the world and just stay within my own cozy home.  Reading a book, going out for a walk when no one is around, getting lost in the world of colouring and a Christmas movie.   Just stuff for me alone.  🙂

3. Christmas music and books!  In the past I read lots of books (like Alabaster’s song).  Now I play Christmas music as I bake cookies, pumpkin spice muffins, and meals) and even while I’m sweeping the floor or doing laundry.  Bring music that I like into the house.  🙂

4. Spend time with the Lord in church services, readings from the bible and Christmas poetry that reminds me of the season.      There are some you might want to check out here and here.

We all have ways that help us to remember what is important about the Christmas season.  

So tell me then, what’s important to you?   How do you focus on that importance?  How do you remember the reason for Christmas?