Thursday, May 31, 2012

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Monday, February 6, 2012

RADICAL

I just finished reading Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream, by David Platt. I found the book very motivational. The author calls readers to follow the call of Christ to forsake all for His sake. Contained within the book are countless illustrations of God's work in surrendered Christians.

Platt ends his work with a challenge for readers to change their priorities for one year in the following ways:

1) Pray faithfully for the gospel to be spread in each country and culture around the world. Concentrate specifically on each area until you have prayed for each one fervently. To this end, readers should learn about the needs in each area.

2) Read through the whole Bible faithfully for a year ( a familiar goal, but a worthy one). Platt guarantees readers that time spent in the Word will change their lives (and all Christians should be familiar with scriptures to that effect).

3) Challenge yourself to live on a minimal amount of your income, giving your surplus to a Godly cause, to spread the Gospel and support the poor and destitute.

4) Spend 2% of your time (works out to one week, approximately, in a year) outside your comfort zone, outside your city, doing the work of the Lord. Many examples are given of Christians who visited poor countries or did disaster relief work in the US, or even donated their time in an inner city outreach. By personally participating in the sharing of the Gospel and following our admonishments in the scriptures to care for "the least of these," Christians will find their hearts and priorities changing personally.

5) Become an integral part of a Christian church community. Participate joyfully, forming strong bonds with brothers and sisters in Christ. Serve with a generous heart, not grudging any time or commitment that may require.

Despite the title of the book, I don't actually find the challenge all that radical. I honestly believe most Christians should do most of this based on the commands in the New Testament.


Sunday, January 29, 2012

Okay, so it comes Monthly, not Weekly.

At least I'm blogging!

In my life this week…

I had heart-to-heart conversations with 5-6 of my favorite people. Sometimes I feel so isolated, but this week has been a good one on the fellowship front!

In our homeschool this week…
Andrew wrote a thank you letter to Uncle Norm and Aunt Gretchen for his Christmas gift. He is working on physically multiplying numbers in math.
Joshua aced a placement test for AOP Lifepac Language Arts. He has been
begging to try a "canned" LA program for several years. I think I will let him try one workbook at the end of the year as an experiment. If both of us agree, it may be our sixth grade LA choice.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
I've been doing our history read-aloud during breakfast! Multi-tasking makes me feel like superwoman. Plus, when the boys' mouths are full and they're not fully awake they are less likely to interrupt the reading.

I am inspired by…
My parents. I hope I can be as understanding and unconditionally loving when my sons are my age as they are for my brothers and me.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
Joshua is part of an Upwards basketball team, so that takes up a large part of Saturday. This week I was excited to attend another age level game with my best girlfriend. Then she and her son stayed to see Joshua's game and my mom came as well. I'm never more content than when in company of my mom and my best girlfriend.

My favorite thing this week was…
Above mentioned basketball game outing.

What’s working/not working for us…
We dropped a history story about King Philip's War. We got the gist of the motivation, setting and some battles and found we were dreading slogging through the remaining battles. Children of the Longhouse, by Louis Bruchac is a big hit, though!

I’m reading…
"Radical- Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream" by David Platt. So far it's a page-turner and very inspiring.

I’m cooking…
A Thai noodle bowl was the big hit this week. I have to say, though, I much preferred today's incredible treat and being taken out to eat to a local authentic Mexican restaurant.

I’m grateful for…
The grace of God. I have never been more mindful of Calvary and its accomplishment giving us the power to become the children of God.

I’m praying for…
Clarity.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Gabriel sings Twinkle, Twinkle.