Grace,Righteouness and The Promises of God

Today our passage is Romans 4: 13-25.

¹³ For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴ For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵ For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
Oh, think about that.  Just THINK about that.  Abraham, we already know he's been declared righteous because of his faith.  WE got that right?  HE will be heir to the world because of the righteousness of his faith.   He is our father in the faith.. so think about what that means.  Ponder it.

Cause it just kinda hit me tonight as I was reading.

Those that stick to the law are not the inheritors of the earth.  The law brings wrath.
BUT those who have faith... THEY inherit the earth.    

¹⁶ That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring
Why? So that God's promise rests on grace and is a guarantee to all the offspring of Abraham.  Faith and grace... so intertwined.
 
—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, ¹⁷ as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
Abraham...the father of many physical descendants as well as many spiritual descendants.   God kept his promise to Abraham and all his descendents, and that means to us to eh?   As believers God's promises to Abraham... those promises based on grace, and our faith. 

  ¹⁸ In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” ¹⁹ He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. ²⁰ No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹ fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. ²² That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” ²³ But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, ²⁴ but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, ²⁵ who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
These verses are amazing. See Abraham's faith in action.  Against the odds his faith stayed strong.  Old age and the unbelief of others didn't stop his faith in God.  Unswerving. 

But read these words: he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.   Do you see it?  As he gave glory to God his faith grew stronger.   Wow.   Just WOW.  Think about that.  I'm thinking about that.   

Praising God, giving glory to God, means our faith grows stronger.

Makes me think about how in a marriage, if you act in a loving way toward your spouse it increases the depth of your love for him/her.   It does.  It changes your love and makes it grow.  Like an echo of how.. if we act in a loving way toward God, if we give him glory and honour, our faith in him grows becoming stronger and fuller.   And it counts to us as righteousness.

When the bible tells us that Abraham's faith was counted to him as righteousness it wasn't only for the sake of Abraham eh?   See these words:   But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Abraham's faith, that faith seen in those who believe in Jesus raised from the dead.  Jesus the very son of God who was delivered up for OUR sins, who was raised for OUR justification.   If we believe this... then OUR faith is counted as righteousness.  Not just Abraham.. but US TOO!   

I read these words and I think to Martin Luther and how reading Romans changed his entire life.  See faith and righteousness and God's grace so intertwined...and how it passes through the generations so that not only Abraham's faith is counted as righteous...but ours too, if we truly believe.
  
To follow along with the rest of this devotional series in Romans Click Here. 

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Life Pleasures 1: Hike

 One of my pleasures in life is to go hiking with my family.   The older the lad gets the more he doesn't stay with me and the more he hikes off out front with his dad.  They frequently check back with me to make sure I'm not lost or stuck as I'm not as nimble as I used to be... but it's fun to get out and explore.

I thought you might like to see some of the walks/hikes we've done and some of the treasures I've found along the way.  :)

I admittedly have a thing for mushrooms.  Whenever I go on a hike or walk I'm bound to find some sort of fungi to take a picture of.  One year I went for a walk and I found red and orange fungi, I was so stoked as that was a first time event.  Unfortunately...those pictures have been lost and I was so sad to discover that. But look!  I still have pictures from 2016!  :)

 I managed to get a clear, up close and personal shot of this fungi.  Are they so interesting looking?   

Anyways...you might not be as keen on fungi as I am so moving on....

Who doesn't love a leaf strewn path with trees all around, making you feel like you are alone in the world... just you and nature.  The sound of birds singing, the patter of small critters scurrying away, and if you are quiet enough and early enough in the morning...the odd deer moving silently through the trees.  It is SO cool!

You know, I like geese and ducks and what not.  Waterfowl are pretty cool.  But in town when you walk around and they are begging for treats it's like.. ICK.. go away stupid birds.  But when you see those same birds in a natural setting it's like .. wow.  

I've been trying to find some of the neat rock ones and stuff we've seen but I think they have alas... gone the way of most of my cool fungi pictures....  :(   From the trails up north and stuff but I..... ah well.. you get the picture right?   Long walks/hikes in the middle of nowhere is a lovely lovely thing to do.  :) 
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This post is part of the Crews Instagram word prompt challenge. I find them fun to turn into posts, don't you?

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Review: Doctor Aviation

Did you know I have a nephew who is big into aviation, and another who trained to be an airplane mechanic?  I have a brother who is training to be a helicopter pilot... so an interest in the air and flight runs in the family. Ergo, when I had a chance to review Doctor Aviation I snatched it up!  I'm listening to it as an adult, though I freely admit, I shared interesting bits with my lad.  :)  Doctor Aviation is an aviation education and history course run by Daryl Smith, taken online.

What do you get?
You get six sections with 1 to 4 lessons in each section.  Each Lesson runs 45-50 minutes and follows the same routine.  Technical Trivia, Notable Innovators and Legendary Events or Aircraft.  Every few lessons, if you are taking this for credit, you can ask for a test. (there will be a prompt in the actions steps).

Technical Trivia is the meat of the program.  Here Daryl Smith is usually found standing in front of an aircraft with his notes.  He presents the information in a lecture format, interspersing his presentation with slides to help present the information more clearly.  These aviation history videos are interesting to listen to indeed.

The Notable Innovators section is where he talks about the people important to aviation history. We are given a chance to learn about Earhart and Bernouli as well as many others.

Legendary events or aircraft speaks to times in history that were important to aviation, such as breaking the sound barrier, why Earhart flight didn't work, the trip to the moon and such like.  Facts that shaped the history of aviation.

You can see how the lessons are laid out.  See how the sections are labeled, with the appropriate lessons contained within.  15 lessons in all.
Section one: Course Overview (1)
Section two: The Aircraft (4)
Section three: Air Traffic Control (2)
Section four: Aircraft Maintenance (2)
Section five: Airfield Operations (2)
Section six: The Aircraft II (4)

 

How did I use?
I plugged my ear phones into my lap top and listened as I worked.  When I was intrigued I stopped what I was doing, clicked over to where the video was playing, backed up the video and listened again.  Watching the images that would pop up, taking notes for the complicated stuff, and then returned to my work.  It was a great way to learn new material, refresh my mind over the old, and to inspire my thinking.   Seeing how things fit together, listening to the easy break down of the technical details, the interesting people in aviation and some of the legendary events.  

I have to admit, I didn't do ANY of the optional exercises.  I just listened and learned. :)
But they have a ton of things you can do to broaden your learning, from books to read, to models to build and essays you can write.   Here is but a small sampling.  Rather cool eh?

Oh!  I mustn't forget to tell you about this handy feature: GUIDED NOTES.  They follow the script really well and help you retain the information presented.  You need to forgive my scrawl and the fact that I didn't completely fill it in (honestly even when I was in school I never filled sheets in all the way).  A bit of rebel you know?  :)

My thoughts:
Darryl Smith talks well, he keeps to his notes but looks at the camera. The notes just keep him on topic and prevent the forgetting of details.   You can tell that he spent
24 years in the Air Force as a Command Pilot with over 2,000 flying hours and that he was an instructor in the United States Air Force Academy.

I loved having the notes.  I admittedly didn't use them often as I mostly listened, but when I needed them, they were right there, easily saved to my computer for later reference, and easy to print off for when I wanted them.  They followed the script really well.

If I had planned to use this as a student, I would have found ALL the options for increasing the scope of the lessons great.  Books to read, projects to do, so many options it was great.   Incorporating the different senses and styles of learning.  Let's build a wind tunnel, or draw a map outlining someone's journey or.... so many options it was great!

I disliked that "oh don't be alarmed by the technical stuff I'll make it easy for you" type conversations.   I find when people do that it's easy to think it will be over my head rather than just assuming that I'll get it.  I want the assumption there that the instructor will make it clear what I need to know, instead of making me feel like I'm set up for failure.

I wish his labels would always precede each new section and that dots were put on the time line to show where they started.  That way I could easily review a section if I want to or if I think "oh.. the lad will like hearing about this aviator" and I wouldn't have to hunt for it.  :)

I LOVE how the lessons are set up the same.  Course title, video, things you need to see about doing and additional resources.  It's all quite logical, with clean crisp edges that don't distract from the lessons to be learned.

This is a course that you could EASILY stretch out to fill six months OR if you are rushed and just want to listen to the lessons, you could complete it in less than a month.  The guided notes are yours to keep along with the additional resources.   Making this a very handy and useful elective for you or your students to take.


Doctor Aviation
Six month subscription
Recommended for age 16 and up.

Each of the 15 lessons includes a 45-50 minute video. Divided into three sections that naturally feed into each other.  Each also includes a PDF of "To Learn More" suggestions. This includes extra readings, YouTube videos, movies, hands-on activities, research and writing assignments, etc.  Each lesson has guided notes.  There are tests included as well.

64 people are reviewing Doctor Aviation.  To see what we have to say, click here or below.

Social Media Links:

• Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/doctoraviation    Tag:   @doctoraviation   
• Twitter:  https://twitter.com/draviationguy    Tag:   @draviationguy   

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This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time .