Hymn Study: Come to the Saviour

Last Sunday we sang this song at church. It's been running through my head ALL WEEK LONG so I thought I should share that joy with you. (and yes, it actually HAS BEEN a joy). So today.. enjoy Come to the Saviour. 

Lyrics

Come to the Savior, make no delay;
Here in His Word He has shown us the way;
Here in our midst He’s standing today,
Tenderly saying, “Come!”

Refrain
Joyful, joyful will the meeting be,
When from sin our hearts are pure and free;
And we shall gather, Savior, with Thee,
In our eternal home.
“Suffer the children!” oh, hear His voice!
Let ev’ry heart leap forth and rejoice;
And let us freely make Him our choice;
Do not delay, but come.
Refrain
Think once again, He’s with us today;
Heed now His blest command, and obey;
Hear now His accents tenderly say,
“Will you, My children, come?”
Refrain


Written by George F. Root, a American man with a love of music.  By age 13 he could play several different instruments, he played organ as an adult, and taught in the New York Institute for the blind.  He wrote both sacred and secular music, both tunes and words.  By the time of his death he had published more than 500 pieces of music.   He sometimes used the German name Wurzel (Also meaning root) in his music.  

Come to the Saviour is a simple invitational hymn.  I read this story over at CyberHymnal 
 
“In 1879 I was as­sist­ing in re­viv­al meet­ings in Dan­ville, Cal­i­forn­ia,” writes the pas­tor of a Pres­by­ter­ian Church at Oak­land. “The meet­ings were well at­tend­ed and good in­ter­est was ex­hib­it­ed, but for a long time there were no con­ver­sions. In the neigh­bor­hood there was a man who, with his wife and child­ren, at­tend­ed the church re­gu­lar­ly, and he was one of its lib­er­al sup­port­ers. They were most ex­cel­lent peo­ple, but could not be in­duced to pro­fess Christ, and did not call them­selves Christ­ians. One day, while the men were hold­ing ser­vic­es in the church the wo­men were hav­ing a pray­er-meet­ing in the manse near by. In the course of the meet­ing they sang ‘Come to the Sav­iour, make no de­lay.’ The sing­ing over, they were about to en­gage in pray­er, when the la­dy above re­ferred to asked them to sing the last verse of this hymn…The la­dy was great­ly af­fect­ed and when the sing­ing ceased she said with deep emo­tion: ‘Yes, I will not stay away any long­er.’ The wo­men were all deep­ly moved, and prayed and praised God with warm hearts. When the word reached the men they were great­ly en­cour­aged at the good news. A re­viv­al fol­lowed, .... This hymn seemed to have been the means of reach­ing the wife’s heart, and of open­ing the way for the bless­ing which fol­lowed.”
 
I love listening to men singing hymns.  Enjoy this version from Guam.  :)

Sources: 
Cyber Hymnal
Wordwise Hymns.
Hymnary.
Hymntime
PDMusic

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: Berenstain Bears: Bless our Gramps & Gran

 I have to admit, my 12 year old thinks I'm weird.. I know a shocker eh?

BUT WHY does he think I'm weird?   Because I've always liked the Berenstain Bears.  He unfortunately has never liked them.  He's never connected with bears.. but if the book were about cats... DIFFERENT STORY!  :)  

Nevertheless, I was delighted to review Mike Berenstain's recent book called Bless our Gramps and Gran. 


Hidden Blessings

A phenomena occurs regularly in our household. 

My hubby's phone will ring and the lad and I will immediately burst out in chorus causing hubby to shake his head at us. 

What do we chorus? 

Ring ring pick up your phone. 
Ring ring pick up your phone. 

This is his ring tone and it makes the lad and I laugh and sing every single time.  (of course I can't find the version he uses and if looking for it be careful...there are some not so good versions of it out there)

It's a blessing indeed that hubby dear rarely gets phone calls.  A hidden blessing if you will.

It means .. it never gets old (so the lad and I get to share a fun moment). 
AND
No long term annoyed hubby... in fact.. he always grins after the fact.  

This silly family of his. :)

But it makes me think eh?   

All the hidden blessings we have in life, things we don't think of.  Like if anything changed with the phone.. it would no longer be funny, or would become an annoyance to my sweetheart.  


I learned a hidden blessing this past week.  I breed rabbits.  I've been hurt by animal rights people in the past and they are normally associated with rescues, and I've learned to avoid some rescues.  BUT I had a wee bunny with a missing foot and I wasn't sure what I should do with her so I took a chance and contacted a rescue from out of town, and the person was EVER so helpful.  Where's the hidden blessing?  My stubborn Dutch heritage and my mom's influence of looking for the good.   You can't let one person sully your thoughts about someone completely different. Blessings I don't regularly see or look for those things in my heritage...but this...this is helpful eh? 

All the ways the Lord God has provided and protected me and mine eh?  Good stuff those hidden blessings.  :)

Join in won't you?  This is part of the Homeschool Review Crew's instagram challenge.  Today.  PHONE.
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

Love Your Neighbour, a poem

Love your neighbour as yourself.

Love...
action
determination
willingness 
present
future
there
more than feeling
doing
being
ready

your neighbour...
the person living with you
the person next door
.. down the street 
.. in the next town
.. in the next province
.. in the next country
.. across borders
.. across oceans

as yourself...
selfish
consuming
self-centred
total
active
internalized
deeply felt
considered
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  This is a five minute Friday post. the word prompt is brought to us by Miss Kate over at Five Minute FridayWhat is Five Minute Friday?  Well it's a party of a group of like minded folks who gather on Friday to do a five minute free write around a singular word.  AND THEN (and this is the most important part) we take the time to offer up encouragement to each other on this writing journey.  It's fun, though it's not always easy, but it is always good.   Come join us won't you?  You are always welcome.
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original picture from
Photo by Sadman Sakib on Unsplash

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

Anguish and God's Choice

Today we are looking at Romans 9:1-29.   I can't say I'll get through the whole section as it's a whole 29 verses.  Let's see how we do eh?



Review: Psalm Hymns: Books 1,2,3

Do you love to sing scripture?  Singing back to God the words he gave to his people?

L.L. Larkin has come up with a book to do just that and I really really like it.  It is called :  Psalm Hymns, Books 1, 2, & 3: Dramatic, Contemplative, Singable, Recitable Psalms!

No boring unsingable tunes.  But simple easily recognized tunes with the words of the Psalms.    

Let me tell you more. 

I actually received two versions of this book, which appear to be identical within.  The only different being the cover.   You'll see the one cover here, and the other cover pictured below.

This book is FILLED with scripture written to the tune of familiar songs and hymns.

Pearl Seeker: I want to be a pearl seeker

When my friend Lori learned that I was seeking a book to do from my weekly book read, she sent me a book by Becky Blackmon called "A Pearl Seeker".   I think it's an interesting book and therefore wanted to share it with you.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I am.

 This book has 11 chapters, so if all goes well it won't take too long to go through.  :)  I haven't delved into it too much, just read snippets here and there, so I'm eager to see what it has to say.

The first few lines of this chapter remind me of the lesson from Romans that's been sticking in my head.  God.. our ever present protection. NOTHING can threaten us, not one single thing.  For you know who God is?  God is superman!   From Deuteronomy 33 "he rides the heaves to your help, and through the skies in his majesty."   Neat huh?   Doesn't that imagery help you to see the grandeur of God?  It just captured my imagination.

Seek the Lord and His Strength.

Seeking..it's an active thing, it's asking questions, not being afraid to ask those questions, to look for answers, to wonder why and to discover it.   

The question that faces us is this.  If we have questions about God, where do we go for the answers?   Do we ask anyone we meet or do we go to his word?  Becky helps us see that there is really only one place to go.  God's word.  It's his book about himself.

So you can see that God doesn't hide himself away.  He makes himself ever so clear if all we do is ask questions and look for the answers.  It's all right there.  Open heart, open mind, seeking after God. 

To that end a question is raised.  Do we treasure what has been given to us?   Are his words ever so important to us?   Do we seek after him daily, looking for that ever present help?

Treasure it, let it become so very very important to you. 

...

I have to admit I struggle with the repeated "it's up to us to learn, grow and change" message found throughout this chapter.

I agree.. we NEED to seek the Lord.
BUT you know who puts that's seeking within us?   
The Lord himself!

So yes, we need to seek the Lord, but we also should be acknowledging that he helps us to seek him and that perhaps that should be our prayer as well.  that he helps us to seek him more keenly.

Sometimes we DO have to make a choice.  Watch that TV show or spend time in God's word.   Go for a walk or dig into scripture.  Care for the critters or take time with God.  It's hard to make choices sometimes.  But we can determine to make better decisions about our time so those choices come easier...finding the needed time to seek out the Lord in his word.  It's THAT important.  :)




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

Art Book: Stick Sketch School

I want you to imagine that you have just taught your children about this amazing animal called the blob fish.  It comes out of Tasmania, and you asked your children to draw a picture of it and they give you a blank look... How can you help them draw this amazing fish?   Well, if you have the Stick Sketch School book it will be easy peasy.. just turn to page 86 and before you know it your children will have created a beautiful image of the blob fish.  :)   Might be a sketch figure but it will be "beautiful" enough to colour in and create an underwater world.

Allow me now to introduce you to a wonderful book called "Stick Sketch School"
Stick Sketch School

Review: Journey Through Learning Lapbooks

The Greatest Inventors has been a delight to us to use over the past few weeks. We've laughed, we've talked, and we've discovered so much thanks to A Journey through Learning Lapbooks.  Let me tell you all about it!


Review: A Train of Thought

I have this fascination with trains, not real running on the rails trains...but the trains of old, the ones I can do in replica on an HO scale rail.   So imagine my delight when I was contacted about reviewing a book about trains, told from the perspective of a fella who worked the lines for 40 years.



Guide, remember.. fear not

Guide

I sit here feeling battered and flummoxed.
I inadvertently opened a hot button on facebook.

Name calling.
Hard comments.
Challenges made.
Misunderstandings rampant.
I awed by the support of a friend.

I wonder..

Parenting Series: Mercy

 Do you know what mercy is?

Mercy is "tenderheartedness and compassion toward someone in need" (Tripp p. 195) 

Mercy is "compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm."  (google)

When I was growing up I was taught that mercy was "unmerited favour". 

Mr. Tripp asks us to remember what it is, and to also remember, how much we need mercy in our own lives. Can you remember how important mercy is to you in your own walk with the Lord.

Now .. holding that in your mind.  Think about your children. 

Completely Protected

Today we are looking at Romans 8:31-39.

Do you remember that future hope that we need to wait for patiently?  How God has foreknown us, called us, justified us and glorified us?
romans 8
 

Art Book: Spread Your Wings and Fly

Spread your wings and fly is a unique origami book.   

I honestly didn't know what I thought of it at first, I expected a typical origami book where it shows a picture of a folded paper creation and then shows you how to make it.

paper crane origami
This book takes a somewhat different tack.

Review: Everyday Homemaking with Everyday Cooking

Want to try a new cookbook?   Well, Everyday Homemaking provided me with a collection of tried-and-true recipes in their book Everyday Cooking.  Included in this cookbook are numerous hints to make your cooking journey simpler, while emphasizing whole foods.  


Review: My Great Big God

 I suppose it's odd of me, but I like reviewing these hardcover children's bible story books.  Perhaps it's because I have a wee niece (what do you call a niece of a niece?) and her mom is dating a fellow who has a wee lad around the same age.   So I have these two little people in my life so these books make me smile.   I want them to have good books that help show them who God is.


This book makes the cut, let me tell you why.




Can we wait patiently for that future glory?

Today we are reading from Romans 8:18-30.


This morning on facebook I read about a young lady who is going through a hard time medically speaking, and today (or I suppose rather yesterday) it was an emotionally tough one.  One of the commenters mentioned that surgery scars are a sign of a battle fought and shouldn't be seen as ugly but as a sign of victory.  Mourn the need of them us, but truly see them as they are.  With that in mind.. when I read the first verse of this section it makes sense you know?

Hymn Study: Come Thou Font, Come Thou My King

 We sang this song in church yesterday, and I thought it was an interesting way to modernize an older hymn of worship.


I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  :)  I was captured by the words in verse two about how I was lost in utter darkness and then, oh then Jesus came and rescued me... Aren't those great words to remember? 

Are you Prepared to Wait?

As I sat here thinking about what to write as a letter of encouragement I had to admit, I was drawing a blank.  I thought about combining this post with my Five minute Friday post...and I actually might still do that, but my mind is full of the activities of the day.

I woke up this morning to a note left by my lad "I'll be back at 8:10" he was out looking for ant, he came back all delighted he found a  new type of ant (queen and male).   But what kind was it? Soon I heard the request.  "MOM!!!   Can you help me email the ant man?   Maybe he can help me figure it out."    For the rest of the day the kept asking "Mom, have you heard from him yet?   How long do you think it might take?"

He happily helped me care for our critters and then did his math and history for the day, I started working on the cold cellar.

I thought, this will take maybe a couple of hours.. I.... was.... wrong...

You know what we discovered?  A stinky smelly potato bin.. oh my.   Now.. we knew we had something going on there, but we needed the time and motivation to deal with it.  Our move in another six months is good motivation yes?

First we had to clean out all the stuff that a certain loved one had tossed in there over the years, then we removed the potato bin.. the wood was rotting!  Hence the odour... Loved one to the rescue, figuring out how to get it out!  Once it was out I kicked (literally) the guys out of the way, donned a mask and cleaned up the mess under the potato bin.  Boy.. rather icky that!  

Then came the fine work of sorting through and deciding.. am I willing to move this? NO?  Okay, list it for sale after cleaning it. Do I want to keep it?  Okay.. clean it up and organize it. I toss old canned jars of food, and garbage and.. well..  should have taken a picture but didn't.. our lovely big bin couldn't fit ALL THE TRASH!  


Wow.. I have to admit, it feels so good having that big job done.  And it's clean and no spider webs or icky smell. It's lovely.

Which brings me to this point... It took me ALL day to clean it out.  ALL DAY.. I was so very tired, the lad was tired as I had him running up and down the stairs taking things out to the recycling and garbage bins.  He worked hard.   

All day to clean a mess up from before we were married and was just added to over the past 15 years, cause it's the basement right?  Hubby wasn't prepared to deal with getting rid of stuff (cause he's as much a pack rat as I am) so I just left it, I knew sooner or later he'd want to and why put pressure where it simply didn't need to be?

Which makes me ask this momma... are YOU prepared to be patient?  Are you prepared to let time take care of that struggle that staring you in the face?

I could have pressured hubby over the past 15 years.. I could have really.  I could have said let's argue about it, let's make a stink ... but I didn't.  I knew that in time it would be dealt with and then it would all over and done with in one day (a long day mind).  When a fellow is ready to let go so it's not a stressful matter.  

That boy child who is so focused on whatever issue... are you prepared to wait it out.  To enjoy the good, to train the needful and to just wait for the right timing?  To see that boy become a man full of character and wisdom?   That girl who is becoming a woman and doesn't fully see who she is yet... are you willing to wait her out, to give a nudge when needed, a hug and a spot of encouragement saying  "it'll come out okay in the end lovey?"

Are you prepared to NOT be stressed out over something that time will take care of?

I just want to encourage you... to wait.. and then in the waiting.. to be ready, ready to act, to talk, to work, to encourage, to don a mask (if needed) and clean out the ickiness from bad decisions made, to sweep out the old, to make it look new again, to just get the job done even if it's exhausting.  But until then.. to just wait and see and enjoy what you have now.

The good Lord tells us to wait on him.  He knows the right timing for things.  Don't rush it.
Trust him, oh just trust him, believe me.. IT'S WORTH IT!!! It really is. 


Come along won't you on this last day?   You can find us all here, and you can start with this list.
Annette – A Net in Time -Five days to celebrate back to school, curriculum choices, supplies, things to do and encouragement for you. Come join us won’t you?
Ashley  – Gift of Chaos – Join us as we go “back to school” with a First Grader and a Preschooler!
Betty – Let’s Get Real – I am a veteran homeschooling mom.  Our family’s passion is to glorify God in all we do and say and we pray that God will use our lives for His glory.
Chareen – Every Bed of Roses – I’m about to enter into my 20th year of home educating.  I have two graduates and am currently homeschooling our youngest. I’m looking forward to sharing with you in the week ahead.
Christy  – Unexpected Homeschool – Join us on our journey as we homeschool our only child through her high school years while dealing with chronic illnesses.
Crystal – Living Abundantly – Living Abundantly seeks to help Christian women and homeschooling families live abundantly, even when the thief tries to destroy your joy.
Desiree  – Our Homeschool Notebook – I am Mom to 4 kids, and this is our place to share our family and homeschool adventures. This year we will have children in 11th, 6th, 4th, and 1st grades, and we are all excited to get back to school.


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

Speak, a poem

Speak? 


Sunday it hit, 

The pain in my head.
Making me wish
Temporarily I could be dead.
Migraines aren't fun
The sunlight it hurts
Please tell me hun
You won't force me to church?

Pain sits and sits
Never seems to abate
But this week I have work
It mustn't be late!

Eagerly waiting
For the pain to leave
Each day I work 
Sunglasses relieve

Anguish each day
When I awake
WHY TELL ME WHY
Won't this pain hit the lake?

Knowing that God
Holds me close to his heart
I know I can work
I can do my part
Slowly I find, 
My voice as I type
So glad I can make
This room almost dark

 ACK!!!  I have no more letters to work with, and I'm getting tired.   Just have to say I am so glad that God gave me the ability to slowly.. oh.. so slowly.. to find the words I needed to make the five day blog hop work out as well as it did!   Sunglasses and darkness..it took four days for that migraine to leave!!!  AH.. don't want to live with that again for another year!  But to bed I must go, I don't want that massive headache to come back again!  
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This is a five minute Friday post. the word prompt is brought to us by Miss Kate over at Five Minute FridayWhat is Five Minute Friday?  Well it's a party of a group of like minded folks who gather on Friday to do a five minute free write around a singular word.  AND THEN (and this is the most important part) we take the time to offer up encouragement to each other on this writing journey.  It's fun, though it's not always easy, but it is always good.   Come join us won't you?  You are always welcome.
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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 . 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