Which Faith Practice Do You Want to Explore? Comment and WIN

My favourite faith practice is Shabbat:), or Sabbath.  I was raised to believe that if God created everything in six days and saw fit to rest on the seventh, then it is beautiful to know that I can not 'accomplish more' by working every day:).  That lesson came through my father who thought I should follow God's Patterns for living when it came to the school homework that I loved so much.  I was busy writing a History highschool paper.  I dropped my work for Sabbath, and, behold, the ideas and Flow that followed helped me complete my assignment on time with no glitches...plus, bonus!, a 'day off' in the middle of all the stress:).  Have enjoyed Shabbat ever since!!:)

Embracing a lifestyle of true generosity is difficult. We all tend to live pretty close-fisted. We are suspicious of anyone who encourages us to give away what’s ours. We don’t doubt that Christians should practice generosity, but what we really want to know is how generous?

It’s an area where we want to live under the Law—we want someone to simply spell it out for us. How much do we have to give to keep God happy? It’s so much easier to be given an expectation than to be told, “give as much you can.”

Fredrick samoita

I'd like to explore more deeply the practice of hospitality.  I'm actually surprised by my own answer! I think we've been confusing hospitality with entertaining guests and latter is such a stressful experience for me.  I would love to be able to truly have a welcoming presence (both as a host and as a guest somewhere else) -- to trust that Jesus is that welcoming presence THROUGH me, and to be able to rest in that truth and relax into His love for me and the people I would host.

Anyway, that's it for me -- hospitality.

thanks!

I currently find myself  discovering the faith practice of WONDER even more than in the past. As a children's ministry leader for almost thirty years I have often invited children to 'wonder' about God's story and their place in it. 

This past year my first grandchild entered our family and to see the world of WONDER through Samuel's eyes gives me a whole new appreciation for God's amazing creation. As I desire to guide Sammy's sense of wonder, I realize it is me who is also filled with awe in being a part of God's plan. 

Posted by: Staci Devries
Title: Which Faith Practice Do You Want to Explore? Comment and WIN
Link: http://network.crcna.org/faith-practices/which-faith-practice-do-you-want-explore-comment-and-win

Comments: 1
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| New comment:
| Author: Fredrick samoita
| Title: I'd like to explore more
  God is not like a human, who might be generous one day and another not.

We don’t often hear about generosity when we study the attributes of God. But we do hear about his loving kindness and his goodness. His generosity is just the overflow of this love and goodness, motivating him to give.

Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies …. People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.

– Psalm 36:5-8

Not only are we aware that God has been and is generous, but we also know that we can count on him to continue to be this way. God’s name is faithful (Deuteronomy 7:9), and his promises are always kept.

His faithfulness is not dependent on anything we do or fail to do (2 Timothy 2:13). And it is the reason we can trust his promises are true, that his intentions toward us are perfect, that Jesus will return for us. If God hadn’t already proven himself faithful, it would be very difficult to wait when the most joyful of his generous gifts – the return of Christ as King forever – is still yet to come.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

–2 Peter 3:9

God’s goodness, loving kindness, and faithfulness work together not only to overflow with good gifts for us, but also to give us hope that the remaining gifts he’s promised really will be ours.

I'd like to explore more deeply the practice of generosity.    I would love to be able to truly have a welcoming presence (both as a host and as a guest somewhere else) -- to trust that Jesus is that welcoming presence THROUGH me, and to be able to rest in that truth and relax into His love for me and the people I would host.

Actually, that's it for me -- generosity.

thanks!

I love them all,  as the Church admin, I use them each week in our Bulletin, Newsletter and pre service slides.  Each week I download the image and then usually open my bible app to read the weekly scripture.  Each of these apply to our lives everyday so learning more about each of these practices benefits myself and our Congregation.  Thank you for continuing to have these resources so readily available as a weekly teaching tool.

I'd like to focus on Gratitude. Our congregation has been exploring what it means to be united in Christ even when we disagree, and it struck me as I started preparing for our Thanksgiving service (Oct 9 in Canada) that gratitude can help us grow in unity together. No matter how deeply we disagree with one another,

- we can still give thanks to God WITH one another, for the gifts he's bestowed on all of us;

- we can still give thanks to God FOR one another, for the ways we each contribute to the Church;

- and we can still give thanks TO one another for specific acts we've seen that strengthen the Body or bless us personally.

Gratitude is God's gift to help us "until we attain unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God" (Eph 4:13).

We're going to distribute blank thankyou cards at our Thanksgiving service, and I'm committing right now to sending one of those cards to a congregant each week until Christmas. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I apologize for the delayed announcement but we have a winner. Congrats, Cara DeHaan!! I'll be reaching out via email later today.