Fun Fridays: Weekly Download

Worship Wednesdays: The Name of the Lord (Part 2)

This week I want to continue looking at the names of God in the Old Testament and talk about how they should influence the way we approach worship. To recap last week we talked about Elohim  which meant the Almighty God and is associated with God being the Creator. This week I want to look at El Elyon.

18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High. 19 He blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; 20 And blessed be God Most High,  








who has delivered your enemies into your hand." He gave him a tenth of all.

The phrase God Most High is repeated three times in the above passage. In Hebrews this is El Elyon. Take a look at verse 19. He is described as the Possessor of heaven and earth. Some translations have this as Creator, but I think Possessor fits nicely here. This shows us God as sovereign, as ruler over all He has created.

Let that sink in for a moment. He is the ruler of EVERYTHING. He can honestly and truly answer why questions with "I said so." It is this name that carries His authority over life. He makes the rules, whether you like it or not. But what about all the bad things that happen to us in life?

2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4

Sometimes God uses trials to form something better in our lives, this might be a character trait we are lacking or a way of drawing us closer to Him. God may use wars, famines, floods, and other tragedies to judge nations or to bring people to know Jesus as Savior. More often than not we will never know the reasons behind tragedy and suffering, but we can be sure that God is in control and He knows what He is doing.

He is King of kings and Lord of lords, and we would be wise to remember that He is the focus of our worship. It's not about our personalities, our preferences in music, or our traditions. It's about honoring God and obeying His rules. Ultimately we belong to God our creator, and we worship Him because we were created to worship Him.

Read Part 3 here.

Managing Mondays: Managing Yourself

Some of you may have noticed the sporatic nature of some of the BLOG entries as of late. This is due in part to it being the start of the new school year and also to an increase in church activities, September was a very busy month.

This got me thinking. Am I trying to do too much? Am I overextended? In some ways, yes I am. So, let me say right off the bat that the blog will go on. Though, I think Managing Mondays will be an every other week feature, alternating with the new homeschool focused Teaching Tuesdays. That being said, what are someways that we can avoid future burnout?

1. Set realistic goals. Seriously, the biggest mistake people make when goal setting is setting the bar too high. It's one thing to say you will read your Bible daily, it's another to say you will memorize the entire New Testament by the end of the year.

2. Know your limitations. This goes hand and hand with the first one. This is, honestly, the one I struggle with all the time, especially with having a chronic illness. Sometimes we just want to do more than is physically possible for us to do. I hate to sound cliche but, you really can't be in two places at once.

3. Take time for yourself. As parents, especially homeschooling parents, we tend to place the needs of our children and our children's interests ahead of our own. When was the last time you pursue one of your own interests. We all need to recharge our batteries now and then. Take a sanity break every now and then.

4. Take time with God. Similarly, we need to take time to be alone with God. Make it a priority to read His word and to pray everyday. This can be as simple as a great devotional, or going for a quiet walk where you can talk to Him as you walk. You can even combine it with a sanity break. Tending a flower garden you love lends itself to great conversation with the one who made the flowers bloom.

Remember, we are of no use to our families if we are burnt out and exhausted. Taking time for yourself is definitely a lesson we should not only learn, but also pass on to our children. Just as we want them to be dilligent, we also want them to avoid overextending themselves. Even God took time to rest on the seventh day, how much more do we need to rest?

Fun Fridays: Weekly Download 9/21/2012

Weekly download is up check it out:

Worship Wednesdays:The Name of the Lord (Part 1)

"I will sing praise to your name, O Most High." Psalms 9:2a

Scripture admonishes us to sing praises to The Name of The Lord, but many churches today seem to avoid singing "to God," occasionally singing "about God" but mostly focusing on songs "about us." I think this trend leads to many churches being devoid of God's power in their services. There is power when we sing praise to His Name, especially when we realize the significance of His Name.

So, for the next few weeks I'm going to explore the various names of God found throughout the Old Testament, and then talk about how those names should impact our worship.I think the best place to start is at the beginning.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

The name of God here is Elohim. What does it mean though? This word literally means "to fear" or "to reverence". The first part El means "mighty" or "strong". He is the Almighty God. The im ending is very important also as it is a plural ending. 

We would be wise to remember that before the universe began God was already present. He is greater than anything or anyone. He is also found to be the Creator of all there is. That is an awesome thought, that the Creator, the Almighty God, the most powerful being in all the universe, who created the universe and existed outside the universe before it began, chooses to have an intimate relationship with me.

So, next time during your private or corporate worship time remember to sing praises unto His Name. Give praise to the Almighty God as only He is deserving of all our praise.

Read Part 2 Here

Teaching Tuesdays

So, what is 'Teaching Tuesdays'? Teaching Tuesdays is going to be the heading under which everything related to homeschooling gets placed. It may not make it on the blog every week, but it will quickly highlight that article as relating to homeschooling. These articles will consist of reviews, lesson idea, homeschooling philosophies, etc.,. So, that being said, I need your help. I'm looking for submissions for this new feature. Do you have a favorite curriculum you would like to tell me about, how about a great lesson plan idea, or how about a virtual field trip. If you would like to submit an article for the blog send it to knaptihuved@yahoo.com

So the breakdown of the site is now as follows:

Managing Mondays
Articles dealing with running a household, as a guy many of these things do not come naturally so if I discover some new idea or recipe I figure others may want to know about it too.

Teaching Tuesdays
Articles dealing with homeschooling and education.

Worship Wednesdays
Being a Worship Leader is a great honor and it is also one of my passions.

Fun Fridays
This is where I'll share things of a geeky nature, I'm not just a Homeschooling Dad or a Worship Leader. I'm also a gamer and technophile.

Site Update: New YouTube Bar

So Just added a new feature to the BLOG site. You can now access my VLOGs from my YouTube channel right here on my BLOG page. Just click on one of the thumbnails in the YouTube bar at the top of the site.

Fun Fridays: Weekly Download for 9/14/2012

The Weekly Download for 9/14/2012

Managing Mondays: First Day of School

So, we officially started our school year today. All I can say is "Wow"!

I'm just amazed how much my daughter has retained from our previous years of school. I'm also just a tad proud of her attitude toward school this year. In her own words, "I'm taking school serious this year," and she should. She is starting her 9th grade year so that makes her a High School Student.

I hate to admit that I was a little apprehensive coming into this year, but seeing her attitude toward school this morning gave me some hope for the next 4 years. Maybe we can do this. What am I saying, with God all things are possible, and homeschooling is no exception. speaking of God we have instituted a new tradition this year where we will wait to do our Bible lessons until lunch time. In the past it was the first thing we did, which made sense as we wanted to start the day with God's word. This year though we wanted to find a time when the entire family could do Bible together. Lunchtime makes sense for us as my wife works 2nd shift. That means she isn't home most nights for dinner and she isn't really awake at breakfast time. So we started to day, using our newly purchased copies of Balancing the Sword, and it was some of the best devotional/family time we have had in a while.

I highly recommend taking the time as a family to eat together, pray together, and study God's word together. It doesn't matter when you do it, just do it, and do it often.

Fun Fridays: Weekly Download for 9/7/2012

So I actually remembered this week to post this over here, LOL.



I know not everyone is interested in this kind of stuff, so if it doesn't interest you, then you have my permission to move on. LOL.

Worship Wednesdays: Lift Up Your Hands

"Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the lord." Psalm 134:2

I'm still amazed at certain things in the kingdom of God. Take the practice of lifting hands during worship. I still get many questions about the practice and why we do it. Now don't get me wrong it's not the questions that I'm amazed at, it's the answers. I've heard some deep theological thesis given by well meaning Christians that cause non-believers' eyes to glaze over. I've also heard every cliche imaginable.

Ultimately the answer to why we do what we do has to be firmly rooted in scripture.Lifting the hands in worship is no different. So what does the Bible say about lifting the hands. The first reason to lift our hands is in petition. The lifting of hands is a physical expression of someone desperate for God's help.

There are many examples of this practice in scripture:

• Moses spreads out his hands to the Lord.                                   Exodus 9:33
• Aaron and Hur lifted Moses' hands in battle.                               Exodus 17:11-13
• Ezra spread his hands out to God.                                              Ezra 9:5
• That men everywhere would lift up their hands in prayer.     1 Timothy 2:8

The second reason to lift the hands is to express praise.

• A wave offering to the Lord                                                       Exodus 29:24
• All the people lifted up their hands and worshiped.                     Nehemiah 8:6
• Lift up you hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord.               Psalm 134:2

So why do we lift our hands during worship? We lift our hands, because of the example given to us in scripture. I realize some people hesitate to lift their hands due to their background or reserved personality, but it is hard to deny that scripture supports this practice whether in petition or praise.

Managing Mondays: This Year's Homeschool Choices

I get a lot of questions about what curriculum we use in our homeschool. So, I thought I would give a brief run down of our choices and some of the reasons behind those choices.

Let's start with our core subjects:

Language Arts:

LLATL: The Grey Book (8th Grade)

We are returning to the series we love. We took a break from this series last year to focus more on creative writing. So, instead of skipping the 8th grade book we will be picking right up where we left off. There are only 2 High School level books in the series so it will still work out fine in the long run.

I really enjoy this series as the teachers guides are easy to use and they incorporate passages from actual books in all the lessons. The Book Studies this year are particularly interesting as two of the books deal with smuggling Bibles.


Science:

We will be using Apologia's Exploring Creation with Physical Science this year. I love this curriculum as it is written from a creationist view point. The Science is also very sound and the experiments are designed to use common household items to demonstrate the concepts being learned.







History:

Beautiful Feet Books Ancient History is our choice for this year in history. This will be our second time through this wonderful study, having completed The Junior High section of the guide we will now be starting the High School section. This study uses actual literature to teach history and has proven to be a favorite with my daughter, who is an avid reader.