Monthly *Vlog* and a note on Hospitality*

It is that time of month again where I try not to embarrass myself in front of my webcam!  Where I also still seem to fall short on keeping it... well.... short!  I will get there... someday!  But, hey, for the first time it actually gave me a thumbnail where I am smiling!

The book is Open Heart Open Home; How to find joy through sharing your home with others by Karen Burton Mains. My copy is a 1976... seriously! So the subtitle on the new one is a bit different (and the cover has changed).

The *vlog* challenge comes from Jen Ferguson at Finding Heaven Today I think it is a GREAT idea for our sister bloggers to create community and get to know each other more personally.

Jen Ferguso Pop over and check it out.  I think it is a GREAT idea for connecting with our sister bloggers on a more personal level!

Because hospitality is often mis-understood and under-estimated, I plan to share more on it.  Be sure to email or comment with questions and I would be happy to respond!

Be blessed, be hospitable, and be open to sharing God through your home!

“Hospitality, however, seeks to minister. It says, "This home is not mine. It is truly a gift from my Master. I am His servant and I use it as He desires." Hospitality does not try to impress, but to serve.”
― Karen Burton Mains, Open Heart, Open Home: The Hospitable Way to Make Others Feel Welcome & Wanted

Also linking up with Michelle at intentional.me today 

 

Deep Under Old Familiar*

It was this wild idea.  A string of events that came together at that perfect point.... what does a disciple do?  See what I do... you do it too.  Me... I'm studying the book of John.  So I asked... do you want to too?  Yeses and requests began popping up, even in the unexpected. Our little group is growing, it is exciting and as I teach and share and search and lean... I am growing.  Why wouldn't I?  Anytime we crack God's Word with a serious and searching heart... should we expect anything less than growth, change... profound revelation???

So yesterday I sprawled on my couch, cozy against the corner with the pages of my young yet worn NRSV open and highlighted to the hilt, notes and scribbles all over the words of John's gospel.  I interrogated, because that is what I have learned to do.  ASK, search, ASK, pray, ASK and wait and know God has a message.  He had a message then and He still has a message now.

God, what is the message today?  What do you want me to see in these old familiar words I have read so many times in John's 5.  "Stand up, take your mat and walk." and he does. HE DOES, Lord, but what more?

Then I hear it, that beautiful voice of my Father, lean closer, child....

6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "do you want to be made well?"

Jesus SAW HIM

Jesus KNEW his circumstances

Jesus ASKED HIM do you want to....

Jesus sees ME
Jesus knows my circumstances
Jesus asks me do you want to....?

Do I?

This sick man makes excuses.  Is he excusing himself?  Is he saying, yes, he wants to, BUT?  There must have been a 'yes' implied there somewhere because, then...

8Jesus said to him, "stand up, take your mat and walk."

It isn't just the command that gets me though, it is the response that follows which drives it home....

9At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk...

 How often do I need help yet I pray only for the way I see out.  How often does Christ stand in front of me and say "Do you want to...?" with His intention being to fix the problem in an unexpected way?  And (sadly) how many times do I miss it because I am busy telling Him why I can't?

Jesus SAW HIM.... He sees me.... Do I see Jesus?
Jesus KNEW his circumstances... He knows mine... Do I trust that the circumstances are inconsequential to the King of Kings?
Jesus ASKED HIM... He asks me... Do I respond with excuses or anticipating a miracle?

Whether it is a rut, a catastrophe, or even a fleeting moment of challenge; I suddenly feel more deeply inspired to not just KNOW Jesus is in control but to SEE Him, Focus on HIM (not the circumstance) and Focus on His solution... not just what my eyes can fathom as the solution.  If my eyes, thoughts, heart never leave His face I will certainly find myself getting up, taking my mat and walking.... and even Pharisees won't stand a chance!!!

I pray you find deep roots in old familiar passages of God's Word.  I pray you know each moment of each day rests in His tender eyes, His capable hands, His loving heart.  I pray you see Him, trust Him and respond to him with anticipation.

Blessings,

 Also linking up with some of these

A House Called Home*

NOT our new home!*

 Well, I made it!  Off the BIG Roller Coaster and onto the runway.  Lots to see, lots to do... and yes, I know "lots" is not proper grammar!

We are in our new home, having traveled 1000 miles round-trip in the last 2 weeks to retrieve our household items from storage and plant them within the walls of our new surroundings.  Friday, as I nestled into the familiar soft corner of my old couch in my still barren walled living room... I felt it.

Home.

I scribbled deep thoughts in my journal from that cozy corner.

Home.

I opened His Word and searched for His mighty arms.

Home.

Yes,I was Home.  No more in-between.  No more borrowed space.  No more contingencies or questions or wondering/wandering....

HOME

Such a word was never so sweet then at the end of a three year journey of simply yet radically following Christ where he led out of "home", out of familiar, out of comfort to places I could have never imagined... into situations I would have never dreamed.

As I tarried in that old familiar spot Friday, I journaled and prayed and dreamed and studied.  God showed me many things but most profoundly He showed me Faithful.  The whispers and murmurs of the last few months... wondering the purpose and plan of this cozy little website where my fluttering heart often rests and my wandering mind sets down beside the babbling brook....

He showed me.

There is a HOME in Faithful HOMEschool.  A home that is missing and needing and calling to be shared.  There are mamas who, yes, need HIS Word to lift their weary hearts, but there are also Mamas who need to know this crazy journey of life, mothering, teaching and LIVING has, beyond its nucleus of our Lord, ties they sometimes get lost in trying to connect.  Being Faithful in the kitchen, in the laundry room, in the school room, in marriage, parenting, friendships.... in every detail and every aspect.  Devotions each day are just the beginning.  Tie-ing God's Word into the inner workings of life... that is when we begin to LIVE.

⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

-Deuteronomy 6:6-7

I will be starting a new series next week.  Chronicling and sharing my journal pages beginning a year ago this month as we traversed this great nation west to southeast to southwest and finally north again.  I will share the trials and tribulations of living as a mom/wife/woman/homeschooler on mission.  A continuation of sorts of the Traveling series I was working on during the summer... but with a twist!  I will also be sharing more deliberately on hospitality notes, scheduling experiences (and experiments), wifely thoughts, parenting, and teaching moments.  And, of course, I will still share a devotion each week.

It will take time and adjusting as we learn our new schedule and routine on this end... but I am excited to see where God takes us, takes Faithful, on this new branch in life planted in south-central Montana with a focus completely altered as the result of the past years' journeys and this life's calling to live missionally right where we are.

From the house I call home, I pray you have/know/find home... even if it isn't a place but a state of being where focus must stay on things eternal and that Mansion with many rooms.

Deepest Blessings,

*As we get settled we still don't have proper internet so I can't upload pictures of our actual home... the picture above is from a cute house I found not far from where we use to live!