Good Morning Y'all!

School
Back to the school schedule! We all got up at 6am this morning and started our devotions. This last week we have been able to sleep in because Dad had work off. He goes to work at around 7:15 so we have to be up early to have devotions together. I don't mind too much because it adds a few hours to my day to do more things (like blogging:), although it is kinda hard being totally awake the first hour.
Our school schedule goes something like this:

• 6-6:30:- Get up and start personal devotions
• 6:30-7: We read a chapter from the bible as a family, each person reading 2 verses at a time. Then Dad gives a little lesson on the chapter.
• 7-8: Breakfast and Chores (and blogging:)
• 8-9: Music Practice
• 9-12: Math, Copy work, and other things.
• 12-1: Lunch and chores
• 1-3: Miscellaneous school-Writing, reading, speech practice, music lessons. Generally, its filled up with working on speeches for our club....which is lots of fun!
• 3-Bedtime: Free time, projects, dinner, and, depending on the evening, speech club, band practice, or movie.
  

Things don't always go as scheduled but I like the freedom that is in homeschooling; Not being tied-down by a state school's schedule.

Homeschooling vs. Public Schooling
For a few years (4th grade-6th grade) I went to public school. There was usually lots of homework to do in the evening which took away good family time. Among many other things, there was also a lot of time used in getting to school and back. With homeschooling you don't have to travel to learn. You can start school as early as you want, or as late as you want. It allows for lots of freedom, which makes learning faster and more fun.
Maybe sometime I'll post a speech I wrote on "The Benefits of Homeschooling".

Acts 16
Today, for my personal devotions I read Acts 16. I've been going through Acts and other New testament books lately. It was kind of ironic, too, because my Dad had recently(2 Sundays ago) given a sermon on that same chapter, Acts 16.
A quick summary-
The chapter is where Paul and Silas are directed by the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel in Macedonia. While they are there, a possessed slave-girl, who tells fortunes, followed them around shouting,
"These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved."
After a few days, Paul casts out the demon. The masters of the slave-girl have them beaten and arrested. Then a great earthquake occurs and cuts the prisoners bonds. The jailer nearly kills himself for fear they have escaped but they call to him telling him they are still there. He asks them
"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
They answered-
"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household."
So the jailer and his family believe and are baptized immediately. The officers, after hearing that Paul and Silas are Roman citizens, free them from jail.

Wrath
When Dad gave his sermon on this passage, he related how seeing God's wrath is a very scary thing....and it should be. The jailer saw the earthquake and was terrified and asked Paul and Silas how he was to be saved. And after hearing that God offers a way to salvation, (salvation from God's wrath) the was jailer was overjoyed.

I believe we will have more joy in the salvation Christ offers if we have seen God's wrath. And in Acts 16, God revealed his wrath to the jailer, who, afterward sought salvation.

For example, if someone stops you from falling off a cliff, you are more grateful than if he had just stopped from tripping on a rock.
Remember Hurricane Katrina? That was a display of God's wrath. Only a tiny fraction of his complete wrath, though.

Will God spare sinners who have rebelled against him time after time? Even if they are basically good? I deserve just as much wrath as anybody, but God has given us a way out of his wrath.

Jesus, the perfect lamb of God, took God's wrath upon himself so that we might be saved.

Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

What great joy there is in knowing that we can be free, and ARE free from God's wrath if we believe in Jesus.


Paul and Silas
Another thing that stuck out to me in Acts 16 was how Paul and Silas didn't complain. After getting beaten repeatedly with rods and thrown into jail they still do not complain. Instead they were "praying and singing hymns to God" (v25)

Too often I get caught up in myself and my problems that I start grumbling and complaining. I lose the joy I have in the Lord and can no longer be a witness.

As Christians, I think one of the greatest ways we can be witnesses, is to be joyful. To be joyful even when life is hard and cause the world to want a taste of the joy that we have from Jesus.


Well, I need to start school, so, Good-bye!