Latest news, articles and resources from Wild Eden on sustainable living, organics, permaculture, eco building, homeschooling and more
Category: <span>Jesus Time</span>

Category: Jesus Time

Anzac Day 2023

Over the last few months, we have been learning about different periods of history, specifically about war between different nations.  One of the things that has been amazing to me, is just how many wars there have been throughout history. So many, that times without war really stand out – periods of peace are actually *very* rare.  So much death, so much horror it just beggars belief.  But here, in the West, living in this time, it is easy to naively start to take our freedoms for granted. I know I did… As a raging alcoholic all I cared about was …

Lotto – can you afford to win?

I still have memories of hearing the lotto numbers in my grand parents house around dinner time on the few occasions I was there. My granddad bought tickets every week, sitting in his armchair with a rug over his legs crossing off numbers. I had no real care for it at that age – In fact I wouldn’t even have known what the prize pool was. Some have been huge…what is the biggest prize you know of? 6th Nov 2012 in Australia – Oz Lotto jackpot tied at $112MILLION!! That was nothing compared to $1.3 BILLION in the USA!! But …

Are you hungry? 

Or do you just want food? Matthew 15:29-39 Not many educated people would deny the birth and life of Jesus Christ. History shows clearly He existed around 2000 years ago and was indeed killed. His actions made a huge impact on His society and to those around Him – especially the miracles He performed. His fame spread far and wide – people travelled for miles to come and get the healing they could not find anywhere else. And He healed them *all*. Here and now, today, it’s so easy to get discouraged when we don’t get the healing we want …

Monogenes – Single Jeans and the Begotten Son

For Jesus Time today I wanted to start the children off on a direction I introduced yesterday: digging a little deeper into one particular doctrine in order to bring truth to people in other religions / cults. We watched some witnessing clips with some particular cults and I explained that I would let the children choose one topic or doctrine to research and learn – like a debating exercise. While I have read lots of different material on various cults, false doctrines and methods to bring truth, I find it great advice to use this one point, ‘dam crack’ method…

Sometimes God’s provision sucks!

God promises to provide all that we need: And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 Is this a promise of financial prosperity or ‘blessing’? I would argue it can mean the opposite at times. Sometimes what we need is a life hardship to get our attention, to see things differently, to change our ways. Sometimes our comfort leads us to apathy or worse, neglect. A loving Father will see that and do what doesn’t feel nice for the …

Laying our concrete kitchen bench top!

Thanksgiving Day / Thankful Thursday 22/11/18 A journal of the day we finally laid our main kitchen concrete (GFRC) concrete bench top. Due to it’s size, a friend was sending some workers who specialise in concrete coatings to help. It would be a different way of doing GFRC from what we had previously done. A huge day to say the least, but as always, we wanted to put God first. He was the only reason we are alive let alone made it so far on this building journey. I awoke reading an article of an American man (John Allen Chau) …

The difference a little water makes!

Yet another ‘Choose Day’ – and an object lesson that I couldn’t have planned better if I tried! As our bathrooms are not yet functional, one has been used as a nursery of sorts for seedlings through winter and spring – chillies, tomatoes and this week – cucumbers. As it happened, the last day and half they received no water and had started to shrivel… Definitely time to kill two birds with one stone… I didn’t let on to the kids what the object lesson was about, but said todays Bible Sword was a scripture about the Holy Spirit from Genesis – …

When TRY TRY AGAIN doesn’t work

How we normally put all our effort in the wrong place and fail…Today we were thinking about the disciples – in particular Simon Peter and how his life is an example for us to follow, but only in some ways!  Simon Peter followed Jesus for years, saw the miracles and heard Him preach many, many sermons. Some teachings were abstract and others, very, very direct, like this: Matthew 10:32-34“Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in …

Guinea Chestnut / Saba

For ‘Choose Days’ lately (Tuesday’s Jesus Time), the children have been regularly choosing ‘looking at what God made’. We normally read a scripture about God being the creator – and we challenge the children to find a verse that we haven’t used before. Then we walk as a family around the property, to a particular place or even to the house / building site to explore Creation. It’s amazing what we find, it’s always a surprise despite the fact that we spend nearly all of our time on this block and this day was no exception…

Erly Kerly – how this drawing brought me to tears

🎶You are my freedom – You are the reason…I kneel at Your throne once again. 🎶🎶Where would I be without You…here in my life? 🎶The words of this song were playing as I pulled out a picture given to me by my daughter last night…  To set the scene: for Jesus time this morning we imagined the depiction of Heaven in Revelation 4: thinking about each line – what is actually described. Amazing, powerful and glorious beings that surround God’s throne. Lightning, Thunder, pillars of fire, the glow of Emeralds, a glass sea, Elders / Kings bowing and strange but powerful creatures worshipping. Then …

Killing Rats, Stealing Cars and why it matters

But the reality was, the police were trying to save this thief. You see just before the car was stolen, the owner placed some crackers on the front seat. A tempting treat for the thief, but not intended for him. The crackers were there for rats that had infested the owners house. He had laced them with a deadly poison that would kill the thief should he eat any. The owner told the police, triggering a fervent search for the thief…to save him. We are often like that with God – we run, thinking He wants to hurt, punish or kill us – but the reality is He is pursuing us to save us – to forgive us. Is it time you turned back to God? Is it time to give up and allow Him to forgive you? To hand ownership of ‘your’ life over to Him? 

You Stink – I have much to be ashamed of in my life…

Recently I read a little about a case in America where 13 children were supposedly abused and kept locked up in a suburban house. The story, as portrayed, was horrific and hard to read, let alone imagine through one of the children’s eyes… I think there is much more to the story than has been reported – and the presented story has quite obvious flaw and inconsistencies*… (possibly to champion the public call for a ban on homeschooling or further deride Christianity). However, this is not the focus or object of this article. I do have to say first though, …

Two Blokes walk in to a Church…which one are you?

One walks to the front, sits down…. Modern day Bible parables… Scripture(s): Luke 18:10-14 Description:Today for Jesus time I talked of two men, Timothy & Phillip. Tim was quite rich, looked nice, was polite & kind & helped people all the time. He was a ‘good christian’. He went to church & was very thankful for what God had done & who he was. Philip, the other guy, was rough & rude – and sometimes stole things. He went to church only occasionally & didn’t talk to anyone. I talked of the way they prayed and then asked the younger …

Jesus – Foundation for Life…and building!

Topic: What makes a good foundation? Scripture(s): Psalm 118:22, Psalm 127:1-2 Today we had our compaction test…after a huge week with many trials and joys, the results were not what we expected. Notes: The Bible verses are included below, but it is more beneficial to read any verses from an actual Bible – or better yet, have the children read from their own. We recommend the NLT (New Living Translation – Tyndale Publishers) which is easy to read but very accurate. If you don’t have one please let us know as we may be able to help. Description We have …

Head v’s Heart

Topic: Two different types of belief… Scripture(s): Romans 10:9-10 Getting to the heart of belief. Notes: The Bible verses are included below, but it is more beneficial to read any verses from an actual Bible – or better yet, have the children read from their own. We recommend the NLT (New Living Translation – Tyndale Publishers) which is easy to read but very accurate. If you don’t have one please let us know as we may be able to help. Description Sharmini has long had a love of art. She draws & creates things that reflect what she is feeling …

The Self Control of Jesus

If you have children, you probably have discovered that self control is a topic that is vital – continually. It can be helpful for the children too… Topic: Self Control Scriptures: Proverbs 5:22-23, 1 Peter 1:13-14, Matt 26:36-46 (or Mark 14:32-42 or Luke 22:39-46) Notes: The Bible verses are included below, but it is more beneficial to read any verses from a Bible – or better yet, have the children read from their own. We recommend the New Living Translation (NLT) which is easy to read but very accurate. If you don’t have one please let us know as we …

Passover 2014 – the Meal

It’s Easter – a time where we often spend more time acting Jewish than Christian (sort of!). Today we had our 2nd ‘Cedar Meal’ or passover feast… Topic: Celebrating what God did and has done! Scripture(s): Exodus 1 – 14:4 Notes: The story of the Passover (and indeed all of Israel’s history) is incredible and riveting to adults and children. There is so much to learn about what they did (and how we do the same), the consequences they suffer (which we do too) and God’s character of love and forgiveness despite our constant bad choices. As there is a …

What does God want today?

Sometimes when you’re too busy, there is only one thing you can do… Today after teaching about letting God excite us as we do His work, the difference between the general will and specific will of God, and a session asking Him what He wanted – He answered. So we drove 15km to hand out a few tracts and talk to different people about God, sin, forgiveness like we thought He wanted us to… Little did we know that He had 3 specific people in mind!

Jesus Time What it is & Why we do it…

Scripture(s): Proverbs 22:6, Luke 13:27, John 10:14, 17:3 Notes: ‘Jesus Time’ – whatever it looks like for your family – should never become a religious thing you do, before you get on with ‘real’ life. It is a foundational time from which all other parts of life are built on…