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Gratitude Challenge for Lent!

Today is Ash Wednesday - have you given any consideration to how you're going to observe Lent this year?

Lent is the 40-day liturgical season between Ash Wednesday and Easter Eve (April 7). Lent is not found in the Bible and therefore it's not something you have to practice if you want to follow Jesus but if you choose to observe Lent it can be a very powerful opportunity to deepen in your relationship with God. For most people the basic practice of Lent involves making a change in your regular routine that helps you to focus on the season and your relationship with God. For some people this means giving up something like chocolate or - gasp!- coffee, but for others it means taking on a new discipline or practice during the season.

This year we'd like to invite you to consider joining in House Blend's Gratitude Challenge by adding an intentional practice of gratitude to your daily routine. This means setting aside time each day as an individual or household to reflect back on the day and pinpoint the things you are grateful for and then to thank God for them.

Today I'm expressing gratitude for all the people who prayed, volunteered, or made a donation to help make Monday's Riel Day event such a success. I'm currently collecting stories from participants and will be posting them in the news section of our website over the next few days.  (You can also check out some pictures from the day on our Facebook page. No need to be a member of Facebook to check out the pics!)  

40 days of gratitude, are you up to the challenge?

By Rachel Twigg Boyce Tagged: , , , , ,

Prayers for our Third Floor

Recently I was looking at some photos of our community house with the folks at Renos by James. All of the sudden I realized that I was looking at a photo that I thought was taken this year but that MUST have been taken earlier because it depicted our old dangerous front walkway.

“When was that taken?” I asked.

Well, it turns out it was taken in January of last year when we first started to talk and dream about this project.

This has been a long process and there have been a lot of points along the way where we thought it might never happen. Who ever imagined it would take six months to get a permit, for example? At times it has seemed impossible but we’ve also been pleasantly surprised by God’s generosity along the way.

From helping us to find the best possible contractor right in our own neighbourhood (as part of our commitment to this neighbourhood we place a high value on supporting local businesses), to the overwhelming generosity of people who have made donations to cover the costs (we’re very close, only about $10,000 is still needed), to the people God is already preparing to move into that space (maybe it’s you? Let’s talk!), the whole process has been a lesson in both patience, as we lean into God’s timing, and joy as we learn about God’s generous abundance.

Last night was another wonderful piece of this continuing story – as part of our regular potluck and prayer time we braved the cold and headed upstairs to make our mark by covering the wood framing of each room with prayers, blessings, and artwork. We also had the opportunity to sing two of our favourite songs together in that space – “Happy Birthday” and “Praise God From Whom all Blessing Flow.”

And it sounded wonderful.

We all appreciate your prayers, financial support, and willingness to volunteer to help us complete this project. We know we couldn’t do this without your support!

And if you’re feeling a particular tug to explore what it’s like to do life in the context of Christian community, we may just have a beautifully blessed new bedroom just for you!

Click here to see some images of our prayer time.

By Rachel Twigg Boyce Tagged: , , , , ,

Quick to Listen

In James, we are told that we should strive to be, “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” (James 1: 19) Listening is so important and yet many of us find it to be a huge challenge to do so.

Each week as part of our Tuesday night prayer time we have a chance to read scripture together and to hear a quotation for a hero of the faith. This past week’s quotation came from Thomas Merton, “Just remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him, being attentive to Him, requires a lot of courage and know-how.”

During our prayer time we also incorporate times of silence and times of listening to each other. Our prayer time always begins with a chance for each person in the circle (or increasingly, the crowded huddle in the parlour) to say their name, and a high and a low from their week. As each person speaks, we actively listen, but we refrain from commenting or asking questions. We work hard to be quick to listen, and slow to speak.

It may seem like a simple thing but those of us who have the privilege of practicing this on a weekly basis have come to see it as a powerful thing to listen to each other without jumping ot to talk.

In a variety of ways our House Blend community is learning to deepen in our listening skills so that we can better hear what God is saying to us and also what our neighbours are saying to us. It doesn’t come naturally but rather is a discipline that we hone and develop through practice. But it is is a discipline that is worth the effort.

By Rachel Twigg Boyce Tagged: , ,

The Fruits of the Spirit

How is House Blend making a difference in the community?

I was asked this question earlier this week and I have been chewing on it ever since.

The first thing that’s important to note is that while this is a sincere question, asked with the best intentions, I think it’s the wrong question to be asking. A better question that gets at the same root idea would be, “How is God at work in your community, and what is House Blend doing to partner with what God is doing?”

I think this is an important distinction for a number of reasons, but in particular, I think it is important for all of us who are involved in House Blend to be consistently reminded that this is not our work, it’s God. We need to be consistently reminded that while we have a role to play, ultimately this is God’s project, not ours.

Because it is oh so tempting to think it all rests on our shoulders and to begin to try and put Jesus out of a job.

Yes, we have a role to play and we need to be faithful in fulfilling that role, but we must be always mindful that our role is to follow Jesus and to point others to him, not to try to be him.

At House Blend we define “success” as being faithful to the call of God in our lives. We are not a result oriented community, we are a faith oriented community.

Every Tuesday night we gather at 7:00 at our community home for a potluck and prayer service. Our prayer time follows a regular format that includes times for reading scripture together. This week we read Galatians 5:16-24:

“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.”

We are a widely varied group of people who are all earnestly seeking to follow God’s call in our lives. The measurement of our success should be the fruit our shared lives produce: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

And perhaps even more powerfully, the way we act when we miss the mark. Because we do and we will and I think that the places where we fail to measure up to our lofty goals are places that God loves to show his love and power.

House Blenders do not perfectly live all the fruits of the Spirit at all times, but we are a community that is trying to live doing so. We are a community that is trying to do this, and is trying in a context that invites others to join us in the attempt.

Thank you for your continued interest in and support of House Blend. I will be blogging after our Tuesday potlucks each week and hope you’ll come back and check that out. There are lots of ways to stay connected: subscribe to our RSS feeds, sign up for our e-newsletter, like us on Facebook, check out our website from time to time, or just contact us and arrange to meet for coffee!

By Rachel Twigg Boyce Tagged: , , , , ,

Merry Christmas!

Christmas greeting card
By Rachel Twigg Boyce Tagged: ,

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