How faithful would you be?

This past week, I was posed with a question....
how faithful would you be to God, if you lost everything?

Recently, there's been many fires in our area. My sister, who's 11, is deathly afraid of fires. A couple nights ago, you could smell lots of smoke in our house, even though the fires were over 40 miles away. It was late at night, when I was reading on my bed. Everyone else was sleeping. My sister climbed down the ladder and sat by my bed. Quietly, she said, "Cait, could you pray with me." Realizing she was still scared the fire would burn our house, I jumped out of my bed, and said, "Sure!" I held her in my arms and prayed with her that night. She went to sleep fine after that. But, I couldn't help but ask myself what my mom asked me the day before, "How faithful would you be to God, if you lost everything?"

Again, I was posed with that same question, yesterday, when we had to put down, our dog. It was the only death I experienced that I understood what was happening.
We had a fire in our backyard a couple years ago that burned down our shed, everything in it, and one of our chickens. In Job 1:21 Job says, "...The Lord gives, the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord." So, what will we choose to do when the time of loss and heartache comes? Will we be faithful to God, and know that His plans are better than our plans?

You can fill in the blank, but, "How faithful would you be if you lost ________"?
This got me to really think!
I looked up all the Bible verses that talked about God being faithful to us. Here are just a few:
Deuteronomy 7:9, "Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who
keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments,
to a thousand generations."

Deuteronomy 32:4
"The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He."

Hebrews 3:6
"but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are His house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope."

Scripture Memorization and the CHEC conference

This past week, we had our annual CHEC conference. I went to a speaker who talked about Scripture Memorization. If you know me, you know that it's hard for me to remember things, much less memorize them. However, I know how important God's word should be, so I
decided to go to this speaker

He talked about getting our priorities straight. Don't make excuses to memorize scripture! If you don't have time in your day, set your alarm 15 minutes earlier, and read the Bible until you've memorized just 1 verse. If you love your sleep too much to give up 15 minutes, write a sticky note of a verse and put it on your bathroom mirror, brushing your teeth while you memorize the verse.
Set a standard! If you can only do 1 verse a day, then go for it! If you can only
do 1 verse a week, go for it!

Reading, Studying, and Memorizing the Bible is important! How can you defend God's word, unless you know it?!
The verse I memorized: Philippians 1:21, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."
Try to memorize scripture. Make it a part of your day! You have to want to do it!

2 Timothy 3:14-17 ESV
"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."

Job 36:12 ESV
 "But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge."

In the Midst of the Storm

I was reading Matthew 14:22-33 this last week, and was in complete awe as I read
this passage from scripture!
"Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, "It is a ghost!" and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid." And Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." He said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to  sink he cried out, "Lord, save me!" Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

The reason I was so awed in this, was because this applies to our real lives... not that the other passages don't! But, let's look closely!
Jesus didn't CALM the storm to grab onto Peter's hand! He grabbed his hand in the MIDST of the storm! What a great God! Notice, how the Bible says, "Immediately."... Jesus "Immediately" reached out His hand...
I was thinking about how this applies to our lives. God is there beside us, holding onto our hand. He never leaves our side! He grabs our hand in the midst of the storm, and walks us through our daily trails! It's up to us, to let Him guide us! We must have faith!
"Now Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen..."
~Hebrews 11:1~

"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."
~1st Corinthians 10:13~

Thirsty?

We've all been thirsty for something. A thirst for truth, friendship, love, contentment, or something completely different. A friend of ours announced a couple weeks ago that his dad was in the hospital. His dad told the nurse, "I want water!" So the nurse grabbed a glass of water and tried to give it to the patient. He closed his mouth rejecting the water. The nurse proceeded to try to give it to him again, but the man still refused. The nurse gave up and put the water down. Again, the man asked her, "I want water!" Again the nurse tried to give him water, but again, the man refused. After so many times of going back and forth, the man finally spoke up, "I don't want that water, I want Gods water! I'm thirsty for the well of God!"

     This story gave me goosebumps as our friend told us this. His father rededicated
his life to Christ days before he died.
This last Sunday, one of our elders told us, "I have some very sad news before we begin our service. This morning I got a call from Shari McMinn. Her husband, Cary, died unexpectedly this morning." There was a gasp in the room as people's eyes teared up.

     Our family talked about it after service, and we know we'll see him in heaven one day, but it makes you think of the little time we have with our family/friends. It's not too late to except Christ and His water that will never make you thirst again!

"As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?"
~Psalm 42:1-2

"Jesus answered and said to her, 'if you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.She said to Him, 'Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?' Jesus answered and said to her, "everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."
John 4:10-14