By Faith......

    Last night my hubby preached for the first time at our church. The week leading up to it, we as a family spent a lot of time in prayer and in the word. One of my favorite prayers was from my 7 year old. "Jesus, please don't let daddy mess up and if he does help him to keep going and not give up because he wants to do everything for you. Amen"..... Sweetest prayer ever! I feel (not biased at all) that he did an incredible job. I could really see the Lord speaking through him. I am very excited, and a little nervous, to see where God takes all this.

  The main point that my hubby was speaking about was being comfortable. He related following Jesus to jumping off a cliff. That Jesus is saying follow me, take the jump with me and instead we all will sit at the edge and dangle our feet over thinking that is good enough, or we will just stand there waiting to see how far it is to the ground. Instead of trusting Him and giving Him our all, we think it's okay to give Him a little. Well it's not. I'm reminded of Hebrews 11. Where the title says "Great examples of Faith" (NIV) or By Faith (ESV) it gives illustrations of the faithful men and women of Israel's history. Moses, Abraham, Sarah, Etc.  Hebrews 11:13-16 is where the Lord led me.

"All these people died still believing what God has promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it.They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads on this earth.
Obviously people who say such things are looking for a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back.
 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them."

 They had such great faith that they did not have to know where they were going. They knew that as long as God was in the drivers seat then they knew they would be taken care of. They also knew that this earth was not their home. They left their "comfy" lives and took up their cross and followed Jesus.  I love where is says " if they had longed for the country they had left then they would have gone back." I truly believe that Jesus wants to take you so far away from your comfortable worldly life and what you feel you are entitled to, so that you can really see your brokenness, your need for Him and then you will finally see that their is something so much greater then yourself. He takes us so far from our comfortable place in this world that we no longer long to go back. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God.. That is a huge statement. As my hubby said, God is not asking you to sit in your chair and say I love Jesus, He is requiring you to get up, burn that lifestyle, follow Him by picking up your cross DAILY. Not 99% of the time. ALL the time. He requires all or nothing. God does not need us, we need Him! 

Father, I want to return to you what is all ready yours, me. I want to give you my all. Help me Father to live a life dedicated to you, not my husband or my kids, but you. Help me to truly die to self, to really feel what it means to be broken, to never long for that place of comfort in this world that is not even my home. Father I long for the day that I can sit at your feet. Help me to not just talk  the talk, but to walk it all out in Faith keeping my eyes on you. More of you King Jesus, less of me.

On the Adoption Front:

I will be ordering all the shirts in one week, so make sure you order yours today!!!

Also here is an update to our puzzle. It just melts my heart to write the names on the back. Most of whom I have never even met. It is only $10 to "sponsor" a piece and your name will permanently be written on the back!

Help us put our puzzle together

 

 

 

‎"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord." (Isaiah 55:8). "The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." (Proverbs 16:9) "For I know the plans I have for you...... (Jeremiah 29:11).... Trusting and resting on your promises Father.