Okay now that that is out of my system and you have learned that I give my cats middle names, on to the rest of my post.
I went to Lifeway yesterday and looked around to see if I could find something to use in my personal Bible study time. I got By Faith: Living in the Certainty of God's Reality. It's a nice interactive book. By interactive I mean you can write in it and they make you actually read in your Bible - that's what I like. Don't just read a book - find where God talks about it in the Bible. I did the first half of chapter 1 and let it sink in. You can;t rush through getting through something. I mean God does not expect us to read the Bible from cover to cover in one sitting. He wants us to read a little bit at a time and let it sink in. Meditate on it so that we can take it and apply it to our lives. I had to read in Hebrews 11 - you can call that the faith chapter. In the New American Standard Bible they mention the word faith 23 times. Some versions are less and I think one version is more. By faith each person mentioned did something. Those people were not extraordinary people - they were just regular people like you and me (since I have a whopping one follower then the you in the sentence would be Megan - hi!). You can see people in this day and age who have done things by faith - Corrie ten Boom. I did not know that she was called to go speak after she got out of the Nazi camp. She went places where she didn't know where she would speak or where she would sleep, but she went anyway and God connected her with people. I think about Rachel Scott from Columbine. She lost her life for her faith, but look what she gained. She will stand before God and He will not have to say I knew you not. Carrie Prejean took a stand for what she believed in and sure it cost her the Miss California crown, but she also does not have to stand before God one day and have Him say the same thing. In my life I took a stand for my faith and it cost me my job. But you know what I'd rather have it cost me my job than for me to live with the guilt that haunts you when you didn't take a stand. You should never ever be ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
I am going to enjoy working and reading my way through this book. It is something that I have needed to do for a long time. I am at the point where I have to be working out what God is working in me. In previous summers or times of not as much work I sat around worrying and crying and praying and didn't even bother taking advantage of that time to ask God what it is He wanted me to learn from all of this. I constantly talked to Him, but what about me listening to see what He would want to say to me. When we stop and listen - and believe me this is not a quick process - it is then that we find comfort and strength and the faith that we need to walk through the unknown.
I am also going to do something that I haven't ever really done before. I am going to start a prayer journal. I am going to write out my prayers that are on my heart and write out my needs that I have and the needs that others may share. David Jeremiah did this. I then want to go back and look through to see how God has changed me and how He has met my needs.
Okay that is all for now. Today's picture is of the one who awoke me in the middle of the night so she could get loved on. Bad Sugar Beezus lol
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