Without Faith

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."  Hebrews 11:6

I am reading the book "Fresh Faith" by Jim Cymbala for about the fourth or fifth time since my cousin gave it to me 14 years ago.  There are just some books I keep coming back to over and over and over.  This little book has been such an encouragement over the years.  Here is another one God slammed me with while reading this week, 

"Faith alone is the trigger that releases divine power." (page 41)

We are all on vacation this month.  Much awaited, much needed and a very-different-than-we-imagined vacation.  But God is good and we have had some special days together as a family.  Yesterday we took the children to SESC, our local sports/pool/exposition place, to play for a few hours.  You can also eat there for a very reasonable price so we enjoyed lunch together as well.  We parked the car on the street and headed towards the building.  As we walked over a piece of sidewalk that was all twisted, raised and broken under the tree, my children asked why the sidewalk was all broken and ugly.  

You know when words come out of your mouth that you are not sure where they come from, but suspect they come straight from the heart of God and is intended more for you than for those you are speaking to?  I explained that when roots don't go deep, they grow on the surface and make not only the sidewalk ugly and broken, but when a bad storm comes, sometimes the tree doesn't have the strength to withstand the wind and rain and falls over.  I then explained that it is the same way in our walk with God.  When we don't study the Word and Pray to Him, we don't go "deep" and when hard things come along we don't have the strength to withstand and we "fall."  We fall into depression, anger, illness, or any other number of things.  We need to go deep in our relationship with God.

Smack.in.my.face!  Okay, Lord.  Got it!  My very own words convicted me.  Deeply.  And my study of faith just parallels this.  Our faith must go deep or we will grow on the surface and create all kinds of ugliness, danger and destruction.

So, as we enjoy the last few crazy busy days of our vacation, I want to GO DEEP.  Burrow deeply in my relationship with my God.  Dig deeply into His Word.  Go deeply as I seek His face and will in prayer.

Here are a few things we have been up to since I last posted:

Saying goodbye to dear friends who moved out of town.

Morning at the Park with my kiddos

Making homemade esfihas with Daddy!

Many sunny mornings and afternoons at the playground in our condominium

July 9th Parade downtown Sao Paulo

It was a lovely warm day at Parque Ibirapuera

A super super special afternoon coffee time and evening worship service in the home of a family very dear to our hearts.  I lived with the Cordeiro Family for three months during one of my mission trips to SP and the husband grew up under their musical and spiritual teaching.  We had not seen them for many years and it was special to be with them again.

Monalise, myself, Monike, Lourdinha & Cordeiro

This family is incredibly musically talented and Chloe was super impressed!

Noah was very tired by the end of the evening but my children had such a wonderful time they did not want to leave!

"Come, let us worship and bow down!"

On Wednesday of this week, we packed up and went to the country to visit my brother in law and sister in law at their property.  They are building a lovely country home and we planned to spend several days with them, helping and enjoying space, green grass and trees.  However, we were slammed with incredibly COLD weather this week and we decided to come home after only one day there.  We were all very disappointed but I was glad to get home.  The 24-hours we spent with them were worth it, though.  How we love them and will miss them when they move to Mocambique the end of the year.

One has to keep one's eyes on these two at.all.times.  Here I found them nailing things to uncle's new porch pillars!

Preparing windows for glass installation

Sister, baby and I just get to cook and sit around talking to the guys while they work!  It's a wonderful life!

Yesterday at the SESC...

We have a few days left of our vacation and look forward to more time in the sun (the only warm place is out in the sun, literally!), some special afternoon tea times with friends and doing several needed things like dentist and pediatrician visits.

Have a blessed weekend you all and remember, dig deep and may your faith be strong!

HE IS GOD and He has got your back.  Whatever you are facing, whatever you are experiencing, He is looking out for your good, your benefit and your blessing.