Faith Beyond My Years

For the past few weeks, I've been attending a Bible study at Mosaic Church taught by three of my favorite ladies. The study, entitled "Faithful, Abundant and True: Three Lives Going Deeper Still", is taught by Kay Arthur, Priscilla Shirer and Beth Moore. This study has convicted and challenged me tremendously.

This past week, Kay challenged us through the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, often deemed the "Hall of Faith". I was once again challenged by the faithful steps of  Noah, Abraham, Moses and so many others. But what spoke to me deeply through God's Word this week was verse 4:

"By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead."

Amazing. "And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead."

On July 18 of this year, I lost a dear cousin, Marcus L. Adair. Marcus and I grew up close -- geographically and relationally. In my early twenties we landed teaching jobs at the same elementary school, and carpooled together in the mornings and afternoons. Since we shared the last name Adair, our most difficult task there was convincing our coworkers that we were cousins, and not husband and wife. 

Marcus was bright, extremely talented and always smiling. Having earned a PhD in Higher Education Administration and Policy, he had accomplished much in just 43 years. And yet he had the potential and resources to achieve so much more. But Marcus suffered from severe seizures, and the Lord decided to take him home a bit early.

In just a few years, I will reach the age of 43. Who knows how many more years the Lord will give me? When a young person passes away, it makes us all -- young and old -- consider our mortality. I've certainly considered mine. Through Hebrews 11 God has commended me to live a life of faith. A life so full of faith that the testimony of that faith extends beyond my years on earth. I pray that the epitaph on my tombstone could boldly proclaim:

"And by faith Carla still speaks, even though she is dead." And may God receive all the glory for that faith.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ambassador: His Rise, Fall and Rise Again

Image
I recently began a Facebook Group called "A Pastor's Wife's Garden" with the goal of connecting hearts with other pastor's wives like myself. The idea for this group came totally from the Lord one day while I watched a recording of an interview on CBN. The topic of this interview: William Branch, also known as The Ambassador, also known as Duce, and his wife discussing the challenge of his emotional affair with another woman. To give a little backstory, Duce is a Christian hip hop artist that co-founded and led Cross Movement, a rap group that took the Christian world by storm in 1996. All original founding members, including Duce, grew up in Philadelphia. Having earned a Masters degree in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary -- graduating with honors, by the way -- he began co-pastoring Epiphany Fellowship Church, a growing and vibrant multi-ethnic church in Philly. That is, until he fell into this emotional affair. At that point Duce was asked to leav
Read more

Five Things Not to Say to Adoptive Parents

Image
The Hendricks Clan "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."  Did you grow up hearing that adage? I don't think I reached age ten before I realized how false that saying is. The scars of sticks and stones heal with time. The scars of hurtful words? Many of us will take our share of those scars to our graves. If you have adopted, you've heard your share of ill-timed/insensitive questions and comments. Many will come from the lips of perfect strangers. This can be annoying, but in the end, feels rather harmless. Yet sometimes the offenses come from the people closest to us -- parents, grandparents, siblings, long-time friends. Some of those words have left scars on your soul. And maybe on the souls of your child. This post is not only for those of us that have adopted. This post is for our family members, our close friends, our fellow church and community members. This post is for our loved ones who may be very happy for us, b
Read more

The Shooting of Michael Brown: What I Know for Sure

Image
It's been exactly two weeks since Michael Brown , age 18, was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri.  Other than a few discussions at home with my family, I haven't talked much about this volatile situation. I've wanted to share about it here in Deep Waters , but I've wanted to speak intelligently about it. There's just so much I don't know about this case right now. And then I received an email from a sweet sister-friend that told me she'd checked my blog for my reaction to the Ferguson crisis. She encouraged me to "weigh-in" here, and I knew I needed to break my silence. I feel like I did when I wrote about the Trayvon Martin crisis back in May 2012 in "Our Sons Are Trayvon." I feel the way I did when I wrote about the verdict in the Zimmerman trial back in July 2013 in "Zimmerman Found Not Guilty/The Church Found Guilty" . I feel like there's so much I don't know. I wasn
Read more