How Much Is Your Faith Worth? and the Soli Deo Gloria Party

It's time to pull up your chair.  Do you know you have one here in this space we call Soli Deo Gloria?  You do.  It's reserved every week only for you.  This place would be different if you weren't here and we miss you when you are gone.  This is a place filled with women who seek to honor your words, you heart, your tears, and your laughter.  Scooch in close.  You won't want to miss a word.

To read more about the Soli Deo Gloria community, please click here.

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Saturday morning came with a sense of fear.  As the light filtered through the slats, all I could hear was my husband's words the night before:

photo source

How many people do you need to attend the retreat to make ends meet?

My response:  I don't know.

In the morning, my response was this:  ohmygosh.  I don't know!  And I have to pay this deposit and what if people don't come and what if I'm crazy and what if I can't figure out what I'm doing.  And is God really asking me to do this?  ohmygosh.  ohmygosh.  ohmygosh.


And then I heard, "Is your faith worth $750?"

And I said, "Lord, I'd love to say yes.  I'd love to say it's worth  much more than that, but I'm going to need some pretty specific confirmation here."

I padded downstairs and opened my devotional to the day's reading (only just now did I realize that I read the wrong date).  Kristin Armstrong, in her devotional, Heart of My Heart, writes this:

God takes our meager offerings, limited by our knowledge and our energy, and He multiplies them -- just as He did with the loaves and the fishes.  He takes the little that we have to offer and He makes it sufficient. (page 6)

Even though $750 doesn't sound meager to me, I got the point.  We give a little in faith and God takes care of the rest.  By His grace, He covers our offerings and makes them enough.  He covers us and He makes us enough.

Okay, I say I got the point, but I wanted something more.  So, I asked God to direct me to a place in scripture to give me further confirmation and I heard a whisper in my head -- John 11:8.

"But his disciples objected.  'Rabbi,' they said, 'only a few days ago the people in Judea were trying to stone you.  Will you go back there again?"

Confused?  Yes, me too, until I read the context.  Jesus had to go back to Judea because that is where Lazarus was.  He was going back to comfort Mary and Martha and then raise Lazarus from the dead.  The disciples think Jesus is crazy because they equate the journey to Judea to a possible death sentence.  Obviously, Jesus knows better, but the disciples only see the risk.  But then, something beautiful escapes from the mouth of Thomas.  In verse 16, Thomas says something beautiful:

"Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, 'Let's go too -- and die with Jesus.'" 

And there, yes there, from the words of Thomas, my eyes start to brim with tears.  To Thomas, his faith is worth his very life.  To Thomas, allegiance to Jesus is all there is.  To Thomas, it didn't matter the risk.  The only thing that mattered was going where Jesus was going.

So, friends, I'm putting down the deposit on this retreat.  I don't know what lies ahead, but I know where Jesus is telling me to walk.  And I've decided my faith is worth at least $750.

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To find out more details about the Soli Deo Gloria retreat, please click here.

SDG Community Builder:  1) If you would like to be on the SDG prayer team (meaning you will commit to praying for this retreat for the planning and actual event), please let me know by email or in the comments.  2) If you know of a small business or organization that might be interested in sponsoring the event so to help defray the cost for the participants, please let me know how to contact them.  3) Give lots of comment love as you are visiting each other!  4) Oh, yes!  Would you consider putting the retreat button on your blogs?  5) And if you haven't liked s(He) Listens on Facebook, do that too, so you can catch all the latest news!

(I'm a little pressed for time this week, so I'm linking this post with some other very nice linky ladies:  Michelle @ Graceful, Shanda @ Pause on the Path, Laura @ The Wellspring, and Jennifer @ Getting Down with Jesus)