Alligators

I may not know much, but this much I know, my God is a God of prompting, of mission, and a God who hears the prayers of his people.

Father God,

I lift up Melby to you Lord. Built a wall of protection around his heart, mind, body, and spirit. Father, I pray that you would protect him from alligators, or any sin that would entice him to harm him for the rest of his life. Father, be with his parents, that they would be strong in protecting him, and keeping him from harm. I pray for the village, that they would not be stagnant but be full of you, and that they would be active! That they would move with vigor toward your goals for them. I pray that they would look out for the safety of the young generations that will be the one's to bring change. Father, Lord....I pray for healing for Melby, that if he is hurt in any way, that you will take care of him. Father...I pray that if Melby is in danger of alligators that you would keep him and his siblings safe from harm. Father, be with their village, keep the village safe Father...protect them.

And finally God, I pray that if I'm called to action as a rescuer, that you would call me to be strong and courageous, that that strength would flow through me directly from you. Lord, help me to be ready, help me to move quickly, help me to remember what to do to save them.

I have absolute faith that you are in control Father. I have faith in my heart that you are a God that listens to the prayers of your people. You do act on our behalf. That is the kind of God you are.

Here's my explanation of the prayer.

I woke up this morning, a mere 10 minutes ago, from a dream that made me cry and made my heart sick. I had to pray. Here's what happened.

I was in an area, like a zoo, but I was at a zoo pond, open to the public. The pond was murky and shallow, all around it was dusty dry dirt. I was sitting next to a bench talking to an old man, about what, I don't know. I turned to look at the pond and the people around it, and I saw the reptilian spine of an alligator basking in the warm waters. A mother and her infant walked up to the pond as if to go for a swim, saw the alligator, and moved to a different area of the pond to go in. I was about to be alarmed by this course of action, that they would even be near the brown waters, when I looked again at the same spot. My beloved Melby, child of Guatemalan village San Francisco, one that I had become very attached to on my recent mission, was stepping into the water, a foot from the beast. I tried to scream at him, no sound came out...all I could do was watch. He sidled up next to the gator's head, the gator slowly came to understand there was something living, right next to his head. Melby then went deeper, and yanked the gator's tail. As you would see in any discovery channel show, the gator whipped his head back, mouth wide open and faced down the small child. Melby tried to run, but too slow, the gator snapped down on his left arm. My lifeguard instincts kicked in, to go and rescue him, but I was glued to the ground, unable to move, unable to make a sound, but just to watch in shock as my dear friend was attacked.

I woke up shaking....closed my eyes again, for just a moment...

and Melby was in my arms, and me running rescue drills through my head, and screaming to myself "I don't care if the scene isn't safe!" He was missing his left arm, and was unconscious in my arms. I woke up, told my mother, tears rolling down my cheeks as I retold it....she told me....Pray.

Faith

After my recent study of Hope, I thought I would find the contrast between Hope and Faith. What is Faith? What is religion? How can "we live by faith and not by sight" ? I've heard the saying, but what does it mean to me?

faith:

1. Confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another's ability.

2. Belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.

3. Belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.

4. Belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit,etc.: to be of the same faith

with someone concerning honesty

5. A system of religious belief: the Christian faith; the Jewish faith.

6. The obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc.: Failure to appear

would be breaking faith.

7. The observance of this obligation; fidelity to one's promise,oath, allegiance, etc.: He was the only

one who proved his faith during our recent troubles.

8. Christian Theology: The trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures

by which humans are justified or saved.

—Idiom

9. In faith, in truth; indeed: In faith, he is a fine lad.

(I find it very strange that the perhaps the actual Biblical definition apart for the worldly view of faith is the last one on the list on Dictionary.com.)

2 Chronicles 20:20 "Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful."

(There are so many times when the people are called to have faith in the Bible, or rather someone's faith is seen as amazing, they are healed, because of faith.)

Matthew 9:27-30 "As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, 'Have mercy on us, Son of David!' When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, 'Do you believe that I am able to do this?'

'Yes, Lord' they replied.

Then he touched their eyes and said, 'According to your faith will it be done to you'; and their sight was restored."

(According to this, it says that faith is belief. The men had faith/the belief that Jesus was going to heal them, and he did.)

Matthew 17:14-21 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. "Lord, have mercy on my son, " he said. "He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him."

"O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy and he was healed from that moment.

Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

(Here the faith is defined as a belief and almost a will that holds the power of God in it. Faith big enough to drive out demons and move mountains, faith to use the gifts that God gives us, belief that those things can happen.) (God's word is truth. Why would he tell us these things if they couldn't and didn't happen?)

Matthew 24:9-10 "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other..."

(Faith here is the belief in Jesus, what we know today as Christianity, whether it be Catholic, Lutheran, Four Square, any one to believe that Jesus is God's only begotten son, sent to die for us, that we may have a glorious eternity with Him. The verse is describing end times, when Jesus is comes again!)

Mark 11:20-25 In the morning, as they went along, they was the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, " Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed is withered!"

"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

(To me there seems to be so many promises that aren't accepted because of lack of faith.)

Basically the Bible has tons of verses concerning faith and what it can do.

Luke 7:9; 12:28; 17:5; 18:8

Acts 14:9; 14:27

Romans 1:12; 1:17; 3:3; 3:22; 3:25; 4:5; 5:1; 10:17; 14:1; 14:23

1 Corinthians 13:2; 13:13; 16:13

2 Corinthians 5:7; 13:5

Galatians 2:16; 2:20; 3:11; 3:24

Ephesians 2:8; 4:5; 6:16

Colossians 1:23

1 Thessalonians 5:8

1 Timothy 2:15; 4:1; 5:8; 6:12

2 Timothy 3:15; 4:7

Philemon :6

Hebrews 10:38; 11:1; 11:3; 11:5; 11:6; 11:8; 11:17; 11:20-24; 11:31; 12:2

James 2:14; 2:17; 2:26

2 Peter 1:5

1 John 5:4

Jude :3

But the one verse that talks about the true meaning of faith is found in Hebrews.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure about what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

I know that God calls his children to have mighty faith in him. I'm sure of the hope that I have in his salvation, and I'm certain that the God that I do not always see is always there, that he sent his son, to save me. And that's exciting!

Thank you Lord, for everything. I wish I could sing a million songs of praise to you, just by opening my mouth. You are there always, when I don't see you, when I don't feel you. You never let go, through the calm and through the storm.

Great is the Lord that answers the cries of his unfaithful people, we who are so easily pulled in so many different directions, cast about by the idols of the age.

Praise be to the God of love, who grasps the universe in just the palm of his hand, yet he numbers the hairs on our head. Sing aloud with joy and admiration to the one that counts the strands of DNA in our being, to the one that knows the make up of the smallest building blocks of life. How awesome is HE?

The Great I Am that saves over and over again, to have his people turn away once more, yet he continues to hear our cries. Ever faithful is he to us, Lord let us be faithful forever to you.