Where Did You Leave Jesus??

“Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭2:41-46‬ ‭KJV‬‬
In this passage I see how easy it is to leave Jesus behind and not even realize it. Joseph had been gone a whole day before he even realized Jesus was no longer with them. If you notice that it took him a day to realize he was gone and 3 days to get back to Him. Leaving God behind doesn't take long but getting back in His presence can take awhile. Mary looked for Jesus in her friends and in her family and friends, I think this is a picture of how we look for fulfillment in other people but only He can fill our hearts the way they were created to be filled. Let me state too that Jesus never left Joseph, Joseph left Jesus.

~My Greatest Adventure~

 
Wow! So much has changed since Ragan and I created this blog of our adventures on the road! Ragan is now at Crown College taking cosmetology and I am now married to the love of my life, Andrew Jones! For those of you who don't know, Andrew and I still travel with the Brady Rochester Family full time.  God has definitely blessed in allowing us to be in 40 states since we've been married!! 40! Andrew sings and plays guitar and mandolin amazingly and it is SUCH a blessing to do what we love doing together, for the Lord! We have had a lot of people ask how we met and so I thought I'd tell you all our love story!!

About 10 years ago we were at a church in Indiana and Andrews dad, Jeff Jones, was in evangelism and his family was at the meeting as well. About a year later, Daddy got a call from Bro. Jones saying that he was now pastoring in Boyne City, Michigan and wanted to have our family in for a meeting! So every year for about 6 or 7 years we would go up there and sing so that's how we knew each other. 

Some of you are wondering how he became my boyfriend, well, I asked him! Haha! Seriously! Well he asked me and I chickened out and told him I wanted to wait. For some reason, thank the Lord, he still wanted to come see me while we were at a church in Kentucky. So he came down for about a week and after getting to know him even better, I knew I loved him! Well I had created this nice little dilemma for myself. Here I was, loving him, and I told him I didn't want us to get serious a couple weeks before that! Way to go MB!! I mean I was just trying to be cautious but look where that got me. Anyways, the night before he left Ragan had convinced me to just go ahead and tell him how I felt. So there we were, sitting on the couch in the bus and I looked at him and said, "I don't want to be your friend anymore." Wait! What? I sure have a way with words!! NOT!! Haha! Andrew just got this strange look on his face and goes, "should I leave?" Bless his heart... I barely saved the conversation from disaster by saying "No! I don't want to be JUST your friend!" That got me a smile:)

So for about 3 months we had a over the phone, long distance relationship until  September 17th when he moved to South Carolina! I was so excited the day he was moving down! I was going to get to see him more and we were talking about getting married in the future. He was also moving into the house, right beside my grandparents, that we would live in for a while after we were married. Well while we were moving his stuff in we got a phone call from my cousin Macalah  saying she needed our help. She was supposedly doing Ragans senior pictures at Pawpaws cabin at the pond. Little did I know they were getting the cabin all ready for my engagement! So Me, Andrew and my cousin Madison headed down there. When I walked into the cabin our favorite song was playing and there were THE MOST BEAUTIFUL red roses I had ever seen! They had candles lit and the lights down so it looked like something from a fairytale! I walked in and Andrew got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! And I said "YES!!!" I was shaking, he was shaking, Ragan and Madison and Macalah were shouting in excitement, it couldn't have been a more perfect moment!! 

 

 Six months later on March the 11th, Andrew and I were married! We've now been married for 7 months! Time is going so fast! I am so thankful for my husband and the life we have together as a new family. God has blessed me so much! I must say this has been my greatest adventure yet and I CAN NOT WAIT to see what our life together will hold!! I always knew that this verse was true but it has really become a reality for me! I hope this is a blessing to someone who maybe is praying the Lord will send them someone to love and to spend the rest of their life with. God is faithful and if you are faithful to HIM, He will give you MUCH MORE than you ask for! Don't get discouraged! Just keep trusting HIM!                           

“Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭37:4-5‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Don't Wait To Pray

“Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.”

Psalms 116:2 KJV

Prayer is powerful. I have seen a lot of prayers answered the past few weeks! I am so thankful I have a God that inclines His ear unto His children. You may not always feel like your prayers are being answered but God does answer prayers! It may be "no", it may be "yes", or it might even be "wait my child I have something much better for you" but your prayers are heard and answered! I will tell you praying will not only help you spiritually but mentally. “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

2 Corinthians 4:18 KJV  When I take my focus off this world and start focusing on how big my God is, all of a sudden my problems start looking a lot smaller. Remember this, God is faithful. 

Making A Difference

"A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied, “Well, I made a difference to that one!”

The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved."

— Adapted from The Star Thrower
by Loren C. Eiseley

You may only lead 1 person to The Lord in your life, or you may lead 1,000 to The Lord. Either way you have allowed God to use you to make a difference in the world.  So just keep trying your very best to get those starfish in the water. People may think your attempts are pointless but just keep doing it. God doesn't judge us by our fruit but by our faithfulness.

*We're Baaaaaack*

A lot has been going on in the Rochester family this past year. Between me graduating this year and MaryBeth getting married in March,we haven't had much time to do much writing. My goal is to have a blog every Saturday starting January 16. We appreciate those who take the time to read our blog and for those that have asked when we are starting back! 

*~Put Your Armor On~*

We all know, (unless you've been hiding under a rock somewhere) that the devil is on the war path right now. He knows his time is quickly coming to an end. He's after our minds, our families, and our churches. I've heard of so many families lately that are going through things that I can't even begin to imagine. You may say, "I would never fall into sin like that!" Or maybe, "that will never happen to me or my family!" Well let me remind you that NO ONE is incapable of commiting ANY sin. Take David for instance. He was a man after Gods own heart and yet he was guilty of commiting adultery and murder! It could happen to anyone! Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have our up and down days. If truth be told, we have all been close to things we are ashamed that we've even thought about doing. It's human nature! We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You may get discouraged sometimes but there is a way to make it harder for Satan to get to you! The Bible says in Ephesians 6:11, "Put on the whole armour of God, that Ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." You see, God knew that in the last days we were going to have to fight harder than we ever have before. Thankfully, He not only told us how withstand against the "fiery darts" of the wicked, but he has given us the equipment we need to do it! All we have to do is daily put our armor on! First of all, we are to have our loins gird about with truth. The bible says in Philipians 4:8, "“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” We need to fill our minds with things that are true! Maybe it's listening to godly music, or preaching, or the Bible itself! Next comes the breastplate of righteousness. I believe that's talking about living right. It's much easier not to sin when you don't put yourself in positions to where it would be easy to sin. You know what they say, if it doesn't look right, it probably isn't!                  The Bible also speaks of having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We need to always be ready to share the gospel with those around us. Chances are, when you have your mind on getting the gospel out, your mind won't have time to get into mischief. Most of all in our lives we need the shield of faith! When the devil throws darts of fear and hate, you're going to need to hold up your faith shield! Then there is the helmet of salvation. If you are going to stand against satan, you are going to have to know, that you know, that you're born again! No man can serve two masters. You can not live for God if you're not even saved! Last of all this passage talks about the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God! Any time you are being attacked in your spiritual life, the best way to fight back is through Scripture! And in order to know the Scriptures, you've got to read them! So from now on, determine in your heart that you're going to put your armor on every day and fight! It's not an easy battle. This battle against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places! Its time to stand up for what we believe more than ever, and do it for the honor and glory of Christ! 

*It Happened In A Church Van*

The Church vans are an adventure all on their own. We have been in MANY nice church van's, but we've also been in a few interesting ones. If we were to take all the interesting church vans and put it into one, it would be something like this...........                                           First, you get into the van and there is that smell. You know what smell I'm talking about! Where it's like 15 teenage boy's just played basketball for 2 hours and they all left their socks in the van. Secondly, you go go to turn on the air and feathers start flying out of the air vents and all over the van. You look up and you realize the problem. There is a dead bird about to fall out of the air vents! So you take care of that problem and you try to turn back on the air but it's blowing out extremely hot heat! So after 5 minutes of messing with the knobs, you finally realize that it's set backwards. The heat turns on the air, and the air turns on the heat! Finally you get on the road and you go to make the first turn and water starts pouring out of the ceiling like someone turned on a faucet above your head! By the time you get to where you are going, the water has stopped. Probably because it's already poured all the water out. LOL! Then you go in to wherever you are going and come back out and start the van but it won't crank. You can't get anyone on the phone so you have to go into the store and ask someone if they can jump the battery off. After all of that, all you have in your mind is to get back to wherever your bus is parked!                                  Now that is a funny picture but honestly we are so thankful for the vehicles that churches let us borrow! Without them, we would be stuck on the bus all day and trust me, that isn't fun! We've had WAY more nice vehicles than we've had interesting ones! Even though I must say, the interesting ones are pretty fun;)