Our theme for the Family Fellowship Week 2014 was Faithful Till The End.  Our focus was on being faithful until the end of our earthly race, in all aspects of our life and ministry.  As you review these notes from the week, we trust that you will be encouraged to remain faithful.

Faithful When Trials Come

Few have suffered more than Job, yet he is known as one who remained faithful through trials.  Regardless of who we are or the trials we face, we must remember that the grace of God is sufficient to see us through.  Proverbs 28:20 reminds us that “A faithful man shall abound with blessings.”  Job lost much, but in the end he was doubly blessed, because of his faithfulness. – David Ellenburg

Faithful With Our Message

The writer Jude exhorts us to contend for the faith.  He gives us descriptions, examples, and judgements of apostasy, as well as descriptions of the uselessness and bad character of apostates.  Verses 20-22 give us five defenses against apostasy. We keep our message faithful to the end by loving, walking, speaking, and standing on the Truth of God’s Word, while recognizing that we have security in Christ, Who is able to keep us. – Jim Bailey

Faithful When Opposed

As we serve in the place of God’s choosing, we will be opposed by the world.  They will revile, persecute, and defame us through personal, physical, and public attacks.  We must show a proper response with a soft answer, endurance, and prayer for our attackers.  We must focus on what God thinks, not what others think, in order to remain faithful in the face of opposition. – Gene Krachenfels

Faithful in our Spirit

To be faithful in our spirit, we must look to Christ, Who waits for us at the finish line and calls for us to come on through the trials of this temporal life, to the eternal glory that awaits us.  We must serve through troubles with endurance, because He endured; with faith, because He has saved us and daily saves us from this present world; and with grace, which He gives.  We must focus on the eternal to maintain a faithful spirit. – Time Daniel

Faithful in Our Friendship

Jonathan and David’s relationship is a classic example of friendship in the Bible, from which we learn characteristics of a true spiritual friendship.  We must show unconditional love, be a faithful advocate, trust, and seek to encourage our friends.  Faithful friendship is about seeking to benefit and sharpen the other individual. – David Landers

Faithful to the end

God has given us different responsibilities for every season of life.  He has given us a springtime of preparation, a summer of propagation, a fall of preservation, and a winter of consummation.  As we get older we must seek to get better, not bitter about changes that come.  We must be faithful in each season, and seek to encourage those who are coming behind us. – Bill Wingard