Big God: What Happens When We Trust Him

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Faith is trust. It is a confidence in the power and goodness of God that leads us to make good decisions and allows us to surrender our lives to Him. As we strive to mature spiritually and lead lives pleasing to God, we all want more faith. Hebrews 6:12 says that we are to be "imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." One of the best ways to grow in faith is to imitate the lives of people who have shown great faith. Hebrews 11 guides us through the lives of men and women – like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Rahab, David and others – who have done just that. Real people with real lives and real problems, who had faith in a great God and trusted Him at pivotal moments in their lives. By drawing on some of the greatest lives of faith in the Bible, readers will come to see that God was worthy of these men’s and women’s trust and faith during biblical times in the same way that He is worthy of ours today.

BRITT MERRICK was born and raised near Santa Barbara, CA in a little town on the beach named Carpinteria. He grew up entrenched in the surf industry, working for his parents’ business, Channel Islands Surfboards. Starting by sweeping out the shaping rooms, soon he was making surfboards alongside his father (Al Merrick) for some of the best surfers in the world. Britt was also handling the famous company’s advertising, marketing and amateur surf team. Although he received Jesus as a young child, Britt had never known what it was to walk with Him. He had both feet in the world, using drugs and alcohol, and getting into trouble. In his early twenties, Britt was introduced to the transforming power of the Word of God, and thus began a new life. Shortly after re-committing his life to the Lord, with a fresh fire for the Truth, Britt began to teach Bible studies at his parents’ home for the surfer kids in Carpinteria. These Bible studies eventually led to Britt teaching and preaching at a Friday night college ministry at a local church in Santa Barbara. In the fall of 2003, sensing a further call to ministry, Britt laid Channel Island Surfboards aside and he and his wife, along with some close friends, started a church called Reality in his hometown of Carpinteria. Since then, the Reality family has grown to include churches in Ventura, Los Angeles, Stockton, San Francisco and London. Reality is focused on biblical faithfulness, community transformation, church birthing and equipping the next generation of leaders. Britt continues to pastor full time and lives with his wife Kate, and their two children in Carpinteria.