Tag Archives: Jesus

April 18, 2013 · 6:00 am

Perfectly Imperfect– A Guest Post from Amy Leigh Simpson

I’ve always been an overachiever. Yes, I’m that annoying one that had to get straight A’s in high school so I would get a full scholarship. Had to graduate early and have a full year of college completed before I’d even started. And then of course, I had to wrap up my academic career in the same exhausting fashion of perceived perfection.

Maybe it had something to do with being naturally blonde, and constantly perceived to be an airhead. (Blondes are more fun, people. Don’t hate.) 🙂 Or maybe it had something to do with my upbringing in the church.

The Law. (Dun dun duhhhh!) From Sunday school to youth group, the rules are laid out very clearly. Do’s and don’ts. Thou shall’s and thou shalt not’s. Striving toward the goal. Running the race to win.

Not that I was under the impression that imperfect adherence to these laws would incite some sort of heavenly smack down, but I was in love with a Savior and felt that obedience and offering a pure and holy sacrifice was the best (maybe the only) way to express my love.

But have you ever been up on a pedestal? Man, it’s rough up there! Whether someone put you there or you did it yourself, it is not an easy place to be. There is always so much to lose. So much pressure. So far to fall.

You want so desperately to use your gifts and your zeal to fulfill God’s calling, but so often, you don’t know what the heck it is. Don’t know how to get to where you need to be to be good enough.

The apostle Paul, a very wise man, tells us in Romans 12:1…

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

This was always a head-scratcher for me. Yes, I want to be holy. I want to be perfect for God. But that perfection I am always striving for is impossible. None of us are worthy of the sacrifice of perfection that happened on that cross two thousand years ago. And nothing we can do can make us so. We are flawed. Tarnished from the very beginning—though we do a fair job of racking up the stains ourselves, don’t we? It’s not that I don’t want to try, but aren’t I, by nature, destined to fail?

If you go back and read Romans 12 again you’ll see that we are not meant to offer up some dry, crusty old relic. Something dead and frozen in its perfection like a statue. (Statue’s have no problems staying on pedestals.)

What we have to offer is living, breathing, moving and by default imperfect. It’s also the way he created us.

He hasn’t called for us to offer flawless love, flawless service, flawless thoughts or actions or intentions. He called us to offer our ALL. Flaws required. Because that means we can rely on Him in our weakness. We can trust Him with our scars. We aren’t out to boast our righteousness and we aren’t holding things back for ourselves.

If we really present ourselves as living sacrifices—giving Him our hearts and hopes, our stains and sparkles, our bodies and our minds, we are perfectly imperfect in Him.

Share with me: Do you have any “flaws” or imperfections that have shown themselves to be assets before the Lord? Or perhaps you have something you perceived as a “flaw” that God has used to teach you and bring you closer to Him? What’s your perfectly imperfect story?

Jennifer here: To answer the question above, I’d say that I sometimes feel like I have to tone down my strong personality. However, I’ve learned that my personality, just the way God made me, includes qualities of leadership and teaching. Also, I’d say that the infertility issues I’ve suffered have definitely become a testimony of faith and of ministering to others. I’m perfectly imperfect, too!! (In lots of ways!) Thanks so much for sharing, Amy!

Amy Leigh Simpson is the completely exhausted mother of two of the most fearless, rambunctious, and adorable toe-headed toddler boys in the Midwest. She writes Romantic Suspense and loves to take readers on a spirited journey of finding grace and redemption through stories that are equally inspiring, nail-biting, and hilarious–and maybe a little saucy! She is represented by Chip MacGregor.

Connect with Amy on:

-The Writers Alley http://thewritersalleys.blogspot.com/

-Her personal blog http://writersbreakroom.blogspot.com/

-Facebook http://www.facebook.com/amyleigh.simpson.50

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Filed under The Christian Walk

Tagged as Amy Leigh Simpson, faith, imperfection, Jesus, Paul, Romans

April 15, 2013 · 6:00 am

A Command to Seek His Face– A Guest Post from Lindsay Harrel

Sometimes in life, things happen that seem like coincidences.

You see someone in the grocery store you were just thinking about.

You read a book and the heroine has your birthday.

Your vacation days just happen to fall during your family reunion.

Little things. Things that don’t seem to hold much significance but are cool nonetheless.

But other times in life, something happens—sometimes a string of somethings—and they stop you in your tracks and you go, “Whoa. That was totally God.”

A string of somethings like that happened in my life recently. I’d been worrying about some big decisions and some other things out of my control.

One thing about me—the biggest thing I struggle with is worry. I know I shouldn’t worry, and I know that I can control it, but for some reason, I tend to focus instead on things OUT of my control.

Which makes no sense.

But I digress.

So I’d spent a few weeks thinking and worrying about these few issues. And then one day, a song came on the radio: “Strangely Dim” by Francesca Battistelli. It’s beautiful, as is the singer’s voice, but these lyrics are really what caught my heart:

When I fix my eyes on all that You are
Then every doubt I feel
Deep in my heart
Grows strangely dim
All my worries fade
And fall to the ground
‘Cuz when I seek Your face
And don’t look around
Any place I’m in
Grows strangely dim

The song was so powerful I just sat there and worshipped.

Here was a command directly from God: stop worrying and SEEK MY FACE. When I can do that, my problems don’t seem so big. And even though I’m not in control, I’m looking to God and He IS in control…and that makes it all seem so much better anyway.

As if that weren’t enough, the VERY NEXT MORNING, my devotional, Jesus Calling, had this to say. Not even kidding, this was the first sentence:

“Save your best striving for seeking my face.”

Um, don’t know what you would do, but I fell flat on my own face and nearly cried.

Because the Lord, the Creator of everything, cared enough about me to stop me in my worry—in my everyday go-go-go—and tell me not once, but twice, that all I really had to do was seek His face.

Your Turn: Have you ever had a fall-flat-on-your-own-face moment because of something that seemed coincidental—but you knew it was anything but?

Since the age of six, when she wrote the riveting tale “How to Eat Mud Pie,” Lindsay Harrel has passionately engaged the written word as a reader, writer, and editor. She has a bachelor’s in journalism and a master’s in English, and is published in the Falling in Love with You anthology released by OakTara in October 2012. Lindsay lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her husband of six years and two golden retriever puppies in serious need of training. Connect with her on her blog or via Facebook or Twitter (@LindsayHarrel).

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Filed under The Christian Walk

Tagged as coincidence, faith, Francesca Battistelli, Jesus, jesus calling, Lindsay Harrel

April 8, 2013 · 6:00 am

Living Life to the Fullest– A Guest Post by Olivia Newport

Are you living life to the fullest?

Jesus said that he came so that we could live life to the fullest, or abundantly (John 10:10). When I was growing up in a galaxy far, far away, I learned that this was about the incredible life we could have in kingdom of heaven some day when God called us home and we’re finished passing through this miserable world.

I don’t believe that anymore, and haven’t for a long time.

I hear Jesus telling us that the kingdom of God is near, at hand, close to us (Mark 1:14). Right here.

I hear Jesus calling us to live smack in the middle of kingdom themes: love, forgiveness, justice, mercy. And life.

Jesus came to bring us life. He came to restore our broken connections with God, each other, and ourselves. And I think those of us who believe in the truth and glory of Jesus can do a better job at living.

We think life is not surrendering any ground to death, the great enemy. And we think being healthy is not being sick, much less dead. In an age of medical technology that truly works wonders, we take pills and undergo procedures and spend an awful lot of energy fighting death.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not disparaging modern medicine. I once had a procedure done on my heart that used to be life-threatening open heart surgery and now is an outpatient procedure where you go home and sleep in your own bed and go back to work in three days. It changed the quality of my life more than I can calculate.

But more and more I lean toward the idea that instead of scrambling against the leading causes of death, we ought to be embracing the leading causes of life. A few years ago I read a book called The Leading Causes of Life by Gary Gunderson (with Larry Pray). Gunderson, a listened-to voice in the field of health and faith, lays out five leading causes of life that affect both physical and spiritual health.

Connection—we are not meant to be alone; we are meant to be connected to God and others.
Coherence—our life tells a story of belonging and meaning.
Agency—we need the capacity to take action to answer a call.
Blessing—this is a way of life that leads to wholeness, not how much stuff we have.
Hope—we believe that meaning transcends our circumstances and suffering, whether mild or extreme.

Research shows that if we have these features in our life, we are less likely to succumb to the leading causes of death—heart disease, stroke, obesity and so on. As people of faith it should not surprise us that body and spirit communicate back and forth in both directions.

Are you seeking abundant life—life to the fullest that God wants for us to experience? Let me leave you with three questions to ponder.

What are you doing to promote your own spiritual and physical health?
What are you doing to promote the wellness of people close to you?
What are you doing to promote the wholeness of people you don’t even know?

We live life to the fullest when as the people of God living in the kingdom of God we carry each other to the fullness of God.

Olivia Newport is a novelist whose books twist through time and discover where faith and passions meet. Her titles include The Pursuit of Lucy Banning, The Dilemma of Charlotte Farrow, Accidentally Amish, and the forthcoming In Plain View.
You can connect with Olivia via her website!