Reason #2 To Fall In Love With Jesus (Guest Post by Nancy Rue)

A big-time thank you for returning today and again to Sarah Elizabeth for having me on her blog as we travel through Valentine’s Week together.  Like most M-W’s, you’re probably way aware that the Valentine’s Day season is here, and you probably either love the cards, the candy, the frills – or you can’t wait for the thing to be over because it makes you so painfully aware of who DOESN’T like you! One being DOES like you. He loves you, in fact. He’s just waiting for YOU to fall in love with HIM. Why would you? In ten different posts, each one giving you a peek at a feature from the FaithGirlz Bible, we’re giving you a Reason To Fall In Love With JESUS. Here’s the second one.

Reason #2: Because Jesus brings you to life. In the story you’re about to read, he literally brings a young girl back to life. As in, she was dead and now she isn’t. The message for YOU is that when you fall into a “dead time” – you’re cranky, snarky, unhappy, and feeling farther away from God than you are from Paris, France – Jesus can, and does, bring you back to a great life with him. Not just once, when you give him your life, but over and over and over again.

“DREAM GIRL” Feature (Matthew 9:18-26, p. 1108 from FaithGirlz Bible)
A crowd is knotting together in the street, probably again surrounding that Jesus person everyone talks about.  You tug on a nearby girl’s cloak and ask, “What’s going on?” Her eyes bulge at you. “A man asked Jesus to bring his daughter back from the dead!” Yeah, right, you think, until two men slice through the group.  One is strong in the shoulder, but his face is gentle.  That must be Jesus.  The other is your best friend’s father.  His face is long and sad as if someone has… “Did his daughter die?” you whisper to the girl.  She nods, and you let out a wail.  But it’s lost in the noise of the shoving crowd.  You follow the men to your best friend’s home.  You elbow through the crowd and scramble onto the wall where you and your friend have often spied, giggling, on those in the house.  Through the window you see her face is ash grey against her sleeping mat.  Her chest doesn’t’ rise and fall.  Not a muscle twitches.  You stifle another cry as Jesus puts up his hands for quiet.  “The girl is not dead but asleep,” he says.  Some people snicker.  As wrong as you know he is, you would never laugh at this man.  There is something about him that keeps you peering into the house as he enters.  He takes your precious friend’s limp hand in his.  She rises from the bed.  The color rushes to her cheeks, and her eyes spring open, bright as a bird’s.  She is alive!  And so, it seems, are you….more than ever, as if his power has overflowed from the window into your soul.
Blessings,
Nancy Rue

Interested in reading more from Nancy?  You can connect with her in any of these places:

Website: http://www.nancyrue.com/
Blog for Tween Girls: “’Tween You & Me”
Blog for Teen Girls: “In Real Life”
Blog for the adults: “The Nudge”
Teen Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nnrueforteens
Adult Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nnrue
Twitter: http://www.nancyrue.com/
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/nnrue/
YouTube: FaithGirlz Channel
E-mail: Nancy@Nancyrue.com


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