TEN REASONS TO FALL IN LOVE WITH JESUS: Reason #2

Welcome back to Nancy Rue's series Ten Reasons to Fall in Love with Jesus! Today Nancy shares Reason #2, a great reason for both Mini-Women (tweens) and us grown-ups! (If you missed Reason #1, click here.

A big-time Mini-Woman thank you for returning today and again to Mocha with Linda for having me on her blog as we travel through Valentine’s Week together. Can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of you moms who are reading this. The eye-rolling and “Mo-om!” notwithstanding, you are still the most important influence in your tween daughter’s life. I hope you’ll share this with her:

For the mini-women:
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? Please be sure to 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: https://twitter.com/NNRue
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/nnrue/
YouTube: FaithGirlz Channel
E-mail: Nancy@Nancyrue.com

Nancy Rue is hosting a contest and giving away a pile of Faithgirlz Bibles! Click the title to find out more about the NIV Faithgirlz Bible, Revised Edition. The ones she is giving away are leather-bound, so you definitely don't want to miss that! Click the Rafflecopter below to enter!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

(By the way, there are A LOT of ways to for someone to enter. This is because we have girls not allowed on Facebook so we want to make it an equal opportunity as possible. So be sure to enter! You can also enter here.