Real heart change for this Real Ray Wednesday...

The Lord has done some huge work on this ugly heart of mine over the last several months.  You try reading both Follow Me AND Future Grace in the same summer and NOT be impacted to your core and let me know how that goes.

Let's see if you were paying attention to yesterday's update... remember the book we went through this summer with Tuesday Girls?  So proud of you - you're right!  Follow Me by David Platt was the book of choice this summer.

I have been challenged regarding my hearts desire to make disciples and what it really means to BE a disciple of Christ.  Let me tell you, DPlatt {as we often call him} brought it.

He doesn't get caught up in the 'must make every reader feel good' movement, which I so appreciate.  The purpose of his writing is to share truth. {period}

Here are a few of my favorite moments in the book:

So important to be committed to a local church, especially during college.  I know how hard it is to find quality preaching at school when your heart is back at your home church.  But that doesn't take away from the necessity to invest in a local body - even in seasons that it must be different than your home church.

At the end of the book he goes through a series of questions/challenges which provided some wonderful discussion with our Tuesday Girls.  One challenge he emphasized is the importance of daily intaking the Word.  He encourages a reading plan to help guide us, which we started at the beginning of the summer.  My hope and prayer is that the ladies (and myself) will take time each day to read these sections of scripture and spend time with the Lord asking Him to reveal more of Himself to us through His word.  Sure... we might take the 2 year approach rather than the 1 year structure of the plan I found - but the point is intentionally spending time in His word and with Him daily.

A phrase you'll hear me say quite often these days is 'be intentional'.  This phrase came from our study through Follow Me.  It is essential to be intentional in our time spent with the Lord; to be intentional in the conversations with our friends (believers or not); to be intentional about our investment into a local church body; to be intentional about those we let impact our lives and hearts through our community.  I could go on and on and on... but you get the point.  It is essential to be. intentional.

Stay tuned... I'll be sure to update on Future Grace as well... don't you worry :)

What book(s) have you been impacted by lately and how have they impacted you personally?