"So if you want a beautiful life, put your faith and trust in Jesus."

A thought by Daniel Fusco, from his book, Crazy Happy (p. 19). The Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)

Putting your faith and trust in Jesus is the way to a beautiful life. So what does he mean by that?

Faith and trust leads to beauty!

Daniel says, "And here’s a key to life as a follower of Jesus: it’s not just believing in Jesus one time when you commit to him; it’s about following him every day as well. It’s about walking with him.

"See, too many of us have this idea that when you’re born, you’re born and that’s it. It’s a great thing to be born, but what’s next? If you never interact with your parents again, will you grow? It won’t happen, right? And it’s the same way with Jesus. You put your faith and trust in him one time. That’s salvation. But then the adventure begins: you follow him every single day so that you grow."

He goes on, "If we want to experience the crazy happy life God intends for us in Jesus—the life that fills our longings—we have to internalize this new reality. God’s ideas are unique. They’re so different from our culture. But they lead to exactly where you and I want to be. And better yet, they lead to what God wants for us

"His beauty changes everything. It comes as a gift, and when we live into his beauty, the world changes."

He continues, "What’s both interesting and heartbreaking is if you ask most people who don’t go to church how they would describe the Western church, you’ll likely find it doesn’t go all that well. Very few people are going to list off the Beatitudes when they describe the church. Very few people are going to describe Christians as 'poor in spirit,' 'hungering and thirsting for righteousness,' 'mourning.'

"Don’t get me wrong—I love the church. She is the body and bride of Christ. But if we’re real with ourselves, we’ve got to know that the rest of society is not thinking Beatitudes when they see how we live most of the time."

He then says, "I would venture to say it’s really urgent for us to figure out how to get back to a faith that’s beautiful—for the sake of a dying world, and also because that’s how Jesus loves us to live. And at the end of the day, living beautiful lives that are pleasing to Jesus is what it’s all about."

And that is so true, isn't it?

Yes, yes!

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