by Peter Leavell @peterleavell
My life’s benchmark moments:
My bride smiling at me as she walked down the aisle.
Handing my first novel to my family.
My conversion to Christ’s teachings.
Watching the kids play.
Several songs.
Flowers in spring.
What did I do to deserve such moments?
Special moments transcend into the spiritual.
My conversion to Christianity is an example. You ask me to describe the joy, the absolute thrill of repentance and acceptance? I cannot. But search my life. I've become a seeker.
We're seekers.
We search desperately to understand the spiritual. Looking not for minor satisfactions and entertainment, but for deep joy—the spiritual. We're hungry for truth.
GOD'S SALVATION ISN'T FOR THE FAINT OF HEART.
We search desperately to understand the spiritual. Looking not for minor satisfactions and entertainment, but for deep joy—the spiritual. We're hungry for truth.
GOD'S SALVATION ISN'T FOR THE FAINT OF HEART.
Christianity is risky.
Christianity is daring.
Christianity is being a seeker.
Christianity isn't a safe place. All our problems haven't vanished like the TV Evangelists promised.
Christianity is not a crutch. Religion isn’t the soft pillow for the head as Rousseau and others claim. We need no simple explanation for the unknown by simply saying ‘God did it.’
I was comfortable before I was a Christian.
But now I'm a seeker.
The seeker lives to understand Truth.
The seeker looks for the Divine in art.
The seeker doesn't shy from death.
The seeker isn't afraid of science.
The seeker knows rain falls on the non seeker and the seeker alike. Both feel pain.
The act of seeking truth, searching through ancient tomes of knowledge, pouring over thought, reading the Scriptures changes a person.
And with those changes, now I understand Paul’s Epistles better. The fruits of the Spirit are not commands, they are a natural occurrence in the seeker. They are joy. Seeking out to understand my salvation with fear and trembling isn’t a demand. It is joy. Wrestling with spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms—is that comfortable? It is the spiritual.
And with those changes, now I understand Paul’s Epistles better. The fruits of the Spirit are not commands, they are a natural occurrence in the seeker. They are joy. Seeking out to understand my salvation with fear and trembling isn’t a demand. It is joy. Wrestling with spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms—is that comfortable? It is the spiritual.
No, a simple sermon once a week is not enough for a seeker. And what's more, other seekers aren't simply friends or acquaintances. They are my sisters and brothers in Christ. The Body of Christ.
Reader, you understand me a little better.
Write your books for the seeker.
Reader, you understand me a little better.
Write your books for the seeker.
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Peter Leavell, a 2007 graduate of Boise State University with a degree in history, was the 2011 winner of Christian Writers Guild's Operation First Novel contest, and 2013 Christian Retailing's Best award for First-Time Author. Peter and his family live in Boise, Idaho. Learn more about Peter's books, research, and family adventures at www.peterleavell.com.
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