The Godly and Their Stories / Featuring Sein

The Godly and Their Stories has been one of my favorite series I've started, since I began my blog. I love to hear + share the words of believers who have made an impact in the Kingdom. I am constantly moved by their words of grace, love, and joy. You can read more stories here.

Today I bring you the story of Sein; a beautiful lady whose blog, Sein.Box, has been a continuous inspiration for me.

"I grew up in a small town in South Korea. I always feel blessed to grow up in a Christian environment, but I did take that for granted for the longest time. I was involved in worship team and was super involved in church activities. Yeah - I was that girl. Not until I graduated high school from Thailand did I realized that I've taken this "Christian life" for granted. Senior year of high school was probably my lowest point of my life. I had no parents around me, and I had to decide on some of the most important decisions in my life. I went to a night service and decided to see how long I could pray. Every 10 minutes I had to take a deep breath because I had no words to say. That moment I remembered a pastor encouraging me to talk to God about anything, so I decided to have a conversation as if i'm talking to my best friend. I started having a longer chat with God, and then I realized I was having a CONVERSATION with GOD. My eyes turned into a fountain of joy! I couldn't stop giggling and crying at the same time. That was when I was 18. In that moment I realized that all these years, God was actually a very funny and pretty sassy God. I was always a believer but never a believer of a God who is funny and sassy. Even these days, if i try to pray for people in a "sweet" Christian way, God pulls me out to the side and raises His eyebrows on me. He wants me to be real. He wants me to be bold and say THE TRUTH. Now I cannot even fake it. I cannot pretend to be a "Christian". I can only be."

I have experienced a bit of God, and that has changed me. I don't pray for God to pour out more blessings on my life, instead I pray for my eyes and heart to be open more.

-

Sein was born in South Korea, lived eight years in China, two years in Thailand, and has lived in the States for four years. What a blessing to hear from such a sweet lady. Check out some of her beautiful images + words at Sein.Box.

The Godly and Their Stories / Featuring Yony

Today I'm bringing you another radical story of transformation from a young man named Yony. The Gospel of reconciliation in Christ is powerful, and his story of redemption is moving.

Born into a Christian family, I was raised like any other Christian child would be raised. I loved going to church and singing songs about Jesus, but the religious spirit was very strong in my home and distorted my view of the Lord. I was taught that I must obey God if I wanted to go to Heaven, I must love others, and I must stay pure. Through these “must’s,” I began to see God as a distant, non-loving, and even mean Creator. I didn’t want to disobey Him for fear of going to Hell. I remember seeing angels and things in the Spirit at a young age but would be told that I was lying and it was all in my imagination, so I began to suppress my gifts.

When I moved to the United States at the age of six, I began to see how easily it was to “bend” the rules. I witnessed many other kids breaking these rules, and it seemed like they were having “fun”. Through my adolescent/pre-teen years, I began to envy these kids because of the freedom they had; they seemed to be happy, when they broke the rules.

The enemy lied to me constantly about my identity. From a young age, I struggled with feeling accepted, due to the fact that my father moved to the United States when I was born to support my family (five years later my mother and I moved to the U.S. to be with him). I felt abandoned and struggled with trusting men and was bitter against my father. I struggled with same sex attraction, but I didn’t really understand it or act on it till my senior year in high school. The enemy attacked my identity the hardest that year and I fell away from the church completely. I dated my best guy friend at the time from January 2011-July 2011.

In the end of June of 2011 the Lord began to woo my heart. Even as I’m writing this right now I’m weeping just remembering the way He began showing me His love. To this day, when I look back on that glorious day, when this Man from Nazareth came and set me free, I burn with love and adoration. I was driving to my partners house to live out the passions of my flesh as I had been doing for the past month, but something happened that morning on that last week of June two years ago that changed everything. A Man clothed in a white robe, appeared in my truck in the passenger’s seat. I knew immediately who it was, because my heart began to burn and I couldn't look at Him. He was holy and I was not, He was beautiful and righteous and I was depraved and wicked. I arrived at my boyfriend’s house and something was different. I couldn't be with him. I became confused and distraught. Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, would show up with His tangible presence every day, at random times, and shower me with love. I was so confused and broken. I could not understand how this perfect Man would want me and desire me. I thought He would never want me because of my struggles. I broke things off with the guy I had been dating. I secluded myself from most of my friends. I could not handle it. There was a war going on in my soul. Jesus began to show me that He was the only one that could satisfy my heart. He told me in one of the encounters that we had together, “I am the only man that will have your heart.” He was so tender with me and so loving, it broke me. I began college and got plugged into the most loving and encouraging community. This Man from Nazareth began to woo and draw my heart with His loving, kindness unto repentance, and I placed my faith in Him. I can't lie to you and tell you that I became straight and left this lifestyle I had been in bondage to for years in a day. But I can tell you that in a moment Jesus loved me more than any other lover could in a lifetime.

In a moment I was forever changed. I was blind, but now I see. So this is my story. The Lamb of God has conquered over sin and death. Through His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus Christ made a way for me; He became my righteousness, He became my King.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. -Romans 3:23-26

Indeed I now count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Hallelujah, the Lamb has loved me.

The Godly and Their Stories / Featuring Hunter

I recently began a series here on Simple Grounds called, "The Godly and Their Stories." This series came to me, when I realized how important it is to share, not only my own words, but also the words of other believers who are seeking and loving Christ. My own life has a story, and so does yours. On my first post I brought Kailey's story. Today I bring you another story of a wonderful, passionate, godly woman.

"Christianity has been present in my life since a young age. I was brought up knowing that I wasn’t to make plans on Sundays because we had a day of church followed by family time. Growing up in church with a loving, Christian family always taught me to have good morals in and out of school, and be a positive influence to my friends. All the moral acts were done out of fear of disappointing my parents and our family name. Church and Christianity was second nature to me, but dedicating my life to the will of Jesus Christ was taboo.

It wasn’t until the summer before my junior year that I was confronted with the personal presence of Jesus. I was on a mission trip to Mexico, not by choice at the time. I had begun high school as a typical coming-of-age teenager. My reliance became on how I was viewed by the world and how I could improve myself. My selfish attitude began to affect my home-life, causing many family arguments between me and my family members and ultimately between my parents. I wanted nothing to do meeting other people who were labeled as those “crazy Christians” that would force me to believe something I wanted nothing to do with. After being at campus for two days, I saw and felt more love than I ever have before. There was a war going on inside of me, one I couldn’t ignore. The Lord was speaking to me loud and clear. “You must make a choice. Now is the time. You can continue on the path you’re on or you can come with me and all I have to offer you.” At that moment I made a choice to let go of my selfish desires and all the negative influences I relied on. A weight was lifted off my shoulders and I have never felt so much freedom and love than I have in that moment.

Since that summer I have pursued The Lord and whatever He has planned for me. In the summer before my senior year, the Lord led me to Africa. He led me to a young girl at the age of fourteen named Jennifer, who approached me about needing shoes for school. If she didn’t have shoes, she couldn’t go to school and she would have to get married. I couldn’t imagine being married at my age, let alone her's. I couldn’t believe I had a closet full of shoes used to accessorize myself at school, when girls needed just one pair to get to school and live a free life. I confronted my mom with the need to do something when I returned home, to begin to collect shoes from the community and send them to that village. The first month home we collected over 200 pairs of shoes and sent them to our village. We began to do more each month and eventually thought, “we have to take this beyond Africa, Beyond Uganda.” With that, our nonprofit organization was born. We strive to give intentional, relational, discipleship all through the love of Jesus Christ and create freedom in individual and through a country.

The Lord has used willingness to accept His love and follow Him to lead me to a place I never thought I would be. Never could I have imagined myself freeing women and families in Uganda, Africa all in the name of Jesus Christ. This has shown me that the Lord can use anybody, with any past, and any mistake, and take them on a journey of forgiveness, love, and an adventure of a lifetime."

Hunter is the founder of Beyond Uganda, an organization dedicated to changing the lives of those located in Uganda, Africa by providing physical and spiritually. The work of the organization is incredibly beautiful, and the Lord is at the center. Find out how you can get involved here.

The Godly and Their Stories / Featuring Kailey

I'm super excited to announce a new blog series I'm starting on Simple Grounds called 'The Godly and Their Stories." A couple times a month I'm inviting some godly people to share their stories of how they came to know Christ. From the get-go of this blog, I wanted to share Christ with the world. I wanted my words to be meaningful and pleasing to the Almighty. I know that my blog may not be as 'cool' or 'hip' as some others, but I know God wants to use every tool for His glory. With that comes stories, and not just my own stories but the stories of believers all over. I want others who have experienced the Lord's greatness to share with others. I pray this series is a source of inspiration for your own faith, and maybe it will answer any questions you have about God, faith, or Christianity. 

This series is not for the glory of 'blogging,' but for the glory of the King. This is to raise up the praises to our great and mighty God. 

The first story is of a beautiful gal named Kailey. Kailey is a wonderful girl I met here in Houston. Her walk with Christ has inspired me, and that was before I even read her testimony. 

Why I Didn't Give Up On the Church


"I'm better than you."

That's what I spent the greater part of my life believing. I grew up in church, but I didn't understand anything about God nor did I have a desire to understand him. I held tightly and blindly to a holier-than-thou faith, although I didn't understand what faith meant or in whom I had it. I had no idea what exactly I believed, and any belief I did have was shallow and fragile. The extent of my thoughts towards church were that I had to be quiet until it was over, and quite honestly, I struggled to even stay awake.

I wish someone had told me sooner.

It wasn't until after being a part of a youth ministry where the pastors got to the heart of things in both speaking and living that both my mind and heart were opened to what Jesus wanted to do in me, and I remember for the first time truly getting a taste of God when I was in 8th grade while I was alone watching a video of John Mark McMillan singing "How He Loves" live. I didn't wake up that day expecting to encounter God's overwhelming love for the first time, but since then I've known that God likes to surprise us that way.

I spent a long time after that being cynical about the church and her hypocrisies because for the first time I began to understand what she was supposed to be. I wanted God but wanted nothing to do with his people. I was disappointed with her inadequacies, and I was bitter about the horrible things that had been done "in the name of God." My heart was cold, and I felt so much unrest. I wanted to see the church live, but so much of her seemed dead. Pick up my cross? What does that mean, and where can I find mine?

Despite my disappointment, I knew that God is in the business of redeeming broken people and broken things, and I didn't want to miss out. I knew that wherever there were people tainting the cause of the church, there were also people ready to follow behind and do God's work in those places. I realized it was better to engage further in what God was doing to fix what was wrong than to give up altogether. By focusing on all of the wrongdoings that had been done in Christ's name, I failed to also recognize all of the wonderful ways God was working at the heart of the wreckage.

God shook me up. I realized how selfish I was being by rejecting the bride of Christ, his true love. I am a sinner and a hypocrite, and I need the grace of God just as much as anyone else. It was in the midst of my frustration that I questioned my intentions and acknowledged my own imperfections. Was I focused more on what the church was doing wrongly or on how God wanted to move mightily in the wrong? God quietly humbled me. The more I focused on the ways God wants to revive the church, the more I realized that what the church needs is not counterproductive criticism but constructive dialogue and restorative action. I wondered what would happen if we began to pray about the church's shortcomings instead of complain about them.

In that, I found the importance of loving people at all costs. The better I know Jesus, the more I realize how bad I am at loving others in a way that is "not cautious but extravagant" (Ephesians 5.2). We often have a lot to say about loving the "unlovable," and we like to embrace that…to an extent. God calls me to love my friends, my family, my neighbor, the poor, the rich, the terrorists, and churches who do things far differently than my own. It is not always easy to love people, but grace makes us gracious. It is powerful, transformative, and all-inclusive, and it's because of this grace that I am called to love my mother, the Westboro Baptist Church, and the Boston bomber. That is the difficult gospel of Christ.

God has changed the way I see people and has shifted my perspective on the church entirely. He turned my resentment towards her flaws into hope for her future, and I now see others as people to love rather than simply souls to save. If we can purpose daily to love God and love people more and better than we did yesterday, then we are moving in the right direction. Thank God for that.

You can find Kailey at
/
Kaileythompson.com
@kaileythompson