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It's God's grace that matters, not our flawless performance or impressive presentation.
'To love one's neighbour messy makes.' So writes Amanda Robbie's father in the poem at the start of this book.
Messy is OK, even in a world gone mad with perfectionism. The author looks at 'messy' in the context of home, family, children, church, community, meals and celebrations. As someone who has lived in eight homes in four cities and one town, spread across three countries, in the course of her married life, she has had to reassess her priorities regularly and work out what really matters in life.
From studying the Scriptures, Amanda has discovered that it's God's grace that matters, not our flawless performance or impressive presentation. In fact - dare we say it? - it's OK to do things imperfectly and even fail. Yes, honestly.
This book will lift the burden of guilt from your sagging shoulders. It will free you up to enjoy serving God, imperfectly by this world's standards, but in a way that pleases our heavenly Father.
Poem
Introduction
1. A perfect mess?
2. Messy house
3. Messy family
4. Messy kids
5. Messy church
6. Messy community
7. Messy meals
8. Messy celebrations
Appendix
| Contributors | Amanda Robbie |
|---|---|
| ISBN | 9781783590056 |
| Format | Paperback |
| First published | October 2013 |
| Dimensions | 140mm x 215mm x 10mm |
| Weight | 0.24 kg |
| Print size | 10.0pt |
| Language | English |
| Pages | 160 |
| Publisher | IVP |
This book takes an honest, realistic and humorous look at the common misconception that ministry and perfection are somehow synonymous. ‘The Ministry of a Messy House’ reminds us that we are actually far messier than we realize but our perfect Saviour delights to work through us for His glory.
Encouraging, practical, humorous and warm: this book is a gem and a wonderful affirmation of the grace of Christ that works in and not despite our mess.
We can’t escape mess. However organised we are, the laundry is never done, the children aren’t clean for long, church relationships are often frayed and our hearts are messed up with sin. Shot through with practical resources and biblical truth, this book reminds us with refreshing honesty how God wants to tackle the mess in our hearts. And the rest of the mess? He’ll use it to display his grace, teach us to trust him, and reveal him to others. Highly recommended!
Life is a mess - there is no escaping that fact, not this side of Jesus'
return anyway - so we are all faced with a choice: are we going to let the
mess of life drag us down? Are we going to spend all our hours in a futile
attempt to control the mess? Or are we going to be faithful in the middle of
the mess? The ministry of a messy house is designed to help us do the third.
This book, whose main section is only about 100 pages, is a quick and easy
read. There are moments of humour, moments that will humble but most
importantly, there is great encouragement to focus on what is really
important in life. If you are struggling to be hospitable because your house
is in a state ... Or if you're struggling to have a quiet time because the
kid-induced chaos in your life is high, this book will help you take a step
away from the perfectionist tendencies that leave so many of us inert and
take a step towards living a life that seeks to follow Jesus more closely.
