Invest Your Life

This month’s Here’s To You Tribute is dedicated to a couple who’ve made a significant difference in my life, and I’m blessed to call them family.

My sister and her husband have been doing ministry for over thirty years, nearly their entire thirty-six year marriage. Planting churches, starting and leading non-profits, serving their communities, teaching and preaching, mentoring, praying, welcoming the homeless into their home, loving the hard to love.

They’ve ministered to me and my family personally in hundreds of ways. They’ve prayed, mentored, counseled, cheered us on, celebrated with us, comforted and grieved with us, and mostly…..loved us unconditionally.

Live It Out

That’s what they do and it’s who they are, because they are Jesus followers. They not only say He is their King, they live out His words in Matthew 16:24-26:

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

ESV

My sister and brother-in-law take seriously the call to “love God and love your neighbor as yourself.” I’m privileged to watch them know God better and better, therefore, love Him and others more and more deeply. They’re open and honest about their struggles and don’t pretend to have it all together. My faith is stronger and deeper from watching their genuine walk with Jesus.

Bruce and Marlina live a simple life of love and generosity for the Kingdom of God. They don’t seek power, glory, or platform. They seek God and want others to taste and see that the Lord is good.

Invest Your Life

In 2017, my brother-in-law started Invest Your Life Ministries after he retired from pastoring for 23 years. He and my sister have given their lives to the Kingdom of God and want to help others invest their lives into what matters most. IYLM offers counseling, marriage retreats, conferences, and life coaching on a sliding fee scale because my brother-in-law believes discipleship should be available to everyone regardless of income.

He’s doing something special in 2020. His goal is to take the Scars of Hope Tour to 20 cities in 2020. For more information about the tour and Invest Your Life Ministries, check out the website.

Here’s to you, Bruce and Marlina, for following Jesus in the realest way and for loving others in the deepest way.

Thank you for all the things. The most consequential may be all the 280 mile round trips to lead Experiencing God in my home each week 27 years ago. You’ve been investing your lives for decades and this is one life that was changed forever because of it. Countless others can say the same.

Thank you.

Photo by Kat Yukawa on Unsplash