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By Elisabeth Hayes
I was raised in a church in which I was taught the Bible. Academically speaking, I was well-educated on the Bible. I knew the facts and events, and could even quote Scripture from memory. However, I was surrounded by family members who did not apply biblical principles in the home and I grew up very confused about God and the gospel.
Once I reached college, I was frustrated with my unsuccessful attempts at survival in life. I knew something had to be missing. I was tired of constantly feeling defeated. I was attending a Christian college and participated in church, but it felt like I was just going through the motions – not an authentic walk with Christ. I questioned whether I was really saved, and a friend encouraged me to settle it once for all and I prayed a prayer. But underlying the truth of the gospel was the idea that I needed to “perform” by holding to a set of rules and standards. Although I prayed and made a spiritual commitment to live rightly, this religio…

By Ashlee Nelson
Many of you know my testimony. It truly is a glorious story of God’s great grace and crazy, CRAZY, devoted love and sovereignty. But that is not what I want to focus on. If you want to know more, please ask! Until then, I hope you’ll settle for the cliff notes version: broken home, countless moves, random religions, bad choices, faith in everything but God.

While difficult to summarize, my life before Christ isn’t what I want to share. What I want to talk about is what happened after my first altar call—and don’t be fooled, there were many. I was 17 and about 81 pounds — basically dying from an eating disorder that started when I was about 13. This might sound crazy but until that moment, I really didn’t see an eating disorder as wrong. I had a 4.2 GPA, volunteered for every event, obeyed my parents, and was pretty happy despite the craziness of my home life. Then I was invited to church and on that rainy spring day in Chicago, God quite literally gripped me and opened m…