CSS Blog Tour: “Essentials of the Heart” by Susan Weagant

From a Life of Brokenness to a Life of Fulfillment!

Book Blurb:

Are you tired of playing hit and miss with your virtual life?

Are you looking for a more purposeful and committed walk with the Lord?

Do you ever feel so broken that there seems to be no hope?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, Essentials of the Heart is for you.  This thought-provoking book is full of personal examples and peppered with Scriptures.  Susan Weagant takes you from life-changing decisions to daily disciplines necessary for a passionate spiritual walk, using personal examples from her own past as encouragement.  Join Susan on this spiritual journey to find out what decisions and disciplines are Essentials of the Heart.

Endorsement:

“Essentials of the Heart provides inspiration and direction for our Christian journey.  Susan Weagant teaches us how we can positively influence others while enjoying peace and significance.  Ultimately, we all must answer the question: ‘Whom do I want my life to count for?’  This book encourages us to make our lives count for Christ.” –David Cottrell, author of Monday Morning Choices

Bio:

Susan Weagant is a passionate and inspirational speaker and author. She has served as a missionary alongside her husband, Ben, in Christian Camping since 1992.

God has used people of all ages over the years to sharpen her abilities and gifts to minister. Relying on the Lord through an abusive childhood and a failed marriage has given her great strength to inspire hope in others.

Susan has a speaking and teaching ministry that includes Stonecroft Ministries, MOPS, Christian Camping, and Community Bible Studies. Mothering and communicating God’s heart to women is what she values as her most precious role.

She currently resides in Marble Falls, Texas, with her husband, Ben, and their younger son.  She has one son in college.

You can learn more about Susan’s ministries here.

My Review:

Susan Weagant’s book, Essentials of the Heart, is separated into two parts:  Part One: Decisions, and Part Two: Disciplines. Part One: Decisions, includes:   A decision for eternity; Whom do you want your life to count for?; A decision to trust, build intimacy, and walk worthy; and A commitment to decisions.  Part Two: Disciplines, includes: The discipline of confession, taking in God’s Word, prayer, abiding and obedience, serving, cultivating friendships of respect, and the conclusion: forgetting not.

Susan makes it clear that before you apply the disciplines in part two, you must first have a relationship with Jesus.  You must make the decision about where you will spend eternity.  To do that, simply talk to God in prayer, acknowledge your sins, believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and rose again.  At that moment Jesus saves you and brings you into a relationship with Him, seals you with the Holy Spirit, and grants you a place in heaven.

Although this is a short, concise, compact book, it touches on the many levels of intimacy with God.  Susan’s book is very personable, as it is a book about a Person and a relationship with Him.  She includes multiple Scriptures that correlate to what she shares.  She incorporates her own experiences and those of the people in the Bible, making her book easy to read and respond to.

Susan encourages us to not only read and acknowledge what she shares, but to apply it to our lives.  She does this by including ‘my reflection page.’  I find that page to be exceptionally helpful to get the full grasp of the book’s messages.

It’s not always an easy book to read when you see the commitments and disciplines, but they are essential to your spiritual growth.  Just as disciplines are necessary in every area of our life.  She makes it clear that the disciplines don’t get you to heaven.  It’s your relationship with Jesus as discussed above.

I found Susan’s book convicting in different areas of my life because the Holy Spirit used the Scriptures to show me where I needed to change.   I would highly recommend this book for personal growth, and possibly in a small, intimate Bible study group.

This book was provided by Christian Speaker Services in exchange for my honest review.

Susan’s book is available here.

Interview with Susan Weagant, author of “Essentials of the Heart”

Essentials of the Heart by Susan Weagant

(Tate Publishing, 2010)

• Are you tired of playing hit and miss with your spiritual life?
• Are you looking for a more purposeful and committed walk with the Lord?
• Do you ever feel so broken that there seems to be no hope?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, Essentials of the Heart is for you. This thought-provoking book is full of personal examples and peppered with Scripture. Susan Weagant takes you from life-changing decisions to daily disciplines necessary for a passionate spiritual walk, using personal examples from her own past as encouragement. Join Susan on this spiritual journey to find out what decisions and disciplines are Essentials of the Heart.

About the Author

Susan Weagant is a loving wife and mother of two wonderful boys. She and her husband, Ben, are missionary supported in the Christian Camping Ministry and have been since 1990. She home-schooled her older son until he went off to college and is currently homeschooling her youngest. Fifteen years of teaching women’s Bible studies have honed her skills in working with women. Susan’s current speaking includes Stonecroft Ministries, MOPS, Women’s retreats, and a women’s community Bible study. Susan’s passion and gift for teaching God’s Word blend well with her desire to share her heart with others. She welcomes the one on one relationship with the women she encounters.

Interview:

Susan, you and your husband serve as Christian Camp missionaries. Share with us how this ministry-focus came about and how it influenced the writing of your book.

My husband and I have been missionary supported at Camp Peniel since 1992. The word Peniel comes from the Bible in Genesis 32:30 where Jacob wrestled with an angel.  He named that place Peniel because he said that he had seen God face to face and his life had been preserved.

The man who started Camp Peniel had a desire that anyone who came would experience God face to face, either by coming to know Him as their Savior or growing in their walk with Him.

Many spiritual turning points in my life happened at Camp Peniel. Decisions that impacted my spiritual life the most were made at that place. Those decisions and disciplines that I learned there are what has influenced my book the most. It is for that reason that a portion of the proceeds will go to Camp Peniel’s scholarship program.

I understand Essentials of the Heart is blessing both men and women. Did you consider the impact it would have on men when you wrote it?  What are they saying about it?

I was blindsided by this one. I speak to women’s ministries; so, my audience is women. One day my friend came to me to apologize for not reading my book that she got a month earlier. I told her that she didn’t need to apologize for that, but she insisted to tell me why.

Her husband had picked up the book and started reading it. She did not want to take it from him until he was finished, but it was taking a long time.  (It is a small book so it shouldn’t take him that long.) He finally came to her and told her to go buy two more books because he wanted to give them to his adult sons for Christmas.

I was floored that he would enjoy it so much that he would want his adult sons to read it, too.

Essentials of the Heart is divided into two parts, Decisions and Disciplines.  What is the significance of this?

“He has made everything beautiful in its time; He also has planted eternity in men’s heart and mind [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun, but only God, can satisfy]…” (Ecclesiastes 3:11, AMP) What that means to you and me is this: God created us with a sense of eternity in our hearts and mind. We know that there is more to this life than the here and now. We sense it deep within us.  The only thing that can bring lasting fulfillment to you and me is our relationship with God and growing in that relationship. That is what has brought me the greatest fulfillment in my life, and it starts with heart “Decisions”, which is the first section of the book. The next section is “Disciplines”. These are daily practices, which are necessary to grow in the Lord.

So the first Essential of the Heart is the decision we make personally for eternity … accepting Christ as our Savior. You list several more Decisions we need to make such as: Who do we want our life to count for, a Decision to Trust, a Decision to Build Intimacy, etc. I’d like for us to look at the issue of Trust. You explain though we often use the words trust and faith interchangeably, we first need to understand what they mean. Could you shed some light on this?

The word trust, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is an assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.  Faith according to the Bible is this: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1, KJV). The Greek word for faith in the New Testament is pistis, which is a firm persuasion or conviction based on hearing according to Strong’s Dictionary.

If you look at all the definitions, that will give you a better picture of faith. It is important what you base your hope on in this life. Here is my definition of faith.  Faith is a firm conviction of hope based on God’s character, God’s ability, God’s strength, and God’s truth when I can’t see what lies ahead.  When I base my hope on God’s character and God’s Word, it is then that my faith will grow.

If someone would like to have you speak at their event, how can they contact you?

They can go to my website, SusanWeagant.com, for information on my speaking ministry.

I know your book is blessing individuals. Can Essentials of the Heart be used for a group study?

There is a pdf file of study questions for each chapter on my website and it is free to download, SusanWeagant.com.

View the trailer to Essentials of the Heart here.

Check out the CSS Blog Tour on Facebook.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book from the author in exchange for posting the author’s interview on my blog. This blog tour is managed by Christian Speaker Services.