“Jesus cleaned House, proclaimed it a Place of Prayer, welcomed the children (AKA ‘had a Youth Revival’), then the miracles came.” Pastor-teacher, Writer, Missionary Joe Sweet, Shekinah Worship Center
Category: Healing
Choose the ‘Weapon’ of…Forgiveness.
“When we choose forgiveness as our weapon, we recognize that God will redeem what was lost…and that He wants to not only redeem our loss but also salvage the lives, time, and families of both parties. In the end, forgiveness releases us from getting entangled in the world’s idea of justice and gives us the freedom to move forward.” Shawn Bolz
Prayer…WORKS!
“It is high-time to return to the power and practice of united prayer.” Pastor Ken Gurley.
Relational Fun
Relationships and Ministry…or Things and Fun? Our priority must be, gets to be, on the former. Yet the latter can be a tool to assist us in succeeding with our Relational/Ministry focus, if we keep things and fun in their proper perspective.
My Song in the Night
“Faith is the bird that sings to greet the dawn…while it is yet dark.” Resurrected(!) Man of God/Brother in Christ, Rev. Lee Stoneking, SoCal Camp Meeting, O.C. Fairgrounds, CA, Summer ‘14
Bride-food
“I don’t remember 99% of the meals I’ve eaten…but they’ve indeed kept me alive. God uses faithful, forgettable sermons to beautify his bride.” Pastor David McGovern
Romance that…inspires? Yes!
“Romance inspires her and brings feelings of intimacy to the surface.” Fred Stoeker, in Every Man’s Marriage book, pg. 185 (italics added by me, dkb).
Beauty is Transcendent
Beauty is transcendent. It is our most immediate experience of the eternal. Think of what it’s like to behold a gorgeous sunset or the ocean at dawn. Remember the ending of a great story. We yearn to linger, to experience it all our days. Sometimes the beauty is so deep it pierces us with longing. For what? For life as it was meant to be. Beauty reminds us of an Eden we have never known, but somehow know our hearts were created for. Beauty speaks of heaven to come, when all shall be beautiful. It haunts us with eternity. Beauty says, There is a glory calling to you. And if there is a glory, there is a source of glory. What great goodness could have possibly created this? Beauty draws us to God.
All these things are true for any experience of Beauty. But they are especially true when we experience the beauty of a woman—her eyes, her form, her voice, her heart, her spirit, her life. She speaks all of this far more profoundly than anything else in all creation, because she is incarnate; she is personal. It flows to us from an immortal being. She is Beauty through and through.
Beauty is, without question, the most essential and the most misunderstood of all God’s qualities—of all feminine qualities, too. We know it has caused untold pain in the lives of women. But even there something is speaking. Why so much heartache over beauty? We don’t ache over being geniuses, or fabulous hockey players. Women ache over the issue of beauty—they ache to be beautiful, to believe they are beautiful, and they worry over keeping it if ever they can find it.
A woman knows, down in her soul, that she longs to bring beauty to the world. She might be mistaken on how (something every woman struggles with), but she longs for a beauty to unveil. This is not just culture, or the need to “get a man.” This is in her heart, part of her design.
Excerpt from John & Stasi Eldredge’ book, Captivating.
Ponderings of a Sojourner 