The Value of Beauty

Today’s post is brought to you by Eline Millenaar, the inspirational heart behind Beautiful Dreamer.  Be stirred, challenged, and encouraged as Eline M. shares her heart on beauty.

“Put that mirror down and start living!” or “Why in the world are you redecorating your house again? Wasn’t it just fine before?”

We have all heard sentences like this over and over again. Design, beauty and decoration are socially connected to the words ineffective, useless and unnecessary. In this ‘men’s  world’ we’ve lost our value for beauty and we forgot the importance of it. Generally speaking, men are seeking for productivity, while women are searching for beauty. We are made like this to complement each other, because productivity creates space for beauty and beauty stimulates productivity. Unfortunately, we’ve overestimated productivity at the cost of beauty. Even beauty has to have a purpose and I would like to propose that beauty in itself is a purpose.

Beauty reflects the feminine side of the heart of God. Please look up from your computer screen and look outside your window for a second. Do you see the trees, clouds, the sun? Or if the world outside is dark, look at the image of your face which the dark glass reflects. Imagine what the world would look like if God decided to make His creation only effective and productive and completely leave out the aspect of beauty. Thankfully He didn’t, because beauty echos His glory. I once saw a little glimpse of His glory. The only way I can describe it as is an explosion of colors and sounds, movements and lights. It’s beautiful beyond understanding. That very glorious Presence of God can be found in the beauty of creation, that includes you!

Paul Manwaring said it like this: “Beauty is an aspect of Gods glory which attracts the soul and rises up a desire to respond to it.” You want to capture beauty, hold it or absorb as much of it as you can. How that looks, your response to beauty, is different for everybody. Paul gave the example of a mountain. What do you see when you see a beautiful mountain? Do you want to photograph it,  climb it, write about it, or study it? The way you respond to beauty reveals a lot about your personality. Even more, what you consider as beautiful says a lot about your identity. Beauty is both an expression and an indicator of identity.

I’m falling in love with beauty time after time again. I inhale beauty to exhale art. In this breathing of my artist’s heart, I can’t do anything else but be amazed by the beauty around me. My heart breaks when I see people hurrying and running around, without ever taking the time to look around, look up and look inside. You miss the benefits of something you don’t know the value of. Please know you have full permission to search after beauty, enjoy beauty, get lost in it and create it. Church, you’re called to be Jesus’ beautiful Bride. He has given you the most beautiful wedding dress, but you gave it away. You thought beauty was vain, when you are actually glorifying Him when you’re walking down the aisle in the most beautiful dress. Let the Church become the forerunner again in art, beauty and style!  It’s time we see the world and her people as masterpieces and give beauty the value she deserves.

Practicing Hope Part 3

Today’s post is the third and last installment of a three part series brought to you by TheReddingProject’s first guest blogger Luke T. Jones. We ended Practicing Hope 1 asking the question how to sustain hope. Last week, Luke shared about an unlikely mentor, JP, who aided in the revelation in Practicing Hope 2. Today, Luke ties it all together with some practical steps.

So what are some things we can do in our everyday lives to sustain a towering inferno of hope? How can we walk in unshakable faith? Here are 5 exercises I personally do in my life and have worked for me. Some of these might be familiar to you if you are a Bethel student; for others this may be new. I encourage you all to apply them to your lives as an exercise you can do with Holy Spirit together. REMEMBER, these principles are not magic pills and are to be done out of partnership with God. That being said, let’s look at five ways we can all practice hope:

1. DAILY DECLARATIONS OF THE WORD OF GOD. If Faith comes by hearing the Word, and is the confidence in what we HOPE for, then to me the first step in cultivating radical hope like my mentor JP, is declare the promises of God over my life everyday. Declaring Bible scriptures like 1 Peter 2:24, Philippians 4:13-19, Deuteronomy 1:11, and many more are a great way to release a fresh flame of hope each and every morning. Also declare prophetic words you’ve received from peers and prophets. Remember, the root of hope and faith is the Word of God!
2. FEASTING ON TESTIMONIES.  The second thing I do is live completely drenched in testimonies. This looks like watching youtube videos of breakthrough and miracles, reading lots and lots of books by fiery revivalists and successful people, listening to other people’s stories, hanging out in places where the miracles are happening, as well as sharing all of the amazing things God has done in my life with others. Revelation 10:19 tells us that the “testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy.” The Hebrew root word for testimony ‘uwd [Strong’s 5749] literally translates as ‘to repeat, duplicate, or do again.’ In other words, any written or spoken account of ANYTHING God has done releases His power to do the same thing over again. Living in a constant barrage of testimony is one way to renew the mind and stirs  the flames of hope as we live in expectancy and awe of our all-powerful God to move on our behalf. When I constantly see, hear, and experience God’s works, it acts like fresh logs dropped on my hope fire. Live in the land of testimony!
3. LAUGHING AT THE LIES OF SATAN. This one may sound silly to non-Bethelites, but it’s actually very practical as well as good for your heart! The Bible says in Psalm 2 that God laughs at the plans of His enemies. One of the strategies of Satan to discourage and bring Christians into hopelessness is to lie to us about everything under the sun. In Steve Backlund’s class, we laugh at the lies of the devil at the start of every day. This is a useful tool that helps us break off the devil’s lies that keep us down and release God’s truth to build us up and to keep our hope-fire a raging!
4. DREAMING WITH GOD: PLAYING THE WHAT-IF GAME. This one is something that’s come in really handy lately. I call this the “what if game with God.” NOT like the what-if game you’re probably thinking of. The what-if game with God is just the opposite. Instead of dreaming up regretful situations and scenerios, I dream up world-changing, history-making situations that only God could orchestrate. Here’s an example: “What if today…is the day I get so much financial breakthrough….I can effectively end world hunger FOREVER!” Or, “What if today….I  get so much healing anointing….when I walk into a hospital EVERYONE gets healed.” These may sound stupid, but I’m telling you they will change the way you think about what’s possible, and train your mind to dream big. Playing the what-if game with God in this context is another log on the fire of hope. Here’s one for you, “What if today is the day you get filled with so much hope…disappointment NEVER has power over you again?” In the words of my mentor JP, “Hey, it can happen!”
5. PROPHESYING OVER YOURSELF. This is an off-shoot of our first principle. The only difference is instead of you declaring what God has already said, here you are declaring FRESH rhema words from God over yourself. You’re listening to Holy Spirit and speaking over yourself in conjunction with what He is saying in the moment. Remember, faith and hope are connected to the Word of God!

If I had to narrow this post down to one sentence, it would be this: Don’t let go of your hope. Like JP, we can live in radical expectancy that everything God has promised can happen at any moment. You have a part of play in hope. Hope can be sustained and maintained. It’s not just some ethereal thing based on circumstances. It’s something we can cultivate in partnership with Holy Spirit to live lives of unshakable faith. I encourage everyone who has stuck with me this far to try doing each of these five things for the next five days and see what happens. I bet you won’t ever be the same again. I haven’t. All thanks to a little boy who wanted to see angels just like his friend Roger.

Unveiled

Photo-cred Cadence Meeks (cadencemeeks.tumblr.com)

So I cut my hair. No big deal. At least that’s what I thought as my friend took scissors to my 10 months transitioning hair a month ago. My hair is the shortest it has ever been…ever. I was 14 when I got my first relaxer and I was a faithful user until March 2012 when I, unknowingly, got my last relaxer.

March 2012. My hair before I began transitioning.

It was in April that I decided to transition. To be honest, I can’t say where it came from. My hair wasn’t doing terribly with the relaxer. To most people it was healthy and long. I had no medical reason to go natural. I just really wanted to do something different. You could blame the ending of a four-year college journey as part of it, I don’t know. All I knew was that I was gonna do this.

It was January 20th when I cut it. I was fine. Then I went to this women’s conference that talked about embracing the power and beauty you possess. There it happened. My eyes were opened to what had really occurred on the 20th. In the natural, it was just a big chop. I stand with no regrets, but something spiritually and emotionally happened. I know…..I know I tried really hard to not be that deep natural girl, but I think it’s hard to avoid. Anyways, for years, I hid behind my hair, my hair and my glasses <— that’s a whole other situation. Let’s just say I was pretty insecure. I didn’t embrace me. I would downplay who I am A LOT to fit into a certain mold, group, idea, you name it. I had a history of people pleasing and I found my security in people and in their approval. I look back and I’m in awe of how much of who I am I tried to define and discover in people, through their expectations and their opinions. That changed in 2007 when God called me out on my little charade, thus beginning my journey to self-love.

I’ve been going through this journey, amongst others, with the occasional wrestle with insecurity. Last year, I was annoyed with these scrimmages and pretty much told God to show me His security, “let’s tackle this” was my thought pattern, and He began to take away things I placed my security in (read more here). Unknowingly, my hair was one. When I cut my hair, I realized I couldn’t hide anymore. I was in my most vulnerable state. I wasn’t depressed at this discovery. I was a mixture of, “I thought I was over this” and “wow…okay…cool time to embrace me even more”. Now, I’m continuing this journey loving every part of me on newer, deeper level. The day after my BC, I wrote in my journal, “help me to not hide behind my physical appearance. Strengthen my inner-beauty. Cause my spirit to soar with Your grace, love, and beauty” That’s my daily prayer, to truly see and love myself the way Daddy God does. There’s nothing like an individual who truly loves themselves. When you love you it shows. When you love you wholly you can love others wholly. It’s a little over 5 years since my journey of self-love began. My hair is a small part of the bigger picture. Whenever I reflect, I’m immensely grateful for the growth, the revelation, and new discoveries I’ve made about myself, about God, and our relationship. I am joy-filled by who I am!

I love me. I celebrate me.

I am no longer hiding in the shadows of the expectations of this world, society, culture, or people.  I’m stepping out into the spotlight of who I am. I’m embracing my beauty inside and out. I am unveiled.

Practicing Hope Part 2

Today’s post is the second of a three part series brought to you by TheReddingProject’s first guest blogger Luke T. Jones. We ended Practicing Hope 1 asking the question how to sustain hope. The answer to this question will be revealed but first Luke shares about an unlikely mentor that aids in the revelation

The answer came with the flu. Not that God gave me the flu, but something that happened while I had the flu, which probably wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been down for the weekend with nothing to do other than watch 90’s Disney sports films. As I went for the last lap of my movie fix, I came upon Angels in the Outfield, a classic childhood favorite about an orphan boy named Roger (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who is suddenly able to see angels after asking God to help the local pro baseball team win the league championship. However, it wasn’t the star of the film that God highlighted to me, but rather Roger’s sidekick, fellow foster child, JP, a much younger boy and one filled with radical hope!

From the opening scene to the close, JP’s life exuded extreme expectancy that good things could happen and at any time. Unlike Roger, JP could not see angels, though he lived in constant expectation and hope that he would. JP even wore binoculars and whenever Roger said an angel was present, JP would look through the binoculars in an attempt to see it. Despite constant disappointment, JP kept hopeful that one day he too would see angels just like Roger. Not only that, but JP would constantly remind himself over and over again that, “it could happen!”
​And that’s when I heard God, “Luke, welcome to your new mentor. JP!”

I was totally blown away. Something clicked in my spirit and I knew that this was a text book example of a life full of extreme hope. JP kept his hopes high and his expectancy ablaze regardless of what he didn’t see happening around him. This movie was revelatory – a Disney movie! Well, over the next couple of days the Lord began revealing strategies and tools on how to cultivate and sustain a life of radical hope. Hope like my new mentor JP. As I began to implement these tools, things changed rapidly. What the Lord began to show me is that hope is not something we feel as a result of good things happening around us, but rather something that can be practiced and intentionally implemented in our daily lives, resulting in the construction of an atmosphere where peace and joy reign supreme.

Stay tuned for next week as Luke shares the practical ways to practice hope! Til next time!