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Seeing God

6/27/2017

3 Comments

 
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Do you truly want to see God? Do you want your children to see God? 

PURITY is the Windex that allows us to see Him. Jesus says directly, “The pure in heart will see God.” Not “they might,” but “they will”! Purity guarantees that we will see God, and seeing God brings wholeness in human beings and in the world.

Why is it important to pursue purity, sexual and otherwise? To stop messy, unplanned pregnancies? To appear spiritual in our religious circles? To earn our purity ring or white wedding dress?

NO. Purity is not about what we do or don’t do. Or identity is not in our DOING, but in our BEING. Purity reflects a condition of the heart that we approach as we SURRENDER to God. Purity allows us to SEE GOD, and seeing God will change the world.

The heart condition of our nation and the planet is grave. Those of us who know Christ and say we serve Him can’t imagine why “these people” don’t recognize their sin. But it is HEARTS that need attention, just as OURS did and still do. When we can’t see God, we sin deeply. Our DOING is instructed by our BEING, our heart condition. Giving God access to our hearts is how we find purity, and how we see God. Seeing God, knowing His reality, changes EVERYTHING.

The world cannot see God. It sees only clouds when the heavens are shouting His glory. It sees only an interruption, not a fetus. It sees only religious embarrassment, not a hurting pregnant daughter and the new life she carries. It sees gratification and pleasure, not intimacy. It sees only the shame of divorce, not the opportunity to believe for a miracle and become an intercessor. It sees only loneliness, and not the silence that allows God to speak at any time. Is it any wonder that the world is such a mess? It can’t see God.

Oh. 

I begin to consider how my own heart may be “of the world.” Sigh.

We desperately need pure hearts because we desperately need to see God—to see the heavens alive with His reality—to see the unborn as promises of hope to the world, even if their arrival seems untimely—to see those who fall (all of us) as precious and ripe for restoration—to believe in miracles and long for the company of the living God MORE than the attention and adulation of others.

Again, do you want to see God? Or do you just want your family to stay out of trouble sexually? Don’t give in to such limited thinking. Don’t allow a hyper-sexualized world to press you into a fearful, alarmist perspective on purity. Know what purity really is.
Pursue pure hearts, pursue spiritual sight. If we are able to see God, sin will be undressed for all its ugliness and lose its attractiveness. Stumblings will be seen as opportunities for grace and growth, not shame.

The Five Doors of the Heart are one way of opening the eyes of the heart to see God by closing the heart to things that distract. It is my belief that such a pursuit at any age will change the world. Why?

Because we will see God. And everything else will fall into place when our eyes are on Him.
Open your heart to Him, and see.



3 Comments

Video: The Power of a Kiss Saved

6/2/2017

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Save the Kiss!
​

When the bride in this video was 6, she told her mom she wanted to save her kiss. My daughter said something different. 

“Mom, all my girlfriends have boyfriends! I need a boyfriend!”

That announcement from my kindergarten gal began with a shock to my system and resulted in a story that inspired many other princesses to save their kisses. 

Time after time I’ve reminded people that purity is about way more than saving a physical kiss. Many of us don’t manage it, and that doesn’t mean we’re damaged goods. But if we don’t set our sights on some standards like this, we’re likely to be dragged into the world’s way of approaching relationships — whatever happens, happens — and we often regret what comes to pass.

Charlie and Makenzee have two different stories. Makenzee told her mom she wanted to save her kiss when she was 6 and read The Princess and the Kiss. Charlie grew up in church, wandered, and returned to his commitment to Christ a few years before they married. When he met Makenzee, he knew he wanted a life with that kind of commitment, and he actually stopped her from kissing him when they became engaged, saying, “God forbid that something could happen and I could take the kiss you’ve saved so long for your husband.”

Would this not tell you that you were marrying the right man?? Check out his reaction to his bride in this video and you’ll know Makenzee’s commitment to purity paid off! But Charlie also says that the greater part of his awe was recognizing God’s great grace towards him personally after his wild hiatus from a faithful life.

Walter Wangerin talks about the difference between real love and “sham” (fake) love. He says that sham love wants to possess the beloved, but real love wants to set the beloved free and to protect them. Saving our first kiss isn’t the only model for real love; however, The Princess and the Kiss causes us all to consider what we will hold sacred and how we will set ourselves apart for someone to whom we would commit our whole life by making a covenant before God. Seems like pretty heavy material for a children’s book, but almost 500,000 readers love the story.

Whether they choose to save their physical kiss or set other standards that require restraint and patience—and whether they choose this when they’re 6 or 22 or 64—people do so out of a desire to protect their beloveds and to set themselves and their marriages apart for God. These  people believe marriage is more than a religious ceremony and sex is more than a casual high, and we need more like them. Kara Brown of KB Studios brings this particular couple’s testimony to the screen in a beautiful way, and so I’m glad to share it here with our readers.

You can choose to save your “kiss,” too, no matter what’s transpired in the past. Look at Makenzee and Charlie. Men and women all over the world are doing it every day!

Please share this video in as many ways and as many times as possible so others can discover the rewards of this kind of waiting! Let’s draw more and more people to consider a more reverent and self-controlled approach to relationships, devoting themselves to the pursuit of life-long marriages!

Bethancourt- Wedding Film from KB Studios on Vimeo.

Be sure to get your daughter boththe book and the necklace so they can start saving their kisses too!  
3 Comments

The Right Way to Weed

4/12/2017

2 Comments

 
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I grew up on a farm in Ohio, and weeding is a natural part of life for me. In city landscaping, underground plastic barriers are buried to keep weeds down. But those plastic tarps are seldom foolproof. That’s why we never bothered with the things. We just expected weeding as a part of life.


​If you don’t move in circles of agriculture, you probably think weeding is no big deal. Anybody can do it. You just pull the weeds and toss them, right?

Believe it or not, there is a right way to weed. Those of us who garden for a living understand the importance of weeding correctly. Some plants like dollarweed have “runners” that grow underground, and many little single plants spring up from these underground root “highways.” If a gardener pulls out the plant but leaves the runner, the sprouts will grow right back. 

A good gardener knows that if he breaks any plant off at ground level, the root is still in the ground and will grow into a weed again. But if he reaches a little deeper and pulls a little more carefully, the whole plant comes up, and it can’t grow back, which makes less work for the gardener later.

We have to “weed” our lives in the same way. The surface issues can’t just be plucked off so they don’t show. If we don’t get at the root of the problem, it will come back again and again. If a man has dirty magazines we can take them away, but his addiction to objectified women will return. if we don’t address the issues with real people that feed his desire to look in the first place. We can take away our daughters’ immodest clothes, but if we don’t figure out why she needs attention, she’ll just roll up the waistband of her skirt. If we don’t counsel an addict to address the pain they want to numb, they will more than likely return to their habit.

No matter the sin problem, we have to get to the root of it. Taking the time to seek out the root and be sensitive to actual needs will strengthen relationships and pave paths for change and lasting freedom. The time it takes is worth it. Who wants the same problem to return over
and over?

If you feel like your family is a little like an overgrown garden, take the time to weed correctly by asking these questions:

    • What kind of weed (sin) is it?
    • What is the root?
    • How can I gently and firmly “tug” to get the root out of the ground?

We all have a Gardener who is at our disposal anytime to help in the weeding process. If we’re willing to assess our gardens honestly, He will be faithful to draw our attention to the weeds, and be with us in the pain as the roots are pulled up. God wants our beautifully flowered lives to be a planting for the display of His splendor (Is. 61:3). Let Him help you with the weeding in you and your family today.

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