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Jesus Christ

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How do we draw closer to God during Holy Week?

It is Holy Week, which begins with Palm Sunday, marking Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, to fulfill a prophecy in the Old Testament in Zechariah 9:9. (Matthew 21:2-7) It proceeds with Jesus’ Last Supper with His disciples, His betrayal by Judas, His conviction by Pontius Pilate, His being beaten and crucified to death, and ends with Resurrection Sunday (or Easter), symbolizing Jesus’ resurrection and ascension into Heaven.

It is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. It is the sixth and last week of Lent, the 40 day period of reflection, prayer and fasting, and repentance before Easter. I make it a habit to watch Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ movie every year at Easter. It’s amazing because each time, I get a new revelation from God out of it. It’s such a powerful movie that will touch your heart (you’ll probably cry like I do!).

There is supposed to be a sequel to this movie called The Passion of the Christ 2: Resurrection, released in 2024. I look forward to seeing it! The actor portraying Jesus, Jim Caviezel, is amazing and is a Christian believer.

Jesus on the cross

The original movie is called “The Passion” because it is the short final period before the death of Jesus, described in the four Gospels. It comes from the Latin word patior, “to suffer, fear, endure.”

The Price of Salvation
Jesus being beaten
kenduncan.com

Holy Week is an important time to examine our hearts before God and to ask Him to reveal any sins that we have done and are doing and ask for His forgiveness.

It’s vital for us as believers to repent, which means “to turn from evil and turn to God,” “sincere regret or remorse,” and “turn around and change one’s mind.” This repentance will help us to draw closer to God and help us to become conformed more into the image of Jesus.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:8)

I wrote about repentance in my most recent book, The Crying of Rachel: A Call to Repentance, which is available as a Kindle eBook at Amazon. You can find out more here.

I pray that you have a blessed Holy Week and Easter with your family and friends.

March 27, 2024 by Beth Jones

Blog, Faith, pets, Speaking, Travel, Writing

What’s new: Speaking, writing, and Marmalade’s home

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged here at BethJones.net so I thought I’d share about what’s new. One of the most exciting things is that I just graduated from Robyn Dystra’s 8-week Christian Speakers Bootcamp. The best part was having access to Robyn live on a weekly Zoom meeting, where she shared the wealth of her years of experience speaking and answered our questions about speaking.

This is my digital certificate from the class, and Robyn is mailing all of us a paper certificate, too. Isn’t it cool?!

Second, Robyn assigned a speech coach to everyone in the training. Mine was Lisa Betz, an award-winning novelist. She was great and helped me to greatly improve and polish my Cinderella signature talk.

My signature talk is about Cinderella's story and her glass slipper: The right shoes can take you to exciting places!

My signature talk is about Cinderella’s story & her glass slippers: The right shoes can take you to exciting places!

We also got a practice and prayer partner, to help us practice our “elevator pitch” (what you say when you meet someone new and he or she says, “What do you do?”). Our speech coach worked with us on this, too. Here’s mine:

Me in denim dress recently on a trip with Ray to Columbia, Missouri

“I’m Beth Jones, an International Speaker and Author of 30 books. I believe we should dream BIG because we serve a BIG GOD! I help women to step out of fear into faith in Jesus Christ, by sharing my story and the Bible about how much God loves us and the freedom we have in Jesus.”

What do you think?

If you’re an event planner or know someone who is who needs a speaker for their women’s conference, event, or workshop, please contact me here.

If you have never heard me share my story, you can read it in my memoir, Promises in the Dark: One Woman’s Search for Authentic Love, available at Amazon here.

Promises in the Dark: One Woman’s Search for Authentic Love graphic

March 11, 2024 by Beth Jones

Blog, Faith, Family, Marriage, Parenting, prayer, Spiritual Gifts, worship/praise/music

When you’re looking for a new church home

Image: Edward Cisneros @ Unsplash

My husband Ray and I have been looking for a new church home for years. I’m excited about the new church that we’ve been attending, Hope City Church of Harrisonville, Missouri. Why? We’re among the 1/3 of people who used to attend church, but now stay away specifically because they “lost trust in God, the church, or Christians.” (According to a 2019 “Unchurched Report” by Billy Graham Center Institute and Lifeway Research, You Found Me, Rich Richardson, p. 47)

Image: Julian Florez at Unsplash

It’s a startling and scary fact that the number of youth (Americans ages 18-29) who have no religious affiliation has nearly quadrupled in the last 30 years, and 59% of millennials raised in a church have dropped out.

There are several reasons that Ray and I and our children were wounded that I won’t go into here, but we’ve had to walk through a LOT of forgiveness. Unfortunately, there are many people in the same boat. My hope is that this new church will be a safe haven for us of God’s agape (unconditional) love, truth, and forgiveness; that we can make new friends; and that we’ll be able to serve in the Body of Christ and use our spiritual gifts, talents, and skills for God’s glory there.

August 17, 2023 by Beth Jones

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I'm an International Speaker, Author of 30 books (and still writing!), traveler, wife to fire chief/paramedic Ray, and a blessed mom of 3 beautiful daughters, Heather, Eden, and Leah. I encourage women to use their gifts for God's glory, fulfilling their great purpose, and living a life they love. I help aspiring Christian speakers & writers to share their hearts' unique, powerful messages. The ocean is my happy place and place of peace and refilling. I love Jesus, my family, my cats Natalya and Nichodemus, traveling, chips & salsa, coffee, chocolate, nature, music, and art. My husband Ray calls me an enigma: I love to laugh and cry a lot. What about you? I'd love to connect more with you and hear how you desire to make more of an impact here for God's glory. Thanks for stopping by here. I pray you will find the hope, inspiration, and motivation you need to become all God created you to be. Dream big because we serve a big God!