Browsing Category

Blog

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, Family, pets, prayer, Stress

Rescue cats update

You may have seen my blog post, Lessons From Stray Cats, on the cats that I’ve been rescuing here at our house. I thought that I’d share an update with you. I already have a beautiful black cat with green eyes, Natalya, who I adopted from a cat shelter in Belton, Missouri, several Christmases ago.

My cat Natalya

I’ve been feeding about 4 stray cats (intentionally) since spring 2023 (other stray cats may be sneaking around here, too). My husband Ray would joke that the good news spread, and we began seeing more cats hanging around to beg food from us.

My heart went out to them when they would meow at me. Ray bought me a coffee cup with the inscription, “You had me at meow” and a cute graphic on the other side of a woman and her black cat looking out at the sunset, with my name and Natalya’s on it. At Christmas, he ordered another cup with a graphic of a woman representing me and ALL the cats that I’ve been feeding and taking care of, looking out at the ocean, lol!

the cute coffee cup Ray bought me with all the cats

Silas is a Main Coon-tabby mix, male cat with a bushy tail and green eyes, about 2 years old. He was friendlier than the other strays who were semi-feral, so Ray thought that he had been around humans before and was possibly someone’s pet. He joked that some little girl was crying about her missing cat that I now had inside my house. It turns out that Ray was right – Silas had wandered away from his owner one day and didn’t return!

Silas

Recently, Silas was returned to his original owner, Lesslee, who lives here in Butler, Missouri, not too far from our house. I was posting on the Butler Facebook page to try to find a home for the other two stray cats that I’d been feeding here, Nichodemus (a male, Main Coon-tabby mix with green eyes and a bushy tail like Silas has) and Marmalade (a male, orange tabby).

Lesslee publicly posted under Nichodemus’ picture that I had posted: “That looks like my cat O’Malley who ran away forever ago!”

Silas, the day before he was neutered and got his vaccinations

I sent her a private message and she sent me a picture of her “O’Malley.” I looked at it and replied to her, “That looks like our cat Silas, who we have inside our house now!” She asked if she could come see him. I told her yes.

The day she came, Nichodemus just happened to be outside on our back patio eating. When she walked quietly to the steps where I was sitting, watching him, she shook her head and said, “No, that’s not him.” As usual, Nichodemus (who is more feral and gets scared easier) ran off into the bushes. I didn’t think that he was her cat, from her picture. Although they resemble each other, Nichodemus has darker markings on his face and his back than Silas does. Silas is also bigger and more territorial (aggressive).

Nicodemus on our back patio

When she came inside our house, I called Silas. He came walking up to us both in the utility room. As soon as Lesslee saw him, she began crying. While he had gained a LOT of weight since she had him (he loves to EAT!), she thought it was her cat O’Malley who had wandered off over a year ago. Silas came right to her and seemed to KNOW her, letting her pet him. She was shocked when I asked if she wanted him. My heart was aching at the thought of him going, but I felt it was the right thing to do.

February 1, 2024 by Beth Jones

Older Posts

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!