Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Blooming for Christ: Growing Godly Intimacy
    Blooming for Christ: Growing Godly Intimacy
    Blooming for Christ: Growing Godly Intimacy
    Ebook96 pages55 minutes

    Blooming for Christ: Growing Godly Intimacy

    By Barbara A. F. Brehon

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Spiritual growth and a plant’s growth cycle are not different. Like the balloon plant, Christians grow in stages. Our spiritual timeline begins once we accept Christ. Then a seed germinates into a young plant that eventually blooms and shares faith experiences, which reproduces more faith and spreads seeds according to God’s plan. Finally, the plant develops into a mature Christian who is God’s harvester in preordained gardens.

    In the conclusion of her discipleship trilogy, Reverend Barbara A. F. Brehon shares scripture, wisdom, and a plant lifecycle comparison to gently move believers toward the light of the Lord in their respective growing seasons. Through her guidance, believers will learn how to strengthen their faith and sow seeds that encourage new believers and others to bloom where they are planted, clarify and fulfill their divine purpose, and grow intimacy with the Lord, who refines the mission.

    Blooming for Christ is an enlightening guide that offers scripture and insight to help believers grow closer to God and please the Lord in all seasons of life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWestBow Press
    Release dateJun 15, 2023
    ISBN9781973699781
    Blooming for Christ: Growing Godly Intimacy
    Author

    Barbara A. F. Brehon

    Rev. Dr. Barbara A. F. Brehon was born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia of the late Richard T. Fields, Sr. and Jerlean W. Fields. As a child, Dr. Brehon found joy and inner peace at her home church, not understanding what it meant to serve the Lord. In her early thirties, she accepted God’s call sitting on a beach at a retreat with the Young Adult Ministry. Later, while attending seminary, she recognized her call to equip believers, which is like being a spiritual body builder. God has majestically interwoven her reading specialist and theological training into creatively sharing his Word for his glory. Laboring for personal intimacy with the Lord, her passion is to help others grow closer to God. She encourages others to recognize their God-gifted purposes and to enjoy the abundance of life in the love of the Lord. Currently retired and residing in rural Tappahannock, Virginia, Dr. Brehon serves as visionary servant leader of Favored by the Father Ministries (a church without walls) and associate pastor of the Beulah Baptist Church. She is also serving in her second year of a three-year term as moderator of the Southside Rappahannock Baptist Association and Its Allied Ministries, made up of thirty-five churches in Essex, King and Queen, and Middlesex counties in Virginia. Dr. Brehon preaches and teaches God’s Word whenever and wherever called to serve. Blooming for Christ completes a discipleship trilogy that includes Reach Me with SMILES: A Handbook for Developing Disciple Makers and Beyond Discipleship to Relationship: Developing Intimacy with the Lord. Each resource offers practical, biblically sound approaches for personal and corporate spiritual growth and are available on her website, www.barbaraafbrehon.com.

    Read more from Barbara A. F. Brehon

    Related to Blooming for Christ

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Theology: Why Do We Need It?

      Nov 27, 2020

      Theology: Why Do We Need It?
      3 min read

    • Article

      Red Alert

      May 20, 2019

      Why does the Church today appear to be so powerless? Why are so many churches emptying? Why have young people fled the church? Why do some Christians consider ‘gathering together as the church’ to be irrelevant? What is happening in our generation?

      5 min read

    • Article

      THE WAR FOR OUR YOUTH Why creation still matters

      Dec 30, 2019

      We’re being told by public education systems, universities, media, some parents, and unfortunately many church leaders, that parts of the Bible are not relevant anymore and that we need to reinvent God’s word. So, with this situation, in order to und

      3 min read

    • Article

      Living With Purpose

      Sep 7, 2021

      Living With Purpose
      3 min read

    • Article

      How Should We Respond To Celebrities Coming To Christ?

      Dec 30, 2019

      If you’ve been following the news lately, you will have noticed a significant wave of celebrities who are turning to Christ. In what is referred to as a massive spiritual movement, the sinful city of Hollywood is turning more and more stars away from

      5 min read

    • Article

      A New Day Of Pentecost

      Jul 21, 2023

      A New Day Of Pentecost
      2 min read

    • Article

      Why Theology Matters

      Nov 22, 2024

      Why Theology Matters
      3 min read

    • Article

      Getting to Know God

      Mar 16, 2020

      Getting to Know God
      3 min read

    • Article

      Josh & Tara McCauley On A REDEMPTIVE Mission

      Sep 4, 2020

      Whilst his friends were out playing cops and robbers, a young Joshua would sit in the front row of church listening to the sermons of his dad (Rhema Church founder, Pastor Ray McCauley) blissfully unaware that one day he too would be standing behind

      10 min read

    • Article

      “Lord Heal Our Nation”

      Sep 23, 2022

      “Lord Heal Our Nation”
      7 min read

    • Article

      3 Points To Ponder On Being Righteous In 2024

      Dec 29, 2023

      I can’t believe that it is a new year already. As we take time to reflect on the previous year, we should ask ourselves: Have I made the right choices? Have I stayed true to my New Year’s resolutions? And what improvements can I make in 2024? As I po

      2 min read

    • Article

      Rooted In God’s Love

      Feb 10, 2023

      Rooted In God’s Love
      5 min read

    • Article

      WHO’S In The NEWS?

      May 19, 2023

      George Verwer died on Friday 14th April at the age of 84. The Church has lost a man who had an astonishing global influence on the way it carries out its vital task of sharing the good news of Jesus. In Operation Mobilisation (OM), which George start

      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Aug 19, 2019

      Thank you for your wonderfully illustrated Biblical series of articles that you regularly publish. I find that I can’t concentrate like I used to, and love the short, precise, and factual articles. I have learnt so much from reading them. I was fasci

      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Blooming for Christ

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Blooming for Christ - Barbara A. F. Brehon

      Copyright © 2023 Barbara A. F. Brehon.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by

      any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,

      recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system

      without the written permission of the author except in the case of

      brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author

      and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of

      the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of

      people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

      WestBow Press

      A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.westbowpress.com

      844-714-3454

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or

      links contained in this book may have changed since publication and

      may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those

      of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher,

      and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are

      models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

      Interior Image Credit: Barbara A. F. Brehon

      ISBN: 978-1-9736-9976-7 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-9736-9977-4 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-9736-9978-1 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2023909845

      WestBow Press rev. date: 06/09/2023

      BalloonBAFB%20Balloon%20Stages.jpg

      Balloon plant (platycodon grandifloras) blooming for

      Christ! One plant, yet in different growth stages at the

      same time. We grow, or blossom in phases.

      CONTENTS

      Preface

      Prologue

      Introduction

      1     Seed

      2     Germination

      3     Growth

      4     Reproduction

      5     Pollination

      6     Seed Spreading

      7     Harvesting

      Conclusion

      Epilogue

      Bibliography

      About the Author

      PREFACE

      The cover picture is a blooming balloon plant in my backyard. It depicts various growth stages in one image. The perennial balloon-like flower buds puff up before bursting open. The five-pointed petals of its mature blossoms are a fabulous display of God’s handiwork. Each petal has tiny veins that remind me of human veins transporting life-flowing energy from the Lord, nurturing as it flows.

      BalloonBAFB%20Pistil%20and%20Veins%20Replace.jpg

      Balloon pistil and veins

      Like the balloon plant, Christians grow, or blossom, in stages. It is one plant, yet it is in different phases at the same time. While gardening, I usually giggle with God as I ponder the complexities of simple things. Like many people, before pandemic moments, I previously took some things for granted. I thought I had a decent relationship with the Lord, yet I yearned for more intimate intimacy. I keep moving from discipleship (personal Bible study) to deeper relationship (meditation) to more intimacy (worship), toward maturity in potent worship through simple pleasures, like gardening.

      BalloonBAFB%20Balloon%201st%20Design.jpg

      Landscape redesigning turned into worship.

      I often found myself in worship through writing to cope with mandated sheltering in place while recovering from an injury. The result is Blooming for Christ.

      What started this was asking myself how the yard looked the year before. I compared pictures from one year to another. Next thing I knew, God was showing me an evolution, spiritual growth stages analogous to my balloon plants. I experienced intense worship in those moments. I can worship the Lord through deadheading faded blossoms and writing. How do you worship the Holy One?

      From the week I started battling COVID in January 2022, Jesus has been pulling me closer to his bosom, into more intimacy with him, refining not redefining my call to ministry. Zion is calling me to a higher place of praise with a better understanding of the church without walls. The Lord has escorted me to totally release control of following tradition for tradition’s sake to burst forth, to bloom for Christ.

      We are good stewards of what we have learned, of what the Lord has entrusted to us. We must follow the Christ.

      PROLOGUE

      Throughout all stages of growth, our divine Creator is at work. Therefore, Christians must persevere. When we accept Christ, our individual spiritual timelines begin. The growth cycle starts with a seed that is developed. Next, germination takes place as a seed transforms into a seedling and we grow. The growth process continues with a seed germinating into a young plant that blooms. The growth cycle continues with sharing your faith experiences, which reproduces more faith. We transport our beliefs, creating lifestyles that transfer our core values to

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1