Art & Stories woven together to reflect His radiance. Isaiah 62:4
We are an online and in print magazine bringing you stories of Gods hand at work in Body of Christ.
Ever wondered how to begin studying the Bible? Go read our newest blog to find out some super helpful tips! https://wix.to/ZcJkhE1
By Brandon Lyons If you’ve ever checked out a commentary of the Holy Scriptures, you’ll know they are an amazing way to learn more about what the Holy Scriptures are teaching. They often explain context, both cultural and historical, but one thing they don’t teach is how to decipher, in a prac...
"We must, when all the world doubts that God is there, and all the world doubts that God cares, step away like I did that frosty morning. Step up a little higher, go in a little deeper, into the hollow of His hand. We must climb into the hollow of the big safe tree that He is. When all the world is trapped in delusions, we must fight to keep hold of the truest reality. When all the world is full of chatter and complexity, we must let it be startlingly simple just as it was in the beginning. We’ve got to step away, into the wonders of creation, and feel again the bare bones of the goodness of existence itself, spoken into being by the loveliest Being there ever was and ever will be. And there we find that every voice, other than His, is gently silenced." - Kelly Haven Stickle
Read our new blog post!
https://www.hephzibahherald.com/post/the-roots-of-christian-joy
"When I can only weep, others can sing. When I can only be silent, the love song of Jesus' body (the Church) brings strength to my soul." - Aaron and Rachel Vanderbeck
Pain as an expression of worship: “Consider it all joy my brothers and sisters, when you come up against all forms of trials and testing…” (James 1:2) A long time ago I stumbled upon a quote that spoke to the power of worship. Although the exact words have long since been forgotten, the conten...
Check out my blog post https://wix.to/pmCywyM
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but only this is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41-42 Troubled About Many Things On any given day, I feel pulled in a dozen different directions. I am a mom, tending to ...
Although we can't keep the physical magazine going right now, I do want to continue with posting weekly stories on the blog. So follow along and read with us!
Ryan and I have been a licensed foster home for nearly two years, and since July ‘21 we have had the privilege of having 8 additional children in our home for varying lengths of time. Our first placement was a set of brothers, and in September ‘22, we had our most recent call from our agency. .....
1. His ways are miraculous and yet we have to be patient to wait for Him to work (it's always in a way we never could have planned ourselves).
2. He works through broken and flawed individuals.
3. Prayer is powerful.
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One Little Big Shop is featured in this quarter’s issue of The Hephzibah Herald, a faith-based magazine for creatives!
Get your online copy here! https://bit.ly/3TaRs9J
The theme for this issue was “Joy in the Shadow” and we were fortunate enough to write a feature article “The Journey to Joy”— a captivating analysis of the concept of joy— and “My Daughter’s Eyelashes” a poem on motherhood after trauma. It’s also jam packed with 20+ other artists, including authors, photographers, homemakers and more!
The physical copy for this addition is no longer available but you can access the whole thing online and subscribe to future issues (online and in-print) here— https://bit.ly/3TaRs9J
After months of work, we are so excited to say that our first ever issue is going live later today! It is brimming full of joyful articles and art (from 20 different contributors)!
Go to our website to order the online version of the Winter Issue. (Although the print version is not available for the Winter Issue any longer, don't hesitate to preorder one for the Spring Issue, coming soon.)
Marissa is a wonderful example of a mother who is seeking to follow the Lord in all areas of her life. She shares with us a devotional writing on how to choose joy, instead of letting our circumstances rule our daily lives.
We are so thrilled to be showcasing some of Melissa's wonderful artwork in our first Issue of Hephzibah! Her artwork speaks for itself, and we can't wait to share it with you! She also has a poem featured describing who God is to her.
We are so excited to publish Kelly's work in our first Issue and also use her amazing photography as our cover art! She writes about the "Roots of Christian Joy". Her gospel-infused message is incredibly relevant to what the Body of Christ needs more of today!
Subscribe at www.hephzibahherald.com to read her article and much more!
Meliah shares a heartfelt poem about her journey to finding joy while walking through the newness of motherhood. The poem is written with a beautiful, raw, and refreshing honesty.
Go subscribe to read her poem entitled "My Daughter's Eyelashes" in our first Issue at www.hephzibahherald.com
YAY!!! This is the month that our first Issue is coming to you! In honor of the New Year and the new magazine we are giving away a printed hard copy of Hephzibah's first ever January edition!
Here's how to enter (make sure you do all three steps to be entered)!
1. Make sure you are following this account!
2. Like this post AND share it to your stories!
3. Tag 2 friends in the comments!
(The last day to enter will be January 18th, 12 AM EST!)
Laura looks closely at two Hebrew words, and she shares how they tie together in her piece titled "Great Joy".
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Join us in this Issue, as we continue the deep dive into what true joy in the Lord is. Jen Snow reflects on the hope we have in Christ and unwraps for us that this HOPE can be our source of true Joy! How good to know that joy doesn't need to be conjured up by us or our circumstances.
In "Romans 15, Paul tells us that the source of our joy and peace is the God of hope and the power of the Holy Spirit" (Snow, Jen).
Go to www.hephzibahherald.com to subscribe!
We are excited to have Michael writing for us this Issue. He offers a unique writing style, where he dissects words and looks closely at their root meaning.
"For the tree of joy to grow strong we must work through our trauma, pain, and other “dead” things, that lie in our hearts, so that joy can truly prevail" (Apa, Michael).
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
(Philippians 3:12-21 ESV)
One of the visions I have for The Hephzibah is for it to be a safe place of rest for the every day sinner and saint, for those two identities are so intertwined as we walk our own personal roads of life. A person who is in a safe haven, will feel free to speak from their heart. So may this be a plac...
We are thrilled to display Stephanie's stunning watercolor in this first Issue! Your going to love seeing the floral wintery borders that flowed naturally from her skilled hand!
Subscribe also to read her article on how joy should be intermixed with all areas of life, but specifically in the work place.
www.hephzibahherald.com
If you were ever to meet this lady, you would immediately feel the love of Jesus shining out of her! She is passionate about being Jesus' hands and feet to everyone she meets in her life. Join us as Jonita inspires us to reach out to our neighbors and be the Light of Jesus in very practical ways. (And she is adding a custom made playlist of songs to match our Issue's theme of Joy!)
Subscribe at www.hephzibahherald.com
In this first Issue, Kristen approaches the topic of "Joy in Suffering". From this trying perspective she is able to touch on some very key principles that can help guide us towards Jesus while we journey through our own trials.
Go order your subscription now at www.hephzibahherald.com
We are thrilled to welcome Becca Fluger as one of our first artists for the magazine! She has loved using her artistic flare to glorify her Maker and we are thankful for her desire to share her God given talent with the world.
A Plea: Giving Thought to a Biography's Significance
I suppose my father is the one I should thank for instilling in me such a love for biographies. In the evenings he would sit around the table after dinner and either read a story about some amazing hero of faith or a portion of scripture. It taught me from a young age, that each person has a story that God is weaving through the beautiful and sorrowful moments that make up their life. Their mistakes and triumphs; a story to observe and learn from. I distinctly remember hearing of the lives of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, George Muller, William Bradford, Squanto and many more.
And then there was Mr. Bowers, my eleventh grade History teacher, who taught with such a contagious enthusiam and joy, that I could not help join in his love of translating history into the people and stories it was. I can still see his huge smile and lively gestures as he moved across the room reenacting the story of Lewis and Clark. It made me so enthralled, that I just had to go and discover more of their lives for myself.
Now that I am a mother, on a daily basis I will hear my little girl say to me, "Mom, tell me a story!" And I was exactly like her as a child. Often, on a Sunday afternoon, I would beg my mother or father to recount a true story from their childhood. Often I would be so persistent about it, that they could not leave the table till they had satiated my hungry appetite for rich stories. Maybe growing up in an oral culture produced this sense of wonder of the tales one can pass down through the tongue, or perhaps it is deeply rooted in all of humans. We must simply come to our senses and realize that story-telling is the way that God uses His creation to proclaim His goodness to the next generation.
I have been wanting to focus on a few of my favorite and most influential people through history. The stories of people who I have read and my soul has come awakened to and been riveted by. I took my studies at MBI in Spokane, WA. And it was there I took a Philosophy class, and was instructed to read Augustine's "Confessions". I read it cover to cover in one day, completely taken up in the life of this Church Father. The beautiful and poetic way he wrote of his life from infancy all the way to his adulthood beckoned my heart into his story. Saint Augustine's reenactment of his life was the catalyst that awoke my soul to God. All along my spirit had been beckoned by the One who created me, but it was not until the words of this man, written 600 years before my time, were read, that I truly grasped the saving grace of Jesus in my own life. As I read Saint Augustine's revival story, I too fell to my knees weeping, and on that worn Baldwin house carpet, as Saint Augustine fell to his knees weeping in his garden, our souls were for a brief moment in history, paralleled. In awe both of us there before the throne of Grace, the hands of our souls open wide to freely receive God's gift to us.
The way God can use one's story in the life of another is profound. It is truly the way He works. The Spirit works in and through one person, so that they can pass on the story of sanctification work in their life to another. That is why we need eachother, Christian. We need one another's experiences to grow spiritually. How generous of our God to allow us to be apart of this holy work that is happening within the soul. A mysterious process, as hidden as the forming of a baby in a mother's womb, or the wind blowing across a lake, hidden from sight but creating ripples on the water.
St. Augustine was just the beginning of my renewed love in biographies. There were still so many people on my horizon, coming into vision, to learn from. To name a few who I knew little to nothing about, except their names: Keith Green, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Rich Mullins. Something that comes along with a person's life story, is their life's work. And people such as Keith Green and Rich Mullins had left a rich legacy of music for us down in history to enjoy and learn from. Now I would love to dedicate a piece of my writings to each of these amazing souls, but I will have to for now, simply speak of their impact on me as a whole. It was the summer before my relationship with my future husband was about to start, and I was going on what I called a "sabbatical for my soul". I had convinced myself that I needed a break, from Spokane, from school, from all forms of life as I knew it, and I embarked on a journey across North America. This meant many hours in the car, and since I didn't have my driver's license yet, many hours to read in the backseat. As the words on the pages drew me into the stories of these men, and the lyrics of the songs they had written gave my soul melodies to sing, my soul began to awaken. Something burned within me as I read about Keith Green's conversion story. And I wept as I read the sermon Bonhoeffer gave to his fellow prisoners, days before he would be hung. Rich Mullin's music stirred the deep pot of sorrow in my heart and also kindled the small spark of joy hidden there as well.
I adjure you reader to go immerse yourself in the lives of these people. As a place to begin. Although they were flawed individuals and came from lives made up of drug overdoses, broken off engagements, and life's last days, destined to be lived from inside a prison cell, these people have life lessons to gather a basket full of wisdom from. So go. Read and know that you will become all the wiser as you seek to learn from stories lived down through history, by simple people like you and I. A hippy born in New York, an Indiana farmer's son, and a German theologian. Every life is a story weaved in and out of many other surrounding stories, created this way for us to learn and pull from the lives of others.
Subscribe to our 1st Issue coming soon at www.hephzibahherald.com
Hephzibah will be highlighting missionaries in every Issue, and our first missionary is Jonathan Wilson. He will be sharing a personal story of how God answers prayers in amazing tangible ways!
Go over to www.hephzibahherald.com and subscribe now, for our first Issue coming soon!
Hephzibah is overjoyed to announce that Beth over at Bethy's Bible Bites will be taking over the Kid's Korner for this first issue! She has such a gift for reaching children with gospel infused messages! We are thankful to welcome her as part of our team!
Her message for kids, based off of Psalm 91:1, will be accompanied by a specially "taylored" (see what I did there 😂 - her videographer is named Taylor) YouTube video!
One of my favorite lines from Stephanie's original poem for our very first issue:
"Hang golden tinsel
In our heart's secret room".
The words she pens truly jump to life as you read them. Hephzibah is so honored to feature her as one of our first poets!
Subscribe to read the full original poem at www.hephzibahherald.com
Our 1st Issue (coming January) will feature one man's pilgrimage across the States with a sole intention: to introduce each soul he met to Jesus! Come, on his journey, as he shares the collection of highlights and stunning portraits that he captured of the vast array of people he met on the road.
Subrscibe for vol. 1 at www.hephzibahherald.com
I am so thankful you've made your way here, to Hephzibah. Let me introduce myself real quick! I am Sarah Nash. I was born and raised in Papua New Guinea, and now I reside on the Kenai Peninsula, in Alaska. I have a husband who loves math, fishing, and woodworking and four gorgeous wild, Alaskan daughters. Growing up in the tropics, as an MK, gave me a great love for different cultures and a passion to share the Word of God with others. I have enjoyed journaling from a very young age and if you were to pair that with theological writings, you would have as snap shot into the workings of my mind (quick side note: Augustine's Confessions was the book that awoke my heart to my true need of a Savior).
I have been on an extraordinary journey, beginning from leaving my childhood home, leading me to college (MBI Spokane), down the path to marriage, to finally the season of motherhood that I am currently in. On this winding path called life, I have been discovering who I truly am in Christ. He has made each of us with an incredible uniqueness, and we can learn how to lean into and fully embrace the callings He has for each of us. But only in Christ will I ever find complete and utter fulfillment. He has made each of us, to display His glory and shine for Him in this dark world, with our individual gifts and talents. I welcome you to come along side me, as I try to uncover the workings of God in this world today!
If you are ever in the area, you are welcome into my home! I'll serve you coffee or tea, and we can sit and muse together on the goodness of God!
Want to subscribe to Issue One? Head over to
Welcome to Hephzibah, a quarterly magazine (online & print) with the goal of sharing the many ways God is at work in the Body of Christ. Hephzibah has a passion to be a light and voice for all people in an increasingly dark generation. Through creative writing, poetry, art, devotionals, kid activiti...
Soldotna, AK
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