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| Joyce Meyer from her website |
Re: preposition. ~ in the case or matter of, as regardsHow much do we miss by holding to our narrow paradigms? For nigh four decades, Joyce Meyer has been ministering and yet I had never heard of her until April 28, 2015. And so I rejoice to find, what I propose, is the most powerful Christian woman’s voice in the world today. Perhaps, even the most powerful, practical Christian voice, irrespective of gender.
Joyce: name ~ French: Joyeuse. “Joyful.” E.g.: Joyce Meyer of Joyce Meyer Ministries*
So how many life-changing opportunities do we miss because we don’t have eyes to see or ears to hear? because we are locked inside our narrow cultural biases? because we are bound to conforming / confirming expectations?
In this writer’s view, every soul could profit from listening, time and again, to the witness of Joyce Meyer, whose ministry might be summed up in these words from a well-known LDS hymn:
Now let us rejoice in the day of salvation.Let us break the déjà vu of self-limiting blinders and stiff-necks and let God’s witnesses come in as many diverse ways as God may venture, like unto what the Apostle Paul wrote when quoting the prophet Joel:
No longer as strangers on earth need we roam.
Good tidings are sounding to us and each nation
And shortly the hour of redemption will come,
When all that was promised the Saints will be given,
And none will molest them from morn until ev'n,
And earth will appear as the Garden of Eden,
And Jesus will say to all Israel, "Come home."
We'll love one another and never dissemble,
But cease to do evil and ever be one
And when the ungodly are fearing and tremble,
We'll watch for the day when the Savior will come,
In faith we'll rely on the arm of Jehovah
To guide through these last days of trouble and gloom,
And after the scourges and harvest are over,
We'll rise with the just when the Savior doth come.
Then all that was promised the Saints will be given,
And they will be crowned with the angels of heav'n,
And earth will appear as the Garden of Eden,
And Christ and his people will ever be one.†
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: (New Testament | Acts 2:17-18; see Old Testament | Joel 2:28-29; bold emphasis added).
P.S.: As with all ministers of the Gospel, one must always exercise discernment and seek confirmation of the Spirit of the things they teach and interpretations they put forward. If there is one serious omission in most Christian and evangelic teachings (including Joyce), it is well described in Dallas Willard's The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teaching on Discipleship.
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* https://www.joycemeyer.org/ In addition to the JM Ministry website, there are many YouTube videos.
† "Now Let Us Rejoice" ~ Text: William W. Phelps, Music: Anon.; Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1985], no. 3.)
