Darrow Miller and Friends

The Unlikely Power of Beauty

By • March 4, 2013

Beauty is one of God’s gifts to the world. We’ve written about beauty lots of times. A couple of recent posts were How to Disciple a Nation with a Paintbrush and Art for the Community’s Sake: Christians Using Art to Shape the Culture.

beauty of flowersI can’t help thinking about something Dr. Larry Ward said years ago. Dr. Ward was the founder of Food for the Hungry. He used to tell us that he wanted FH to be known for planting flower seeds in refugee camps. Why flowers? Because they bring hope into bleakness. They carry beauty into the dirt and poverty of human crowding.

As we have written before, the culture of the Kingdom of God is characterized by Truth, Beauty and Goodness. Thus, we are being like Jesus when we contribute Truth, Beauty, and Goodness to our communities.

Christian activity is not limited to things like preaching, praying, reading the Bible. Take a quick glance at “beauty” in your Bible concordance.

  • Exodus 28:2, And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. (ESV)
  • 1Chronicles 16:29, Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. (KJG)
  • Psalm 27:4, One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. (ESV)
  • Isaiah 61:3, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” (NKJ)

So how can Christians add beauty to their surroundings? How can we manifest the culture of the kingdom around us?

Nelson Menteiro, the Disciple Nations Alliance leader in Brazil, recently pointed us to an example from South America. Nelson shared a video about Instituto Um27, a Seed Project which is bringing beauty into a poor community. Instituto Um27 is a church-based worldview institute, founded by our dear friend Ana Santos, that seeks to apply Biblical Worldview principles in the community.

Watch this inspiring four-minute video.

Maybe you’ll be moved to do something similar!

– Darrow Miller

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Darrow is co-founder of the Disciple Nations Alliance and a featured author and teacher. For over 30 years, Darrow has been a popular conference speaker on topics that include Christianity and culture, apologetics, worldview, poverty, and the dignity of women. From 1981 to 2007 Darrow served with Food for the Hungry International (now FH association), and from 1994 as Vice President. Before joining FH, Darrow spent three years on staff at L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland where he was discipled by Francis Schaeffer. He also served as a student pastor at Northern Arizona University and two years as a pastor of Sherman Street Fellowship in urban Denver, CO. In addition to earning his Master’s degree in Adult Education from Arizona State University, Darrow pursued graduate studies in philosophy, theology, Christian apologetics, biblical studies, and missions in the United States, Israel, and Switzerland. Darrow has authored numerous studies, articles, Bible studies and books, including Discipling Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Culture (YWAM Publishing, 1998), Nurturing the Nations: Reclaiming the Dignity of Women for Building Healthy Cultures (InterVarsity Press, 2008), LifeWork: A Biblical Theology for What You Do Every Day (YWAM, 2009), Rethinking Social Justice: Restoring Biblical Compassion (YWAM, 2015), and more. These resources along with links to free e-books, podcasts, online training programs and more can be found at Disciple Nations Alliance (https://disciplenations.org).
 

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