Many people have pain and wounds they don’t talk about. Fear and shame create a cycle of isolation and hopelessness. But the Bible is light to these dark places.

After suffering decades of abuse of all kinds, Paula found herself as a single mom in a new city, jobless, with three young boys to homeschool. In these circumstances, she heard God’s call to start a ministry helping people still caught in the darkness of brokenness and shame. Bloom in the Dark started with real, raw stories of people who found hope and restoration in the gospel with the slogan, “Use the fertilizer of your past to bloom in your future.”

The book turned into a TV show, Bloom Today, now syndicated around the world and on Amazon Prime. Paula’s co-host and ministry partner, Ginny Priz, adds her own story of addiction and choices that turned into painful and embarrassing consequences.

Together, Paula, Ginny, and their team of counselors, life coaches, pastors, and more, share the good news that there is no pit too deep in your life to experience freedom, joy, and abundant life in Christ.

Bloom in the Dark

Mission
To raise awareness about the damage caused by secret pain and abuse, and demonstrate the hope and healing found in Christ Jesus through ex-victim testimonies, connections, and tools.

Vision
A culture where people choose redemption and healing in Christ Jesus so they bloom despite darkness and pain.

Values
LOVE: Love God, Love yourself so you can Love your neighbor
HONESTY: Be honest with God, yourself and others especially when it hurts
FORGIVENESS: Forgive God, yourself and others quickly
ENCOURAGEMENT: Encourage yourself with God’s Word, your words, and other’s words through what you see, hear, and speak.

Excerpt from This Podcast

8:31 — What does the word “ex-victim,” that’s printed on your shirt, mean?

Paula: I don’t need to be ashamed because somebody else did me harm. I can claim victory over that. I don’t have to do it, but I also don’t need to run away from what it was. I can’t heal from something I never admitted happened. I’ve got to own the fact that it happened. I’ve got to own that I was a victim, not to stay there and make it my ID, but I get to own it so that I can say there’s healing, there’s change, there’s growth. I don’t have to be that any more. And by wearing a shirt that says that, I’m letting other people see that I’m not walking in shame anymore. I can own the past and not be there anymore and claim a completely different future, where that past in my story helps me help other people.

8:31 — How do you sustain a mentality of not being a next victim?

Paula: It has been renewing my mind. It’s a nice Scripture to say, “Oh yeah, you’re supposed to renew your mind” and everybody knows that, but what are you actively doing to renew your mind? In my case, if I’m not facing God, if I’m not choosing truth, if I am not actively creating new neural pathways in my mind in the thought processes, then I will be automatically reverting to the victim mindset: in the damage and the susceptibility to perpetrators, and to situations. I have lists of perpetrators, male and female, over 40 years of damage.

And so for me, learning and shifting and changing those thought processes and those patterns, and recognizing where that truth is in my story, and having to have that be absolute front of mind focus—it’s not a random thing, “Oh, I should read the Bible because that’s a good Christian thing to do.” It is a lifeline for me. It is absolutely necessary to be able to stay an ex-victim. It is necessary to have the courage to step out and tell my story and to encourage other people to do that. It is the truth that sets us free. If I don’t have that truth constantly there, then the lies take over and that’s not okay.

Episode Links:

• Bloom in the Dark website
• Bloom in the Dark book
• Bloom Today on Amazon Prime

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The Open Bible is one of the more than 50 Bible study references conveniently available to members of Bible Gateway Plus.

As mentioned in the above video and podcast, The Open Bible offers clean and easy navigation through the connectivity of Scripture with a time-tested complete reference system trusted by millions. Insightful book introductions and outlines also assist your study, offering context and themes running through from beginning to end.

The Scriptures could not be more current as they speak into the very real questions and struggles people face every day. Pastor Jonathan “JP” Pokluda talks about using the Bible as a blueprint given by a loving God to a culture hungry for answers and hope.

Harris Creek Baptist Church

Jeremiah 29:7 says, “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you.” For the prophet Jeremiah and God’s people living in exile, these words from the Lord were not easy to hear, much less to accept and put into practice. Being an outcast of society in an unusual place, Jeremiah realized these instructions from God would take him out of his comfort zone and into community with other individuals who might be far different from himself. Yet it was in this position of exile that God called his people to embody an incarnational approach to ministry; God’s people were asked to pursue the best interests of others and prepare the way for the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

Harris Creek Baptist Church’ philosophical approach to ministry is to embody the gospel by loving God and serving the community.

Excerpt from This Podcast

11:34 — The Bible addresses the things that people are dealing with. The Bible is our blueprint. How does that play out in your own life and in your ministry?

Pastor JP: The Bible is our authority or conscience and our guide. I’m a Bible teacher. The church teaches Scripture. This is the living book. This is the instruction that God has given us. It’s the way that we know who he is. It’s suitable for training, correcting, rebuking, teaching, training, and righteousness, as the Scripture says.

If I’m in a situation where I don’t know what to do, I start there. That was one of God’s graces in my life. I got in a community group early on in my marriage which was a train wreck because I was worldly and I was selfish and narcissistic. I got plugged in with these guys that I didn’t like; we were so different! And when I would ask a question they would just say, “Hey, we’ll listen. Turn to Luke 18.” I’m, like, “Who knows what’s in Luke 18?” They did! Because they had studied; they were men of the Book; they studied the Word. And I learned at that time, like, wow, this is really helpful!

13:40 — I would start with what God says and understand that he’s a loving God. Critics of the Bible say it’s outdated and this and that. It’s really not! It transcends time; it applies to today. I was just reading something and I thought how amazing is this, that this was written a couple thousand years ago!…. I can get caught up in the pattern of this world and then I turn to Romans 12:1 and 2, where it says do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you’ll be able to test and approve what God’s will is; his good, pleasing, perfect will. And so I’m in the situation where I’m asking, “God, what is your will? What do you want me to do?” He’s, like, wait a minute; is my heart getting swept up in the current of this world or am I starting my day by meditating on the Scriptures, renewing my mind around the things of God and what the Scriptures say so that I can test and approve what is good, pleasing, and his perfect will.

Episode Links

• Welcome to Adulting: Navigating Faith, Friendship, Finances, and the Future (Baker Books, 2019)
• Harris Creek Baptist Church
• The Porch at Watermark Community Church

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The NET Bible is one of the more than 50 Bible study references conveniently available to members of Bible Gateway Plus.

Ever feel lost in translation? With the new NET Bible and translator notes (mentioned in the above video and podcast), you don’t need to be.

Modern readers can find it challenging to connect with the ancient words and cultural contexts of the biblical writers. The NET offers a completely new solution: pairing a readable, everyday English translation with the largest set of translators’ notes ever created for a Bible.

The NET’s 60,000 notes bring complete transparency to every major translation decision and invite you to look over the translators’ shoulders, allowing you to come to your own understanding of the Scriptures. It is an indispensable resource for every Bible reader.

The Bible says love is an action word. In this episode of Bible Connection, Pastor Paul Palmer shares how the Atlanta Dream Center began from a simple beginning to a multi-faceted ministry with programs to reach, rescue, and restore children and families in need, the homeless, and the sexually exploited.

Atlanta Dream Center

The Atlanta Dream Center (ADC), founded in 2003 by Pastor Paul Palmer and his family, exists to reach the lost, rescue those in need, and restore the brokenhearted. These objectives are met through three major ministries: iAm (men), Out of Darkness (women), and Metro Kids (children).

ADC’s desire is to share the love of God with everyone so that they, too, will follow him. ADC believes love is an action word. It is the guiding principle behind all the people of ADC say and do. It’s why when they see a need, they act, and why their overarching desire is to reach the lost, rescue those in need, and restore the brokenhearted.

Excerpt from This Podcast

13:50 — Your website features Isaiah 61:1-3 which talks about the anointed servant of God who is preaching the good news and he’s bringing hope to those who are hopeless.

Pastor Paul Palmer: Yes, these verses empower our ministry. They describe those who were broken, those who were hopeless, those who were lost and without a shepherd, and all those other things. That Scripture was very fitting for us. When the prophet Isaiah wrote that, he didn’t realize he was really prophesying about the King Jesus (Luke 4:14-30).

We want to walk in those same footsteps. We always hear what Jesus would never be found in the church; he’d be on the street where the homeless are and the drug addictions and the prostitutes. Yeah, he’s there, too! We thought that was a great Scripture to describe who we were as a statement for the Atlanta Dream Center: that we are after those that are broken and we care for those.

We’re following Matthew 25; we’re feeding those who are hungry, clothing those who are naked, visiting those in jail and in prison. We, too, find that that is our calling. For us at the Atlanta Dream Center it has been fruitful: thousands and thousands of people have been ministered to, thousands have come to Christ, thousands been baptized, and it has been a Scripture that is true. So it’s not something that we picked out of the Bible just because it sounded good; it has become life for us.

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The Open Bible is one of the more than 50 Bible study references conveniently available to members of Bible Gateway Plus.

As mentioned in the above video and podcast, The Open Bible offers clean and easy navigation through the connectivity of Scripture with a time-tested complete reference system trusted by millions. Insightful book introductions and outlines also assist your study, offering context and themes running through from beginning to end.