Marriage Conference

We are excited to be hosting our first ever marriage conference here at PVC. Whether you've been married four weeks or forty years there are fundamental principles that govern the marriage relationship. When these principles are practiced, a couple is positioned to fall in love. When they are not, couples often fall out of love.

These principles could be looked at similar to a path. As you journey down the path, it takes you somewhere. The LovePath guides you through falling in love, growing in love, or, when necessary, rescuing lost love.

Special guest and founder of The LovePath,  Joe Beam, will be speaking at our first annual Marriage Conference. Joe comes with years of experience working with marriages. He’s been featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, Focus on the Family and authored over five books, including Becoming One: Emotionally, Spiritually & Sexually,Getting Past Guilt and Your Love Path. Here are a few of the topics the sessions will be addressing:

• What makes us attractive to our spouses
• How to resolve conflict
• How to forgive
• Sexual fulfillment in marriage

A few years back Joe Beam was featured on The Montel Williams Show as Montel was digging into the story of a marriage that was beyond hope, yet somehow the couple began following a few simply principles that miracously brought them back together. These principles are those laid out in Joe Beam's LovePath. You can check out an excerpt from the actual show below.



For more information or to register for the upcoming conference.

The Journey Begins :: Marah :: part two

Over the last several weeks in New Community, we've been looking at the Israelite's journey from Egypt to the Promise Land. Interestingly, God choose to take them on a route other than the one that would have been the most direct.

Why? What was His purpose in doing so?

There were lessons He wanted them to learn, principles He wanted them to understand. He was forming them into the kind of people He wanted them to become. 1 Corinthians 10 teaches us that they were given as examples for us to learn from.

What can we learn from them? Are there ways in which God dealt with them, that He also deals with us? Are there principles He wanted them to embody, that He also wants us to embody as well?

The following are a few reflective thoughts inspired by Exodus 15:22-26.

v. 22 :: Voices, Death & New Identity

22aThen Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur.

Our journey with God isn’t designed to always be comfortable.

We all need voices in our lives that remind us (regardless of how good our present circumstances look) that this is not our destination…

Who (or what) are the voices in your life?

The Journey Begins :: Marah :: part one

Though written centuries ago, it is as relevant today in our own lives, as it was thousands of years ago. I’m amazed, again and again at how rich passages of Scripture are and how much can be learned from them. Especially passages, like the passage in Exodus, where Israel journeys to Marah. The following are a few principles regarding spiritual formation and discipleship that we can learn from Israel's experience found in Exodus 15:22-24.

Israel had just finished singing their song of triumph. Deliverance from the bondage of Egypt wasn't the destination, rather it was simply the beginning of their journey with God. It is with this journey, that God began the process of forming Israel into the people He had called them to be.

There comes a time for all of us,
where the songs of our lips are tested by the fortitude of our hearts and the way of our feet.

The journey isn’t just about getting us out of Egypt,
it’s about getting Egypt out of us.

We often think of Israel's time in the desert as dreary experience, but consider how the prophet Jeremiah portrays God's perspective. 

 ²I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you love me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown. ³Israel was holy to the LORD. Jeremiah 2:2-3

As the echo's of Israel's song can still be heard on the banks of the Red Sea, God leads them away from that which was comfortable and represented safety into the desert.