(Photo by Selma Komisky)

Editor’s Note: November, 2022

By Sarah Komisky

We’ve talked a lot this year on the subject of purity but all of it has culminated in this current issue, Reacquaint.

The purity movement and culture thereafter sparked an initial desire to connect with God. Its roots were deeply centered in the heart and longing to know God. To please God. To walk with Him and with others in purity. As a survivor of the culture, I think back with delight on this time as a teen. There were youth groups, music, concerts, and Bible teaching and all of it drew and calls us into a relationship with God. For those who weren’t there in the initial wave of the movement, I can tell you this, it was exciting.

With all the negatives we hear of the movement, I want to share some positives (because they did exist). This movement really called youth to rethink our lives with a calling to cultivate our own journey with God, and make healthy, spiritual choices. Just like the youth of the Jesus Movement in the 60s and 70s were called out to be a radical group of a passionate generation that wanted to know God, our 90s and early 00s generation of the purity movement really saw a wave of teens and twenty-somethings who wanted to connect to God. We just were a little misguided in the why we connect to God and others in purity. But also misguided in our “how” to live it out with God and others.

Although we didn’t come out unscathed and some of the bruises still need healing, I believe we are ready now after the things we have talked about to get back to the center of this whole movement – purity which is God.

While many of us due to church hurt or toxic experiences started excited and experienced the initial wonder of knowing God would be honest to say that the wonder and excitement have faded like a dimming candle. Maybe the candle has completely been blown out in our deep hurt, resentment, bitterness, and cynicism, but even as a candle is burnt out, the good thing is that it can be relit.

But the question for all readers out there is why does the flame need to sparked again?

Well, let’s catch vision of the original designer of purity – God. There is no point in walking in purity if there is no relationship involved. This is the main ingredient the purity movement lacked. Knowing God is to have a heart connection. We are in dire need of experiential, tangible, real, and honest connection with God. This means pouring out our anger, questions, confusion, pain, and disillusionment. The Bible promises when we draw close, He will draw close to us.

This month, we are challenging all readers to re-embrace, maybe as we once did, the idea of God and a relationship with Him. No weird rules. No guilt motives. No fear-based interaction. This is about getting to know God. To understand His heart of purity minus all the man-made things we’ve adopted in the movement. Our minds, hearts, bodies, and spirits need renewal. We need a desperate deprogramming of what has been downloaded into our systems and remember that teenager who was excited about the possibilities of knowing God. Who felt overcome with a passion to go after God like never before. Remember that teenager? They may be all grown up now but it’s worth connecting with him or her again.

This November issue entitled, “Re-Aquaint” is simply about the possibility. Opening ourselves up to a re-acquainting of God in our current life. We at Marked Ministry Magazine hope you are refreshed, surprised, and sparked with a new picture of God and what it means to walk in purity with him and let that overflow to others.

To join us in the discussion, we’ve invited the team to share their stories and ponder their thoughts on the subject with the hopes of encouraging you to do the same.

We’ve also invited MeryMe’s Mike Scheuchzer to talk with us “Always Only Jesus,” Reacquaint, and much more with MM Writer, Emily. You definitely want to catch that out this showcase including a brand new article from none other than Elvis Presley’s stepbrother, Billy Stanley on the life and faith of the rock n roll icon.

To understand purity is to understand God. To know the “why” in purity is to connect with God. Purity is God and to be pure is to be connected to God.

“But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’”

– Matthew 22: 34-40 (ESV)

Join us as we get reacquainted.