About

About Praying with the Eyes – by Douglas Brauner

The Praying With The Eyes Blog and Website

Website LogoPraying With The Eyes began on September 6, 2012 after only one day of thought. Though only an amateur photographer, my computer hard drive was growing with gigabytes of pictures. As I’ve grown as a photographer I’ve looked for ways to share my pictures. I’ve donated prints to different auctions, posted photographs of my travels on Facebook, and used them for various other purposes. But I wanted to do more with them.

DougOn September 5, 2012 the idea of posting a daily devotional blog that featured one of these pictures was hatched and the next day I post my first blog introducing these devotions. My first devotional blog, Even Batman Needs a Cave, posted on September 7. I wrote a new blog every day for the first year of PWTE’s existence (a major accomplishment in my life). And have posted a devotion each day since its start.

An article I read by Dewitt Jones in the Outdoor Photographer inspired the name, Praying With The Eyes. In this article he wrote about praying with his eyes, or something like that. The name stuck with me. It reflects what I’ve attempted to do with these blogs, namely, to connect the beauty of God’s Word with the Beauty of God’s Creation, or, praying with the eyes.

My belief that God is the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier influences my photography. Landscapes are not just landscapes, they are forms and features created by God. All people, whether they know Christ or not, are creatures of his gracious hands and people for whom Christ died. Sinner/saints who struggle to live their faith in this one God fill the church. This is the person behind the lens of his Sony D-SLR.

It’s also the person behind the writing of the PWTE daily devotions. I firmly believe that God emptied heaven of his Son, Jesus Christ. His sacrifice on a cross has redeemed me a lost and condemned person. Many of these blogs act as a journal of my life. I don’t write with that intent, but I don’t hide my struggles, and I don’t hide my thanks for God’s gracious work in my life.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner

Copyright Douglas P Brauner

As the PWTE ministry grew it became clear that instead of these devotional posts appearing in Blogspot, I needed a website. The website is not about Doug Brauner. It’s about people sharing their faith in Jesus Christ with a larger community. Yes, my daily devotional blogs appear on the website, along with other devotional writers, but so do other blogs on various topics from different authors as we all seek to connect the beauty of God’s Word with the beauty of his creation even though we might not all be photographers.

So, in May of 2015 the PWTE website was born. This website serves another important function for the PWTE ministry as it hosts the PWTE podcast.

The Praying With The Eyes Podcast

IMG_9456IMG_9414In October of 2014 my friend, Tim Wacher, encouraged me to take my daily devotional blogs and develop them into a weekly, hour-long internet broadcast. And so on November 16, 2014 the first PWTE broadcast aired on the iB network. We IMG_9446broadcast a weekly episode for 26 weeks, but toward the end I realized I couldn’t keep up this pace and still fulfill my duties as a pastor. So, the PWTE podcast replaced the broadcast and instead of airing every week, I could focus on producing a new program twice a month.

There are two important audio recording produced by the PWTE podcast ministry.

  1. an audio recording of the PWTE daily devotional, and
  2. the PWTE bi-monthly podcast

Each of these recordings can be found at SoundCloud.com.

It is exciting to see what God will do next with this ministry. To Him be the Glory!

About Holy Cross Lutheran Church

Holy Cross Sanctuary

4125 Constitution Ave, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80909 (719)596-0661

Click on this link to visit the Holy Cross Lutheran Church website

Mission Mandate (Our Calling)

Holy Cross Lutheran Church encourages those who hunger to be nourished by God.

  • We believe that God has called us to encourage people who hunger physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually to seek nourishment from God.
  • We believe that we cannot force anyone to come to God through Jesus Christ, but that we can offer his grace and mercy both in what we say and how we act.

Holy Cross SanctuaryMission Motives (Our Values)

  • We value SHARING CHRIST with others.
  • We value SEEKING CONNECTIONS with others.
  • We value STUDYING GOD’S WORD (the Bible) with others.
  • We value SHOWING COMPASSION to others.
  • We value SERVING OTHERS

Mission Map (Our Strategy)

  • We encourage those who hunger to be nourished by God in WORSHIP.
  • We encourage those who hunger to be nourished by God through GROWING in grace as we dig into God’s Word.
  • We encourage those who hunger to be nourished by God through SERVING others.

Mission Marks (Our Desire)

  • We desire that people WORSHIP GOD and RECEIVE from him BEYOND SUNDAY.
  • We desire that people STUDY the Bible and PRAY EACH DAY.
  • We desire that people SERVE AND GIVE GENEROUSLY to God and those in need.
  • We desire that people INVITE OTHERS to meet Jesus by SHARING CHRIST in their lives.
  • We desire that people SEEK  RELATIONSHIPS and NOURISH those RELATIONSHIPS.

 

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