Dee Brestin - He Calls You Beautiful: Hearing the Voice of Jesus in the Song of Songs

Praise for

He Calls You Beautiful

Dee Brestin has a lovely, lyrical writing voice, perfectly suited to the Song of Songs. Verse by verse, she engages each of our five senses to help us truly experience the breathtaking love of God. The resources and questions she offers for Bible studies are exceptional. And her sheer passion for Him captures our hearts and minds until we too are swept up in His divine dance. He Calls You Beautiful is just thatbeautiful. I learned so much and loved every word!

L IZ C URTIS H IGGS , best-selling author of 31 Verses to Write on Your Heart

Every womans heart longs for her own personal love story in which she is desired, pursued, and cherished. As I read Dees new book, He Calls You Beautiful, I wept again and again at the depth of love God has for me and for you. I underlined whole paragraphs so I could go back and read them again. If you long for your faith to move out of your head and into your heart, savor this book. You will feel undeniably loved.

L ESLIE V ERNICK , Christian counselor, relationship coach, speaker, and author of numerous books including The Emotionally Destructive Marriage

Dee Brestin joyfully leads readers through the enigmatic book of Song of Songs, causing our hearts to melt with the beauty of Christ and making us long for more intimacy with Christ.

N ANCY G UTHRIE , author of the Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament Bible study series

Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the most beloved and influential writers of the Middle Ages, believed he could interpret the entire Bible through one book, the Song of Songs. Imagine seeing not the Gospels or Galatians or Romans but the Song of Songs as the best lens for understanding all of Gods heart in all of Gods Word. This seems strange to those of us who might approach this book of the Bible with detached curiosity and lingering questions. Yet drawing on trusted resources and relentlessly pointing her readers back to communion with Christ, Dee Brestin similarly navigates between the false choices of romantic love poem or simple allegory to help readers embrace the modern-day relevance of this ancient song.

R ANKIN W ILBOURNE , pastor and author of Union with Christ

In He Calls You Beautiful, Dee Brestin poignantly weaves together story and biblical truths to illustrate Gods enraptured heart for His people. Several times as I read these pages, it was almost as if His breath was on the back of my neck. I had chills, feeling this nearness that Dee extracts so aptly from the Song of Songs. Just one chapter into this book and I was already making a list of friends with whom to share it. This is an excellent read for the hungry believer.

S ARA H AGERTY , author of Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet

Dee Brestins fine books always strike me as deeply human, personal in the very best sense. This one is supremely so. Dee has done her homework. Taking the Song of Songs as a living picture of an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus, she traces the relationship from before its beginning to its death-defeating end. Even those Bible students who do not follow all the parallels she sees will be greatly enriched by letting her help them dig into this Old Testament illustration of Christ and His bride, the church.

G REG R. S CHARF , professor of homiletics and chair of the department of pastoral theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and author of Relational Preaching: Knowing God, His Word, and Your Hearers

My years of ministry to women struggling with relational and sexual brokenness have shown me how often they find it difficult to understand the depths of Jesuss tender love for us and how He actually can transform our lives! People all around us have distorted views of sexuality and feel trapped in patterns of disordered desires. Now in He Calls You Beautiful, I have a resource to offer that plumbs the beauty and wonder of intimate love with God, and the glory of His design for sexuality within marriage. I highly commend this book to the single and married, younger and older, because it will guide you through the Song of Solomon, a book often misunderstood or avoided, into the spacious place of intimacy with Christ!

E LLEN M ARY D YKAS , womens ministry director at Harvest USA and author of Sexual Sanity for Women

B OOKS BY D EE B RESTIN

The Friendships of Women

Idol Lies

The God of All Comfort

Falling in Love with Jesus (coauthored with Kathy Troccoli)

D EE S B IBLE S TUDIES S ERIES

A Woman of Wisdom

A Woman of Worship

A Woman of Contentment

A Woman of Love

A Woman of Beauty

F ISHERMAN B IBLE S TUDYGUIDES

Examining the Claims of Jesus

Proverbs and Parables

Building Your House on the Lord

Friendship

A full list of Dees books can be found on her website: DeeBrestin.com

H E C ALLS Y OU B EAUTIFUL

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the ESV Bible (the Holy Bible, English Standard Version), ESV Permanent Text Edition (2016), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked ( KJV ) are taken from the King James Version. Scripture quotations marked ( NIV ) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked ( NRSV ) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Italics in Scripture quotations reflect the authors added emphasis.

Details in some anecdotes and stories have been changed to protect the identities of the persons involved.

Trade Paperback ISBN9781601429902

Ebook ISBN9781601429919

Copyright 2017 by Dee Brestin

Cover design by Kelly L. Howard; cover photography by KNSY

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

M ULTNOMAH and its mountain colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

The Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the Library of Congress.

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Dedicated to Linda Strom.

How radiant you are as you look to Him,

beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun.

You and your vast team of prison volunteers are

awesome as an army with banners.

Song of Songs 6:10

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.