Newlife-Outreach

The Power That Works In Us

Juan Perez — Fri, 23 Oct 2020 20:48:40 GMT

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.Ephesians 3:20-21 (NASB)

I have a habit of searching for verses and passages within the Sacred Scriptures, which catch my attention, and there are many. Each catches my attention, often for different reasons. Usually, the reason is that the verse, or passage, seems to be saying (or teaching) more than what seems obvious. When this happens, questions pop into my head regarding what I just read, and I want to know the answers.

As well, I have learned that the obvious is not always the reality. Using modern-day concepts, knowledge, and interpretation methods (in English) may only produce a lessor explanation of the meaning, or teaching, of the Scripture in question. I have learned to read a verse or passage in the Bible and use my knowledge from studying their past culture. Their use of words and phrases, the contexts used (as of the time of writing), and so forth. Reading Scripture in this manner will often lead me to an understanding which is different from the seemingly obvious. For example, in Spanish, when someone wants to invite everyone they know to a Fiesta, one would use the phrase, “Invita todo el Mundo.” In English, this means, “Invite the whole world” (literally). The meaning that is understood by the speakers and those who hear the phrase uttered is, “Invite anyone you want” (or everyone). The “todo el Mundo” part removes the limit of invitees. Therefore, for a better and more precise understanding of what the Bible teaches, one must consider the above factors to reach a better conclusion regarding what the teaching or meaning may be. On the other hand, many times, the Bible means exactly what it says.

As far as this article is concerned, I will pay careful attention to the Ephesians 3:20-21 (NASB) verse listed at the beginning of this article. I use the NASB in all my studies. It is the version of my preference. I usually begin with identifying any keywords or phrases (at least from my perspective), and then I go forth.

A STUDY OF THE VERSE

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

For me, the keys words or phrases here are:

· Able.

· Far more abundantly.

· Beyond all.

· Ask or think.

· According to the Power.

· Works in us.

· The Glory.

These keywords or phrases are those which catch my attention. They draw my attention for different reasons, mostly because they are not immediately clear about what they mean. Most persons will read these words in English and decide that they understand and immediately stop any further investigation into the possible meaning or teaching of this verse. In essence, they will think they already understand all they need to know and go on to the next verse. I am different. I need to know the answers which were not apparent from one reading.

The first question I have is, “Of whom is this verse speaking?” Notice the phrasing, “Now to Him …, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus…” Well, since our Lord, Jesus, is mentioned, we can safely deduce that He is not the “Him” referred to twice. A glance at the context in which we find the verse (reading before and after the passage) tells me that the “Him” referred to here is the Father (see verse 14). We must know who “He” is because we will also be investigating whom it is that can “do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.”

The second question which comes to mind is, “What is the main argument of the verse, or what is it trying to get across to me?” For example, does it say that the Father will, or must, be glorified in the church and Christ Jesus, or that the Father has the power and ability to work through us and somehow do much more than we can ask or conceive, and that He will be glorified in this manner? The answer is, “yes.” They are both right. But, all of this only produces more questions.

The next question which demands an answer is, “What does glorified mean?” The Greek word is δόξα (doxa). Pronounced: dox’-ah. Vine’s Dictionary of Words lists it as meaning: Dignity, Dignities, Glory, Glorious, and Honor.

Though translated into several others, in Greek, the same word is intended. In the KJV, they are:

· glory 145 (times),

· glorious 10,

· honor 6,

· praise 4,

· dignity 2, and

· worship 1.

There are a total number of 168 uses, and all of them, used in different ways, is the same word, “doxa.”

Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words goes on to say that “doxa” has a further signification, “an opinion, estimate, and hence, the honor resulting from a good opinion.” In other words, (regarding Ephesians 3:20-21), the idea is that the Father receives high praise, much regard, and placed in a high honor position. We can safely say that giving the Father glory means to speak highly of Him, to brag about His ability to do this or that, and to show Him the highest respect (in whatever manner we can) at all times.

At this point, I feel comfortable that I understand two things regarding the verses in question; one, we are speaking of the Father specifically, and, two, that He must receive glory (as defined above). So then the next question comes up, “Why should the Father be glorified?” The average reader of the Bible will answer, “Because He is God!” The answer sounds nice and is the religious response that is appropriate and true. The answer belies the Biblical instruction to “do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. “More important than knowing the truth is understanding why it is the truth.” Scripture encourages us to “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). So, you see, if someone spits out any old answer because they feel, or believe, that it is the right answer, they are disobeying the Scriptures’ instruction to “test the “spirit.”

WHY SHOULD THE FATHER BE GLORIFIED?

So, let’s go back to the question, “Why should the Father be glorified?” The answer is that we must glorify the Father because He can “do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.” That’s why! But, this now presents even more questions. The next question is, “What is this “power” to which the verse refers?”

The Greek word is δύναμις (dunamis). The phonetic pronunciation is doo’-nam-is. Vine’s Dictionary of Words says it means: ability, able, meaning, might (noun), mighty, mightily, mightier, miracle, power, strength, and strengthen.” It is used in the Bible 120 times and translated in those different locations as power 77, mighty work 11, strength 7, miracle 7, might 4, virtue 3, mighty 2, and miscellaneous translations nine times. The definition includes (literal or figurative); incredibly miraculous power (usually by implication a miracle itself): - ability, abundance, meaning, might (-ily, -y, -y deed), (worker of) miracle (-s), power, strength, violence, and mighty (incredible) work (according to Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary). By the way, “dunamis” is the Greek word which we use to get the English term, “dynamite.”

Careful attention to the definitions and intended meaning will lead us to the correct understanding of the word “power.” Since it “works within us,” it does not necessarily imply that it is a natural part of us. In other words, it may be something that can enter us, perform its function, and then leave. The phrasing of the verse and its context in the chapter does not allow an interpretation that includes this power being a natural part of us as humans. Therefore, we must conclude that this power can function within us but not necessarily be controlled by us alone.

In any case, it seems, based on the data garnered from the above resources, the word “power” here means a dynamic ability that is not controlled by us and which is capable of miraculous results and performance. What I get from this is that there is a power that can function in us (as humans), which can accomplish powerful and miraculous things. And, continuing with the verse’s context, it seems that this power comes from, or is used by, the Father. This last point is important to me because it answers the question of ability (as in “who is able”), the fact that it is the Father who is the One who is “able.” Jesus Himself clearly states in Matthew 19:26 that “with God all things are possible.” So there is no question of the Father’s ability to do whatever He deems.

HOW DOES THE POWER “WORK” IN US?

To me, the next question is, “How does this “power” “work” in us? We will find the answer by understanding the phrase “according to” in the verses themselves. I won’t go into all of the Greek word usage and Vine’s explanations again, but I will summarize. The phrase “according to” implies a pattern of sorts, conditions or stipulations, requirements, or steps to be followed. The safe conclusion we can make is that the phrase “according to” in this verse indicates that there is a process that is required for this “power” to “work” in us. This could mean the Father Himself would need to do something specific or that we would need to do something specific for this power to “work” in us. In either case, something seems to be required for the “power” to “work” in us.

The next obvious question is, “What are the requirements?” The verse does not say, nor is the answer found in the chapter. But, the real question is not just, “What are the requirements,” but instead, “Are these ‘requirements’ something that we as humans must know?” The answer to that question will answer the first. To find out whether we, as humans, must know what those “requirements” are, we must first decide whether it is the Father who must meet the “requirements” or we. And that, dear reader, depends on how this power works “in” us.

So, therefore, my next question is, “What does the verse mean when it says “in us?” Specifically, I question the word “in.” Is this saying:

· that this power literally enters humans, so that it resides in us.

· Or is it saying that it is something that humans may use but not necessarily be inside us?

· Or is it saying that the Father uses this “power” in an external manner that affects humans internally?”

I tend to go for the last point. In context with the rest of the Bible, in general, the third option above makes more sense. I believe that the verse teaches that the Father can bring about “miraculous” circumstances in the lives of those who meet the conditions required for this “power” to perform its intended function. By saying “those who meet the conditions required,” I am not saying that I believe these verses indicate that we as humans must do anything as such. I believe this verse’s context implies that there are conditions that must exist in humans for the Father to use this “power” to affect our lives. For example, in Mark 19:26, Jesus said, “All things are possible to him who believes.” The question here is not whether “all” things are possible, but rather howall things are possible. The statement dictates that belief is required. It does not make an obvious clarification as to whom must have this belief. Still, by implication, and the following actions of Christ Jesus Himself, the understanding is that the one performing is the one required to believe.

The Ephesians verse does not have a clear indication of who is to meet whatever conditions are required. The context, which includes the Mark verse teaching, will allow us to conclude that it could be either the Father Himself or the human involved, who must meet the required condition for the “power” to work. But, there is one more consideration, God must be the one who gets the “glory.” So, with this in mind, we can now safely conclude that it is the Father Himself who must meet the conditions required to use the “power that works within us.” If it is He who meets the requirements and “works the power,” then it is He who deserves the glory (credit) for the outcome of the use of the “power.”

WHAT DOES ABUNDANT MEAN?

My next question has to do with the phrase, “far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.” The word “abundant” is one that is readily clear, and it means “plentiful, copious, ample, profuse, rich, lavish, abounding, liberal, generous, and bountiful” In other words, enough; enough of whatever for whatever purpose or use. The general belief regarding God’s provision (or instead, what God can provide) is that He always provides what is needed; therefore: enough (abundant). In the case of this verse, though, it says that the Father can go “beyond” the limits of enough. “Enough” should, in and of itself, be enough. Who needs more than enough? If the Father were only to give each believer “enough,” they would never lack in anything, right? But the argument here is that the Father can go “beyond” enough. Not only that, but that he can go beyond “all that we ask or think.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but, as you can see by this rather lengthy article on just two verses from the Bible, I can think quite a lot. So, we must investigate this phrase a bit more. The question here is, “What does this verse mean by all that we ask or think?” To understand the meaning in its most precise form, let’s look at the word “all.” Not to be silly, because “all” in the Greek still means “all.” By implication, in this verse, it means “Everything that we (as humans) can come up with to ask of God. What would this include for you? For me, I could write a book of around 100,000 words (sort of like a long novel), and I probably would still not be finished. Why, you might ask? Because I am human.

Humans are born selfish. Give two babies a toy each, and they will want the toy of the other, even if it is the same type of toy. Why? Because we are born selfish. As we grow older, hopefully, we learn to become less selfish and more selfless. We never stop being selfish, but many of us learn to sacrifice some of that selfishness for the greater good. Usually, that “greater good” is something that benefits us as well also. So, when it comes to what we can ask God for, we have an “abundant,” or should I say, a plethora of requests and supplications. We can ask God for some things which will benefit us alone, our families, our friends, our church members, our country, the world, and so forth. There almost seems to be no limit to what we, as humans, can ask of God. Nevertheless, the verse claims that the Father can do “more” (than enough) abundantly than we ask.

A GREAT IMAGINATION

On top of that, the verse further claims that the Father cannot only do “more” than we ask but that He can do “more abundantly” than we think; and this is the most significant point of the two verses, the main keyword. The “requirements” (for the power to be able to work in us), if any, may be found here.

As I said before, I don’t know about you, but I have a fantastic imagination. I am a writer, as you can see. I also write books about politics, counseling, and in August of 2015, I just published my latest book, “Another Star in the Sky.” This last book is a science fiction story about aliens who come to Earth. If you go to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Smashwords on the internet, you can buy a copy of the book. The story has over 60,000 words in it. The point is that I have a relatively limitless imagination. I can understand abstract concepts with which some people may have a problem. Many people on this planet have the same capacity as I, and maybe even to a greater degree.

My point is that if the Father can do “more than enough” compared to what I can imagine, then He is truly magnificent. I can imagine the Father blessing me with 200 million dollars. With that kind of money, the first thing I would do is set aside a simple 50 million for personal expenses. Then I would create a non-profit corporation and manage the remaining 150 million. First, I would make sure that my ministry had all the funds it needed. Then, via the corporation, I would find ways to help people, churches, and so forth, in the name of the Father, so that He would get all the credit (glory).

In many cases, I would make sure the people or organizations did not know who gave the money so that God would get all the credit, and not me. Sure it would feel great to give people money (in the name of the Lord) and for them to be thankful to me as well, but for him to get the glory (honor, worship, and praise) most of the time, the recipients could not know from where the money came. You see, I can imagine much. By the way, I just used a small number like 200 million as an example, but I can imagine a much more considerable amount.

FINAL POINTS

Getting back to our discussion regarding Ephesians 3:20-21, what is precisely what the verse is saying and teaching. These are two different points:

It says that the Father should get all the credit for His ability to perform miracles and do things beyond human comprehension. The human must be willing to believe in His capacity to do so because the performance of those things requires belief on the human’s part (in this case, it probably means to have faith in God’s ability to perform). God wants you to give Him a chance to show you that He can do what He says He can do. When he works “the power” through you, He wants to get the glory for what He does. When others see Him perform through you, your stated belief will show them He did what happened. The Father should get this credit from His church, as He already does from His Son, our Lord Christ Jesus, forever and ever.

These verses teach that God wants us to learn to free our imaginations regarding what He can do.

· He wants us to believe without limit.

· He wants us to dream of the great things that He can accomplish in our lives.

· He wants us not to doubt ourselves as to how greatly He can use us.

Ephesians 3:20-21 (NASB)

The Road to Today

Pastor Juan Perez — Fri, 23 Oct 2020 19:00:32 GMT

Life, it seems, has been leading us to a specific point. Good choices and dire circumstances and situations, ups and downs, and so on, have contributed to where you find yourself today. You were not born rich or poor, happy or sad, wise or foolish, and again, so on. You began with a blank slate and have since painted the life you now live, stroke by stroke. When you were six years old in the first grade, you fought off that bully and gained confidence in yourself. Or, otherwise, you instead ran off crying and felt your self-esteem draining from your heart. Either decision, different as it is, was still going to bring you to where you are today as a believer in God. The fact that you are a believer is no accident. There was no choice in the matter; the only options were how you would get here. In Jeremiah 29:11, the Lord says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” One version of the Bible says, “an expected end,” instead of a “hope.” How can God promise an “expected” outcome? He can only keep that promise by manipulating circumstances through your life while still allowing you free will to make sure that you would end up where He wants you to be. You may ask yourself, “How can that be free will? If God is manipulating the circumstances, then it does not seem like ‘free will.’”

FREE WILL?

My aim in this article is not to write on free will, but I will explain some. God can allow you and me to make free-will decisions and still manipulate the circumstances as we continue to make choices. For example, I can choose to rob a bank, God will not interfere with my decision, but He already knows what the outcome will eventually be. So, for example, while I am serving that 15-year prison sentence, He can lead another inmate (who had come to know Christ while serving time) to get to know me. That inmate can share his testimony with me, and God uses that to draw me to Him (John 6:44). I listen and choose to believe in Jesus, and I get saved. Now let’s turn that around a bit. My buddies decide they want to rob a bank, but I choose not to join them. Instead, I meet a wonderful girl and fall madly in love with her, but there is one twist in the story. I find out that she is a Christian, and because I want to be with her so badly, I start attending church services with her. One day, I listen to the preacher, and I choose to believe what he is saying. I hear and choose to believe in Jesus, and I get saved. Two different stories but the same result. I had free will in each account, but God still manipulated the circumstances to draw me to Him. In each case, I made my own choices, but God nevertheless worked out what He wanted to happen (Proverbs 16:9 - The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps).

There has always been a point to which everything inside of you was heading. This point was something that God decided before He created the universe. Ephesians 1:4 includes this phrase, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” In verse 11, it adds this part, “… having been predestined according to His purpose.” From the beginning, God has been working on every bit and circumstance to make sure that those who names are in the Book of Life (Psalms 69:27-28; Daniel 12:1; Luke 10:20; Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; Revelation 20:15) would be get saved and live eternally with Him. If God chose you in Him from the beginning, you have been on this road toward salvation from the day you were born. God did not interfere with your choices unless they had the danger of leading off the path He had for you. God did not interfere with the circumstances or situations in your life (good or bad) unless they could detract you from the goal He had for you. Notice Jeremiah 10:23, “I know, O LORD, that a man’s way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.” God will not allow someone who He has chosen to be with Him to be lost. His love for you does not include that option.

CONSIDER MY LIFE

While considering my own life, the circumstances, and the situations which occurred, all my various choices, good and bad, wise and stupid, I contemplated on how each of those changed (or could have changed) the course of the road that brought me to today. At least three times, I found myself in circumstances that could have resulted in my death. In one case, someone who wanted to kill me stabbed me with a knife. Either of those cases could have ended my journey in this life, but it did not. I know now why, but at those times, I believed I was about to die. I did not recognize that God had saved me for a later purpose because I had such a low self-esteem problem. Like many others, I grew up in a dysfunctional home with bad parents, and I made terrible choices because of my anger issues. I have been married twice, with my first marriage ending only one year after we wed. In my second marriage, we almost divorced in the seventh year. I came to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior when I was 11 years old and rejected Him when I was 12. I made one wrong choice after another until I was 32 years old. At that age, I made a different choice; I gave my life to the Lord. I had known Him as my Savior, but my anger pushed me to rebel against Him. At 32, I promised Him that if He could change me, He could have me; He did His part, and I am still doing mine.

I wrote a book titled “My Search For Importance.” In it included much of how my life looked along my road to today. “Importance” was my goal, my dream, my desire, and my draw. I wanted to matter. I wanted to matter to someone. That desire was also what got me into so much trouble. Why? How? Because those people who could read me like a book (pun intended) also took advantage of me. They pulled on my heart’s string to get me to respond to them in the manner they wanted. Once I realized what they were doing (even if I just believed that it was what they were doing), I would lash out at them violently. I damaged many relationships with people who were not trying to take advantage of me because I misread their intentions. My decision and choices resulted in the loss of many relationships. Many of them I have not been able to repair. On the other hand, every one of those nudged me in this direction or that, moving me toward the goal God set for me a long time ago.

SO NOW THAT YOU KNOW

“Forewarned is forearmed,” goes the phase. The phrase means that if you find out ahead of time that someone will try to do something to you that can hurt you, you can then do something to stop them. If you can agree with what I have said already, you are now at another moment that can change your road’s direction once again. You can leave the change to the circumstances, to your desires and dreams, or you can instead consciously choose to let God take over in a way that will be obvious. Instead of just hoping and dreaming all the time, why not consider the option to have an “expected end?” Oh, I don’t mean “end” like in dying; I mean “end” like in the result, the outcome, something that you can expect to happen.

The Bible is full of instruction from the Lord on this subject. Proverbs 3:5-6 promises that God will make your life easier if you will “trust the Lord with all your heart.” The verses even tell you how to do that. They include (paraphrasing) don’t make choices according to what you think is the right way, but instead, do things the way God wants you to do them. See, God does not only tell us what we may do to get the expected end, but He explains how to do it. God does not want to make your life any harder than it already is, but He wants something from you as well; obedience. It may seem like such a huge price, but the results are worth it. In Psalm 32:8, God says to you and me, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.” He does not just say do this or do that. He walks along the road with you as you go. He knows that many of the circumstances and situations (not to mention all those bad decisions we tend to make) can have a painful toll on your life. One could become discouraged along the way, but we need to make the right decisions. Paul said it best in Philippians 3:12-14, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Did you see it? “Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.” Paul recognized that He had reached one of those moments in His life, a defining moment. He knew He had to decide that would alter his direction in life, and for the rest of it. If he tried to move forward in life while continuing to think about, be angry about, be upset about, be bitter about, and refuse to let go of his past, he could not go forward in the right direction.

God destined you to get here, where you are as a believer, your whole life. The difference was in how you got here. Those bad decisions and circumstances resulting from flawed thinking only made the road harder than it needed to be. You had no control over many things that happened. These include the actions (or inactions) of your parents, friends, relatives, and others. You had no control over what they chose to do or not do, but you did have a choice as to how you would react to those events and actions. You may not have been aware back then that you did have the option in many of those matters, but you did. The question is not what happened then; instead, will you choose to “forget” them? No, not forget as in that those memories will necessarily be erased from your memory, but “forget” as in to choose not to dwell on them. If you make this choice, you will not walk the road alone. You will not have to worry about failing or falling. The Lord makes this clear in Psalm 37:23-24, “The steps of a man are established by the LORD, and He delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong because the LORD is the One who holds his hand.” God goes on to say in Isaiah 43:18, “Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it?” You were brought to this point in your life by God. He drew you to Him because He loves you. Let Him be your guide and teacher, and He will lead you in the path (road) of righteousness.

Welcome to Ghost

Ghost — Sat, 17 Oct 2020 17:32:15 GMT

A few things you should know

Ghost is designed for ambitious, professional publishers who want to actively build a business around their content. That's who it works best for.
The entire platform can be modified and customised to suit your needs. It's very powerful, but does require some knowledge of code. Ghost is not necessarily a good platform for beginners or people who just want a simple personal blog.
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Behind the scenes

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Next up, the editor

The main thing you'll want to read about next is probably: the Ghost editor. This is where the good stuff happens.

By the way, once you're done reading, you can simply delete the default Ghost user from your team to remove all of these introductory posts!

Writing posts with Ghost ✍️

Ghost — Sat, 17 Oct 2020 17:32:14 GMT

Just start writing

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Ghost: The #1 open source headless Node.js CMS

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Ghost

Working with images in posts

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Image optimisation

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Next: Publishing Options

Once your post is looking good, you'll want to use the publishing options to ensure it gets distributed in the right places, with custom meta data, feature images and more.

Publishing options

Ghost — Sat, 17 Oct 2020 17:32:13 GMT

Distribute your content

Access the post settings menu by clicking the settings icon in the top right hand corner of the editor and discover everything you need to get your content ready for publishing. This is where you can edit things like tags, post URL, publish date and custom meta data.

Feature images, URL & excerpts

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    "headline": "Publishing options",
    "url": "http://demo.ghost.io/publishing-options",
    "datePublished": "2018-08-08T11:44:00.000Z",
    "dateModified": "2018-08-09T12:06:21.000Z",
    "keywords": "Getting Started",
    "description": "The Ghost editor has everything you need to fully optimise your content. This is where you can add tags and authors, feature a post, or turn a post into a page."
}

You can test that the structured data schema on your site is working as it should using Google’s structured data tool.

Code injection

This tool allows you to inject code on a per post or page basis, or across your entire site. This means you can modify CSS, add unique tracking codes, or add other scripts to the head or foot of your publication without making edits to your theme files.

To add code site-wide, use the code injection tool in the main admin menu. This is useful for adding a Google Analytics tracking code, or to start tracking with any other analytics tool.

To add code to a post or page, use the code injection tool within the post settings menu. This is useful if you want to add art direction, scripts or styles that are only applicable to one post or page.

Next: Admin settings

Now you understand how to create and optimise content, let's explore some admin settings so you can invite your team and start collaborating.

Managing admin settings

Ghost — Sat, 17 Oct 2020 17:32:12 GMT

Make your site private

If you've got a publication that you don't want the world to see yet because it's not ready to launch, you can hide your Ghost site behind a basic shared pass-phrase.

You can toggle this preference on at the bottom of Ghost's General Settings:

Ghost will give you a short, randomly generated pass-phrase which you can share with anyone who needs access to the site while you're working on it. While this setting is enabled, all search engine optimisation features will be switched off to help keep your site under the radar.

Do remember though, this is not secure authentication. You shouldn't rely on this feature for protecting important private data. It's just a simple, shared pass-phrase for some very basic privacy.

Invite your team

Ghost has a number of different user roles for your team:

Contributors
This is the base user level in Ghost. Contributors can create and edit their own draft posts, but they are unable to edit drafts of others or publish posts. Contributors are untrusted users with the most basic access to your publication.

Authors
Authors are the 2nd user level in Ghost. Authors can write, edit and publish their own posts. Authors are trusted users. If you don't trust users to be allowed to publish their own posts, they should be set as Contributors.

Editors
Editors are the 3rd user level in Ghost. Editors can do everything that an Author can do, but they can also edit and publish the posts of others - as well as their own. Editors can also invite new Contributors & Authors to the site.

Administrators
The top user level in Ghost is Administrator. Again, administrators can do everything that Authors and Editors can do, but they can also edit all site settings and data, not just content. Additionally, administrators have full access to invite, manage or remove any other user of the site.

The Owner
There is only ever one owner of a Ghost site. The owner is a special user which has all the same permissions as an Administrator, but with two exceptions: The Owner can never be deleted. And in some circumstances the owner will have access to additional special settings if applicable. For example: billing details, if using Ghost(Pro).

It's a good idea to ask all of your users to fill out their user profiles, including bio and social links. These will populate rich structured data for posts and generally create more opportunities for themes to fully populate their design.

Next: Organising content

Find out how to organise your content with sensible tags and authors, or for more advanced configurations, how to create custom content structures using dynamic routing.

Organising your content

Ghost — Sat, 17 Oct 2020 17:32:11 GMT

Sensible tagging

You can think of tags like Gmail labels. By tagging posts with one or more keyword, you can organise articles into buckets of related content.

When you create content for your publication you can assign tags to help differentiate between categories of content.

For example you may tag some content with News and other content with Podcast, which would create two distinct categories of content listed on /tag/news/ and /tag/podcast/, respectively.

If you tag a post with both News and Podcast - then it appears in both sections. Tag archives are like dedicated home-pages for each category of content that you have. They have their own pages, their own RSS feeds, and can support their own cover images and meta data.

The primary tag

Inside the Ghost editor, you can drag and drop tags into a specific order. The first tag in the list is always given the most importance, and some themes will only display the primary tag (the first tag in the list) by default.

News, Technology, Startup

So you can add the most important tag which you want to show up in your theme, but also add related tags which are less important.

Private tags

Sometimes you may want to assign a post a specific tag, but you don't necessarily want that tag appearing in the theme or creating an archive page. In Ghost, hashtags are private and can be used for special styling.

For example, if you sometimes publish posts with video content - you might want your theme to adapt and get rid of the sidebar for these posts, to give more space for an embedded video to fill the screen. In this case, you could use private tags to tell your theme what to do.

News, #video

Here, the theme would assign the post publicly displayed tags of News - but it would also keep a private record of the post being tagged with #video. In your theme, you could then look for private tags conditionally and give them special formatting.

You can find documentation for theme development techniques like this and many more over on Ghost's extensive theme docs.

Dynamic routing

Dynamic routing gives you the ultimate freedom to build a custom publication to suit your needs. Routes are rules that map URL patterns to your content and templates.

You may not want content tagged with News to exist on: example.com/tag/news. Instead, you want it to exist on example.com/news .

In this case you can use dynamic routes to create customised collections of content on your site. It's also possible to use multiple templates in your theme to render each content type differently.

There are lots of use cases for dynamic routing with Ghost, here are a few common examples:

Setting a custom home page with its own template
Having separate content hubs for blog and podcast, that render differently, and have custom RSS feeds to support two types of content
Creating a founders column as a unique view, by filtering content created by specific authors
Including dates in permalinks for your posts
Setting posts to have a URL relative to their primary tag like example.com/europe/story-title/

Dynamic routing can be configured in Ghost using YAML files. Read our dynamic routing documentation for further details.

Next: Apps & Integrations

Work with all your favourite apps and tools using our integrations, or create your own custom integrations with webhooks.

Apps & integrations

Ghost — Sat, 17 Oct 2020 17:32:10 GMT

Work with your existing tools

It's possible to connect your Ghost site to hundreds of the most popular apps and tools using integrations that take no more than a few minutes to setup.

Whether you need to automate workflows, connect your email list, build a community or embed products from your ecommerce store, our integrations library has got it all covered with hundreds of tutorials.

Zapier

On top of this, you can connect your Ghost site to more than 1,000 external services using the official integration with Zapier.

Zapier sets up automations with Triggers and Actions, which allows you to create and customise a wide range of connected applications.

Example: When someone new subscribes to a newsletter on a Ghost site (Trigger) then the contact information is automatically pushed into MailChimp (Action).

Here are the most popular Ghost<>Zapier automation templates:

Custom integrations

At the heart of Ghost sits a robust JSON API – designed to create, manage and retrieve content with ease.

It's possible to create custom Ghost integrations with dedicated API keys and webhooks from the Integrations page within Ghost Admin.

Beyond that, the API allows you to build entirely custom publishing apps. You can send content from your favourite desktop editor, build a custom interface for handling editorial workflow or use Ghost as a full headless CMS with a custom front-end.

The Ghost API is thoroughly documented and straightforward to work with for developers of almost any level.

Final step: Themes

Alright, on to the last post in our welcome-series! If you're curious about creating your own Ghost theme from scratch, find out how that works.

Creating a custom theme

Ghost — Sat, 17 Oct 2020 17:32:09 GMT

Ghost themes

Ghost comes with a default theme called Casper, which is designed to be a clean, readable publication layout and can be easily adapted for most purposes.

If you need something a little more customised, it's entirely possible to build on top of existing open source themes, or to build your own from scratch. Rather than giving you a few basic settings which act as a poor proxy for code, we just let you write code.

Marketplace

There are a huge range of both free and premium pre-built themes which you can download from the Ghost Theme Marketplace:

Anyone can write a completely custom Ghost theme with some solid knowledge of HTML and CSS

Theme development

Ghost themes are written with a templating language called handlebars, which has a set of dynamic helpers to insert your data into template files. For example: {{author.name}} outputs the name of the current author.

The best way to learn how to write your own Ghost theme is to have a look at the source code for Casper, which is heavily commented and should give you a sense of how everything fits together.

default.hbs is the main template file, all contexts will load inside this file unless specifically told to use a different template.
post.hbs is the file used in the context of viewing a post.
index.hbs is the file used in the context of viewing the home page.
and so on

We've got full and extensive theme documentation which outlines every template file, context and helper that you can use. You can also get started with our useful starter theme, which includes the most common foundations and components required to build your own theme.

If you want to chat with other people making Ghost themes to get any advice or help, there's also a themes section on our public Ghost forum.