*Just a reminder that we would be happy to help with the questions and requests you have, but please send them to us through our contact page instead of leaving them in the comments. There’s a permanent link to it on our left sidebar. Thank you so much!*

My Dear Sister
God has not overlooked you
He has not ignored you
He hears every petition
And intimately knows
The heart beneath it.
Give Him full access
To all your longings
Pray every single day
To become a person who delights in Him.
When it seems to disappear
Remember to check your JAW
Are you jealous?
Are you angry?
Are you worried?
Roll it all on Jesus
He’s strong enough to carry it
Big enough to handle it.
Trust God with all your heart
Now leave this place
And go into the world
And do some GOOD.

I just got home from the simulcast a few minutes ago. Wow. What an awesome time in the Word! I didn’t realize Beth would be mentioning the blog until right before we got started last night. Now I wish I would’ve spruced up the place a bit for our first time visitors! Well, at least we can serve them some cake. If this is your first time here, welcome to The LPM Blog!

One of my favorite things that my mom said today was “Speak faith to one another.” I just love that statement and I think it encapsulates the purpose of this blog. *Siestas old and new, let’s continue to speak faith to one another as long as God has us on this blog.

I’ll try to have the commissioning posted for you within the next couple of days. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, ladies! I’m going to take a real siesta now.

*Look at the top right corner of the blog to find out why we call each other “Siestas.”

Here’s the recipe from the simulcast.

Texas Sheet Cake

Grease a 9 x 13 sheet cake pan.

Sift:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar

Bring to a boil:
2 sticks butter
1 cup water
4 tbsp. cocoa

Pour over dry mixture and mix in:
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla

Bake at 400 degrees, 20-25 minutes.

Icing
Heat:
1 stick butter
4 tbsp. cocoa
6 tbsp. milk

Add anywhere from 1/2 to 1 box of powdered sugar to achieve desired consistency (Beth prefers close to 1 box) and 1 cup pecans. Spread on cake while it’s hot.

Fargo Girls, I’m sorry this is so late! Rich sent it to me right away but we were still on vacation at the time.

Enjoy!

Living Proof Live – Fargo ND from Rich Kalonick on Vimeo.

Hey, You Darling Things! I hope you are so blessed in the presence of the living Lord Jesus Christ this fine day. We have missed you while we’ve been gone and, boy oh boy, have we EVER hit the ground running! It’s simulcast time and, because of God’s graciousness through YOU and our wonderful Siesta Scholarship fund, we have some great giveaways. We are going to do our regular 10-ticket giveaway for the on-site location in Green Bay but we at LPM would also love to support the Houston and surrounding area simulcast sites.

Look several paragraphs below and see if any of these locations work for you and, if so, NOTE WHO TO CONTACT next to it. You are only contacting us directly at LPM if you need a scholarship to the on-site location in Green Bay. Otherwise you are contacting the church itself then their folks are getting the numbers to us and we’re covering those costs.

Some of you have asked a very good question: why are ticket prices different from location to location? The churches pay a flat fee to CCN, the simulcast company, then they charge what they must to cover their costs. Some churches simply have bigger women’s ministry budgets and can charge much less but, I assure you, all those locations are doing what they can to keep the costs as low as possible. Many of them just don’t have an extra dime in these hard financial times.

By the way, I can’t remember ever explaining ticket sales and maybe this is the perfect time: I would give anything if ministry opportunities like these didn’t cost a single cent but, unfortunately, they are very expensive. You cannot imagine all the equipment and personnel involved. This you can know, however. Your Siesta Mama is not putting one penny in her little pocket from any speaking engagement. I donate all speaking honorariums to the work of ministry whether here or elsewhere. When our numbers began growing so unexpectedly and (for this season) we could no longer get our groups in church auditoriums, we deliberated very hard over whether to offer big events like LPL for free or ticket them. We made the difficult choice to have them ticketed because, otherwise, I (or someone else on the team) would be stuck with having to ask for money numerous times at the event in order to cover the costs. You’ll find it both ways out there in the event world.

It’s just two different philosophies and neither of them are perfect but I simply felt more comfortable ticketing up front. I don’t like the choices any better than you do but they are a fact of life. A sense of God’s approval or disapproval is what I’ve sought over matters as murky as these and I am certain that this has been His way for us to operate for now. He knows our hearts and our ministry desires and that we would do anything we possible could to get a person in the door who really wants to be there.

NOW, for the ticket giveaways!!

10 Tickets available for the ON SITE location in GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN. Call Susan or Kimberly at Living Proof Ministries at 1-888-700-1999.

10 Tickets available for Memorial Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas. (6901 Fairmont Parkway, 77505) – Call the church directly at 281-998-9051 and tell them you desire one of the Living Proof scholarships. Your contact name is Steve if you happen to get someone who is unfamiliar with what you’re talking about.

10 Tickets available for Kingwood United Methodist Church in Humble, Texas. (1799 Woodland Hills Drive, 77339) – Call the church directly at 281-358-2137. Right now I don’t have a contact name for this one but simply tell them you need to speak with someone about this weekend’s simulcast. They’ll put you in touch with the right person. Then tell that person that you’d like to claim a Living Proof scholarship if one is still available.

10 Tickets available for Crosby Church of AFOB in Crosby, Texas. (5725 Highway 90, 77532) – Call the church directly at 281-328-1310 and tell them you desire one of the Living Proof Scholarships. Your contact name is Tiffany.

20 Tickets available at Houston’s First Baptist Church (it’s my home church, Siestas! I’m compelled to give a double portion!). (7401 Katy Freeway, 77024) Call 713-681-8000 and ask for the women’s ministry office then tell them you desire one of the Living Proof Scholarships. (By the way, many of our LPM staff members will be there at the event this weekend including our own Siesta blog master, my dearest Amanda.)

We’re so pumped! We hope so much these giveaways are big blessings to you!

OK, now for the question, my beloved Siestas!! This question is directed to ANYONE ATTENDING THE LPL SIMULCAST THIS WEEKEND regardless of location. Since most of our audience will not be on site where we can see faces and perceive conditions of lives and hearts, I could use your help imagining who’s on the other side of that camera. Would you mind giving me the following 3 pieces of information in a comment?

Your age? (Even the decade is great)

Single or married?

What is the biggest issue in your life right now? Please, please, please answer in only a few brief sentences so I can read each one of them.

So that I can readily distinguish your answers from the rest of the comments, would you please start your comment with the word “Attending”? That would really help. You can’t imagine how your answers will add to my preparation of heart, soul, and message.

We so desire to serve you, Siestas. We want so much to honor God here at Living Proof Ministries. May He be highly exalted and may He show Himself mighty to you this day.

I surely do love you.

PS. I just found this comment from Tracy, one of our Siestas, and I felt like it needed to be posted here so those of you in their area would more likely see it. Thank you so much, FBC Jacksonville, NC!!

Tracy L. wrote:

Our church is offering 10 scholarship tickets too.

First Baptist Jacksonville, NC
1925 Gum Branch Road
Jacksonville, NC
910.455.2700

Call and ask for Juanita and tell her you are interested in a scholarship ticket for this weekend.

Tracy L.
Richlands, NC

This weekend is the Living Proof Live Simulcast from Green Bay, Wisconsin. What in the world is a simulcast, you ask? Here’s how it works. Beth, Travis and the praise team will be at the live conference location in Green Bay while hundreds of host churches across the country will be linked to it through satellite technology. The schedule will be the same as a regular LPL event with one session on Friday night and two sessions on Saturday morning.

My family’s home church happens to be a host site. So on Friday night I will go there along with my co-workers and we will take part in the event. We will get to experience worship and Bible study as though we are right there in Green Bay, only our trip home will be much shorter and we’ll get to sleep in our own beds!

I’ve been to one other simulcast event and while I was a little skeptical about it at first, I was pleasantly surprised that I lost the sense that my mom wasn’t actually on the stage right in front of me. I felt completely engaged in everything that was going on and it was like we were in the same room with the host group.

If this isn’t the year for you to get to travel to a Living Proof Live event and stay in a hotel with a bunch of your girlfriends, this is a great option to look into. Or even if you have been to a conference this year, who couldn’t use another weekend in the Word? You can visit this page on LifeWay’s web site for more information and to search for a satellite location near you.

I’d love to invite anyone in the Houston area to be a part of the simulcast at my church, Houston’s First Baptist. You can click here to see the schedule, get directions, etc. Tickets are $10 and you can either buy them online or at the door. The event will take place in the sanctuary.

And finally, bless my mom’s heart, here is a little video she made for the event. I hope she doesn’t have to wear the cheese hat this weekend because it will seriously flatten out her bangs. I heard that a certain miesta was supposed to be cheesin’ it up with her on the video, but rumor has it he accidentally overslept and missed the filming.

An Important Message from Beth Moore from LWEvents on Vimeo.

P.S. Mom just said I could tell you that she’s teaching out of Psalm 37 and the theme will be “The Heart of Our Desires.”

Happy Monday, Siestas! I’ve missed you! I have a long to-do list for today, and one of the most important things on it is “Blog!”

We had an amazing time in Wyoming. I have so much to say about it and a hundred pictures to share, but something else is pressing on my heart right now.

Back to School Day varies from district to district, but today’s the big day around these parts. I can’t get my sweet teacher friends off my mind. And don’t even get me started about our dear co-worker, Jenn, who sent her firstborn to kindergarten this morning. Weren’t we all crowded together in her hospital room holding that sweet baby boy just yesterday? Don’t think I haven’t imagined what this day will be like for me just two years from now.

I would love it if we could pray for all of our school teachers who are returning or preparing to return to the classroom. If you are a teacher, please chime in and let us know how we can pray for you. If you are a homeschooling parent or a college professor, please let us hear from you, too!

And, in honor of our Jenn and Nathan, I’d love it if we could also pray for our kiddos who are starting the year at new schools. Mamas, let’s not mention school names, but do let us know if your son or daughter is entering a new school environment and could use some prayer.

Oh, I just can’t stand the thought of leaving anyone out! If your student needs prayer for any other reason, I want us to pray for them, too.

Lord, thank You for the men and women who dedicate their lives to educating children. I ask You to bless them with strength, joy, favor with students and parents, and a strong sense of purpose. Make them fruitful in every way. Give them wisdom, creativity, patience, insight, and endurance. Give them Your supernatural love for each student, so much so that those kids go home each day with a keen sense of being loved by You. Use these teachers to make an eternal difference in the lives of their students. I pray that their families will have an easy and peaceful transition into the school year.

Thank You in advance for the work You’re going to do in our teachers and students’ lives this year, Lord. I pray all of these things in the strong and mighty name of Jesus. Amen!

Good Monday morning, my beloved Siestas!

I am at the Houston Airport (IAH) with my man and we are waiting to get on a flight to Denver where we’ll then connect to Wyoming and join the Jones. We’ve got a slight maintenance delay and I’m a bit concerned about our layover. One thing I can tell you for sure. A life of airports will remind you over and over just how little control a folk has over most circumstances!

I am hoping some of you guys from North Dakota get on here today because I have to tell you something. Not only did I totally LOVE you and LOVE studying God’s Word with you, you guys gave $10,000 dollars to the poor through Samaritan’s Purse. Did you hear what I said???? $10,000! They were absolutely FLOORED. For crying out loud, WE were absolutely floored. I’ve never posted the charitable giving before but I had to this time. You need to know that you 4200 women outgave groups over twice your size. Please don’t misunderstand me to imply the least negative thing about a single one of our wonderful groups. We don’t ever measure our groups like that. People can only give what they can give and some areas of the country are suffering financially much more than others. At the same time, I just had to let you know how generous you were. Organizations like Samaritan’s Purse really get hit by financial crises like the one we’re experiencing so this was a huge help to them. They’ll turn that money into provision for the poor as soon as possible. Thank you so much, ladies! Thank you so much!

I love all you guys like crazy. You won’t waste a prayer on our family right now. At the top of our needs is a loved one with a health issue. That’s all I feel free to say right now but I cannot express how much we’d appreciate your prayers for healing. As much as I know it would be in love, please try not to get into conjecture in your comments on who or what it might be because it will inevitably lead to rumors. If about 5000 of you would say just one general prayer each, we’d feel blessed beyond measure. We would know that, no matter what, the heart of God was moved by the copious prayers of the saints. Thank you, Sisters. We pray for you, too.

Talk to you soon! And I will give you a general update on that situation before long, too.

Honored to be your servant,
Beth

UPDATE: Our flight was cancelled so we had to go down to baggage claim, reclaim our bags, go back through ticketing, get new seats and get booked on another flight five hours later. And we don’t have a car at the airport so we, two equally hyperactive adults, are just sitting tight. Yes, Michelle offered to come get us but I’m not letting her go to that much trouble. Just so happens we’re in IAH’s only small terminal and the lone one that doesn’t allow you to take the train to any of the hopping ones. Thankfully, a sparrow is loose in the terminal and is perched about five feet from Keith and me so we’re momentarily spared from perishing of unmitigated boredom. Because of the economy, most of the kiosks are closed so shopping is out of the question but there is a Rosetta Stone vending machine that keeps calling our names. Keith and I are thinking of learning Swahili while we’re here. I’ll keep you posted.

FURTHER UPDATE:

Nilikula – I ate
Nimekula – I have eaten
Ninakula – I am eating
Nitakula – I will eat

Hey, my dear Scripture memory partners! It is very early in the morning and I am so happy to be all the way up in Fargo, North Dakota at a Living Proof Live. God brought us over 4300 people to this small city last night. Listen to this: over 300 of them were walk ups! More than we’ve ever had before. A few hundred of them just decided yesterday to come to the Fargodome and simply walked right up to the door and bought a ticket. We were astounded. We feel absolutely sure that a number of these darling women have never been to an event of this kind before. We are tremendously blessed. Last night toward the latter part of the session we were hit by one of the craziest storms I can remember at a Living Proof Live and had to ask them to stay for 30 more minutes, SO to tell you that we had some praise and worship last night is an understatement. I am so happy that Scripture records several places in which God’s voice sounded like thunder. We think there was a war in the heavenlies last night.

I need to have my face in my lesson for today so I don’t get to tarry here. I just wanted to make sure you were taken care of and that your Scripture memory post was up for the 15th. My thoughts most recently have been on the many people – children and young adults most disturbingly – who are chronically ill. If God does not intervene, terminally ill. I have wept a number of times recently for people I’ve never met and also bawled in my pillow for several I love. Life can be so incredibly brutal. I am focusing this time in my memory work on God’s great compassion and His care for all He has made.

Psalms 145:8-12 (NIV)
The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made. All You have made will praise You, O Lord; Your saints will extol You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your might,so that all men may know of Your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of Your kingdom.

If you have Travis’s CD called “Found,” you have a musical version of the psalm this portion is taken from. The song straight out of Psalm 145 is called “Forevermore” and if it doesn’t lead you to the Throne, I need to come take your pulse.

I love you so much, Siestas. Let’s hear your Scriptures! Because I’m in conference today then on two flights home, it make take a while to get in all your comments but , rest assured, they will finally make it on here! Amanda’s going to try to get to a place with Internet and help out. (Amanda reminded me that this is the first time one of our memory days has fallen on a Saturday while I was in conference. God is an excellent event planner!)

Verse, cities, and first names, Sweet Things!

I am begging you to purchase and read “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism” by Timothy Keller. I am not sure if I have ever mentioned this book on the blog or not… have I? If I have you might be annoyed but I remain at peace because it may just need to be reiterated. I just finished reading it for the second time and I loved it even more this time around. The first time around I was spending most of my energy processing and interacting with the content but this time I was able to sit back, relax on my couch and read it over a cup of chamomile tea and it has blessed me so. Dr. Timothy Keller is the Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. He engages culture and gospel in a unique way and he does it all with the heart of a Pastor.