Thanks, Rich!
Archive for May, 2007
A Glimpse of God in Omaha
Oh, my gracious! Thank you so much for praying for us as we gathered in expectation of a Jesus-show in Omaha, Nebraska. (I had prayed this acronym over Omaha after I arrived: Omnipotent Merciful Advocate Here Appear. I believe with all my heart – despite human frailties and inadequacies – that He did.) I fell head over heels in love with those women and their lean-forward and grab the seed out of the air attitude. I challenged them to memorize a (hard and wordy) verse and they screamed it out with holy passion over and over. Now, that’s my kind of group! (I never have a group I don’t end up crazy about but this was one of those that came to meet with Jesus and wasn’t leaving without a revelation.) I don’t know about the 6000 others but this woman right here had her own personal God encounter. I came to this event with a battered heart from an onslaught of hurts and God had profuse mercy on my sad soul. (Please don’t get distracted by that. All of us have hurts. You might just say a prayer for me and for my extended family then leave it to our faithful Father. You and I have plenty of others to pray for who are hanging on by a thread.) I’ve already seen several requests for the commissioning we did at the conclusion of the event so I’ll include it below. I often get the ladies in pairs at the very end, ask them to look each other straight in the eye and call each other to faithfulness as we prepare to take on our worlds once again. The commissionings are always different because they reflect the Scriptural subject matter. This one was based on our three sessions out of Philippians 4:4-13. Even if you weren’t there in Omaha with us, you might read those verses then grant me the privilege of speaking these challenges over you, Darling One. I love you dearly.
Beloved, in the Name of Jesus
I commission you
To rejoice in the Lord always
And again I say rejoice.
Stop worrying about everything!
Dump your anxiety
And start praying like mad.
Start thinking about
What you’re thinking about!
Start feeding your spirit
And stop feeding your flesh.
Never forget the true Secret:
Christ in you, the Hope of Glory!
You, Dear One, have the supernatural CAN DO!
Now, believe God
And turn your CAN DO
Into WILL DO!
You are NOT a wimp.
You are a warrior.
In the Name and power of Christ
Go out there and act like one.
My Mama Always Said
Yesterday I went to “Muffins With Mommy” at my son’s mother’s day out. We got to sit at his little table in the little chairs and eat little muffins together. We watched a video of the kids playing on the playground. They were having a blast going down the slide with their teacher. When I picked him up in the afternoon, I was given a gift bag that Jackson had made me for Mother’s Day. I’m saving it for Sunday. Even if there’s just a used Band-aid (as long as it’s his) or a banana peel inside, I will love it. The bag alone is enough. Jackson’s little hand print decorates the front and I couldn’t help but kiss it. I was overwhelmed with the joy of motherhood. Drunk on younguns – my youngun – as my mama always said.
We will spend this weekend celebrating the women who have poured out their lives to provide for us in every way. We will send flowers, buy gifts, write heartfelt I love yous on greeting cards, and go to brunch. We will try to communicate our gratefulness and find that words just aren’t enough. But our meager attempts sure do mean a lot to Mom. We will not forget to honor the women who didn’t birth us, but who have loved us like their own. Women who, like my mama always said about herself, could mother a fence post.
To celebrate Mother’s Day LPM blog-style, let’s hear what your mama always said.
Older Sisters and Milestones
Hey, My Darlin’ Sistas! Thank you so much for celebrating Melissa’s graduation with us! You are such a blast to do this God-life with! We want you to know that we celebrate God’s glorious work in your family, too. When Amanda and I read your comments, we react over your news just like you react over ours. We wish we could write back personally to every single one. Before I get to what I want to share with you (next paragraph), I need you to humor me for a second while I say something about Melissa’s big sister. Something that Melissa’s big sister is going to want to snap me in half about but I’ll take that chance. Melissa is all of those things Amanda said she is and in addition, she honestly is one of the funniest people on earth. But she will tell you what I will tell you. She has the most incredible big sister on earth. (Amanda, just don’t read the next few sentences.) Amanda Jones is one of the most caring, loving people I’ve ever known. One of the best friends to people I have ever seen. So tender hearted that she would cry with you in an instant. So witty that Melissa and I have to order an extra shot in our Starbucks just to keep up with her quick mind. With your loving patience, I will only take this moment to boast in Christ’s gift to me in these two young women but, in light of what Amanda wrote about her sister, I cannot let the gap go unfilled. Each of my daughters has become indispensable to me in ministry, just as God in His great mercy planned it. (Melissa will soon join Amanda and me at LPM. It is their heritage.) Melissa’s education and experience in the academic world has already (even in the last two Bible studies) had a huge impact on my research and the resources I can access for study. She also has well-surpassed me in formal language studies so I now have a resident assistant who can aid me tremendously in Hebrew and Greek. Melissa will undoubtedly be my greatest help on the research side of what God has called me to do. Amanda, on the other hand, is my greatest help on the other side of any project. I never write anything she does not proofread for me and reflect upon with me. Just as I trust Melissa’s help on the front side of a project, I trust Amanda like no one on earth on the back side. She is my number one editor and my absolutely uncontested number one encourager. They are equally amazing young women – just as I can tell so many of you blog sistas are.
Now, here’s what I want to say: God has been so lavish – so scandalous, for crying out loud – in His outpourings of grace and mercy upon our family. None of us Moores or Jones are the least bit confused about how on earth we arrived at this or any other milestone in one celebratory piece. Jesus. J-E-S-U-S. And He will be the only way we make it to any other. At staff prayer time yesterday, my beloved coworkers were about to burst with enthusiasm to hear every detail about our weekend and Melissa’s graduation. They were so proud for us. I told them something I want to tell you. The beauty of finding yourself at a milestone of any meaningful kind in life is not that the journey there was so pretty. Or so successful. In many ways, the mysterious beauty of the whole thing is that the “getting there” was so awkward, wobbly, inconsistent, and even down-right messy that most of the time, you thought you’d never make it. What makes life on this frightful sod so exquisite is God’s merciful propensity to perform divine tasks amid deeply flawed people. To paint intricate colors on a torn-up canvass. We can recognize a miracle when we see one because we know that, for God to use us, redeem us, or complete one stinkin’ thing of value in us, it would have taken nothing less. That’s what He calls getting the glory.
I don’t know if you happen to be under heaps of discouragement right now over how messy your trip to any place good – even any place “God” – tends to be but I’d like to clear something up. No one does this life-thing perfectly. NO ONE. Not your biggest hero. Your favorite pastor. And certainly not your Bible teacher. At least not this one. No one’s kids grow up perfectly. No one’s marriage is one hundred per cent healthy. No one’s character is beyond wrecking. I don’t care how people around you seem, they do not have it together. At least no one I have met, been around, or known anything about. I know plenty of God-seeking, authentic followers of Jesus Christ with humble hearts and sacrificial service…but not even they are perfect. And if they were, I probably wouldn’t want to have coffee with them. (They wouldn’t drink caffeine anyway.) Don’t misunderstand me. Everyone of us is called to live in victory and authenticity. You’ll never get permission from me to be hypocritical and I never want that permission from you. We must be what we seem. I’m just suggesting we quit trying to “seem” perfect. Because we’re not…and sooner or later people are going to find out. I’d just as soon tell them in advance.
The four Moores have a TON to be thankful for. But not because we’ve done it so well. Because Jesus has. And because He has graced us when we didn’t deserve another chance and held us when we squirmed to get loose.
“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love,
Here’s my heart. O take and seal it; Seal it for thy courts above.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wand’ring from the fold of God,
He, to rescue me from danger, Interposed his precious blood,
/Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love./
O to grace how great a debtor Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let they goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to thee”
(Lyrics to the hymn “Come Thou Fount”)
The Graduate
This weekend my little sister graduated from Wheaton College with her Master’s Degree in Biblical Exegesis. She worked unbelievably hard for the past two years to accomplish this goal. We are so proud!
Mom, Dad and I flew up to Wheaton to be with her for the big weekend. It was the Original Four Moores for the first time in quite a while. Dad treated us to a celebratory dinner at a French restaurant called Suzette’s where we enjoyed a five course meal and live jazz music. We were in food heaven with every kind of crepe you can think of. I don’t have any pictures because I was too busy with my fondue, salad, vegetable chowder, chicken crepes, and bananas foster to bother with it!
It was my first time to visit Melissa in Wheaton and I had so much fun seeing her campus, staying in her cute apartment, meeting her friends, and seeing the professors she loved so much. A few of her professors even wrote commentaries that our mom uses when she researches for her conferences and Bible studies. Melissa has had the privilege of studying under some of the world’s most incredible Bible scholars while at Wheaton.
When Melissa came walking down the aisle with all the other graduates, our hearts overflowed with joy. She flashed us a sassy smile and we said to each other, “That’s our girl!” When she took her seat next to her classmates all I could do was cry. My sister had earned a Master’s Degree. From an incredibly hard program. And what a spectacular person she is. She’s beautiful, brilliant, hilarious, outgoing, godly, and a friend to anyone – especially the friendless. Daughter, sister, prom queen, varsity athlete, sorority girl, fasionista, and now scholar. Melissa, I don’t even have the words to describe how proud I am of you. You might be the most unique person God ever made. I can’t wait to see how God will use everything you’ve learned during your time at Wheaton. I know He has great things in store!
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Come Sit a Spell With Me in My Backyard
Hey, my dear Sistas! I wanted to invite you over to my backyard for a few minutes because it’s so dear to me…and you’re so dear to me. I thought it was time the two of you got together. This is the place I most often meet with the Lord Jesus. Yep, right there at that iron table my wonderful Sunday School class gave me. Before it was another. And before it was yet another. My devotional books, an extra Bible of a second translation, my colored pens and my index cards sit perched on that table at all times, ready at a moment’s notice for a Divine meet and greet. It’s the dearest spot on earth to me.
I’m really not much of a house person. I’ve had the same house for almost twenty-three years and, and even though Keith refurbished it for me last year, I still spend the majority of my awake time at home outside. I am a yard person. I love garden flowers because my mother loved garden flowers. And my mother loved garden flowers because her mother loved garden flowers. I especially love this time of year because my 2 jasmine are in full bloom. I have a huge vine covering much of my front porch and an even bigger vine in my back yard that you can see in the picture below. You can’t open a single door at my house right now without your senses being enraptured by the most delicious scent. My bird feeders are usually swarmed with feathered friends singing for their breakfast. The pictures don’t really do it justice because you can’t smell the fragrances or hear the birds, but I wanted to share with you my little corner of the world where I have poured out my heart to God and, through the pages of His Word, heard Him pour out His to me. Many tears have been shed in that very spot. Many confessions made. Many questions posed. Much coffee consumed. What happens in that small place marks my whole day. If I’ll let it.
So, what about you? Where’s your favorite place to meet with God? In as few words as possible, draw me in and help me picture how the two of you get together. Moms of young children, don’t get a stronghold of discouragement or self-condemnation. This entry is not about how much concentrated time you spend with God. He meets you where you are as you lift your sweet chin to Heaven and bring Him your sincere desire. I’m just wondering if there’s a special place you most love to seek Christ’s face. And, if there is, I bet it’s His very favorite place in your entire world.
