My dear Siestas, I had to fly on here as fast as I could so that I could tell you that I am using something from your input in EVERY SINGLE SESSION! I’m steadily using excerpts from your testimonies on the surveys I took months ago on bondage and freedom when I was first revising the series AND I’m using the hilarious stories you just gave me. Both kinds of input have been PRICELESS to me and to this revision. The humorous side helps lighten up very heavy subject matter and the group has gotten such a kick out of your stories. I wish I could use tons of them but I’d overdo it and it would lose its effectiveness. I just wanted you to know that all your material is right here with me in my hotel room and I’m looking at your examples every day as I prepare.
I know I’ve told you this before but one of the things I battle most these days in ministry is a personal feeling of isolation and the fear that I will lose touch with people. Life is temporarily complicated in that respect. If not for my staff at LPM, this sanguine literally could not take it. In the old days, I could hang around after events and talk with people and pray with people. For this season, that’s not possible and the loss of one-on-one with the women I serve out and about has been titanic. YOU ARE THE NUMBER ONE WAY THAT GOD HELPS ME KEEP IN TOUCH WITH WHAT’S GOING ON OUT THERE. I feel a peculiar closeness to you. A true sense of community. One of our Siestas who also attends my home church hugged me on Sunday and said, “Beth, I love the blog…and what I get the biggest kick out of, is that I think you love it, too. I think you really do.”
Oh, Girls. I really do. You have become such a big part of this ministry. I could bawl about it. But I don’t have time. Gotta get back to it. May God invest back into your sweet lives 100-fold what you pour into mine and others. He has made you a gift. I hope we’re together for a long time.
Hugs to you!!! Thank you, Sweet Sister. 😉
Dear Beth,
Boy do we wish you could hang out with us… I can see some major shopping, a “four-bucks” coffee, and lots and lots of talk about how much we love our Lord and what He’s doing in our lives… you hang in there sister, I’ll be praying for Him to show you His love through special, unexpected, glimpses of Himself. You are a gift.
love,
Jan
We love you, Beth! You have been such a vessel for God to work through that you’ll probably never know this side of heaven how many people He has touched through you!
You may feel isolated, but you’re not. There are LOTS of us out here who love the Lord passionately, and who love you too.
Although we will most likely never meet face to face, when we get to heaven and have a chance to visit, we’ll have the best time. Feel free to drop by my mansion any time, I’ll have the coffee pot on! heehee
Dear Sweet Siestas:
Please forgive me if someone else has already done this, but I wanted to go back and reread the posts Beth was referring to about Siesta input on “bonadage and freedom” and thought some of you might want to as well. If you go to the search box at the top of the blog page and type in “bondage” it will bring you right to the two posts Beth is referring to: January 25, 2008 and January 27, 2008. I’ve been in tears again this morning as I’ve read back through those entries. They’re so tender, and so encouraging.
Sweetest Beth, I was watching you last night at Bible study through one of the Believing God videos, and while watching and listenting to you I kept praying for you as you were taping Breaking Free. I kept wanting to say to all the ladies: Pray for her!!!
It’s been exciting to read Siesta comments of how powerfully God is speaking through you in New Orleans. I can only imagine how draining your schedule and ministry must be this week, but I am praying that in your weakness He will be STRONG (as well as very protective of and tender toward you). You are loved.
Linda in MN
Beth, I have grown so much from your studies – so many have – God is speaking through you so clearly. As a stay-at-home mom I have experienced how difficult isolation can become… I pray that God continues to bless you with what you need! Love to all in your ministry.
Beth, your words of encouragement make me feel loved by you…even though we’ve never met! Thanks for loving me!!! and all the other women out there.
I love you!
Bethie, Please do not miss the fact that in just 24 hours there are 249 comments. Plus there are many readers who never comment, but just pray. Do not let HIS love for you be lost this day – 249 prayers for you as you teach “alone”. Much love and many more blessings, Anne R
I’m absolutely beside myself to see the new Breaking Free DVD’s. I think Beth has a new fire in her teaching that I noticed this past summer at Deeper Still ATL. It has to be from God and Him only.
My prayer is for Beth’s teaching to be taught in the Spirit of the Lord, which in turn pierces the innermost dark spots of women’s lives! Not just a “scratch the surface” type of piercing, but the deep piercing that bring true healing from our Jehovah-rapha. We don’t want band-aids!
Julie
GA
Spiritual Mom Beth!:)
I’m glad you had a minute to post:)…That blesses me to know that the Lord is using our testimonies and our stories…yes, it is heavy subject matter, but necessary, completely necessary for healing and wholeness, PRAISE THE LORD! What a privilege to minister to women who are hurting, and need transformation; I know the Lord has used you in my life, to tell me things you had no idea I needed to hear and know…I am blessed to know that the Lord has given you your staff, and siestas at your church, and us on this blog!:)…You are not alone Spiritual Mom Beth, I think all of us feel that “peculiar closeness” to you too:) That 100-fold blessing is coming right back at you, Spiritual Mom Beth, the Lord loves you soo much:) I’m thinking all of us, your siestas, and the Lord’s Church, are in this together for a long time-eternity with HIM to be exact:):)
Double smiles and plenty of ((HUGS)) to you Spiritual Mom Beth! I hope your heart is full and blessed today:)
Love in CHRIST (love HIM:)
katiegfromtennessee
John 16:27,33 (AMP)or whatever version ya like:)
Beth,
When I signed up for this taping last Summer I never dreamed I would be in the place where I am today.
In February of this year my husband experienced the most devasting moment in his ministry. After being on staff at our home church for 26 years he was told it would be best if he moved on to another ministry. In disbelief and devestation, he came home to share this news with me. I couldn’t believe it. I want you to understand this man is the person you spoke of in the second session Thursday night. All he knew was giving his life away. When he was told he needed to move on, leaving his ministry of 26 years, there was no explanation other than “you have hurt people”. When asked for the opportunity to make things right, he was told it was too late for this. There was NO Matthew 18 used in this meeting. He was not given the opportunity to speak to those he “hurt” and was not given an opportunity to speak for himself. Apparently a few in leadership, including a staff man whose marriage my husband had salvaged and ministry he encouraged, was one of the men behind this decision, planting seeds of dissention throughout leadership and church ranks.
This behavior and discussion went on for two years behind my husband’s back. Never once did any of the “men” address any concerns they brought to his attention. Yet to this day no specifics have been given to him. So last night when you spoke on how a person could do it all “right”, ministering, giving their lives away and loving God and His calling could experience such a trial my ears perked and my eyes filled with tears. We have been asking ourselves this very question for the last few months. How could this happen? Why would you allow this to happen? The point where you said THE TRIALS WE FACE (no matter how we landed in the trial)IS NECESSARY TO FULFILL OUR CALLING resonated in me as nothing else. No matter how we got here. No matter how my husband was treated or misunderstood. What He is asking us to walk through is NECESSARY to complete the calling He has for us. WOW! The Spirit also brought something to my mind. God trusts us enough to ask us to walk through this! WOW. I am honored God can trust us this much! God used last night to begin the process in me of breaking free from hurt, anger, disappointment and dissilusionment. I began texting notes and scriptures to my husband last night in an attempt to convey what God said through you. Thank you so much for being obedient.
Beth, I just finished “Daniel” and am starting “When Godly People Do Ungodly Things”. Can’t wait to do “Esther”. Have loved all your Bible studies. Thanks for your hard work and dedication to helping all of us get into God’s Word in a more indepth way.
MG
Beth–
Living in the middle of isolated Eastern Montana, I can relate to feeling alone, especially since I am a people person! My husband teases me about my computer time on this blog and our long-distance Bible study blog. It’s either that or miles and miles of driving and gallons and gallons of gas!
Let me just say that even though you may feel far away and alone, many of us feel like you are right in the room with us when we read through your studies and watch your videos.
Thanks for renewing a desire in me to study God’s word and grow in my spiritual walk. I am able to take the things I am learning and pass them on to other ladies I know and to the students I minister to.
God Bless You!!
Hi Beth,
My friend Brooke and I are from St. Louis, and absolutely thrilled to be in New Orleans this week. This is my first trip to New Orleans, and we are having a blast. So far we have taken a swamp tour, walked around the French Quarter, shopped, eaten way too much, visited a beautiful plantation – and we even held a baby alligator! (My daughter had the nerve to tell me that it was just a snake with legs; I’m terrified of snakes!)
But of course our real reason for being here is the taping. This has been one of the most amazing opportunities of my life. What an incredible blessing to worship and learn with our sisters at FABC, as well as those from all over the US and Canada.
God continues to anoint your teaching. My heart – and brain! – are full to overflowing. When you finish a session and ask if you have made the message clear, or comment that you aren’t sure if you have communicated well, I think “Are you kidding me???”
Thank you so much for doing what you do, and for allowing Him to do what He does through you. We love you and are continuing to pray for you.
Sweet Siesta-Momma, there is a smile across my face and heart as I read your post. It thrills me to know…besides the enormous blessing YOU, AMANDA AND MELISSA are to us in blog world, that we too have a special place in YOUR heart. That’s a sweet spot, indeed. Can’t tell you how happy I am to have found your blog. One moment I can laugh so hard my sides ache, and then turn around and be slapped about the head with such conviction I don’t know what’s hit me the next! From one extreme to the other, you make me want to love Jesus more! You speak such life and love to us. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
Thrilled to hear things are going so well in New Orleans (and trying hard not to be jealous I’m not there, too!) Our prayers ever continue, sweet one!
Blessed to be a siesta…
Tracy
Thank you for your tenacity to teach truth to women through the Word of God! I can’t get over how much I am learning about freedom, my God, and myself this week in New Orleans! I just turned 30 this year and something has “clicked” in me. It’s time to do something about my bondage and use the gifts God has given me to further His kingdom! I am desperate, no DESPERATE to follow His calling on my life. Please don’t ever back down from the essential teaching God has called you to do! I love you and I’m praying for you.
P.S. You can keep calling us “precious,” I love it!
God Bless you Beth! Thank you for being so transparent…It is comforting to know I am not the only one with that fear.
I think that God has the funniest sense of humor. Who’d have “thunk” that the word “blog” would become so important to all of us? Thanks Beth and Amanda for keeping us connect to both of you and LPM!!
P.S. My word verification for the comment this time is “bless.” How appropriate. Yes, God speaks through blogs, for sure!!
Much love,
~Cheryl
And Beth…
WE all feel close to you in this forum. Like our families are connected and our hearts are shared. I think if Jesus were living on earth today HE would enjoy ministering through a blog too! It is precious and WE love YOU. This blog is like BALM.
Praying for you and the team!
Wow, I’ve been reading most of all of these comments, and we are like Steel Magnolias on Jesus!! We truly love each other! That’s that unity you were talking about, Spiritual Mom Beth:)
Love,
katiegfromtennessee
I just saw a siesta blog name poohangie! That’s funny!! I want to tell you what I prayed this morning Beth. I prayed you would get a fresh rememberance of your rightousness in Christ, and for time to stand still for a moment. I don’t know why that was on my heart but I felt like you needed a minute and God was gonna have to give it to you. I reminded God that He did it for Joshua He could do it for you, and you know what He said to me? He said “Where do you think the guy got the idea for TIVO? Judy, when I wrote there is nothing new under the sun, I MEANT It!!!” Don’t you love Him to bits?
Loving you all!!!
Judy
Praying for you. The godly teaching I have received through your faithful obedience has impacted my life in many ways. I love checking the blog to see what God is showing you that day (or Amanda and Melissa.) And then I get a kick out of the funny, everyday life stuff you write about.
P.S. In regards to the products/shoes that help the fanny – I’ve got the FitFlops – can’t say they’ve done a thing for my rear, but they are THE most comfortable shoe I’ve had!!!
The cost of the call is always worth it. So many lives being affected…transformed because of your obedience to His Word! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
It is so cool to know that in Bloggville, we can all connect and find encouragement no matter what season of life we are walking through! Thank you for not only providing this portal but for taking the time to actually share with us and let us “behind the scenes” of your life! What a true testimony of the Christ in you!
Love you lots!!
Wendy
Beth, as much as you feel we are a part of your life so are you in ours. I’ve seen at the LPL conferences and listen on radio, TV, and your Bible studies but never face to face; yet I feel like we are connected and could talk for hours on end. Thank you for letting us be a “real” part of your life and ministry. Love you much! Carla Lee
Beth,
This is my very firs blog and I am 48. My churh has been doing your studies for a couple of years and through your willingness to be used the word of God has come alive to me, and I have wept so many times as God has spoken to my heart through you. May God bless you and yours.
Julie
Beth,
The great thing about the blog is that someone is always here. Some of us drift in from time to time and some of us are here everyday. Some of us comment a little others alot. We all love God, you and your family.
It is a great privelage to be used by God to help combat the isolation you feel. We are here for you siesta, as you have been there for all of us!
Keep on bringing it!
Our Thursday night group is one lesson away from completing stepping up… It is the 3rd time for me and I keep falling down but then i step up. Your anointing of God has been a salve to the open hurts of these women.. Praise the Lord for you, beth and all your team
Debra Hammond Arkansas
YOU are a gift to us, Beth–a precious treasure! Thank you for your transparency and honesty with us and for all your encouragement and exhortation. May God continue to bless your ministry! 😉
Beth,
Your authentic faith and realness are what make you as precious as you are!! You are so precious! I just love you to pieces!!! I have led so many women through so many of your studies that I somehow feel you are a big sister and mentor to me, even though we have never met… Isn’t God wonderful!! I am so honored and priveledged to be a part of extending the work God uses you to do as a Bible Study teacher/leader myself ~ praise God.
You want to know something even more wonderful??? Through your studies, I have learned how to study God’s Word so much better and that comprehension ability I have gained, has transferred over into my professional life. God paved a way for me to become a Finance Professor at a public university in my state, something I would never dream possible in my own strength! Oh, He works in mysterious ways, I am so excited to be part of His awesome plan!
I love being a siesta, this blog is a constant blessing to me! Thank you, thank you!
Blessings to you always!
Beth,
I just love reading your blog everyday!! Know that WE are praying for you. I wanted to let you know how God works so many times at your conferences. I was at the Deeper Still conf. this summer and had read about the sweet young girls who had each lost a baby and how they were all meeting at the conf. Anyway, at lunch a happened to be standing right beside them and recoginzed them from the blog. We exchanged e-mails. Shortly, after one of them asked for prayer for a baby who needed a heart translplant. The Lord had carried my family thru my heart transplant a year earlier. I was able to send this family a note about how God would carry them through this most difficult time. The next morning this beautiful, young baby recieved her new heart. Okay, I live in S. Georgia, the girl I meet lives in Texas and this baby lives in Chicago. WOW! What a divine appt.
OUR GOD IS AMAZING!
God is with you!
Happy Heart in Georgia!
Jeannie
PS I think this baby’s story will be in People mag. this week
Thank you so much for sharing your gift with us. You have such an ability to relate with each of us via cyberspace that it makes me feel like I’m carrying on a conversation with you face to face. God is using you and this blog to show this PK (preacher’s kid) what it means be in a community of believers who are genuine and so very encouraging. Blessings, from GA
I enjoy the blog so much and am so thankful for the relationship I have with you too!!!…plus countless others who bless and encourage me daily through the blog.
Keeping you in prayer & praying that God will show you favor beyond measure! Also, just before I read the end of your post about how you could bawl…my eyes were watering. You are such a blessing.
Love ya!
Valerie
Beth:
Many, Many days when I think, back to how I just barely hung on, I remember watching a TV show one morning… Wednesdays with the none other Beth Moore. I was hooked on hope… hope that Jesus was sitting up there on His throne right next to our Father and saying … I love you too little girl.. I love you too… So when I thought there is just no way to keep going through all this mess In my special pitt, that I was thrown in or flat just dove in… I would turn on the TV and watch the love of Jesus just come through you and I thought..whoa… Lichelle this is so possible. You can be on fire too and you can love Him just like Beth does. And He will love you right back.
This blog has helped me through so many tough times and I laugh and cry with each of you and our siestas out there. Your gifts are our blessings. Know that if you were close enough I would love to give you a squeeze and tell you what a difference you have made in my life. And how I love Him more and more everyday. Thanks for leading me down the right trail. Thanks for being His messenger… and most of all Thanks for being you.
Loving you like crazy too!
Lichelle
Beth just a note to say. I too feel like there is close relationship with you and all the Siesta’s in our on-line lives. I am sure that there are many that thank the Lord for the ability to have this kind of friendship. The world is so big, it just makes it a little more closer to each other.
You, and the ministry are in my prayers.
luv ya…Cindy
We love you too!!! Just prayed for you, Beth!
Your siesta,
Darlene
Beth, I’m not sure how to convey this without it being a bit disjointed, but hopefully you can follow my train of thought…Being a stay at home mama to three can be a little isolating depending on what season the kids are going through (like the past few months with a newborn). This was a great moment that made it worth it all again- I ask my son daily if he knows that he is my favorite boy (he’s my only one- almost 3) and then hug him and tell him I love him. Last week he got inches from my face and asked if I knew that I was his favorite girl and said “I love you!” Beth, do you know you’re my favorite Siesta? I love you, friend. Praying for you, too.
Oh we will be…we’ll be together forever!! I don’t have time to bawl either, but if we did, we could do it together, huh??!! I wish. But forever is a long time so we will be content with this season and know that there will come a time when we are all seated at the same table. Praise Jesus! Love U sweet, Sweet Beth…Big Hugs, Jax
Beth
When I saw you in NC Boone, God just spoke to my heart and said Lisa you need to hold her up in prayer more than ever and I have been, Bathing you in prayer and your ministry and your children and husband and your grandchildren! Know that you are loved and prayed for everyday and thanks be to God for you speaking the truth into my life and mentoring me here, your sevant heart speaks volumes through the spirit on this blog ! Blessing to Him and HIM Alone ! I know its Him Beth, for I know HE has given me what I don’t deserve and Made ME what I could not and Keeps ME By HIS Powerful Grace and Truth !
Blessing in the Name of the MOST HIGH GOD !
Raleigh Girl
Lifting up LPM in NC
Lisa B.
Beth, I just had to write to you and let you know that we are currently finishing up Living Beyond Yourself. this is my second time taking it and I cannot tell you how very specifically God used this study (again) at this very different point in my life (again). Just one (of many)amazing examples… We just happened to be in Week 8 (Keep Believin’) just as elections approached. I was feeling so restless about it. But the session 9 video teaching the night before elections was God speaking directly to me. You said “My God has carried me a thousand times, he sure isn’t going to drop me now!” And continued on about how God can use our weaknesses to His glory. Well, my sister, we held a prayer vigil immediately following the study and on our knees we went. Praying over the election and praising the assurance that God is authority over all and always will be. I had such a peace when I left. I knew that no matter who won and what passed, God would reign victoriously.
Do you know what was in Day 2 of week 9… A day after elections, “Remind the people to be subject to rulers, and authorities….to slander no one… to show humility toward all men…(Titus 3:1-2) Only God could speak those words at just that time, to a world that so desparately needs to hear Him, in a study that was written years earlier. Our God ROCKS! Thank you for allowing Him to use you as a vessel to get the message out! and with that as session 10 says, from one “hunting widow” to another (on this the 14th of Nov), God’s timing is always perfect! Your sister in and through Christ. melia phelps
I’m glad to be a part of your life through the blog. You’ve helped me understand and know God much better than I ever did. So many times I’ve felt “that was written just for me.” and you don’t even know me. God bless you and keep doin’ what you’re doin’.
Beth,
Thank you so much for being so open and honest with us. I just want to say that I really enjoy this blog and its the high light of my day when I’m able to check it and there is something new to read. May God bless you and all of the LPM staff. You’re in my prayers.
Sending hugs,
Stormy
Beth,
I have been so amazed this past week. Lately in my morning devotion time I have felt very convicted by my past sins. At the same time, I feel in my heart that God is pressing me to move to a new level in faith. This conflict has completely consumed my private time with the Lord. Then I began hearing in my thoughts that I should do the “Breaking Free” study. This thought kept coming back to me for several days. Imagine my goose bumps when I read on your blog that you were taping new video for this study!!! Talk about affirmation! I can’t wait until the new study comes out. Praise God for perfect timing!
Beth,
I so enjoyed the Psalms of Ascent series. Through you, I see the Bible in such clarity. The other amazing thing is that after spending those weeks with you, I feel you are a dear, personal friend. I pray every day that God will find a way to use me for His glory. I feel it in small ways, but how you must feel to touch so many people!!
I thank God for you.
Hi Beth,
God has used this blog in a BIG way in my life and the lives of so many fellow siestas in this community. I’ll be praying for you in regard to the feeling of isolation…it is somthing I can so relate to but for totally different reasons. Also praying for the taping and knowing God will come through in bigger ways than we could possibly expect!
Oh, Beth. I don’t think I could ever pour into your life as much as you have poured into mine. You have no idea. I would’ve never known that freedom was even possible for me if not for you. God has done it, obviously, but you told me He could. Nobody else could have convinced me that He could.
Don’t know under which title I should post this. But, Beth, thank you so much for the real things you spoke of this week – in particularly Thursday night (I’ve lost track of session #’s), you mentioned how certain actions totally inhibit real relationships. I never thought of it as a stronghold. Thank you for bringing it up. Keep being bold and real. You are a blessing. It was a great week and I’m so very glad God gave me the opportunity to attend
I love you too mama Beth! Your honesty is so refreshing! You have been such a blessing in my life…and have taught me how to fall on my face before our Father and I love you for that! Praying for you this weekend! P.S.- I’m listening to your Believing God CD’s!!)
Much Love,
Suzi
(used to be fabryfamily)
Sweet Beth,
Thank you for pouring out your life for the sake of others. After reading your words about feeling isolated, I have realized that all of us can feel that no matter if we are alone or not. I have just moved to a new town and don’t have a church home yet. This is the hardest time of my Christian life, which was 8 years in August. Thank you for so much for going past what is comfortable for you and for the example you are to me and so many others. I too feel a connection to you and I haven’t met you. Your soul and ministry are like water to these dry bones. I have done 4 of your bible studies and can’t wait to hear your new taping and teaching on Breaking Free. Love you, Miss Debbie
Hey Beth,
I know I'm a couple of days late in posting this, but I was thinking today about what you said about the Blog community being an important part of your fellowship with believers outside LPM during this season of your life. And, I just felt led to thank you for taking the time to post on the blog. It means A LOT to us that you take time out of your busy schedule to encourage us or just have plain old girl talk! I am always tickled to see a new post & the comments of my siestas. Of course, it is no substitute for a daily dose of the Word, but it does help to hear from fellow sojourners! We can't fight the enemy alone!!
I love you so much, and I am praying that God will provide you with some wonderful rest this week to recuperate from the taping.
Missy
P.S. I couldn't resist sharing a funny story. As I was typing, "I am always tickled to see a new post," I inadvertently left the "l" out of tickled. Man, I'm sure glad I caught that mistake! Talk about a malapropism…
Can’t wait for the taping of Breaking Free to come out! However, the audio’s and your testimony, but most importantly your insight on how only God knows our unique experience, has been most enlightening to me. I praise Him for His work through you to reach me and lead this Southern California pastor´s wife to a place of total dependency on Him. In my times of isolation, He is there, but He also uses people such as yourself to show me and so many others that there is light, hope, forgiveness, and most of all freedom in my very near future. I´m praying that this is the year of the Lord´s favor in my Life. I´m keeping a journal of the wonderful ways He is making His presence known to me during my time of healing and recovery from abuse, so similar to your own. May the Lord continue to strengthen you for the ministry He has so profoundly placed you in.
In Christ,
Stacy