Hey, Everybody!
I’m so happy to spend these next few minutes with you. I like to remind you in a writing season like this that I am thinking about you constantly even when it appears from your side of the screen as if we’re less in touch. As I study and write workday in and workday out, you are the first group that comes to my mind. Teacher’s pets if I’ve ever had any.Ā I’m chatting to you constantly right now as I peck away at the keyboard. You just can’t hear me. I’m smiling thinking about how those tables may turn in a little over a year for any of you that end up doing the Bible study. You’ll be talking back to me as we discuss various passages in your homework but I won’t be able to hear you either. What a weird and beautiful dynamic.
I had the biggest blast getting to see a whole bunch of you Siestas at our Eugene, Oregon Living Proof Live. I was shocked when I walked in that room right after the event and David Lowe (our good friend who subs for Rich when he’s out) already had you split into two groups for our picture-taking. It would be hard to over-blow how much I loved being in Oregon for our event. God brought together one of the most wonderful, enthusiastic, Jesus-seeking, gonna-get-a-word-or-else groups ever. One of my top ten favorite groups in all fifteen LPL years. I could have cried when it was over.
(I just happened to remember that I have a few pictures on my iPhone of various shots from this trip so I’ll pitch a few in here for those of you like me who love visuals.)
(In the above picture, we took that State-famous “O” for Oregon and made it into a few divine adjectives for an “Omnipotent,” and “Overflowing,” “Overcoming” and “Out-breaking” God.)
Try to wrap your mind around the fact that God incited 7300 women by His Spirit to attend that event. That was nearly twice what we would have expected in that part of the United States for a gathering of this kind. Travis, the praise team, and I knew within about 2 minutes that Jesus was planning to be there whether we came or not. We felt completely incidental to the whole thing. He has something huge stirring in the Northwest. I can’t quit thinking about it. I got a DM from my good friend, Louie Giglio, last Friday saying that he and Chris Tomlin and their team had just been to that part of the country and were blown away by what God was doing. We left feeling the same astonishment.
I got to spend a little more time in the area than I usually do because I couldn’t get a flight out on Saturday night. That meant several walks in several different parks.
This scene was walking distance from the Holiday Express where we stayed in Eugene. Your blog mama is in there but it’s kind of like “Where’s Waldo?”
Most of our team went to Mount Pisgah Arboretum on Saturday afternoon and, honestly, it was like we were caught in the hobbits’ glen in Lord of the Rings. If Frodo Baggins had stepped out from behind a tree with his short legs and long hairy feet, the whole scene would have been complete. The trees looked just like the ones that talked in the trilogy and they groaned and creaked in the wind like old men trying to get out of a low chair. It was crazy.Ā I didn’t even bother taking pictures with my iPhone because it would have been a travesty but our friend David got some great ones with his grown-up camera. This one doesn’t even give a hint of the gorgeousness that was surrounding us in that park but I think it is especially gorgeous because I love this group of women so much. These are some of the hardest working girls you’ll ever find on earth. They are part of the LifeWay women’s event team that actually puts on Living Proof Live events. (As well as Priscilla Shirer Live and many others.) They don’t often come to the platform but trust me when I tell you that no one would serve on that platform if not for these women doing all the front work, sight inspections, training, praying, and city coordinating. Then, once the weekend arrives, they are busy behind every scene, down every hall, and all over the arena. I am nuts about them. There are at least a dozen others who weren’t assigned to our Oregon event over the weekend. I wish you could see them, too. They are all stellar women.
I could have stayed a solid week in Oregon. Or, if all my people had been there, a month. But Bibby gets cranky for the grandbabies after too many days away. I saw them right before I left for Oregon and the day after I got back. Thank you, thank you, thank you to my beloved Amanda and Curtis, who always make room for the grandparents in their hyper-busy pastoring lives. I happen to be typing this post about five feet away from this picture right here. Now, I ask you, who could stand to be far from those two for very long?? My point exactly.
Oh, one more thing about the trip. On the rare occasions when much of the team gets to stay an extra night after the event, there is considerable foolishness. With God-fearing people, especially of mixed company, off-color humor is out so we have to go with just plain stupid and it works for me every time. This is Travis with his good friends Clay (who played the mandolin for us at this LPL! We loved him!) and Seth (who we always love and get to have on the team most of the time).
I bet Travis wore those glasses for 15 minutes in the drugstore. (Yep, that’s where all this stuff was.) Long enough to where I found myself talking to him normally as if he didn’t look like an idiot. Of course, it might be a tad hypocritical for me to say he looked like such a thing since…
Tragically, that’s not plastic you’re seeing there below the glasses. That’s my real nose. (I made myself laugh.)
Well, I could talk on and on but, the fact is, we have Scriptures to do today, Sisters! I love mine this time around. Remember how we talked about the importance of choosing one to memorize that really means something to us personally? This one’s really speaking to me right now. Lately I’ve been especially aware of the contrasts in the Christian public square between those who build up the Body of Christ and those who tear it down. If we’re going to be builders in a world tearing apart, we’re going to have to be deliberate. We’ll also have to accept the materials we’re working with. We’ll never have a flawless body of believers to edify. Not this side of our completed state. As my friend Carlos Whittaker says, we’re all crazier than we think we are. It’s a mess out there. Oh, for crying out loud, I’m a mess in here. But we do have a flawless Savior and we are indeed God’s chosen people, loved and planned for and accounted for in the Kingdom agenda. We’ve got to decide how we want to treat one another on this thorny journey. This verse says it well.
Beth, Houston. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. 1 Corinthians 14:12 ESV
There He says it: don’t just take a stab at it. Strive to excel in it.
Oh, Sisters, I love you so much. I truly do. I’ll talk to you soon!
Tags: Scripture Memory 2013
Meredith from Blacksburg, VA
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay, and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Romans 8:20-21 ESV
Annette, Wylie, TX
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. John 3:17 NIV
But as for me, I wait in hope for the Lord.I wait for God, my Savior; my God will hear me. Micah 7:7, NIV
“in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:4 NIV
Lise, Cumming, GA, For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. PHI 3:20, NAS.
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him!”. 1 Corinthians 2:9. NIV
“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV84)
Psalm 121:5-6 NIV
The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
Woodstock, Ga.
And my God will meet all our needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19 (NIV1984)
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Melissa, Perry, GA
Matthew 5:5 NIV
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
LaVonne, Peachtree City, GA
If people canāt see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.
Proverbs 29:18 The Message
Elizabeth Ann Dains, Houston, Texas. “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)
Champaign, IL
She who has believed is blessed because what was spoken to her by the Lord will be fulfilled! Luke 1:45 (HCSB)
Margaret
Tulsa, OK
“They will tell of the power if your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds.”. Psalm 145:6 NIV 1984
Odessa, TX
Romans 12:12 NIV
“Be joyful in hope,patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
Psalm 59:16 NIV
But I will sing of your power. Yes, I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning; for you have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble.
Ps 46:10 Be still and know that I am God.
He will not let your foot slip-he who watches over you will not slumber; Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber not sleep. Ps 121:3-4 NIV
Nancy
Columbus IN
Mandy, Waco, TX
I look for your deliverance, O Lord.
Genesis 49:18 (NIV)
Zephaniah 3:5
Every new day HE does not fail.
Jen in Exton,PA
Romans 7:2 (Ampl)
For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he is lives; but if her husband dies, she is loosed and discharged from the law concerning her husband.
Elisabeth, Houston:
“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
John 17:17 (ESV)
Morgan – Bolivar, MO
I will lift up my eyes to the hillsā
From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
Psalms 121:1-2 NKJV
Heather K, Mosinee WI
Your love oh Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies
Psalm 36:5
(can’t remember if I posted, so am putting it up, just in case!)
Heather- Greenfield, IN
God is within her, she will not fail; God will help her at break of day.
Psalms 46:5, NIV
Andrea – Michigan
James 5:16 (NIV)
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Hebrews 13:8 NIV
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Laura Griffiths, Auburn, AL Lam. 3:22-26
The Lord’s loving kindesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I have hope in Him.” The LORD is good to those who wait for him, To the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently. For the salvation of the Lord.
April Jackson, Pittsburgh, PA
Proverbs 23:27
“For a prostitute is a deep pit and a wayward wife is a narrow well”
Pat, Littlefield, Tx……”For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives. So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way. Bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.”
Colossians 1:9-10 NIV
Not so the wicked! They are like the chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. Psalms 1:5 NIV
Diana in Arcadia, WI
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
1John 4:4 NIV
Janie, Sarah and Anna Phillips
Bartlesville, OK
Matthew 5:8-9 NIV
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Joshua 1:8, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night, so that you will be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prodperois and successful.
NIV
Glenda – Tieton WA
So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
I Cor 14:12 ESV
Ephesians 1:7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.
Olivia, West Sussex, UK “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere deep love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart”. 1 Peter 12 v 2, NIV.
Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path.
Proverbs 23:19 NIV
Dana
Boerne, TX
Tiffany–Lancaster, PA
“Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”
Colossians 3:12 NLT
Lori
Bangor, Maine
Sit back and relax, my dear daughter, until we find out how things turn out.
Ruth 3:18A (Message)
Jinga, West Palm Beach
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 10:10 NIV
Sharon modesto, ca.
Habakkuk 3:2
LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. remew them in our day, in our time make them know; in wrath remember mercy
Becky, Highland Village, Tx. “You drenched and plowed ground with rain, melting the clods and leveling ridges, You soften the earth with showers and bless the abundant crops.” Psalms 65:10 New Living Translation
Sarah Phillips
Wilmington, DE
“Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent.” – Psalm 4:4 NLT
Cindy, Beaumont TX: 17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to childrenās children, 18 To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them. Psalms 103:17-18 (NKJV)
Melody, Cleburne, TX
“I sought the Lord and he answered me, he delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:4 NIV
Santa Rosa Beach, FL
“greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world”
1 John 4:46 KJV
Laura, Baton Rouge,LA
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
2nd Cor. 4:8-9 NIV
Matia, Fort Worth, TX, “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.” Psalm 24:3-4 NKJV