Hey, my beloved sisters!
Though I won’t publish this post until Tuesday, the first day of October, I am writing to you on Sunday. I have the house all to myself today – not even a dog in sight – and I am sitting on my back porch as a generous rain soaks the ground, polishing the wide leaves of sweet gums on its way down. Our trees this far south are still plump and green and, right this minute, I don’t mind because the leaves have such a sheen on them in the rain that they look like vinyl. The temperatures will drop one slow degree at a time over the next month but we usually don’t have what people call “Autumn” here until as late as November. And it’s almost unrecognizable even then. Suddenly you just look up and the trees don’t have leaves and it hits you that you probably missed Fall on your way to work that morning when you ran into Starbucks for a dry cappuccino.
An Arkansas girl by heritage, I am on the hunt for Red October by mid September but I can’t think of a time since I’ve lived on the Gulf Coast that I’ve ever found it. Well, except when I close my eyes and look. And it is beautiful there. I do love Houston though, despite how season-challenged it is. Good people. Many, many who earnestly love Jesus and crave the sense of His presence and serve Him with both life and heart. Its diversity kicks up a rich climate for faith and a prime place to meet people very different from you who seek Jesus feverishly. It’s not as easy to keep your stereotypes tidy here.
In the early years of speaking, God purposed that I’d accrue copious hours of experience serving at various churches, women’s breakfasts and luncheons right here in our city limits and still get home to greet my children after their school day. I often pulled out of the driveway when they hopped on the school bus and squealed my tires back on the concrete just minutes before they pulled up at 3:15. My kids loved riding the school bus and, as it turns out (I write this with a smile), it was a grace to me. On paper, our lives shouldn’t have worked but somehow it worked (apply the term loosely) in practice. That’s the beautiful oddity of the will of God. What should easily work doesn’t work when He’s not in it and what should never work does work when He is. It’s crazy to think about in retrospect. He has been so faithful, just as He will be to you as you try to balance it all and seek His mercy through the insanity.
I wish I could somehow add the soundtrack of what I’m presently hearing to this post. I wish you could listen to the comfort of the rainfall, especially if you are feeling chaotic or anxious right now or frantic about how something’s going to work out. The water is falling steadily, not a soft shower or a downpour. Constant and consoling, almost like one of those sleep-settings on your iPad. And I wish you could hear 4 male hummingbirds competing over the feeder that is hanging about 8 feet from where I’m sitting. It mesmerizes me to watch them and I think you might like it, too, once you adjusted to the pace out here in these woods.
Sometimes we really do just need everything and everybody else to shut up for a minute and let us listen to the sound of God being God around us. These moments are brief for all of us. Just five days ago I was fit to be tied over something. I do mean fit to be tied and, over the weekend, greatly concerned about a situation even while I served. But I am going to sit here for the next few minutes and pour myself a cup of coffee while God pours these woods a cup of rain.
Well, I guess you can tell that I’m in a musing mood so perhaps I should wrap this post up before I work my way over to subjects like world peace and dark nights of the soul and existential crises and the beauty of aging and the delights of youth. Honestly, I can feel a poem trying to write itself in my head. This post must end with perfect timing before, indeed, my words start rhyming. Run for your life. It’s almost too late.
Here’s my Scripture for this October 1st!
Beth Moore, O God, You cause abundant showers to fall on Your chosen people. When they are tired, You sustain them, for You live among them. Psalm 68:9-10a The NET Bible
Amen, You do, gracious, merciful God.
I love you, Sisters. You are a joy to me. The next post will be registration for our SSMT celebration so we can get an idea how many to prepare for. Wooohoooo! It’s almost time to kick up our heels!
Tags: Scripture Memory 2013
Paula, Brownwood, Tx
The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.
Ecclesiastes 12:13. NASB
Terri, Orange TX
” O God, You cause abundant showers to fall on Your chosen people. When they are tired You sustain them for You live among them.”
Psalm 68:9-10 The NET Bible
Stann, Frisco, TX
Bless the Lord, O my soul and forget none of His benefits.
Psalm 103:2 NASB
Matthew 11:30 NIV
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Susan
Corinth, TX
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
3 John 1:4 (NIV)
“Oh Lord, be gracious to us;
we long for you.
Be our strength in the morning,
our salvation in time of distress.”
Isaiah 33:2 (NIV)
Cheryl Couperus, Redlands, CA:
1 Corinthians 13:1 (NIV)
“And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”
Kim – St. Louis, MO – Guard my life and rescue me; do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope, Lord, is in you. (Psalm 25:20, 21 NIV)
Vicki
Murfreesboro, TN
Matthew 4:4 (HCSB)
“But He answered, “It is written: man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Sherie
The Woodlands,TX
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23 NIV
Linda Hammett says:
Linda Hammett, Wake Forest, N.C.
“I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13(NIV)
Bambi-Houston, TX
I love the Eternal; for not only does He hear my voice, my pleas for mercy, But He leaned down when I was in trouble and brought His ear close to me. So long as I have breath, I will call on Him.
Psalm 116:1-2 The Voice
Julia, Whidbey Island, WA: In you, Lord my God,
I put my trust. ” Ps 25:1 NIV
Sally, St. Paul, MN, “Let the righteous rejoice in the Lord, and take refuge in him; let all the upright in heart praise him.” Psalm 64:10 NIV
Stephanie King – Richardson, TX
I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
John 11:25 NIV
Katy
Frisco, TX
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
– Ephesians 2:19-22, NIV
O God, You cause abundant showers to fall on Your chosen people. When they are tired, You sustain them, for You live among them.
Ps 68:9-10a (NET)
Michelle, New Richmond: He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 2 Timothy 1:9 NIV
Tracy, Tangent, OR
Col 3:4 NKJV When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Midge Atlanta/Florence, SC
O God, You cause abundant showers to fall on Your chosen people. When they are tired, You sustain them, for You live among them. Psalm 68:9-10a The NET Bible
Kristel Hines from Russellville, AR
We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.
Romans 3:22 NLT
Becky, Vicksburg, MS
A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. Proverbs 25:11 (NIV).
Kim, Nashville, TN
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
John 6:35 (ESV)
Worcester, UK (that reason ares with me!!!)
O God, You cause abundant showers to fall on Your chosen people. When they are tired, You sustain them, for You live among them. Psalm 68:9-10a The NET Bible
Dawn Kornelson- Airdrie, Alberta, Canada
Psalm 56:3
NIV
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
Worcester, UK (that resonated with me!!!)
O God, You cause abundant showers to fall on Your chosen people. When they are tired, You sustain them, for You live among them. Psalm 68:9-10a The NET Bible
Lori Concordia,KS
You are my hiding place, you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Psalm 32:7 NIV
Whitney, Ames, OK
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 107:1 NIV
Claire, Bangkok,
“Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you.” – Ps 37:5 NLV
Phyllis, Irvine, CA
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” Colossians 3:23 (NIV)
Terri, Papua New Guinea. “He will not let your foot slip–He who watches over you will not slumber;” Psalm 121:3, NIV.
Lisa Friedrichs, Frisco TX – Those who lend money without charging interest, and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent. Such people will stand firm forever. (Psalms 15:5 NLT)
Vanessa Szanto, Rio Rancho NM
From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. Galatians 6:17 niv
Dawn Kornelson- Airdrie,Alberta, Canada
Romans 12:10 NIRV
Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves.
Shannon, Mandeville, “Even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.” Ps. 139:12 TNIV
Shawna Kent, WA
“For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace!” Romans 6:14 (NIV)
Amanda, Calgary, AB
The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever: forsake not the work of thine own hands.
Psalm 138: 8 KJV
Beth, West Des Moines, IA
The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. James 1:9-12 (NIV 1984)
Shawna Longmont, CO
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
Ephesians 4:32
Shaci-Aztec,New Mexico
The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit. (Proverbs 15:4 NIV)
Melanie Johnson from Georgetown, Tx
Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Psalm 51:6 NIV
Christine, Chandler AZ
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV
Durant, OK
Children’s children are.a crown to the aged, and parents are the prude of their children.
Proverbs 17:6 NIV
Amy in Waipahu, Hawaii
“Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
Philipians 4:8
Molly, Cypress, TX
“O God, You cause abundant showers to fall on Your chosen people. When they are tired, You sustain them, for You live among them.”
Psalm 68:9-10a The NET Bible
Sue, Texarkana, Tx.
“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; you must master it ” NIV
Eph. 4:2 NIV “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
Port Orchard
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
Esther, Lincoln, NE
The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. (John 1:4, 5 NLT)
Karen, Clarksville, “O God, You cause abundant showers to fall on Your people. When they are tired, You sustain them, for You live among them.” Psalm 69:9-10a