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
CHRISTIE – GRAHAM, WA
“Jesus came up & spoke to them saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth”
Matt. 28:18 NASB
Rebecca, Las Vegas. “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” Isaiah 58:11 (NIV)
Vickie Abel
Spokane,Wa
Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!
Psalm 27:14
Joni, Port Neches. “Unless the LORD had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.” Ps. 94:17, NIV84
MaryClare Hill in Frisco, Texas
She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.
Proverbs 31:25 NIV
Becca, st paul, mn
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts,always hopes,always perseveres. Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
Stephanie V., Tulsa, Ok.
*But the Lord is faithful, who will establish and guard you from the evil one.
(2 thess. 3:3 nkjv)
Imogene Austin, TX
That if you confess with your mouth,”Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 NIV
Bridget in Phoenix, AZ Romans 8:5-6
5 for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be Spiritually minded is life and peace
Punky Tolson, Dallas, TX
To win the contest you must deny yourselves many things that would keep you from doing your best. An athlete goes to all this trouble just to win a blue ribbon or a silver cup, but we do it for a heavenly reward that never disappears.
1 Corinthians 9:25 TLB
Crystal from Phoenix
Psalm 32:7 NIV
You are my hiding place, You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.
Allison, Cypress TX
“I will extol the Lord at all time, his praise will always be on my lips.” Psalm 34:1 NIV
“Who is like You, Lord God Almighty? You, Lord, are mighty and Your faithfulness surrounds You. You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, You still them.” Psalm 89:8-9 (NIV)
Janet, Longmont,CO
“If you make the LORD your refuge
if you make the Most High your shelter,
no evil will conquer you,
no plague will come near your home.”
Psalm 91:9-10 NLT
Richmond, TX
2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.
Psalm 145:8
Natalie, Grand Prairie, TX
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
Psalm 27:14 (NIV)
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1 NIV)
Sarah, San Diego
Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think on such things.
Philippians 4:8
Oldie but a goodie that I need.
Patti, Phoenix AZ
Proverbs 19:17 NIV “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.”
Christy, Conifer, Colorado
2 Samuel 22:31 NIV
As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
Susie H., McKinney, TX
There the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
Psalm 1:5 (NKJV)
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
Psalm 91:1 NIV
Corinne in Chehalis Washington
Whitney Caves
Clinton, MS
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
Mariposa Sivage. Albuquerque, New Mexico
2 Tim 3:16 NIV
All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in rightousness.
Maria
Oxford, MS
Now to HIm who is able to do immeasureably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.
Ephesians 3:20 NIV
My small group and I will be memorizing
For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD; I sing for joy at what your hands have done.
Psalm 92:4
Deb, Loveland, CO – “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” I Timothy 2:5 (NKJV)
Heather
Little Rock, AR
I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath! (Psalms 116:1, 2 NLT)
Patty, Shelton, WA
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. 3 John 1:4, NIV
Emily, Loveland, CO – “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
Habakkuk 3:18 (NKJV)
Anita, Big River, Saskatchewan, Canada
“Blessed be God,
because he has not rejected my prayer
or removed his steadfast love from me.”
Psalm 66: 20 ESV
Dorothy, San Diego
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
John 14:26 (NKJV)
Desiree, Calgary, Alberta
And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
1 John 5:11-12 NASB
Ashleigh, Lewistown, MT
“Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19 (NCV)
Marcia Jordon, Fulton, MO
Psalm 139:16 (HCSB) Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.
Tensie Palmer, Los Angeles, CA
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Revelation 22:20 NKJV
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19 ESV)
Roman 12:16
“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”
Marilyn — Seattle
O God, you cause abundant showers to fall on your chosen people. When they are tired, you sustain them, for you live among them. (Psalms 68:9,10a NET)
Carol, Woodbridge, CA
“Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me.”. Psalm 66:20. NKJV
You are cute. And that verse I know was chosen before you wrote your bit in the midst of rainy days but how apt.
Have a great day! Thanks for serving. I’m using you’re latest grace poems to attempt to inspire some grace growing in the ladies who work with the kids with me. I don’t know that kids is my thing but kids is the church thing and I said I would serve where the need was. They put me in charge of singing with the little ones. Oh man! We make a joyful noise and turn up the speakers. I like the hopping and jumping part cause them we can focus on something besides how we sound lol! For the grace that might take I feel this great ability to as you said it–to try to cling to the old me. And if you knew me — then — well I got not much to cling to. But I try to cling there anyway in so many ways. And was just bumped to step up. And cling to Jesus in a new way. Well maybe the other ladies will come on with. Maybe we’ll know how to encourage each other in those things that seem most improbable. Maybe we’ll find a safe place to be a little humble and a little bold. And maybe TOGETHER we’ll see Jesus this year.
Okay that turned longer than I intended. But its your leadership that inspired me. And I wanted to tell you what I’m hoping to do with help of your writing.
Love ya Beth
Ruth, Shawnee, KS
Psalm 68:9-10a (NET) –
O God, You cause abundant showers to fall on Your chosen people. When they are tired, You sustain them, for You live among them.
Behind on my verses….America back to Thailand . I have 2 verses.
Deut.33:27 The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the every last arms, He will drive away your enemy before you, saying destroy him. Thailand is a battle field and I need this verse. And Ps. 42:8 is so perfect, by day The Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me- a prayer to the God of my life.
I will serve him wherever He will have me!
Mindy Seekford Gloster, La
I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel:
thou seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel: why
wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of the Lord? 2 Samuel 20:19
Katie, Jakarta, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we could no longer be enslaved to sin,” Romans 6:6 (ESV).
Pat Stokes
Portland, Texas
Know therefore that The Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.
Deuteronomy 7:9 (NIV)
Hilary from Langley, Canada, says:
“If only you would slay the wicked, O’ God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.”
Psalm 139:19-20 (NIV84)
Lisa Wick
Hillsboro, Or
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path
Psalm 119:105 NASB
Phyllis Amarillo, TX
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirtit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Ephesians 4:29-30 NIV