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
Suzy – Atlanta (don’t think I remembered to post this – sorry!)
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with Him give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Romans 8:31-33 – ESV
Katie
Kansas
Though the mountains vanish, my unending love will never leave you.
Isaiah 54:10
Cayla Collier, Pompano Beach, FL. (Sorry so late! Forgot to post earlier!)
Be joyful always; Pray continually; Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 2 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV
Luke 6:37-38
“Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap, for with the measure you use, it will be measured to you”. NIV
James 2:18
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” NIV
My heart, O God, is steadfast:
I will sing and make music with all my soul.
Psalm 108:1 NIV
Sarah S., McKinney, TX, Ephesians 3:20 NIV
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,”
Waxahachie, Texas
“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.”
Psalm 56:3 (NIV)
Sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises,
sing praises unto our King sing praises
Psalms 47:6 KJ
LaGlace, Alberta, Canada
“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us.”
II Corinthians 5:20 (NIV)
Cindy
Salt Lake City
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last.
Then the Father will give you whatever you ask
On my name.
John 15:16
Muriel in Ontario
Ecclesiastes 3:1 NLT
For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
Sheri Milwaukee, WI
“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”
James 3:13 NIV
Katie Swaney (McDonough, GA)
“…He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” –Zephaniah 3:17 NIV
Glo in Houston says:
For the Lord shall be your confidence, firm and strong,
and shall keep your foot from caught.
Proverbs 3:26 (TAB)
Lisa Braun
Warman, SK Canada
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.
Ephesians 2:8 NLT
Elizabeth Pack, Charleston, WV
John 3:17 (NIV)
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
Julie in Carlsbad, CA
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” John 1:1-2 (NIV)
LisaT Boonsboro, Md
James 1:23-24. NIV
Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at himself in the mirror, then, after looking at himself he goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10 NLT
Kami, Dallas, Tx: “Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life…” Deut. 30:19a-20b NIV
Cindy
Flemingsburg, KY
I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
Isaiah 46:4 NIV
Lisa, Andalusia, Alabama
Matthew 6:33-34
New International Version (NIV)
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Mandy, Watkinsville, GA
Prov. 1:33 (NLT)- “But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts.” says the Lord. “And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
Heidi~Lindale, TX
Psalm 689-10a
O, God, You cause abundant showers to fall on Your chosen people. When they are tired, You sustain them, for You live among them.
Syneva, Topeka, KS
I Corinthians 13:6 NASB
“does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth;”
Jeri, Lynchburg, VA, “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.” Deuteronomy 30:11 NIV 84
Laura Beth, Jackson
Isaiah 26:3, NLT
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
Psalm 46:10 ESV
‘Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’
Johnine from Murfreesboro, TN
My comman is this: Love each other as I have love you. John 15:12 NIV
Amanda Benson, Eagle Butte, SD
1 Peter 1:15-16
But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Farrah, Jackson, MS
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV)
Tracy, Kountze
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7
Natalie from Frisco, TX
He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27 NIV
Patti from Fort Worth, TX
But now this is what the Lord says — He who created you, Jacob, He who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” Isaiah 43:1 (NIV)
Anna, Little Elm, TX
Give thanks to The Lord, for He is good;
His love endures forever.
Psalm 118:29
Debra, Many, La.
“The one who believes in Me, as the scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” John 7:38 (HCSB)
John 10:14 NKJV
“I am the good shepherd;
and I know my sheep,
and am known by My own.”
Stephanie Knight Waynesboro, MS
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” Rev 22:13 HCSB
James 3:13 NIV
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
Beth
Cary, NC
Zechariah 4:10 (NLT)
Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.
debbie jo, greenwood, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Luke 6:31 (NIV)
Lyli, Fort Lauderdale (still playing catch up….):
“For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of peace will not be shaken, says the Lord who has compassion on you” (Isaiah 54:10, NASB).
Karen F from Unionville, PA
Ephesians 4:2 (NIV)
Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Tillie, Spring Branch, TX
John 14:3
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.”
(NIV)
Bonnie Wallace
Charleston, SC
“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, our glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.”
Ephesians 1:17 (NIV)
Soozi, Lexington, KY. 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
Katherine Atlanta, GA
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10 NET
“Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life.”
Proverbs 4:23 NCV
Pat
Crawfordsville, IN