bible study girls

"But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised"

(Proverbs 31:30b)

She watches ever so intently. Observing all that she sees in my actions and my attitude. As she begins to really seek the Lord, even at her young age, I feel an awesome responsibility to be even more accountable to Christ. More accountable for my life to echo a life of a woman after the heart of God.

I see her copying scripture after she asks about my stack of index cards on my desk. I see her keeping her little devotional and pencil in a small basket like her mother does. She told me that they were going to be "bible study girls" like me.

I love how she asks me if I am listening to Beth Moore each time she gets into my car. She has already learned that is most likely what is in my CD player.

She asked me the other day if she could go to the next "Beth Moore thing" with me. Of course, I told her she could. What a tremendous blessing that will be. She then looked up at me and said "Nana, I always want to be a faithful follower of God". Oh, me too sweetie. Indeed, me too.

As I see how God works in the life a 7-year old girl, it fills me with such gratitude for His generous grace. It really makes me so thankful.

Thankful that when he called my name when I was just 9 years old, I answered.

Thankful that when I strayed away, He beckoned me back home.

Thankful that my daughter chose a path of righeousness when she came to a fork in the road. And that she is raising her children to be lovers of God and leading them by example.

I watch as Mikaela is spreading her spiritual wings and desiring the 'much more' in Jesus. Even though at this tender age she really doesn't understand what the 'much more' entails. But she knows that it exists.

I am more determined than ever to be that example of Christ. To continue allowing He that is within me to light her path as she seeks Him.

She brings a smile to my face and joy to my heart when she takes her bible with her wherever she goes. I love to look in the rearview mirror and see her singing praise and worship and really worshiping.

I love it when she spends the night and after she has read her bible, wants me to read to her from my bible when she goes to bed. And she listens intently.

I love it when we go to Monroe and she wants to know if we can go to Lifeway. And when we get there, it amuses me that she leads me straight to the Beth Moore section.  Her excitement when I gave her a small book entitled "A taste of breaking free" just delighted me. She had her very own Beth Moore book and was just so thrilled.

I pray that God will continue to draw her near. I pray that she continues to seek Him more. I pray that I will continue to sow the seeds of faith for all my grandchildren.

I pray that we indeed grow to be 'bible study girls' together. Reading His Word. Communing with Him. Praying without ceasing. And reaping the 'much more' of the abundant life in Christ.

"Her children rise up and call her blessed....."

Proverbs 31:28

And we are changed...

The purpose of God's discipline is changed behavior.

Ouch.. that truth hurts. There have been many times when God has chastened and disciplined my sweet little self and guess what?

My behavior did NOT change. You know why? Because I didn't really heed the discipline. I didn't really take to heart what the Lord was teaching me. Sad, but oh, so true.

There have been times that I knew without a shadow of a doubt, that God was speaking to me about a needed change on my part. A change of behavior.

I even whole heartedly agreed with Him that I need to make a change. It was something that I had been wrestling with myself about already. I had recognized that when it came to this particular emotion I was feeling - I was wrong. Plain and simple.

I knew I was wrong. I knew I needed to do something about it. I even went so far as to confess it and ask God to forgive me for it.

But that's right where it stopped. I didn't carry it one step further. I failed to get to the root of the problem and dig it up. I dealt with it at the surface level and left the roots in the ground, ready to spring up at the slightest watering. My behavior hadn't changed at all. Not one bit.

I wasn't willing to totally relinquish control of that problem to God. I was more consumed with my desire than I was with the Lord's. I was steadily convincing myself that I was justified in my thinking. I was at an impasse with God. Therefore, I would never truly experience true spiritual transformation until I gave Him complete control over that area.

I had failed to recognize the encounter I had with God. The encounter where He was gently guiding me to do what was right. To do what He was leading. To do His will.

I was just allowing myself to continue in that wrong attitude - allowing the chains of bondage to suck a little tighter around me!

It wasn't until I allowed the truth to penetrate deeply in my soul that I faced it squarely and honestly. I had to give it over and let go of it completely. Be submissive to God.

I am not really sure why I chose to hang on to that which threatened to keep me from going forward with God. Perhaps pride. Rebellion. No matter what the reason - it was plain 'ole disobedience.

I am thankful that God is patient and loving. He extended mercy to me. He ever so gently led me to the foot of the cross where I laid that behavior at His Feet.  And I left it there. Never to pick it up again. Praise you, Jesus.

"Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established" (Proverbs 16:3)

The Precious Lamb of God

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

I read this verse as part of my daily bible reading this morning. I know that I have read it many times and probably so have most of you. But this morning, it just really spoke to my heart with the magnitude of what this actually means. I read it afresh. I read it with a new understanding. I read it with a new appreciation. It just flooded through my soul that this is mercy.

When we align ourselves with Christ and we enter into a full relationship of repentance and obedience with Him – we will never be the same. We don’t want to ever be the same. We become a changed and new creation. We become visibly different.

Just like a butterfly breaking free from the cocoon that binds him, we break free from the cocoon of this world and emerge a new, beautiful creation in Christ. We have been changed from old to new. From death to life! From defeat to victory! From sinful to forgiven.

We have been given the sweet gift of mercy. As the old things pass away we now have unlimited access to the new things.

New affections..
New actions..
New desires..
New appetites..
New relationships..
New life..
New love..

Through Christ, He enables us to make the transformation. He has provided the way. But it’s up to us to spread our wings and leave the confines of the cocoon of the world. The transformation is more than just an outward change, it is an inward reformation. We have been given the chance to have new life in Christ. We have been given the ability to be reconciled with Him and receive the forgiveness we can’t earn and the mercy we don’t deserve. Through Him, our sins have been washed away and we are cleansed and made whole.

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

As Christ became sin for us on that cross, we immediately were given the opportunity to become new creations. As the Lamb of God took on our sin, we became spotless. Righteousness has been imputed TO us and then implanted IN us. We have been made fully justified through Him. Freely justified! We have been made the righteousness of God! Hallelujah! I don’t know about you but that just excites me! As my husband would say, “If that don’t light your fire, your wood must be wet!!”

We can never earn this grace. We can never earn His mercy. But we can accept it and embrace it and live for Him.

Praise you, Lord for your never ending mercy. Thank you, Lord, for so freely giving up your life on the cross at Calvary for me. Thank you for enabling me to become a new creation. Thank you for giving me new life. I love you and I will seek you and find you and love you more and more.

Scrabble anyone?

The other night I did something that I know is going to make you think that I am strange. I couldn’t get my husband to play scrabble with me. We had played a few nights before that and he beat me! It’s not that I have to win, but I do not like to lose…..Well, for whatever reason he wouldn’t play again. So, I just decided to play by myself. Yes, I know that is weird, but it was fun. Really. I decided to only make words that pertained to being a Christian. ( I learned that there aren’t enough “Y’s” for all the words I could think of. And no, I did not keep score. : )

Well, God always has a way of teaching me and making a lesson out of the simplest things. He did the same with this simple game of scrabble.

When you play, you choose 7 tiles to start with and whoever goes first has to lay that first very important word out on the board. It is the “foundation” so to speak of the rest of the game. Everything else after that is essentially building upon that word.

As Christians, the foundation that we first lay as a child of God, has to be solid and firm. Our foundation has to be on that solid rock of Jesus. We have to plant ourselves solidly in the Word of God, so that we can not be moved. We have to take the Word and guard it so it can not be snatched away from us. We have to make sure that our foundation is strong.

“According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:10-11)

After we make sure that our foundation will hold, we begin building upon it layer by layer. Each step we take toward spiritual growth is just like adding words to that scrabble board. We take what is already there and build upon it. We can even take a word that is already there and add to it and strengthen it. That is just how our life should be as a Christian. Constantly adding to and reinforcing our foundation with things that we learn or that Christ has shown us through bible study or experiences.

Another thing that I thought about, was the fact that you can only build upon what is already there. You can’t just put a word in a corner by itself. It can not stand alone. It has to be connected to what is already being built. That is just how we are to construct our lives. We have to utilize what is already being laid out and already built and add to it. We have to constantly be using our experiences and growth as stepping stones to the next level. We build upon what we have and only make it stronger. We use the existing structure and expand and edify.

The finished product is one big puzzle. Even though there are many, many words IN it, it is still one piece all connected together. Each word producing the means to make another word. Each word strengthening the next. Each word built upon that solid foundation of the first word.

Our first word is Jesus. He is our rock. He is what we build upon. He is the one who strengthens us and keeps us connected to the Father. He is our foundation.

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:18)

Joyfully His,
Beth

Are we Fruitful?

As I was doing my bible study by Kay Arthur, she asks this question. "Do you know people who acknowledge the worship of God yet don't seem fully aligned with His Kingdom? If so, what things seem to take priority in their lives and do these things take precedence over God and His work?"

Talk about a loaded question! The answer is most assuredly, yes. I thought about it and I came to a realization that all things take priority over God in the lives of people who haven't begun to understand who God is and what surrender actually means.

Even as Christians it is so easy to get bogged down and side-tracked in this materialistic, success-driven, 'all about me' world that we live in. We want to say all the right things, wear all the right clothes, do all the right stuff and appear all the right ways. We are willing to do what it takes to be 'somebody' in the world. But are we willing to do what it takes to be committed to being somebody in God's Kingdom?

We can know God and we can confess Him as Lord. But is our allegiance to Him? Are we living in total obedience and unwavering loyalty to Christ and the spreading of the gospel? Are we seeking things when we need to be seeking truths? Are we seeking pleasure when we need to be seeking purpose?

If most of us (including me) are honest with ourselves, we would admit that we aren't completely surrendered to God's will. We have this inborn longing and need to fit in. The dissatisfaction we so often feel in our lives feeds our desire for more of something. We want to make more, to have more, so we spend more, to be more and then we desire more, so we have to make more! How crazy is that!

What we need is more Jesus. More time spent in the Word. More time spent in prayer. More time spent communing with God. More time producing fruit.

God deserves our firsts and not our lasts. Anything less than our best is divided allegiance. Our number one focus should be Christ. We need to give more than just lip service to our Lord. We need to make Christ the top priority in word and deed. Let the fruit that we bear be witness to this. Deny ourselves. Take up our cross. Follow Jesus.

"Therefore by their fruits you will know them" (Matthew 7:20)

Seeking Him,
Beth

Marking our territory

Do you remember when your kids were little and sometimes they would have the age-old argument "she's sitting in my chair!"? And as parents we would calmly explain to them that their names were NOT written on the chairs and it didn't matter who sat in what chair? Well, it seems my oldest daughter had been having this "discussion" at her house for the past few days with her 2 oldest blessings. It appears that Mikaela (6) has a favorite chair and that Eli (3) knows it is her favorite chair... After a few days of hearing "that's my chair" and saying, "Mikaela, your names are NOT written on your chairs", my sweet grandbaby decided to take matters into her own hands. So... yesterday when the argument began and my daughter said those famous words, Mikaela piped up, "yes they are mommy!". My daughter said she stopped in her tracks, took a deep breath and said, "excuse me?" Well.. guess whose names are INDEED written in marker on the wooden dining room chairs?? You got it... But Mikaela was quick to inform me, "it's not permanent marker, Nana".

I thought about this episode on my way home and it occurred to me that my precious grandbaby was just 'marking her territory'. She was letting everyone (Eli) know that was HER chair. It came to me that as Christians we need to start 'marking our territory'. We have to make sure that Christ is evident in our lives. We need to be willing to write it in marker! (Permanent marker). Our lives should be full of the outward evidence that Christ dwells in us. We should show an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Live our faith out loud. What a difference we could make in this world if we would all just mark our territory for Christ.

Oh, Lord, fill me up to overflowing with the power of your Holy Spirit. Let my life glorify You and edify You in all things. Thank you for your hand upon my life. Fill me, use me, teach me.

In His Redeeming Love,

Beth