Unto us a child is born!

In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. -John 1:1-5

Merry Christmas everyone!

Beth Moore

I just completed another Beth Moore Bible Study called Believing God, and oh man, did the Lord use this time to teach me. It was a sweet time of me learning how to trust, taking steps in the right direction and God gently showing me his faithfulness over and over again. The premise of this study is Do you merely believe in God? Or do you Believe God? Each session began with five statements that we had to memorize:

1. God is who he says he is.
2. God can do what he says he can do.
3. I am who God says I am.
4. I can do all things through Christ.
5. God's word is alive and living in me.

I have lots I could share, but actually, I have an idea. Beth has another Bible study available online (you watch the videos online and print the weekly homework into a binder) called Living in the Spirit. I would LOVE to do this study with a group of ladies who are needing their own personal way to recharge. (I know some of you are already in a study at your church. Awesome! But for those of you who would like to connect this way, please do!)

My thought is that we would start the study the second week of January, and do a weekly check in, sharing what God has shown us through studying his word. I did something similar to this with my sisters-in-law, all of us communicating over email. I knew some of the women in the group, and didn't know others. But that wasn't really the point. We were all learning different truths as God revealed them to us, and we were able to share our joys and excitement and the faithful stories of God's movement in our lives with each other. It was a really unique and special community.

Just think about if this might be something you'd want to participate in to kick off the new year. It's a ten week study, with five days of Bible study homework each week (but don't think of it as homework...it's learning and praying and growing in all the best ways!)

And to get a better feel for Beth Moore, check out this link I just found. She is on a morning talk show on Wednesday's and this archives of her Wednesday lessons. She is excitable, very much a Texan, and so passionate that you cannot help but be inspired.

I learned something new.

I'm still doing the Beth Moore Bible Study, "To live is Christ" and it just gets better and better. This week she defined the greek word for Rescue. The word is rhuomai which is "derived from a word meaning to drag along the ground. Rhuomai means to draw or snatch from danger, rescue, deliver. This is more with the meaning of drawing to oneself than merely rescuing from someone or something."

I think I have always thought that to be rescued by God would look something like some big heavenly crane coming and plucking the person needing rescue out of their cicumstances. I have a friend right now who is living a horribly trying season along the lines of Job, and when I pray for him I pray for God to make it all stop. It's just too much for one man. But this definition of rescue changes my thinking. This friend may not have a single circumstance change. He may continue to be dragged along the ground. But my prayer now is that in this process God continues to draw this friend to himself.

Beth writes, "Whether we get to avoid pain and suffering or we must persevere in the midst of it, our deliverance comes when we're dragged from the enemy of our souls to the heart of God. We escape from the clutches of evil every time we draw near to the embrace of God. Delivered from evil. Drawn to God. The rescue has not reaped its ultimate work until we're under His wing."

Doesn't that sound like a good place to be?

At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
John 19:41-42

Jesus looked toward heaven and prayed,

"Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began."

John 17:1-5

Worried. Concerned. Nervous.

I'm in the middle of reading Exodus right now and cannot believe how hard it is for Moses and God to convince the Israelites that God will provide for their needs. They are crying for freedom and God displays very obvious signs of his power and authority over all things by turning the Nile into blood, sending frogs and flies and gnats and locusts in disgusting, gross numbers, spreading boils over the skin of the Egyptians and their animals and finally displaying his wrath and anger regarding Pharoah's inability to cooperate, the first born of every Egyptian household is killed.

It paints a picture of a very serious God on a very serious mission to free his people.

The Israelites saw all of this with their own eyes. Wonders that no one could concoct on their own. But immediately upon their release the Israelites are complaining, wondering why they ever left the slavery and bondage they had in Egypt. They assume they will die between the Red Sea the Egyptians, but here comes God again, sending up a pillar of fire to slow the Egyptians and parting the entire red sea. And even after walking between two walls of water, they still can't comprehend God's provision. Because next they are hungry, and are worried they might starve. Again, always faithful, God sends quail and then consistently provides manna. But if you give a mouse a cookie...or if you give some Israelites some manna, they're going to want something to drink. So this time, God provides water from a rock and even still WITH ALL OF THESE MIRACLES nothing seems to help them relax into the consistent, never-failing provision of their God.

At camp we have sent out 70 staff contracts for our summer staff. And just in the past week we have had multiple people email and call saying they will not be returning their contract as other things have come up for their summer. And being that we're supposed to run a camp in 8 weeks, I've been left a little worried. Concerned. Nervous. Wondering in what ways I can use my might and my power to get more contracts in. But today, when I wrote in the margin of my bible yet again, "why can't they just trust God?!!" I heard my own God quite clearly, "why can't you just trust me?"

Yowch. Humbleness.

"Not by might and not by power, but by my spirit," says the Lord. Zechariah 4:6

Taste and see that the Lord is GOOD!

I feel like for a season now I knew I was hungry for God's word, but didn't really do anything about it. I knew the banquet was right over there in that good book, but rarely cracked it. But on my birthday I decided to commit to some reguarlity and started reading three chapters a day in order to read the Bible in a year. Then I started a Beth Moore study. Then I began writing a family devotional book that all the campers will go home with this summer and now I'm writing the summer Bible study curriculum. (These last two writing projects meant that for weeks now I've had three different Bible's wide open on my desk all day long.) And suddenly it feels like I walked over to that banquet, budged in line, grabbed an oversized turkey leg in one hand, a scoop of mashed potatoes in the other and am devouring this spread of food while diving on top of the dessert buffet.

Or something like that.

But the beauty is that God is showing me things about himself that make me love him more and more. You may all insert a, "genius becca, that's how he works" here. But WOW! And now I listen to praise music and think, "yeah! People should write praise music about you!" or "That's me! I want to know you! I want to hear your voice! I want to know you more!" It is thrilling and so real. I listen to a Hillsong CD to and from work and feel like the Bible is coming to life: come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest... when you're weak I'll be your strength.

Anyway, it's like my own personal revival. And to think I could smell this banquet for so long, and just never took the time to open my Bible and devour this good book.

Nothing will wear you out faster.

I am doing a Beth Moore Bible Study with some friends focusing on the life of Paul. This first week we've studied what his upbringing likely was like. In one lesson we focused on his studies in Jerusalem and Beth wrote the following:

"I believe Saul set sail to Jerusalem as a young adolescent with a pure heart; but somewhere along the way the negative influences outweighed the positive, and his purity began to erode. The law became his god. That's what happens when you take the love out of obedience. The result is the law. Without love for God and His Word, we're just trying to be good. Nothing will wear you out faster."