Living Proof Live Recap

WHEW!!!!!!!!! What just hit me?????

I have had an infection since Sunday, and it sidelined me!
After 24 hours on antibiotics, I can finally stand up on Friday, and I think I might be normal again soon, whatever that means!!!!

Here's my recap of the Siesta Fiesta in pictures! If I could have stood and shared anything about what blogging has meant to me....this is what I would have said. These past two years have been a dark time in my life. But, I have met my beautiful LORD in ways I could never have imagined or dreamed I could find Him. Trauma has ended up being one of the best things that ever happened to me. Pain has become my friend not my enemy. "Count it all joy" when you fall into various trials for what they produce, writes James about our dark days. I understand that a tad more than I did two years ago. One thing my beautiful LORD did for me through blogging that started with Beth Moore's LPM Blog was to heal me through people I didn't even know face-to-face. I guess if he can use a donkey, he can use a computer. Hosea 11:3 says that my beautiful God stooped down, bent down to me, and healed me. God brought you to me and I can't thank Him enough! And I really don't know when healing happened exactly over the past two years, but it has happened in such full measure. Oh, I could tell you about moments when Patty shared a word with me straight from His Mouth, when Holly hopped on a plane and came to me to hear Beth at Life Today, when Annette met me on the side of the road and welcomed me into her heart, when Jenny Hope shared so deeply with me that it shook my heart, when Kim called and I remember the spot on Camp Bowie where I stood as she spoke His Thoughts to me, when Fran e-mailed me and had no idea that what she wrote was Psalm 81:10---God filling her mouth...and I could go on and on and on. Is that not an unbelievably beautiful picture of my God during this dark time in my life bending down through bloggers and healing me. As the verse implodes that we don't know the exact moments but all I know is that He did. And things shifted in my heart.

And so, when I met those of you in the photos that follow, I wept with some of you. As I laid my head on the pillow at the Marriott next to Kate, I so wept that God would do that for me. Cannot tell you how much it meant to me to meet the following people and know that our friendship continues on throughout Eternity. I had hoped to hug Amanda and Vicki but missed them, maybe next LPL. I couldn't escape the thought this weekend as we worshipped that we will all be worshipping together the rest of our lives!!! Travis so brought God to me through the worship. I don't think the English language holds the words to describe how he brought God to us all. And Beth's words---this morning I read John 1 in my QT and Jesus asked the question in John 1:38,39: "What are you seeking? Come and see." Beth so invites us into her beautiful heart to hear and see and taste her beautiful God. She so brought us to HIM!!!!!

A holy weekend, I hold forever. Your bloggy faces now have voices and real names and tremors of gratefulness from a heart that thanks you for being my friend! What a privilege! What an honor! What a taste of glory! Here you are...

I will hold your faces, your voices, your stories in my heart forever!
With so much gratitude, Bev

Prayer Request!

UPDATE: Oh my, please pray for me...I don't know what is wrong, but I became really sick on Sunday night after coming home from an unbelievably awesome San Antonio weekend, and have not been able to even lift my head off the pillow for four days. Hopefully, soon I can post about it. I am so weak...whatever it is, it has hit me hard. Appreciate your prayers. Bev

We are moving to Austin tomorrow.

Farewell Fort Worth!

I walked into the 7-11 and grabbed a gatorade out of the back cooler. A booming voice blared over the country aisles filled with last-minute groceries. "I have three words for you ma'am." Forget the gatorade, I made a bee-line back to the counter.

Me: Yes sir? What's the 3 words? (I'm thinking---could it be "go to Austin"???)
7-11 Clerk: Gig. 'Em. Aggies. (I had on an Aggie Mom t-shirt)
Me: Oh! I thought maybe you had a word from God for me cause I've been waiting for one.
7-11 Clerk: Okay (with a very confused look on his face).
Me: He didn't tell you anything for me?
7-11 Clerk: Silence... and The Look...

Our beautiful God has given such direction to Bob and me and Britt to go to Austin to be a part of Southwest Hills Community Church. Bob accepted their gracious offer on August 3rd. He will serve the church as their Community Life Pastor. We leave tomorrow the place we have so loved for the past 33 years. I remember the day I arrived in August 1975 to attend Southwestern Seminary which I knew nothing about---nor did I know anyone. Came to follow God's call on my life. God has been so good to me over these past three decades.


















Farewell to our Lake Country school friends where we have been for the past 21 consecutive years as my older three went K-12 and Britt went K-10th. Ben, Andrew, Greg, Ethan and Britt were five faithful friends to Britt since kindergarten. I cannot tell you how much we will miss you and your families! I don't know how we will make it without our LCCS family but we will trust!
Farewell to our friends of many years. We were a part of Hope Church for 27 years and my love runs so deep for so many faces I will hold in my heart forever. We will spend Eternity together!
Farewell to our Home Team who has served and loved and given to us over the past two years. Faithful couples! God offered us much through you!


Farewell to my precious niece and my awesome big sister and her beautiful children.

My sister's family has given me so much love and laughter playing games and going places. I'll cherish my vacation you gave me this summer!
Farewell to my Beth Moore Bible Study girls. I am alive in ways I have never been (and you know exactly what I am talking about!) as we studied God's Word together---Daniel, the Patriarchs, Believing God, Loving Well, Stepping Up, Breaking Free, Fruit of the Spirit, Beloved Disciple. I'll never forget week #6 of the Patriarchs back in January 2006! You all have so brought God to me!
Farewell to my Card Club of 17 years, a beautiful loyal group of women who have lavished God's love on me.
Farewelll to my faithful neighbors and the home that I adore---where my children were born and grew up.

Farewell to our Border Collie who always loved to touch us with her paw. Your caregiver will miss you! Hope we can find you a new home soon that loves you like we do! And farewell to the Club House---we'll chop down what remains of that tree house tomorrow. I can picture 10-year-old Ben and Ethan perched in the treehouse throwing about 20 balls down at Britt and Greg---dodge-the-ball-in-a-treehouse.




Farewell to all my friends who have walked beside me. I'll text you real soon! But you have to send me your cell phone # because my phone broke and I am fresh out of numbers.

I don't know how I am going to walk out of here tomorrow except for one thing---Isaiah 41:13. God will hold my hand and help me! Acts 20:24 says we don't know what will happen where we are going...could be hardships. But we go to finish our race and testify of the Gospel of Grace to people who need Him just like us. IDK but II Chron 20:12 my eyes are on our beautiful God!

And as we have prayed about answering this call, there are a few verses that God has layed in my lap that I'd love to share with you, if you don't mind. I'll leave you with my string of pearls from the Word of my beautiful God Who has wildly loved me during my stay. This I know---He has been so strong and so loving to me!

My God has made the dark valleys we have walked through here in Fort Worth a door of HOPE Hosea 2:15. He will drive our pegs into a firm place for us in Austin Isa. 22:23. WATCH, HOPE, WAIT ON GOD...cause He will hear me in Austin, too Micah 7:7. And when I fall, I will rise again. When I sit in darkness, God will be my Light Micah 7:8. God will take care of us on every side---He's watching my back 2 Chron 32:22. Our valleys will be lifted up and our mountains made low in order that we may know God in Austin Isaiah 40:4. Before we call to Him, He will answer Isaiah 65:24. He brought us out to bring us in Deut 6:23. Just as Ruth arrived in Ruth 2 as the harvest time was beginning, His plans are good to bring us to Himself. Stand up to your feet for I send you Ezek 2:13.

So Britt, Brooke, Blair and Barrett --- you have a new home in Austin. You've made this mom so filled with joy over the choices you've made in this house. But, as you know, our citizenship is in heaven. Keep on laying your treasures up there. And come home soon to visit your new home in Austin! I Love You, Mom And to all my blogging friends, I don't have to say so long. I'll be back on Monday for cover to cover typing from an internet somewhere in Austin! Can't wait until Thursday when I will get to say "hello" to those of you who have touched my heart in deep places. See you next weekend.

With tears freely flowing down my face, Bob and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for bringing God to us in Fort Worth. We put our hands to the plow and accept God's call to enter a new chapter in Austin. Our Phil 3:10 determined purpose is still the same---to know Him more intimately and make Him known.

Cover to Cover Monday Morning August 18th

I am posting early for MONDAY as we are in the process of moving and I won’t have internet access for about a week. Pray for us as we journey---I’ve had ear infections this week and power failure and business issues and then last night all three of our cars were broken into. Lost a little bit of stuff.

Thanks for stopping by for those of you who are reading the chronological readings together. We read Ezekiel 5-30 this week. Choose a question from the seven below and leave a comment as to what lingered with you as you read His Word. We read to connect with our Most High God not to solve our problems. He is so committed to you!

Ezekiel had Stunning Visions like hardly any man describes----Ezekiel saw the Glory of the LORD. He is called ‘son of man’ some 90 times in this book emphasizing his humanity in the midst of ethereal visions. His calling to be a watchman in 3:17 is a call to go and speak whether they listen or not. The price that these prophets paid to follow their message and mission is unbelievable. It does cost us our whole lives to follow God---not a social club. Ezekiel’s mission in chapter 3 was to eat a scroll on which God’s words to rebellious Israel are written, symbolizing Ezekiel’s full acceptance of the message and mission.

AM I COMMITTED to PROGRAMS, to BIBLE STUDY BOOKS, to ATTENDANCE, or AM I COMMITTED to A PERSON---AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH MY GOD? I Myself will withdraw my favor - Ezek 5:11.They will put on sackcloth and be clothed with terror. Makes me think of those who honor Him through attendance and commitments, yet their hearts are far away. They think their plan, their program to live right and put on sackcloth is right. Their silver and gold will not be able to save them in the day of the LORD’s wrath. Ezek 7:19.

DO YOU NEED TO BE LIFTED UP OUT OF YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES? Beth Moore shared with me the following verse when we lost our job of 27 years on the same church staff: Ezek 8:3, that God has stretched out His Hand to me, grabbed me by the hair on my head and lifted me up. It would prove to be so very true that God lifted me up. I was so low all I could do was reach for the hem of His Garment. He so lifted me up. Beth said to me: “Your desperation is a gift.” It really was! It really is!

WHAT DO I NEED TO “LET GO” OF IN ORDER TO RECEIVE AN UNDIVIDED HEART? Ezekiel 11: 12. You have conformed to the standards of the nations around you but I’ll bring you back. You know, God knows we are all born into sin “as the sparks fly upward.” He’s looking for hearts to return and remove the idols 11:18. We will never get rid of sin in this life. Old natures are part of his design, not a surprise to Him. But oh we love the good word of Ezek 11:19 “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.” Repent and your sin will not be your downfall – Ezek 18:30. Get rid of the images in your mind; get rid of your idols – Ezek 20:8. Wonder what that would be for each of us? Let God purge us---we don’t have to dig deep. Let God surface in our conversations, in our minds, in our actions what we need to “let go” of.

WHO AM I STANDING IN THE GAP FOR IN THIS LIFE? Groan with a broken heart and bitter grief for your friends - Ezek 21:6. God is looking for a man who will build up the wall and stand in the gap – Ezek 22:30. Oh, that we would be found faithful. Not perfect with our acts together---no such thing. Found faithful to stand in the gap on behalf of our families, our friends, our world especially those who will never darken the door of a church cause of all the “spiritual talk.” Stand in the gap on behalf of your world!

WHAT LIES HAVE I BELIEVED ABOUT BEAUTY? Jeremiah, will you inquire of God for us, asked the people. It was too late. They lusted after their lovers – Ezek 23:5. They longed for the lewdness of their youth – Ezek 23:21. They believed a lie and trusted in their beauty and fame – Ezek 16:15. You lavished favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became His. You didn’t remember the days of your youth – Ezekiel 16:22. You poured out your wealth. – Ezek 16:36. Arrogant. Overfed. Unconcerned. 16:49. God says: You forgot Me. You thrust Me behind your back – Ezek 23:35. I’ll put an end to your lewdness – Ezek 23:48. This is the serious business of God as C.S. Lewis once said.

WHAT HOLDS MY AFFECTION TODAY? The story of Ezekiel losing his wife is so moving. Ezekiel had even more words come to him and in 24:21 God says I will desecrate your strongholds, your pride, the delight of your eyes, the object of your affection. Wonder what holds my affection this day as we make our final packing plans to move to Austin today? God took Ezekiel’s wife from him as a “sign” of taking away the delight of our eyes. What a price Ezekiel paid to follow God—-no price too great to follow His God. What will we do with this God we know and what He does? He’s a good God no matter what!!!! Let Him speak tenderly where we have “set up idols in our hearts” – Ezek 14:3

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE ARE THROWN INTO A PIT? The story of Jeremiah being thrown into a cistern is terrifying. No way to escape. Sunk deep in mud. No food. No light. Yet, no panic heard either. The cost to follow God as a prophet is unbelievable. We don’t have a different calling though, just a different plan that still costs us everything. Wonder what Jeremiah really thought in that cistern? Wicked King Zedekiah saves Jeremiah in 38:10. What is Jeremiah’s first words? “Oh King, if I give you counsel, you won’t listen to Me. SURRENDER!” What courage rose up in Jeremiah to speak God’s words. However, the King is afraid and can’t or won’t follow God’s plans and so the king’s feet are stuck in mud now---holy mud – Jer 38:22. God was so committed to Jeremiah in that cistern. He is committed to our joy. Committed to me and to you! The God of all pits. He was right there with Jeremiah in the most frightening situation. He’s right there where you are in the panic of your heart this day. Well, I needed to hear that!

Monday Morning Cover to Cover

Jason Lezak, anchor on the USA free relay team, just edged out Bernard of France to win gold, and it was an indescribable Olympic moment that we so enjoyed over here. How'd Jason do that? Did you hear us screaming in France, Barrett?

Every Monday morning, there's a few of us who have read the chronological Bible readings for the week and we share what lingers in our hearts as we have listened to His Word, His Voice. Read the questions at the beginning of each paragraph and choose one of the paragraphs below and read what touched me as I read. It's just a method to find our beautiful God on this journey. We read His Word not for answers for all our problems but to connect with The Living Word made flesh who says to each of us this very day: Jeremiah 29:14 - "I will be found by you."

DO WE KNOW THERE IS SOMEONE ALWAYS WITH US?
I wept at a part of the story of SM&A where the braggy King of Babylon saw 4 people in the fire. But King Neb only threw in three. That so jumped out at me and I remembered reading The Braggy King of Babylon to my kids when they were preschoolers. I took them to the Fort Worth Wildlife & Nature Park to read the golden book and act it out---thought they may remember it more that way. My 5-year-old boy Barrett pretended to be the braggy King Neb who was boasting—MINE, MINE as he overlooked a daunting valley. And my 4-year-old Brooke and 3-year-old Blair were chanting “we won’t serve your god.” And then it happened, the King saw 4 people in the fire…and that 4th person is present right here today, right wherever you are. I told my blogging friend, Jean, that HE is present with her precious grandbaby CJ in his hospital bed in Pittsburgh as this adorable little fella waits for a heart transplant. He’s right there with CJ in that hospital bed—smooth those sheets. Go look. You’ll know there’s two in that bed. How else do we make it through intense testing? Please pray for this little guy and his courageous mom & dad, Dawn and Abe.


AM I INQUIRING OF MY GOD WHEN I GET INTO TROUBLE OR INQUIRING OF MAN?
We had a business issue this week turn really sour with unexpected repercussions. We want to trust God—Daniel 3:38—like the age-old story of unashamed wild trust of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the middle of intense testing that I cannot even fathom. While I felt at times this week that I was thrown into a fire, pale in comparison to this story, SM&A were literally thrown into a fire seven times hotter than the normal fire. God is able to do anything…and even if HE does not—Daniel 3:18—we will trust HIM and wrestle through that as Jeremiah did in Jer 20:7 who says: God you deceived me. No, God didn’t deceive. Jeremiah perceived it that way. But as J wrestled with his God---even cursing the day he was born--- J realized God’s Word was like fire shut up in his bones. “A man’s life is not his own.” Jer 10:23. That’s the conclusion where I want to live moment by moment. And a verse I had not known before so spoke to me: “Senseless shepherds don’t inquire of God” about the details of their lives. Some details of our lives were in danger this week and it was so good of my God to let me see this.

AM I HONEST AND BROKEN ASKING FOR JUSTICE?
I’ve thought so many times this week about Jer 10:23, “I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.” So why do I try to direct my own steps? I love the authenticity of Jeremiah, not just honest and vulnerable, but a broken man wrestling with God over real “heart issues.” You’ve deceived me Lord. You overpowered me. Everyone mocks me cause of what You did. Jer 20:7. And, then, a shift occurs and J brokenheartedly replies after his honest heart spills out: “Correct me, LORD, but only with justice---not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing.” v.24. I proclaim destruction but the forgiving word of the LORD brings me insult. But if I think for a second not to mention or speak Your Name, “Your Word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; I cannot.” The LORD is with me like a Mighty Warrior. Jer20:9. Then, J goes right back to cursing the day he was born in Jer 20:15. “Why did I come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?” I love his heart, wrestling with humility and brokenness. This guy doesn't have it together.

AM I WALLOWING IN MY MULTITUDE OF SINS OR SMILING IN GRACE THAT my SINS ARE FORGIVEN?
There is something about packing up the memories of my life that make me feel regret over how I missed God so many times in walking with HIM for 33 years. And I read Jer. 14:7 and it is so good to hear “your sins testify against you” but praise God for we know in our heart that HE has done something about my sin and HIS Grace is greater than my sins. I carried you all these years when you couldn’t walk. I know the plans I have for you and your high school boy named Britt---Jer 29:11. A future and a hope for me and for you! And He seemed to say through this reading that He is sending us to another city and “My Eyes are watching over you.” Jer. 24:5,6. Watching over that 17-year-old who is leaving all his friends for uncharted waters where he is a nameless face with about 1,200 pages of summer reading to do in his last week in his childhood home---an impossible goal doled out by the schools. What does God say in these verses: Call. Come. Pray. Seek. I will be found by you in Austin. Jer. 29:14 I’ll bring you back home to Me. We may not have the assignments done; we are going to Austin to find God.

ARE WE LOOKING FOR A LIFE OF EASE?
Seems like someone is always asking Jer 12: 1 “why does the way of the wicked prosper and the faithless live in ease…” So how does the LORD answer Jeremiah? “If you have raced with men on foot, and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan? Jeremiah 12:5.

AM I A GOD NEARBY AND NOT A GOD FARAWAY?
Jeremiah knew how to wrestle with his God. My heart is broken within me…because of your holy words, God. Jer. 23:9 God responds to J. “Am I only a God nearby and not a God far away?” Here’s my paraphrase: Jeremiah, am I near to you on Sunday mornings and when you come to read my Word but far away when you drift in your mind and heart. Far away when you are distant with your husband and critical in your mind about your friends and eager to stiff arm those who ignore you? “Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. I fill the heaven and the earth!

WILL I SPEAK THE WORDS GOD GIVES ME?
There’s been some criticism of the way that I use the Word of God. Maybe I’m wrong. I love the Word of God more than I could ever verbalize cause I am so in love with HIM. His Word is like my oxygen. It’s not my intent to isogete the text and lay it on any problem. It’s not a fix-it book. I have really wrestled with this issue of treating God’s words as holy based on feedback I’ve received. The Bible is not an answer book. We read to connect with the LIVING WORD made flesh who transforms us. Let the one who has My Word speak it faithfully…Is not my Word like fire and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces. Jeremiah 23:28,29. May you be found faithful with The Word that He has given you in your heart…the whispers of His Holy Spirit, our God MOST HIGH. And I end my post with the awestruck call of Ezekiel in Ezek 2:1-3 “Stand up on your feet and I will speak to you. The Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. Son of man, I am sending you. Listen to what I have to say to you. Open your mouth and eat what I give you." What do we need to "let go" of to receive His Words?

Monday Morning Cover to Cover

Major life changes going on over here. I’ll be back tomorrow to blog about it. Meanwhile, a good sovereign God has so shown up this week and engineered what only He can do. Psalm 45:5 was such a word to me this week from the heart of our God as we read together the chronological Bible. I could only read and weep and linger there. We read not for insight to apply to our world to gain a better life here, but we read to connect with a holy God Who is so committed to our lives and Who really wants to know us. We read to live for another world and find HIM Here on our journey to There. So share one thing that LINGERED with you and LINK us to your post. Pick one question below and ask God what He is doing in your life. I’ve seen this week that instead of being consumed with what I need to do, I am focusing on what HE is doing in our lives---and that is a lot!

DO WE THINK TOO SMALL? God’s power is protection for the righteous and judgment for those who do not follow HIM. He doesn’t leave the guilty unpunished. The Lord is good, a STRONGHOLD in the day of our troubles---right in the midst of our confusion, betrayals, dilemmas. He is good. He cares for those who trust in HIM. Nahum 1:7 Nahum warned Nineveh with a vision of doom, “I am against you.” Nahum 2:13. Nahum describes Nineveh’s fall and the corpses of people piled high to the sky surrounded by the darkness of noon, billowing bursting clouds of black sky. It’s a dark day. Beth Moore said an interesting quote yesterday---wonder if when we get to heaven, “we will say that we should have thought bigger than we did.” You know, every day we either live for God or we live for ourselves. Every decision we move toward redemption or destruction. Wonder if we are thinking too small this day?

WHAT IF CIRCUMSTANCES PROVE GOD IS NOT GOOD?
Circumstances do not prove the goodness of God nor His Love. Josiah reigned 31 years bringing his people back to God. He was accused of opposing God cause he went to battle against the king of Egypt. “Stop opposing God, Josiah, for God is with me not with you” says the wicked king. That was not right with God, O braggy King of Egypt. The battle cost Josiah his life but we look not to circumstances to prove that God is good; to prove that God is present for Josiah and you and me; to prove that God is Love to us all. No, we look to God Himself Who promises in Psalm 81 to restore each of us with words in our mouths when we put away our idols and surrender to God. “In your distress, you called and I rescued you…I tested you…have no other gods among you…open wide your mouth and I will fill it.” Psalm 81:10

WHY IS THERE SO LITTLE HEALING IN MY LIFE? DO I HAVE MY OWN REMEDY FOR SUCCESS? Woe to Him who builds his house by unrighteousness. “I will build myself a great palace.” V. 13 There is so much more to life than security, stability, being safe in a great house. “Does it make you a king to have more and more?” v. 15 Do I defend the cause of the poor and needy? Isn’t that what it means to know God? v. 16 Is there no balm in Gilead? Jeremiah 8:22. Is there no physician there? Why is there no healing for the wound of my people? Wonder why our healing is so little in our lives? Is it because, in Jeremiah 9:13, God says you have forsaken the Word of God and have followed the stubbornness of your heart. You’ve followed images and lies that are a fraud; they have no breath in them. Jeremiah 10:14. Only the breath of God gives life. As soon as Jeremiah spoke those words that God commanded him to say, they seized him to kill him. But the LORD had hidden Jeremiah in 36:26. We are hidden from adversity when we follow the image of God. I’ve thought so much this week about Jeremiah who was asked by God to not take a wife and to have no children. Jeremiah followed God’s plan, not what he wanted out of life. A normal guy like you and me, but a follower attached only to God breathing His Word of Life in him. Am I following images that are frauds or Friends? Am I multiplying what I think is a remedy for success but there’s no healing for you. Jeremiah 46:11. Here’s a follower who didn’t buy into the success story. In Daniel 1: 8, Daniel resolved not to defile himself by the status quo. No, he pleaded for mercy from the God of heaven. His God answered him. And Daniel’s reply? “God changes times and seasons; He sets up and He deposes. He reveals deep and hidden things to us in our darkness." Daniel 2:21,22. Praise to our God Who makes known what we ask of HIM.

SHOULD YOU SEEK GREAT THINGS FOR YOURSELF? And here is the verse that is spoken by God for all of us this very day… Jeremiah 45:5 "Should you then seek great things for yourself?" Seek them not. I read this verse as we walked into our last prayer time with our God about moving to Austin. I was feeling that we were losing so much after living in this town for 33 years. That image is a fraud. Empty breath. We go where we are called to live for God, not for this world, and to not seek great things for ourselves.

S.I.M.U.L.C.A.S.T.

Blogger Problems Abound!!! Whoa...sorry for the delay!

Thanks so much for being a part of the Bloggy Carnival thingy...I was so surprised with so many hits. I have posted a comment on both of the winners' blogs that my random integer generator named Britt picked their number.

Mrs. Hewett won "Voices of the Faithful" and Sonya from Sonya's Happenings won "The Beloved Disciple." Send me your addresses so I can mail your books. I have posted on your blog. The deadline to hear back from you is August 16th when we move.

A blogger mentioned the word "SIMULCAST" at 6pm last night and I was out the door to find a church---I had forgotten all about signing up for it in the midst of so much going on. Found it! And did God ever show up. Beautiful words from God! Beth's teaching is like rain that falls on thirsty souls Deut 32:2.

Travis's Psalm 145 song touched me very deeply as I knelt in the back row of this huge church by myself---when I opened my eyes I wondered if everyone would still be there --- it was so beautiful bringing me to exalt my Mighty God.

Beth's words poured out in love and strength even though we were the site that lost connection for 20 minutes. From break up your fallow ground in Hosea 10:12 to the cloud of witnesses watching us to being made rich in God 1Cor 1:5, it was an evidence of the demonstration of the power of God I Cor 2:3,4.

There were two words for my heart that touched me deeply: Phil 2:17 where Beth said that after all you have been through, whatever that is, be "poured out like a drink offering" for others. What an encouragement to keep on.

And another word that especially touched me was Isaiah 50:4,5 that every morning my beautiful God wants to talk with me---He's waiting. Get up Bev! He will give me an instructed tongue, a word for the weary---and she said the word weary is defined from the gamut of rebellious to unpleasant. Even when I'm unpleasant, He will sustain me. And that happened when I walked out of that auditorium and was so tempted to be unpleasant...God stepped in to sustain and a shift occurred in my heart.

So elated to think that in a couple of weeks I'll be standing next to one of you worshipping our beautiful God!

Monday Morning COVER TO COVER and a Bloggy Beth Moore Giveaway

BETH MOORE BLOGGY GIVEAWAY (scroll down to the next post)
The 4-day swim meet seemed endless. Britt's 25 second 50 Free swim turned into a 23 SECOND race for him!! His relay team WON second in state, runner-up for the state championship by a second. Britt walked away more excited about swimming than before. Yet, it looks like it's over. We don't know what our future holds as far as where we will live, where we will work, where we will play. Pray for us as we wait on God Who is watching to see His Word fulfilled, Jer 1:12.

There are a few questions that come to mind as we read the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah this week in our chronological reading. There is always so much to blog about from a whole week of reading the Bible. Never an adequate way to do that. So choose one question below from this way-too-long post and read that snippet. Then, leave a comment about what touched you this week as you connected with God through His Word. Link us up to your blog if you've posted about what lingers with you from the Word of God on this sultry Monday morning. Think about your journey, not about solutions to your problems. And let's respond back to our beautiful LORD Who is quieting us all with His Love, delighting over you this day, singing a song (which one?) over your life and bringing you BACK HOME. (Zeph 3:16-20)

ARE YOU EAGER FOR GOD WITH STRIFE IN YOUR HEART?
There are those who are “eager for God” bowing their heads in prayer yet staying in quarreling and strife in their relationships. Have to take a look at my own stuff and let God speak. “God will guide you and strengthen your frame Isa 58:11 and you will become a repairer of walls. Too many people want to be a repairer without facing what is going on in their hearts---the relational failure before God and man. They don’t want to face their disillusionment with God, with life, with their relationships. This can be a very fertile soil where hope grows. Honor God by not going your own way. 58:13 and listening to empty arguments 59:2. For our sin has separated us but our REDEEMER will come to those who REPENT 59:20…and how beautiful is that! His Spirit is on you and me and His words are in our mouths---not just on the “big people” in life like Piper or Willard or Moore.

WHAT IS MY GOD DOING IN MY LIFE? It’s not about what I will do with God, it’s all about what my God will do with me. Your God is COMING “to strengthen your feeble hands” 35:3. Our Redeemer comes. Arise! Shine! Those who were forsaken…no more. You will be nursed at royal breasts---I am your Redeemer. What is He doing for you? I am your LIGHT. Your God is your glory and even the LEAST will become 1,000 (60:22). Accepted. Loved. Redeemed. Called by a name better than daughter 56:5. No longer deserted. Sought After. No longer desolate. Delighted in. 62:4

DO I TRUST THE ARM OF FLESH OR ARM OF GOD? “Take this to heart” Isa 42:24,25. In all your distress Christ redeems. God’s presence saves us. 63:9. A friend says there are parts of her heart not redeemed yet and she is way further along than I. What is God doing? Confronting us with the Holy One in Isaiah 30. Then, Isaiah’s ending chapters turn the page to a God who gives hope. The LORD has anointed me to preach good news, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for captives and release from darkness. To comfort all who mourn. To bestow a crown of beauty, a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. For the Display of His Splendor! So my God keeps convicting me of my trust in an arm of flesh or in the arm of God 2 Chron 32:7 that I may go do what I was made to do.

WHAT PRAYER MOVES THE HEART AND HANDS OF GOD? No ear has heard, no eye has seen any God besides our God who acts on behalf of those who wait for HIM 64:4. Before you call on ME this day, I will answer; while you are still speaking this day, I hear 65:24. My God is listening. “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” And we are about to see a king who did just that. The story of Manasseh touches deep places in my heart. This king, the son of godly Hezekiah, bowed to the starry hosts and worshipped idols 2Kings 21:3. He was so passionate (about the wrong things!), he even sacrificed his own son to his gods. That’s unbelievably disillusioned and depraved! In 2Chron 33:11, The LORD brought the Assyrian army against Manasseh; they bound him in bronze shackles and took him prisoner. In Manasseh’s distress, he sought the favor of God and humbled himself greatly before God. The LORD was moved by his prayer and listened to his plea and brought him back to his kingdom. God brought him back. Then, this murderer knew that the Lord is God; he knew forgiveness. In all our distresses, big or small, may we all humble ourselves and humbly pray for favor that the God Who comes will show up in His garments stained with crimson striding forward in great strength for you and for me. Our God Who is mighty to save! He is listening to you this moment, this day! Come, Lord Jesus!

WHAT DO I WANT MORE THAN DRAWING NEAR TO GOD? God is searching with a lamp to punish the complacent----those who refuse to draw near to Him. Our pride is revealed in the words that tumble out of our mouths. Wait for ME and I will purify you so you can serve shoulder-to-shoulder. Don’t run out and do it on your own. Your God takes great delight in you. Your God quiets you with His Love. Your Commander-in-chief rejoices over you with song and HE is saying: I will bring you home! Zeph 3:16-20.

WHAT ONE VERSE SPEAKS OF TODAY’S EVIL? Jeremiah 2:13 A youthful Jeremiah is appointed by God to prophesy against Judah. Jeremiah was commanded not to marry or have children. He had few friends in part because of his message of doom. In verse six of chapter one, Jeremiah opens with the statement, “I do not know how to speak.” God says: Go and say what I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I AM with you and I am watching to see MY WORD fulfilled 1:12. Meanwhile, God puts these words in Jeremiah’s mouth in Jeremiah 2:13: There are TWO E.V.I.L.S. You have forsaken ME, the Living Water. You have hued out cisterns for yourselves, cisterns that hold no water. Complacent and passing up Living water or content to carve out my own cistern! Can a bride forget her dress? Not really. Yet, you have forgotten ME for “days without number” 2:32. Seems in my experience, I was looking for and awaiting lovers way too long before I found HIM 3:2. But, HE gave me shepherds after His own heart 3:15. Circumcise yourself and remove the skin from your own heart. Jer 4:4.

IS MY REPENTANCE TOO SHALLOW? If we refuse to repent, our wounds heal lightly 5:1. Superficial shallow repentance. You say you have peace but what do you wrestle with in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep? No peace 6:14. You don’t even blush 6:15 anymore, wonder why? Just how hard is it to change? Can the leopard change his spots; can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to not doing good 13:23. The prophet Jeremiah is so right: God’s Eyes are always on your ways; they are not hidden from God nor is your sin concealed from God’s Eyes. Why don’t I think about God looking at my sin when I sin? Jer 17:6-8 “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD whose confidence is in HIM.”

ARE WE HOPING FOR A CURE? ARE WE REALLY HUMBLE?
My closing words to you this Monday morning is a verse we all know---"our hearts are deceitful and beyond cure." Jeremiah 17:9,10. Something in us all wants to be cured for our lifetime. No cures but a holy invite to humble ourselves before our beautiful God. I the LORD search your heart and examine your mind. King Josiah sent his priest to the prophetess Huldah to inquire of their LORD. Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what Jeremiah spoke, I have heard you and I will gather you in peace - 2Chron 34. And King Josiah read all the words of the Book to ALL the people from the least to the greatest. No big people and small people in Josiah’s reign and today's world. God is committed to ALL of us. He led ALL of them to renew their covenant in the presence of God to follow the LORD and keep His Word. So, what is HE doing in your life?
PS Don't forget to leave a comment on the next post to win a Beth Moore book.

Bloggy Beth Moore Giveaway

Beth Moore spoke at Life Outreach International with James Robison and I sat in the audience and just wept over her "review" of her book Voices of the the Faithful. My daughter is a missionary over in Thailand and what they shared touched deep places in my heart. I'll have to post about it sometime.

This post is about a bloggy giveaway. One year's worth of amazing stories of ordinary people who have found the courage to trust wildly a God that is inviting us all to come back home. Before they call to HIM, He answers and while they are still speaking, HE hears them Isaiah 65:24.

Leave a comment about what you think about "reading books" and what words mean to you. I'll choose a random winner this Saturday at 9a.m. (out of a hat). One winner will receive Beth's hardback devotional books, Voices of the Faithful and the other winner will receive The Beloved Disciple. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog!

25 SECONDS in a day to remember

Sitting at the LONE STAR Swim Championships. I think this is our 20th trip to this meet. Came up north to a 4-day swim meet. No computer access---so how am I doing this?? Britt is swimming 12 events and if you are talking to a friend or reading a good book, you might miss him. He's coming up soon in the 50 Free, and he'll finish in about 25 seconds---all day you wait to watch what doesn't last even a moment. But this is probably his last swim meet ever. So, I'll enjoy every minute---ahem---every second. He has decided to retire from the sport he has loved for the past 12 years. Decided he didn't want to swim in college. Our children have to make their own decisions. I have to wrestle in my own heart with his decision to give up a sport he is so good at. More than all that, I just want all my children to ask their God what He wants for their lives.

Jogged and walked as the surreptitious sun rose over Towne Square this morning (wish I had my camera)! Seemed like an endless jog as I listened to an audio book on my iPod (how did I get that book downloaded as I don't have a clue how to do it). When I returned to the car, my clock wasn't the same as the stately City Hall tower clock who had no regard for daylight savings time. I thought it was an awfully long book. Turns out I had gone TWO HOURS instead of one. Oh my!

But, this is what I heard from John Eldredge "Walking With God" during that two hours that touched me in deep places. Shift your posture from avoiding those things in your life to taking a look into your heart. Cultivate willingness to go wherever it is that I need to go to face my interior world. Give my YES to my NOW. Stop avoiding the disruptions to your life. You really don't want to be inconvenienced. You want comfort more than you want your God to move or not move like He is.

Back to the swim meet to watch the five-year-old who wouldn't go off the diving board---the timid little fella who has grown into a seventeen-year-old fearlessly courageous disciplined swimmer. I'll watch him take his last stroke this weekend. And I'll say a prayer that fearless courage may be the cry of his heart as he continues to learn to depend on God for his next breath, his next stroke, his next turn.

Bring Me Back Home

We were so close to our Dallas destination. We attempted to cross over the LBJ freeway but something went way wrong. We were out of gas, suspended on the stately overhead bridge. I had put $25 of gas in the car before we left home---it wasn't enough for a trip in traffic to Dallas. Bob jumps out the car to push it while I navigate an SUV that is going nowhere. I'm asking God for help cause if we get hit on this bridge, where do we go? Scores of cars pass us. Then, a gentleman jumps out of his car to our rescue...now there are two men pushing the car and a third man is running to help them. And their cars are abandoned on the bridge. Whew! Safe on the shoulder of the road, Bob treks two miles to buy a gas can and gas while I waited in the 102 degree abandoned car.

Francis Frangipane writes: "Rescue is the constant pattern of God's activity." One minute we are fine, not realizing how badly we need help. Then a word comes, a report dawns, something breaks and we are moved in our distress to do something. What do we do? What's our M.O.? I loved the word that I read this a.m. in 2 Chron 33:12,13. This guy named Manasseh was unbelievably distressed---he actually had just deliberately killed his own son---and he got caught. He made a choice that was completely uncharacteristic of how he handled life. He sought God's favor and humbled himself. And the LORD was moved by his prayer, his plea and brought him back home. Wonder why I think that God moves for those people who are doing the right things? A powerful passage.

Whether I am out of gas in my SUV or in my soul, in my big or small distresses, may I seek God's favor and humble myself and pray. I want God to keep bringing me back home when I'm not in a good place.

I don't know why $25 of gas---that's about 6 gallons here in the US--- didn't work for the 40 mile trip---it should have. I wonder if it has anything to do with a 17-year-old son who ran a quick errand to the gym in my car this afternoon. At $4 a gallon, I don't get as far as I think I can. When I bought my first car, gas cost 36 cents per gallon---I guess I have seen a lot in my lifetime!