Sunday, March 2, 2008

Beth was here!!

Beth Moore was at the Pacific Coliseum this weekend with her Living Proof tour. This is the second time I have had the privilege of seeing her live. I think this is the first time she officially came to Canada. A few years ago she came to a local church in Surrey for a women's leadership conference partnered by Lifeway. It was a treat and a huge privilege to have her and all those southern ladies building into us.

There were about 4000 in attendance, a small crowd compared to her U.S. appearances. I heard that about 1/3 were from the States. Canadians just don't know what they are missing!

Beth, with her southern drawl, perfectly quaffed appearance and outlandish speaking style, stands out in our reserved Canadian culture. She joked with us about her accent and exclaimed "Elly May and Jethro have come to Canada!" And she extolled the delights of Miss Vickie's Sea Salt and Malt Vinegar Potato Chips, a Canadian delicacy that she discovered on her first visit here.

We absolutely loved her!

And it was evident that she loved us. She got down on the floor, touching women, looking them in the eye, loving on us. I felt such a presence of unity in the Lord. This is the first time I have been to such a large Christian event and it had the feeling of a tent revival meeting.

The worship by Travis Cottrell and his worship team was awesome. It was a perfect balance of worship and performance. His sensitivity to the crowd and the HS was evident. He often silenced the band allowing the voices of 4000 women to resonate accapella to old favorites like "Amazing Grace" and "Then Sings My Soul".

Beth spoke to us solely from Hebrews 4: 12-16. In the next two days we dissected it and memorized it in Beth- Moore- Index- Card fashion.

12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

The focus was on "our time of need" and how Jesus can sympathize with us, providing grace and mercy. Beth taught us that our temptations are related to our needs. When we are tempted to fill our needs with the wrong thing we need mercy to turn away from it and grace to turn to the right thing.

I was interested to find out that in Exodus 34:6, when God announces his name as he shows himself to Moses, he uses the words Gracious and Merciful to describe himself. We throw those words around a lot in spiritual talk and they have become common to me. But hearing that they are the words that God chose to describe himself when he announced his name makes me take note.

Beth went on to explain that mercy is the alleviation of deserved consequences, as described in .Psalm 103:10-11. Whereas grace is an undeserved gift bestowed as described in Acts 4:33. Mercy is about a pardon and grace is about power.

In closing, Beth asked us to write down something that we need to loose (turn away from ) and something we need gain (turn to). I started to mentally list off the attitudes in my heart that I know God has been dislodging - resentment, impatience, discontent, fear of rejection. I knew it had something to do with dieing to self. Then it came to me.

self-preservation ........all those reactions that surface when I need to protect myself

VS.

self-generosity ....... the ability to give freely of myself without my own wants getting in the way.

Father - I come boldly to your throne of grace, asking for your mercy for relying on my own methods of protecting myself. I ask you for the grace to give freely of myself to others, not counting the costs, not withholding in fear.

8 comments:

jennyhope said...

Ruth I am so glad you got to go. I have been doing her studies for the last 9 years and I praise God for the wonderful teaching that has discipled me! you are right...canadian's don't know what they are missing!! =) I'll be back to your blog...i have to get ready for my study tonight!

Sara said...

I will admit to never having thought much of Beth Moore. I have too many associations with too many fans of hers who are just after the "Better Christian Woman." But I thank you for the reminder that Beth herself is, in fact, much more genuine than that . . . it is clear that God has blessed her ministry. I'm so glad that you were blessed through her.

Ruth said...

Hi Jenny ~ welcome...and thanks for stopping by. I hope to see you again.

Welcome Sara ~ thanks for your comment. I'm glad that I was able to share a different perspective of the Beth Moore experience with you.
I can understand how her following could be a bit larger than life. It is probably a little more low key here in Canada. When I brought Breaking Free to my church's ladies bible study 4 years ago, no one had even heard about Beth Moore.
Please visit again!

Valorosa said...

Nope

Never heard of her :-)

Ruth said...

Well Hello Valoraso. I'm glad you stopped by.

If you've never heard of Beth you must be a Canuck. Where are you from?

Happy said...

well, I've always *wanted* to do a Beth Moore study (I've looked at the enormous one she's got on David more than once!) but I just don't have TIME. She's really in depth, and that's something I appreciate greatly about her. Someday I'll get to it. :) Anyway, I'm glad you got to hear her speak, Ruth - sounds like it was a wonderful experience - and I (as usual) learned quite a bit from what you had to say.

So, my kindred spirit (not so subtle subject change...) - tag! :)

Livingsword said...

Hi Ruth;

Interesting I didn’t even know she was coming to town which may be why the turnout was so low, was the advertising very large? The Giants get more for a game there.

I wonder if she would have had a larger turn out in the Valley….

I can sure feel your enthusiasm in the article!!!

As I am sure you know both my blogs come from the portion of Scripture you quote plus my blogging nickname, so I give a thumbs up to the choice of verses!

I am often surprise dhow many people that call themselves Christians believe that Jesus sinned. Of course if Jesus sinned then He is not the perfect sacrifice for our sins and we are then still in our sins!

What do you mean by “Mercy is about a pardon and grace is about power.”?

Ruth said...

HI LS,

I guess you didn't hear about it cause it was mostly targeted at women. We have secret networks you know....like the posters in the ladies washroom at church and the women's ministry bullentin board. But you probably don't frequent those places - I hope.

No I did't know you took your name from that verse. It makes sense though. They're powerful words.

Regarding mercy and grace -those were Beth's words and I took it to mean that God's mercy is a pardon from the deserved punismentand his grace is the power he gives us to change.

Thanks for stopping by...