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He is Everything Today’s Treasure: “The Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth…Indeed, we have all received grace after grace from His fullness.” (John 1:14,16 HCSB) I’ve just returned from a conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. My worship leader, Travis Cottrell and I, a.k.a. Jethro and Ellie May, affectionately tagged it “Y’all-tah” and our fabulous group of 4,600 women were good humored enough to laugh at our ridiculously silly sense of humor. I’ve often said that if you happen to be a serious God-seeking believer who also loves to laugh, you have to forsake off-color and mean-spirited humor and embrace the purely stupid. It works for this bleached blonde. I’m sitting in my pajamas on my bed, bone-weary but too full of gratitude to do anything but write. My eyes burn with tears over the incomprehensible grace of God. I want you to know it and experience it just as I have. He, the Holy and Righteous God of Heaven and Earth, does not treat us as our sins deserve. Instead He separates our transgressions from us as far as east is from west. Sometimes, the way God acts and the kinds of things He sends me to do, I almost wonder if God has forgotten where I’ve been in my past. In a peculiar sort of way, that’s exactly what He’s done. Unfathomably, He chooses to throw our transgressions behind His back and remember them no more. But I remember them. And I am amazed—no, that’s not a strong enough word—I am pressed flat to the floor over a love so forgiving. About a month ago, I fell in love with a group of women crazy about God and His Word from South Dakota and ate in a Mexican food restaurant with a welcome sign hung in the window for me to see. The invitation worked. I had the best cheese enchiladas north of Amarillo. The most interesting part was that I was speaking that weekend on coming to the King’s Table and dining with God. The restaurant’s name was Casa Del Rey. I found out the translation later that night. The name means house of the king. Is God good at what He does or not? Two weeks later I spent an unforgettable, hilarious, and deeply moving weekend with 11,000 incredible women in Charleston, West Virginia. The Holy Spirit turned that entire center into a burning bush and we beheld the glory of God. Then, the team and I walked into an arena this weekend in Y’all-tah with a group of women heaven-bent on meeting with Jesus or there was going to be heck to pay. They sang with the volume of 50,000 people and didn’t budge until the stage was bare and nothing was left to do but go home. We saw 55 women come forward to make a very public profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Their ages ranged from the cutest little fourteen-year-old I’ve almost ever seen all the way to Blanch, a seventy-eight-year-old who stole my heart in a second flat. I’m writing to say thank you. Not just for allowing me to be with you at an event, but for even bothering to let me serve you through this Web site. I do not know why on the earth God has allowed someone like me to serve someone like you. You have made me laugh with hilarious letters. You’ve made me cry—often sob—with the tenderness of your stories. You’ve made me think. And study harder. You’ve made me even gladder to be a woman. You’ve sent me pictures of your children. Your pets. And your Bible study groups. You’re usually holding your workbooks, smiling from ear to ear. Sometimes you’re holding a “Hi, Beth!” sign across three or four of your laps and you always tell me how much you love Jesus. I can hardly see my computer screen to write this to you for the tears. I have such strong emotion right now that I have to pound it out on the keyboard. I have no reason to suspect that God has a plan to take me home any time soon. I’ve got grandbabies to rock and an Esther Bible study to write. But whenever He decides He really misses me and wants me where He is, I would deeply regret not having taken the opportunity with healthy body and mind—and completely unprompted by hormones—to tell you again what a blast I’ve had loving Jesus with you. You are truly one of the greatest joys of my whole life. I love every age, size and shape of you and more than anything else, I love how you love Him. Lastly, I’m writing to say that I still think Jesus is everything. He is life. He is mercy. He is purpose. And, oh, He is redemption. I have not grown less impressed with Him and His Word, but more. I am not less amazed by His Presence, but more. I’m not less astounded by His grace, but infinitely more. I have never grown accustomed to this calling. I am more humbled by it today than yesterday because there is simply no human excuse for it. The only explanation for someone like me getting to serve someone like you is that Jesus is full of grace and truth just like John 1:14 promised He’d be. I want you to know that He loves you so, Sweet One. Continue to trust Him. One day we will see Jesus face to face. His beauty, His stunning power, and His brilliant perfections will exceed everything our human minds contrived. “On that day it will be said, ‘Look, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He has saved us. This is the LORD; we have waited for Him. Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation’” (Isaiah 25:9 HCSB). Christ is worthy, Beloved One. Worship Him with all your might. Do damage to the kingdom of darkness and stay covered with the armor of light. (See Romans 13:12.) I dearly love you.
Beth Moore © 2006 |