Tuesday, July 28, 2009

A Message from Beth...

Dear Sisters,

I can hardly wait to see you at our Deeper Still conference this weekend! I am not kidding when I tell you that I've never failed to see God show up with a stunning outpouring in North Carolina or South, for that matter! I've never quite been able to put my finger on why! Often Travis, the team and I see God's mightiest outpourings in some of the smaller areas where people have far fewer events to attend. They are desperate for worship and revelation and, because God delights in that kind of anticipation, they usually get it. The part of the country where we're gathering this weekend, however, is a center notch on the proverbial "Bible belt" yet I've seen God do some of the wildest things there. To be seasoned - but UNSPOILED - followers of Christ is a rare and wonderful trait only the Holy Spirit can explain. I can hardly wait to see what He'll do now.

I am so honored to serve beside my dear friends and co-laborers, Priscilla and Kay. I deeply respect both of them and my own walk with Christ is always refueled by their influence. We haven't been together in a while so it will be great to team-up again. It's a beautiful thing to share the platform with other speakers because, the way I see it, if you don't like one of us, as diverse as we are, surely you'll like another! All of us have different tastes and different learning styles, even if we wish we were too mature for preferences. At one time or another, yours is surely going to get hit this weekend and, if not by someone on the platform, by someone sitting next to you! Far more importantly, God will overcome every obstacle and speak to every willing ear and, if you'll really listen, cause you to receive exactly what He brought you to hear. I'm counting on that for myself. I am coming for a word from God, Girlfriend, and I am positive that I'm going to get it.

Recently I've had a fresh appreciation for what we get to do this weekend. My staff at Living Proof Ministries and I are going through Jennifer Rothschild's Me, Myself and Lies together. (I do tons of other people's Bible studies - like Kay's and Priscilla's, for instance - just for my own personal walk. My worst nightmare is that I'd get where I only listened to my own voice. Can you spell I-M-B-A-L-A-N-C-E??) While we were having group discussion last week and I was marveling over the NOW word God was speaking to every single one of us, I could nearly have burst into tears with the wonder of it. I said to my staff, "It's just hit me afresh that this is the very kind of thing we get to do: we get to encourage women just like us to get to know the Maker of Heaven and Earth and His Son, Jesus Christ, through the living, breathing pages of Scripture. He causes every study - no matter who wrote it - to become exactly what the willing person needed at that exact moment in her life. It's not a man-thing. It's a total God-thing. I do not know where I would be, even right now in this season of my own life, without the hope and direction and exhortation of God's Word. What we're doing works because He works."

That, Beloved Sister, is what we're doing together this weekend. We're reminding one another that God STILL SPEAKS and that He is perfect in His timing and His relevance. If you've never really gotten to know Him personally, this is a terrific time to get started! If you've been listening to Him speak through His Word for years, well then, there's a place to go that's deeper still!

I am floored to be able to serve you. God is merciful and kind to this former pit-dweller. I'll see you Friday!

In His exquisite love,

Beth

Posted by Michelle Hicks on Jul 28, 2009 at 09:02 AM