Beth Moore on Latasha Morrison’s BTB podcast

Since our group has used some Beth Moore materials, ya'll might find this interesting. Thanks to Arlette for the link:

https://bethebridge.com/episode-8-faith-leaders-raising-their-voices-with-beth-moore/

From the podcast website: 

"This episode brings together Be the Bridge founder Latasha Morrison and bestselling author, evangelist, and Bible teacher Beth Moore as they talk about racial reconciliation in the Christian faith. Beth details her own experiences speaking against injustice, dealing with the backlash, and waking up to her responsibilities as a faith leader. She also gives some insight on how Christians can become bold reconcilers who move beyond head knowledge of Christ into heart knowledge and action."

Beth Moore on Generational Sin

In light of our conversation this past week about the family patterns come down through the generations, I thought I'd pass on this article by a familiar voice, Beth Moore: "Is There a Generational Curse for Sin?" From the article:

Exodus 20:5 says, "You shall not bow down to [idols] or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me."

The word punishing in this verse proves a stumbling block for some people. The King James Version translates this as visiting, which is more reflective of the original Hebrew word paqadh, meaning to inspect, review, number, deposit, or visit in the sense of making a call. It's also used for taking a census.

 Click the title of the article above to read the whole thing.

Confession & Repentence

In Week 2, Day 3 of Living Beyond Yourself, Beth Moore discusses some elements of confession and repentance. Interestingly, as we've found so many times before in our group, the discoveries and practices happening in the field of human psychology closely mirror what we already know is healthy from our studies and practices of scripture. Moore suggests that confession and repentance involve being specific about whatever it is we're confessing, experiencing and expressing sorrow, and turning from our behavior.

I believe it was Tesha, who pointed out how very similar this is to some recent articles that have been circulating the internet about how to apologize. (For example, A Better Way to Say Sorry.)

Is it so strange that God, who created us, knows our need to come clean, examine our actions, and take active steps to do something different? Isn't it amazing?

Living Beyond Yourself - Session 1 - Guilt and Self-Compassion

One of the things that came up in session 1 is the difficulty that people, especially women, tend to have with claiming forgiveness, with carrying around guilt and self-condemnation, despite our confession and God's promise to forgive us. Beth Moore brought us a wonderful quote with regard to this. From Brennan Manning's book Abba's Child:

Dare to live as a forgiven [person]. Take sides with [God] against your own self-evaluation.

If you aren't familiar with Brennan Manning's book, the following review describes it well (from The Book Report Network):

Manning begins by beckoning Christians to come out of hiding, the place to which we retreat out of shame or guilt in the misguided belief that God is berating us as harshly as we are berating ourselves.

It is only when we shed our false identity and accept the unconditional love of our Abba --- our heavenly "Daddy" --- that we can experience the passionate love relationship with Him that we have long craved.

Our fellow Morning Blend member, Beth, sent me an email this week, and suggested listening to a TED Talk by Kristin Neff on self-compassion. Beth said, "She [Kristin Neff] talks about the difference between self esteem and self compassion. Our culture and especially women seem to have a difficult time being gentle to ones self." Though Neff speaks from a secular and scientific point of view, she addresses this cultural problem in a way that might help up open ourselves to the forgiveness of God. Check it out here:

This also brought to mind for me, a discussion we had last year with regard to shame and regret. For that post and another wonderful TED talk, go here: Brené Brown: Listening to Shame.

Let us pray for each other to "come out of hiding" and be released from guilt, shame and regret, in order to be more fully open to the "Pouring In" of the Spirit of God and the "Pouring Forth" of the fruits of the Spirit from ourselves.

Living Beyond Yourself - Intro Session

If you were busy scribbling notes just as fast as you could scribble, and you missed some of the scriptures from this past week's video, here's the line-up:

John 14
Psalm 27:13
John 10:10
Galatians 5:22-23
Phillipians 3:12-14
2 Corinthians 1:8-9
Colossians  1:29
John 11:43

We have been encouraged to memorize Galatians 5:22-23 for this study in the NIV translation:

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

Together, we also practiced this verse in sign language. I found a quick video that can help review the signs:

Living Beyond Yourself

Morning Blend is gearing back up to begin meeting formally at Park Avenue Church on September 10th! And this autumn, we'll begin with the study Living Beyond Yourself by Beth Moore.

From the Lifeway website, Living Beyond Yourself is an...

"...in-depth women's Bible study of the fruit of the Holy Spirit as presented in the book of Galatians. Beth walks participants through each trait listed in the fruit and encourages women to know the freedom of a Spirit-filled life. Through this study participants will look at the supernatural aspects of the fruit and that you cannot grow, learn, or produce the fruit on your own. Beth challenges you to develop the fruit by maintaining an intimate relationship with the Spirit of God. A Spirit-filled life truly results in living beyond yourself."