Living Proof Live, Memphis: Beth Moore

On Friday and Saturday, October 9-10th, my fabulous mother and I, plus two of my aunts (dad's sisters), and a cousin and cousin-in-law with her friends joined over 13,300 other women (and a few brave men) at the Fed Ex Forum to hear The Word presented by Beth Moore.

I'm a big Beth Moore fan, and was looking forward to this girls weekend time and hearing from a woman that so often teaches me many things. I've had the pleasure of doing quite a few of her Bible Studies in the past, and seeing her live was something to look forward to.

The event began on Friday evening and went through Saturday afternoon, ending about 1pm. We utilized the time we had together by spending the night in a hotel downtown Friday evening. This allowed us more time to talk and enjoy one another's company, as well as kept us from driving to and from downtown multiple times during the short weekend. It was well worth it. We talked and laughed and stayed up into the wee hours of the morning. I shared a room with my mom and two aunts. Lots of giggles and quality time - too bad we couldn't have done it for an additional night - but I'll take all I can get.

During the event, Beth Moore focused on a passage within Exodus 34. Throughout our time together, she went through seven self-disclosures of God that He professed about Himself to Moses in Exodus 34. The passage reads:

Exodus 34:6-7

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

Within this verse, Beth Moore points out 7 self-disclosures of God:

1. abounding in love - God abounds in love. (vs. 6)
2. maintains love - God guards His love. (vs. 7)
3. the compassionate God - God teems with compassion. (vs. 6)
4. forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin - God is scandalously forgiving. (vs. 7)
   
5. the gracious God - God is inconceivably gracious. (vs. 6)
6. abounds in faithfulness - God is abounding in faithfulness. (vs. 6)
7. slow to anger - God is slow to anger. (vs. 6)
   

Through these seven self-disclosures, Beth Moore described ways in which these aspects of who God is applies to our lives and the way in which we live and associate with others. For example, God abounds in Love. Beth asked us, "today, do you know in the depth of your heart, no matter what is happening to you, that Jesus loves you?". She went on to discuss how sometimes when the hardest things in life are happening to us (i.e. a spouse dying, a child dying, etc.) and we cannot understand them, during those times, we can go back to this truth - God abounds in love. Jesus loves me, this I know, because the Bible tells me so. Another example of the way Beth Moore tied the truths of God in an applicable way is when she spoke about how God guards His love. She went on to say that God's guarding His love not against anything, but His love remains completely zealous for us. He guards His love from diminishing... He loves us with the same zeal and passion today that He did yesterday and will to come! How awesome is that? And do we guard, protect, or keep our love in our own lives? For our God? For our spouse? Do we actively, zealously, guard are love to make sure we are zealous? During this point, Beth Moore even went on to challenge the mothers with teenagers... pointing out that God guards and maintains His love, but will and can withdraw his blessing. She challenged mothers to "stay in the parental driver's seat" and as their children rebel, maintain the love but withdraw the blessing.

There were many points and multiple Bible verses used throughout the entire discussion by Beth Moore. I'm looking forward going back over all the points and hearing the challenges again. For example, God is scandalously forgiving. I made a note during this point of discussion that said" "We have to let our forgiveness/God's forgiveness go as deep as our sin". Amen. It's forgiven!