It is sad to say, but by the time Beth did this message, my head was really congested and I wasn’t following much of what was going on, but I know it was GOOD! 🙂
One of the things I appreciated about this was the way Beth spoke the truth about how we often hide our authenticity behind one thing and another. In fact, we may have disappointment in the choices God has made in our lives…and this can cause a stronghold in our lives. This is precisely what I mean when I have shared that we need to forgive God! Not in the sense that God does wrong, because he doesn’t. But in the sense that I perceive he has done me wrong and I feel resentment…I need to be authentic with him. When my theology (that good Christian girls don’t get upset with God) gets in the way of my authenticity (“God, I don’t understand that if you are good all the time, why you have allowed this, or ordained it?”) I believe we are out of God’s will. In fact, God doesn’t care as much about our right theology as he does that we are his and humble before him, bringing him all our broken pieces, our empty places and our lack of understanding as to why he has allowed what he has. Bring it to him. He can take it. In fact, he records numerous times that the psalmists did precisely that in the psalms. He can take our true feelings. Why pretend?
Sorry…that stuff was my own rambling. Don’t blame Beth for that.
Some important things that came of this session:
* Even the most faithful believers will be entrusted with trials.
* Even when our own actions have brought painful trials on us, God is working it for our good.
* The only discipline he puts us through is that which will heal.
My head cold that I thought I had chased off returned tonight with a vengance! So I am a bit incoherent, but wanted to take the time to jot some thoughts down about what Beth covered. I can’t possibly begin to do justice with my words. In all the series that I have seen her teach, I believe none have been with such authority and power as these sessions. I know the Lord is using her mightily. Praise His Name!
I found this session intriguing. God revisted some themes again with me…even those that I have written about here. Tonights focus was the woman at the well–I wrote about her a few days ago as I shared some notes on TLT.
So I ask the Lord…what do you have for me by reminding me yet again of the emptiness of the woman at the well and all the ways in which she strives to fill that void? Don’t let me miss it, Lord.
Some Beth-isms from this session: “Desperation that is unsanctified makes us STUPID.” “Desperation can be a gift, but only when it is sanctified.” — which reminded me of the woman who grabbed at the hem of Jesus’ robe. Her desperation caused her to “cross the border” (as Beth mentioned)…to go after her healing.
I want my desperation to be sanctified, to be a good thing…causing me to go after what the Lord alone can give.
Another series of “Beth-isms:” “We uncover to excuse. “Satan uncovers to accuse. “Christ uncovers to diffuse.”
A profound thought Beth shared has to do with if I refuse to get still, if I fill all my potentially silent times with doing, with text messaging, with email, with whatever it may be, how can I be still? And if I can’t be still, how will I know HE is God? To know Him, I must allow myself to be still. Why do I run from the silence and stillness?
This session was on courage…having the courage to seek and pursue freedom no matter what our family does. They may even persecute, ridicule and play on our false guilt to get us to quit. We must have the courage to press on.
Likewise, we must realize we can’t drag others to freedom. They have to want it.
I can’t tell you what an incredible privilege it is for me to be at these sessions. The Lord used Breaking Free so much in my life when I was coming out of Weigh Down…truly used it to do an important work that had to be done. While I didn’t experience freedom right away (I was eating the seed instead of sowing it…), it was an investment in the future work that God would do and has now done and continues to do.
I am so pleased to be a part of this.
Here are thoughts in brief about what is my favorite session so far.
If you have visited the blog or the TW forums, you know that I love to share the importance of the moment in experiencing victory. I was so encouraged to hear this session was a powerful lesson on the moment! Thank you, Lord, for that confirmation. But Beth put meat on the bones of what this means to me.
She began by sharing the valid point that prayerless lives are powerless lives. Conversely, prayerful lives are powerful lives.
She pointed out that we will never get to our “milestone” of freedom if we don’t get through our moment. To grab a hold of this moment, this choice, this decision in the NOW, when I face the temptation RIGHT NOW, I can pray out to God… “Jesus! Deliver me! HELP ME!”
She further pointed out that, in that moment, there are a couple of reasons we may not choose to pray…one, is that we don’t really *want* to. If we can make it a prayer of our lives that, in that moment of temptation, our “want to” will be different, we may find ourselves able to call out to the Lord. The second reason we may not pray in that moment is because we don’t feel like we deserve to be free or deserve to talk to God about it.
LIES!
This was definitely my favorite session so far and I wrote notes all over my listening guide–not just in the blanks.
I love this: “God’s Word was meant to apply to the ugly life and make it beautiful.” Yes, Lord!
She pointed out that we will never remain free based on doing what we think we ought to. Sure, it is a good motivation for starting. But we will ultimately fall back on doing what we want. That is why we need to keep asking God to change our “want to.” Ask him to help you to want to change when that moment that the temptation hits. Ask him in *advance* for that…and then make the choice in that moment. Like she said numerous times, until we can get through our moment of temptation, we won’t get to our milestone. One moment after another is how it is done. It is how the territory is won for the Lord.
Some of us are in a hurry and wonder why this has to be such a long process. Beth pointed out that the Lord Jesus is all about relationship. Certainly, sometimes he does choose to deliver instantaneously. He can. But if that doesn’t happen, he allows a long process so that He becomes dearer to me than my deliverance. He is more interested in my getting to know the Healer than just experiencing the Healing. He doesn’t want me to miss it.
This session was absolutely incredible…(well, they all are…)
In this session Beth Moore talked about how crucial lies are to remaining in captivity and how vital truth is to breaking free. (There is that renewing of the mind theme again…)
No matter what my personal truth may be–my behavior, my experiences, my history, and my “genetics,” IT IS NOT ABLE TO OVER-RIDE GOD’s TRUTH.
I must reject lies. No more denial or self-delusion–as long as we keep pretending, we will remain in our captivity.
The fact is GOD’s TRUTH SETS ME FREE. God’s truth is more powerful to free me than my truth is to keep me in bondage!
This lesson does a masterful job in pointing out how frequently we try to slake our thirst or quite our heart hunger in means that leave us emptier–hungrier–thirstier than when we began.
Our hearts were made for the LORD. He placed a God-shaped hole in them. Yet, like the proverbial round peg being hammered into a square hole, we keep trying to fill the God-shaped voice in us with other things. Even believers do this! We are not immune!
The woman in the scripture tried to fill the voice in her with relationships with men, only to find herself needier than before.
What are some of the things you and I turn to, trying to fill that God-shaped hole?
Certainly, food is one of them. Looking for approval of others is another one for me. To finally conquer the horsemanship issues I have with my horses (and that they have with me! LOL!). Somehow I tend to go to these things, investing myself in them, to get satisfied–but they don’t fit the God-shaped hole inside of me. Running to them leaves me with hopes dashed, disappointed, and the hole seems bigger than ever.
The point of this section of scripture (or at least one of the points) is to turn to JESUS, the LIVING WATER–to invite Him to flood full the hole in my heart that only he can fill. In fact, he alone can fill all my empty places in my life.
Mike Cleveland says: Did you know that you could cease overeating by beginning to drink? Learn how to quench your thirst in Christ and you will also satisfy your soul hunger. I can tell you that drinking of the Living Water is so pleasing to the taste and so filling that it removes the need to eat sinfully. If we think about this, it just makes sense. We had turned to food for all the wrong reasons, because of a “thirst” within our soul. A “thirst” to be loved, or because we were empty and unfulfilled, or because we needed comfort, or because we were lonely, bored or stressed. These and many more, are all “thirsts” within the soul of man and food was not designed to quench the thirst of the soul. The Lord’s Table, p. 28 Summary: There is a void in my heart that God designed to be filled with him alone. I must stop looking elsewhere for satisfaction and feast on Jesus, the Bread of Life. Drink of Jesus, the Living Water.
Application: To what do you look to silence the ache inside, to fill the emptiness? What will you do today to change this tendency? To begin to let Jesus and Jesus alone satisfy you. He is the only thing/One who can.
Hi, all, just a summary of one of the two messages last night…just highlights as I don’t want to spoil any of it for when the DVDs come out in Fall of 2009!!!
Beth did a great job teaching about the woman in Luke 8:40-48 who was desperate for healing and was willing to do anything…ANYTHING it would take to be made whole. She crossed the line of the expected, of “proper behavior.” Beth pointed out that if I am over here in my sickness and Jesus is over there with his healing, I am going to cross that line…blast through any “expectations” that others have for my behavior and grab for the hem of his robe! Do the crazy thing, be a little “radical.” GO FOR IT! I WANT HEALING period! Get outta my way! She also pointed out that we have a mistaken view of repentance…that we tend to think of repentance as our punishment! It is our right in Christ. It is our gift! We have to change our view of repentance!
One of my favorite things that Beth said and I have heard her say it in other bible studies (or maybe it is the original Breaking Free) is that often God allows a wounding…not just to hurt us, but to heal us. That by the wounds of Jesus we are healed…so too many other wounds can bring healing if we will avail ourselves to His intentions.
Wow…WOW! The introductory session of Beth Moore’s Breaking Free taping was last night and it was…well, incredible.
It got off with a rousing start when Lisa Pierre led us in singing “Break these shackles off my feet so I can dance! I just wanna praise you, I just wanna praise you!” I shared the way God used that song in my life here at the blog a couple of months ago (including a link to the YouTube video). So I was into it for sure! 🙂 From the looks of the other 999 women here in New Orleans at the Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, they were too!
Some thoughts…first and foremost, when God speaks to me about the same thing numerous times in just a few days, I know I need to take note. The thought “Renewed Mind” has come up again and again. I wasn’t suprised to hear it here relative to the Breaking Free study–having gone through the BF study years ago and leading a couple of groups through it, I know that renewing the mind is a vital part of breaking free. Well, that and the fact that I have seen it in my own life.
But I know God is doing another new thing! It has come up enough times that I know he wants me to catch something new. So it is my quest to be still and know that He is God and what He has to say about the renewal of my mind. It was mentioned in Freedom From Emotional Eating bible study by Barb Raveling which I started last week. I hope to share my journey through that material here after I finish sharing The Lord’s Table.
The thought of the renewed mind was also the focus of the bible study we did at our Neighborhood Fellowship Group — the focus verse being Romans 12:1-8. We talked about what it means to renew the mind.
In any event, God is up to something. I am here at this video taping. 11 intense BIBLE teaching sessions!!!!! Never have I been through something this intense…and with Beth Moore no less who is big on truth and grace…
So here are some thoughts I jotted down this morning as I reflected back on the introductory session:
The focus verse is Isaiah 61:1-4. You will probably want to look it up in your bibles. Check it out and then ask God to bring it home to your own heart.
Lord Jesus, you have been annointed and appointed to preach good news to the poor. Thank you for accepting that calling. You have been sent to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…all of this you’ve done aginst evil that has previously prevailed, Lord. YOU HAVE ENDED THE REIGN OF DARKNESS IN MY LIFE. Not only that but you are proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor. Oh, I praise you that I stand in your favor!!! You also proclaim the day of vengance of our God. The enemy will get his! You are comforting those who mourn, providing for those who grieve, and bestowing on us all a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. You are changing us — me — to be an oak of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor.
We will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; we will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated. Oh, Lord! How appropriate that this taping is here in New Orleans in a church that was just rebuilt after the Katrina devastation! Lord, please help me not to miss what you want to do in me today, this week, through this bible teaching time with Beth Moore. To preserve copyright and all of that, I won’t share my notes from the session. But she used Isaiah 9:4…to speak about how there is a pattern that God sees in us before freedom and how he chooses to break us free from bondage, from the yoke, just as He did the Israelites from Midian.
She took us into the scriptures in Judges chapter 6 all the way through verses 1 through 24. If you walk through the passage, you will see the parallels, too. Here are some questions to get you thinking about it all.
1.) Who are the people that are in bondage? 2.) Describe the nature of this bondage. 3.) Go to Lifeway’s Bible Tools at http://bible.lifeway.com/crossmain.asp. Click on KJV with Strongs. Then type in the little box that says “Books” the following: Judges 6. Find verse 6 and click on the word “impoverished.” How would you describe the state of God’s people when they were under the oppression of the Midianites based on the definition of the Hebrew Word (which is what you just found if you followed these instructions)?
Beth pointed out that bondage is anything that hinders me from being what God wants me to be. I am meant to bring Him glory by the producing of much fruit (John 15:8). The oak of righteousness mentioned in Isaiah 61 produces many many acorns!
4.) Look in the Judges 6 passage. The Israelites weren’t looking for freedom. What had they done instead? Can you identify with this?
5.) What does God do with this? How does this relate to 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 and your life?
I trust Beth and Lifeway won’t mind my sharing some of the words I jotted down near the end of the session. They are powerful…
Whatever it is that God calls you or me to give up…let’s not be afraid to give it up. Let’s instead be scared to miss what God has for us if we cling to something instead of releasing our hold on it. Beth pointed out so eloquently that sometimes we have no idea how oppressed we’ve been until we’ve been set free.
She closed with words like these:
What future do you want? Will you choose to grow old and die in your bondage?
I wanted to let the visitors to the blog know, I am heading off on yet another trip…leaving early tomorrow. I have never in my life traveled as much as I have this year. I think it is a product of finally having a rear that fits in an airplane seat!
I am actually looking forward to this trip! The others were still warm-ups, I guess! LOL!
I am meeting a friend at the Dallas Fort Worth airport where we will fly the rest of the way to New Orleans together. We are attending the video-taping of Beth Moore presenting her Breaking Free material. Lifeway has re-released a new version of “A Woman’s Heart God’s Dwelling Place” and I guess they are doing the same for this series.
Years ago, the Lord used this series powerfully in my life. Going to this is like a dream come true for me, but I have a feeling that this will be quite a challenging experience, too. I covet your prayers!
I will likely have some internet access while I am gone and hope to post a bit about what I experience as I know it will apply to this journey. Definitely!
