Can you imagine if your very dear friend in the whole world were this lady?
Does she look familiar? Maybe a more recent picture.
Do you know her now? That's Beth Moore, and she has a way with the Word. I mean it! How many of you open up a Bible (or don't) and the words just go 'blar blar blar' and make no sense at all? That often happens to me, I admit it. There I go, trying to spend some time in the Word since I should - and I want to, but .... blar blar blar.
A few years ago i did a Beth Moore Bible study and was amazed at what this lady sees in the Word. Things I do not. She makes it come alive, and suddenly what was going blar blar blar now - those very same words - have you on the edge of your seat. She has a gift for showing you what God is saying. And I need that, sometimes more than I'd care to admit.
However. Remember the question I started with? No, Beth Moore is not my closest friend. But someone with that very same gift is. Her name is Cheryl, and yeah some of you will remember I"ve quoted her as saying that thongs are like Butt Floss. See how great she is? Not only can she come up with spot-on analogies for underwear, she can do that whole "Boom, and now it's exciting" translation thing for me. Cool, huh?
I've always thought it was a special gift. Magic. Just something she and Beth could do and no one else. But tonight I told her that I do not know how to look at it the same way she does. And?! She showed me. (I have no idea why i didn't do this years ago, but no. i did not.) She taught me about internet sites, and concordances, and timelines, and image searches, and oh my gosh my head is spinning!
So, if you dont' believe me that yep, Bible can be fascinating, go to Lauren's and tell her you wanna do the Beth Moore thing we're starting. ('cause Cheryl hasn't started that Bible study blog I've been talking to her about and until then she's ALL MINE, y'all. Ha!) But really, Beth Moore does it just the same. It's weird like that.
And if you don't want to do that, but you want a really, really good read, you should try Esther. It's like a chick flick, as Cheryl calls it. It's Bible, but it's fascinating and soap opera-ish almost. But no guilt! This king dumps his queen and Esther is in this huge beauty pageant like thing for pretty virgins and she wins, and saves all her people in the end. It rocks. (No blar blar blar, I promise).To make it really contemporary reading, read it in The Message translation. You'll be so entertained and all '...wow...? that was out of the Bible?!"
You'll feel SO holy and all, since you read the Bible, actually liked it, and understood it.
Go on. I dare ya. Then tell me how it went.
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Tracked on Mar 13, 2006 9:11:40 AM
Your Comments
I have a "Beth" friend, too - she was my roommate in college and to this day helps me make sense of Scripture. And Beth herself...well...I love her as much as I can love a stranger. :-) I did Believing God at church about a year and a half ago - and I can't even put into words how much I learned. If anyone has the chance, Beth's Living Proof Live is a must-see....
Beth and I are close friends -- at least I dream that we are! I am just loving every minute of Believing God right now, and I will also be keeping tabs on the "Living Beyond Yourself" study that ya'll are doin'. I am SO sad that I already did it and can't justify the money again when I own the workbook. So, I will just live vicariously through all of ya'll that are doin' the online thingy.
BTW, thanks for the laugh tonight. I had to share it w/my DP since I was making such a ruckus!
Amazing, isn't it? Reading Esther's almost as much fun as reading about how Abraham pimps out Sarah a couple of times to pagan kings and they have to be the ones to scold him for it. Or about how he's not supposed to take Lot with him when he leaves his dad, but he does it anyway and Lot winds up being a lot of trouble, even after escaping the flying road tar out of Heaven. Or how about how Jacob was such a lemon yellow Polo wearing mama's boy and he and mama conned the Nascar watching, crazy, red-headed Esau out of his birthright. Then Jacob cons his feeble old blind dad and later gets conned by mama's brother into marrying the wrong girl so he winds up married to sisters. Talk about a stressful household!
I mean, the Bible's like a huge soap opera where there's only one good guy wearing a white hat. (Joseph and Daniel sort of have gray hats, everyone else's are black.) And the whole Old Testament points forward toward the Hero and the New Testament points backward toward the Hero. Then there are the four gospels in the middle that are about the Hero.
Yeah. It's a way cool book!
Okay, you have me challenged and convicted this morning. I don't know if I'll jump in with your study, but I'm going to read Esther. Thank you for making it kind of "fun".
I have to do that with my son's therapy, too. Make it fun or he just never gets started. Is that genetic?
I've never heard of Beth Moore. Crazy, huh?
I totally understand the blar blar thing. I've been in a bit of a blar blar funk myself lately. Esther rocks! I haven't read it in a while though. Maybe a read through Esther's story will help me jump out of blar blar world. Thanks for the suggestion!
Hey, thanks for sharing about Beth Moore -- it looks like there are already at least 20 of us who are going to be studying together -- the more the merrier! It'll be like we're holding a book club meeting in one giant living room -- I guess the whole earth is a pretty big room.
I for one am ready to learn more about "Living Beyond Yourself." Can't wait!
I love Beth Moore--have done her studies before with women from my church. I'm so glad that she's making the Bible come alive for you!
I'm with ya on Esther too! As a teenager I had a desire to write a play based on it...and now, with children's theater on the brain, I keep thinking what a fun musical it would make!! Can't ya see a bunch of teenage girls with rollers in their hair and cold cream on their faces singing about winning a beauty contest? Mordecai, Hamaan and King Xerxes would all be great guys' roles. There could be a big folk dance number to that great Jewish music with all the villagers rejoicing at the end ...YEAH!
Oh, I love the Veggie Tales Esther too. Esther's song:
"The battle's not our own,
We look to God above,
For He who safely got us here
Will guide us with His love."
And who could ever forget;
"Puppies are cuddly, puppies are cute,
They never are nasty or mean,
Oh, I'd give a home to all the lost puppies, If ever I could be the QUEEN!"
OK, I've just proved I've watched way too much Veggie Tales!
Mary, mom to 8
I, too, love Esther. Where else can you get a sorridly clean story about a beautiful woman who is chosen to be queen after the king has already spent the night with all those other women, and she, after being resigned to life as queen (yeah, I chose the right word), is put to the test to save her and her people by approaching the king who could easily put her to death and inviting him and the man behind the plan to dine with her, twice. All that is done without a mentioning of God, but He had his hand in it all the while.
Another favorite? Ruth. Tear-jerking, romantic love story all the way!
I have done several of Beth Moore's studies...and can wholeheartedly recommend any of them. Beth brings the Word ALIVE....and awakens a hunger--that you may not even know you have! I am currently part of a Tuesday a.m. Bible Study--and yes, we are doing another Beth Moore study. While I cannot commit to the online study--I think it is a wonderful use of the internet and cyberspace (just as I believe this blog-site is!).
For those who are doing the study--you will be enriched! ENJOY!
Diane
Wow what a coincidence that you likeEsther! Now I have to own up to something I never told my mother. When I was a teenager, and got bored during the sermon, I read Esther and Ruth. Those two books spoke to me in a way that nothing else in the Bible had before. Ruth's love story...and Esther's bravery...pretty good role models for the empty-headed teenager I was back then.
I'm on my 4th week of the Beth Moore study on the book of Esther. Beth is dynamic and she makes the book of Esther come alive. I would just love to do every book of the bible with Beth. I would encourage any woman who wants to understand the bible to do any one or all of Beth Moores' studies. Beth certainly knows her calling. I hope when I've finished the study of Esther that I'm that much more aware of my own calling.
Esther is one of my absolute favorite books! Come on Cheryl start a blog already. Anyone who can say butt floss and also navigate a concordance needs to share! :D