Beth Moore's Blog, page 37

A Lot of Sweet and A Lot of Savory and a Little Giveaway

I’m not sure if you’ve ever picked up a clue that we are serious about two things around here: Jesus and food.

Man does live on bread, just not bread alone. (I wish you could see the big grin on my face.)

Just last week the Holiday Feast started around the LPM office. A little early if you ask me, but ready or not, we’re about to be bombarded with all manner of treats, and you won’t here one peep or complaint from our lips. There comes a time at LPM when I get serious about my workout regimen, and that’s always around Christmas and Thanksgiving, but regardless if I hit the pavement or not for a quick jog, I certainly enjoy every last bite of deliciousness around here.

When I say the feast started early, what I mean is a sweet friend of the ministry, who also happens to do all of our printing for Tuesday night Bible study (which starts in a little over eight weeks here…egads!), sent us one of our all time favorite pies.

What kind of pie, you might ask? The Brazos Pecan Pie that comes presented in the most fabulous wooden box from Goode Company. Goode Co. is a chain of all sorts of restaurants ranging from hamburgers and seafood, but they’re mainly known for their BBQ, and rightfully so. And they happen to make the world’s most delicious Pecan Pie.

“A decadent balance of sweet and savory” is how they sum it up on their website. Perfection if you ask me!

When I say we devoured the pie last week, I mean that in every sense of the word.

Allow me to share a visual with you.

Devoured. (And, for the record, this picture is as is, no filter.)

We may or may not have topped it off with a little whip crème.

If only we’d of had a little Blue Bell Vanilla Ice Cream lying around.

(Y’all, I’m salivating right now.)

Last year for Thanksgiving, LPM graciously gifted each staff member with a pie and when I walked in with that little wooden box to my house, you would have thought I walked in with a little Blue Tiffany’s box with diamonds inside. My family knew what the treat they were in for.

(Random Side Note: A couple years ago, my dad made a Mandolin out of said box. It’s true. I’m still impressed.)

Here is a picture of my pie from last year. It was too pretty not to photograph! This is what you’ll be receiving, for real. And believe me, it tastes as good as it looks!

Because the pie is something we all love so much, we decided for the Thanksgiving holiday to share the love with you (and your Thanksgiving table), our Siestas. It feels like the perfect giveaway, does it not?

If we could gift one to everybody, you know we would, but we’re going to give away TWENTY pies! Woohoo!

If you feel so inclined, I have one question for you: I respect those of you who pull out Christmas long before Thanksgiving rolls around, by I personally can only deal with one holiday at a time. I’m all for listening to Christmas music the day of Thanksgiving while decorating the day after. It just feels like a natural progression to me. Plus, there’s something to be said about Thanksgiving and just slowing down to enjoy the day without the hustle and bustle of shopping and wrapping presents.

When the pendulum swings, which side do you land on?

No judgment to those of you that put up your Christmas tree in September. To you I say, to each its own.

Okay, ready, set, let’s here from you! Your name and email address would be so helpful.

I’ll leave comments open for a little over 24 hours and close them tomorrow (Tuesday) at noon.

We’re SO thankful for you, Siestas. We thank God for you AND we get excited when we talk about you, which is every single day!

Happy Monday!

2013 Siesta Scripture Memory Team: Verse 22!

Hey, Sweet Things! I’m writing you from the same pajamas I put on this morning after a bath. The flu hit the Moores and Jones with a fury at the first of the week and, at this point, Keith, Melissa, Annabeth, and I all have it. Our little four year old ran 103 degrees today. It broke our hearts. She’s been to the doctor and, needless to say, Amanda is not getting an inch from her. You will not waste a prayer on all of us and I’m going to stop and pray right now for those of you who are ailing or have sick families.

Gracious Father, touch us with Your outstretched hand, heal and restore us. Take authority over our bodies and our households and command all sickness to depart in Jesus’ Name. Forbid any further spread of viruses, Lord, and speak wellness and strength over us. Show tender mercies particularly to our young and our elderly. Grant us the wisdom to acknowledge Your goodness and faithfulness to us and to give You all glory for the full restoration of our health. Apply the power of the Cross to all that concerns us. You are worthy of all praise. By Christ’s stripes we are healed. You are faithful and true and we adore You, Lord. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

At the first of the week before my fever spiked, God had me in Jeremiah 31. It is such a beautiful chapter of Scripture about restoration and the way back home for even the furthest wanderer. I’ll post the verse I found most visual as my selection for our 22nd entry. Here goes:

Beth, Houston. “I will say, ‘My dear children of Israel, keep in mind the road you took when you were carried off. Mark off in your minds the landmarks. Make a mental note of telltale signs marking the way back. Return, my dear children of Israel. Return to those cities of yours.’” Jeremiah 31:21 The NET Bible

I’m going to go ahead and post this an evening early in hopes of sleeping in a bit in the morning. I’m planning to be back at work with full strength on Monday, God willing and grace-bearing. I love you and it is such an honor to serve you.

OK, Sisters! Let’s hear your verses! Only 3 more to go!

 

 

Siesta Scripture Memory Team 2013: Verse 22!

Hey, Sweet Things! I’m writing you from the same pajamas I put on this morning after a bath. The flu hit the Moores and Jones with a fury at the first of the week and, at this point, Keith, Melissa, Annabeth, and I all have it. Our little four year old ran 103 degrees today. It broke our hearts. She’s been to the doctor and, needless to say, Amanda is not getting an inch from her. You will not waste a prayer on all of us and I’m going to stop and pray right now for those of you who are ailing or have sick families.

Gracious Father, touch us with Your outstretched hand, heal and restore us. Take authority over our bodies and our households and command all sickness to depart in Jesus’ Name. Forbid any further spread of viruses, Lord, and speak wellness and strength over us. Show tender mercies particularly to our young and our elderly. Grant us the wisdom to acknowledge Your goodness and faithfulness to us and to give You all glory for the full restoration of our health. Apply the power of the Cross to all that concerns us. You are worthy of all praise. By Christ’s stripes we are healed. You are faithful and true and we adore You, Lord. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

At the first of the week before my fever spiked, God had me in Jeremiah 31. It is such a beautiful chapter of Scripture about restoration and the way back home for even the furthest wanderer. I’ll post the verse I found most visual as my selection for our 22nd entry. Here goes:

Beth, Houston. “I will say, ‘My dear children of Israel, keep in mind the road you took when you were carried off. Mark off in your minds the landmarks. Make a mental note of telltale signs marking the way back. Return, my dear children of Israel. Return to those cities of yours.’” Jeremiah 31:21 The NET Bible

I’m going to go ahead and post this an evening early in hopes of sleeping in a bit in the morning. I’m planning to be back at work with full strength on Monday, God willing and grace-bearing. I love you and it is such an honor to serve you.

OK, Sisters! Let’s hear your verses! Only 3 more to go!

 

 

Mindful and Grateful and a Tad Pictorial

Hey, my dear sisters!

Although I won’t post this until Tuesday, I’m writing to you on the afternoon of Sunday the 10th. This is about the thousandth time I’ve corresponded with you from somewhere around an altitude of 27,000 feet. I’m on my second Delta flight of the day, heading home to Houston with so many memories of the last 8 months swimming around in this blond head. As many of you know because you so faithfully prayed us through, we wrapped up our final Living Proof Live event for 2013 this weekend. God just flat-out could not have given us a louder, more wonderful congregation at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida for a finale. They wanted Jesus and, in His unfathomable grace, He showed Himself faithful.

As any of you in a travel-oriented ministry know, life is all the while taking place while you live out a schedule that was set in stone way before you got a whiff of what the year would hold. We’re better off that way, aren’t we? If we could see what was coming, we’d insult the grace of God by our faithlessness that He’d not come through when the time came to meet the need. The greater Moore family – and, by that, I mean Amanda’s 4 Jones, Keith’s parents who live next door, Melissa, my man and me – have had a year with as much upheaval and pain as we have met in a decade.

Jesus graciously allowed Keith and me to have, hands-down, the most peaceful year of our marriage. You know the kind of people who are carefree and smooth sailing? Well, that would not be us. We both tend to be on the feisty side. And I write that with a smile. I’ve been so thankful for this, our closest-ever kiss of bliss. I don’t know what we would have done otherwise. Our children and our parents needed us badly. Needed Jesus badly. We just tried to be constant and present reminders that He was there and that we were right beside them. And we ate a lot. Sometimes that’s the best way to show a little extra love around here. We are a close family and close families laugh together and cry together and, in our clan, when an unforeseen collision happens, all of us are in the car. Some are in the front seat. Some in the back. But, make no mistake, we’re all in the car. And that’s how we want to be. I know many of you can relate.

So, through many ups and downs, twists and turns, needs and bleeds, we’ve lived these last many months on drips, streams, and gushes of God’s grace. I’ve flown north, south, east, and west this year earning Platinum status on United and turning on my cell phone at the first touch of the wheels on the tarmac to see if everybody at home was okay. I could cry typing and not just over memories that make my heart ache but because Jesus has been so faithful to us. He has gotten us through. He’s still getting us through. And He will get us through again in 2014 when we, then, live out a schedule etched on the calendar before we had any idea what was coming.

Jesus is coming. That’s what I know. And that’s why we Moores and Jones will stay at it, come what may.

With the finish of our last Living Proof Live event for the year and with your patience, I thought I might introduce you to some of the people I have the privilege to serve alongside. Some are more familiar to you because you’ve seen them on the platform but all are huge, vital contributors to the ministry that takes place. Most of them come from Nashville, Ron (security) comes from Louisville, Shela-Lyn, our beautiful and gifted sign language interpreter, comes from Phoenix, and I am the lone but happy traveler from Houston. Some come by 18 wheelers to the events with all the big equipment. The rest of us fly but the end result is the same: we arrive and get to work. There is not a single slouch. We couldn’t make it with a lazy team. We’ve never found a formula or a system that works every time. We have to be ready for almost anything and I do mean spiritually, physically, emotionally, and technically. Everybody multitasks and nobody quips, “That’s not my job.”

All of our job descriptions have morphed through the years. If something needs doing, somebody just gets up and does it. For instance, Ron doesn’t just run security. He sets out the elements for my team and me to take communion before the opening on Friday night. Rich used to just be in charge of picking me up at the airport and driving me to the event and keeping a general eye out for me. While he still does the driving (because we will not let him go), he also developed into a spectacular, in-demand professional photographer and, because of him, we have the whole LPL lifetime archived in pictures. He is also our resident foody, although you wouldn’t know by looking at him, and he does the restaurant planning.

Well, if I don’t stop this, you’ll get bored and I’ll never get done so let me get to the fun part: some pictures that I just happen to have on my cell phone.

 

Here’s all of us, the Living Proof Live team:

I love them so much I could bawl. Here is the praise team and a few of our other hardworking buddies like Stephen Proctor who runs and masterminds our visual worship (in the very back) right after the simulcast this year.

Here’s me and my old dead man of sin at the simulcast. Laughing. (If you weren’t there, this was a way of illustrating Romans 6.)

Here’s the whole LifeWay women’s event team (that puts on LPL) all living out their dream of being the praise team. Makes me so dang happy. That’s Flat Travis with them in case he looks a bit…well…flat. They are stellar women and hilarious. I’ve had the joy of serving with a publisher full of people who pursue Jesus Christ at fever-pitch. I do not take it lightly.

This picture was taken when we all first got to Daytona Beach and met up for team supper on Thursday night. Betsy oversees all our LPL events and we’re nuts about her. Susan provides something for us beyond all price. She welcomes those who receive Christ as Savior, prays with anyone who needs it, and often counsels women at the event who are really hurting. Paige Green, right next to me, oversees all LifeWay women’s events (like dot.mom, Priscilla Shirer Live, etc.) If Paige and I lived in the same city, we might be BFF. I love working with her so much but she is also a personal friend. I even love her mother. It’s that kind of thing. That’s our buddy, Stephen Proctor, on the other side.

Saturday night after the event, a small handful of us braved the amusement park there on the boardwalk in Daytona Beach and, honestly, we laughed like 10 year-olds. I’m scared of rides, by the way, but my fears meant nothing to this team but grounds for mockery and scorn. Once a gauntlet is thrown down, my pride usually exceeds my fear which is why I’m on this ridiculous roller coaster. And why we rode it over and over and over. Trav took this picture of Angela (his wife, dear as blood-kin to me), Paige, Bradford (who works at Travis’s church in Jackson, TN and is often a part of our team on the road) and me.

This action shot of Ang and me absolutely kills me. Please try to wrap your head around our Texas and Tennessee hair. It looks as though we are battling the very flames of hell but, clearly from our expressions, God is giving us the victory.

Ang is one of the most powerful women of prayer I know and, Girlfriend, I know some. I work with a whole staff of them. We’ve been doing something different in the 3rd session of Living Proof Live this year, spending a good bit of it in intercessory prayer for whatever segment of women the Holy Spirit lays on our hearts. Here I asked Angela to pray over all the moms in the room who are still actively raising children. The whole picture moves me so much. Look at the men on the front row (Travis and the guys on our praise team) pressing in. You’ll also see our friend Christine Caine on the edge of the shot (standing). We were amazed with her busy schedule that she’d come and attend this LPL. (She was speaking at a large church in the area the next day.) She has two of the cutest daughters you’ve ever seen so, in this picture, she is very actively engaging in prayer as a recipient. I asked Christine to pray over the young women in the room just minutes before Ang prayed because she has a divine gift for mobilization like few people I have ever met. I’ve heard from a number of those young women on Twitter saying what a powerful time it was.

I suppose I’ve just about worn you out by now, haven’t I? So I’ll go ahead and wrap up our 2013 LPL wrap-up. This is Travis, my dear and true son in the faith, Bradford and me on that silly roller coaster.

That picture sums up the entire 16 year journey of Living Proof Live. Jesus has been outrageously faithful on this ride and allowed us to worship Him and seek Him with congregations of the most fabulous and diverse women we could ever have imagined serving. We want so much to lift Jesus higher and higher next year, to say His Name louder and louder, and to proclaim His Word clearer and clearer. If God chooses to increase His glory through these events in the coming years and make this group of Jesus freaks the least bit useful through His magnanimous grace, then we’ll have cause to keep doing this.

 

The team and I won’t go back on the road together until next April because I (ecstatically!) start Tuesday night Bible study in Houston in January then head back to Australia right after it concludes in mid-March. When I land back in the States, it will be time to pack the LPL suitcase again. By that time, if I don’t have the manuscript for Children of the Day complete and turned in, I may be fried like a chicken.

Thank you for humoring me today with my sappy sentimentality over my beloved team. I am nuts about them. As wild as we are about one another, we have one thing on our minds the moment the event is over: getting back home to our people. My darling and me. There is no place like home.

Last LPL Recap of 2013 – Daytona Beach

Siestas! It will be another five months until you see another post about Living Proof Life. Can you even believe it? I can’t wait to hear how this weekend went from our Siesta Mama. She’s off today resting and recuperating, and rightfully so. I heard a rumor, however, that a fun picture post might be coming your way this week. Woohoo! Until then, here is your last LPL recap of 2013, thanks to our dear friend Rich.

Living Proof Live | Daytona Beach from LifeWay Women on Vimeo.

Thank you, Lord, for all you did in the lives of each participant at Living Proof Live this year. You are Healer, Redeemer, Savior, Father, Lord Almighty, Defender, Protector and so much more. May you continue to pour out your Spirit among each of us! We love You so much and are forever indebted to You. You are faithful.

The Meal of Champions

A couple nights ago I was leaving a friend’s house when we landed on a really serious discussion. It was so serious that I set my purse down and sat back down on the couch. What was so important, you might wonder?

Cereal.

Not just any cereal, y’all, we were salivating over the sugary, good, delicious, unhealthy, childhood cereal that we all secretly dream about while we choose to eat the healthy cardboard junk. Who invented Kashi cereal anyway?

Even as I type this I’m feeling all giddy again.

I went on to explain to my friends that growing up my mom might have well been named the Junk Food Queen. We had every imaginable sugary cereal and Hostess Cupcake you can imagine. I wish it weren’t true. In fact, I’m almost certain that if I were to open my mom’s pantry door today, I’d see remnants of my childhood. (Well, they wouldn’t be THAT expired, but you get the point.) My mother still doesn’t believe in food tasting like cardboard and I don’t blame her.

(I think she got the habit from my Grandpa who, until the day he passed away, would eat Cap’n Crunch nearly every morning. I ate it in his honor the last time he visited, because you better believe he had a box left.)

Since I am now considered a grown up, I try to make healthier food choices, including the cereal I eat. (And let’s be so honest, any evening that includes cereal for dinner is a really good evening.) This means I steer clear of the Cookie Crisp, the Corn Pops, the Cocoa Pebbles, the Apple Jacks, the Cap’n Crunch, the Frosted Flakes, the Fruit Loops and well, you get the point.

(And don’t even get me started on how Lucky Charm marshmallows should be saved for the end of your bowl and then eaten all together. Or the fact that you can buy Lucky Charm marshmallows separately and if that doesn’t make you happy, I don’t know what will. If you’re one of those eat-one-marshmallow-with-each-bite kind of person, I don’t know if we can be friends.)

I could name twenty more cereals and add a jingle or a tag line with each one of them.

(Oh, and shall we discuss at large the leftover milk if you’ve eaten Fruity Pebbles or Cocoa Pebbles? It was one of the best parts of the cereal eating experience.)

After our detailed discussion we decided we needed to have an official cereal night. There are a bunch of us that frequently eat dinner together on Sunday evenings, so the rule this past Sunday for all who decided to join was to come with your favorite sugary cereal. I’m not even kidding, y’all. These are adults I’m speaking of. We usually eat very adult meals with an occasional chicken nugget thrown in, but Trix aren’t really just for kids.

I failed to get a picture of our cereal choices Sunday evening because I was too busy eating said cereal, but despite my lack of photographing that particular evening, I struck gold when I reached this aisle the day before and bought myself a box of Cocoa Pebbles. Not for the Cereal Extravaganza of 2013, but just because.

I think I even heard angels singing.

This entire conversation and experience is something I felt so passionate about, I knew I had to share it with you guys. I know how you people get all excited about the little things with us. Even if it’s about cereal.

So can we all just take a moment and relive our childhood by naming off our favorite all time cereal? And by all means, throw the slogan in there, too.

And if your mom never bought you the good stuff, today we grieve with you. But please, for the love of all things normal, go buy yourself a box of Fruity Pebbles.

They even make those gluten free.

Boom.

That Beautiful Word “Immediately”

Good morning, ladies! Just a quick disclaimer: We recorded this video a week ago Tuesday and are getting a few emails and phone calls about conflicting dates. Just so we’re all clear, Daytona LPL IS this coming weekend, the 8th – 9th and it is sold out! Originally you would have been watching this video last week, so the timing would have made more sense. We are so sorry for any confusion, but hope that helps. Thanks so much for your grace as we are far from slick. Blessings!

That Beautiful Word “Immediately” from LPV on Vimeo.

2013 Siesta Scripture Memory Team: Verse 21!

Girls, WE ARE ALMOST THERE!!! In fact, if you set your sights on our celebration in January and you’ve memorized all your verses so far, you have everything you need to qualify. HOWEVER, don’t quit now! If you can memorize 20 verses, you can memorize 24!

I think Lindsee told you in the previous post that I did a video blog for you guys on Tuesday as soon as I came into work after my LPL trip and that thing took until Wednesday night to download. I had missed y’all so much and was so in the mood to spend time with you in the Scriptures. At that point, however, we felt like it should wait until Monday since we had our SSMT post coming up right away. In between, we were ecstatic to extend to you a guest post from a dear sister in the faith, Crista Merrell, who leads women at Bayou City Fellowship where Lindsee and I serve. I hope it blessed you.

I will love Crista forever because she is one of the best friends my daughter Amanda has in the entire world. Pastors’ wives desperately need girlfriends that are trustworthy. And girlfriends that are fun. Crista is both. Crista is also a mighty woman of God. A warrior. She is a servant to the bone and has one of the neatest, most colorful families I’ve ever had the privilege to know. Jesus is gorgeous on them.

OK! On to our task! I’ve not memorized out of the HCSB before but it’s the version LifeWay (my Bible study publisher) asks its authors to use in our curriculum so I spend a great deal of time in it when I’m writing a study. I really love it. I just got in the habit of memorizing out of the ESV or NET. I came upon this verse today as I was cross referencing something for Children of the Day and I adored the translation. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

 

You better believe He is. In case my scribbling is too hard to read, it’s Deuteronomy 10:21 HCSB.

Ok, Sisters, I’m ready to hear yours! I love you so much. If you can carve out about 23 minutes toward the first of next week, we’ll get into the Scriptures together in the Monday post.

Siesta Scripture Memory Team 2013: Verse 21!

Girls, WE ARE ALMOST THERE!!! In fact, if you set your sights on our celebration in January and you’ve memorized all your verses so far, you have everything you need to qualify. HOWEVER, don’t quit now! If you can memorize 20 verses, you can memorize 24!

I think Lindsee told you in the previous post that I did a video blog for you guys on Tuesday as soon as I came into work after my LPL trip and that thing took until Wednesday night to download. I had missed y’all so much and was so in the mood to spend time with you in the Scriptures. At that point, however, we felt like it should wait until Monday since we had our SSMT post coming up right away. In between, we were ecstatic to extend to you a guest post from a dear sister in the faith, Crista Merrell, who leads women at Bayou City Fellowship where Lindsee and I serve. I hope it blessed you.

I will love Crista forever because she is one of the best friends my daughter Amanda has in the entire world. Pastors’ wives desperately need girlfriends that are trustworthy. And girlfriends that are fun. Crista is both. Crista is also a mighty woman of God. A warrior. She is a servant to the bone and has one of the neatest, most colorful families I’ve ever had the privilege to know. Jesus is gorgeous on them.

OK! On to our task! I’ve not memorized out of the HCSB before but it’s the version LifeWay (my Bible study publisher) asks its authors to use in our curriculum so I spend a great deal of time in it when I’m writing a study. I really love it. I just got in the habit of memorizing out of the ESV or NET. I came upon this verse today as I was cross referencing something for Children of the Day and I adored the translation. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

 

You better believe He is. In case my scribbling is too hard to read, it’s Deuteronomy 10:21 HCSB.

Ok, Sisters, I’m ready to hear yours! I love you so much. If you can carve out about 23 minutes toward the first of next week, we’ll get into the Scriptures together in the Monday post.

A Guest Post With a Powerful Word

Good morning, lovelies! I just finished applying my mascara, but I didn’t want to wait too long this morning before I hopped on here this morning to share something with you all. Truth be told, Beth and I filmed a video blog on Tuesday, but after much headache and technical difficulties, I didn’t get it downloaded until late last night so, we decided to save it for Monday because of our SSMT post tomorrow. In the meantime, however, we have a friend, Crista Merrell, that is dear to both of us and she also heads up the ministry to women at our church. Yesterday she wrote a powerful post on the Bayou City Blog for our church and I asked her permission to share it on here as well. So, would you ladies please welcome our dear friend with open hearts and minds today?

Thank you so much, Crista, for sharing this powerful Word!

 

In 1818, an anonymously written, dream-based manuscript called The Modern Prometheus about a maddish scientist and his highly unorthodox experiment surfaced in London. You and I know the tale better as Frankenstein, and given the current season, it’s not difficult to conjure an image of Boris Karloff in his 1930s role as Victor Frankenstein’s creature—square head and hulking shoulders, bolted neck and awkward stride. Did you know that Frankenstein isn’t the monster’s name? It’s the scientist’s. But the characters of creature and created are so intertwined that we don’t even bother to separate them. We just call them by the same name: Frankenstein.

Frankly (I couldn’t resist), we can relate to the tangle of Frankenstein and his creature. There’s a familiar scene that plays out in our lives. In Victor Frankenstein’s obsession to create is our drive to achieve something amazing and unheard of. We want to do, know, raise more. And it consumes us to the point of abandoning what we know as truth and the freedom that grace gives us to partner with God in creating meaningful existence in our own lives is exchanged for the illusion of power and control. Frankenstein creates his ugly monster and we build our own monster: sin, selfishness, idolatry.

The last half of the novel finds Frankenstein and his creation in a cycle of death and destruction that tempts the reader to walk away but compels further engagement because of the need for resolution. Both Frankenstein and his monster are driven by the goal of destruction of the other, and the story ends very badly with Frankenstein pursuing the monster to the icy north only to die from illness, the monster to weep for his creator and then to depart further into the icy north to die.

But tell me this: Are you able to fully grasp how far your monster is removable from you? How very separable you are?

I Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” Bad news for Frankenstein, when he laid himself down to die, he never got up again. Good news for you and me, when we lay ourselves down to die we bury our old selves—that sin and selfishness and idolatry, and we can learn to live without the monster of guilt and condemnation hanging around threatening our fullness of life. We get to send it off on a block of ice to be cast far away from us for, as Micah 7:19 says, “Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” We trade our sin monster for His great name!

So for all of us Frankensteins, life may be wild and appear loosely chaotic, but it isn’t a horror novel. It’s created by the perfect plan, purpose, and pleasure of a loving God who delights in us unchangingly. And can I hear a “Hallelujah!”…He is the slayer of all of our monsters.