291 New Beth Moore Study

Today I attended my first class in Beth Moore's new study, The Patriarchs; encountering the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I'm sorry I'll miss about 4 of the 10 studies because of travel this Fall, but our church library should have discs to check out. I think I've already learned more in one morning than I picked up from 60+ years of Sunday School and sermons.



If you are a member of a church that can't, doesn't or won't hire women pastors, I hope your male leadership continues to stay uninformed about what great female PASTORS we women have via video who go by other names--leader, teacher, speaker--the guys really don't care what they call themselves as long as it isn't "ordained." Never mind that Beth Moore who uses a call and response style plus a lot of humor and emotion could preach most pastors under the pew. And there are others, she's the one on my mind right now because I had class this morning.

In my church, women's aerobic classes taught by women volunteers and VBS organized and taught almost 90% by women volunteers have probably brought more families into church than anything the pastors have done. After the women bring them in, the men have to show a little muscle in order to keep them, but let's keep it a secret. God has been using women for centuries regardless of how the men mess it up. They seem to loose all their drive and faith when they actually get the title and preach from a "real" pulpit.

290 A Modern Lamentation

Jerusalem was under seige by the Babylonians for 18 months. Someone, probably Jeremiah, wrote a Lament in the form of an acrostic poem. Although distraught, the poet still trusts God. Elisson in Atlanta has written a Lamentation for New Orleans at Blog d'Elisson.

The original:
How deserted lies the city, once so full of poeple!
How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave.

The rewrite:
O how has the city that was once so populous remained lonely! She has become like a widow! She that was great among the States, a princess among the provinces, has become tributary.

Read the entire selection here.