Beth Moore: Colour 2012 Guest Speaker [PHOTOS]
11 January, 2012
We are very honoured and excited to welcome the lovely Beth Moore to not only our Colour platform, but also to Australian soil. This is her first visit to this part of the world and her anticipation and excitement can be felt in what she has written. I sense that the Colour Conference in Sydney (with both Beth and Priscilla, and all we have planned) will launch those gathering into something magnificent and beyond imagination. So grab a coffee, read what she has written and absorb her beautiful spirit.
Love, Bobbie
Beth Moore: Colour 2012 Guest Speaker
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. Colossians 1:3-6
The Apostle Paul wrote those words to a band of believers he’d never laid eyes on. They had developed a reputation so fierce for the gospel of Jesus Christ that it sprang feet and marched its way across land and left its wake upon waters. The banks of the hearer’s heart were broken open, spilling with astonishment and gratitude. I can’t fathom what it would have been like to be the Apostle Paul but I and many others like me on this North American continent do indeed know what it’s like for such a reputation to stretch forth its hand over land and sea and reach us. The best part of all is that you have a reputation for not only proclaiming “the word of the truth, the gospel” but for bearing its supreme signature of authenticity: “the love you have for all the saints.” The gospel minus the love is like the Cross minus Christ’s body. It misses the point entirely.
In the blink of an eye, and God willing, I will start packing a suitcase toward a two-week trek to Sydney where I’ll have the privilege of serving at the Colour Conference. Hillsong’s reputation for worship reached us years ago but the reputation of the Colour Conference reached me more recently through one very powerful and anointed Priscilla Shirer. “Miss Beth, you need to go. I think they’re going to ask you and, when they do, you need to go.” From the bounty of God’s grace, they (you) did, and why on earth would I want to miss seeing face-to-face what I’ve heard about year-to-year? The Lord seemed both willing and able so, trusting Him to grant me something from His treasury of Scripture to offer a people so well served, I’ll soon board a plane headed due south. One of the special graces from God is that I will not come to those women instead of Priscilla. I will come right along with her. And, once again, I’ll sit back with my chin dropped and marvel over Scripture sprung to life in her.
As God would time it, I actually got a second taste of you recently (unless you count meals at Outback Steakhouse) through Nick and Christine Caine as we served together at Passion 2012 in Atlanta. I liked them instantly and then I started picturing all of you being much like them. I have a feeling you’re a tad more diverse than that but I intend to find that out for myself.
When I was a little girl growing up in the hills of Arkansas, my family attended a church where we shared “fellowship supper” every Wednesday night. It was generally the same basic menu: a slice of ham (I would grow up to wonder if Jesus passed the plate when He met with us in light of the Old Testament dietary laws), something that resembled potato salad, brown ‘n serve rolls, and dark red cinnamon apple slices (sliced horizontally, not vertically). If I close my eyes and concentrate, I can almost replay the loud chatter and copious laughter in that florescent-lit room with the gray linoleum floor. I can still picture many of those faces. People like Dr. Sam Reeves, Mrs. Mary King, Mrs. Shambarger, and Miss Lizzy (whose last name I never knew) were used of God in a small town church to impact droves of children just like me. Some of us lived in troubling enough circumstances to make an outsider wonder how we could emerge from church with any faith at all. But, then again, faith is born of God and not of humankind.
Fellowship. It’s a word I liked as a child but came to love as an adult. It encapsulates the ultimate human experience on this fallen soil. In the words of the Apostle John, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3) As an adult, I came to learn that Biblical fellowship involved impartation. That’s why we’re commanded to love everyone, even our enemies, but to be careful to “fellowship” primarily with those who are in Christ. Inherent in the whole idea of fellowship is impartation. We cannot walk away from people with whom we’ve truly fellowshipped without having some part of them invested in us. In cruder terms, we cannot slip away from fellowship unscathed. The term “koinonia” means we have share in one another. We make contribution.
All this is to say that I am filled with anticipation about my own heart and soul post-Sydney and post-Colour Conference. Yes, I am wholeheartedly looking forward to it. But I am also looking forward past it, knowing and believing that God will impart something into my life from you that I never would have gained without boarding that plane. I am not just coming to speak. Or even just to teach, as precious as those things are to me. I am coming to fellowship with you in the Father and the Son and to return with an impartation of your faith, your worship, your gifts, and your love. I want to bring something of you home with me. Something that will make me crave Jesus more when I leave. Something that will drive me deeper into His Word. Higher into worship. Lower in my devotion to my flesh.
I’m not coming half way around the world and leaving my family and my home church and beloved city just to attend another conference. I want a powerful impartation of the Holy Spirit of the living Christ. I want to see Jesus revealed and to sense the gravity of His Word and the grace of His Presence. In this day of virtual relationships, I want something real. I want true fellowship. Don’t you? Let’s pull up to a massive table set before us in the presence of our enemies. Let’s let Him anoint our heads with oil and fill our cups till they overflow. There at that table, let’s share a fellowship meal that will nourish us in our faith for years to come.
One more thing before I let you get back to what you’re doing. Last night as I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, Matt Redman’s “You Never Let Go” was blaring from the speakers in my den. No one else was home so I completely let loose and sang with him as loud as my lungs could bear. That’s when I heard my Texas self sing out in my best British imitation, “Whom then shall I fee-uh? Whom then shall I fee-uh?” And after getting tickled all by myself, I thought of you. If true fellowship really does involve impartation (and it does), I wonder what you and I could sound like by the time we say good-bye.
I guess we’ll find out in March.
I’ll see y’all then.
Beth
For more information on Beth Moore and her ministry, please visit lproof.org
Follow Beth Moore on Twitter at twitter.com/BethMooreLPM
For more information and to register for Colour Conference, please visit colourconference.com
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