Louder Than the Voices

 Oh my, it seems like every Saturday lately, I just look back on the week and say, oh my. We keep having roller coaster weeks and I just hope and pray this is not the new norm. This week tragedy struck our own community with the death of almost an entire family that a lot of people knew and loved, and then there is the fact that a 10-year-old boy was on a family vacation and in now the only member of the family left. These were God-fearing, live-out-loud Christians and all of us are very much left asking why. We know that God knows and it is not our jobs to know, but sometimes things are just very hard to accept. The high spot of the week is that we have been praying for Robert to get a specific job and he got it. As I said, so many ups and downs.  This week we are venturing into James 4:11-12. 11  Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister [ d ]  or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. ...

 Happy Early Saturday morning! I was gonna sleep in but my body said it was awake and I have a busy day so I thought I might as well get to it. My guys are leaving today with the RV and the dog and heading on a  road trip to Texas to see my Father-in-law. I am very excited for them but always a little nervous about my baby boy pulling that big trailer and all the crazy drivers on the road. Robert is a great driver but I have watched people be stupid on the road so many times, it's the other guy I worry about. I have been praying for God's protection and I am sure they will have a good trip and a great time. Today we are looking at James 4: 4-10. Let's jump on in. James 4:4 Highlight = friendship with the world means enmity against God. Explain = I think this verse is easy to explain. In a nutshell, can people tell you are a Christian? Do you show the fruits of the Spirit? I have never been a believer in isolating ourselves from the world, I always felt that was the easy wa...

 Happy Saturday everyone! Things have been super busy at work with the start of our LIHEAP season and I also run another program that is busy at this moment so it has been some long days this week. I have slipped on letting my Faithful and Fit site be all I want it to be but I am hoping it is still offering at least some daily encouragement. This week we are moving into the fourth chapter of James and we are focusing on the first 3 verses. So, lets get started. James 4:1-3 1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?   2  You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.   3  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. Highlight = What causes fights and quarrels among you? Explain = I am going to ask ...

 Oh, it is Saturday. I am so thankful it is Saturday. I am thankful for another week God gave us. He put some doozies in our lives this week, but I really do feel like it was his plan. If you read my post earlier this week, our son, Robert, lost his job. I want to be mad about that, but I just am not. I am scared for him because it is scary not having a job but let me tell you the background here. 2 years ago right about now, Robert was having a hard time with alcohol and he feels so guilty about it, but he knows there were times he was drinking so much that he was drunk at work. He got really good at hiding it as long as he kept drinking. Anyway, 2 years ago this month, he tried to quit cold turkey and ironically, the symptoms of that made everyone think he was drunk. His boss sent him home, and yes, he should have fired him that day and didn't. two days later, he started having seizures. We spent some very long days in the hospital that weekend. For a time, in the ER, they told m...

 (Had a little detour while writing this morning's Bible Study, but I am back and this week's message is important, so here it goes).Good afternoon! I have not been so happy to see a Saturday in a long time. This week has been a bear, the emotions have been absolutely all over the place but as I look back, I have gotten a tremendous amount of work accomplished. I feel my staff is all trained for LIHEAP, which starts Wednesday, and I have to be out of town for a NEUAC board meeting, so I am glad they all feel confident. We got to meet with a State Senator and a US Representative this week. I love the relationships we are forming there and hope to keep things going there. And then we apparently have an unhappy person at our office who is trying to make sure everyone knows they are unhappy and creating chaos. I always find it ironic who God puts my Bible Studies to practical use.  This week we are talking about wisdom- good and bad. We are finishing up Chapter 3 of the book of Ja...

 Good Saturday morning! It is a little before 5 and I have a lot going today because I didn't get everything done this week, so here I am. I have my list and if everything goes as planned, I should be able to relax about 6 tonight, but if it goes as planned, I also should have most of tomorrow afternoon to rest before another big week. I got a kick out of a recent Lowe's commercial I saw where all these guys were getting their Saturday projects wiped out so they could have their Sunday's. Those Sundays that all I have to do between church services is my normal getting ready for the week stuff (clean out my car, my purse, lay out my week's clothes, make sure the car has gas, and is washed) those are really nice days. And hopefully tomorrow will be one of them. This week we are talking about the tongue. One of the main causes of sin, in my opinion. What would a world be if people never said mean things to one another? What would the world be if people never said things th...