Louder Than the Voices

 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...

 I have to tell you, trying to write this Bible Study this morning is hard. What a sad week for our county. We don't really know what was going through this 22-year old's head when he shot and killed someone who was speaking what he believed. I have to admit, I don't watch a lot of influencers online, so I only knew the name from a few passing videos I saw on facebook, but Robert knew immediately. Robert is of the generation that given a tv show or given a youtube app, he will pick the app every time. He learns more there. Part of his own recovery is following several Christian influencers, and as he said in his own Facebook post, he didn't agree with everything Charlie Kirk said, but he respected how he truly showed Christ's love in his answers. Robert was impressed with the fact that Charlie could have a conversation and never lose his temper, he was definitely speaking in love.  I saw several Facebook posts that showed there were other people who were celebrating...

 Good morning! We have made it to another Saturday and I am thankful to be through this week. It has been a rough one just with trying to catch up at work from being gone and of course, starting the week with a holiday, those "Monday on Tuesday" things are always a bit much but there has been a lot accomplished this week, so I am good with having a day to switch gears. We have a big community block party up where I was raised tonight, and Robert and I have a Plasma donation planned this morning, so it is still a busy day, but still different focuses and that is a good thing. Today we are going to finish up talking about the relationship between faith and works. I wanted to single out these last two verses because there are two very big lessons here so here we go. James 2:25-26 25  In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?   26  As the body wit...

 Happy Saturday! I said we would spend a couple of weeks in James 2:14-24 and here is our second week. Thanks for being patient with the week off, Last Saturday morning started with leaving the RV a little before 5 and of course, ended with a balloon ride of a lifetime. 💓 I am going to stick a little better to our HEAR method this week. So, without further ado; James 2:14-24 14  What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?   15  Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.   16  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?   17  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18  But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.   19 ...