Louder Than the Voices

 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...

 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 ...

 Happy Saturday! and Happy 58 years on this earth to me. I wish I felt better but I am grateful that God brought me home safe and I got to sleep in my own bed last night, even if it was with several needy cats. I wanted to run 3 mile this morning but I can tell you, that isn't going to happen. I have put in 36 miles this week and so with my head cold, or sinuses or whatever is going on, I am giving myself permission to just get the things done today I need to get done and doing a lot of resting in between. I don't remember being this tired in a long time. I came home with new insight on several tech issues and I have signed up for about 20 hours more classes that needs taken just to keep me caught up with what is going on in the world around us so I can keep my promise to my boss not to let us get behind in technology. This AI thing is the most double edged sword thing I have seen come out of progress in a long time and trying to learn how to use it to the fullest and at the sa...

Happy Saturday morning!  This week, we are finishing off the passage in James about treating everyone the same. As I said early on, this hits very close to home because of my job. I try to stay out of politics here, but when we started being told we could not discuss equity, it was a blow. I will be very frank. We see a lot of people in our offices that are beaten down by society, and that makes them beat up on themselves. Have you ever really thought about the fact that you not treating someone with the respect you would like to be treated with could be their final straw? We see so many suicides in school kids anymore. I remember the days very well of being made fun of at school, and being bullied. There were people who I think really lived to get to call me fatso. I had an escape though, I could come home and get away from it, I always hope people grow out of being that "better than you person" but unfortunately, you see some of their actions on Facebook and see them making...

Happy Saturday!  Hope you all had a wonderful week and are getting a good start to a wonderful weekend. It is a working day for us. I have things that need done around here, some things to help my mom with and some things at the office today and of course, all those Saturday things like cleaning house and groceries. Hopefully, the guys are going to get a new mailbox put up at Robert's as apparently, the mail lady refuses to deliver mail to the old one.  We are heading into a really busy month of August. I have important meetings on Monday and Tuesday, we are trying to do job interviews, I have a trip to Carlinville Wednesday and an outreach event Saturday. I leave, with Andrew in tow, next Sunday for a week of tech learning, home for a few days then go to the Lincoln Balloon festival, then home for a few days and head to Detroit for the National Community Action Partnership conference and by the time I get home, it will be Labor Day weekend and the month of August is gone. And...