Browsing Tag

Baptism

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

New Sister in California!

Posted on May 14, 2026

I don’t know how I missed this in our encouragement group. But I was so blessed to finally read it last night. From digger, Aurelia Wright:

First and foremost, I want to thank God for all the many blessings He gives us in this life, but especially for the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ and the hope that one day we will be with Him in Heaven. As it says in Romans 6:23, “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

I also want to thank everyone who helps with all the work that goes into Digging Deep. The studies have truly changed my life, and I know they have impacted so many others as well, especially our sister Michelle.

Michelle has been studying with our group here in California for the past five years. She came from a Methodist background and even taught in the Methodist church for many years. Through careful study of God’s Word, she came to understand that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, according to Acts 2:38. After much prayer and study, Michelle was baptized into Christ on April 19, which was her birthday and now spiritual birthday, and we are beyond joyful for her decision to obey the gospel.

It was especially meaningful that this happened while we were studying Chapter 5 on forgiveness. God’s timing is truly wonderful.

Please continue to keep Michelle Bobo in your prayers, especially that she will grow strong in the Lord and find many opportunities to work and serve faithfully in the Lord’s church. 

Michelle Bobo, son’t ever give the devil an inch. Live for the Lord every day of your life and He will bless you abundantly MORE than you can ask or imagine. I want to meet you in heaven if I don’t get to see you before then! 

Aurelia Wright, thank you for being an amazing blessing to so many women in the San Joaquin Valley of California. We are praying for you!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

The Best Post Yet of 2026!

Posted on April 1, 2026

This has got to be the best Digging Deep story of 2026! It’s actually not just a Digging Deep story, but it’s a great and praiseworthy example of the providence of our God of More! 

First let me show you the hyssop soap made by the group in DeSoto, Missouri.  Samantha Carlson put this group together. (Her whole life and marriage to Adam is a manifestation of the love of the same great Provider!) Samantha sent me these sweet pictures of the final hyssop product and she mentioned that the sister who had done the lettering and labeling was just baptized in January. 

When I asked Samantha if I could share that good news with you, she gave me a little more of the back story and I could not love it more! 

Victoria and Tim were on their way to worship. They were ready to “get into a church” and get involved. They ended up getting turned around, directionally, and ended up at the church building, where my sweet sister, Samantha, and her husband, Adam worship. (And they really DID get turned around in the greatest way!) They decided just to go on in and worship there, instead, since they were running behind. They later told Samantha that they were looking for a place that just taught the Bible. Victoria also said that they were ready to be involved and active somewhere. Victoria quickly began attending that local Digging Deep group and continued studying, along with her husband, with Adam and Samantha. When people knock, the door is opened (Matthew 7:7). Victoria, the soap “labeler” for month 6 of The God of More was baptized into Christ in January. She and her husband never made it to their intended destination that Sunday morning. But they will, with His help, make it to the eternal one for which they were searching. Jehovah is the God of More. 

We made little bottles and bars of hyssop soap, while God was taking care of the real hyssop cleansing. So profoundly thankful  for the purging with hyssop in all our lives! 

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me to hear joy and gladness;

that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

Hide thy face from my sins,

and blot out all mine iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God;

and renew a right spirit within me.

Psalm 51

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

The best news of your year, so far…

Posted on January 21, 2026

Carly is third from right.

You may have already read about Carly, your new sister. It brought me to thankful, happy tears, when Julie Orr, the facilitator and leader of the Midland, TX Digging Deep group, sent me the news that they were on their way to the water to baptize Carly. Carly, convicted by the powerful sword of the Spirit, confessed her sins and then confessed her Savior and was immersed for the precious cleansing early on Monday afternoon in Midland. Later that day, her brother, due to her influence, was also baptized into Christ.

My husband came home Monday night telling me some pretty exciting things. I listened and listened and listened some more. Then I said “But I have better news!”

“NO!” he said. “I am not sure that is possible.”

Then I read him the little paragraph about Carly’s coming from the silent place of sin to the rejoicing place of forgiveness.

He agreed. “That’s wonderful!”

If you want to send Carly a card of encouragement as she starts her victorious walk with Christ, you can reach her here:

Carly

c/o Adam Orr

Westside church of Christ

4410 West Illinois Avenue Midland, TX 79703 

It’s one of the richest eternal blessings of my life to be part of the forgiven sisterhood!  You are the best!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

…And now she is my sister!

Posted on January 9, 2026

Kass is on the far left. Teresa is beside her. This is when we had an unplanned little reunion at a community theater in Tullahoma. This was a couple of months prior to Kass’ baptism. Cassie is on the far right. She was most instrumental in bringing them both to this precious place in His arms!  I remember we said “This show is going on forever!” that night. We were a little anxious about driving home that night. But the “forever”  reunion that 100 percent of us women, now, in this little pic will have one day, will have no anxious moments and no drives home! We will be forever HOME!

It’s the greatest privilege of this lifetime (besides just living for Him myself) to tell you that someone else has decided to give her life to the One who gave His life for her. Kass VonWert, a digger at Little Mountain in Winchester, Tennessee has made that decision. I love this woman. I love her daughter and I love this group at Little Mountain who helped bring her to the Lord.

A few years back, Cassie Welsh, whose husband is now the minister at Little Mountain, asked me for some extra Digging Deep books for her best friend from childhood, and her mama–great people. They truly are salt-of-the-earth people. Teresa, the daughter of Kass, with the influence of Cassie and lots of other good people, studied her way into the Lord’s church, and was baptized a couple of years ago. She is a hard worker at Camp Moriah, the girls camp at Little Mountain, where we try and teach teen girls and their mamas all things Titus 2. In fact, Teresa worked so hard there, for years, that I thought she was a member of that church. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Teresa was baptized and added to the church. I had always loved her, but I get to love her now as my sister…the one who worked the work before she was even walking the walk with Him, in the most important sense! I love her! Did I say that?! (And she is a mechanic! I think she is the only sister I know who could rebuild my engine!)

(l-r)–Kass and Teresa

But her mama was there, too…working. Slowly, I put the pieces together. Kass Von Wert, this woman who was so kind and faithfully present at Camp Moriah, was Teresa’s mom. I began to pray for her. But others were being the constant examples to this good woman who was in the kitchen, on the pew, and in the classrooms, sewing and learning, And she was digging.

And now, here she is…your sister and one of the most diligent ones you will ever have. I know you will read this Kass, so let me just say something to you:

What you did on December 22nd, 2025 is, of course, the most important thing you will ever do in this lifetime. In that endless day around His throne, I hope I get to sit by you and sing His praises. I hope we can remember December 22nd and how your loved ones at Little Mountain surrounded you when all of your sins were washed away by the precious blood that He gave for you. I hope you will always know that His prayer, from the cross– “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” –was answered for you that night when you went into the water. I hope you know that when God looks at you now, He sees His Son and he calls you His daughter. He hears and answers your prayers . He tenderly is leading you home. I can’t wait to see you again here, in our little world, at Little Mountain. I’m hoping for a group hug. But I REALLY can’t wait to see you there at His majestic throne! That will be a BIG group hug! 

Here’s the little tile coaster that Teresa gave me shortly after her baptism. She inscribed it on the back for me.

Here are the verses she cited:

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Teresa and, now, Kass are begotten, commandment keeping, overcoming, victorious believers! If these verses say anything, they say that. Did I mention I love them?…and now, I love them all the way to the throne!

 

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Kerri’s Retreat

Posted on November 20, 2025

In recent days, I’ve come across several very raw and honest souls, who have come to know the great salvation plan that is simple and forthright in the Word…and the difference is eternal. 

See, the devil would like for us to think (in extremes) one of two things: 

  1. It takes years of study to discern what God wants me to do to be saved. 
  2. All it takes to be saved is an acknowledgement that Jesus is the Son of God and a prayer that He will save me. 

But God has been so good to mankind in giving us the simple gospel plan that is both that—simple/discernible in one New Testament reading—and forthright in its required actions in our lives. It is not hard, but it does require obedience. 

Kerri Epling’s story is rich with the truth of those two points. We will call them the “simple obedience” points. 

Kerri went to a religious college, though she had not grown up in a deeply religious home. In that environment, she began to read her Bible. One weekend, she and her roommate, who was not a Christian, decided to go away for a weekend with the expressed purpose of studying the Bible to find out what it takes to be saved. Two days—-just two days—were spent in retreat, just searching for the requirements of salvation, for someone who already believed that the Bible is the Word of God. Kerri came up with the undeniable truth: If I want to have my sins forgiven I must have them washed away in baptism. She, all by herself, came up with the reality that sins are forgiven at the point of baptism. She saw, all by herself, that the passages are plain and replete that show that being immersed in water for the purpose of receiving forgiveness and eternal life, is the culmination of God’s plan of salvation for all people. Some of the verses she read are these: Mark 16:15-16, Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16, Romans 6:3,4 and 1 Peter 3:21. (Notice that I did not place these citations in parentheses, because the part of the post when God is speaking is obviously not the parenthetical part!)

Kerri went back to school, determined to find somebody to baptize her for the remission of sins. She asked around, but, in her current environment, could find no one who would agree that baptism was a requirement to put one into Christ—to save. “It’s a nice thing to do.”…”You should do it.” But Kerri was specifically asking to be baptized FOR the remission of her sins.

Finally, one day, she was in a conversation with a bunch of friends. It seems there was one guy in the convo who loved to pick on people. On this particular day, the rest of the friend group was hurling playful insults at the friend who was most often picking on people. Everybody had something funny to say, in a negative vein, about this friend. Everybody except Jeremy. When Jeremy was asked to give his “line” about the “butt of the jokes” that day, he nicely refused to participate in making fun of the offending friend. 

Impressed by this, Kerri went back to her room and discussed with her roommate this refusal by Jeremy to insult the friend. They called him up and asked him why he was silent in the benign mockery. Jeremy said “I just try to live by what the Bible says and I don’t think making fun of Him would be pleasing to God.” 

Wanting to know more from this person who actually was reading the Bible and professing to follow it, Kerri made a plan to ask Jeremy about baptism. Ten minutes into a twenty-minute car ride, that was for the purpose of talking about important things, Kerri got up her courage to ask Jeremy if he believed baptism was necessary for salvation. She was nervous. She expected an answer in the negative. After all, her path kept coming to the same answer from everyone she asked. 

Jeremy turned the question back to her. “What do you think about the reason for baptism?” 

Kerri responded “I believe that baptism is a requirement for salvation.” Kerri simply regurgitated what she had ingested straight from the Word of God in that pivotal weekend. 

Jeremy, a member of the body of Christ, said “That’s what the Word teaches.” Kerri was subsequently baptized into Christ for the remission of sins just as the plain passages (that are not parenthetical) and more, that are not listed here, instruct. 

How important is this truth that Kerri understood from the Word? It’s eternal truth and determines my salvation or damnation. 

How plain and simple is the teaching? Well, judge for yourself upon reading. 

How hard is the teaching to obey? It’s not hard at all. Water is everywhere and it requires no work. It requires humble submission. (The work comes in being like Christ throughout the rest of my life. Now that’s challenging in this sinful world!…But, praise God, there’s a constant cleansing for the Christian—1 John 1:7) 

Why is this truth so hidden and convoluted in the religious world today? I don’t know, but I think it has to do with the desire and power of the devil to lie and confuse people. He doesn’t want you to be saved. He wants you to trip up before you get to the “simple obedience” conviction.  

What are you waiting on? I don’t know that either, but I’d love to help you end the risky wait. It’s so simple. 

I know your temptation will be to say “ Well, this complicated matter has to be harder than Cindy Colley, in her over-simplistic mind, is making it.”…”Well, why are so many smart people believing that baptism is non-essential?” …or “Well, I’m pretty sure baptism is a work and I can’t work for my salvation. It’s all by grace.” 

All those are really good arguments IF you are concerned about what the religious world around us is saying, INSTEAD of what the plain Bible teaching is. But remember, before you reject the importance of the cleansing in baptism: The devil wants you to think that way, but He is the father of lies and what he really wants is what he is getting…the vast majority of people on the broad way, rejecting the simple plan of God for salvation. Jesus said that the broad way would be the crowded way (Matthew 7:13).  But you don’t have to stay there. Don’t let His precious cleansing blood be “wasted” as it relates to you. It cleanses in the water.

Finally, never take my (or anybody’s) word for eternal salvation questions. Take your own retreat and search for the answers straight from the Holy Spirit. But then, don’t search for someone who will help you obey what you find there…because that person IS me. 

cindycolley@gmail.com

(Kerri’s husband, Jeremy, is an elder in her local congregation today. Her children are faithful young adults. She teaches ladies and children and does all sorts of other, less important, but interesting things!)

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

I’m going to the airport!

Posted on November 14, 2025

I’m really excited about this day. Today I am going to an airport to pick up my husband as he flies in from India! I know in his jet lag, he’s going to be sedated. When I pick him up, it will be 2 a.m. in his India brain. I can wait for the stories, but I am excited to hear them. 

There are stories about hundreds of orphans that he has been able to see. He took a big bag of Halloween candy donated by the grands, from their trick-or-treating. Every time he called, the kids wanted to know if he had passed out their candy. “Did you take a video?” 

There are stories about dozens of widows who were given sewing machines to provide sustenance. He sent some photos of them. I can’t wait to hear the stories behind the pictures. I think the widows are often connected (placed in the orphanages) to care for the orphans, too. I can’t wait to hear about that.  

Best of all, there were hundreds of baptisms…souls that were pricked and responded to the offer made possible by the blood of God, the Messiah, on a cross at Calvary 2000 years ago. These are souls I will be seeing. I can picture, in heaven,  Glenn introducing me to some of these 600-plus people who were baptized as Glenn and the two godly men who invited him to go, Glenn Homes and Zach Holmes, preached in a country where the retention rate of New Testament Christians is over 90 percent. I believe they preached in about 60 places. I am certain that Glenn said he, personally, preached over 25 times. 

But Glenn kept saying, “I did not convert these people. The faithful men there are constantly studying with these people, baptizing them into Christ, and working to help them be faithful.” But to witness hundreds putting on Christ is a phenomenon that we may never see in the United States, due to the widespread misunderstanding here, even among good and moral people, that salvation is not dependent on submission in baptism. (In short, we are often too proud to think we need to do something for our salvation….to obey.) The sad reality that people do not respond here, in great numbers, is also due to our wealth. We are often lulled by our riches into a mentality that dismisses our utter dependence on God, while offering a plethora of glittering entertainment choices and diversions that constantly distract us from the only ultimately important pursuit of life: getting to heaven. 

But I am going to the airport. As I do, I am going to pray that the after-effects of this long trip will permeate into the hearts of six grandchildren, who are eagerly anticipating the stories, too. Their Papa has already told me several new emphases He would like to inject into some Family Bible times with them, when they visit. Their hearts are getting ready for their own eventual submission in faith. One of them asked me this week, “What if I do get ready to be baptized? How will I know when it is the time?” 

The answers to those kinds of questions are catalysts, ever drawing them nearer to faith’s lifetime surrender. I am so thankful for the conversations along the way. I am thankful for opportunities like this trip that give the conversation new fodder and context, as a little bonus, to follow this great work in that country. 

And I am thankful to have “the greatest fixer,” as Eliza calls him, home!