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Bible Study

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Posted on August 30, 2024

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Digging Deep ready-set-go time. Time to invite. Time to decide on a study-buddy or group. Time to pick a book or a download. Time to get a highlighter and a good study spot (or a bag of some kind, because it’s never the same spot.) Time to rejoice when someone says “Yes, I’df like to study that!” Time to be SOOO happy when your teen says “I’ll do it with you , Mom!” Time to give a book to a neighbor or friend, with a loaf of homemade bread and say. “I think you’d like this study.” 

My sister/friend Emily was cleaning floors for a client the other day and she asked her if she’d be interested, handing her a study guide. The lady sat out on the porch while Emily cleaned and, when the floors were done, she came back in and said “This looks soooo good. I would love to do this with you!” So there you go! Sometimes it’s that easy! 

And it’s the very best gift you can give a friend…to get her in the Word of God. It’s the only lasting gift. She can take it with her when she leaves this old world. 

Podcast dates for the remainder of the year are September 24th, October 29th, November 19th, and January 7th (that’s December’s podcast) So watch the DD page for details and links on those dates! 

And if you are not doing Digging Deep, that’s ok! Just be sure you’re in the Word! The method is relatively unimportant. But digging is life-and-eternity-changing!

Absolute last chance for ordering t-shirts or hoodies is September 4th! No more orders for those items after that date. We’re putting in one last order, so note that date if you’re thinking of ordering. (I still don’t have my hoodie. It keeps being given to someone else, so I’m in on that order!)  The piercing sound of package tape being applied is fully engaged in my house. Little “helpers” are all over the place…like Christmas elves. And I am longing for the momentary calm of sitting down with my Bible. I’ll get there, but it may be on a plane on the way to speak somewhere. It’s a blessed time of year!

Two more days to submit your entries for the Table of Contents contest (https://thecolleyhouse.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=18528&action=edit). Two more days till the official launch! 

Let’s get the “Conversations” going!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Patience is a Virtue. =)…and here’s a fun CONTEST!

Posted on August 23, 2024

Yesterday, we began getting those letters from ladies saying they ordered a week ago and have not received their new DD books. I love you for your zeal to get started! I would mention that  I don’t see how you ordered a week ago, since the new book was not on our site until last Saturday. Next, we are not home from PTP yet, so we cannot begin that massive job of mail-outs till we get home. My husband has to speak at  an immediate funeral when we get home and then must preach all day on Sunday. The good news is–the study doesn’t officially begin till the 1st of September. We are going to do our best to get those books to you by then or early in September. In the meantime, remember you can download the study free of charge and get started. The Word is so very good…so good. You will be glad if you can see a way to study all the way through with us. You will grow.

I am sorry, for the PTPers, that we ran out of books again. We brought more than last year, but still did not have enough on that trailer. I know that’s a good problem. but still, we would love to have had enough, to put them into all PTP hands. We have plenty at home and will ship and ship and ship, as quickly as we can. We also ran out of  hoodies and are quickly running out of shirts. We will reorder, according to the orders we receive online. SO if you want a shirt or hoodie, please order online. If you have already ordered online, please don’t re-order.

We really do our best to make you happy. If, for some reason, we send the wrong item or an incomplete package or your order doesn’t arrive at all, know that it is sometimes the postal service and your package may  sit in Atlanta or  some other large facility and then get sent back to us next February. (It happens, rarely.) But let us know and we will do our best to make it right, in whatever way we can. If you get the wrong thing in your package  (This is rare, too.), we will quickly make that right, too. We love women who are in the Word!

You still have eight days to finish “The Crown”. You’ll be richer if you get to the end. So much encouragement emanates from the finishers. You are great examples and motivators to me!

Pray for the study. Pray for growth in all the best ways. Pray for heaven for more souls. Pray for health and His mercies on us all as we move forward with a new study that promises to make us closer to the father, Son and Holy Spirit. We live in the shadow of lingering miracles. The Bible we open to study is the product of many miracles. It is living and it can work powerfully in your life.

About that table of contents….The contents are all there. The table is not. The table of contents is the last thing you add into a book, because, obviously, you don’t know page numbers until the book is completely designed. We all forgot to go back and put it in.  I checked over the book two or three times and failed to notice it was missing. So, all of you artsy people out there, design us a beautiful table of contents that we can all attach to the inside cover of our books. Send us a jpeg or a png to byhcontest@gmail.com. The winner gets a free hoodie! We’ll make the submissions available to all of  you so you can print and paste.  Let’s have all submissions in by August 31 at midnight.

I’m glad DD is not dependent on my having it all together!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

On the Twelfth Day of Digging Deep!…Today is the day!

Posted on August 17, 2024

On the first day of Digging Deep, this digger got to  see… A new deluxe edition for me…

On the second day of Digging Deep, this digger got to see…two swag orders and a new deluxe edition for me. 

On the third day of Digging Deep, this digger got to see …three posted dig-a bits, two swag orders and a new deluxe edition for me.

On the fourth day of Digging Deep, this digger got to see …four sample screen-prints, three posted dig-a-bits, two swag orders, and a new deluxe edition for me.

On the fifth day of Digging Deep, this digger got to see…Five Golden Crowns!!!!…four sample screen prints, three dig-a-bits, two swag orders, and a new deluxe edition for me.

On the sixth day of Digging Deep, this digger got to see…Six sheep-a-grazing…Five Golden Crowns!!!…four sample screen prints, three dig-a-bits, two swag orders, and a new deluxe edition for me.

On the seventh day of Digging Deep, this digger got to see… Seven ladies waiting…Six sheep-a-grazing…Five Golden Crowns!!!…four sample screen prints, three dig-a-bits, two swag orders, and a new deluxe edition for me.

On the eighth day of Digging Deep, this digger got to see, eight laughing locals …Seven ladies waiting…Six sheep-a-grazing…Five Golden Crowns!!!…Four sample screen prints, Three dig-a-bits, Two swag orders, and A new deluxe edition for me.

On the ninth day of Digging Deep, this digger got to see…Nine crown photos…eight laughing locals …Seven ladies waiting…Six sheep-a-grazing…Five Golden Crowns!!!…Four sample screen prints, Three dig-a-bits, Two swag orders, and A new deluxe edition for me.

On the tenth day of Digging Deep, this digger got to see… Ten women on the rooftop…Nine crown photos…eight laughing locals …Seven ladies waiting…Six sheep-a-grazing…Five Golden Crowns!!!…Four sample screen prints, Three dig-a-bits, Two swag orders, and A new deluxe edition for me.

On the eleventh day of Digging Deep, this digger got to see…Eleven p.m. supper… Ten women on the rooftop…Nine crown photos…eight laughing locals …Seven ladies waiting…Six sheep-a-grazing…Five Golden Crowns!!!…Four sample screen prints, Three dig-a-bits, Two swag orders, and A new deluxe edition for me.

AT LAST!

On the twelfth day of Digging Deep, this digger got to see…Twelve new months of digging…Eleven p.m. supper… Ten women on the rooftop…Nine crown photos…eight laughing locals …Seven ladies waiting…Six sheep-a-grazing…Five Golden Crowns!!!…Four sample screen prints, Three dig-a-bits, Two swag orders, and A new deluxe edition for me.

I hope you’re watching today at 1 pm. EST on the youtube channel “Digging Deep in God’s Word” for the reveal of the brand new study topic! If you’re at PTP, I hope you’re right there in Ballroom A at 12:30, where we will be recognizing the finishers and then announcing at 1 pm the brand new topic. I’m “way ‘cited!” as Eliza Jane says! It’ll be the best spent time of your next twelve months if you are in the Word, whether it’s DD or some other method. But we are “way ‘cited” if you are joining us for what promises to be a deep and useful treasure dig this year.

I can’t wait!…not another day!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Digging Deep: Start Inviting

Posted on July 17, 2024

Kick-off for Digging Deep 2024-25 is just six weeks away. Topic reveal from PTP-Sevierville is just a month out. I hope you are inviting your friends. The WORD will change their lives, especially those who may be outside of Christ. Last week, I was at PTP-Branson and was immersed in encouragement because of the power of the WORD in lives: 

A cancer survivor who found the Comfort study just as she was diagnosed. She kept saying “It got me through.” 

A group of diggers that has planted three more groups of diggers in surrounding towns. 

A group of diggers which has become a respite for a mother who is grieving mightily the death of her daughter. 

A woman in her eighties who was invited to study by a woman in her thirties and this eighty-year-old has, thus,  become an extra grandmother to four babies under four years old, as the younger of the two (and her good husband) is doing a phenomenal job rescuing a group of embryos for life and then, heaven! 

A bunch of women from bunches of places who came to investigate and begin studying. This is always the best. You don’t know what you are missing till you get in the WORD!

A mama who just emptied her nest and, who simultaneously cared for her mother as she passed on to glory. She is really grieving (I can so relate to that. I was not a happy empty-nester, while losing parents.), but she is trusting the WORD, studying along, and evangelizing. She is finding His blessings still. 

Spanish translators, Marlon and Jacky Retana, who are chomping at the bits to get the new study translated for Spanish speaking sisters. Their work is here, if you would like to see what they do: https://marlonretana.com/about_me/

I’m just saying: Cindy Colley does not ever change lives. Digging Deep does not necessarily change lives. The friendships and closeness of the groups do not always change lives. The fun we have with t-shirts and mugs and tea towels does not change lives. But the WORD changes lives! I’m just telling you, you will never get to the bottom of the knowledge and every single bit of it will be relevant-to-the-max to whatever it is you are going through. The WORD never fails. It IS the lamp to our feet and the light for our lifetime’s pathways (Psalm 119:105).

SO be the conduit for positive, eternal change. Ask a friend to dig in the WORD with you. New study starts September 1st. I’m already there in my heart!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

From Digging Deep 2025! It’s getting closer!

Posted on April 12, 2024

It’s in the works! Cover design and editing are happening this week. I hope you’re down to join us for the new study that will begin on September 1st. Many women have already been getting their classes together for the fall of ’24. I hope we will have more ladies than ever before. I hope you can start praying now. Souls can be strengthened for Him. Congregations can be more unified when women are getting together around the Word. And lost women can find the way of salvation.

Here’s one of many reflective interjections from next year’s study. The study has already blessed me, but then, the Word blesses every time!

“Often, when we study with people, especially atheists, they are unwilling to listen because they have preconceived, but mistaken notions about what the Bible says, and thus, about what we believe. An example of this is that non-believers shut down Christians because they think we believe miracles are happening all around us and they are not seeing them. But, when they come to find out that you and I do not believe miracles are occurring today, (though we believe every one in the Bible occurred and we believe our Bibles are products of past miracles), then they are willing to talk to us and doors toward belief are opened. Sometimes a non-believer does not want to talk to me because she thinks I believe the Calvinistic doctrine that babies are born in sin or that we do not get to choose whether or not we are elected to receive salvation. Once I state biblical truth about the false nature of Calvinism, then the nonbeliever is willing to hear me out about the gospel.”

The value of a soul learning the Scriptures is inestimable. It’s my prayer that, through Digging Deep ’24-’25,  the Holy Scriptures will impact more women, for more glory to our God of more (Ephesians 3:20-22) than ever before!

 

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Snippet from Digging Deep Writing Week…Out My Window

Posted on February 19, 2024

Death and its power never ceases to amaze me. I don’t want to be unfeeling or irreverent, but it has come to every single person (except Enoch and Elijah) since the sin in the garden. Yet we all act shocked when it comes to our house. It is the most predictable event and yet we are never prepared for our loved ones to go. We act as if we never imagined this could happen and yet we knew, beyond doubt, that it would happen. 

During my writing weeks in some of the past Digging years, I’ve opened my window to find a giant flag waving or a beautiful field sprawling for acres (or a crowded parking lot). This year I opened my window to see peaceful rows of flower-strewn graves and one lone, aging man sitting on a bench under a big oak tree with his head bowed. I have looked out there a lot this week. As I have been writing, two of my dear friends in this life have lost loved ones—one a daughter at the age of 35, and one a younger brother at the age of 60. I knew and loved these people who now know so much more than I do about the subject at hand. 

And that is, perhaps, the reason that death has a hold of terror on most of us. We cannot know it. We cannot speak with anyone who has experienced it, except of course in prayer and study. It’s a thing as natural as birth or walking or talking and, yet, when it comes our way, we are bowed low beneath its burden.

And God made it that way. Since the garden, Satan has had his malignant hand in our earthly affairs, subjecting us to pain, sorrow, death and its grief. He is not done with you and me. 

But, additionally, when I think about death, the sadness it brings is also a result of the great gift of fellowship. God made us with longings for relationships. I know this because he made us in His image and no one has given more for relationship and communion with you and me than the Father and Son. No one has given more for family. We are in His image, so we treasure relationships, too. We long, deep within our souls, for the benefits that come when we care for others and they reciprocate. We are meant to be social and when we are disconnected, we become less than what we could be—in our eternal hopes, in our earthly influences and in our personal peace.

But the Son showed us powerfully that the ultimate victory over death is His. The Spirit then revealed all that we need to know about what happens at, and after, death.

I hope you’re planning to study with us (or in some systematic way) next year. It’s not all about dying. It’s a whole lot about living. And it’s all we really know about either–the Word of God!