Browsing Tag

Digging Deep-the ten

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

New YouTube Channel for Digging Deep!

Posted on April 8, 2021

It’s here, at last. One more way to access Digging Deep materials. This YouTube channel is specifically for housing the podcasts for Men’s Digging Deep, but, of course, its content is applicable right now to ladies studies, as well. You will find them beneficial–meaty and relevant. Be sure and re-invite your husbands and dads and brothers and boyfriends to take a look here, too. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC8CpAr8ic6DTYq0-MeyVPQ

Also remember the full details for the men’s program are here:                                           Calebcolley.com/diggingdeep

And lastly, don’t forget the app for women’s podcasts is at GBN ready for download. https://gbntv.org/watch-on-demand/?sapurl=LysyYzkzL2xiL2xpLythMDcwNWRiP2VtYmVkJmJyYW5kaW5nJjE2MTY1MjcxNjI4Njc=
We’re so blessed to have access to these supplemental materials. Your family will be doubly blessed if both spouses are digging! You don’t have to do Digging Deep to go to heaven, But you have to be in the Word!
The good news is really all in one book. Make your life better. Make it eternal.
Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

DD–The Children-Training Scripture List

Posted on January 29, 2021

As we close out our study of the fifth commandment, I’m reflecting on how much I learned from examining those words in Exodus 20 about the “honor system: that exists in godly families. I had never spent a lot of time before thinking about how Scripture bears out that the fifth command was every bit as much for adults as it was for children. 

Thinking about the training of children, this morning, I wanted to share the passage list, as promised in the podcast—the list that directs us to a three-fold responsibility in bringing up our children. We must nurture. We must educate. We must chasten, or discipline. Here are some passages that might be helpful as you contemplate this. I know you could add more from your own study. Thanks to Emily Anderson for adding her list to mine.

Nurture: 

Ephesians 6:4

Colossians 3:21

Proverbs 29:15

Genesis 25:28; 26:34-35; 27:41,42

Luke 11:11-13

Matthew 7:9-11

Proverbs 31:27,28

Proverbs 31:21

1 Timothy 5:8

2 Timothy 1:5

Titus 2:4

Education:

Deuteronomy 6:4-7

Deuteronomy 4:9,10

Judges 17:3-13

Exodus 13:8

Exodus 13:14

Exodus 10:2

Exodus 12:26,27

Deuteronomy 6: 20-25

Leviticus 23:31-43

2 Timothy 3:15

Deuteronomy 11:18,19

Deuteronomy 31:9-13

Psalm 34:11

Psalm 78:5-8

Discipline:

Ephesians 6:4

Proverbs 19:18

Proverbs 13:24

Proverbs 29:17

Proverbs 22:15

Proverbs 23:13,14

Proverbs 29:15

1 Samuel 3:13

Hebrews 12:6-11

Proverbs 3:12

Deuteronomy 8:5,6

Proverbs 22:6 (note Hebrew for “train”)

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

The Honor Years (Digger Requested Audio)

Posted on January 28, 2021

It’s ironic that the honor due our parents has been the Digging Deep theme during this month of national transition; a month that has seen much disrespect of civil authority as well as the establishment of several key policies that fly in the face of Biblical authority. Rebellion in society grows from the failure of parents to instill within children the respect for primary parental authority.  It may seem an oversimplification, but when kids who have never had to submit to authority in the home grow into adults, they emerge as people who are unwilling to honor any authority—organizational or civil. When there are entire communities of adults who have grown up having their own way (without parental nurture and discipline), chaos and disrespect is the result. We’ve witnessed this phenomenon this month and in the past several months on a wide scale in the United States.

Throughout the month, we’ve been thinking about practical ways we can put respect for authority in the hearts of our children. Melissa Davidson suggested that one very powerful way is to let our children see, firsthand, their parents caring for their grandparents during the years of physical decline. When children see us making sacrifices; yes, even when children give up activities themselves to give honor by caring for their grandparents, the fifth command becomes very personal. Caring for those who once changed our diapers and provided our sustenance in all ways, is a great way to engrave some principles of respect for parents on the tender hearts of our kids. They won’t forget that Mom and Dad dropped everything, spent long hours and lots of money to provide comfort and support and supply physical needs in situations that were not always pretty. They will remember the tough days when the needs were overwhelming and the nights when sleep was interrupted multiple times. They will remember emergency room runs and waiting room vigils. They will not forget the daily regimen of therapies, the many doctor visits and perhaps dementia or incontinence. They will know you stopped thinking about what was convenient and, at times, just tried to figure out how to survive. They will remember that you missed some activities that you loved and went to great lengths to try to keep old minds thinking and old hands nimble.  They will come to understand that this care was a matter of integrity. They will know that these precious years during which you said goodbye, at least for a time, to those to whom you owed so much, were the honor years.

In this context, it’s been requested that the following two lessons from Polishing the Pulpit 2018 be shared once more. PTP was kind enough to allow us to do this. These lessons are given by myself and my sisters, Celine Sparks and Sami Nicholas and they are lessons we learned about THE Father while caring for our father as he prepared to go home. Maybe you could be blessed in some way by listening.

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

For the Diggers: Let’s Amend the Question–Month 5, Question 11

Posted on January 13, 2021

Today let’s take a look at question 11, in month 5, of  “The Ten”. Here’s the question: 

Some child therapists today tell us that parents should not try to force good behavior (I.e. administer corporal or force punishment, but instead should try to work on the heart so that behavior will follow. Is this Biblical? Is it fallacious? Explain and Discuss. 

I’m glad this is a discussion question, because there has certainly been some about it. For clarity and precision, let’s change the question, for our podcast discussion, to this: 

Some psychologists today tell us that punishment for bad behavior (all punishment, but particularly corporal punishment) is counterproductive to the development of good character in kids. Is this Biblical? Is it fallacious? Let’s discuss this on the podcast. 

I want to always be correct and clear in the study. I believe the original wording of the question was probably unfair to the vast majority of child therapists, who, in the very nature of their work, are modifying behaviors in children through therapy. 

So let’s go with version number two, as stated here. Perhaps you can find examples of this philosophy as you research. It does not take long to do so. Maybe we will even have some child therapists chime in on the podcast on January 26th.  Their ideas about how behavior, thoughts and feelings all work together to make for positive change might be helpful to many of us as we try to parent Biblically. We have some great therapists among us. 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Digging Deep: Clarification for Listing God’s Description

Posted on November 13, 2020

Some have found the descriptions (names or titles) of God and responses to those characterizations in month 3 challenging (#6 in the study guide). Perhaps my instructions were not clear, so here area couple of  my lists. These are from chapters five and seven. Using the KJV, I found the names for God in the chapter and I found the responses to the holy characteristics given in the chapter. you can do this from the version you are using and our answers will be very similar. I hope this is helpful. Just look for names for God in each chapter and their accompanying (and immediate) adjectives; as in “righteous God” or “Lord. most high.”  Then look through the chapter for any specific things people did when responding to our great God. I apologize for not being clear when writing this question. I’m going to try to consistently apply this method when I do this question myself. Some chapters may have fewer names for God and/or fewer responses. 

Psalm 5

Give ear to my words, O Lord,

consider my meditation.

Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God:

for unto thee will I pray.

My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord;

in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness:

neither shall evil dwell with thee.

The foolish shall not stand in thy sight:

thou hatest all workers of iniquity.

Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing:

the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.

But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy:

and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.

Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies;

make thy way straight before my face.

For there is no faithfulness in their mouth;

their inward part is very wickedness;

their throat is an open sepulchre;

they flatter with their tongue.

Destroy thou them, O God;

let them fall by their own counsels;

cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions;

for they have rebelled against thee.

But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice:

let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them:

let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.

For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous;

with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.

Chapter 5

Descriptions

Lord

My King

My God

Responses

prayer

coming into God’s house

worshipping in fear

rejoicing

shouting for joy

being joyful

Chapter 7

O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust:

save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:

Lest he tear my soul like a lion,

rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

O Lord my God, if I have done this;

if there be iniquity in my hands;

If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me;

(yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:)

Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it;

yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah.

Arise, O Lord, in thine anger,

lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded.

So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about:

for their sakes therefore return thou on high.

The Lord shall judge the people:

judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.

Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just:

for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.

My defence is of God,

which saveth the upright in heart.

God judgeth the righteous,

and God is angry with the wicked every day.

If he turn not, he will whet his sword;

he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.

He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death;

he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.

Behold, he travaileth with iniquity,

and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.

He made a pit, and digged it,

and is fallen into the ditch which he made.

His mischief shall return upon his own head,

and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.

I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness:

and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high.

Descriptions:

Lord, my God

Lord

Righteous God 

Lord, most high

Responses:

Trusting

Praising 

Singing Praise

Thanks for persevering. Keep digging!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Digging Deep: The Snake and the Son

Posted on November 2, 2020

Thanks to Cheryl McIntosh, of Cleburne, Texas for phoning in her great observation about the carving of graven images. You will remember that in Numbers 21, God actually commanded the making of a graven image. The brazen serpent was that to which the people must look if they’d been bitten by the poisonous snakes that were the punishment inflicted for constant and rebellious grumbling against Jehovah and Moses. 

Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth (hates) this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died (vs 4-6).

If indeed the very carving of images (likenesses of any part of nature) was prohibited in the first verses of Exodus 20 and in Leviticus 26 and in Deuteronomy 4, then the forming of this serpent would have, in any other circumstance, been sinful. It would have been comparable to the offering of Isaac on Moriah. It was only right that one time, because God had commanded something that would have otherwise been sinful. It would have been similar to God’s telling Hosea to marry a prostitute. If (and that’s a big IF) the command in these passages prohibited any carved likenesses, then certainly the One who gave the command had the right to make any exceptions at any time, simply by His command. 

The most shocking thing about this whole snake incident is revealed much later and in a cursory mention in 2 Kings 18:4: 

He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.

They worshipped the image! Eight hundred years later, Hezekiah destroyed the snake because it was an object of worship! Astounding and very telling. God knew these people and, of course, as always, His prohibitions in Exodus 20 were for their own good and with the object of their holiness and ultimate salvation through the Christ. 

The snake was really all about the Son, too. It was about love.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:14-16).