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Evangelism

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

State of the Dig

Posted on August 28, 2023

I truly believe more people are getting the free download and buying the study guides than have begun the study in any year. Remember:

  1. It is the prime inviting time right now. It’s an evangelism tool that’s been proven to work. It’s an edification tool that has worked thousands of times over. This is NOT because of anything any person has done. It’s because it is the Lord’s Word. 
  2. The study doesn’t have to cost a cent. You can download free, if you prefer, at www.thecolleyhouse.org.
  3. There’s a how-to video pinned near the top of the “Digging Deep in God’s Word”  FB page that will help if you are new to the dig.
  4. There’s a sister FB page called “Digging Deep for Encouragement” that’s the place to post your prayer requests. 
  5. If you’re digging and you are free on Mondays (or you can watch later) Julie Orr does a live study from her dining room table from the FB page “Mama’s Monday Moments.” It is very helpful. 
  6. The place for help when you hit a bump in the road in your study is the “Digging Deep in God’s Word” FB page.  You can also often find ladies from your area who might want to meet up and study. Just ask!
  7. There’s a monthly video podcast live from Facebook and Livestream. Watch the Digging Deep FB page for reminders and links when the time approaches. The first one will be broadcast on September 26th at 7 CST. 
  8. There are also four shorter audio podcasts each month. These are posted  on the Digging Deep FB page, as well.  
  9. Try to be patient about receiving your books. We brought a hundred more to PTP than last year and still ran out. We are so sorry. Today will be a full day of shipping as will pretty much all days this week. We are so thankful for patient sisters. 
  10. The DD mugs are going to be a royal blue from now on with the same double D logo that we’ve had previously. The logo is in maroon. I will put the picture on the site as soon as I get the prototype (probably tomorrow.).
  11. No question is dumb or rhetorical in DD. Put them there on the FB page. Someone else is wondering the same thing!
  12. This new study of David and Jesus is rich and full of truth about which we need to be reminded. If you enjoy  it half as much h as I enjoyed putting it together, your daily Bible time is going to call to you!

I’m praying so hard for this dig. One soul in heaven makes it worth every penny, hour, and challenge—-and so much more! One soul! 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Digging Deep 2024–Reveal is 3 days away!

Posted on August 16, 2023

Photo courtesy Rachel Valentin

I can hardly wait. But waiting is the least of my worries this morning. If God lets us get to Saturday on this planet, something important is happening. I mean it’s surely not important because of any merit of any person or group of people. This importance is not because of financial, cultural, or political impact. In fact, what’s happened in the last year, in Digging Deep, is more impactful than decisions of state and party. What we are doing on Saturday, as we unveil a new year’s study in Digging Deep has the potential to influence eternity (an infinite time and space) for some soul (the most valuable commodity known to man)! I can’t really tell you how happy it made me each time last year I’d hear about some seeking soul who found salvation from hell and to eternal life as she studied along with us. I’ve prayed so hard for this impact from Digging Deep and, at last, it is occurring in our groups.

Last night, I spoke with a group leader in Kentucky. This group, which started with one person who was willing to invite others, now has 24 signed up to study this year. Two of these women are not members of the church of Jesus. In Arkansas, a group of four (last year) has grown  to 14 this year. Some were baptized to be in Christ and have the hope of heaven for the first time in their lives in 2023. And every time I open Messenger, it seems there are good growth comments and questions. I see Him answering and I see His providence working through our study. I know He has worked through His Word in all kinds of venues through the centuries, but getting to see this kind of working this close up is the blessing of a lifetime.

I am just profoundly thankful. I know you are, too, as you invite and study and explain and as you are bold for Him. I spoke with a woman who facilitates a class in another state yesterday who said “I am so happy about this growth, but I am just nervous about my own abilities as these non-Christian women are joining us.”  Oh, we all are nervous about our own abilities. Thank the good Lord who made this salvation possible that it is not your ability or mine that has any importance! It is the Word that is the power to salvation (Romans 1:16). It is God who gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:7). And it is Christ, though whom we can do all things (Phil. 4:13)! If I can always just remember that it is weak little me, who has been outfitted by God–given the sword of His Spirit and the shield of faith, and wearing the shoes of the preparation of the gospel that brings peace to people–If I can remember that the power is in what God is doing through His word, I can be bold in my invitations, and unashamed in my presentations. I can just be a conduit for His glory! This is the amazing privilege that has been the biggest blessing of Digging Deep.

You can do these four things that I truly believe will bring Him glory this year:

  1. You can be bold to invite. (even if you think she is not the person who will respond positively.) Invite through your facebook page as I have seen many of you do. Be sure you tell girls they can contact you for information.  
  2. You can share the “How-to” video that is pinned near the top of the Digging Deep facebook page. Link women up to the page. 
  3. You can pray daily and deeply for souls that may be reached through this avenue. 
  4. You can be present in the ballroom at PTP on Saturday at 12:30 EST or watch the video that will be aired on the DD Facebook page simultaneously with the PTP event (and from there, spread the Word about this year’s study.) 

You can do all of this without financial burdens or extensive preparation. But it is mission work. It is truly evangelism.  It is a mission and we are a mission team. If you are inviting folks to dig, don’t ever say you have not done mission work. You’re in the trenches! This is one mission among many happening in our churches, but some of you are on your first missionary “journey”. I pray God will continue adding to His church those who are being saved (Acts 2:47) and that he will keep calling women disciples “Christians” (Acts 1126) as a result of invitations by common women of God like you and me. He does, consistently, more than we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). Digging Deep is personal and powerful evidence that we serve the God of  more. He still saves to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25)! I know we will praise and glorify Him together this year!

(And now, back to the packing, the making (bracelets and keychains and– oh yeah– breakfast), the study for all those lessons, the powerpoint and the frenzy of getting to Saturday! And I am way excited about all the hugging. That’s the best part between now and Saturday! When you watch God work from afar through the lives of women all around this country and then you come together, the hugs and the stories and the spiritual feasting just may be the highest mountaintop this side of the Jordan! I cannot wait to “wander in that Wilderness!”)

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Mama’s K.I.S.S. #61: Mark Their Bibles

Posted on February 13, 2023

As you know, if you’ve been reading, for quite some time, I’ve occasionally been running little installments called “Mama’s K.I.S.S.” I know that lots of readers could give many more and far more creative ideas than I can offer, but these installments are just a few tried and true and mostly old-fashioned ideas for putting service hearts in our kids.  This is number 57  of a list of one hundred ways we train our kids to serve. K.I.S.S. is an acronym for “Kids In Service Suggestions”.

 

This one’s intuitive. A good beginning element of evangelism is Bible marking. Of course, we do it as adults, but your 8-year-old will have a great sense of accomplishment if he/she has his/her own Bible and is equipped to teach someone the gospel by turning to one passage. (I know that marking down what it takes to become a Christian and actually being equipped for a theological discussion are two very different things, but everything worth accomplishing starts small and takes time…and this is very worthwhile!)

SO take a few minutes to do this at Bible time with your child when she has learned to read and write. At young ages, it’s better to write all the references right out beside Mark 16:16, rather than making a “trail” of passages. (It’s far less confusing at age 8!)

1. Take her to Mark 16:16 and have her read what Jesus said to do to be saved.

2. Discuss what believing means and, in the margin, have your child write Belief–Romans 10:17. Read that passage together and talk about how important it is to be a student of the Bible.

3. Talk about what belief does to our consciences and how, if we really believe that the Bible is true and Jesus came to die so that we can go to heaven, we will obey him and change anything in our lives that’s different from what the Bible tells us. Explain to her that this is called repentance. Write the word Repentance in the margin and add Luke 13:3. Read that together.

4. Then talk about how that all of our lives (not just before baptism) we want to tell people about Jesus–that we love him and we know he is God’s son who came to save us from hell. Talk about how wonderful it is to get to tell people that, so that they can be saved, too. Add the words Confess Jesus in the margin and the passage Romans 10:10. Read that passage together.

5. Then read Mark 16:16 again and have your child tell you about a baptism she has witnessed. Ask questions about what that was for and how that person felt after being baptized. Go to Acts 2:38 and read and talk about the exact reason for which people were baptized on that day of Pentecost. Go ahead and read verse 47 and talk about what God was doing when people were baptized. Then go back to Mark 16:16 and write in the margin Baptism–Acts 2:38.

Talk to your children about how that, when one does these simple things, she starts on a walk with Christ for the rest of her life, trusting and reading the Bible and obeying. That walk with Jesus leads to heaven! That’s being faithful. Tell her it’s so important to be able to tell people how to be a part of the church and go to heaven. “And now, you can open up your Bible to Mark 16:16 and you can tell people the most important thing they can ever know!”

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Tiny Little Things

Posted on September 12, 2022

It could have been anybody. This is not about the fact that I was the person who handed Charles a card asking him to study. I did nothing brave at all. We just got stuck in a line with a long wait and started talking about how this particular WalMart is our favorite Walmart, despite the long wait that day. When I handed the real person who was checking me out (That’s why I sometimes still like to actually go through a check-out line) a card inviting her to study the Bible, I just turned around and said “Here’s one for you, too.” It was nothing hard or heroic at all about me. (And I certainly did not intend for Glenn to mention my name as he talked from the baptistry.)

But Charles is just about the most excited new Christian I’ve ever seen. At the lunch table at Nothing but Noodles yesterday, I watched him nearly glowing with the joy that is evident when someone knows he is now part of a family headed for heaven. 

I just want to list a few reasons why we hesitate to do tiny little things that might lead to a knowledge of salvation in someone who crosses our path. (I know these things because I am so very guilty. I am certainly, in no sense, enough. I am, in every sense, inadequate and struggling as I try to tell the good news.) 

  1. I am not good at keeping those cards in my purse. They are always in the car. 
  2. It’s just easier on a bad day when I have so much on my mind, to stay in my shell and speak only when spoken to. 
  3. I am in a big hurry. There’s a filthy house at home waiting. There’s company coming this weekend. My cabin needs cleaning. I have to speak this weekend. There’s Digging Deep. 
  4. I am embarrassed to be viewed as one of those fanatics. 
  5. This is a man. He might be dangerous. He could stalk me. 
  6. This person looks like he is going to ask me for money instead of a Bible study. (Profiling the prospects—PTP!)
  7. I am serving in other ways that are more suited to me. (Digging Deep can be my excuse for not doing personal evangelism.) 
  8. Someone once was rude to me when I tried to hand her an invitation to worship.
  9. Most of the time people are just not interested, anyway. This is just not the best way to evangelize. 
  10. Even if the person responds and even if she is baptized, the majority of the people with whom I have studied have eventually fallen away. 

Now, one reason I have to keep telling myself that those little invitations need to keep happening. 

  1. There may be at least one soul around the throne who, because of the blood—the blood introduced through a little paper square (or other rectangle) with some personal contact info on it—received forgiveness of sin. 

That eternal difference, if even for one soul, is the magic eraser that just goes up and erases points one through ten in the above list. They matter none, if just one. They matter none, if just one. They are voided if one soul makes it to the throne through the outreach. I don’t know, for sure, that any soul with whom I have studied will be around the throne. But, I do know for sure that, without the study on my part or on someone’s part, they will NOT be there. That’s enough. 

But what’s really enough, is the grace that He has shown for my soul. How can I be oblivious to those around me who need it just as much as I do?

You can watch here: IMG_2910

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

It’s September 1st!

Posted on September 1, 2022

It is September 1st! Go find the comfort His Word gives us and transform it into more love for Him, more faith in His Word and more opportunities to affect eternity. I promise, I’ll stop posting so many housekeeping t-shirt, study guide posts and we will get down to the Word! Did I mention I am needing this study?

1. For fun, if you get a chance, post a pic. Let us know where you’re studying. Hashtag: #whereintheworldisdiggingdeep. 

Especially, if there are digger sitings as you travel, be sure to take a pic of fellow diggers and digger reunions in fun places. (Like this weekend, I know some sisters who are having a mini-reunion kick-off for the year’s study. I wanted to go so badly, BUT I do think I am getting over COVID. Glenn is all over this house trying to figure out what rubber is burning and I can’t smell a thing!) 

2. Also, We found a few more odd sizes of the more generic t-shirts in the basement. It’s this graphic on a light blue Comfort Colors shirt.  Does anyone want either of these for 9 dollars plus shipping? (The one Kaitlyn’s wearing…) Just claim here, in the comments, if you do. I’ll send and, when you receive, you can paypal or send a check. I have 3 Smalls, 6 XXLs, and 4 XXXXLs. Remember, if you want the current black shirt or hoodie, deadline is Saturday night.

3. Keep inviting. It’s not too late. Someone you know could be a Christian by this time next year and it COULD just be a simple invitation to join you or your little group to get comfort from the Word! This would not be the first conversion from the DD study! The Word is the power and our little voices are just the prompt that exposes that powerhouse. Don’t let your timidity or silence get in the way of the power that saves (Romans 1:16). 

“For I am not ashamed of (I do not feel shame about) the gospel (glad tidings), for it’s the power (dynamis—the inherent mighty work) of God to salvation (deliverance, safety). “ Romans 1:16.  I want to give the “dynamis” full sway in lives that need deliverance around me!

4. So…1…2…3…GO!