Browsing Tag

Faith

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

What Have I Done?

 

Sometimes when the heart-load is heavy 

And burdens are grievously borne.

My shoulders stoop and my spirit.

Turns, painfully, inward… to mourn. 

 

Things incomprehensible just seem 

To grow larger and broader in scope. 

The devil is there. He embezzles

My moments, good memories and hope.

 

The question, I know, is the wrong one.

From the darkness, I will myself free.

It’s the wrong one, but finally I whisper. 

What have I done, Lord? Why  me? 

 

Then from the din of the voices

That call in the tumult of loss,

For more labor, more hurt, more investments

I hear one small voice from the cross. 

 

“It is finished.” He said from Golgotha

Through parched lips and in that last heave.

He finished for me, a way forward

Salvation! Redemption. Reprieve.

 

My hands have never been nail-pierced

My back is not bleeding for grace 

To people who’ve mocked and reviled me

No one’s ever spat in my face. 

 

He didn’t just do it. He planned it.

The Word became Son for my soul.

He poured out himself in submission 

So I could be blameless and whole. 

 

The question’s the right one, reflecting

On hope, as He’s made mine to be. 

I ponder such grace, and I whisper. 

What have I done, Lord? Why me? 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

In the Morning, O Lord

In morning, I awaken

And ponder o’er my way.

The people I saw yesterday

Give courage for today. 

I think of conversations,

Of passages I’ve read,

Of songs that came within my night

Of rest and daily bread. 

I think about the shocking 

And the utterly mundane.

I think about the children ‘round.

I think of sun and rain.

I contemplate the vastness 

And yet details so small.

I soak in heaven’s goodness

In mornings best of all!

 

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;

In the morning I will direct it to You,

And I will look up. Psalm 5:3

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

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

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

A Living Stone

I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from enemies. The Lord lives and blessed be the rock. Let the God of my salvation be exalted.

The longer I live, the more sure I am that He is sovereign and to be exalted. He knows my going out and coming in and He knows exactly when and how to orchestrate people and events to His glory and majesty, while making these same things the best for His people in the end. I see it over and over. Sometimes the waiting hurts. Sometimes, I am not tracking with the order of His plans. Sometimes I wonder, momentarily, if He is seeing the evil in this world around me.  Sometimes I doubt, but he supplants the doubt with both evidence and faith, when I am in His Word.

But even that waiting is good–building my faith and my tolerance-for-suffering or for persecution or for trials; and pointing out to me, in no uncertain terms, that He is sovereign and I am loved. There are certain points in which I cannot know if the answer is imminent or reserved–if the comfort is just around the bend in this road or in eternity. But I do now that the God of all comfort has my advocate at His right hand. My high priest is right there in the Holy of holies for Cindy Colley, personally.

The One who wore the crown of thorns has exchanged it for His crowned position on the right hand of my Father’s throne. MY Father! It’s how I begin my prayers and it is still utterly amazing to me that I can call the God of the universe my own Father. He pities me in the way that Glenn has shown compassion over and over to our biological children; only He does it flawlessly.

Tonight in the podcast, we will see Jesus as the temple visionary. We will see Him as the chief cornerstone, the builder, the foundation, the veil tearer, the sacrifice on the altar, the high priest and the manna. We will see Him in all these temple places and we will remember that we are living stones. I want to stay near the chief cornerstone by which the plumb line of righteousness has been set. May I always call upon the Lord.

You will experience days in your life that are monumental for your eternity’s destination. On those days, may you be in a safe place. May you be a stone in the building, aligned with the chief cornerstone,  rather than a stumbling block in the path of those who may be searching for His holy temple, the church.

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

“Shleeping” in a Palace


Here we are at Polishing the Pulpit-Branson 2024! All the children, but especially Eliza Jane are so excited to be “shleeping “ in a palace. “I never shleeped in a palace afore!” I never did either and, believe me, after 12 hours in that car with those three, their mom and I were ready for some “sleep” in a palace or standing up in a barn. Literally, the question “How many more hours?” must have been asked 50 times from those back seats. Not exaggerating. It started when we were twenty minutes from the house. 

But now is the good part: blending voices, hearts, and purpose with hundreds of like-minded Christians on this hilltop, overlooking a beautiful lake. It seems, in my finite nature, to be inching toward heaven itself! 

Yesterday, on the way here, we got stuck behind a couple of auto accidents. One was an old tractor in the median that had obviously been careened hard by a larger and more modern vehicle. The helicopter was already there for the life flight. Ezra said he would lead the prayer: 

“Dear God, please help that man to be okay. Please help him to live. If he dies, please help him to be a Christian.” 

That’s the nine-year-old view of life and fatalities. That’s pretty much my view, still, except, of course, the “help” for eternal salvation, must be accessed through the blood prior to the time of the death. 

We all agreed that nothing is ultimately “bad” for the Christian. Even a horrific end to this life is not horrific for the follower of Jesus. It is better than ever. 

And that’s the hilltop on which we find ourselves, today; looking out over the promised land and knowing the sojourn is short. We find ourselves preparing, with hundreds of Christians, to bring the Father glory and honor the Son and, to find, in the Words of the Holy Spirit, strength for our journey toward the real palace of our King. 

I cannot wait, Eliza!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

The Journey

The Journey

There’s a trip that I am taking to a sunny shore somewhere.
There are plans that I am making to be with someone who’s there.
I am packed and now departing, not another day to spurn
And I won’t look back while leaving, for I never will return.

There’s a path to travel upward that is narrow and a few
Who are looking for the same land will be pilgrims on it, too.
I have read that there’ll be times when I won’t see the way ahead,
But the Savior will sustain me while I wait, with Living Bread.

I will lay aside the weight of sin. Determined I will be
I will reach my destination where His glory waits for me.
With a will of iron I’m going, so don’t try to lure me back.
I am concentrating heav’nward, I will not be thrown off track.

There was once a path to travel up the Hill of Calvary.
And no journey I could make compares with what He did for me.
While my yoke is light, He bore a cross so I’d be reconciled
And His wounded flesh was nailed to it so I could be God’s child.

Now he waits for me beside the throne. For me, he intercedes.
He is pleading for my entry. He is touched with all my needs.
He’s prepared for me a table. There’s no evil I will fear.
For the valley’s darkness means the journey’s end is drawing near.

And I love Him for the journey.

Cindy Colley