REPOST FROM FEBRUARY 1, 2026

REPOSTING FROM MY FACEBOOK PAGE DATED FEBRUARY 1, 2026

Let me share a little of my personal testimony. I was saved when I was eight years old. I understood that I was a sinner, and that sin separated me from God. I knew that Jesus was my only hope. I accepted Him as Savior and  Lord. 

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Romans 10:9-10

Amplified Bible

9 because if you acknowledge and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord [recognizing His power, authority, and majesty as God], and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart a person believes [in Christ as Savior] resulting in his justification [that is, being made righteous—being freed of the guilt of sin and made acceptable to God]; and with the mouth he acknowledges and confesses [his faith openly], resulting in and confirming [his] salvation.

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When I was nine years old at music camp at Ouachita Baptist University, I felt that God was calling me to ministry. In my childish mind, I assumed that meant to be a missionary. For years that was my belief. When I was 16, almost 17, through a mutual friend, I met this guy I thought was so cute. We dated and eventually married. But he was not a believer. I believe that I married the right person at the wrong time because scripture is clear that we should not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. 

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2 Corinthians 6:14-15

Amplified Bible

14 Do not be unequally bound together with unbelievers [do not make mismatched alliances with them, inconsistent with your faith]. For what partnership can righteousness have with lawlessness? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony can there be between Christ and Belial (Satan)? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

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Three months after we married, he was saved. God began to work in him to grow him spiritually. Five years later we both began to seek God’s purpose for us. I knew that God was calling us to ministry but Bryan seemingly wasn’t hearing the same thing. The call was so clear in my heart that it was unbearable. I prayed that God would either let me die, or him die, because I couldn’t live with the thought that I couldn’t be obedient to God’s call. I didn’t say anything to Bryan, because it is not my job to do what only God can do. One day Bryan came home and said he needed to talk. He said, “God is calling me to preach.” My response: “I know.” He went to talk with our pastor and told him the same thing he had told me. The pastor’s response: “I know.” Bryan felt that God was leading him to get the education that would equip him to fulfill God’s call. He received a B.A. in pastoral ministries at Ouachita, a Master of Divinity at Mid-America seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry at Midwestern seminary. He pastored churches in Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas and Illinois. In 1996 he was diagnosed with diabetes. In October of 2010 a drunk driver caused a massive wreck and my husband was seriously injured. He was also diagnosed with kidney cancer during triage. At this point his health started to seriously decline. The stress of pastoring fulltime was too much for him. We moved back home and he pastored part time. Lots of things were going on that were stressful. I turned to doing journaling of what God was teaching me as I studied scripture. In October of 2022 he was forced to retire because of his health. His call to the ministry was so strong that I knew he had lost his purpose. He died six months later. But I had also been called to minister. That call did not die when Bryan died. What was God’s purpose for me now? He led me back to the journaling I had been doing. As I am writing this, three Bible studies have been published. The first book was published through West Bow press. They set the price without my input. I think they overpriced it. I have recently republished it through Amazon, where I have discretion on the pricing. I want you to know that I am not doing this as a source of income. The prices are set as low as the publisher allows. My purpose is not to make money but my prayer is that God will use the studies, the things I have learned and share with you, to speak to your hearts. 

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The first book was Wholehearted, Living a Life Devoted to God. This is the link.

https://a.co/d/85nVfks

This is the summary.

God wants us to have a wholehearted commitment to Him. That’s not because He is controlling or selfish. It’s because He is all knowing and all loving, and wants what is best for us. We all have a sin nature, but when we accept His gift of salvation, purchased for us when Jesus paid the debt for our sin, we are forgiven and become new creatures. God’s Spirit indwells us. Does that mean we become unthinking robots who obey Him completely? No. We are still in earthly, sinful bodies. We are saved once, but we make a commitment each moment to be fully committed to Him. It’s not always easy. It’s a journey. The more we resolve to be fully committed to Him, the more we see Him for Who He Is. The more we recognize that He is beyond description, the more we want to yield to His work in our lives. Through study of the scriptures, fellowship with other believers, Biblical teaching, life experiences, even trials and tribulations, He works in us to make us more like Him. The fruit of His Spirit becomes more evident in us and through us as a testimony to others who need His forgiveness. We experience joy, peace, comfort, strength, love, encouragement, protection, faith in ever increasing measure as we allow Him to work in us. Join us as we explore scripture, share experiences, and grow in our wholehearted relationship with Him.

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The second book was Fellowship with God and Others. This is the link.

https://a.co/d/4r60uZm

This is the summary.

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Before He created the universe, God planned for us to have fellowship with Him. In His foreknowledge He knew that Adam and Eve would sin and be cast from the Garden. His plan from the beginning was for Jesus to take human form, live a sinless life, die a sacrificial substitutionary death for our sin, and be resurrected in His power, so that we could be forgiven. To point out our sin, He gave the Levitical Law to Moses. As humans we are incapable of achieving righteousness in our own power. Only God is righteous and holy. His intention was never that we would save ourselves by adherence to the Levitical Law. He sees the attitudes of our hearts. We are saved by His grace through faith, not by our own goodness. This Bible study looks at how the Old Testament law pointed to Jesus. God expected the same characteristics and attitudes from Old Testament believers that He does from us. The only way we can have these attitudes is by yielding to the work of His Spirit in us. When He does His sanctifying work in us, we have a shared fellowship with other believers. We are to interact with each other with humility, compassion, and generosity. Our purpose in fellowship is to love each other as God loves, and to share the testimony of Jesus Christ with those who have not received His gift of forgiveness. We have a responsibility to worship and serve together for His glory. As humans we continue to struggle with sin. The church is not a body of perfect people, only people who have been forgiven. The study looks at God's instructions identifying false teaching, serving with a united purpose, and addressing disagreements and conflicts.

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The third one is Living with Purpose in Jesus.  This is the link. It is still being processed so be patient if the link is not immediately accessible.

https://read.amazon.com/sample/B0GKXZVXL4?clientId=share

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This is a summary. This is probably the most intense of the three. My best friend proofread the second half and basically told me it was too much. (The friend who proofread the first half was kinder.) Honestly, it felt like it was too much when I was writing it down, but I just wrote what I was learning as I studied.

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I began writing four months before the COVID-19 crisis began, so many of my examples are from a time that seems so far away now, yet also a time that affected our lives significantly. During the time since I started this study, several changes occurred in our lives. My husband’s health declined. I changed jobs. I retired when he was placed in hospice. He died two weeks later. I did not go back and change verb tenses. If one sentence I write about him saying something, and then the next sentence talk about him in past tense, that is because I initially wrote the paragraph while he was alive, then came back to that paragraph and wrote more after he died. You may see a sharp change in my writing as we progress through this time in our lives. (I am coming back to continue this study after a long time. It was not time for me to finish writing then, but I believe God is calling me back to writing this study now). 

We begin with a historical background examining when, where, and under what conditions Paul was writing. Then we will delve into scripture to search out personal application of God’s Word. Honestly, I am just sharing what God is teaching me as I study. At times I have felt like it was “too much.” If you feel that way too, it is okay. I understand. You will see that I use several words repeatedly: Purpose, fellowship, relationship, etc. I think that these are the things that God is pointing me toward as I study. Hopefully, He will use those words in your life as well. I have tried to be transparent with you about my own life struggles and use examples of what I have learned through my circumstances.

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I am not a theologian. I have a B.A. in speech therapy, a Master of Communicative Disorders in speech pathology, and a Educational Specialist in Special Education Administration. So don’t take what I write as coming from a Bible scholar. Just read knowing that my heart’s desire is to be obedient to God by sharing what I have learned personally.