 Greetings in the precious name of Jesus!
As you can see, there have been some changes in the way we are doing things. Take time to read Gracie’s article and then browse around the new Blog.
Hill’s Happenings is no longer a part of the newsletter, but is posted on this site under its own category. Whenever something worthwhile happens, we post it to that area. That way we don’t have to wait until something occurs; and neither do we have to struggle to find something to put into the newsletter. Besides, I don’t imagine everyone on this list cares about what is going on. (grin) For those who do want to keep up, you can subscribe to this blog and be notified when something is posted.
There is also the Prayer & Praise tab at the top of the page. Put your prayer requests here. Those who are subscribed to the blog will get your request in their inbox and will be praying on your behalf.
There are more changes coming, but, for now, enjoy and learn from Gracie as she writes about
Learning to Speak the Word.
Speaking the Word must begin with learning the word. That begins with reading the Word and placing it in our minds continually, until it filters down into our hearts as we continually repeat it. This process works so well that the advertising business has used it for their products. It changes the way we think.
James is a good place to start the renewing of your mind, with the goal of placing God’s word in your mouth.
Picture a teapot. God’s word, living water, is poured into the pot. It filters through the tea of your mind into the body of the pot, your heart, and is poured out the spout, your mouth, to refresh those around you.
James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. (KJV)
The words of the song come to mind: “Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts, let us not lift our soul to another, O Lord let us be a generation that seeks your face, O God of Jacob.”
Matthew Henry wrote the following for James 4:1-10:
“Draw nigh to God, in his worship and institutions, and in every duty he requires of you.” 2. Cleanse your hands. He who comes unto God must have clean hands. Paul therefore directs to lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting (1 Tim 2:8), hands free from blood, and bribes, and every thing that is unjust or cruel, and free from every defilement of sin: he is not subject to God who is a servant of sin. The hands must be cleansed by faith, repentance, and reformation, or it will be in vain for us to draw nigh to God in prayer, or in any of the exercises of devotion. 3. The hearts of the double-minded must be purified. Those who halt between God and the world are here meant by the double-minded. To purify the heart is to be sincere, and to act upon this single aim and principle, rather to please God than to seek after any thing in this world: hypocrisy is heart-impurity; but those who submit themselves to God aright will purify their hearts as well as cleanse their hands. (Emphasis added)
(from Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, PC Study Bible Formatted Electronic Database Copyright © 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All Rights reserved.)
Drawing near to God requires faith, repentance, and reformation. It requires clean hands, free from wrath and doubting. It requires a pure heart, free from double-mindedness. It requires a single purpose, aim and principle. We believe, we turn from the present way of thinking, we change to a new way of thinking as we converse with God, we accept his way of thinking. We put it into action, denying doubts and WRATH {The Bible declares that all people are “by nature children of wrath” (Eph 2:3) (from Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright © 1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)}. Sin is a translation of wrath. We keep a single purpose that has one aim, to please God, and one principle to be what he wants.
To summarize,
we believe,
we turn from the present way of thinking,
we change to a new way of thinking, [the renewing of our mind] as
we converse with God,
we accept his way of thinking,
we act by denying doubts and wrath (sin), and
we focus on a single purpose that has one aim—to please God,
and one principle—to
be what he wants.
Read the Word, learn the Word, speak the Word, share the Word.
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Practical Bible Teaching 
Dale, I believe a silver or chrome replacement for the red would be good. My visual take on the color (or degree to lack thereof) is that of a high-speed train to glory. My other idea would be a cool green, the visual take being that of green pastures and living waters. gracie
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The mind is a very powerful thing and unfortunately can be manipulated to think in many different ways. We as human have a choice or free will to think things out and act on what we feel is right. Often our own thoughts are misguided by temptation or by self desire, which lead to sin. While our mind is racing we are consistently second guessing what the lord wants us to do, therefore we act against him. If our thoughts are clean and nothing comes to disturb that then are we closer to God? Would that make our hearts pure? If we choose not to second guess what god is presenting to us then would that lead us to a pure heart? Not an easy thing to do with how corrupt things are in this generation, so you have to pray and hope that your heart remain strong through double-minded temptation and build your trust and faith in God in order to guide yourself to purity. Enduring this temptation is a blessing, because it test your faith in God. I personally feel that if you want to achieve a “pure” heart you have to achieve a pure mind, and you can’t be second guessing what god intends for you nor can you cave into your own self-ambitions or personal desires. Does this sound like something you can agree with in theory?
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In Luke 5: 21-26 We have the scribes and Pharisees reasoning. Jesus took note of that and responded. Now, we use the mind to reason. Jesus acted in faith, not by reason and the man was healed and forgiven. Here is the complete passage.
Luke 5:20-26
…he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.
21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?
22 But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts?
23 Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?
24 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.
25 And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.
26 And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day.
KJV
So do we put our faith in what is in our mind? or in God’s Word? Do we put our faith in what we feel? or God’s Word? Any action we take, any conversation we speak needs to be based in God’s Word. If it lines up with what we know from his Word we can speak it, we can recognize the connection between his Spirit and ours. We need to know God’s Word. The power of God is released when we speak His Word, believe His Word, act on His Word.
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Amen Gracie! We put our faith in God’s word, and HIS faithfulness.
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