Beth Moore Didn't See It This Way

When Beth Moore was envisioning her Revelation Study, I am sure she didn't see it like I saw it Monday night.  It was one person wrapped in a fleece jacket and toboggan and the other in a camouflage coat owed by my husband.  We were freezing.  The exercise room is beside the laundry room.  The laundry room was seeing much action.  I could see faces peering in through the little windows between the two rooms.  I could hear the water slipping into the wash drums, dryers rotating with a possible small shoe ... bump, pause, bump, pause, and then the click, click of zippers.  I assume the dryers heating up the adjacent room kept the AC running at full Arctic blast in the exercise room.  We were on ice!!!!  Still the teaching was excellent, and I left with a full heart and frozen hands and nose.

As I write this I wonder what those faces thought to see two ladies wrapped in winter clothes sitting in straight back chairs among exercise equipment watching a lady talking on a laptop that said Revelation behind her.  Oh, did you do an awesome thing with that Lord!

Amazing above amazing is that my laptop worked flawlessly.  God fixed it with no help from a human source.  It just started "talking" when my husband played an NCIS DVD a few days after it refused to "speak" last Monday.  Call it a miracle or not.  I am extremely grateful to Him for helping me with it.  I feel so much better knowing it is working properly.  He answered my prayers.

More On Books

Another series of books that are great for reading about Bible characters are by Charles Swindoll.  There are nine books in the series entitled Profiles in Character or Great Lives Series.  They are longer reads that Mr. Getz's books.  He includes a book on Esther as well as one on Jesus. 

According to the publisher, "Everybody loves tales of heroism and transformation---rags to riches, plain to beautiful, weak to strong. You'll find all of this and more in Swindoll's fascinating explorations of the lives of Bible characters. Interweaving ancient truths and contemporary insight, he shows how the qualities that informed and empowered these courageous people are available to you today!"

I definitely recommend these books.  I have 2 or 3 left to read.  I am looking forward to reading a new one I discovered while preparing this blog entry.  It is Rediscovering Some Old Testament Characters and includes commentary on Abigail.  The one about Jesus scares me when I think about reading it.  Maybe because he is so sacred in my mind.  In God's time, I'll study it.

Happy Reading!!!

Bible Study Meets

We now have meet twice with our Beth Moore study of Revelation.  The first meeting was almost comical.  The three of us met in the exercise room.  We sat on the floor leaning against the wall across from the the stationary bike and cross county ski type machine.  Laptop on the treadmill belt playing the DVD.  I had a request later in the week to sit on something.  "Maybe a pillow," she said.  How kind is that!!!  I needed to rethink the set up.  We have extra hands to set up the room so this week we sat in dining room chairs borrowed from our two rooms and had the laptop on a coffee table.  It was more comfortable!  I have a feeling we will be laughing about that start one day!!!!!

The downside this week is my laptop would not play with any volume.  Not a peep came out!  The other lady here in the hotel had her husband come down and try to figure out the problem to no avail.  She graciously let us watch the DVD on her laptop.  Please pray that we will figure out what is wrong with mine and then fix it without any huge expense.  We are also praying that our fourth member of the group will make it next week. 

Thank you for your prayers.

Men of Character

In recent years I have found that I like reading about the people in the Bible.  I put biographies on my Facebook page thinking of this favorite.  One source for insight into some of the men in the Bible is a series of books by Gene Getz entitled Men of Character.  The publisher says that they highlight the lives of men in the Bible and demonstrate that we can still learn from their relationships - both with God and man.  I have enjoyed them so much.  They are easy to read and not long.  Yes, I know they are written by a man for men but the principles are applicable for women as well. 


When I went on Mr. Getz's web site to obtain a few facts for this blog, I was astonished to see he has written 27 other books.  I will be looking up more from this author.  As for now, I have two more in the ten book series to read.  I look forward to reading them.  The Holy Spirit always has something to teach me and often times applying it to a current situation in my life.  He is so amazing to know what I need when I need it!

God Answers Prayer

I am thrilled to tell you about God's provision for the study guides.  Friday night at work a gentleman from Ohio left me a $30 tip on a bill of more than $100 for his family's meal.  When I saw how much it was I knew it was for the three books.  I feel like the Apostle Paul with his tent making business.  "You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions."  (Acts 20:34)

This weekend I also remembered another study I completed.  It was a book and study guide combo entitled "Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul."  It was written by John and Stasi Eldredge.  I used some of what I learned just recently with my daughter.  It was a good one too!!

While I am on the subject of recommending good reads, I want to recommend to you a book series.  I'll start with that in the next post.

Lord Willing

Proverbs 19:21 says "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."  That is what happened to me.  Didn't you see all those plans I had several days ago?  Today, I confirmed with the other lady for the Bible study.  We will have four ladies (including me).  We will start this Monday night if Lord willing I am able to purchase the books earlier in the day. 

I am so looking forward to it.  Just for a little background, I have been doing Bible Studies on and off for years.  It is always such a positive experience.  I want everyone to enjoy it.  I started with Bible Study Fellowship studies and even became a children's leader.  I love the Beth Moore series.  I'll have to check on it, but I think I have done more than half of the ones she has written.  I have even completed one year with Community Bible Study and a Precepts study by Kay Arthur.  Currently, I am a group leader for a CBS program entitled "It's In The Book."  A friend of mine started it at our home school cooperative.  She is a former CBS Teaching leader.

So, you see I can say Bible study has had a profound effect on my life, and I want everyone to love it. 

Is it easy all the time?  No.  There is homework.

Is it worth at in the end?  A resounding YES!

I have the DVDs.

I picked up the Beth Moore DVDs today.  I also talked to the original lady, and we set the date to start our study this Monday night.  I'll hopefully pick up her book that day at Lifeway.  I'll need a good weekend at work to make the money I need for that cost and other bills.

I left a message with our other board member asking her about attending.  After some time considering the idea of a Bible study in our living circumstances, my husband has ask me to limit the participants.  So, I will not make the poster for the hotel.  I'll still make one additional personal invitation.  My husband has agreed to take our daughter to soccer practice if needed so that we can accomplish this undertaking.  Plans are starting to jell!!!

I am so excited about providing an opportunity for others to study God's word.  I am also eager for my own personal revelations.

Bible Study On The Horizon

I am so excited!  We will be starting a Bible Study in the hotel.  You may remember this was mentioned in the Christmas letter.  Frankly, I had forgotten about it until I posted the letter here.  It reminded me, and the timing was perfect.


My husband had thrown the idea out to another long-term guest, and she encouraged me with her interest.  I went to her on Saturday with some study ideas.  She liked the study of Revelation by Beth Moore.  I was thrilled.  I felt that was the one we were suppose to do.  You see I had started it back several years ago when it first came out.  I had to drop the study for several reasons but had gained permission to use the DVDs from the church to finish it.  I had tried to borrow them back in December 2010, but they were in use by another member.  Well ... time moved on, and I forgot about it.  Am I seeing a bad trend?  Or, is God's timing?

I contacted my church again and just a few minutes ago I read the e-mail that the DVDs were available.  I will pick up them up on Wednesday.  We can get started earlier than I thought.  I was thinking we would start after I finished the Beth Moore study on James in about two weeks.  I told the lady I would round up a study guide for her.  For that I need money.  I have asked the Lord to provide.  We only have $5 in the ministry account and no money in the personal account.  The books are around $10, I think.

I thought about another person I would like to invite.  She lives here in the hotel.  That then lead to me thinking about doing a flyer for the study and see if we get any other interest.  My husband said he thought that would be alright.  I also want to clear it with the original lady.  I am not sure how we would handle a group.  I had told her we could meet down in the exercise room and watch the DVDs on my laptop if our rooms were not available.  (We both have families.)  We will see what happens.  I also wonder about men.  What if they want to come?  I think it would be OK.  It is sound teaching for any of us.

I think I will also ask the ministry's third board member to see if she wants to join us.  Oh, I am looking forward to this!!!!  Just thought of another lady to invite.  This is so fun.

If I can get one blank book, I could make copies for the first lecture notes for any additional people that show up.  I have written in my copy. After that I could take orders and payments for books.  I would need to buy them quickly because homework can pile up rapidly during the week.

Now, I am thinking about when we meet.  I am thinking Mondays would be best.  My room may even be available then because my daughter has spring soccer practice.  I know we can fit five people in here to watch a DVD on our TV.  Did I say this is exciting?  It is!

I must stop this rambling!  I'll keep you posted.

P.S.  Tonight I cooked another batch of kale chips for my daughter's Muffins for Missions fundraiser.  That's the name that came to me when this same customer bought an additional batch of muffins to take to his job to see if he could get any orders.  I have not heard that he did, but it was a great effort on his and his wife's part to try and help her.  Her new total is $17.

As Promised Last Part

Here is the final section ...

Our future plan for the ministry is ultimately to become a private grant making foundation for funding families to go on mission trips and helping small and start-up ministries.  This will include obtaining the federal designation to allow for tax deductions for donations.  We are planning to add credibility to the organization through a seminary degree and to make an international mission trip through our church to Kenya, Africa.

Just this week we received requests for Deborah to start a Bible study and for Woody to participate in a prison ministry.  The prayer group from our old house desires to reconvene our weekly meetings as soon as space allows.  God continues to work and we are humbled to be his servants.

We pray this season brings you new revelation of God and his unending love for you.  Thank you for reading this letter.  Thank you for your prayers.

Respectfully,

The Coppedges

See you here on Monday!

As Promised Part 2

More letter ...
We in turn have seen the blessings of God with the gifts in our times of need with a place to live, a van, a new computer, and the finest of meats.  Our business has benefited from donations of labor and supplies.  This list does not include the many blessings that our families have given us.  We thank God for his faithfulness to meet all our needs.

God has never failed us but we have failed him.  Our work has not been perfect.  We have grumbled and complained to God about space instead of being thankful.  We have missed opportunities to talk about Jesus.  Like Philip in Samaria, we have attempted to proclaim Christ and have been told that living our life in joy and faith in God is testimony in itself to those living near to us (Acts 8:4-6).

Thank you for still reading entries!!