Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

Thinking of Lamar Odom this morning. Have you ever been caught in something bad?  I have.  In those situations those who knew Jesus well were the most gentle helpers that I had. My parents.  My wife.  My kids.  My siblings.  My Jesus follower friends. They were gentle.  They were honest.  They were protective. They assumed there was some of this that I didn’t cause. They knew that there was some of this that I had caused. They told me that they were there to help me face the truth. They told me that they would be there not to condemn me but to help me get a fresh start. They told me that Jesus had not given up on me and they had not given up on me and I should not give up on myself. They told me to stop doing the things that were dangerous and self destructive. They helped me to start completely over.  I mean completely. They helped me get recycled with a better crowd of people around me. I recovered and kept going.  I am still in recove

John 5. 21  For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22  Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23  that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

John 5. 16  So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17  In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18  For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 19  Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.

Today is my Sister, Hazanne's 80th birthday.  I have been blessed by her all my life.  She was about eleven when I was born and a real caregiver and lover of kids so she joined my mom in watching after me. She has continued this until this day.  When I decided to go to Abilene to college, she and her wonderful husband Bill Luttrell, invited me to live with them and their kids. What a blast!   On this her birthday I celebrate the accomplishments of her life.  She was leader in our school whom I looked up to.  She was and is a superwife, supermom, supergrandmother, supergreatgrandmother, superaunt and superfriend..  She loves to make people laugh at life while have a focus on the best values life has to offer.  I love all my family.  Dad, Mom, and Reed who have moved to heaven now.  We enjoyed a special dinner last night hosted by my brother Bill and his wife Helen. Thank you God for all my family and today especially Hazanne Luttrell.

John 5. 7  “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 8  Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9  At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10  and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” 11  But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” 12  So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” 13  The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. 14  Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15  The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

John 5. 5  Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2  Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda [ a ] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3  Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4]  [ b ] 5  One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6  When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

John 4. 43  After the two days he left for Galilee. 44  (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 45  When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there. 46  Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47  When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. 48  “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” 49  The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50  “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51  While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52  When he inquired as to

John 4. 39  Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40  So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41  And because of his words many more became believers. 42  They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

John 4. 36-38  “The Harvester isn’t waiting. He’s taking his pay, gathering in this grain that’s ripe for eternal life. Now the Sower is arm in arm with the Harvester, triumphant. That’s the truth of the saying, ‘This one sows, that one harvests.’ I sent you to harvest a field you never worked. Without lifting a finger, you have walked in on a field worked long and hard by others.”