Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

10.13- Followers of Jesus use their citizenship privileges to spread the loving message of Jesus. A part of the richness of our lives is that some of us were born into citizenship in a country which respects the freedom humans deserve because they were created in the image of God.  Being a citizen of a country allowed Paul to stop his punishment without due process. Acts 22. 22  They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live!” 23  And as they were crying out and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust into the air, 24  the [ j ] commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, stating that he should be examined by scourging so that he might find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way. 25  But when they stretched him out [ k ] with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it [ l ] lawful for you to scourge

10.12- Citizens of far countries can be hard and harsh, but this may cause a child of God to come to his senses and turn to God and go to his wonderful home country and family. Luke 15. 11  And He said, “A man had two sons. 12  The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided his [ d ] wealth between them. 13  And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. 14  Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. 15  So he went and [ e ] hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16  And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the [ f ] pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. 17  But when he came to [ g ] his senses, he said, ‘How