Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 6.27- When Jesus went back to heaven He promised His disciples an inner, spiritual helper to guide and comfort them in their lives. This helper allows us to see God at work when the world cannot see God at work. This helper reminds us that Jesus made it back to heaven. John 14. 16  I will ask the Father, and He will give you another  [ g ] Helper, so that He may be with you forever;   17  the Helper is  the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know  Him; but  you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you. 18  “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.   19  [ h ] After a little while, the world no longer  is going to  see Me, but you  are going to  see Me; because I live, you also will live.   20  On that day you will know that I  am  in My Father, and you  are  in Me, and I in you.   21  The one who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I w

 6.26- Jesus is in God the Father and God the Father is in Jesus. We as children of God have a right to ask God for anything that we want and anything we need and if it His will He will give it to us. To love God is to keep His commandments.  He keeps His eyes on us to watch out for us and help us, not to catch us doing something wrong. John 14 7  If you  [ d ] had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” 8  Philip *said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”   9  Jesus *said to him,  “Have I been with  [ e ] you for so long a time, and  yet   [ f ] you have not come to know Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father; how  can  you say, ‘Show us the Father’?   10  Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own, but the Father, as He remains in Me, does His works.   11  Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me

 6.25- Good news.  When Jesus was here on earth He told the truth that most teachers would not tell.  The truth about heaven is that is its real and in it are many rooms.  Jesus is preparing a room there for each of us who are His disciples. When our work here is finished He will come and pick us up and take us there. John 14. 14  “Do not let your heart be troubled;  [ a ] believe in God, believe also in Me.   2  In My Father’s house are many  [ b ] rooms; if  that  were not  so ,  [ c ] I would have told you, because I am going  there  to prepare a place for you.   3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am,  there  you also will be.   4  And you know the way where I am going.”   5  Thomas *said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; how do we know the way?”   6  Jesus *said to him,  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. Revelation 21  Then I saw a new hea

 6.24- Gospel Kind of Fishing                          Roger Chapman                         Mark 1:14-20     Fish are easily spooked; seldom do they approach the water’s surface. Only during times of hunger. And should they appear near the surface, very quickly will they dart back to the refuge of the shadows. Fish are almost always afraid.     Understanding fish can help us better understand this unique phrase about being “fishers of men.” Understanding fish can also help us better understand people.     Like fish, people are afraid, skeptical, and reluctant. People are afraid to expose their souls, reluctant to reveal their fears and dreams. People are cynical that another person would only have his neighbor’s best interest in mind. Even to themselves, people are like fish who seldom break the surface of their own conscious awareness.     But like fish, people hunger. So for that brief moment, like when a fish darts to the surface, like when a person bares his or her soul du

6.23- God Will Always Be the Same               Hebrews 13:8                               Max Lucado   God will always be the same. No one else will. Lovers call you today and scorn you tomorrow. Companies follow pay raises with pink slips. Friends applaud you when you drive a classic and dismiss you when you drive a dud. Not God. God is “always the same” (Psalm 102:27) With Him “there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17).     Catch God in a bad mood? Won’t happen. Fear exhausting His grace? A sardine will swallow the Atlantic first. Think He’s give up on you? Wrong. Did He not make a promise to you? “God is not a human being, and He will not lie. He is not a human and He does not change His mind. What He says He will do, He does. What He promises, He makes come true” (Numbers 23:19). He’s never sullen or sour, sulking or stressed. His strength, truth, ways and love never change. He is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8)     It’s Not About

 6.22- The Ministry of Memory                       Jeremiah 29:4-14                     David McCasland     Our experiences of loss and disappointment may leave us feeling angry, guilty, and confused. Whether our choices have closed some doors that will never reopen or, through no fault of our own, tragedy has invaded our lives, the result is often what Oswald Chambers called “the unfathomable sadness of ‘the might have been.’” We may try to suppress the painful memory, but discover we can’t.     Chambers reminds us that the Lord is still active in our lives. “Never be afraid when God brings back the past,” he said. “Let memory have its way. It is a minister of God with its rebuke and chastisement and sorrow. God will turn the ‘might have been’ into a wonderful [place of growth] for the future.”     In Old Testament days when God sent the people of Israel into exile in Babylon, He told them to serve Him in that foreign land and grow in faith until He brought them back to their h

 6.21- Hirelings can run away when the wolf comes to the door.  The good shepherd does not.  He is there with us and for us and this cannot be completely handled by anyone but our good shepherd.  Scripture is what lasts through the centuries to be read and re-read for 100's or thousands of years.  Heaven and earth pass away, but the written word of God which teaches us about the living Word of God does not pass away. Psalm 119. 165  Those who love Your Law have great peace, And  [ a ] nothing causes them to stumble. Acts 10  The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea,  [ k ] and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.   11  Now these people were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica,  [ l ] for they received the word with  [ m ] great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily  to see  whether these things were so.   12  Therefore, many of them believed,  [ n ] along with a significant number of prominent Greek women and men.   13