Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 7.4- He warned his players that there was a danger to being arrogant and overconfident, but still they were challenged by trap games. Some his players became even more alert when they were playing games with teams who had been defeated over and over. He had one key player on his team who was totally broken by a defeat in a game and from then on he spoke to his teammates with more gentleness and respect when they missed a key free throw. He developed a coaching group who worked with him who were known for their deeper knowledge and understanding of the game. That really they were teachers about life more than just coaches training for one win. When his coaches were approaching any game they had a humble attitude about the challenge ahead, but confident that with their proper preparation things would go well. They were known as a coaching group that were in it for the long haul of setting an example of patience and perseverance in life and in their work. Training for high quality l

 7.3- There are times that persecution comes to us as followers.  It is not a sign of failure or of the absence of closeness to God.  Jesus teaches that people who hate instead of love don't know God.  We know that God is love.  To be filled with God is to be filled with love.  To be inside of God is to be inside of love.  Love is what we breathe in and out in our service every day.  Love is what Jesus did and what we do on a good day.  We must be sure that we don't give people any reason to hate us. God sends a helper to help us to speak words that allow those near us to know that we are living in love regardless of what the surrounding world may do.  If they hate. We love.  If they love we love.  If they are apathetic we keep our passion for God and people.  John 15. 18  “If the world hates you,  [ h ] you know that it has hated Me before  it hated  you.   19  If you were of the world, the world would love  you as  its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose yo

 7.2- It fits for us to talk to Him in prayer about what we are doing.  He delights to help us succeed in what we are trying to produce.  As we see what God is doing it gives us great joy in Him working through us in spite of our weakness and failures.  He does not want us to waste our time on arguments.  He wants us to submit to each other in love.  Love for all the people around us is the key to us being helpful to them.  It is shown in laying aside our own priorities to serve them.  Laying down our lives for others is a picture of love in action.  When we operate by love instead of fear we can take reasonable risk to get things done.  He does not want the rich to use their wealth to oppress the poor.  We trust God's unfailing love more than anything else including powerful instruments of war and violence. The best context for teaching for spiritual growth is mutual friendship.  There is a great difference between slavery and friendship.  In friendship we reveal our plans to each

Jesus .my Savior. Immanuel. God here with us. H.S. has been given to us. Don't leave without him. Be a model. Have younger charges. Write to the and for them. Be blameless. The are attacks against the blameless. Find your delight in God. Obedience gives freedom and death. Rebellion brings death.

 7.1- For the disciple of Jesus, the key to productive living is to remain close to Him in spirit.  He is the source of our living giving Spirit.  This is our guidance, our comfort our power and our courage.  When productive things happen it a temptation to focus on them or to focus ourselves producing them, when in reality is is God is is producing the fruit. When we love God, we align ourselves with God's way of doing things.  We are in step with Him as we obey His commands.  He has taught us to love life, children and not sacrifice them as some idolatrous religions have done. The world's way of doing things is often the very opposite of God's way of doing them.  We accelerate the deeds that can be done in the light of openness and reduce the things that we wouldn't want people to know about.  God wants the family to be a place of love and pleasure and joy.  Jesus teaches that to accomplish that we must guard our thoughts and our words and make sure they are full of t

 6.30- On June the 22nd of the year 2013 I was given a lovely "retirement" party.  It was assumed then that I would actually continue on a reduced schedule most of the things I had been doing for the forty years of my ministry, teaching the love of God and thankfully I have been able to do that using various means including social media and Zoom meetings.  One of those teachings is that God's ways are not our ways.  His wisdom is higher than our wisdom. There are things that were in my life at one time that were very good and very fruitful but later became unfruitful.  Jesus came up to one of these things and pruned it off.  I could feel at the time that there was something very major going on with me.  At first I think I was on a stage of shock as there was this end of something very special in my life.  My lower leg would not move.  It required surgery and months of rehab which continues after eight years. It was a pruning that took a few months to get over.  It was a c

 6.29- God wants our hearts to be peaceful even about death. The ruler of this world uses death to cause people to be troubled.   Jesus wants us to be peaceful and not troubled about our life after this life.  It will be good.  This allows disciples to take the good news about Jesus into dangerous situations and not be afraid.  We can carry the burdens of suffering like a soldier without expecting a convenient life.

 6.28- Love is what powers a life of service to God and others.  He wants us to be filled with compassion for those in need.  The poor.  The sick. The oppressed.  The immigrant.  The refugee.  The outsider is the insider with us.  The Lord watches over the fatherless. Spiritually, Jesus dwells in our hearts and our lives.  He goes with us to work and He lives in our homes.  He gives us self control and avoid habits that cause poverty. The helper teaches new things and reminds us of old things.  He teaches how to keep our hearts soft and refuse being calloused.  He helps us remember to forgive others the same way we have been forgiven.  Without grace there is a hard heartedness that can set up in a heart that will treat other people with brutality rather than compassion.  The words of a wise man are words of grace. Ephesians 4. 17  So I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the  [ n ] Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds,   18  being dark