Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 9.5- Dedication I am only one person, but with God’s help I can faithfully dedicate myself to the unique task for which He calls me, whether it is binding up the wounded, encouraging the weary, or challenging the prejudices of others. I can leave the results up to God. John 15. 15  “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.   2  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every  branch  that bears fruit, He  [ a ] prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.   3  You are already  [ b ] clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.   4  Remain in Me,  [ c ] and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit  [ d ] of itself  [ e ] but must remain in the vine, so neither  can  you unless you remain in Me.   5  I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him  [ f ] bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

 9.4- Up a Tree                                      Jonah 2:1-10                                        Elisa Morgan     My mother discovered my kitten Velvet atop the kitchen counter, devouring homemade bread. With a huff of frustration, she scooted her out the door. Hours later, we searched our yard for the missing cat without success. A faint meow whistled in the wind, and I looked up to the peak of a poplar tree where a black smudge tilted a branch.     In her haste to flee my mother’s frustration over her behavior, Velvet chose a more precarious predicament. Is it possible that we sometimes do something similar – running from our errors and putting ourselves in danger? And even then God come to our rescue.     The prophet Jonah fled in disobedience from God’s call to preach to Nineveh, and was swallowed up by a great fish. “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: ‘In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me’” ( Jonah 2:2). God heard Jona

 9.3- Approaching God                                Hebrew 4:14-16                       Lawrence Darmani     A woman desiring to pray grabbed an empty chair and knelt before it. In tears, she said, “My dear heavenly Father, please sit down here; you and I need to talk!” Then looking directly at the vacant chair, she prayed. She demonstrated confidence in approaching the Lord; she imagined He was sitting on the chair and believed He was listening to her petition.     A time with God is an important moment when we engage the Almighty. God comes near to us as we draw near to Him in a mutual involvement (James 4:8). He has assured us, “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20). Our heavenly Father is always waiting for us to come to Him, always ready to listen to us.     There are times when we struggle to pray because we feel tired, sleepy, sick and weak. But Jesus sympathizes with us when we are weak or face temptations (Hebrews 4:15). Therefore we can “approach God’s throne of gr

 9.2- Intimate Details                         Psalm 139:1-18                                Sheridan Voysey     The universe is astonishingly grand. Right now the moon is spinning around the sun at 66,000 miles an hour. Our sun is one of 200 billion other stars and trillions more planets in our galaxy, and that galaxy is just one of 100 billion others hurtling through space. Astounding!     In comparison to this vast cosmos, our little Earth is no bigger than a pebble, and our individual lives no greater than a grain of sand. Yet according to Scripture, the God of the galaxies attends to each microscopic one of us in intimate detail. He saw us before we existed (Psalm 139:13-16); He watches us as we go about our days and listens for our every thought (verses 1-6).     It can be hard to believe this sometimes. This tiny “pebble” has big problems like war and famine, and we can question God’s care in times of personal suffering. But when King David wrote Psalm 139 he was in the mi

 9.1- Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it. Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. It is better to bite your tongue than to make a biting remark. Our rough edges must be chipped away to bring out the image of Jesus. Vitality shows not only in the ability to persist, but in the ability to start over. The God who created the universe is the God who loves you. 2 Corinthians 12. 7  Because of the extraordinary  greatness  of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to  [ b ] torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!   8  Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me.   9  And He has said to me,  “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”  Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast  [ c ] about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me

 8.31- So long                                    I Thessalonians 4:13-18                 Jennifer Benson Schuldt     My grandfather refused to say “goodbye”; he felt the word was too final. So, when we would drive away after family visits, his farewell ritual was always the same. Standing in front of the green ferns that lined his house, he would wave and call out, “So long”!      As believers, we never have to say “goodbye” to the ones we love, as long as they have placed their trust in Jesus as their Savior and decided to follow Him. The Bible promises that we will see them again.     The apostle Paul said that we should not “sorrow as others who have no hope”               (I Thessalonians 4:13), because when Jesus returns, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves and – together with the believers who are still alive – will meet the Lord in the air (I Thess. 4:15-17). We have confidence that one day in heaven there will be “no more death, nor sorrow, nor cryin

 8.30- Silent Helper                                     Isaiah 5                                 Julie Ackerman Link     The discovery of penicillin revolutionized health care. Prior to the 1940s bacterial infections were often fatal. Since then, penicillin has saved countless lives by killing harmful bacteria. The men who recognized its potential and developed it for widespread use won a Nobel Prize in 1945.     Long before the discovery of penicillin, other silent killers were at work saving lives by destroying bacteria. These silent killers are white blood cells. These hard workers are God’s way of protecting us from disease. No one knows how many invasions they have stopped or how many lives they have saved. They receive little recognition for all the good they do.     The Lord gets similar treatment. He often gets blamed when something goes wrong, but He seldom gets credit for all the things that go right. Every day people get up, get dressed, drive to work or school or the groce