Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 10.10- If its something you wouldn’t want revealed to anyone who matters to you, it might be best just to not do it. 795 Years ago today a man died who wrote these words. Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy; O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console; To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. St. Francis Ephesians 4. 25  Therefore, ridding yourselves of falsehood,  speak truth each one  of you  with his neighbor , because we are parts of one another.   26  Be angry, and  yet  do not sin ; do not let the sun go down on your anger,   27  and do not give the devil  [ t ] an opportunity.   28  The one who steals m

 10.9- The Highest Place                                Colossians 1:15-23                            Keila Ochoa     My husband invited a friend to church. After the service his friend said, “I like the songs and the atmosphere, but I don’t get it. Why do you give Jesus such a high place of honor?” My husband then explained to him that Christianity is a relationship with Christ.   Without Him, Christianity would be meaningless. It’s because of what Jesus has done in our lives that we meet together and praise Him.     Who is Jesus and what has He done? The apostle Paul answered this question in      Colossians 1. No one has seen God, but Jesus came to reflect and reveal Him (verse 15). Jesus, as the Son of God, came to die for us and free us from sin. Sin has separated us from God’s holiness, so peace could only be made through someone perfect. That was Jesus (verses 14, 20). In other words, Jesus has given us what no one else could – access to God and eternal life (John 17:3).

 10.8- In Abundance of Affliction                    Job 1:13-22                             Kirsten Holmberg     Ann Voskamp’s book One Thousand Gifts encourages readers to search their lives each day for what the Lord has done for them. In it, she daily notes God’s abundant generosity to her in gifts both large and small, ranging from the simple beauty of iridescent bubbles in the dish sink to the incomparable salvation of sinners like herself (and the rest of us!). Ann contents that gratitude is the key to seeing God in even the most troubling of life’s moments.     Job is famous for a life of such “troubling” moments. Indeed, his losses were deep and many. Just moments after losing all his livestock, he learns of the simultaneous death of all his ten children. Job’s profound grief was evidenced in his response: he “tore his robe and shaved his heard” (Job 1:20). His words in that painful hour make me think Job knew the practice of gratitude, for he acknowledges that God had giv

 10.7- Our Welcoming God                            Acts 10:34-38                                   Winn Collier     Our church meets in an old elementary school, one that closed in 1958 rather than obey a US court order to integrate (the act of having African-American students attend schools previously attended by only Caucasian students). The following year, the school reopened and Elva, now a member of our church, was one of those black students who were thrust into a white world. “I was taken out of my safe community, with teachers who were part of our life,” Elva recalls, “and placed in a scary environment in a class with only one other black student.” Elva suffered because she was different, but she became a woman of courage, faith and forgiveness.     Her witness is profound because of how much evil she endured at the hands of some members of a society that denied the truth that every human being, regardless of race or heritage, is loved by God. Some members of the early chu

 10.6- Officer Miglio’s Heart                              Matthew 18:1-10                  Tim Gustafson     Back at the police station, Officer Miglio slumped wearily against a wall. A domestic violence call had just consumed half his shift. Its aftermath left a boyfriend in custody, a young daughter in the emergency room, and a shaken mother wondering how it had come to this. This call would wear on the young officer for a long time.    “Nothing you could do, Vic,” said his sergeant sympathetically. But the words rang hollow. Some police officers seem able to leave their work at work. Not Vic Miglio. Not the tough cases like this one.     Officer Miglio’s heart reflects the compassion of Jesus. Christ’s disciples had just come to Him with a question: “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matthew 18:1). Calling a small child to Him, He told His disciples, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).

 10.5-   Unexpected Ways                                I Kings 19:1-12                                 Mart Dehaan     In 1986, five-year-old Levan Merritt fell twenty feet into the gorilla enclosure of England’s Jersey zoo. As parents and onlookers cried out for help, a full-grown male silverback named Jambo, placed himself between the motionless boy and several other gorillas. Then he began to stroke the child’s back. When Levan began to cry, Jambo led the other gorillas into their own enclosure as zookeepers and an ambulance driver came to the rescue. More than thirty years later Levan still talks about Jambo the gentle giant – his guardian angel who had acted in a shockingly unexpected way, changing his perceptions of gorillas forever.     Elijah may have expected God to act in certain ways, but the God of gods used a rock-shattering wind, a powerful earthquake, and raging fire to show His prophet how not to think of Him. Then He used a gentle whisper to show His heart and to

 10.4- Read Backwards                                 Revelation 21:1-7                           Randy Kilgore     I confess that I sometimes read the end of a book before I read the beginning. Doing so allows me to know which characters live and which characters don’t. When I know how it will turn out, I’m able to relax and thoroughly appreciate and enjoy the story and the characters.     In a similar way, reading the final book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, can be an encouragement and comfort for the followers of Jesus. Time and again, Christians are called to be overcomers (I John 4:4; 5:4; Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). We can be overcomers now and will be for all eternity.     As the apostle John talks about the revealing of the new heaven and the new earth in Revelation 21:1, he describes what the final victory will look like for those who have chosen Jesus to be their Savior. At the time, we will see the end of death, tears, sorrow and pain (verse 4). T

 10.3- Vocational wisdom? I think so. It is not uncommon for young men and women to struggle in finding the right job. I saw this in an online discussion and I'm sorry I don't know the author's name but it resonates with me. "I disagree with the idealists in other answers: find a job or major that you don’t hate and that can make you pay your bills. Purposedly I didn’t say “a job you love”, because that comes with time. The point is to keep moving and don’t starve. Meanwhile, develop good work habits and ethic. It is valid to change professions until you find something in which you feel well and competent, and it pays reasonably well for your lifestyle." Phillipians 2. 14  Do all things without complaining or arguments;   15  so that you will  [ k ] prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you  [ l ] appear as  [ m ] lights in the world,   16  holding firmly the wor