Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 11.21- Clear Communication                          Romans 8:18-27                                Bill Crowder     While traveling in Asia, my iPad (containing my reading material and many work documents) suddenly died, a condition described as “the black screen of death.” Seeking help, I found a computer shop and encountered another problem – I don’t speak Chinese and the shop’s technician didn’t speak English. The solution? He pulled up a software program in which he typed in Chinese, but I could read it in English. The process reversed as I responded   in English and he read in Chinese. The software allowed us to communicate clearly, even in different languages.     At times, I feel like I’m unable to communicate and express my heart when I pray to my heavenly Father – and I’m not alone. Many of us struggle sometimes with prayer. But the apostle Paul wrote, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us t

 11.20- Hope is the anchor to our soul.  All who believe in Jesus are taught to be baptized to show their public confession of Jesus in a connection to the death and resurrection of Jesus.  God promises salvation to all who believe in Jesus and who take Him as their teacher and guide through life. Hope is the anchor for our souls through the storms of life. Priscilla J Owens wrote: Will your anchor hold in the storms of life, When the clouds unfold their wings of strife? When the strong tides lift and the cables strain, Will your anchor drift, or firm remain? Refrain: We have an anchor that keeps the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll, Fastened to the Rock which cannot move, Grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love. It is safely moored, ’twill the storm withstand, For ’tis well secured by the Savior’s hand; And the cables, passed from His heart to mine, Can defy that blast, through strength divine. It will surely hold in the straits of fear, When the breakers have told t

 11.19- The disciples of Jesus get off track often, but our mission is to go and tell people the good news.  The good news is that Jesus lived and died on the cross and was resurrected.  He sent His followers out to tell people the good news that all sins can be forgiven.   Our best life is living in the grace of God. Mark 16. 14  Later He appeared to the eleven  disciples  themselves as they were reclining  at the table ; and He reprimanded them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen  from the dead .   15  And He said to them,  “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.   16  The one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved; but the one who has not believed will be condemned.   17  These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues;   18  they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly  poison , it wi

 11.18- Jesus shows up in forms that we don't recognize.  He is there in the poor, the hungry and the lonely.  When we help them we help Him.  He is in the prisoners.  When we visit prisoners we visit Him. Mark 16. 9  [[ [ c ] Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.   10  She went and reported to those who had been with Him, while they were mourning and weeping.   11  And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe  it . 12  Now after that, He appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking along on their way to the country.   13  And they went away and reported it to the rest, but they did not believe them, either. Luke 24. 13  And behold, on that very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, which was  [ g ] sixty stadia from Jerusalem.   14  And they were talking with each other about all these things which had t

 11.17- God Looms Larger                               I Samuel 17:41-50                            Winn Collier     Giles Kelmanson, a South African game ranger, described the incredible scene: two honey badgers battling a pride of six lions. Although outnumbered, the honey badgers refused to back down from ferocious predators ten times their size. The lions thought the kill would be simple, but video footage shows the badgers walking away with something like a swagger.     David and Goliath offer an even more improbable story. Young, inexperienced David confronted the fierce Philistine Goliath. Towering above his young combatant, Goliath possessed brute strength and unrivaled weaponry – bronze armor and a lethal, razor-edged javelin (I Samuel 17:5-6). David, a fledgling shepherd, carried only a slingshot when he arrived at the battlefield with bread and cheeses for his brothers (verses 17-18).     Goliath challenged Israel to engage in battle, but no one was willing to fight.

 11.16- Your Eulogy                                 Ecclesiastes 7:1-6                                   Mike Wittmer     My heart is full from attending the funeral of a faithful woman. Her life wasn’t spectacular. She wasn’t known widely outside her church, neighbors, and friends. But she loved Jesus, her seven children, and her twenty-five grandchildren. She laughed easily, served generously, and could hit a softball a long way.     Ecclesiastes says, “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting” (verse 2). “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning” because there we learn what matters most (verse 4). New York Times columnist David Brooks says there are two kinds of virtues: those that look good on a resume and those you want said at your funeral. Sometimes these overlap, though often they seem to compete. When in doubt, always choose the eulogy virtues.     The woman in the casket didn’t have a resume, but her children testified that

 11.15- Honest to God                                    Isaiah 1:12-28                                   James Banks     My three-year-old grandson’s day was off to a rotten start. He couldn’t find his favorite shirt. The shoes he wanted to wear were too hot. He fussed and fumed at his grandmother and then sat down to cry.      “Why are you so upset?” I asked. We talked for a while and after he calmed down, I gently inquired, “Have you been good for Grandma?” He looked thoughtfully at his shoes and responded, “No, I was bad. I’m sorry.”     My heart went out to him. Instead of denying what he had done, he was honest. In the following moments we asked Jesus to forgive us when we do wrong and to help us do better.     In Isaiah 1, God confronts His people about wrongs they’d committed. Bribes and injustice were rampant in the courts, and orphans and widows were taken advantage of for material gain. Yet even then God responded mercifully, asking the people of Judah to confess wha