Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 12.19- Present in the Storm                              Psalm 46                                   Arthur Jackson     Fire swept through the home of a family of six from our church. Although the father and son survived, the father was still hospitalized while his wife, mother, and two small children were laid to rest. Unfortunately, heartbreaking events like this continue to happen again and again. When they’re replayed, so is the age-old question: Why do bad things happen to good people? And it doesn’t surprise us that this old question doesn’t have new answers.     Yet the truth that the psalmist puts forth in Psalm 46 has also been replayed and rehearsed and embraced repeatedly. “God is our refuge and strength, and ever present help in trouble” (verse 1). The conditions described in verses 2-3 are catastrophic—earth and mountains moving and sea waters raging. We shudder when we imagine being in the midst of the stormy conditions poetically pictured here. But sometimes we do f

 12.18- The Savior Who Knows Us                             John 1:43-51                            Adam Holz     “Dad, what time is it?” my son asked from the back seat. “It’s 5:30.” I knew exactly what he’d say next. “No, it’s 5:28!” I watched his face light up. Gotcha! His beaming smile said. I felt delight too – the kind that comes from knowing your child the way only a parent can.     Like any attentive parent, I know my children. I know how they’ll respond when I wake them up. I know what they’ll want in their lunches. I know countless interests, desires, and preferences.     But for all that, I’ll never know them perfectly, inside and out, the way our Lord knows us.     We catch a glimpse of the kind of intimate knowledge Jesus has of His people in John 1. As Nathanael, who Philip had urged to meet Jesus, moved toward Him, Jesus pronounced, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit” (verse 47). Startled, Nathanael responded, “How do you know me?” Somewhat

 12.17- Two Weeks of Discomfort Two weeks after Jeff’s due date, Sheila started telling me that there was a problem. She couldn't walk comfortably. She was unlike my side of the family in that her family was medium build to skinny build. Our side of the family was mostly "stocky" build. She looked like a couple of tooth pics carrying a watermelon on her stomach. She was unable to sleep well. Sitting caused many kinds of issues. God had created us and blessed us to help create Jeff. The shocking, scandalous story of Christianity is that Jesus was the instrument of creation of everything. Now two weeks before Christmas, Mary was carrying her own Maker inside her body. She was riding to the town of her son’s birth on a donkey? Sounds impossibly uncomfortable in many ways. She was pregnant and there had been no wedding ceremony. She had been tucked away in private by a move of grace by Joseph, her future husband. After arriving in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus and pla

12.16- It's the person who acts right who is right. World changers have said, "Be the change you seek." This is how Abraham Lincoln described the importance of right actions during the civil war.  Someone said to Lincoln that God was on the side of the Union.  He said, "Let us pray we are on God's side." 1 John 3. 3  What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he’s up to. 2-3  But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own. 4-6  All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless

 12.15- You cannot stop a movement that is being powered by God.   For the last 2021 years there have been celebrations of the birth of Jesus.  It is debated at times regarding what was the exact year or what was the time of the year, but the birth of Jesus is a historical event that no legitimate scholar denies.  His followers have been doing works of compassion at Christmas time for all of my life of 75 years.   It is a giving that goes on at shopping malls and places of business.  Food and gifts are collected to be given to the poor by people in many offices around the USA. Many who follow Jesus love the Spirit of Christmas, the birth of Jesus that cannot be shut down by government authorities. Acts 5 12-16  Through the work of the apostles, many God-signs were set up among the people, many wonderful things done. They all met regularly and in remarkable harmony on the Temple porch named after Solomon. But even though people admired them a lot, outsiders were wary about joining them.

 12.14- Lies told to strangers are bad.  To co-workers are terrible.  Lies told to yourself are the worst.  Lies told to God, the Holy Spirit are deadly.  This lie kills.   It always kills the relationship to your own soul where God is hearing the lie. In the life of the early church a couple lied about what they had given to God it was followed by their death. Acts 5. 5  1-2  But a man named Ananias—his wife, Sapphira, conniving in this with him—sold a piece of land, secretly kept part of the price for himself, and then brought the rest to the apostles and made an offering of it. 3-4  Peter said, “Ananias, how did Satan get you to lie to the Holy Spirit and secretly keep back part of the price of the field? Before you sold it, it was all yours, and after you sold it, the money was yours to do with as you wished. So what got into you to pull a trick like this? You didn’t lie to men but to God.” 5-6  Ananias, when he heard those words, fell down dead.  That  put the fear of God into eve

 12.13- The rooster crowing wakes us up to the new day.  Smell the coffee.   We are not as strong as we think we are.  People who thought they could stand up to the pressure may not be able.  We all need a second chance.  We all need grace and mercy in order to have deep peace. Luke 22. 54-56  Arresting Jesus, they marched him off and took him into the house of the Chief Priest. Peter followed, but at a safe distance. In the middle of the courtyard some people had started a fire and were sitting around it, trying to keep warm. One of the serving maids sitting at the fire noticed him, then took a second look and said, “This man was with him!” 57  He denied it, “Woman, I don’t even know him.” 58  A short time later, someone else noticed him and said, “You’re one of them.” But Peter denied it: “Man, I am not.” 59  About an hour later, someone else spoke up, really adamant: “He’s got to have been with him! He’s got ‘Galilean’ written all over him.” 60-62  Peter said, “Man, I don’t know wha