Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 1.13- Living. Moving water does not freeze. When we clean bad things out of our lives it's important to refill that space with good things. We keep alive the water of our life in "retirement" with the very best kind of activity for the upbuilding of those who may feel overwhelmed and forgotten. I turned on my faucets to stay running for a few days and nights. We don't want our lives to be living, not frozen. Matthew 12. 43  “Now when the unclean spirit comes out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find  it .   44  Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds  it  unoccupied, swept, and put in order.   45  Then it goes and brings along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they come in and live there; and the last  condition  of that person becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”

 1.12- Grief if a tribute to joy. When we grieve we are remembering the joy.   If you lose someone who has resolve in their life and later you lose someone else who has resolve you grieve both. I got up this morning after a great week of joy with people that I love.   Then I learned that two other people that I love are in a crisis situation.   I grieved both of them, but I was also grieving the other losses I have experienced.   Some reminded me that the deep grief is a reminder of joy you had with people of great resolve. I have adopted several men in my life who were men of great resolve. Many of them reminded me of the determination of my own dad.   He had lost his dad at a young age and strength, courage and “stick to it ness” was a part of what I admired about him. One of the joys of living for 77 years is that you can look back on who your close friends were and why.   It came to me today that I have several friends now in heaven who showed me what “resolve” looked like.

 1.11- I have a friend who seems to specialized in caring for those who were weak and broken. If she saw a child at school that others students and even teachers didn't want to work with, she was drawn there. She was able to accept impossible situations without fear of failure. She was someone who had lived with a handicap all her life and I think this had given her a unique ability to believe that the grace and strength to deal with any difficulty would be delivered on time. The more others moved away the more she was drawn in to help the helpless. What powerful example of love. She lived this way for years and years and after working this way, her whole life she moved to heaven to see the one who is the ultimate helper of the weak and the abandoned. Matthew 11. 25  [ u ] At that time Jesus said,  “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from  the  wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to infants.   26  Yes, Father, for this

 1.10- There are people who seem to see the best in you and want the best for you and bring out the best dreams in you. I call them beloved, close friends. They should be kept in contact with regularly and never taken for granted. Jobs come and go. Houses, hobbies, cars and other things are not forevers. Friends remain. There is not a treasure quite like these. 1 Corinthians 13 13  If I speak with the tongues of mankind and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.   2  If I have  the gift of  prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.   3  And if I give away all my possessions  to charity , and if I surrender my body so that I may  [ a ] glory, but do not have love, it does me no good. 4  Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant.   5  It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own  benefit ; it

 1.9- That which appears real and solid can be very temporary. That which seems abstract is totally real for everyone. I watched an interview today with a fellow Texan, Mary Lou Retton, whom I have admired for her gymnastic skills and irrepressible spirit. She was healthy one day yet near death the next. She had a near death experience with pneumonia. This not to be morbid but real. When we live our life with heaven in our heart it prepares us for a good life here and a great life there. When we ignore the reality is that this life is temporary we can see our life center completely shattered. If we anchor our hope in heaven we can appreciate and live fully our life here but always be aware this this world is not our home we are just passing through. That which is seen with our physical eyes is temporary. That which is seen with the eyes of the heart is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4. 16  Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer person is decaying, yet our inner  person  is bein

 1.8- The best thing I heard all day. Everyone is invited to be a follower of Jesus. Everyone can be recycled. The best thing that happened to me in recovery of my having a bit of self confidence in myself after a failure was that a man came by my office and invited me to go with him to the hospital to uplift someone who was in serious health problems. He came by and asked if I was busy or was taking one of my six days off per week as a minister. We both got a good laugh. He told me about himself and his own career successes and failures. He shared with me the love he had for his family, his congregation, his business, his community and the three second chance life scars he had lived through so far. He sensed I needed to be recycled in my visions of the best work I could do to help people. He took me under his wing and we partnered with some other men and women to do some amazing work of helping other people make health comebacks and other comebacks, spiritual, emotional and vocat