Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

11.4- Families with generations of mental health and excellence have a couple of things going for them.   Good genetics and good environment.   I want to just thank God for the good genetics I have inherited.     Now regarding the environment,  I believe it needs to be an environment of mercy .   As for myself I have messed up many times while in my mother and dad’s home.   They told me their concerns.   They warned me about the consequences of my behavior.   They extended mercy to me and told me by words and actions that mercy was the way God had dealt with them and the way they intended to deal with me. Mercy. We remember how much mercy God has given to us.   As teenagers we start to make our own decisions.   At about age twelve we have a new kind of freedom given to us by our parents.   There are new opportunities to chart some new paths compared to our parent’s expectations for us.   Some of these m...

11.3- There is no greater joy on earth that to see that your beloved family is doing well spiritually, emotionally, mentally and other ways.  It is our prayer that our beloved ones prosper. 1 Thessalonians 6  But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you . 7  Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. 8  For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. 9  How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? 10  Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith. 11  Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 12...

11.2 When God has had mercy on us one of the reasons may be so we can tell how the Lord has helped us. Buddy at workout: “I have had all kinds of health things I have gone through. A heart valve replacement. Bleeding and went bad. Back to more hours of surgery. Later I had a seizure in the night. Woke up in ER. This past September I had hernia surgery. Bleeding wouldn’t stop. They put in some kind of medical weld material. It worked.” Me: “Did you have a lot of fear during all this?” Buddy at workout: “Not really. My wife was frightened. I was not so much. For many years I have been reading my Bible on a daily basis. I have started reading the Psalms daily, then I read other sections. Lately my Bible has fell open to Job. That guy had a lot of problems. I love reading the Psalms daily. I’m not exactly sure why I’m still living.” Me: “I like your modesty and humility around this. Maybe it is to tell these stories and poin...

11.1- We should take our value from God. He said we were made wonderfully.  He has taught us that He created all of us in His image.  He looked on the creation and said it is good.  The humans we interact with on a daily basis do not have the correct view of who we are.  If we have a had a good day with them, they might put us up on a pedestal.  If we have had a bad day the opposite.  God loves us. Jesus taught that be His interaction with people of all kinds. Some needed healing.  Some needed training  Some needed encouragement.  Some needed a touch or a hug.  Some needed bold correction without fear.  All needed and received love. If you follow Jesus it is true that you too will be a person of love.  You will become a person who loves deeply from the heart. That does not mean that your family will have great respect for your and understanding of your work. Mark. 3. 20  Then Jesus entered a house, and again a...

10.31- Selena. Gomez said she had lupus and her kidneys shut down. She said it turned out to be a beautiful thing. How? All her family were tested and no match. Her close friend was tested. Match. Surgery get her friend's kidney. Problems. Two hour surgery turned into six hours. Healthy now. Lupus awareness now multiplied. Transplant awareness multiplied. She said she had isolated herself trying to pretend star perfection. This was bad. She came to her family and friends. She was stretched to be healed. When asked how this happened? "It was our relationship with God." Mark 3. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 1 Thessalonians 1. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,

10.30- When I was first in Russia in 1993 I met a man named “Ernst”.   He had lived for most of his life thinking that those who followed Jesus were mentally ill.   He was a psychiatrist sent to Siberia to treat “patients.”   Many of those patients were those who believed in God and the Bible in a nation that was for 70 years committed to atheism and demanded this be taught in all the government schools.     When I met him he had been listening to World Radio Broadcasts and learned about the gospel.   He wanted to come to our campaign in Barnaul Russia, 13 times zones away from America.   He had been touched by the gospel and wanted to know more.   We studied for three days very intensely.   Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday.   On Wednesday he said he wanted to become a Christian and be baptized.   That evening he was baptized.   On Thursday our team of teachers and translators worked with him to explain how that wh...