Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

7.5- Everything Comes From God I Chronicles 29:14-19 Keila Ochoa I was 18 years old when I got my first fulltime job, and I learned an important lesson about the discipline of saving money. I worked and saved until I had enough money for a year of school. Then my mom had emergency surgery, and I realized I had the money in the bank to pay for her operation. My love for my mother suddenly took precedence over my plans for the future. These words in the book Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot took on new meaning: “If we hold tightly to anything given to us, unwilling to let it go when the time comes to let it go or unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used, we stunt the growth of the soul. It is easy to make a mistake here, ‘If God gave it to me’, we say, ‘it’s mine, I can do what I want with it.’ No. The truth is that it is ours to thank Him for and ours to offer back to Him, . . . ours to let go of.” I realized that the job I h...

7.4- Come to Jesus and drink. John 7. 37  Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “ [ g ] If anyone is thirsty, [ h ] let him come to Me and drink. 38  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From [ i ] his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” 39  But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given , because Jesus was not yet glorified.   Proverbs 14. 16  A wise man [ i ] is cautious and turns away from evil, But a fool is arrogant and careless. 17  A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, And a man of evil devices is hated. 18  The [ j ] naive inherit foolishness, But the sensible are crowned with knowledge. You’re the lion of Judah and the lamb of God.   No one ever spoke like you did. John 7. 40  Some of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, “This certainly is the ...

7.3- God is our companion and our door opener to the work in ministry. Acts 14. 27  When they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and [ q ] how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. We should not ever make ultimate judgements about what is in people’s hearts and minds and their eternal destiny with God. When we must make decisions and give our opinions and judgments about things we must be sure that they are not based on quick, surface observations, but an examination of a person’s body of work understanding their opportunities and challenges.   These should not be based on things as shallow as their skin color or their clothing or their apparent wealth, poverty or social class.   Jesus work was guided by His Father in Heaven who had sent Him here on a mission, to seek and save the lost and to give His life as a ransom for others.   Weak.   Powerless. Wicked others whom...

7.2- It is not nearly as important what anyone thinks of me as what God thinks of me. John 7. 14  But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. 15  The Jews then were astonished, saying, “How has this man become learned, having never been educated?” 16  So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17  If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. 18  He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.   Education from God the Father in heaven is more foundational than anyone else’s ideas of what is truth and what is wisdom and what is intelligent and what is foolish. We were created with a hunger for God. Ecclesiastes 3. 11  He has made everything [ b ] appropriate in its t...