Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

7.12- Worth Dying For Max Lucado Has someone called you a lost cause? A failure? Has someone dismissed you as insignificant? Don’t listen to them. They don’t know what they’re talking about. You were conceived by God before you were conceived by your parents. You were loved in heaven before you were known on earth. You aren’t an accident. When you say yes to God you are being made into God’s image. Print that on your resume! In the eyes of God you are worth dying for. Would you let this truth define the way you see yourself? Would you let this truth define the way you see other people? Every person you see was created by God to bear his image and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. This is God’s plan. This is God’s promise. And he will fulfill it! Because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!

7.11- Of Love and Old Shoes Psalm 139:1-12 James Banks Sometimes my wife and I finish each other’s sentences. In over thirty years of marriage we’ve become increasingly familiar with the way the other thinks and speaks. We may not even have to finish a sentence at all; just a word or a glance is enough to express a thought. There’s comfort in that like an old pair of shoes you continue to wear because they fit so well. Sometimes we even refer to each other affectionately as “my old shoe: - a compliment that might be difficult to understand if you didn’t know us well! Through the years our relationship has developed a language of its own, with expressions that are the result of decades of love and trust. It’s comforting to know that God loves us with a deep familiarity. David wrote, “Before a word is on my tongue, you, Lord, know it completely” (Ps. 139:4). Imagine having a quiet conversation with Jesus where you’re telling Him the deepest matters of your ...

7.10- To be a leader means to protect others from mistreatment by taking on those who mistreat others whether from ignorance or malice. Leaders stand for righteousness. Those who who are God's sons and daughters stand because of Him. The territory has already been won by a righteous God and now the need is to stand strong and give no ground to the unrighteous forces of hate and evil. The cross and the empty tomb have stood as markers for 2020 years. Our hope will not be taken down by weak, flighty, unstable and change with the winds ideas. Love wins over hate. Mercy triumphs over judgment. John 15. 18  “If the world hates you, [ e ] you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19  If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20  Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, t...

7.10- First Moving day, 10.1.77. From the DFW area to Denver. and Second Moving day, 7.10.13. I had a mind, heart and soul move that happened at the same time as this first external move. The reasons for the change were several. I had gone through about 20 years of formal education. Now I was launched out to be a life-long learner led by the situations of need that were presented to me. Another part of the change was for the first time a move away from all of my family support systems. Then there was the culture change from Texas to Colorado. Finally, I was so broken in my heart and spirit that the normal encouragement that I had received from my family and good Christian friends was not enough to move me out of times of feeling what I had learned to call being “blue”. It was not anything close to “depression” but it was a flat feeling, a dull, joyless attitude about life. This after six years of formal Christian education. Wow! Some of it had been good, but some had b...

7.10- Paddling Home Philippians 3:12-16 David Roper I like Reepicheep, C. S. Lewis’ tough little talking mouse in the Chronicles of Narnia series. Determined to reach the “utter East” and join the great lion Aslan [symbolic of Jesus], Reepicheep declares his resolve: “While I may, I sail East in Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I row East in my coracle [small boat]. When that sinks, I shall paddle East with my four paws. Then, when I can swim no longer, if I have not yet reached Aslan’s Country, there shall I sink with my nose to the sunrise.” Paul put it another way: “I press on toward the goal” (Phil. 3:14) His goal was to be like Jesus. Nothing else mattered. He admitted that he had much ground to cover but he would not give up until he attained that to which Jesus had called him. None of us are what we should be, but we can, like the apostle, press and pray toward that goal. Like Paul we will always say, “I have not yet arrived.” Nevertheless, despite...

7.9- Like Sheep One of my daily chores when I lived with my grandfather in northern Ghana was taking care of sheep. Each morning I took them to pasture and returned by evening. That was when I first noticed how stubborn sheep can be. Whenever they saw a farm, for instance, their instinct drove them right into it, getting me in trouble with the farmers on a number of occasions. Sometimes when I was tired from the heat and resting under a tree, I observed the sheep dispersing into the bushes and heading for the hills, causing me to chase after them and scratching my skinny legs in the shrubs. I had a hard time directing the animals away from danger and trouble, especially when robbers sometimes raided the field and stole stray sheep. So I quite understand when Isaiah says, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way” (Isaiah 53:6). We stray in many ways: desiring and doing what displeases our Lord, hurting other people by our cond...

7.8- Let God Train You Max Lucado All tests are temporary, limited in duration. 1 Peter 1:6 says, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” Some tests end on earth, but all tests will end in heaven, right? In the meantime, let God train you. He watches the way you handle the little jobs. Jesus promised in Matthew 25:21, “If you’re faithful over a few matters, I will set you over many.” Do you aspire to do great things? Excel in the small things. Don’t complain. Let others grumble, not you. When you’re given a task, take it. When you see a hurt, address it. Compassion matters to God. This is the time for service, not self-centeredness. Cancel the pity party. Love the people God brings to you. He will work in you what is pleasing to Him. You will get through this.

7.7- How much is enough? We might ask this simple question on a day that many developed countries increasingly devote to shopping. I speak of Black Friday, the day after the US Thanksgiving holiday, in which many stores open early and offer cut-price deals; a day that has spread from the States to other nations. Some shoppers have limited resources and are trying to purchase something at a price they can afford. But sadly, for others greed is the motivation, and violence erupts as they fight for bargains. The wisdom of the Old Testament writer known as “the Teacher” (Ecclesiastes 1:1) provides an antidote to the frenzy of consumerism we may face in the shops – and in our hearts. He points out that those who love money never will have enough and will be ruled by their possessions. And yet, they will die with nothing: “As everyone comes, so they depart” (5:15). The apostle Paul echoes the Teacher in his letter to Timothy; when he says that the love of money is a root of ...

7.6- Mistakes Were Made Exodus 32:1-5, 19-26 Cindy Hess Kasper “Mistakes were made,” said the CEO as he discussed the illegal activity his company had been involved in. He looked regretful, yet he kept blame at arm’s length and couldn’t admit he had personally done anything wrong. Some “mistakes” are just mistakes: driving in the wrong direction, forgetting to set a timer and burning dinner, miscalculating your checkbook balance. But then there are the deliberate deeds that go far beyond – God calls those sin. When God questioned Adam and Eve about why they had disobeyed Him, they quickly tried to shift the blame to another (Genesis 8-13). Aaron took no personal responsibility when the people built a golden calf to worship in the desert. He explained to Moses, “[The people] gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!” (Exodus 32:24). He might as well have muttered, “Mistakes were made.” Sometimes it seems easier to blame som...