Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 9.13- My dear friend, Have you have come to have some doubts about Jesus’ real concern for you. You wanted to draw close to Him. You set up a situation to invite Him into your life and home. Now, some bad things have happened. You have had some prayer needs and made a clear request. The answer was not what you expected. Jesus didn’t give the answer you had hoped for at the time you hoped for it. People don’t even care that you are hurting so much. Now people are expecting you to give some more of yourself. You find yourself not having anything to give. You are tired and weary. Then someone says that not only must you help your husband to organize his life. You are to keep your job going. You are to teach your children to line up their computer and stay on task. Oh yes, you are supposed to be able to do all this and keep a positive attitude toward Jesus and people. Do you need to hear what Jesus says, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me an...

 9.12-   Sweet and Sour Job 2:1-10 Kochitl Dixon When our toddler first bit into a lemon wedge, he wrinkled his nose, stuck out his tongue, and squeezed his eyes shut. “Sow-wah,” he said (sour). I chuckled as I reached for the piece of fruit, intending to toss it into the trash. “No!” Xavier scampered across the kitchen to get away from me. “moe-wah!” (more). His lips puckered with every juice-squirting bite. I winced when he finally handed me the rind and walked away. My taste buds accurately reflect my partiality to the sweet moments in life. My preference for avoiding all things bitter reminds me of Job’s wife, who seems to have shared my aversion to the sourness of suffering. Job surely didn’t delight in hardship or trouble, yet he honored God through heart-wrenching circumstances (Job 1:1-22). When painful sores afflicted Job’s body, he endured the agony (2:7-8). His wife told him to give up on God (v. 9), but Job responded by trusti...

 9.11-   What Simon Said Luke 5:1-11 Poh Fang Chia A man named Refuge Rabindranath has been a youth worker in Sri Lanka for more than ten years. He often interacts with the youth late into the night-playing with them, listening to them, counseling and teaching them. He enjoys working with the young people, but it can be disheartening when promising students sometimes walk away from the faith. Some days he feels a bit like Simon Peter in Luke 5. Simon had been working hard all night but caught no fish (verse 5). He felt discouraged and tired. Yet, when Jesus told him to “put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch” (v. 4), Simon replied, “Because you say so, I will let down the nets” (v.5). Simon’s obedience is remarkable. As a seasoned fisherman, he knew that fish move to the bottom of the lake when the sun is up, and the dragnets they used could not go deep enough to catch those fish. His willingness to trust Jesus was...

 9.10-   Asked God I asked for strength and God gave me difficulties to make me strong. I asked for wisdom and God gave me problems to solve. I asked for prosperity and God gave me brawn and brain to work. I asked for courage and God gave me dangers to overcome. I asked for patience and God placed me in situations where I was forced to wait. I asked for love and God gave me troubled people to help. I asked for favors and God gave me opportunities. I received nothing I wanted and everything I needed. My prayers had been answered. Mark 11. 20  As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up . 21  Being reminded, Peter *said to Him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.” 22  And Jesus *answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. 23  Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going t...

 9.9-   God wants us to show compassion to the poor and sick.   He knows they way we were created in Him image that we cannot be at peace in our heart, soul and conscience when we ignore the needs of our fellowman.   To stifle compassion makes us a shriveled and calloused soul who is tormented by fear.  We all fall short of God's best for us here. Except for the grace of God all would be lost forever. Luke 16. 19  “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. 20  And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, 21  and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. 22  Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. 23  In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and *...

 9.8-   Forceful military or political leaders will see the influence that Jesus and His children have and will want to co opt it for themselves.   They will say that they are born again.   They will say they are Christian.   They will say they watch a certain television evangelist and therefore they are Christian, when in fact they do not have Jesus as the Lord of their daily life and thoughts. Luke 16. 16  “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God [ n ] has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.