Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 6.5- Beautiful Unity                         Ephesians 4:1-6                        Marvin Williams     Seeing three large predatory animals cuddle and play together is extremely unusual. Yet this is precisely what happens daily in an animal sanctuary in Georgia. In 2001, after months of neglect and abuse, a lion, a Bengal tiger, and a black bear were rescued by Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary. “We could have separated them,” said the assistant director. “But since they came as a kind of family, we decided to keep them together.” The trio had found comfort in each other during their time of mistreatment, and despite their differences, they live peacefully together.     Unity is a beautiful thing. But the unity Paul wrote about in his letter...

 6.4- Our Covering                               Romans 3:21-26                                      Anne Cetas     When talking about faith in Jesus, we sometimes use words without understanding or explaining them.   One of those is righteous. We say that God has righteousness and that He makes people righteous , but this can be a tough concept to grasp.     The way the word righteousness is pictured in the Chinese language is helpful. It is a combination of two characters. The top word is lamb . The bottom word is me . The lamb covers or is above the person.     When Jesus came to this world, John the Baptist cal...

 6.3- Who Do You Say He Is?                       Matthew 16:13-20                          Bill Crowder     In a 1929 Saturday Evening Post interview, Albert Einstein said, “As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene . . . No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”            The New Testament Scriptures give us other examples of Jesus’ countrymen who sensed there was something special about Him. When Jesus asked His followers, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” they replied that som...

 6.2- Going First                                        I John 4:7-21                             Kristen Holmberg     We worked patiently to help our son heal and adjust to his new life with our family. Trauma from his early days in an orphanage was fueling some negative behaviors. While I had enormous compassion for the hardships he experienced in his early days, I felt myself begin to withdraw from him emotionally because of those behaviors. Ashamed, I shared my struggle with his therapist. Her gentle reply hit home: “He needs you to go first . . . to show him he’s worthy of love before he’ll be able to act like it.”     John pushes th...

 6.1- The Greater Glory                      John 17:1-5, 20-24                                   Mart Dehaan     Caesar Augustus is remembered as the first and greatest of the Roman emperors. By political skill and military power he eliminated his enemies, expanded the empire, and lifted Rome from the clutter of rundown neighborhoods into a city of marble statues and temples.   Adoring Roman citizens referred to Augustus as the divine father and savior of the human race. As his forty-year reign came to an end, his official last words were, “I found Rome a city of clay but left it a city of marble.” According to his wife, however, his last words were actually, “Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit.” ...

 5.31- Remember                       Matthew 27:46, Psalm 23                            Ken Davidson, Jr.     Where do we go and what do we do when trouble consumes us? I mean real trouble. Trouble so bad that it feels like God has deserted us. This kind of trouble prompts book titles, like Philip Yancey’s Where Is God When It Hurts? We have all experienced trouble, and sometimes it shakes our faith. The Psalmist gives us direction, hope and comfort.     When trouble strikes: Remember the deeds of the Lord. Review them, relive them, meditate on them and find strength.     In so doing, as a seeker of God, we are reminded that God is holy, God is great and God is strong. His holiness is our hiding place. His str...