Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 2.6- God provides.  God wants everyone saved and that includes their physical well being and their spiritual well being. Stop seeking signs that God is alive and get busy using His aliveness to get things done for His glory.  8  In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat,  Jesus  summoned His disciples and *said to them,   2  “I feel compassion for the  [ a ] people because they have remained with Me for three days already and have nothing to eat.   3  And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come from a great distance.”   4  And His disciples replied to Him, “Where will anyone be able  to find enough   [ b ] bread here in  this  desolate place to satisfy these people?”   5  And He was asking them,  “How many loaves do you have?”  And they said, “Seven.”   6  And He *directe...

 2.5- The best spiritual growth happens when God is understood as our Father in heaven who desires to give His children His grace, mercy and peace. God is love.  Those who live in love--live in God When we love God and His Son Jesus and when His Spirit is in our hearts, we know God wants everyone to be saved and receive His love into their hearts.  He is not going to force His love on us. This is the word of God shown in every different kind of Scriptural text.  From Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms down to the life of Jesus in the gospels there is nothing more clear than the reality that God loves His children.  He stands against sinful behavior that destroys them, but He loves them and has done everything He can to redeem them. So I remind myself and my readers this morning to not allow anything to steal God's word from your mind and heart.   Satan wants to steal the word from your life.  He is a liar and a murderer and is the opposition....

 2.4-Courage to die Frank Turek @DrFrankTurek · Jan 21 The disciples of Jesus who were in a position to know whether Jesus had risen from the dead or not, died excruciating deaths when they could have saved themselves by simply saying, "Look, it never happened." 1 Corthians 15. 15  Now I make known to you, brothers  and sisters , the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand,   2  by which you also are saved, if you hold firmly to  [ a ] the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3  For I handed down to you  [ b ] as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,   4  and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,   5  and that He appeared to  [ c ] Cephas, then to the twelve.   6  After that He ap...

 2.3-Idolatry I like what Tim Keller wrote: Timothy Keller @timkellernyc · Jan 27 If you uproot an idol in your life and fail to plant the love of Christ in its place, the idol will grow back or be replaced with another. Colossians 3.  5  Therefore,  [ b ] treat  the parts of your earthly body as dead  to   sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which  [ c ] amounts to idolatry.

 2.2- We are tempted to look at other people groups and judge them as being worse than our group.  We see their worst point and compare it to our best point.  This is why Jesus warns His followers to not judge people with mere external evaluation.  We cannot see the secrets of the heart and this is most important.  Only God knows where they have been and how they have gotten through their own unique situation. Extend to others the grace you want extended to yourself. Matthew 7. 7  “Do not  [ a ] judge, so that you will not be judged.   2  For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and  [ b ] by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.   3  Why do you look at the  [ c ] speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?   4  Or how  [ d ] can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the  [ e ] speck out of your eye,’ and look, the log is in your own ...

 2.1- Perfectly Placed                                  Job 38:4-11                                   Remi Oyedele     Scientists know our planet is precisely the right distance from the sun to benefit from its heat. A little closer and all the water would evaporate, as on Venus. Only a bit farther and everything would freeze like it does on Mars. Earth is also just the right size to generate the right amount of gravity. Less would make everything weightlessly sterile like our moon, while more gravity would trap poisonous gases that suffocate life as on Jupiter.     The intricate physical, chemical and biological interactions that comprise...