Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 6.12- The kingdom of God is not located in a certain mountain is in the location of spirit and truth.  It is in the midst of people who are filled with the spirit of God and the truth. Don’t go running after a certain physical leader.   This is a mirage. A fantasy. A false god.   This is the world’s way, not God’s way.   God has give you all of His workers. They are God’s and therefore yours. It is not about the latest preacher or pastor or elder on the scene.   It is about Jesus, the builder of the kingdom of God. Luke 17. 20-21  Jesus, grilled by the Pharisees on when the kingdom of God would come, answered, “The kingdom of God doesn’t come by counting the days on the calendar. Nor when someone says, ‘Look here!’ or, ‘There it is!’ And why? Because God’s kingdom is already among you.” 22-24  He went on to say to his disciples, “The days are coming when you are going to be desperately homesick for just a glimpse of one of the days of the Son...

 6.11- Push the children of God including yourself, most and firstly yourself to move forward from accepting the grace and mercy of God.   We move forward into service with whatever gifts we have.     Sometimes we serve and complain because others don’t serve in the way we do. Luke 10. 38  Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home.   39  And she had a sister called Mary, who was also seated at the Lord’s feet, and was listening to His word.   40  But Martha was distracted with  [ u ] all her preparations; and she came up  to Him  and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do the serving  [ v ] by myself? Then tell her to help me.”   41  But the Lord answered and said to her,  “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;   42  but  only  one thing is necessa...

 6.10- God reminded me today that children should never be harmed. We must confront and demand that no one harm children.   Obviously this includes stopping physical violence to any threat.  This includes emotional, verbal, physical and sexual abuse.   This includes making sure our hearts are pure and avoiding lust and lewdness in any form. This is more important than your own life unless you are a child.   This means we must try to stop children from hurting themselves also if we can.   When they get to a certain age we cannot completely push our faith upon them but we need to do all we can to share how God's mercy has been a blessing to us. We must push hard for change, transformational to being positive based on the mercy of God.   We must have an intervention in whatever way we can.   Of course there are limits as to how far we can help.  From a spiritual perspective we cannot force anyone to accept God's grace, mercy and peace....

 6.9- Before you criticize the walk of your Indian friends, it might be good to walk a mile in their moccasins. A blind piano player might be great, but a blind eye doctor might not be great. An audiologist with a cochlear implant might be great. A teacher without love is not great. In fact he/she is a noisy cow bell. 1 Corinthians 13. 13  If I speak with the tongues of mankind and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.   2  If I have  the gift of  prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.   3  And if I give away all my possessions  to charity , and if I surrender my body so that I may  [ a ] glory, but do not have love, it does me no good. 4  Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. ...

 6.8-   Real security cannot come from earthly things that can be seen with physical eyes. Deep anchors of life come from fixing the eyes of our heart on spiritual, heavenly things. 2 Corinthians 4. 16  Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer person is decaying, yet our inner  person  is being renewed day by day.   17  For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,   18  while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

 6.7- Pandemic, Ukraine Refugees and churches I love under attack, Shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde and families broken so that moms and dads are not even around. 20’s and 30’s living in parents homes and depressed. I will not be moved from God’s Amazing Grace. I go though times when it seems my world has been turned upside down. It is like a big mountain or a storm or a desert. Psalm 11 comforts me. 11 In the LORD I take refuge; How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain? 2 For, behold, the wicked bend the bow, They have [a]set their arrow on the string To shoot in darkness at the upright in heart. 3 If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?” 4 The LORD is in His holy temple; the [b]LORD’S throne is in heaven; Just because the evil one has destroyed something that I have cherished, I will not quit engaging in trying to overcome evil with good. To give private and public encouragement to teachers and coaches and parents and grandparents is a ...

 6.6- 149 years old. That is how old my grandad A.A. Wishard would be today if he had not been moved by Jesus to heaven when he was only 57 years old. I suspect he taught my dad to pray thanks for food prayers with these words to begin, "Kind heavenly Father". I know my dad prayed this way until he was moved to heaven in 2004. God is kind. God is heavenly. God is our Father. Thank you God for my dad and both grandads,grandad, Wishard and Woods. 1 John 4. 7  Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.   8  The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.   9  By this the love of God was revealed  [ a ] in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him.   10  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son  to be  the  [ b ] propitiation fo...