Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 7.10- Our tormentor Can become our mentor. Gethsemane set Jesus to know how to train us through our human frialty. He said "Let this cup pass, but your will be done." Paul wrote that he had a thorn in his flesh which he asked to be removed. The answer was no, God's grace would be poured into that weakness. So he decided to delight in that weakness. When we allow God to use our weakness as a new door for growth and service. Then our tormentor has become our mentor. 2 Corinthians 12. 7  Because of the extraordinary  greatness  of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to  [ b ] torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!   8  Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me.   9  And He has said to me,  “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”  Most gladly, theref...

 7.9- I had a dream this morning. Sheila was responding to a question I had asked her, "Larry today you will not hobble to your walker. You fall out of bed to the floor. You will not be able to even crawl to your walker. You will roll and scoot to your walker." Thankfully it was a dream. If you have been through surgery or rehab it is not a day at a time or an hour at a time. It's one step at a time or a vision in your mind of that leg moving again.T. J. Shelton wrote, 1 One step at a time, dear Savior: I cannot take any more; The flesh is so weak and hopeless: I know not what is before. One step at a time, dear Savior, Till faith grows stronger in Thee; One step at a time, dear Savior, Till hope grows stronger in me. 2 One step at a time, dear Savior: I am not walking by sight; Keep step with my soul, dear Savior: I walk by faith in Thy might. 3 One step at a time, dear Savior: O guard my faltering feet! Keep hold of my hand, dear Savior, Till I my journey complete.

 7.8- I hope we can say we stand with Jesus rather than standing on one side or the other of any division among God’s people that is based on the opinions of men rather than the clear teaching of Jesus. This requires courage.   War test our courage.   Paul ask the church to pray for his own courage in the times he was called to serve. Courage is needed to face an enemy who is intent on killing innocent children.   The school situation of Uvalde is tragic.   Law officers nearby when children are calling 911 to ask for help and no one comes.   Courage is required.   A sword may be needed to stand for justice and stop evil violence.   This requires sacrifice and courage. In an evil war another kind of monster is the monster who stands by and does nothing. I like what Jason Nobles wrote about these times of war and his own commitments. I have no expectation for a people who do not first know God to value the morality that comes from knowing ...

 7.7- In times of our culture wars we need to decide will we live in obedience to Jesus or some earthly court or party in our nation? One of the problems that has come with our culture wars is that we have seen in our nation division can be applied to everything from vaccines to masks during our pandemic.   Culture wars have cause division among the people of God and division in families and it has grieved the Spirit of God. The war against gun accessibility; against abortion restrictions; against poverty; against race- based bias and oppression; against corruption in our elected officials, against the poison in the swamp; against the indoctrination of our children in publicly-funded institutions of learning; against the growing threat of white supremacy; against the fossil-fueled climate crisis bearing down on us, against the oppression of LGBTQ+ people, against the punitive charge to change the definition of marriage, man, and woman? These issues are not theoretical. S...

 7.6= When we become disciples of Jesus we confess Him as our captain and He is our master and commander from then on regardless of the kind of war we encounter.   There were teachers and religious leaders in Jesus’ day who recommended loving friends and allies and hating our enemies.   Jesus had a contrasting teaching.   Love your enemies.   Bless them.   Do good for them.   Pray a blessing on them. Rather than kill Saul of Tarsus who was killing Jesus’ friends.   Jesus loved Him. The one who guides our conduct is no the ruling of a Supreme Court or the trend out of Hollywood, but Jesus Christ.   His response will not be like the world’s response.   He has given us the narrow way where the majority do not go. Our mission is given by Jesus and it is to go into all the world and get them to our political point of view. No. To get them to our come to our nation and be a citizen with us. No. To get them to come to our political p...

 7.5- Wars can make us into monsters if we are not careful. Russian forces detained Ms. Tipakova in the corner store she owned, took her to a penal colony; interrogators beat her hands and head and tried to suffocate her with a gas mask over the next 36 hours, sent an electric current through a metal clip affixed to her ear,  threatened to ship her to the Russian cities as a laborer unless she made a video renouncing her pro-Ukrainian stance. “Everything was about that video,” she said in  Zaporizhzhia , to which she fled after her release. “I could hold out until the electric shocks started, then I thought I can’t fight anyone if I’m stuck in here, only if I stay alive and get out of here,” she said. Other protest organizers were detained and beaten, and the resistance movement petered out…Russian forces took into custody the 10-year-old son of a director of a Berdyansk city school who had refused to cooperate with the Russian authorities. They told her to think abo...

 7.4- Some children in today’s homes live with a war between their own parents where bad words are thrown around and sometimes dishes and other dangerous objects.   This is truly sad for children to grow up in homes dominated by anger, rage and bitterness rather than love.   Jesus came to teach a better way. God placing us, His children, in an environment of freedom means that He places us in a place where war is a possibility and therefore there will be enemies.   How will we respond to our enemies as followers of Jesus. A followers of Jesus who are in living in this world we are surrounded by enemies. The culture wars. The economic wars. The church wars. The nations have war. Wars test who we are.