Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 4.9- Parents learn to give children their independence and sometimes the children and the parents learn through suffering. You cannot bully your children into spiritual maturity. Mary and Joseph left Jesus to some freedom at age twelve. When they found Jesus Mary said, "Why did you do this to us." A father gives freedom to learn the hard way and then loves, welcomes and supports the child's spiritual and physical recovery. As an adult all of my close friends listen to me. Watch out for me. Love me. Forgive me. Warn me and appeal to me to be good to myself. They do not try to run my life and bully me into better choices. It doesn't work. God gives free will choice and so must we. Any so called "religion" that does not give freedom for free will choice in walking with God is not "true religion". There things that are always wrong in all cultures, but there are other things that are areas of opinion. Jesus had an opinion at tewlve that he should s...

 4.8- Those who are helping the sick are angels from God. EMTs. Careflight pilots. Firefighters. Policemen and women. First responders. They put on tourniquets. They do chest compessions. They shock the stopped heart. They work in ERs. They work under the direction and protection of the great healer, God. I have been healed by God and these helpers 100s of not 1000s of times. They put on splints. They wrap with bandages. They put us on gurneys. They rush us to the hospital. There the nurses and surgeons open up things and put bones together. About ten years ago I had some do this for me my left knee was put back together so I have been able to walk for the last ten years. They told me stay off of it for a while. Then get plenty of good exercise. Eat right. Exercise right. This will be able to last you for quite a while. This advice is pointed to help me do all I can to keep my body which is a temple of of God as healthy as possible by my own daily choices. God please help al...

 4.7- Because people are created with free will choice and all of us have chosen to be less than our best it is true that all us need grace and mercy. None need grace and mercy more than i do. That said, I still prefer for athletic champions to be gracious in victory and humble in defeat. Blaming no team or person more than others. I enjoyed the women's basketball tournament and was amazed especially at the long distance shooting. I liked that grandmother Kim Mulkey mentioned the joy of winning on Palm Sunday. Thankful Palm Sunday sets up the statement from the cross, "Father forgive them for they don't know what they are doing." The plan worked. Easter 2023 nearly here. Luke 23. 33  When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.   34  Jesus said,  “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” [ c ]  And they divided up his clothes by castin...

 4.6- Yesterday I returned to Fort Worth from a quick, wonderful trip to visit with my sister, Hazanne and my Brother in law Bill as a late celebration of his 90th birthday. I was driving beside several big 18 wheel trucks and when I thought about my small Honda HRV clipping a big truck. I would say a quick prayer for concentration and turn over the safety of my trip to my Father in heaven hoping everyone on the road was driving alert and sober. This morning wasn’t able to go to church in person, so I went online to my home church and a friend’s church in Greensboro, N.C. I enjoyed both worship services, but the worship in Greensboro was led by young men and the speaker was an amazing young man, Jonathan Noble, who taught on Psalm 33. He told the story of an early driving incident in Waco, Texas where he got into a bad traffic situation with heavy rain and got o a point where an 18 wheeler dashed so much water on his car that he couldn’t see the road. He spoke about anxiety. H...

 4.5   What do you need? What do you want? If you are a child of God he has taught you to pray and be sincere with Him. James wrote two thousand years ago,, "you have not because you ask not" When am around successful people I see that prayer is the key. James 4. 4  What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?   2  You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.   3  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. All reactions: 1 Cheri Wilson Luttrell

 4.4- Sometimes the best way to do something is to wait for the best timing. Other people's timing is not ours. Family love is messy. Sometimes we must give grace and space. See. Stop. Wait. Pray. Approach humbly when you believe something positive can be done. Don’t force square pegs into round holes. Allow time for prayer to move things forward without force. This is the joy of family life. Luke 15 11  Jesus continued:  “There was a man who had two sons.   12  The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13  “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.   14  After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.   15  So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fi...