Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 11.30- As you gather around the table at Thanksgiving I hope you will look deeply into each person's eyes and thank God for one more day of life with them. Gena. Tyson. Robert. Here are three names that immediately come to mind who left this world too early from my point of view. Sheila and had them with us for a Thanksgiving meal. One died at age 25 of an infection. Sick for only 10 days and gone. Another was only a teenager when shot and killed. The other was simply overwhelmed by his problems in life and was gone in his fifties. All were precious friends to us. Did we take the time to love and enjoy them at our last Thanksgiving meal with them? I hope so. Take nothing and no one for granted. Life whether 70 or 80 or less is like a vapor or morning mist. Fully absorb and appreciate time with people. James 4 13  Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”   14  [ bs ...

 1.29- "Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just; a God who is all love, but not holy; a God who has a heaven for every body, but a hell for none; a God who can allow good and bad to be side by side in time, but will make no distinction between good and broad in eternity. Such a God is an idol of your own, as truly an idol as any snake or crocodile in an Egyptian temple. The hands of your own fancy and sentimentality have made him. He is not the God of the Bible, and beside the God of the Bible there is no God at all." J.C. Ryle Acts 17 22  So Paul stood in the midst of the  [ t ] Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects.   23  For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.   24  The God who m...

 1.28- Looking out a windown versus looking in the mirror. I was visiting with a couple of friends who are blessed to have kids and grandkids that love them. We drifted into talking about evaluating people who are friends of our grandkids. Sometimes we have a critical eye seeking perfection. This friend said that she needed to be looking in the mirror. The teacher said it is hard to get sawdust out of someone else's eye when you have a two by four plank sticking out of your own eye. 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 eye? ...

 1.27- Saw a story yesterday where a man turned 100. They asked him the keys to his life. Keep your nose out of others people's business. Do something that helps others. At the young age of 79 he took on a volunteer position to help at a school. Luke 11 24  “When the unclean spirit comes out of  [ w ] a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding  any , it then says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’   25  And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order.   26  Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they come in and live there; and the last  condition  of that person becomes worse than the first.”

 1.26- Growing up in a free nation has been one of the blessings I will celebrate this coming Thursday. Freedom to worship as you please or not at all. Freedom to own your own property. Freedom to work hard and smart and become wealthy without class limitations. Freedom to vote and choose your leaders. Freedom to assemble peacefully. Freedom of the press. Thank you God. Romans 13 13  Every  [ a ] person is to be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except  [ b ] from God, and those which exist are established by God.   2  Therefore  [ c ] whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.   3  For rulers are not a cause of fear for  [ d ] good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same;   4  for it is a servant of God to you for good...

 11.25- There is a character quality that I admire in my kids and grandkids. To be able to take a punch that hurts and knocks them down, but they get back and go at it again and again. Resilience. Life includes painful learning moments. These can help us to have tested character. More valuable than gold. One of my best friends took the challenge of helping me to overcome a problem of talking to several people in a quick, shallow way rather than a few people in a deep and meaningful way. He watched me gadabout in a group and took me aside. He said, "Larry your need to slow down and really engage with people. When I see you in a crowd I think you come across like a politician running for office." To give that correction to me took deep love on his part. We are still close friends after 50 years. He called me yesterday for some good visiting by phone. He he been afraid to invest or if had walked away from our friendship it would have been a great loss. Hebrews 12 12  Therefore,...