Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 12.12- I can trust an unknown future to a known God. You have heard of PTSD. Post traumatic stress DISORDER. Have you heard of PTSG? Post traumatic stress GROWTH. Great trauma and stress is not followed by "normal life" but by shattered views of what life with God is like for all of us broken people (and all of us are broken). My feet and ankles dropped to 85% effectiveness on 5.23.05.((age 59) Then by 7.10.13, A cane. Then on 9.4.22 the end of a 55 year marriage. Then by 9.10.22, A walker. Then on 10.13.23, a motorized scooter, (electric wheel chair) 90%. My life has become very different but I am learning it can lead to GROWTH. Spiritual, emotional GROWTH. I am starting to experience SOCIAL Growth. Now God has brought into my life these new PTSG meetings. Sunday. 2, Monday 1, Tuesday, 4, Wednesday 2, Thursday, 1. Ten PTSG meetings per week with other men, who also are spiritually broken in one way or another. They have wheel chairs inside their mind and heart. We have no d...

 12.11- When death comes a person we love becomes a bit like a kite that is flying so high it is invisible. We can't see them but we still feel the tug of the string. I know that being single can be a gift but marriage that is loving and pleasureable is a beautiful thing. God said when he first created Adam that it was not good for him to be alone. Some of my closest friends had their first marriage in their 40s or 50s. Weddings can be expensive emptiness, but when God joins two souls together it turns the water of daily routines into the wine of exhilarating joy. Sheila went invisible to me on 9.4.22 but I felt the tug on my heart yesterday and I do every day. Acts 1 9  And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were watching, and a cloud took Him up, out of their sight.   10  And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, then behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them,   11  and they said, “Men o...

 12.10- Did you ever go through a hard time and think God had made a mistake. Job did. David did. Paul did. Then after a while of honest conversation and some time you could see it was not a mistake but had a good purpose in your life. Then we see that God is love. James 1. 2  Consider it all joy, my brothers  and sisters , when you encounter various  [ c ] trials,   3  knowing that the testing of your faith produces  [ d ] endurance.   4  And let  [ e ] endurance have  its  perfect  [ f ] result, so that you may be  [ g ] perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5  But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and  [ h ] without reproach, and it will be given to him.   6  But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.   7  For that ...

 12.9- In 2008 Katherine Wolfe miraculously survived a catastrophic stroke. Fifteen years later, her second-chance life is making hope accessible for people living their own stories of suffering. Her son James was born in 2007 and just six months later, Katherine miraculously survived a catastrophic stroke caused by a congenital brain defect she never knew she had. After a sixteen-hour brain surgery, forty days in the ICU, a year in neuro rehab, and eleven operations, she continues her recovery to this day. "In the very heart of our deepest pain and struggle that God chooses to reveal his most precious gifts." Matthew 5 5  Now when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the  [ a ] mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him.   2  And He opened His mouth and  began  to teach them, saying, 3  “ [ b ] Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4  “Blessed are those who mourn, for they w...