Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

7.5- Human beings are not animals of instinct.   This is one difference between humans and the other animals.   We were made in the image of God.   We have the freedom of choice of what we think about.   We can choose to think about being poor in a new way compared to our culture.   We can reframe things to see that there is some value in mourning because it leads to comfort.   We have the power to control our power.   We can move our hunger from food to a hunger to do without food from time to time.    Can change our mind from how violent and vengeful can I be to how merciful can I be.    Our minds and hearts can be filled with dirty, filthy images or pure things.   The choice is ours.   We can be a peacemaker or a warmonger.   When we choose the narrow path we enjoy a walk with a few versus the many.   Persecution comes to those who stand with God against the local culture of idolatry and pagan worshi...

7.4- What's different about America? It's the rule of law. I saw the forces of law deal with Richard Nixon.  He was all powerful for a while.  Then his inner circle, John Dean, turned away from him to the truth. Then his Republican leaders, Barry Goldwater, and others turned away from him to the truth. Then his whole party turned away from him to the truth. Then his entire country through their representatives turned from him to the truth. He was done. “I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.” – Thomas Jefferson (1788) Matthew 5. 17  “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18  For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not [ h ] the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19  Whoever then annuls one of the least of these c...

7.3- 1776-2017 241 years is a long time for a mission statement to stand for a nation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. 2017 years is a long time for a mission statement to stand for a group of people called Christians. Matthew 28. “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 [e]Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you [f]always, even to the end of the age.” These two statements are related. For many of us the declaration of independence gives us freedom in the USA to pursue happiness in the form of following the mission of Jesus Christ. Anyone who tries to take away these rights given to h...

7.2- Training our families is a top notch job for us.   They need correction in order to deliver to us the comfort and delight we desire. They need a vision of the kind of life you have in mind for the family. They need no threats but consequences of choices that are carried out without demeaning anger and threats.   This is the discipline of a loving mother and father. There is a difference in a healthy family and a dysnfunctional family. Or. Does the Bible normalize deviance? No. But the Bible does cause all of us to see ourselves as people who fail to hit the mark of our best goals.  The Bible calls this transgression.  All of us are sinners.  Those who say they are not are liars. I believe there is such a thing as a healthy family but not a perfect family. Here are the elements of God’s vision of a healthy family. Correction of children done in the spirit of love and kindness. A clear vision of what the goals of the parents...