Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

 3.6- Do you think you are too short or too tall?  The devil roams about on the earth accusing the children of God of things that are not true.  He tempts us to not trust God.  He lies about God's love for us.  If you are short here are some things you can do just as well as anyone else. Look for Jesus.  Look for him in the poor, the prisoners, the sick, the lonely the immigrant.  The broken and fallen. You can pray for crowds of people who are also seeking to connect with God and His love. You can move.  You can get into a better position to see Jesus than you have been in the past. You can receive Jesus into your home.  When you invite anyone into your home it blesses them greatly to see that kind of openness and trust.  Hospitality is a trust.  Have you been invited into a home as a guest.  You can let them know how this blessed you.  Who is the last person who invited you  to stay in their home with them for a whi...

 4.5- Today is the ninth year since we started planning and doing our ministry back in North Texas and it has been a joyful time. Teaching, writing and encouraging and being encouraged. An explosion of opportunity has come out of being slowed down by covid. I am sad about the many friends we have lost. The long haul consequences have been terrible. Please keep praying for these people and their families. Sheila and I have started to need canes and walkers to move about so we have a smaller circle of movement. Still, we are so blessed to have each other after 54 years. Our gin rummy score during the pandemic is about 250 to 230 and I will not say who leads. We have kids, grandkids and sibs who visit us when covid has allowed. We have beloved friends we connect with by text, phone, Zoom, FB, Twitter and Instagram. We are truly blessed and we want to thank God and all of you. There is an ambition we get from a 2,000 year old verse. "Make it your ambition to.. -lead a quiet life...

 3.5- Things we could be anxious about. War. A covid plague. Death to those we love.  The church having been hit hard by people not being able to get together. Philippians 4.   6  Do not  [ e ] be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.   7  And the peace of God, which surpasses all  [ f ] comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

 3.4- My fire alarm. It has a problem. It is new and yet is not functioning exactly right. It chirps when there is no fire. It might be the power, but it is connected to the power of the house. It might be the back up battery is low, but that shouldn’t be because it is almost new. It has gone off at about 4 or 5 am for the last few days. This causes a variety of sleeping problems for us and we have a way of resetting it, but that seems to last only for 24 hours. There are noises it makes when I think it should be quiet. This reminds me of some teaching I have received since I was old enough to hear and remember what teachers have said to me. Larry, you need to not talk so much. I was called loquacious Larry by one teacher. I asked her what it meant and she said that I needed to go look it up. About 3,000 years ago a wise man wrote words that went something like this, “Better to keep your mouth shut and have people think you are fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” 2,...

 3.3- Practicality Practicality is the ability to live Christianity in a way that touches others profoundly, simply and quickly. It is patterning my life after Jesus’, doing good everywhere I go. 1 Corinthians 11. 11  Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. Ephesians 4. 32  Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other,  just as God in Christ also has forgiven  [ y ] you. Ephesians 5. 5  Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;   2  and walk in love, just as Christ also loved  [ a ] you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God  [ b ] as a fragrant aroma.

 3.2- A Designed Deficiency                     Isaiah 22:8-11                        David H. Roper     There’s a natural spring that rises on the east side of the city of Jerusalem. In ancient times it was the city’s only water supply and was located outside the walls. Thus it was the point of Jerusalem’s greatest vulnerability. The exposed spring meant that the city, otherwise impenetrable, could be forced to surrender if an attacker were to divert or dam the spring.     King Hezekiah addressed this weakness by driving a tunnel through 1,750 feet of solid rock from the spring into the city where it flowed into the “Lower Pool” (2 Kings 20:20;     2 Chronicles 32:2-4). But in all of this, Hezekiah “did not look to the O...

 3.1- The Leaning Tower                        Matthew 7:24-27                                Adam Holz     You’ve probably heard of the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, but have you heard of the leaning tower of San Francisco? It’s called the Millennium Tower. Built in 2008, this fifty-eight-story skyscraper stands proudly—but slightly crookedly – in downtown San Francisco.     The problem? Its engineers didn’t dig a deep enough foundation. So now they’re being forced to retrofit the foundation with repairs that may cost more than the entire tower did when it was originally built – a fix that some believe is necessary to keep it from collapsing during an earthquake.    ...

 2.28- " God Resists the Proud "                     I Peter 5:5                        Max Lucado     When the mighty fall, the fall is mighty.                                                                            One minute King Nebuchadnezzar was on the cover of "Time® Magazine." The next, he was banished like a creature and munching on grass ( Daniel 4:1-33 ). We are left with a lesson: God hates pr...

 2.27- Living to be 75 gives one the memory of many times that I have had discussions with important people in my life when there was great concern for world peace. I remember the Cuban missel crisis and discussing it with my dad. He was concerned and prayerful and honest with me about his love for our nation, but his concern for citizens in other countries when national leaders were making big important decisions. Dad addressed his prayers at the table with these words, "Kind, heavenly Father." Pray for peace, work for peace and remember that one of the names for Jesus is the "Prince of Peace". Psalm 47 says that Jesus was taught that leaders of countries belonged to God as the ultimate controller of the world. 6 Sing praises to God, sing praises; Sing praises to our King, sing praises. 7 For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with a psalm of wisdom. 8 God reigns over the nations, God [c]sits on His holy throne. 9 The [d]princes of the people have as...

 2.26- Pray for the people of Ukraine please. They are people with great courage and hope. During my work with our church youth group we were able to present outreach programs in several youth camps in Ukraine. I met once with the national director of the camps built by the government during times under the Soviet Union when propaganda against belief in God had been presented. This leader came to believe that behind good, honest government was an ethics backed up by character qualities taught in the Scriptures. Though the government wanted freedom of religion at that time, they were willing for youth groups and sponsors to come from America and teach Christian ethics from the Bible. These basic ethical principles were also taught in public schools. Thousands of students to were taught in these camps. I have heard grandparents interviewed in the last few days saying they are willing to die for the values of freedom they believe in. We are praying for the peace and freedom for...

 2.25- The more we realize that God loves us and knows us and forgives us, the greater we are motivated to serve Him with passion and love. Luke 7. 36  Now one of the Pharisees was requesting Him to eat with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined  at the table .   37  And there was a woman in the city who was a  [ w ] sinner; and when she learned that He was reclining  at the table  in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume,   38  and standing behind  Him  at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head, and  began  kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume.   39  Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw  this , he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman  is  who is touching Him, that she is a  [ x ] sinner!” Par...

 2.24- God's work is caring for the blind, lame, lepers and the poor. What God the Father is doing is what the Son is doing. God is in these people were created by God and sustained by God and they represent Him. Luke 7. 18  The disciples of John also reported to him about all these things.   19  And after summoning  [ i ] two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are You the Coming One, or are we to  [ j ] look for another?”   20  When the men came to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You,  [ k ] to ask, ‘Are You the Coming One, or are we to  [ l ] look for another?’”   21  At that  very   [ m ] time He cured many  people  of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits; and He gave sight to many  who were  blind.   22  And He answered and said to them,  “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: people who were blind receiv...

 2.23.22 The God the read about at Jesus' synagogue. He is all powerful.  He favored His children and they knew it. He goes out with armies standing for justice and freedom. He knows the secrets of our hearts. He redeems His children because of His character of mercy. Psalm 44 44  God, we have heard with our ears, Our fathers have told us The work that You did in their days, In the days of old. 2  You with Your own hand drove out the nations; Then You planted them; You afflicted the peoples, Then You let them go free. 3  For by their own sword they did not possess the land, And their own arm did not save them, But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence, For You favored them. 4  You are my King, God; Command  [ b ] victories for Jacob. 5  Through You we will push back our adversaries; Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us. 6...