Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Don't throw me from your presence, and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. Psalms 51:10–12 WEB. King David strolled around his palace's rooftop terrace one lazy afternoon and spotted one of his neighbors bathing. Apparently, his balcony was above hers so...

Window of Opportunity from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. In 2 Kings chapter 13, King Joash visits the Prophet Elisha. Joash was king of Israel and reigned for sixteen years from 798 to 782 BC. For decades, the Syrians had oppressed and invaded Israel, weakening them. Elisha the Prophet was a pain to the Syrians. They would make secret plans...

Moses said to the people, "Don't be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of Yahweh, which he will work for you today: for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall never see them again. Yahweh will fight for you, and you shall be still." Exodus 14:13–14 WEB. Standing by the Red Sea with their back to the water, a group of unarmed former slaves stared out at the most powerful army in...

Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Withstand him steadfast in your faith, knowing that your brothers who are in the world are undergoing the same sufferings. 1 Peter 5:8–9 WEB. When lions hunt water buffalo, they follow them and watch. Then they pick a straggler off on its own or try to separate one...

Be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid or scared of them, for Yahweh your God himself is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6 WEB. Sometimes, we can become so withdrawn that we begin to feel that it is us against the world. That no one cares or even notices what we are going through and struggling with. Even in the middle of a crowd, we can feel alone, and all...

Also delight yourself in Yahweh, And he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37:4 WEB. Many years ago, I bought a new graphics card for my computer. It had the newly released Digital Visual Interface port. DVI had just come out, and it was now possible to connect a computer to a high-definition television. So you could use a tv like a giant monitor. I have always been intrigued by electronics...

This saying is faithful, and concerning these things I desire that you insist confidently, so that those who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men; but shun foolish questionings, genealogies, strife, and disputes about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. Titus 3:8-9 WEB. Years ago, I felt everyone needed to believe like me, and...

There was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, and couldn't because of the crowd, because he was short. He ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up, saw him, and said, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house."...

The Question from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 14, the awe-inspiring power of Jesus Christ is in full swing. He miraculously fed over 5,000 people with just five loaves of bread and two fish. Later that night, the disciples were out on the Sea of Galilee in their boat when Jesus, defying the laws of nature,...

He told them this parable: "Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them, wouldn't leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that was lost, until he found it? When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing. When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which...

For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn't return there, but waters the earth, and makes it grow and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do. Isaiah 55:10–11 WEB. When I was about twenty years...

He entered into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little from the land. He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered him, "Master, we worked all night and caught nothing; but at your word I will let down the net." When they had done this,...

John answered them, "I baptize in water, but among you stands one whom you don't know. He is the one who comes after me, who is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to loosen." These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:26–29...

Yahweh spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they didn't listen. Therefore Yahweh brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his...

Your word is a lamp to my feet, And a light for my path. Psalms 119:105 WEB. The ancient oil lamps they used in biblical times had a small light radius. They would light the path just a few feet ahead of you. You couldn't see very far down the road. When traveling by night, you could see just enough to take the next step. When you took that step, the circle of light moved with you, and you could see...

Carrying the Torch from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Moses was a mighty man of God who performed incredible miracles and even parted the Red Sea so that the Israelites could cross over on dry land. But there came a day when his work was done, and it was time for someone else to take over. That person was Joshua, and the Lord used him to lead...

Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me, from the traps of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall together into their own nets while I pass by. Psalms 141:9–10 WEB. If you examine a fishing lure closely, you will find a deadly barbed hook concealed within something that appears tasty and harmless on the outside. Much the same way, a trap is a device that is intentionally designed...

Not that I speak because of lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it. I know how to be humbled, and I also know how to abound. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:11-13 WEB. I grew up on a farm in the country, but...

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to him to hear him. The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, "This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them." He told them this parable: "Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them, wouldn't leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that was lost, until he found it? When he has found it, he carries...

Yahweh said to Joshua, "Get up! Why have you fallen on your face like that? Joshua 7:10 WEB. The first town the Israelites came to when they entered the promised land was Jericho. They marched around it seven times, shouted, and the city walls crumbled. God was working with them, and He gave them an incredible victory. They were instructed to put all the loot from the first city into the Lord's treasury....

Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, "This is Yahweh's word to Zerubbabel, saying, 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says Yahweh of Armies. Zechariah 4:6 WEB. David wrote in Psalm 37:4: "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Once I was laid off from a great-paying job as a foreman with an international construction company. Then I spent...

Hello everyone! Because there were significant and sudden changes that happened at RHM over the month of April, I wanted to send y'all an update on what has been happening. The Lord has brought positive changes, but they came in the midst of attacks from the enemy that we are still dealing with, so this newsletter is also a prayer request.As a bit of background, when we started this ministry...

One of the criminals who was hanged insulted him, saying, "If you are the Christ, save yourself and us!" But the other answered, and rebuking him said, "Don't you even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly receive the due reward for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong." He said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom." Jesus said...

Rocket man from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. When God's hand touches your life, everything changes, and who you were or where you came from no longer matters. Your skills, talents, intelligence, and resources, or lack thereof, no longer matter. You become something else, a new spirit-filled creation with infinite potential. New doors begin to...

Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me. Psalms 42:7 WEB. Moments before, the water had been quiet and still as they drifted down the stream in their raft. They lazily relaxed in the warm sunshine and missed the low roar growing in intensity. They realized too late they were quickly approaching a waterfall. Their lives flashed before their...

The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn't darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly full of light, as when the lamp with its bright shining gives you light." Luke 11:34-36 WEB. After...

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness Luke 4:1 WEB. I would not be here if I had not first been there. So many times in our life, we can look back and say those words. Where we were when we met our spouse, and how narrow a time frame that it was. When we had to take a job we did not like. Only to find that it was a stepping stone for...

I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has come; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. Revelation 12:10 WEB. Do you ever feel shame over something in your past? Is there something saying: "God is mad at you because…" That is the enemy trying to...

Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter; James the son of Zebedee; John, the brother of James, and he surnamed them Boanerges, which means, Sons of Thunder; Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. Mark 3:16–19 WEB. Jesus and the disciples had to have been tired after traveling all day when they...

"For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For people don't gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil,...