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Dreams and Circumstances from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to examine the birth of Jesus and how God guided Mary and Joseph. It all began when the angel Gabriel appeared to a young woman named Mary and told her that she would soon conceive a child when the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. She was engaged to Joseph, a carpenter, but not yet married, so becoming pregnant now made...

Good From Bad (Your Worst Day Can Become Your Best) from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about how God can bring good things out of the bad. How He can change your worst day, into your best. How He can change bad situations, into incredible opportunities. He has done it all through scripture, He has done it for me, and He will do it for you. (Romans 8:28 NKJV)  And...

God Almighty from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. There is a lot of fear and uncertainty in the world today and I feel that many are losing their focus by spending too much time listening to the news, and too little time listening to the Lord. We must remember that what we feed in our mind will grow, and what we starve will die. Things that we focus on grow bigger and bigger. I believe that...

Pestilence: The White Horse from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about pestilence in scripture. A hot topic on the news today is the Coronavirus that is ravaging countries. While I am writing this, the cases reported have increased thirteen fold in China, and Italy has now shut down all transportation except to medical facilities and grocery stores. It has become a serious...

The House of God from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about The House of God, the place where we go to meet God. When the Israelites left Egypt, Moses met with God in a tent called “The Tent of Meeting” (Exodus 33:7). When Moses went inside, the pillar of cloud would descend on it and the Lord would talk with Moses. Then the Lord gave Moses instructions to build...

Overwhelmed from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about feeling overwhelmed by the things that you are facing. Sometimes life hands us things that seem too weighty, too much to deal with. Let’s begin by looking at a little Bible history. Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet, prophesied for around forty years, warning backslidden Israel that disaster was coming. As...

Farther Along from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about dealing with things that we don’t understand. There will be times in life when the path becomes dark, and we have to walk by faith. I want to begin in Psalm 119: (Psalm 119:105 NKJV) Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. The lamp in this Psalm is an oil lamp, which only gives a small circle...

Conditionals from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about conditionals in the word of God, blessings, promises, even curses that are triggered by a certain action. It is something that we should always be aware of. God’s laws work much like gravity: you drop a cup and it always falls towards the Earth. Many of God’s promises work like this, an action followed...

One Day at A Time from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about God’s supply chain and how He takes care of us. Too many times we see people confuse God with Santa Claus and their prayer becomes gimme, gimme, gimme. We have received prayer requests that were like this: “Please pray for the Lord to give me a large brick house, fully furnished, and paid for. A new...

He Touched Me from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about the unclean, the outcasts, the lepers who lived during the time of Jesus. (Mark 1:40–42 NKJV) Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and...

I See You from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. When I was young in the Lord, I felt insignificant in His eyes. I had been beaten down by life pretty good and often the clothes I wore had as well. When I started going to church, I was often surrounded by people wearing suits and driving cars that I could never have afforded, even if it had been financed. I was just a laborer. So I mostly stayed...

A Scattered Flock from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Jesus was the good Shepherd (John 10:1), and He was also our example of how to live a perfect life. He came to Earth at a dark, difficult time, especially in religion, for God’s presence had left the temple. The last book in the Old Testament is the prophet Malachi, and this is what the Lord told the priests that took care of His...

I Care from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. While I was praying about the message today, I prayed: “Lord help me feed Your sheep. What are Your people are missing today? What can I tell them to give them hope?” I heard two words spoken slowly, but very firmly: “I Care.” Then a flood of thoughts and scriptures came to mind. We truly don’t understand how much the...

The Wet Fleece from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about Gideon in Judges, chapter six. For seven years, raiders from the land of Midian would invade Israel at harvest time, set up camps, then systematically steal their crops, livestock, and destroy and pillage anything of value. They came up like locusts and their numbers could not even be counted. The Israelites were...

The First Christmas from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about the first Christmas. What was it like to be on the Earth the night that Jesus was born? What was the world like then? What do we know about it? Well, things were complicated. It was a difficult time. Under Julius Caesar, Rome had expanded to a vast empire that spanned from Egypt to England, which was called...

For Such a Time As This from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about God’s timing. Too many of us read the Scriptures and feel that God is dated, or out of touch with modern times, when nothing could be further from the truth. He invented time. He created the Sun that the Earth orbits. Sometimes we can feel that He is distant, unconcerned with the occurrences in our...

The Comforter from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about the work of the Comforter. Before Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, He promised the disciples that He would send Someone else to them. He knew that His time on Earth would soon be completed and that He would return to heaven, but He would not abandon the disciples or leave them all alone. It...

The Choice from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about the choice that each person has to make when Jesus calls us them. We read about the disciples and apostles that followed Jesus and assume that this was set in stone, meant to be, that they automatically followed Him, but they were each given a choice. Some people chose not to. Jesus called some fishermen in Matthew chapter...

Recalculating from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about getting your life back on course after a mistake. Walking with God is a bit like traveling with a GPS. You can miss an exit or make a wrong turn and the GPS will recalculate your route to get you to your destination, from wherever you are at that moment. The Holy Spirit works much the same way. We can make a complete...

Rejected Identity from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about rejection, especially in your calling, your gifts, your talents, by those who are familiar with you. We can read the Bible and feel like Jesus had an automatic win button in every circumstance. Storms, disease, demons, even death obeyed His words, but there was one thing on Earth that did not: people. Not everyone...

The Journey from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about the journey of life. Our thinking is often consumed with what is happening today, or tomorrow, or sometimes what happened yesterday. God thinks in the long term. He can see our entire life at once. Think of it like this: if our life were a bicycle wheel and each day a spoke, then God sees it from the hub in the center...

Goldfish from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about a very strange miracle of Jesus that is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. When Jesus and the disciples came to Peter’s hometown of Capernaum, tax collectors came up to them and asked them for money. Only Matthew wrote about this, and it may have stood out to him because he had been a tax collector in Capernaum himself....

White Knuckle Driving from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about what I call “white knuckle driving.” It is when you clutch the steering wheel of a car so hard that your knuckles become white. For example, my son once called us on Easter weekend. He had been involved in an accident and his leg was broken in several places. He was taken to a hospital, then transferred...

Strengthen Yourself from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about strengthening yourself in the Lord. It is important that you learn to have a direct relationship with God that does not depend on anyone else. There will be times in this life when those whom you once trusted, turn their back on you. Sometimes even those that you look up to spiritually may let you down, and...

Inspiration from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about inspiration, when a creative idea suddenly downloads into your brain. That is not an accident. It happens for a purpose, and it may be more important than we think. Let’s begin in Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 4: Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before...

His Blood and Our Testimony from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about what Jesus has done for us, and what we are expected to do for Him. Let’s start by examining Revelation 12:10: Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who...

God and the Workplace from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about the importance of learning to serve God right where you are, doing exactly what you are doing. Get to know Him there, for if you will not serve Him there, you will not serve Him anywhere else. Wherever you find yourself, and whatever you are doing, begin to involve God in it every day. Many feel that they...

Good Neighbors from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about the importance of being a good neighbor. Ever since Adam and Eve had kids and one killed the other, it has been an ongoing thing, learning to live with one another. Most of the ten commandments are about how we treat our neighbor.  Over the years, God had to give many, many commandments about neighbors. Apparently...

The Wonder of You from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about the wonder of the Lord. I believe that wonder is a great definition of what it feels like to have the Holy Spirit moving in your life. It can feel almost magical, surreal, at times you may ask yourself “Is this really happening?” The word “wonder” means: Wonder (noun) 1 a feeling of surprise...

Hand in Hand from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo. Today I want to talk about walking with the Lord, hand in hand, and what that may look like. He has not called us to walk alone, and so much frustration comes when we rely on our own strength, and our own wisdom. Until we get to know His ways of communicating with us, walking with Him can seem to be very mysterious. We think that if we were...