Special Message for Children Needs
Dear Beloved,
My name is Jenny Eversole and I am the Executive Director of LOOP (Loved Ones of Prisoners). LOOP is a ministry that provides support and guidance to the families and friends of prisoners in the criminal justice system, as well as support and encouragement to you.
LOOP has been blessed with an opportunity to be able to provide your child or children with any needs they may have (clothing, school supplies, etc.). If you have a child or children that are still attending school that may need this assistance, please have their caregiver contact me or you can contact me at 614-582-5139. Please provide me the names, ages, sex and address of your children and we will provide them with your requests.
Never give up on yourself, for GOD never gives up on you. You are important to me and to our LOOP family.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Blessings,
Jenny Eversole – Executive Director
Psalm 23 (God of Restoration) pt.3
All Scripture is taken from the New Living Translation
Good morning church! We are continuing our series on Psalm 23 and today we will be looking at verse 3 and how God is the “God of Restoration.”
Let’s do a quick re-cap…
Verse 1 tells us that, “The Lord is my Shepherd; I have all that I need.”
The main thing we looked at in this verse is that when we put our trust in Jesus He leads and provides us with everything we need… We are well taken care of!
Then verse 2 tells us, “He lets me rest in green meadows; He leads me besides peaceful streams.”
As our Shepherd, Jesus teaches us how to rest… How to balance our lives so we have all that we need, including a day each week we are to set aside to focus on Him and rest in His goodness (This is one of the 10 Commandments).
Today Psalm 23:3 – “He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to His name.”
I find it interesting that after giving us rest the psalmist talks about God renewing our strength and guiding us along the right path, a path of righteousness.
This strength we’re talking about here is spiritual… Many versions say, “He restores my soul.”
You see, there are three parts to our beings… Mind, body, and spirit.
Our mind is our soul… Our intellect, our emotions… Our soul is where we think and feel… Free will, the choices we make takes place in our soul… Our mind.
This is why I think this Psalm is spoken in the manner that it is… God is telling us, “First I want to bring you to a place of complete rest in peaceful meadows by a nice stream… And once WE are there I want to be able to restore the brokenness in your soul… I want you to allow me to give you the strength you so desperately long for.”
We have experiences in life that shape who we are, and some of them are not so good experiences, and it makes us think differently than we should… It makes us choose things we wish we weren’t choosing…
Our emotions become damaged… Our will can be broken… And due to this our minds, the way we think, the memories we dwell on can be totally messed up!
And Jesus says, “If you allow me to be your Shepherd, one of the things I can do for you is restore that hurt and brokenness that effects the way you think, and feel, and the decisions you make… I can restore your soul… I can renew your strength.”
But only if we allow Him, can this take place… This is where true freedom in Christ is found!
Let’s look some things that can keep us from moving to a place of restoration.
Holding on to past hurts will often lead to a damaged soul… A soul, a mind, that is constantly thinking about what was said or done causes us to hold onto anger, hurt, bitterness… We carry a grudge against the person who hurt us.
The fact is, we live in a fallen world… Nothing will be perfect until heaven is established…
We are broken people who sometimes hurt others, and sometimes others hurt us…Sometimes it’s intentional and sometimes it’s unintentional…
But when it happens, and it will, we may resent the person and harbor bad feelings towards them…
So, we have two choices to make, we can let it go and forgive them, or we can dwell on it, worry about it, and plan our retaliation… Make sure they know how we feel and that we will get even with them!
Now, either decision we choose to make is going to spill over into our other relationships… Our co-workers, friends, and family will often experience the unhealthy or even healthy condition of our soul (Our mind, what’s in our thoughts).
Ephesians 4:30-32: “30 And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own,[a] guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. 32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”
Bitterness, anger, harsh words, and similar actions have a way of becoming who we are, and even though they are meant for the past hurt, the people who are currently in our life become the recipients of how we feel about someone else!
Forgiving just as Jesus forgave us is the only way to release the person who caused the hurt… And it is what brings about a healthy mindset by allowing our Shepherd to restore our soul and renew our strength!
When we carry around resentment and feelings of retaliation it makes us no better than the person who caused the hurt…
But when we forgive it puts us in a better place as the healing process from Jesus brings restoration.
Proverbs 20:22 – “Don’t say, “I will get even for this wrong.” Wait for the Lord to handle the matter.”
The second thing we’re going to look at is guilt and sin, unconfessed guilt and sin…
Grudges and guilt are two of the biggest things that cause harm to our soul.
Grudges have to do with what people have done to us, and guilt is what we do to others… We have both to deal with in life…
Nothing will rob us of our happiness more than carrying a load of guilt…
Especially unconfessed guilt… The stuff we keep to ourselves… Unconfessed guilt and sin will cause damage to our soul, to our way of thinking…
Because it causes a heaviness to hang over us… A heaviness we carry with us!
Maybe you said something you wished you could take back… Or did something you knew you shouldn’t have… Maybe it’s our past haunts us… There are several things that cause us to feel guilty.
Guilt and sin were never meant for us to carry around and deal with by ourselves…
But we do it anyways… So how do we deal with guilt… Confession and forgiveness!
Forgiveness brings restoration… Forgiveness brings us closer to Jesus!
Confessing and asking for forgiveness is usually the last resort, right?
We blame others for how we feel… By projecting our guilt onto others…
We compromise how we feel… By trying to convince ourselves it’s not that bad…
How about rationalizing our guilt… Everyone else is doing it!
The best thing we can do with unconfessed guilt and sin is to simply confess it!
Talk to somebody and have them pray with you about it…
When we confess; We are bringing something we’ve kept hidden, or private and are bringing it into the light to deal with…
Confession means we understand the need for a Savior to help us…
Don’t blame others, don’t compromise, and don’t rationalize or deny it… Confess it and healing will come!
James 5:16: “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”
Confession brings healing… It brings restoration… It brings strength to our souls…
Confession allows the Holy Spirit of God to lead us along the right path and therefore bringing honor to God’s name as He showers us with freedom!
1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”
There is power in confession… It brings freedom and will allow our Shepherd to guide us along the right paths in life… And again, what this does is bring honor to His name!
Confession drives away guilt… Because whatever is brought to the light and given to Jesus can longer grow and fester within us!
And here’s what happens… Jesus drives away guilt, sin, and past hurts when we bring them to Him…
He brings good out of bad and has a way of turning things around… He is our Shepherd and because of Him we have everything we need!
You see, Jesus says to each one of us, “I will take your guilt. Please give it to Me. I died on the Cross and paid for all your sins so you wouldn’t have to.”
If you trust in Me I will restore your soul over and over again… I will renew your strength and lead on the right path for your life….
This right here is the Good News of Jesus… It’s the Gospel of restoration!
The prophet Isaiah spoke of this nearly 2,700 years prior to Jesus’ death and resurrection on the Cross…
Isaiah 53:4-6: “4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows[a] that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.”
Jesus went through all this for each one of us!! Sometimes we don’t feel forgiven, and sometimes we have a hard time letting go of past hurts…
When this happens, we have to trust the process of forgiveness… Read passages like this that were prophesied of Jesus being who He is… Our Savior, our Shepherd!
If I have a hard time letting go of a hurt or offense, I bring passages like this to mind so I can be reminded of what Jesus did for me…
Because if I hold on to a hurt, as a believer I am negating what Jesus did for me on the Cross.
As we close I want to read one more passage:
READ Romans 3:23-24: “23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.”
It’s all about trust… We are broken people living in a broken world…
But it is by grace that our sins are forgiven… The guilt we carry around can be taken… And the people we hold grudges against can be released…
Because when we put our trust in Jesus we have been forgiven and we are supposed to extend that forgiveness and grace to others.
Release those who have hurt you… Give them to Jesus… And focus on the day at hand…
Because we’ll never have the renewed strength and restored soul when we have thoughts of resentment and bitterness clouding our daily lives.
I am encouraging everyone here today to trust Jesus and literally tell Him today, “I am letting go of all this so You can renew my strength… Please restore my soul… So that I can be on the path You intend for me to be on.”
Psalm 23:1-3
- The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.
- He lets me rest in green meadows; He leads me beside peaceful streams.
- He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.
KNOW THE REAL YOU February 9, 2022
You are a spirit and your spirit is filled with God’s holiness and you are in right standing with God even though your mind may not be at times. Maybe your body does not want to agree but your spirit is always in line with God. You might not feel like it and you might not act like it; but your born-again spirit is amazing. This is the word of God; who He foreknew He predestined, He justified and He glorified to be conformed to the image of Jesus – so Jesus is the prototype of how our lives should look.
- God called us to be movers and shakers for Jesus. You may have bad days and weeks or even months but your spirit is resilient, it is not fragile. You may be overshadowed with thoughts and feelings of defeat; you may be dealing with life issues or mistakes or think you missed it. But your spirit is the same today, yesterday and forever because it has the nature of God which makes you mighty in the Lord.
- Jesus called us to be champions for God; He lives inside us which makes us super conquerors. (Romans 8:31,37 CJB) As you become more connected to and live more from your spirit; you will be able to hear and respond to God guiding you in your daily life and yes, in those difficult situations.
- What do we say to our government that wants to take our personal freedoms and micro-manage our medical and family decisions? What shall we say to these things? We say that God is for us and that we will obey God rather than man or government who comes against God.
- We are champions already because our spirit is brand new, totally transformed into the likeness and image of God Himself. When you start identifying with that part of yourself (your true identity), rather than your emotional ups and downs; you begin to realize that no matter what, if God is for me nothing in the world is going to prosper against me.
- Your identity must be who you are in Jesus in your spirit. Your regenerated spirit is made new and your soul is in the process of getting saved. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Your body will never be saved until you die, are deposited into the earth and raised from the dead.
- You are still the same physically; you still look the same and in many ways act the same. What does it mean that all things are made new? In many ways you think the same although there is some change nonetheless; your spirit is Born-again; regenerated into the image of Jesus Christ and it does not sin.
- As we allow God and His word to live through us our soul is now in the process of getting restored due to what is happening inside our spirit (James 1:21 KJV) We take the living Word engrafted in us and choose it to prevail over all the lies and deceptions that come against us in this world. We can turn and place our focus on Jesus and Him living inside us rather than what people say and the sounds of the world that bombard us. That is how you can change your paradigm, you focus on who you really are and then you can do all things through Jesus.
- If you do not understand this, you will not understand the Bible because God is talking to you. He is speaking about our born-again spirit and God speaks directly into our spirit being. He is not communicating to your mind, feelings or emotions; He is talking within our spirit which has
the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:13-16) Your spirit has the discernment of the Holy Spirit which can literally see because your being is filled with light. Your spirit sees and hears and feels everything that God has for us – He speaks directly to your spirit.
- Every day God is talking to your spirit. Everything in the Bible is always referring to our spirit first and then everything else follows. Your spirit is made new and there is never any sin in your spirit.
- Your spirit is made brand new. Your spirit can never sin,because it is God’s nature in you. (2 Peter 1:2-4) Our spirit will be affected, it can be hindered and wounded by sins we commit and although our spirit cannot commit sin; any sin we commit can grieve the Holy Spirit and our spirit.
- Even if you sin physically or emotionally that does not mean that you lose your salvation. To lose your salvation means that you would have to reject who Jesus is.
- This does not mean we just go out and sin, but it means that Jesus already paid the price for our sin so when we repent, turn our hearts and minds back to God, He forgives us. We all fall short in different areas but if a lamb falls into a mud hole that does not make it a pig. You are still a born-again Christian washed in the blood of Jesus, sanctified by the Holy Ghost. We can always return to that place of living in harmony with our born-again spirit and with God because He is always faithful to restore us.
Conclusion: When we become born again we now have a brand new spirit and many things about us change as God delivers us from darkness. It is from our eternal sinless spirit that the process of salvation for our soul is worked out so we can walk with the Lord. God speaks to us, leads us and matures us. He is always talking with our spirit. Our identity is already in Jesus even though we may be bombarded, Jesus inside us will never be moved. Being born-again means that you already have the victory and heaven is your eternal home. Here and now we have the great One living in us and we are here to share His love so others can know who God is and who they are created to be.