Monday, July 21, 2008

Are you refreshing?

Devotional

What are some things that are refreshing to you?
1. a cold drink (diet, caffeine free coke, iced coffee, club soda with lime…)
2. a dip in the pool on a hot day
3. a shower after a hot, sweaty work day

Definition: Refreshing: Pleasantly fresh and different: having a reviving effect; pleasantly different or new:


1. Are you Refreshing to other believers:
Key verse: 2Co 7:13 Therefore we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all.

--When you come to church, are you refreshing to the other members in the church?
Rom 15:32 That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed.

2. Are we refreshing to the unbelievers:
Mat 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Mat 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Php 2:15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

1. Do they see Christ in you?
2. Do they see something pleasantly different and new?

3. How to be refreshing:
1. Don’t Complain
2. Don’t be Contentious/Controversial
3. Don’t use Corrupt Communication
Eph 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
4. Contribute wholeheartedly
5. Completely Care
Eph 4:16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

4. How to be refreshed:
1. Draw unto the Lord
a. You can’t be refreshing unless you have been refreshed by the Lord (i.e., saved)
-- 2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
b. If you are saved, maybe you need to be refreshed through fellowship with Lord
-- Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
2. With-draw for a period
a. Rest: Exo 31:17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
b. Remove yourself from stagnating people & circumstances and surround yourself with refreshing people and circumstances
-- 1Sa 16:23 And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.

Game

I created a matching game of drinks and their ad slogans using sites like: http://www.textart.ru/advertising/slogans/beverage/slogans.html

The person that one got to go through the food line first.

Food

I arranged the meeting for this on a Friday night after work, around 6-8pm.

I called it Frigid Food Female Friday Fellowship. All foods brought had to be chilled (i.e., pasta salad, fruit salad, cold casseroles, veggie pizzas, cream puffs...). It was very refreshing. :)

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