What's Your Super Power?

The Holy Spirit is every Christian's "super power."

On Thursday After School

My church sponsors a program called Bible Buddies. The first activity after walking the two blocks from our elementary school to our church is eating a snack. I normally choose to sit with five, 2nd to 4th grade boys.

This Week

I was sitting with five boys and listening to them discuss what super power they would like to have. How do you relate super powers to God? Silently, I appealed to the Lord and asked for guidance on what to say and THIS is what happened.

Sallee: "I already have a super power.  

Boy 1: "What is it?" 

Sallee: "The Holy Spirit. God gave it to me and HE created everything, so I am positive I have a super power."

Five pairs of eyes looked at me and I could tell that they were thinking about what I had just said.(Maybe even wondering if this nice Christian lady was a little crazy.) Then, I smiled at them, stood up, and took my plate and cup to the trashcan. 

The Holy Spirit is every Christian's "super power". 

The Holy Spirit is given by God. 

The Holy Spirit lives inside us. 

Act 19: 1-2

...Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. 2He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said to him, "No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." 

1 Corinthians 6:19

 19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 

Acts 15:7-8

Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8"And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; 

1 Timothy 1:14

Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.

Verse of the Week - Matthew 5:44 - Week of April 20, 2015

Matthew 5:44 contains a list of four ways for followers of Christ to behave towards an enemy, or someone who is treating you badly. John Gill, an English Baptist pastor wrote about this list in his bible exposition:

• ...the actions of a man may be hated, and just indignation be expressed against them, and yet his person be loved, tenderness be used to him, and pity shown him: all men, even enemies, are to be loved with a natural love, as men; though they cannot be loved with a spiritual affection, as brethren in Christ:'''
•  Bless them that curse you...give good words, use kind language, mild and soft expressions; such as may either win upon them, or put them to shame and silence: "bless, and curse not"; the latter belongs to them, the former to you;
• Do good to them that hate you; such as hate you in their hearts, and discover their hatred by their actions; do not make returns in the same way, but on the contrary, do them all the good you can; perform all the kind offices that lie in your power...
• ...pray for them that spitefully use you and persecute you. What Christ here commands and advises to, he himself did; for as he hung upon the cross, he prayed for his crucifiers, who were then using him in the most despiteful, as well as cruel manner; saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"...this breathes out the true spirit of Christianity...

Personal Prayer

Lord Jesus,

Help me to love my enemies and speak in a mild manner to those that curse me. 

Help me do good to those who hate me.

Lord I ask that you intervene in the lives of those who use me spitefully and persecute me. Help me to pray for my persecutors in the same manner that you did.

Amen.

Psalm of the Week - 118:8 - Week of April 20, 2015

" it is not good to put confidence in man at all; it is trusting to a broken staff, to a mere shadow, which can yield no support or relief: it is best to trust in the Lord; he is able to help, as well as willing; he is faithful to his word, and unchangeable in his promises; whereas man, though he may have a will to help, oftentimes has it not in his power; and when it is in his power, and has promised it, he disappoints, being changeable or unfaithful. Wherefore trust not in man, but in the Lord"                                                                         Gill's Bible Exposition

A broken staff is of no use to anyone. Man is a shadow compared to our triune God; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  

By putting our trust in Jesus, we were given the right to become children of God.(John 1:12) In fact, the Holy Spirit is inside each and every believer of the Son. (1Cor. 6:19) How could we want to trust in another finite human being, when we have an infinite God to trust in?  

Sallee's SSMT Memory Verse Number Eight

I posted in January that I was joining the Living Proof Ministries'  2015 Siesta Scripture Memory Team. Living Proof Ministries (LPM) is in Houston, Texas and is headed by my favorite bible teacher, Beth Moore.

Following directions on the LPM blog, I bought a 4" x 6" spiral notebook and applied a printed SSMT 2015 cover over the original front cover.  On January 1, 2015,  Siesta Scripture Memory Team (SSMT) members, including myself,  posted their first memory verse as a comment on the LPM blog.  Members post a memory verse on the first and the fifteenth of each month.  This gives you two weeks to memorize your verse.

Sticking with a new habit is for more than two weeks can be hard. However, I have been diligent in carrying my SSMT notebook in my purse and reading my selected scriptures. Memorization is difficult for me. Reading the scriptures in my notebook has helped me to remember and memorize them. Am I word perfect? No, but perfection isn't my goal - staying in the word is my goal.

How do I pick my verses? I listen for the Holy Spirit to lead me.  Some of the verses "jump off the page" as I read my Bible, or study my Sunday school lesson.  I have an internal, "that's my memory verse" moment.  Occasionally, a memory verse will be part of my pastor's sermon. My first memory verse, Philippians 2:14-15, was part of Brother Jimmy's Sunday sermon.

Yesterday, April 15th, was time to post memory verse number eight on the LPM blog.

Here is my verse:

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.

Ephesians 6:18 NIV their blog. 

Verse of the Week - Isaiah 54:10 - Week of April 13, 2015

Though the mountains be shaken

and the hills be removed, yet my 

unfailing love for you will not be

 shaken nor my covenant of 

peace be removed," says the 

LORD, who has compassion on

you.

Reading this verse fills me with amazement, wonder, and joy. 

God loves you through every storm. His love is always there and it will not be shaken. What a wonderful promise! You are his beloved. This is what Matthew Henry had to say about this verse:

"...Mountains have been shaken and removed, but the promises of God never were broken by any event...when our friends fail us, our God does not...God will rebuke and correct his people...but he will not cast them off." 

Personal Prayer
Father, you have promised that your love is unfailing and your covenant of peace will not be removed. I am claiming this promise for myself. Thank your Lord for caring so much about me and promising to be with me through every storm. Amen.