Summer has arrived with its ceaseless stream of day camps and vacation Bible schools. We participated as a family during all the years my children were at home. I volunteered in their groups or classes and when they were old enough, they became volunteers as well. All three were good with children. Two were excellent Bible story teachers and the youngest excelled at anything recreational. We served not only our home church and community but often took mission trips designed around service opportunities in other states and once even in Canada with our eldest.
The highlight for the children is usually snack time. I ran into my friend, Tracy, today gathering donations for our upcoming church program. The Canada church served lunch every day with fresh tomatoes and cucumber sandwiches from the home gardens of their parishioners. I’ve seen themed refreshments matching the activities or stories of the day from fish and loaves for Jesus feeding five thousand to whale crackers for the prophet, Jonah. The idea is to keep the kids busy, which also means giving them sugar just before they get tired and cranky.
What is considered refreshing changes as we age. Animal crackers and milk make way for s’mores and hot cocoa, then coffee or tea with muffins or scones. Being rocked in your mothers arms grows into swinging in a tire swing or racing down a water slide or riding bikes, playing golf or hiking a trail to a waterfall. Splashing in a pool matures into soaking in a hot tub. You get the idea. We may relive some of the same activities we once enjoyed with our children and grandchildren, like my daddy making drizzle castles in the sand this year with a third generation of kids, but it’s a choice to find joy and contentment in these simple pleasures. Two people can be in engaged in the exact same activity, going through all the same motions, but feel very differently about it. Is it a privilege or an obligation, a rite of passage or a drudgery? You must decide.
Peter preached an impromptu sermon on the heels of witnessing the healing of a man lame from birth. He was very clear about the fact that he nor John healed the man. They merely recognized his faith to be healed. None of this could have happened had Peter and John chosen not to seek spiritual refreshment on that particular afternoon.
“Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service.”
Acts of the Apostles 3:1 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/act.3.1.NLT
How often have I forgotten to be thankful for my freedom to worship openly, to come before the throne of God without fear? When attending services becomes another obligation to check off my list of things to do, I miss the opportunity for my soul to be refreshed. I may also miss the chance to be used by God in an incredible way or even a simple one.
“Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd.
“People of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness?”
Acts of the Apostles 3:12 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/act.3.12.NLT
Peter was quick to take the attention being turned on him, John, and the formerly lame man who was now walking and leaping and praising God and point to Jesus. He didn’t stop at giving Jesus credit for the man’s healing. He took the people back to God’s covenant with their ancestor, Abraham, their own sin which led to Jesus crucifixion, and the power of the resurrection for salvation. He pointed to God’s plan and extended an invitation. Today is the day of salvation.
Do you want joy and peace today and hope for eternity? Trust God. Receive Jesus by faith and you will find everything your heart longs for in this life and the one to come.
“But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah—that he must suffer these things.
Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.
Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah.
For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets.”
Acts of the Apostles 3:18-21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/act.3.18-21.NLT
“So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord.
With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News.
For God saved us and called us to live a holy life.
He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.
And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior.
He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News.
That is why I am suffering here. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.”
2 Timothy 1:8-10, 12 NLT
A Fitting Reply 