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Refreshment in Refuge

    by Gina Burgess

Never toss your study notes and other wisdom
Date Posted: February 13, 2022

The one time I was blessed enough to go to Charles Stanley's church in Atlanta, he made a statement that penetrated my hard head. He said, "Never throw away the notes you've made while in study of the Bible. These were important enough for you to jot them down, they may be a life saver later on." I had just decided to clean out some files when I got home so that I'd have room for more files without have to buy another filing cabinet. There went that plan, tossed out with a few words from Charles Stanley.

Well, he was right!

I have spent a few minutes each day for the past few days reading my notes taken from various sages such as Charles Stanley, Patsy Clairmont, Luci Swindoll, Beth Moore, Shelia Walsh, Nicole Johnson, James Merriott, David Jeremiah, my pastor and others. And that was just from the month of April, 2005. You would think that since I've listened to all these wise people, I'd be a bit smarter!

Here are some gems,

Shelia Walsh: "God's love is never one petal short."

Nicole Johnson: "God takes thousands of things in one life that are broken and makes treasures."

Gina thought: God will take all the trash and replace with treasures if we allow Him/ask Him to. The will heart lets go of the trashy thought process and finds it replaced with pearls of wisdom.

Jennifer Rothchilde: "It should be, it is well with my soul, not it is well with my circumstances.
We can't use an earthly mirror to see the standard because we always fall short. The mirror of God's Word gives us the truth.

Gina thought: Psalm 45:11 The King is enthralled with your beauty. My hope is in Him alone, therefore we must gain strength and truth from Him alone. Any hope in healing or in other things is false hope. God wants us to love heaven and Him more than anything here on earth. Why is that so hard for us to fathom? We place our hopes in so many different things that have no substance such as 1. A wonderful husband; 2. Beautiful children; 3. College education; 4. Beautiful home; 5 huge bank account and/or great job. Jesus said to lay up treasures in heaven for where lies your treasure, there lies your heart also.

Jennifer Rothchilde: "The woman of faith looks through the eyes of eternity and when she does so, the temporaral of today and temporary troubles fade to insignificance. The things unseen are eternal things, so don't wait for it to be well with your circumstances, look for God to make it well with your soul and when it is well with your soul, how can we ask for more?"
(A note about Jennifer, she has been blind since she was a child.)

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Biography Information:

Gina Burgess has taught Sunday School and Discipleship Training for almost three decades. (Don't tell her that makes her old.) She earned her Master's in Communication in 2013.

She is the author of several books including: When Christians Hurt Christians, The Crowns of the Believers and others available in online bookstores. She authors several columns, using her God-given talent to shine a light in a dark world. You can browse her blog at Refreshment In Refuge.

If you'd like to take a look at some Christian fiction and Christian non-fiction book reviews check out Gina's book reviews at Upon

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