Community Chat

[gloriajean]

Hello my friends! Tomorrow, Aug. 3rd is my oldest daughter, Darla's birthday. She's out celebrating it with her husband now at a friend's place, but they'll be here next week yet - it'll be good to see Greg again too. His birthday was July 24th so we'll celebrate his too. Then on the 25th is their first wedding anniversary - they'll be back in Texas then. Let's keep counting our blessings, God is so good to us in every way.

The smallest kindness is worth more than the greatest intention. Lord, help
me not to overlook the opportunities that I have to enrich the lives of others
or think I am too busy to reach out with a word or even a smile.

Scripture for the day:

"But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of
God dwells in you." ~Romans 8:9


Meditation for the day:

I cannot ascertain the spiritual with my intellect. I can only do it by my
own faith and spiritual faculties. I can sometimes think of God with my
heart as well as with my head. I can breathe in God's very spirit in the
life around me. I can keep my eyes turned toward the good things in the
world. I can empty my mind of all the limitations of material things. I
can sense the eternal.

Prayer for the day:

I pray that whatever is good I may have. I pray that I may leave to God the
choice of what good will come to me.

The Ministry of Kindness

Kindness is one of God's best gifts to the world.
It drives gloom and darkness from souls.
It puts hope into fainting hearts
It sweetens sorrow. It lessens pain
It discovers unsuspected beauties of human character.
It calls forth a response from all that is best in souls.
It purifies, glorifies, ennobles all that it touches.
It opens the flood-gates of children's laughter.
It gathers the tears of repentant love.
It lightens the burden of weariness.
It stops the torrent of angry passion.
It takes the sting from failure.
It enkindles courageous ambition.
It lifts the unfortunate.
It leads back the wayward.
It walks in the steps of Our Saviour.

Where We Learn Silence

How wonderful is the silence of Christ in the Tabernacle
Silence is the greatest lesson ever preached
Silence under irritation:
Silence under criticism:
Silence under disappointment:
Silence when rebuffed:
Silence under ingratitude:
Silence under jealousy in oneself:
Silence under the jealousy of others:
Silence under disloyalty:
Silence when self-pleased:
Silence in sorrows of all kinds.

Food for Thought
ESCAPE FROM LONELY ISLAND
By Ron Hutchcraft

There's a beautiful spot on the coast of Maine called Bar Harbor,
because there's a bar in the harbor. It's a sandbar that is totally
exposed at low tide and totally submerged at high tide. The bar goes
from the mainland to a little island called, yup, Bar Island. The
island's OK, but you wouldn't want to spend a lot of time there.
Although some people do -- a lot more time than they planned to spend.
When our family walked across the bar at low tide, we made sure to
check
that tide chart to see when the tide would be coming back. As we were
walking back from the island, the bar was already a little narrower
than it had been -- the tide was coming in. Then there were those
intelligent tourists who waited a little too long to start back, and
there was no way back! Now no one has to be stranded on that island.
There's a way off, if you take it!

Lonely Island isn't on any map, but it's an island we all spend time
on. Loneliness is an emotional island we can get stranded on when we
have been isolated, or ignored, or left out, or forgotten, maybe
misunderstood maybe even abandoned. Maybe even today finds you in the
middle of another lonely time.

The good news is that you don't have to be stuck on Lonely Island.
Loneliness is ultimately not a prison sentence, it's a choice! Feeling
lonely is unavoidable, it's part of being human. But staying lonely is
a choice. Just like Bar Island, there are some steps to take to leave
the island.

One way to make a lonely time a short time is to find someone who
needs you. To reach out from your loneliness, even if you don't feel
like it, to make a difference for someone else. At a time when
lonelines leaves you thinking about yourself, it's important to decide
to look beyond
yourself. Another antidote to loneliness is to expand your world,
especially your circle of friendships. If you take the risks to reach
out to more people, you can reduce your trips to Lonely Island.

But even with all our efforts to cope with the lonely times, a lot of
us carry this gnawing sense of loneliness with us most of the time. It
isn't necessarily that there aren't people there for us, it's just
that those people have never been enough to fill us up inside. It's
like there is always someone missing. Well there is -- the One you
were made by, the One you were made for.

The incurable loneliness in the human heart is cosmic loneliness.
We're lonely for God. No earth relationship has ever been able to fill
the God-shaped hole in our heart. In the words of the Bible, in Isaiah
59:2, "Your sins have separated you from your God." Your sins, all
those thousands of choices you've made in your lifetime that
disregarded God's way for "my way." So here we are, away from the one
Person who has the love we're looking for. The only Person who knows
why we were created, the Person we will meet the moment we die.

For our word for today from the Word of God, consider this promise
from Jesus in light of the loneliness you know all too well. Hebrews
13:5, says of Jesus, "I will never leave you. I will never forsake
you." Think of it -- unloseable, unconditional love. Jesus' love for
you took Him all the way to a brutal death on a cross, where He gave
His life to pay your sin-bill with God. The One whose love you've been
looking for all these years is yours the moment you tell Jesus, "I'm
Yours." You are one step of faith away from the world's only "never
leave you" love.

Your anchor relationship could begin this very day and never end.
Never, no matter what else changes and no matter who else leaves. And
you will have spent your last day alone.