Community Chat

[gloriajean]

Hello my friends! Would you believe it's Friday already? The week just flew by! Another busy weekend for us - volunteering at Church again on Saturday, serving lunch for the last meeting for Beginners. Today's blessings are the 80 degree weather we've been having here in the Fall! We are enjoying it to the fullest and the raspberries are doing great! Yesterday we ate one of our cantaloupes from the garden and very delicious - all gifts from God and we thank and praise Him for our garden supplies. We have butternut squash too, but not quite ready yet. Our Watermelon isn't either, hope soon though. Yesterday Georgia told me that I could make the minced garlic from the bunches of garlic (10 left) that my DH got at the flea market, by shelling them all, and chopping them in the food processor and put in a jar with olive oil. So today I did that. I have a pint jar almost full! What a blessing - now they won't rot. Another blessing last night - we took a walk with Sammy, first time all summer because of busyness etc. and it felt so good. He mentioned about going again tonight. Right after this, I'll be ready with bells on! Sammy too. I was so blessed to see our Carolina and Juanita on the thread - they were MIA. Keep coming as you've been missed.

Whatever your problem, know that there is a solution. Lord, I trust
in You always even to the point of a miracle.

Scripture for the day:

"I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." ~Romans 8:38-39

Meditation for the day:

God is our helper and our strength. We need not ask God to come to
us. God is always with us in spirit. At our moment of need God is
there to help us. If we knew God's love and God's desire to help us,
we would know that God needs no pleading for help. Our need is God's
opportunity. We can learn to rely on God's strength whenever we need
it. Whenever we feel inadequate to any situation, we can realize that
the feeling of inadequacy is, in its own way, disloyalty to God. We
can say to ourselves: I know that God is with me and will help me to
think and say and do the right thing.

Prayer for the day:


I pray that I may never feel inadequate to any situation. I pray that
I may be buoyed up by the feeling that God is always with me.

Food For Thought:
SANDBOX ROCK
Author Unknown
August 6, 2009


A little boy was spending his Saturday morning playing in his sandbox.
He had with him his box of cars and trucks, his plastic pail, and a
shiny, red plastic shovel. In the process of creating roads and
tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of
the sandbox. The lad dug around the rock, managing to dislodge it from
the dirt. With no little bit of struggle, he pushed and nudged the
rock across the sandbox by using his feet. (He was a very small boy
and the rock was very huge.)

When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, however, he
found that he couldn't roll it up and over the little wall.
Determined, the little boy shoved, pushed, and pried, but every time
he thought he had made some progress, the rock tipped and then fell
back into the sandbox. The little boy grunted, struggled, pushed,
shoved -- but his only reward was to have the rock roll back, smashing
his chubby fingers. Finally he burst into tears of frustration.

All this time the boy's father watched from his living room window as
the drama unfolded. At the moment the tears fell, a large shadow fell
across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy's father. Gently but
firmly he said, "Son, why didn't you use all the strength that you had
available?"

Defeated, the boy sobbed back, "But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all
the strength that I had!"

"No, son," corrected the father kindly. "You didn't use all the
strength you had. You didn't ask me."

With that the father reached down, picked up the rock, and removed it
from the sandbox.

Do you have "rocks" in your life that need to be removed? Are you
discovering that you don't have what it takes to lift them? There is
One who is always available to us and willing to give us the strength
we need. When the apostle Paul faced times of a broken spirit and
sapped strength, he
proclaimed to the Corinthian church, "My grace is enough for you. When
you are weak, then my power is made perfect in you" (2 Corinthians
12:9b NCV). When we are broken in spirit and our strength is spent, we
can turn to our Savior Jesus.

A Trick

A young man, a student in one of our universities, was one day taking a walk
with a professor, who was commonly called the students' friend, from his
kindness to those who waited on his instructions.

As they went along, they saw lying in the path a pair of old shoes, which
they supposed to belong to a poor man who was employed in a field close by,
and who had nearly finished his day's work.

The student turned to the professor, saying: "Let us play the man a trick:
we will hide his shoes, and conceal ourselves behind those bushes, and wait
to see his perplexity when he cannot find them."

"My young friend," answered the professor, "we should never amuse ourselves
at the expense of the poor. But you are rich, and may give yourself a much
greater pleasure by means of the poor man. Put a coin into each shoe, and
then we will hide ourselves and watch how the discovery affects him."

The student did so, and they both placed themselves behind the bushes close
by.

The poor man soon finished his work, and came across the field to the path
where he had left his coat and shoes. While putting on his coat he slipped
his foot into one of his shoes; but feeling something hard, he stooped down
to feel what it was, and found the coin.

Astonishment and wonder were seen upon his countenance. He gazed upon the
coin, turned it round, and looked at it again and again. He then looked
around him on all sides, but no person was to be seen. He now put the money
into his pocket, and proceeded to put on the other shoe; but his surprise
was doubled on finding the other coin.

His feelings overcame him; he fell upon his knees, looked up to heaven and
uttered aloud a fervent thanksgiving, in which he spoke of his wife, sick
and helpless, and his children without bread, whom the timely bounty, from
some unknown hand, would save from perishing.

The student stood there deeply affected, and his eyes filled with tears.
"Now," said the professor, "are you not much better pleased than if you had
played your intended trick?"

The youth replied, "You have taught me a lesson which I will never forget. I
feel now the truth of those words, which I never understood before: 'It is
more blessed to give than to receive.'"


During the Great Depression, there was a man who lost his job, his wife, his
home and his fortune. He hung on tightly to the one thing he still had left
. . . his faith in God.

One day, he stopped to watch some men doing stonework on a church. One of
the workers was chiseling a triangular piece of stone. He asked the worker,
"What are you going to do with that?"

"See that little opening way up there near the spire?" the worker asked.
"Well, I'm shaping this piece of stone down here . . . so it will fit up in
there."

As he walked away, tears filled his eyes, for it seemed God had spoken
through that worker to explain the ordeal he currently was experiencing:
"I'm shaping you down here, so you will fit in up here."

Unceasing Prayer

Dear Father, who answers our prayers,

Help me to be steadfast in my praying to you, even to stay awake that I may
pray!

Fill my life with thanksgiving to you.

O God, I pray for all your servants everywhere that you may open a door for
us to proclaim your Word, to declare the now-public secret - Christ
crucified, glorified, and coming - and to make the message clear, as we
ought to speak.

In the name of Jesus I ask you to fill our lives with your holy life and to
claim all our motives and deeds as your own. Amen.

Patrick's Daily Reflections

Today's readings 9/26/13
Hg.1:1-8; Ps.149:1-6, 9; Lk.9:7-9

Long before he had John beheaded Herod was known for being a feeble and
insecure leader who was searching for satisfaction and acceptance much like
the people we hear the prophet Haggai describe in our first reading. There
are a lot of people in our world today who are just like him who are looking
for fulfillment and purpose in their lives too, and deep down inside we all
know where the search for that will lead us. The reality is we all need to
be loved and accepted for who we are so we can open up and use the unique
gifts God has blessed us with, our psalmist describes it as "executing the
judgments decreed for them" by God, and the truth is if we were all allowed
to do that this would be a much better world to live in. Jesus modeled that
type of all-inclusive lifestyle and the people flocked to see Him, even
insecure Herod, all because they knew they would be welcomed, and our lives
should be lived the same way. We need to love and accept people for who they
are, even the people we have a difficult time with, all because they deserve
a chance to fulfill their role that God has "decreed for them" just as much
as anyone else does. Let's make sure we give them the opportunity to do so,
for even the "Herods" of the world can make a difference.

God bless you,
In Jesus - Pat