Community Chat

[gloriajean]

It is important to remember that different can be better. Lord, as I resist
change
and cling to the familiar, help me to remember that Your plan is perfect and
will
truly make me happy.


Scripture for the day:

"One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another,
and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, 'Which commandment
is the first of all?' Jesus answered, 'The first is, 'Hear, O Israel:
the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with
all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." ~Mark
12:28-31

Meditation for the day:

To truly desire to do God's will , therein lies happiness for us. We
can start out wanting our own way. We want our wills to be satisfied.
We can take and not give. Gradually, we can find that we are not happy
when we are selfish, so we begin to make allowances for other peoples'
wills. But this again dos not give us full happiness, and we begin to
see that the only way to be truly happy is to try to do God's will. In
these times of meditation, we can seek to get guidance so that we can
find God's will for us.

Prayer for the day;

I pray that I may subordinate my will to the will of God. I pray that I
may be guided today to find God's will for me.

Hello my friends, it's been busy all day - and tomorrow, the Wedding,
busier. I'll get back tomorrow night for the new thread.
Keep Darla and Greg in your prayers for a happy marriage. Thanks for your
prayers and remember that I'm praying for all of you.

YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE

I said, " The path is steep."
He said, " I'm at your side."
I said, "But I am weak."
He said, "For you I died."

I said, "Dark valleys come."
He said, "I'll guide you through."
I said, "But I'm not brave."
He said, "I'll walk with you."

I said, "Be light to me,
And strength as I go on."
He said, "I'm more. I'm love,
You'll never walk alone."

~~Author Unknown.~~

THE CLIFF HANGER
Author Unknown


A man named Jack was walking along a steep cliff one day when he
accidentally got too close to the edge and fell. On the way down he
grabbed a branch, which temporarily stopped his fall. He looked down
and, to his horror, saw that the canyon fell straight down for more
than a thousand feet. He couldn't hang onto the branch forever, and
there was no way for him to climb up the steep wall of the cliff.

So Jack began yelling for help, hoping that someone passing by would
hear him and lower a rope or something. HELP! HELP! Is anyone up
there? "HELP!" He yelled for a long time, but no one heard him. He was
about to give up when he heard a voice.

"Jack, Jack. Can you hear me?"

"Yes, yes! I can hear you. I'm down here!"

"I can see you, Jack. Are you all right?"

"Yes, but who are you, and where are you?

"I am the Lord, Jack. I'm everywhere."

"The Lord? You mean, GOD?"

"That's Me."

"God, please help me! I promise if, you'll get me down from here, I'll
stop sinning. I'll be a really good person. I'll serve You for the
rest of my life."

Easy on the promises, Jack. Let's get you off from there; then we can
talk." "Now, here's what I want you to do. Listen carefully."

"I'll do anything, Lord. Just tell me what to do."

"Okay. Let go of the branch."

"What?"

"I said, let go of the branch." Just trust Me. Let go."

There was a long silence. Finally Jack yelled, "HELP! HELP! IS ANYONE
ELSE UP THERE?"

Have you ever felt like Jack? We say that we want to know the will of
God, but when we find out what it is, we can't handle it. Sounds too
scary--too difficult. We decide to look elsewhere. When He says, "Let
go of the things that stand between you and Me, and trust Me with your
life," it sounds pretty scary. But when we let go, we find freedom and
safety in His hands."

Thank you. Have a Blessed Day . . . and remember that Jesus Loves You
and so do I--and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it,
except to pass it on . . . and GOD BLESS YOU!

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has
prepared for those who love him." (1 Corinthians 2:9)

Living for Him

There was a boy named Jason. He was 12 and skipped school most days. On the
days he was at school, he picked fights with other school mates and got
himself suspended. His parents were nevertheless very caring and loving
towards him. Despite his inadequacies, they loved him no less.

His father who was quite a short balding man and who ran an anti-drug
medical center, used to plead to Jason to stop fighting at school and taking
drugs before things got worse. Still, Jason was unyielding and continued to
do what he wanted with his life.

Over the next two years, things continued to spiral downwards for Jason, who
moved onto harder drugs and started to hang around with a violent group of
drug addicts and dealers, between which, they often had violent
disagreements.

His parents, especially his father, were getting more and more concerned
with Jason and due to Jason's larger frame, pleaded rather than scolded
Jason to stop taking drugs because he knew what would happen to him.

When his sister also pleaded with him to stop, he got angry and yelled back,
"I don't really care what happens!" It became a habit of Jason's to find the
short way out of drug deals, trying to rip the dealers off with counterfeit
money that he had gotten hold of. It was a dangerous game but he had no
money and he needed the drugs.

Late one night, Jason's dad was driving home after work when he saw a boy
being chased by eight much larger boys wielding chains and baseball bats. He
realized that the boy was Jason! He stopped his car on the side of the
street and chased after his son, with the men a few paces behind. His son,
drugged and dellusioned, slowed down and his father was able to catch up.
"Run Jason! They're coming!!" He couldn't help it, he was incapacitated and
unable to run any further.

Seeing his son in such a helpless state and the men closely following
behind, Jason's father got to Jason and unable to do anything further, he
embraced his son tightly, standing between his son and the pursuing boys.
The boys reached the two and started beating Jason's father repeatedly with
baseball bats and the chains that they had brought along. Over and over they
pounded at him, trying to get him to let go of Jason, but he wouldn't, he
couldn't allow anything happen to his son.

After only a short while, his grip started to loosen as blood poured out of
his head and his body bruising from the blows and seeing what they had done
to the man, the boys ran off. Bleeding profusely and convulsing from the
blows, his father quietly whispered "I love you, son" as his eyes rolled
back and breathed his last breath. Jason, despite being drugged up to his
eyes was able to comprehend what had just happened.

Through uncontrollable sobs and incoherent cries, Jason realized his father
who was still lying over him - lifeless, died to save him from the drug
dealers who were after him. Still crying and hating himself for whom he had
become and what he had caused to happen, he made a quiet vow to give up his
drugs and his violent lifestyle. If not for himself, then at least for his
father who died because of him.

Weeks later, Jason could be found at the medical center training to become
what his father used to be, and continue to fight the fight against drugs.
His inexpressible sorrow and shame for his past deeds gave him no other
choice but to do whatever he could to be like his father - he felt fully
inadequate but he tried anyway, he felt he HAD to at least try.

Think about this story and consider the parallels to Christianity.. God, our
father, warning us not to go into sin and not heeding his warnings we
entered into sin heading straight towards h$ll. God had to manifest himself
as a pure and sin-free human being, Jesus Christ, and nailed on the cross -
bleeding from flesh-tearing whips and stabs in the side from the Roman
guards, He died so that we could be saved from the judgment that we deserved
for being imperfect humans.

Then imagine the pain Jesus Christ would feel knowing that you, whom he died
a slow, humiliating and excruciatingly painful death on the cross for,
refuses to acknowledge that he died for you. Christ loves you and it doesn't
take a fully conscious human to realize the kind of gratitude that we must
therefore show to him. How would he feel when you are in h$ll pleading for
him "Jesus, I now believe, please remove me from here!" With the pain and
sadness of a father watching his son being tortured, he can only answer
"Thou hour has passed, judgment has been set."

Or maybe if you do acknowledge his death, continue to live your lives,
meaning that his death had no impact on you. Don't you feel at least
compelled to replicate his life? If this didn't actually happen and was just
a story created for another 'religion', Christians all over the world would
not risk persecution, humiliation, hate and sometimes loss of friendship for
sharing this story to those whom the love.. and don't want to suffer an
eternity of regret.

Just For Today


...Smile at a stranger
...Listen to someone's heart
...Drop a coin where a child can find it
...Learn something new, then teach it to someone
...Tell someone you're thinking of them
...Hug a loved one
...Don't hold a grudge
...Don't be afraid to say "I'm sorry"
...Look a child in the eye and tell them how great they are
...Look beyond the face of a person into their heart
...Make a promise, and keep it
...Call someone, for no other reason than to just say "hi"
...Show kindness to an animal
...Stand up for what you believe in
...Smell the rain, feel the breeze, listen to the wind
...Use all your senses to their fullest
...Cherish all your TODAYs


Author unknown

Mother Teresa Said...

"One day at a meeting, I was asked to give a message.
So I told to people, "Husbands smile at your wives smile at your husbands
and children."
They could not understand how I was able to tell them this sort of thing.
"Are you married?" one of them asked.
"Yes", I replied "and sometimes I find it difficult to smile at Jesus
because He can be so demanding."
And it is true. By our vow of chastity we are married to Jesus."