Longings of the Soul

Matthew 5:6---Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

It has been my privilege to know what it means to walk in the way of Christ. What a thrilling, joyous experience it is to wake up every morning and know His presence in the room! What a thrilling, joyous experience it is to know in the evening when the sun is setting, the peace of God as you go to bed and to sleep, and to sleep the sleep of only those who know Christ! What a joy it is to walk in the eternal and permanent experience of Christ!

Do you hunger for such a walk? Do you long for such joy, peace, contentment, abandonment, and adventure in your own soul? If this is your hunger and desire, then God will do exactly what He has promised to do: He will fill you. Every promise God has ever made, He has kept—or will keep.

By Billy Graham

Coffee ☕️ And Conversation A Ray Of Hope

Putting Christ Above All Thing

In the daily grind of our life, we have bills to pay, job responsibilities, family matters, troubling news reports, and worrisome information about the world coming at us non-stop. We also have the sinister attractions of the world trying to pull us into the clutches of the darkness. When we are pushed and pulled against our will by the sin of the world, we must stop for just a moment and remember we are to put Christ above all things. Christ is greater than any material thing or immaterial idea. Christ is greater than any problem or issue. By using our free will, we can guide our thinking and arrange our priorities. When we use our free will to think, we can choose to put Christ above all things. Our problems care, and woes are minimized in the hands of our Savior. When we put all of our life in the hands of Christ, He is good to us and lets us know how much He loves us. Christ lets us know He loves us now and forever.

Coffee ☕️ And Conversation A Ray Of Hope From GABC, Adel

UNSELFISHNESS

I love the story, often told, about a man who was hiking in the mountains. He was taken by surprise in a sudden snowstorm and quickly lost his way. He knew he needed to find shelter fast, or he would freeze to death. Despite all of his efforts, his hands and feet quickly went numb. In his wandering, he literally tripped over another man who was almost frozen. The hiker had to make a decision: Should he help the man, or should he continue in hopes of saving himself?

In an instant, he made a decision and threw off his wet gloves. He knelt beside the man and began massaging his arms and legs. After the hiker had worked for a few minutes, the man began to respond and was soon able to get on his feet. Together with the two men, supporting each other found help. The hiker was later informed that by helping another, he had helped himself. His numbness vanished while he was massaging the stranger's arms and legs. His heightened activity had enhanced his circulation and brought warmth to his hands and feet.

It's my conviction that the only way to reach the mountain peaks of life is to forget about self and help other people reach greater heights.

Coffee ☕️ And Conversation A Ray Of Hope

Amazing Thought (Sin Problem)

It is an amazing thought to me that we want to blame everything that happens in our world today on either a machine or a gun or alcohol, or drugs or the President of the United States and the list could go on and on. I want to remind everyone that it takes a man or woman to operate the machine or gun, to drink alcohol or to take drugs. The problem in our world today is the same problem it has always been, a sin problem. The sin is not in the machine, gun, drink, or drug the sin is in the man or woman's heart.

PEOPLE STILL NEED THE LORD to overcome their sin problem!

Isa. 2:4--And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

One day soon this Scripture will be fulfilled, but until it is we will continue to see and have to deal with the Sin Problem. PRAY WITHOUT CEASING!

Coffee ☕️ And Conversation A Ray Of Hope

How Others Are Important

Your world revolves around other people. Even if you are a recluse or a hermit and you see no one, you are not likely self-sufficient. If you live in the modern world with all of our modern conveniences consider the following facts. Your electricity is generated by someone else. Your clothing is made by someone else. Your food is grown by someone else. Your car is built by someone else. And, this list could go on for a long time. In our modern world, where most of us live in cities, suburbs, and towns, we all depend on others for our survival. Other people should be important to you because other people keep you alive. In a world where you depend on other people, let other people know they are important to you. Not only are others important to you, but you are also just as important to others. We all want to be treated as if we are important. The truth is we are important. Perhaps if we saw the truth about how important we were to others we would live our lives in a more humble fashion. In the same way, if we saw the truth about how important others are to us, we would be a great deal more appreciative and more respectful of others and their place in our life. To be more successful in all you do, let others know how important they are to you.

Coffee ☕️ And Conversation A Ray Of Hope

How You Can Live Free From Fear

At one point during World War II, General George Patton met with a high-ranking allied official in Sicily. The man praised Patton for his courage and bravery. But Patton told him, “Sir, I am not a brave man… I have never been within the sound of a gunshot or in sight of battle in my whole life that I wasn’t so scared that I had sweat in the palms of my hands.”

Years later in his autobiography, General Patton revealed the secret to his bravery. He wrote, “I have learned early in my life never to take counsel of my fears.”

It’s astonishing just how much fear influences our daily decisions. Think about it. How many decisions do you make daily based on a negative event in the future that may or may not come to pass? And then, how many of those fears actually materialize?

So how can we diagnose fear when we see it? By looking at its source. Fear comes from either a lack of trust in God’s power or a belief that He doesn’t have your best interest at heart. When you fall into one of those mindsets, you’re operating in fear, not trust.

Coffee ☕️ And Conversation A Ray Of Hope

Caring For Each Other

We will always have persons in our life who need us to care about them. Certainly, there are those people in our life who pretend they do not want anyone to care about them. However, the truth is all people want others to care about them. All persons need the care, compassion, and understanding of others. One of the primary jobs in our life is to care for others. One of the primary rewards of our life is our satisfaction in knowing we gave our best to care for others. One of the primary keys to success in life is genuinely caring so much about others we are willing to put others first. So elementary is the idea of putting others first, many people do not pay enough attention to actively caring. So important is this idea every person should burn the importance of caring about others into their consciousness. If every person on earth began to care deeply for others regardless of their race, color, creed, origin, political belief, or any of the other kinds of barriers we use as an excuse for not caring, we would all live in a dramatically different world. Caring for others is not just the job of professional caregivers because all of us should be caregivers to everyone we know.

Coffee ☕️ And Conversation A Ray Of Hope

What We Need To Know From Others

One of our greatest mistakes in building and maintaining our relationships with others can come from our ignorance about them. In order to build and maintain healthy relationships, we need to know what others want and expect. We not only need to know what others want and expect from us, but we also need to know what others want and expect from the other people in their life. As simple as this truth might seem to be, the truth is vital in building and maintaining our relationships at home, work, school, and especially within our family. The opposite of knowing what others want and expect is ignorance. Ignorance in relationships is not bliss. Ignorance in relationships is chaos and disaster. A business ignorant about what the customer wants and expects will fail. A marriage partner ignorant about what the other partner wants and expects will succeed in the relationship only by chance. A child who does not know what the parent wants or expects will likely follow a path other than what the parent wants or expects.