October Newsletter

Back in the 50's there was a well known radio host/comedian/song writer in Hollywood named Stuart Hamblen who was noted for his drinking, womanizing, partying, etc. One of his bigger hits at the time was "I won't go hunting with you Jake, but I'll go chasing women."
One day, along came a young preacher holding a tent revival. Hamblen had him on his radio show presumably to poke fun at him. In order to gather more material for his show, Hamblen showed up at one of the revival meetings. Early in the service the preacher announced, "There is one man in this audience who is a big f ake." There were probably others who thought the same thing, but Hamblen was convinced that he was the one the preacher was talking about (some would call that conviction) but he was having none of that.
Still the words continued to haunt him until a couple of nights later he showed up drunk at the preacher's hotel door around 2AM demanding that the preacher pray for him!
But the preacher refused, saying, "This is between you and God and I'm not going to get in the middle of it."
But he did invite Stuart in and they talked until about 5 AM at which point Stuart dropped to his knees and with tears, cried out to God.
But that is not the end of the story. Stuart quit drinking, quit chasing women,
quit everything that was 'fun.' Soon he began to lose favor with the Hollywood crowd.
He was ultimately fired by the radio station when he refused to accept a beer company as a sponsor.
Hard times were upon him. He tried writ ing a couple of "Christian" songs but the only one that had much success was "This Old House", written for his friend Rosemary Clooney.
As he continued to struggle, a long time friend named John took him aside and told him,
"All your troubles started when you 'got religion,' Was it worth it all?"
Stuart answered simply, "Yes."
Then his friend asked, "You liked your booze so much, don't you ever miss it?" And his answer was, "No." John then said, "I don't understand how you could give it up so easily."
And Stuart's response was, "It's no big secret. All things are possible with God."
To this John said, "That's a catchy phrase. You should write a song about it."
And as they say, "The rest is history." The song Carl Stuart Hamblen wrote was "It Is No Secret." "It is no secret what God can do. What He's done for others, He'll do for you. With arms wide open, He'll welcome you. It is no secret, what God can do...."
By the way... the friend was John Wayne. And the young preacher who refused to pray for Stuart Hamblen? ...That was Billy Graham.


The average American home now has more television sets than people.
That threshold was crossed within the past two years, according to Nielsen Media Research. There are 2.73 TV sets in the typical home and 2.55 people, the researchers said.
With televisions now on buses, elevators and in airport lobbies, that development may have as much to do with TV's ubiquity as an appliance as it does conspicuous consumption. The popularity of flat-screen TVs now make it easy to put sets where they haven't been before.


The Five Finger Prayer
This is beautiful - and it is surely worth making the 5 finger prayer a part of our lives.
1. Your thumb is nearest you. So begin your prayers by praying for those closest to you. They are the easiest to remember. To pray for our loved ones is, as C. S. Lewis once said, a "sweet duty."
2. The next finger is the pointing finger. Pray for those who teach, instruct and heal. This includes teachers, doctors, and ministers. They need support and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction. Keep them in your prayers.
3. The next finger is the tallest finger. It reminds us of our leaders. Pray for the president, leaders in business and industry, and administrators. These people shape our nation and guide public opinion. They need God's guidance.
4. The fourth finger is our ring finger. Surprising to many is the fact that this is our weakest finger; as any piano teacher will testify. It should remind us to pray for those who are weak, in trouble or in pain. They need your prayers day and night. You cannot pray too much for them.
5. And lastly comes our little finger; the smallest finger of all which is where we should place ourselves in relation to God and others. As the Bible says, "The least shall be the greatest among you." Your pinkie should remind you to pray for yourself. By the time you have prayed for the other four groups, your own needs will be put into proper perspective and you will be able to pray for yourself more effectively.


BUREAUCRACY IN ACTION

1. Start with a cage containing five apes. In the cage, hang a banana on a
string and put stairs under it. Before long, an ape will go to the stairs and
start to climb toward the banana.
2. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the apes with cold water.
After a while, another ape makes an attempt with the same result--all the apes
are sprayed with cold water.
3. Turn off the cold water. If later another ape tries to climb the stairs, the
other apes will try to prevent it even though no water sprays them.
4. Now, remove one ape from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new ape
sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his horror, all of the other
apes attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to
climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.
5. Next, remove another of the original five apes and replace it with a new one.
The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes
part in the punishment with enthusiasm.
6. Again, replace a third original ape with a new one. The new one makes it to
the stairs and is attacked as well. Two of the four apes that beat him have no
idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are
participating in the beating of the newest ape.
7. After replacing the fourth and fifth original apes, all the apes which have
been sprayed with cold water have been replaced.
Nevertheless, no ape ever again approaches the stairs. Why not?
"BECAUSE that's the way it's always been done around here."


Prayer for those who are stressed (Author Unknown)

Lord, I need your help. I am feeling the strain of stress. My body is agitated by worry and fear. I confess to you my inability to handle it alone. I surrender my mind to you. Take charge of the control center of my brain. Think your thoughts through me and send into my nervous system the pure signals of your peace, power and patience. I don't want to have a divided mind fragmented from your control. Forgive my angers rooted in petulant self-will. Make me a channel, a riverbed, of Your love to others suffering as much stress as I. Help me act on the inspiration You gave me rather than stifling Your guidance. Take charge of my tongue so that it becomes an instrument of healing. Make me a communicator of love and forgiveness as I cheer others on to their best. I commit my schedule to you, Lord: help me to know and do your will. Guide me in doing your will on your timing so that I don't burn out doing the things I don't really want to do, or fearing to do what is your best for me. Set me free from the tyranny of acquisitiveness and the lust of seeking my security in things rather than in my relationship with you. I long to be the person you created me to be and not anyone else. Forgive me when I take my signals of success from others and not you. Most of all, Lord, help me to catch the drumbeat of your guidance and live by your timing. Here is my life - invade it, fill it, transform it. And I thank you in advance for the healing of my life and for giving me strength to conquer the stress of daily life. Amen.

September 24

"A school is a building with four walls and tomorrow inside." -- Barbara Knight

"Tell me and I forget; teach me and I may remember; involve me and I learn." -- Ben Franklin

"A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." -- Unknown

"It is no great thing to be humble when you are brought low; but to be humble when you are praised is a great and rare attainment." -- St. Bernard (1090-1153)



The Agony of Change
For years, the opening of "The Wide World of Sports" television program illustrated "the agony of defeat" with a painful ending to an attempted ski jump. The skier appeared in good form as he headed down the jump, but then, for no apparent reason, he tumbled head over heels off the side of the jump, bouncing off the supporting structure.
What viewers didn't know was that he chose to fall rather than finish the jump. Why? As he explained later, the jump surface had become too [icy] fast, and midway down the ramp, he realized if he completed the jump, he would land on the level ground, beyond the safe sloping landing area, which could have been fatal. As it was, the skier suffered no more than a headache from the tumble.
To change one's course in life can be a dramatic and sometimes painful undertaking, but change is better than a fatal landing at the end.

Many years ago my just married young cousin moved into an upstairs apartment and invited some of her women friends over for the evening. She put out snacks and then came out with a cake that looked like a disaster. She apologized and said she didn't know what happened to the cake because, she explained, "I even used the high altitude directions because I live upstairs."

Bernie was unfortunate enough to be hit by a 10 ton truck and landed up in hospital in intensive care. His best friend Morris came to visit him. Bernie struggles to tell Morris, "My wife Sadie visits me three times a day. She's so good to me. Every day, she reads to me at the bedside."
"What does she read?" "My life insurance policy."

Our first three babies, all girls, each weighed about seven pounds at birth. When our fourth arrived, he was much larger. After delivery, the medical team began testing and measuring my new son. The last reading came from a nurse, who seemed impressed as she read, "Weight---nine pounds, eight ounces." My husband, a CPA in corporate finance who'd been quiet up to this point, could contain himself no longer. "How bout that!" he exclaimed happily. "It's 36% more baby for my money!"


Look at the world around you, and you'll see God's creativity;
Look at the dinner table, and you'll see God's providence;
Look at the mirror, and you'll see God's sense of humor.

September 17, 2006

"Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent
if no birds sang except those that sang best." -- Henry Van Dyke

"Unfortunately, those who follow the crowd usually get lost in it." - Rick Warren

** I have a sign in the mirror of my room I see it every morning in my groggy condition, when I first wake up: WHAT HAVE YOU GOT GOING TODAY, GOD? I'D LIKE TO BE A PART OF IT. THANKS FOR LOVING ME.
I have to find my place in God's plans, rather than make my own little plans and then ask God to support them: "Come on, God, give me an A in this course. Come on, God, do this for me." Instead, I pray, "What have you got going today, God? You love this world. You loved this world into life. You created this world. We're all yours. What's my part in the drama? What part do you want me to play? I will play any part you say. Want me to be a success? I'll be a success for you. Want me to be a failure? I'll fail for you. Whatever you want." That's the condition of successful prayer. -- John Powell, "Prayer as Surrender"


No Half-Measures One of the most dramatic and world-renowned shifts from "I" to God is the conversion of C. S. Lewis. This little man, who held the chair of medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge, sat in his study without typewriter or secretary and penned the great masterpieces which made him perhaps the most broadly-read Christian writer of our century. C. S. Lewis was an agnostic, but was Surprised By Joy--the title of a book in which he tells about "The Shape of My Early Life" as Christ replaced the "I" in his life.
C. S. Lewis describes the exchange between self-will and God's will in Beyond personality (and his words are a challenge to you and to me): "Christ says, 'Give me all. I don't want so much of your money and so much of your work--I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and there; I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self instead. In fact I will give you myself, my own will shall become yours.

Take a little stress out of your day.....Digital bubble wrap you can pop!
http://www.saab-stuff.com/pop.swf

The "Christian is not in the business of winning arguments, but of winning people."

Some impressive satellite pictures of the beautiful planet we live on. I especially enjoyed the night pictures. http://home.att.net/~hideaway_fun/442/planet.htm

Ole decided to buy Lena a new car for her birthday. They shopped and shopped. Finally, Lena found one she liked. But before signing the papers, Lena looked at the car one more time. Suddenly, she bristled and walked away, saying she didn't want the car. She wouldn't even talk about it. On the way home, Ole said, "Vell, Lena, I tot yew liked dat car. Vat changed yer mind about it? "Ole, I yust don't vant any car vit XL on it," Lena answered. "It's bad enuff having dat on my undervear."

The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible. -- George Burns

MY SPELL CHEQUER
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea

Eye strike a key and type a work
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.
-Sauce unknown


A young lady named Sally, relates an experience she had in a college religion class, given by her teacher, whom we'll call Brother Smith. She says Brother Smith was known for his elaborate object lessons.
One particular day, Sally walked into college and knew they were in for another fun day. On the wall was a big target and on a nearby table were many darts. Brother Smith told the students to draw a picture of someone that they disliked or someone who had made them angry, and he would allow them to throw darts at the person's picture. Sally's girlfriend (on her right), drew a picture of a girl who had stolen her boyfriend. Another friend (on her left), drew a picture of his little brother. Sally drew a picture of Brother Smith, putting a great
deal of detail into her drawing, even drawing pimples on his face. Sally was pleased at the overall effect she had achieved.
The class lined up and began throwing darts, with much laughter and hilarity. Some of the students threw their darts with such force that their targets were ripping apart. Sally looked forward to her turn, and was filled with disappointment when Brother Smith, because of time
limits, asked the students to return to their seats.
As Sally sat thinking about how angry she was because she didn't have a chance to throw any darts at her target, Brother Smith began removing the target from the wall.
Underneath the target was a picture of Jesus . . .A complete hush fell over the room as each student viewed the mangled picture of Jesus; holes and jagged marks covered His face and His eyes were pierced out.
Brother Smith said only these words, "In as much as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me." No other words were necessary; the tear-filled eyes of each student focused only on the picture of Christ. The students remained in their
seats . . . even after the bell rang . . . then slowly left the classroom, tears streaming down their faces. Enough Said!!!
"And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'" ~Matthew 25:40

Recently we went to a church service where a new song was being sung and the chorus included the phrase "taste God's Grace Eternal." My son, who was listening but not reading along, turned to me and asked if we were supposed to "taste God's gray sea turtle."

There are two ways to be rich. One is to have everything you want, and the other is to be satisfied with what you have.
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A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather's word processor. She told him she was writing a story. "What's it about?" he asked. "I don't know," she replied. "I can't read."

"...focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it." -- Greg Anderson

I am not a teacher but an awakener. Robert Frost (1874-1963) Poet

NEW COLLEGE FRESHMEN ILL PREPARED . . . Many college-bound freshmen don't have the academic skills to succeed in college, reports a nonprofit testing company, ACT Inc. Researchers discovered that about half do not have reading-comprehension skills, which will make it harder for them to do well in literature, history, and sociology classes. Only one out of four have the skills to do well in college biology. (USA Today, August 17, 2005)

A good friend will come and bail you out of the Police Lockup... But, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying: "Wow...that was fun!"

"Honesty" My son Zachary, 4, came screaming out of the bathroom to tell me he'd dropped his toothbrush in the toilet. So I fished it out and threw it in the garbage. Zachary stood there thinking for a moment then ran to my bathroom and came out with my toothbrush. He held it up and said with a charming little smile, "We better throw this one out too then, 'cause it fell in the toilet a few days ago.

I signed up for an exercise class and was told to wear loose-fitting clothing. If I HAD any loose-fitting clothing, I wouldn't be signing up in the first place!

Don't argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able to tell the difference.

Walt Disney went broke seven times and had a nervous breakdown before he became successful. At age 40 Henry Ford was broke. Enrico Caruso, who became one of the world's greatest tenors, was advised by his voice teacher to quit singing because he failed so many times to carry his high notes. Thomas Edison failed more than 6,000 times before he could get an electric light bulb to work, but when a child, one of his teachers once called him a dunce. Abraham Lincoln was well known for his many failures but became one of America's most beloved presidents. And Albert Einstein and Werner von Braun both flunked courses in mathematics. History is filled with similar stories.
The reason these people all succeeded is because they didn't quit. They believed they could succeed and they stuck with it until they did.

September 10

A rabbi said to a precocious Little Johnny, "So your mother says your prayers for you each night, very commendable. What does she say?"
Little Johnny replied, "Thank God he's in bed!"


A proposed new set of Ten Commandments based on observations of our culture:
"1. Have a good day. 2. Shop. 3. Eliminate pain.
4. Be up-to-date. 5. Relax. 6. Express yourself.
7. Have a happy family. 8. Be entertaining. 9. Be entertained.
10. Buy entertainment. OH--He forgot #11. Get in touch with your feelings.

"Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic." - Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), Finnish composer

SIGNS AND NOTICES Actual signs that have appeared at various locations.
Sign in an office: "We shoot every 3rd salesman, and the 2nd one just left."
Sign in a veterinary's waiting room: "Be back in 5 minutes. Sit! Stay!"
Sign on music teachers' door: "Out Chopin."
Sign at the electric company: "We would be delighted if you send in your bill. However, if you don't, you will be."
Sign in beauty shop window: "Dye now!"
Sign on a garbage truck: "We've got what it takes to take what you've got."
Sign at a computer store: "Out for a quick byte."
Sign on restaurant window: "Don't stand there and be hungry. Come in and get fed up."
Sign in a bowling alley: "Please be quiet. We need to hear a pin drop."

"If it's big enough to worry about, it's big enough to pray about." - Rick Warren

"Pray, and let God worry." Martin Luther

"When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don't pray, they don't." - William Temple

"Personally, I'm less afraid now than I was before Sept. 11, because I have a greater sense of God's sovereignty. He's in control, and he has a plan for the world. Not only that, he has plans for me individually. And he loves me more than any human being ever could love me. So what's really to fear?" - 9/11 widow Lisa Beamer, in Sept./Oct. 2002 Christianity Today

One out of eight people living in the United States today was born in a different country - that is about 37.5 million people out of our country's almost 300 million population.

Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know "why" I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of the Roads weren't paved.

I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.


Fun web site when the screen loads use your mouse to create a modern art design. click the mouse to change colors. Lots of fun and free. http://www.jacksonpollock.org/



Fickle Feelings When it comes to prayer, feeling is not the most important thing. Feelings re fickle, easily influenced by heath, morale, weather and mood. Prayer is too important to be put at the mercy of our feelings. "What if I don't feel like praying?" Plenty of God's
people have felt the same way. Don't worry about it. Pray anyway. The purpose of prayer is to maintain our relationship with God, not merely to express our feelings.

A noted psychiatrist was a guest at a National Organization for Women gathering, and his hostess naturally broached the subject in which the doctor was most at ease. "Would you mind telling me, Doctor," she asked, "how you detect a mental deficiency in somebody who appears completely normal?"
"Nothing is easier," he replied. "You ask him a simple question which everyone should answer with no trouble. If he hesitates, that puts you on the track."
"What sort of question?"
"Well, you might ask him, 'Captain Cook made three trips around the world and died during one of them. Which one?' The woman thought a moment, then said with a nervous laugh, "You wouldn't happen to have another example, would you? I must confess I don't know much about history." (YOU BETTER KNOW THE ANSWER)

You become the person you will always be by the choices you make. You can sell out your character, but it's the one thing you can't buy. - Michael Josephson

In line at the bookstore, I couldn't help noticing the two bestsellers the person in front of me was prepared to purchase: Conversations With God" and "How to Argue and Win Everytime."

A GOD WHO CAN SHAKE THE WORLD During an earthquake, an elderly lady was peaceful and unafraid. Someone asked her afterward, "Weren't you afraid?" "NO," she replied. "I rejoiced to know that I have a God who can shake the world!"

The greatest use of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.

After giving the hired man a dressing down for being late in returning with supplies, the farmer demanded, "Okay, now let's hear how it happened, Miller."
"Well, I picked up a minister along the road," explained the hired hand, "and from there on the mules couldn't understand a word I said."


REJECTION Rejection can be one of the most painful experiences any of us can have. Ralph Keyes in his book “Is There Life after High School?” writes that Mia Farrow has never forgotten the time every girl but Mia was asked to dance. Nor did Charles Schulz of “Peanuts” cartoon fame ever forgotten that the yearbook staff rejected his every cartoon. Movie actress Ali McGraw confesses she doesn’t forget the fact that she never had one date in all of high school. Henry Kissinger is best remembered by his classmates as the kid
nobody wanted to eat lunch with at school.

Finally! Pong has been updated for 2006. Now there's FOUR paddles... plus an evil twist that makes this game frustratingly tricky. http://h4sh.com/paddlepower

A mother who had just put her little boy to bed was heard to say as she shut the door and tip-toed down the hall. "This is one more day when I worked from son-up to son-down.

A story is told of a family that went into a restaurant. The waitress walked up and, looking at the young boy, said: What will it be? The boy eagerly shouted back: “I'll take a hamburger, French fries, and a chocolate shake.” The mother immediately interrupted: Oh, that's not what he wants. “He'll take the roast beef, a baked potato, and a glass of milk.” Much to the
surprise of both the mother and the boy, the waitress completely ignored her and again asked the boy: “And what do you want on that hamburger?” The boy shouted back, “ketchup, lots of ketchup.” “And what kind of shake?” “Make it chocolate.” The boy then turned to his parents with a big smile on his face and said: “Say, ain't she something. She thinks that I'm real!”

Don't believe everything you think.

An elderly man had serious hearing problems for a number of years. His family tried again and again to convince him to get a hearing aid. Finally he relented. He went to the doctor and was fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed him to hear 100 percent.
A month later he went back to the doctor. The doctor said with a smile, "Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again."
The old man replied, "Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to their conversations. I've changed my will three times!"

September 3, 2006

** Never confuse the will of the majority with the will of God. -- Charles Colson

Those who are wholly God's are always happy. -- Francois Fenelon

"One half of our problems come from wanting our own way. The other half come from getting it." -- Unknown

"The question for each of us to settle is not what we would do if we had the means, time, influence and educational advantages, but what we will do with the things we have." -- Hamilton Wright Mabee

"G. K. Chesterton famously said something to this effect: When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing--they believe in anything." – Chuck Colson

There is a story of a little boy who lived in a house facing the west. Every morning on awakening he saw the house on the opposite hill with windows of flaming gold, gilded by the rising sun. "Oh," he said, "if only I had a house like that with golden windows!"
So early one morning he set out to visit the house with windows of gold. The way was long and tiresome, and when he arrived, he wept with disappointment when he saw that the windows were actually dull and gray. Turning to go back home, he looked, and lo! The windows of his own house were golden in the setting sun!

"Volunteers are not paid - not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless." - Unknown

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'" - Erma Bombeck


DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE (some credits to a guy named Jefferson)
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for Christians to remove the bonds that have connected them with the world's value systems and to separate themselves to the freedom that God has provided through Jesus Christ, they should declare the causes that led them to this separation (Galatians 5:1, 13).
We hold these truths to be Biblical and God inspired, that all men are lost and without hope except for the grace of God (Romans 3:10, 23). But God has manifested Himself to this fallen world through the Person of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. God loves us so much He gave His Son's life as the only payment for our sins. We enter willingly into this relationship of love and trust by receiving through faith His sacrifice and His Son (John 3:16; Revelation 3:20).
Only by grace do we merit salvation, keep salvation and do good works, the latter being a sign of our salvation, never a means to earn it (Ephesians 2:8-10).
It is fitting, therefore, that we live as separated people from the world, not by distance, but by lifestyle. We honor our Creator-Maker by lives lived in obedience and glory to Him. We determine to learn and live the precepts of the Holy Bible for righteousness, strength and success (Joshua 1:8; Psalms 119:9-11). We will submit to and derive strength from one another in Christ's Church, His Body on earth, with Him as Head (I Corinthians 12-14).
We determine to live in the power and fullness of the abundant true Life God's Holy Spirit gives to us by His living IN us. This requires daily surrender to His leadings and His will (Romans 8:9-11). We will come constantly to Jesus Christ for our strength, sustenance and life (Matthew 11:28-30).
We shall accomplish this declaration, and yea, do all things through Christ who gives us His strength (Philippians 4:13). To Him we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.



Several weeks after a young man had been hired, he was called into the personnel director's office. "What is the meaning of this?" the director asked. "When you applied for this job, you told us you had five years experience. Now we've discovered this is the first job you've ever held."
"Well," the young man replied, "in your advertisement, you said you wanted somebody with imagination."

Around 65.4 million people volunteered in the United States between September 2004 and September 2005. - Source: U.S. Department of Labor

"The typical pastor has his greatest ministry impact at a church in years five through 14 of his pastorate; unfortunately, the average pastor lasts only five years at a church."





C. S. Lewis once wrote, "The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small dirty object. In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that--and, therefore, know yourself as nothing by comparison--you do not know God at all."

"Life is too short to spend your precious time trying to convince a person who wants to live in gloom and doom otherwise. Give lifting that person your best shot, but don't
hang around long enough for his or her bad attitude to pull you down. Instead, surround yourself with optimistic people."-- Zig Ziglar

FAST FACTS:
Americans worry about a big national debt and a government bureaucracy that never seems to stop growing.
In 1801 President Thomas Jefferson worried about the same things. After all, the number of government employees had grown to 130 and the debt had ballooned to all of $17 million, an amount equal to the hourly interest on the debt in recent times.
Today in Washington more people spend more money than that on a typical federal agency Christmas party.

** It has been said that separating faith and works is like separating the heat and light from a candle. You know both are produced by the candle. You know they are not the same thing. You also know you cannot separate them.

Inside every older person is a younger person -- wondering what the heck happened.

Inside me lives a skinny woman crying to get out. But I can usually shut her up with cookies.

The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy. -Helen Hayes (at 73)-

My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first one being -- hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint. - Erma Bombeck-