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THIS IS PAGE 2 OF ODDS AND ENDS, YOU SHOULD VISIT "ODDS AND ENDS" FIRST......
A Naval officer was on a horse, losing his grip and almost falling out of the saddle. Holding on to the horse's mane and nearly slipping off every few seconds, he frantically screamed for help. This went on for a full ten minutes.
===================================================================== A crusty old Marine Sergeant Major found himself at a gala event hosted by a local liberal arts college. There was no shortage of extremely young idealistic ladies in attendance, one of whom approached the Sergeant Major for conversation. ================================================================
A sweet grandmother telephoned St. Joseph 's Hospital. She timidly asked, "Is it possible to speak to someone who can tell me how a patient is doing?" number of the patient?" "Norma Findlay, Room 302." "Let me put you on hold while I check with the nurse's station for that room." phone and said, "I have good news. Her nurse just told me that Norma is doing well. Her blood pressure is fine; her blood work just came back normal and her discharged tomorrow." God bless you for the good news." me sh--." ===============================================
ADULT TRUTHS, FROM NOLDE ON 1 NOV 10
ADULT TRUTHS
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This is very addictive, I warn you. And it is very tough to get a score higher than 700.
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TO REQUEST YOUR SERVICE RECORDS AND DD-214
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Birthday Reminder! This week we celebrate a special birthday.
Monica Lewinsky turns 44, can you believe it?
It seems like only yesterday, she was crawling around the White House on her hands and knees.
My,they grow up so fast, don't they?
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THIS WAS SENT BY NOLDE ON 1-30-10. I CHANGED THE WORDING ON A COUPLE OF ITEMS TO SAVE SOME SPACE, AND THE PHOTOS ARE NOT HERE BECAUSE OF THE RETYPING OF THE ENTIRE TEXT AND THE FACT THAT THEY WOULD NOT COME OUT HERE , BUT HERE IT IS.
Clever Ideas Worth Knowing
Take your bananas apart--if you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster. Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil--stays fresh longer and does not mold. Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Those with 4 bumps are firmer and better for cooking. Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef--it helps pull the grease away from the meat while it's cooking. To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich, add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese or heavy cream then beat them up. For a cool brownie treat make brownies as usual, then melt mints in a double broiler and pour over the warm brownies---let it set for a wonderful minty frosting. Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste or garlic and add it at the end of a recipe of you want a stronger taste of garlic. Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Chop up with food chopper, then peel, core and slice a few apples, place in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples, bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Reheat pizza----heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to medium low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crisply, not soggy like microwave pizza. This was shown on the cooking channel. Deviled eggs can be easy to make---put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag, seal, mash til all broken up, add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashking and mix thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg, throw away bag when done, easy cleanup. Expanding frosting---When you buy a container of cake frosting at the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes, you can double it in size. You get to frost more cakes or cupcakes with the same amount. There is also less calories and sugar per serving. Reheating refrigerated bread. To warm biscuits, pancakes or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water next to them, the increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster. Newspapers----start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil---wet newspapers, put them around plants, cover with mulch...weeds will get in thru plastic, but not thru wet newspapers. Broken glass---use wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards. Mosquitoes gone----keep a dryer sheet in your pocket! It will keep the mosquitoes away. Keep squirrels from eating plants by sprinkling cayenne pepper on the plants, harmless to the plants but squirrels will stay away. Flexible vacuum cleaner----attach a paper roll or gift wrap roll to your vacuum cleaner for those hard to reach spots. Before you put sticky substances in measuring cups, fill with hot water, dump it out, don't dry the cup, then add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, etc and watch how easily it comes right out. Foggy windshield? A chalkboard eraser kept in the car will help. Rub the window with the blackboard eraser, works better than a cloth. If you forgot to put something into a now-sealed envelope, no problem, put the envelope in the freezer for one hour, then open easily. Fruit fly pests----Small glass with half an ince of apple cider vinegar and two drops of dishwashing liquid----mix well, the flies will be drawn to it. Get rid of ants----put small piles of cornmeal. They take it home, cannot digest it, die. It may take a week or so but it works. Lint filTer in clothes dryers get covered with film caused by dryer sheets----take filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and old toothbrush, once every six months or so, at least. This will get rid of the invisible film on the filter itself. Your dryer will keep working longer, will use less electricity........ =================================================================================================== Let's all mourn the death of common sense in this country: November 19, 2009 on the news today. No need to check it out on Snopes.com
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Steve Tepper contributed this on November 16, 2009....take a look at this guy who copies 140 wpm
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Subject: The Last Nickel
A father walks into a restaurant with his young son. He gives the young boy 3 nickels to play with to keep him occupied. Suddenly, the boy starts choking, going blue in the face. The father realizes the boy has swallowed the nickels and starts slapping him on the back. The boy coughs up 2 of the nickels, but keeps choking. Looking at his son, the father is panicking, shouting for help. A well dressed, attractive, and serious looking woman, in a blue business suit is sitting at a coffee bar reading a newspaper and sipping a cup of coffee, hearing the cry for help looks up, puts her coffee cup down, neatly folds the newspaper and places it on the counter, gets up from her seat and makes her way, unhurried, across the restaurant. Reaching the boy, the woman carefully drops his pants; takes hold of the boys testicles and starts to squeeze and twist, gently at first and then ever so firmly. After a few seconds the boy convulses violently and coughs up the last nickel, which the woman deftly catches in her free hand. Releasing the boys testicles the woman hands the nickel to the father and walks back to her seat at the coffee bar without saying a word. As soon as he is sure that his son has suffered no ill effects, the father rushes over to the woman and starts thanking her saying, "I've never seen anybody do anything like that before, it was fantastic. Are you a doctor? No, the woman replied, "I'm with the I.R.S." =========================================================================================================
SENT IN BY MIKE BAKER ON 11-9-09:
1. Why Is it good if a vacuum really sucks?
2. Why is the third hand on the watch called the second hand? 3. If a word is misspelled in the dictionary, how would we ever know? 4. If Webster wrote the first dictionary, where did he find the words? 5. Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack? 6. Why does "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing? 7. Why does "fat chance" and "slim chance" mean the same thing? 8. Why do "tug" boats push their barges? 9. Why do we sing "Take me out to the ball game" when we are already there? 10. Why are they called " stands" when they are made for sitting? 11. Why is it called "after dark" when it really is "after light"? 12. Doesn't "expecting the unexpected" make the unexpected expected? 13. Why are a "wise man" and a "wise guy" opposites? 14. Why do "overlook" and "oversee" mean opposite things? 15. Why is "phonics" not spelled the way it sounds? 16. If work is so terrific, why do they have to pay you to do it? 17. If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting? 18. If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? 19. If you are cross-eyed and have dyslexia, can you read all right? 20. Why is bra singular and panties plural? 21. Why do you press harder on the buttons of a remote control when you know the batteries are dead? 22. Why do we put suits in garment bags and garments in a suitcase? 23. How come abbreviated is such a long word? 24. Why do we wash bath towels? Aren't we clean when we use them? 25. Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle? 26. Why do they call it a TV set when you only have one? 27. Christmas - What other time of the year do you sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of your socks? 28. Why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway ? 29. Why is toilet paper tiny squares and tissues big squares ? ? ==========================================================================================================================
We don't think about it much, if at all, but a lot of this country was underwater at one time, covered by vast inland seas, home to many kinds of marine reptiles, for millions of years. see www.oceansofkansas.com for a massive explanation of all this wildlife.
(The Western Interior Waterway was the official name for it)
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THIS CARTOON WAS FARFETCHED BACK IN 1948 BUT NOT TOO FARFETCHED THESE DAYS, IS IT?
NINE MINUTES LONG BUT WORTH THE TIME.
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Ghost from Iwo Jima
Lon Woodrum Leatherneck Magazine Gyrene Gyngles October of 1968 The living warrior never said The things that burned within his head: The word was uttered by the broken dead. I died at dawn, bent toward a thunder island, Wallowing upon gun-gutted sand I could not sleep in that strange land; I have returned to New York towers, New England hills and Kansas plains; To gentle towns with quiet hours And temples singing in the sun... I have returned with one desire: To see what you have done With what I bought upon that strip of fire. Red ran my blood Upon a beach whose name I scarcely knew: So men could speak aloud their dreams and hopes before a crowd, Or pray their prayers to God, And not be stood before a firing squad. And it was not alone for Yanks I fell; It was for Britons, French, Chinese, Israelis, Africans and Poles; For all the disinherited, tormented souls In all the agonizing earth and sea Scarred by the boots of tyranny. And all the clever tongues have lied Who said it was for Less than this I died. The little people of the world looked And watched me running where the red beach shook; The little broken, beaten brothers; The homeless children and their mothers; The noble men reduced to less than tramps Who rotted in the concentration camps; The keepers of the truth...they stood that dawn And shouted silently, "Go on! Go on!" For they all knew, oh, they knew why I had to run across that beach and die. I could not sleep in that far land; I have returned to where your cities stand, Unwounded; to your churches on the sleepy street, And golden miles of unhurt wheat. I have returned to hear the laughter in your children's throats And watch the little people cast their votes. I have come back to see what you who live Have done with what I died to give. The living warrior had not said The things that burned within his head: The word was uttered by the broken dead ==============================================
Video----Marines vs Taliban======
Turn up the sound.
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This group of disgruntled, unpaid soldiers were going to march on Congress, fully armed, until the last few sentences of George Washington's speech here. Read it all the way to the end to see how he moved the troops to tears, destroying their plans to possibly undo all they had done for the new country.
http://www.doublegv.com/ggv/battles/Contl.html FOR THE SUFFERINGS OF A CONTINENTAL SOLDIER..........
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A Saturday Night Live "short" making fun of rap songs, this is about loving the movie "The Chronicles of Narnia" and cupcakes.
Very well done. Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg of SNL
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/chronicles-of-narnia-lazy-sunday/2921/ Give it some time to fully load.
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This author was recommended to me by Nolde, and the author, Michael McGarrity is great, comparable to Michael Connelly and John D. MacDonald.
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For an underwater webcam off the coast of Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles, Caribbean, see www.breathebonaire.com but scroll down and change the elapsed time to TWO seconds. This is a sister site to the Nova Scotia lighthouse site I mentioned in the first Odds and Ends.
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http://www.dugout-memories.com/creprint.html OLD BASEBALL CARDS, PHOTOS OF=======
CLICK ON THE YEAR, ETC, E.G. 1958 Topps, 1959 Topps, to see photos of all cards in the set, not just the listings. Very interesting and brought back a lot of baseball memories.
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webcam across the street from Wrigley Field, at Cub World, a big souvenir place.
http://www.cubworld.com/c=c6IGCb40riHKSDbnMFlVa1aRB/category/a_cubworld_cam/ give it a minute to load.
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www.usdebtclock.org is very interesting.
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In keeping with the "anything goes" nature of this page, and the Odds and Ends page, this is a genre of writing, all non-fiction, called Indian Capitivity Narratives, and there are a lot of them, like the later slave narratives. This one is the most famous, the narrative of Mary Rowlandson, the events of which took place in eastern Massachusetts. No one can say that indian captivity narratives are boring, that's for sure.
http://www.hannahdustin.com/maryrolandson.htm IS THE SAME TEXT BUT A LITTLE EASIER TO READ.
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http://www.coverbrowser.com/ THIS IS A SITE THAT SHOWS COMIC BOOK COVERS FROM THE 1950S AND LATER, FOR THE NOSTALGIA MINDED LIKE ME.
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http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/1959.shtml YOU CAN VIEW BOX SCORES FROM OLD BASEBALL GAMES HERE, SHOWING ALL THE PLAYERS IN THAT PARTICULAR GAME, THUS REFRESHING YOUR MEMORY OF YOUR FAVORITE PLAYERS OF WHATEVER YEAR. WHEN WE GOT TO PR IT HAD NOT BEEN BUT 5 OR SO YEARS SINCE WE WERE COLLECTING BASEBALL CARDS, MUCH AS SOME OF US WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT WE WERE NEVER KIDS, BUT ARRIVED IN THE WORLD ALL GROWN UP. THERE ARE A LOT OF ADULTS LIKE THAT, WHO WANT TO FORGET WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO HAVE BEEN A KID, BUT I, LIKE MANY, WANT TO REMEMBER THOSE TIMES. SITES LIKE THESE HELP IN RECREATING SOME OF THE MEMORIES, LIKE THE BALLPLAYERS WE WATCHED OR KNEW ABOUT.
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WATCH THIS WOMAN SEND CODE.....BAKER SENT THIS AROUND TO ALL OF US ON 7-26-09. THANKS, MIKE.
"Video of 'DA', also known as Denice Stoops, the first female telegrapher who worked at KPH until the end of commercial morse operations and closure of the station in 1998. Denice is seen here sending the closing transmissions of the MRHS (see them at www.radiomarine.org ) Night of Nights 10. Each year (in this case exactly 10 years) to the minute, that commercial morse operations ceased in the United States, former RCA shore station KPH comes alive to pay tribute to those who came before us to honor their skill and talents. Many other maritime shore stations and vessels join in, and thousands of people all over the world tune in each year to pay tribute, and copy the CW 'music' once again commanding the airwaves. This video was shot in the control room at the KPH, KSM, KFS transmitter site and brought to a close Night of Nights X. The KPH 'wheel' is being sent in the beginning of the video before transmitter supervisor Steve Hawes 'pulls the plug' and connects DA's chrome Vibroplex bug to the panel to key all the transmitters at once. The whole building is electrified by the transmitters and the spirit of the men (and women) that were the only connection between those at sea and the world. It is an emotional experience to be part of such an event." ==================================================================================================
NOW, SCROLL DOWN ON THIS SITE AND CLICK ON THE VARIOUS CODE SPEEDS THAT THEY HAVE ON HERE FOR PRACTICE, THE OFFICIAL ARRL SITE FOR HAM RADIO OPERATORS. YOU HAVE TO HIT "CODE PRACTICE FILES" ***
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PUNS
The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He got that way from too much pi.
I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.
She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.
A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.
The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.
No matter how much you push the envelope, it will still be stationery.
A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall and the police are looking into it.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
Two hats were hangin on a hat rack in a hallway, one said to the other, You stay here, I'll go on a head.
I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said Keep Off The Grass.
A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to the hospital, his grandmother called the nurse later and she said No Change Yet.
A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
The short fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
A backward poet writes inverse.
In democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism it's your count that votes.
When cannibals ate a missionary they got a taste of religion.
Don't join dangerous cults; Practice safe sects.
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AFRICA WILDLIFE WEBCAMS PLUS ONE IN ECUADOR:
This is a man-made watering hole called Pete's Pond, in a game reserve in Botswana. Turn up the sound.
Press either of the buttons marked NKORHO PAN or ELEPHANT PLAINS. These cams are at game lodges half a mile from the famous Kruger National Park, South Africa. Turn up the sound.
Southeastern Africa, probably South Africa near Mozambique, but it is operable only in the daytime.
These four on one page are in Kruger Natl Pk but refresh every thirty seconds or so, so are not "live".
There is now sound with this one, and the bird activity is amazing. It is deep in a forest in Ecuador, South America. Once in awhile you will see a coati mundi climbing on the platform behind the feeder, to get a banana or two that the park personnel put there for them.
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A French Foreign Legion general was inspecting the troops at a remote fort in Algeria. The Colonel showed him around and the general eventually asked what the troops did for fun on their time off.
The Colonel said well, we have this one camel we keep tied up out back, and the troops usually use her, when they have some time off. The next morning the Colonel could not find the general so he wandered out back of the fort and, sure enough, there the general was, with the camel. The Colonel screamed at him, general general, WHAT are you doing? The general said well you told me the boys use this camel for fun, didn't you? The Colonel said yes, but they use him to ride into town to see their girlfriends! ======================================================================================================================
An old man sat in a beach chair and watched a kid that looked to be eight or nine years old making trip after trip from the beach to the ocean, back and forth. He was picking up stranded starfish and returning them to their element before they died. You could see starfish all up and down the beach, and the kid had this little ol pail that held some water and maybe a few starfish, tops.
The old man smiled to himself and said, that kid doesn't get it, just doesn't understand, does not understand how futile a task he set for himself. Imagine all those starfish! Why, there are hundreds, maybe thousands, as far as I can see in every direction. He's fighting a losing battle, poor kid.
On one of his trips back from the shore to the water, the little boy passed a little closer to the old man, and the old man called out to him, hey son, what have you got in the bucket? And the little boy replied, well, starfish, sir, I'm taken' em back to where they belong, before they all die. The old man smiled a kindly smile and slowly shook his head and said, son, do you realize there are so many that you could never in a week or two save them all?
It's such a WASTE OF TIME! the old man said, not unkindly.
The little boy looked down at his pail and the few starfish in it, slowly looked back up, caught the old man's eyes, and said, yes, sir, maybe you're right, maybe it is just a waste of time.
But the ones I've already saved don't think so.
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Years ago I tracked down Ralph McCreary, one of our two admin guys, and he was staying at his daughter's house in Richmond, Virginia and at the very moment I called him, he was on a portable phone up on a ladder, painting the ceiling. He was glad to hear that a lot of the guys are in touch etc and thanked me for contacting him and told me, well, wait, I don't have anything to write with to take down your number, and I said well, Ralph, you are up on a ladder and painting the ceiling, so just paint my number ON the ceiling now as we speak and copy it later. There was a moment of silence and he said hey great idea and I could hear him painting etc and I asked him if anyone was watching him do this and he said yes, my daughter is sitting here wondering what is going on and whether I have lost my mind, all of a sudden painting numbers on her ceiling!
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I was out copying code on my posit one day when my man went down at the regularly scheduled time, and I sat there for a minute or two relaxing and up he comes again, off schedule, so I began to copy, but it was in English and I was not paying attention to what I was listening to, because you remember that we often looked around the room while we were copying and talked to other people etc and only after a couple of minutes did I look down at the paper and I read in plain English, "I am a dumb ass for doing this" over and over again, and it was Joe Hundley who had secreted himself a row away across from my posit and plugged in a code key and was sending the message over and over again and everyone started laughing. I was "reeled in like a fish", as we used to say.
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I heard this read aloud this morning in church, Mother's Day, May 9, 2010, it is from a Good Housekeeping article from 1933. I hope you enjoy it. I know you will.
***** A MOTHER'S WALK *****
The young mother set her foot on the path of life. “Is this the long way?” she asked. And the guide said: “Yes, and the way is hard. And you will be old before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the beginning.” But the young mother was happy, and she would not believe that anything could be better than these years. So she played with her children, and gathered flowers for them along the way, and bathed them in the clear streams; and the sun shone on them, and the young Mother cried, “Nothing will ever be lovelier than this.” Then the night came, and the storm, and the path was dark, and the children shook with fear and cold, and the mother drew them close and covered them with her mantle, and the children said, “Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come.” And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead, and the children climbed and grew weary, and the mother was weary. But at all times she said to the children, “A little patience and we are there.” So the children climbed, and when they reached the top they said, “Mother, we would not have done it without you.” And the mother, when she lay down at night looked up at the stars and said, “This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage. Today I have given them strength.” And the next day came strange clouds which darkened the earth, clouds of war and hate and evil, and the children groped and stumbled, and the mother said: “Look up. Lift your eyes to the light.” And the children looked and saw above the clouds an everlasting glory, and it guided them beyond the darkness. And that night the Mother said, “This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God.” And the days went on, and the weeks and the months and the years, and the mother grew old and she was little and bent. But her children were tall and strong and walked with courage. And when the way was rough, they lifted her, for she was as light as a feather; and at last they came to a hill, and beyond they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide. And mother said: “I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them.” And the children said, “You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates.” And they stood and watched her as she went on alone, and the gates closed after her. And they said: “We cannot see her, but she is with us still. A Mother like ours is more than a memory. She is a living presence.”
Your Mother is always with you. She’s the whisper of the leaves as you walk down the street, she’s the smell of bleach in your freshly laundered socks, she’s the cool hand on your brow when you’re not well. Your Mother lives inside your laughter. And she’s crystallized in every teardrop. She’s the place you came from, your first home; and she’s the map you follow with every step you take. She’s your first love and your first heartbreak, and nothing on earth But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope ======================================================================================================================
Now we come to the most important question of your whole life. Where will YOU spend eternity? If you don't think this is important, you should think again.
Have you ever asked yourself this question? What was your answer? What information did you have in order to make a rational and intelligent decision about where you would like to spend all of eternity? Or maybe you never thought about it, figuring that, yep, others die, but not me, not yet.
If you want to get to heaven, you have to repent (turn your life around, turn from your sins), have faith, and trust in Jesus Christ---Christ is not a last name, it means "the annointed one" (annointed/chosen by God), so it is Jesus the Annointed One (Christ)----------repent, turn from your sins, have faith and trust in Jesus Christ, find out what God wants you to do, and do it (obedience)-----------It is never to0 late to become saved and thereby know you will go to heaven when your physical body dies....see two sister sites by a former atheist------allaboutGod.com and gotquestions.org with www in front of each of them.....if your question is not there, there is a good chance it doesn't exist.
What keeps YOU from believing? Thinking you know there is no God? Can you really abolish God out of existence just by wishing it were so?
www.reasonablefaith.com www.allaboutGod.com www.gotquestions.org www.menorah.org/eetract.html www.insight.org www.gty.org www.coralridge.org
Normally, people ask a question because they don't know the answer to it. But in at least one case, there is a question they ask where they think they already know the answer. Even scientists and astronomers have come to conclusions about it, in a positive way. The question a lot of folks ask is: HOW can there be a God? In other words, they don't see how it is possible.
Don't worry, ---no one has ever been "talked into" believing in God. No one is convinced by a debate or by an argument.
Here is the problem, although it is not much of a problem to those who don't care, which is the vast majority. The problem is, that eternity is forever, it is never-ending. Where do you want to spend eternity?
Here is another issue, at the outset. Suppose you don't believe in God? And this, too, applies to millions upon millions of individuals, who supposedly have no soul, or if they do, it goes to never-never land upon the dying of the body. But here is the problem: You not believing in the existence of God is beside the point. His existence does not in any way depend upon what you believe. This may come as a shock but it is nevertheless true.
I must first of all tell you that if this subject annoys you, you are not alone. I once felt like that. I had not thought much about religion. I guess this was around the early 1990s. I was neither against it nor for it, I really had no opinion.
BUT when a police officer friend of mine living in Colorado started sending me Christian literature and tracts etc it was aggravating. I felt like asking him to stop, but I knew he meant well. :) My sister, around the same time, called me up and asked me "Are you saved?" and my answer was revealing, I said "From WHAT??" and she said "Oh, boy!" Now, the combination of those two, who did not even know each other, talking to me about Christianity, caused me to become interested enough to investigate its claims on my own.
Two sister sites by a former atheist are massive. www.allaboutGod.com and www.gotquestions.org If these two sites don't have the answer to your question, they will email you an answer. Also, for what salvation is, see www.menorah.org/eetract.html This is a little green booklet, put on the Internet for people's convenience. It is the basic outline of what salvation is and how it works. It is basically a free gift which you either accept or don't accept. Another site with mainstream nationally known ministers is www.Jesus.org
No one was born a Christian. Everyone was born a potential child of God, though. In Puerto Rico, I caroused like most everyone else, and liked it. I never went to church, not once in two years. Maybe I knew where the base chapel was located, but that was the closest I ever got to it. I never once consciously thought about God, not once in two years in Puerto Rico. I was having too much fun to ponder those serious questions. I got to PR the day after I turned 19, left just after turning 21. I am now 64 and now, the past 20 years or so, I have examined the evidence for the existence of God, and like many another person, I find it not only convincing but compelling. There is, in reality, no good or persuasive argument against Christianity, although there are in fact no shortage of arguments that seem pretty good on the surface.
Take a look at this: http://www.ricksplates.com/important.htm
Christians are commanded to share the gospel with people. Since I don't know who is saved and who is unsaved (only God knows that), it is my responsibility to share the gospel with everyone, not just those who will listen and investigate and come to believe. My "job" is not to convert the unsaved! Only the Holy Spirit can do that. My job is to help spread the word in whatever way I can.
I thought of this a few years ago and have been thinking about it ever since. When we see a child, five or six years old, and he or she believes in God, we don't think it strange, nor does the child. The innocence is still there. What happens later? Where does the innocence go? From childhood to adulthood, what has the child learned, not just heard, to make him change his mind about whether God exists? What information has he amassed during those years? Other people's writings, opinions, thoughts? What has caused him to change his mind and to now be so sure that God does not exist? Has he become "sophisticated", too intelligent, too wise, in those few years? Has he just gotten too used to this world and how it works and has just accepted all he has been told? Has he believed everything he has read, despite his insistence that he is "his own man"? He believes in everything he knows even a little about, except God.
What has happened, between childhood and adulthood, that would cause someone to say that he or she knows for sure that there is no God?
More often than not, those who denigrate or wave off the Bible have never looked into how it came to be, who wrote it, why it was written, why it was written the way it was, how reliable it is, where it came from, nor anything at all about it or its history, BUT, they are comfortable making sweeping statements about it. We don't see this in any other realm of inquiry. We don't see people talking about astronomy and how it is not what it seems, unless the talker has looked into it a little. The Bible is the only area where people appoint themselves experts on what it does not say, then when you ask them how they came to that conclusion, they don't know, because they haven't spent five minutes looking into it.
You may perhaps resist God but have no real basis for doing so. Christianity is perhaps the only area in your life where you may be against it without quite knowing why. You don't feel that way about astronomy, or physics, or history. If you don't know much about those disciplines, you simply say you don't know. But when people don't know anything about the Bible or about Christianity, that doesn't stop them from having strong opinions against it. And this without having even looked into its claims. Yes, its claims are outrageous, they are unusual, they are incredible. But that does not mean they are not true. The evidence is massive, yet it is rejected without investigation. No one would reject any other subject of inquiry that way, without even looking into it. But regarding Christianity, they often do just that, figuring they know about it without having investigated its claims.
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There are a lot of things which were not believed, but they were true.
1. It was believed that the Earth was the center of our solar system, and that everything revolved around the Earth. The sun is the center, of course, but that was not obvious until many centuries had passed. And yet it is true.
2. If people had talked about man walking on the moon, even fifty years before July 20, 1969, people would have thought they were demented. And yet it happened.
3. www.oceansofkansas.com In the 1880s, imagine two cowhands on the western plains of Kansas and one says, hey, Joe, did you know that sea monsters, sharks, all kinds of sea predators used to swim right where we're standing? This whole area was one big inland sea! His partner would have ridden off into the sunset right then, without another word. It would have been too unbelievable. And yet it is true, after all.
4. Dinosaurs. Not discovered until the early 19th century. No one before that would have ever believed that huge monsters roamed the earth, not for a little while but for millions of years. True. Yet no one would have believed it. And yet the fossils are there. It is true, after all.
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Where does Christianity fit in with our own worldview? It doesn't. It is a thing unto itself, has nothing to do with our worldview.
The sooner we realize our place in the universe, the better for us. From thinking we are in control, which is absurd, to thinking God is in control, and how can we get right with Him, is the question. How to get right is seen at www.menorah.org/eetract.html One of many sites that sum it up like that. We fool ourselves by thinking it is our life, then it is over before we know it, then what?
Nothing can come into existence on its own. Nothing. This universe, beautiful, harmonious, finely tuned, did not come into existence on its own. It had to have been created.
Everyone will live forever. The question is: Where?
It's kind of urgent. How many more years do we have left on the planet? 20? Maybe a little more, a little less?
The question becomes, ultimately, which side are you on? Which side do you want to be on?
May 26, 2010-----------
I was just thinking of a couple I knew, or rather, that my parents knew, when we lived in Florida, and for some reason I thought of the fact that at that time the husband was only 42, and that eventually, he passed on. He lived to be 81. I'm sure that when he was 42 he thought he had a long time left to live. And he did. But the time still passed. Before he knew it, it was time to go.
I did a search for them and found their death records, both of them, and I wondered. I thought, when he was only 42 he was not thinking of the inevitability of death, just thought about it, if at all, in a general way, but I'm sure it didn't bother him too much. And yet the years did go by, after all, one by one, and eventually, he died. And the inevitability of it doesn't seem to bother us too much. We don't make plans for it, we don't look into whether there is a hereafter or not, we think we will worry about it when we cross that bridge.
I find it interesting. The way the years pass so slowly, or so it seems, and all of a sudden quite a few years have passed, and before you know it, it is time for that journey, and very very few of us ever look into it, to see just what kind of a journey it might be.
June 4, 2010-------------
Another thing drove this whole thing home for me today. I was in Boston, waiting to meet with a fellow lawyer, I was going to see him at 230pm, I got to the area very early, traffic being what it is, and walked around the huge Boston Common, downtown, and there was a group of maybe 50 Mennonites (similar to "Amish") that was from the Pennsylvania Dutch Country area, and they were singing, quite well, and handing out literature, so I leaned against a tree, sipped my bottle of Diet Coke, and listened. After each song, one of the choir members would approach another microphone and then deliver a few words, not more than a couple of minutes, about salvation and how God loves us etc and a few folks passing by became intrigued, as we don't hear about God very often these days (although a long time ago it was as part of daily life as eating and drinking and sleeping).
Just after one of the songs, a speaker took the microphone and said that this world is out of control, or so it seems, but it is NOT out of control. God has it in control, and all the craziness nowadays is a part of His plan, or it would not be allowed to happen. This struck me very very forcefully.
After a half hour or so I made my way uphill toward the State House, near where my friend's office is. I sat on a park bench, still sipping the Diet Coke, and then I thought to myself, hey, right on the other side of this State House is where I went to college, days, but that was FORTY YEARS AGO. Sept of 1970 I enrolled there after 2 years nights somewhere else. That time went by fast, but it nevertheless still went by. Never mind that it seemed to go by slowly, it went by, and here I am sitting here, 63 years old, watching students head toward my college, aged less than I was at the time I went to that college.
My very next thought was this: That was 40 years ago. Where will I be 40 years from NOW? Dead and gone. Period. That once again, as so many other things have, brought back to me the vivid reality that we are all going to die, and that we are all going to live forever. The question is: Where? I was glad I had chosen God's side to be on, in the world, as long as I am here. I shuddered to think of the results of not choosing it, rejecting it. Eternity is a very long time. I got up and walked the rest of the way to my friend's office, but I was thinking of just how little time we all have on this earth, whether we are 23 or 63 or 83. We need to make the right choices now, about where we will spend eternity. We decide that question. We have complete control over where we spend eternity.
If we could only see the emergency nature of this: choosing where we will go, we would make better decisions about it, instead of just letting it happen to us, casting our fate to the winds, with no preparation, no investigation, no curiosity.
We all have beliefs, but I think that we think they are true, just because we believe them-----believing something does not make it true. Disbelieving something does not make it untrue. There are things that exist outside of ourselves that do not depend on what we think about them for their existence.
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Someone sent me the below list, and it belies the nonsensical notion nowadays that a complete and unbreachable gulf was meant to be installed between the state and religion. We "moderns" have basically talked ourselves into becoming our own gods, so this widespread and fashionable notion of no God is something relatively new. It is a trend, a fad, because we are way too advanced to believe in God. That was for the poor helpless ancients who looked up at the sky and wondered and had no answers at the time. But we have the answers now. We are modern.
Alabama 1901, Preamble We the people of the State of Alabama , invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish the following Constitution.. Alaska 1956, Preamble We, the people of Alaska , grateful to God and to those who founded our nation and pioneered this great land. Arizona 1911, Preamble We, the people of the State of Arizona , grateful to Almighty God for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution... Arkansas 1874, Preamble We, the people of the State of Arkansas , grateful to Almighty God for the privilege of choosing our own form of government... California 1879, Preamble We, the People of the State of California , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom... Colorado 1876, Preamble We, the people of Colorado , with profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of Universe... Connecticut 1818, Preamble. The People of Connecticut , acknowledging with gratitude the good Providence of God in permitting them to enjoy. Delaware 1897, Preamble Through Divine Goodness all men have, by nature, the rights of worshipping and serving their Creator according to the dictates of their consciences. Florida 1885, Preamble We, the people of the State of Florida , grateful to Almighty God for our constitutional liberty, establish this Constitution... Georgia 1777, Preamble We, the people of Georgia , relying upon protection and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish this Constitution... Hawaii 1959, Preamble We , the people of Hawaii , Grateful for Divine Guidance .... Establish this Constitution. Idaho 1889, Preamble We, the people of the State of Idaho , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings. Illinois 1870, Preamble We, the people of the State of Illinois, grateful to Almighty God for the civil , political and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy and looking to Him for a blessing on our endeavors. Indiana 1851, Preamble We, the People of the State of Indiana , grateful to Almighty God for the free exercise of the right to choose our form of government. Iowa 1857, Preamble We, the People of the St ate of Iowa , grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of these blessings, establish this Constitution. Kansas 1859, Preamble We, the people of Kansas , grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious privileges establish this Constitution. Kentucky 1891, Preamble.. We, the people of the Commonwealth are grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberties.. Louisiana 1921, Preamble We, the people of the State of Louisiana , grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberties we enjoy. Maine 1820, Preamble We the People of Maine acknowledging with grateful hearts the goodness of the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe in affording us an opportunity .. And imploring His aid and direction. Maryland 1776, Preamble We, the people of the state of Maryland , grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberty... Massachusetts 1780, Preamble We...the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging with grateful hearts, the goodness of the Great Legislator of the Universe In the course of His Providence, an opportunity and devoutly imploring His direction Michigan 1908, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Michigan , grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of freedom, establish this Constitution. Minnesota, 1857, Preamble We, the people of the State of Minnesota, grateful to God for our civil and religious liberty, and desiring to perpetuate its blessings: Mississippi 1890, Preamble We, the people of Mississippi in convention assembled, grateful to Almighty God, and invoking His blessing on our work. Missouri 1845, Preamble We, the people of Missouri , with profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, and grateful for His goodness . Establish this Constitution... Montana 1889, Preamble. We, the people of Montana , grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of liberty establish this Constitution .. Nebraska 1875, Preamble We, the people, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom . Establish this Constitution. Nevada 1864, Preamble We the people of the State of Nevada , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, establish this Constitution... New Hampshire 1792, Part I. Art. I. Sec. V Every individual has a natural and unalienable right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. New Jersey 1844, Preamble We, the people of the State of New Jersey, grateful to Almighty God for civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing on our endeavors. New Mexico 1911, Preamble We, the People of New Mexico, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of liberty.. New York 1846, Preamble We, the people of the State of New York , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its blessings. North Carolina 1868, Preamble We the people of the State of North Carolina, grateful to Almighty God, the Sovereign Ruler of Nations, for our civil, political, and religious liberties, and acknowledging our dependence upon Him for the continuance of those... North Dakota 1889, Preamble We , the people of North Dakota , grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, do ordain... Ohio 1852, Preamble We the people of the state of Ohio , grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings and to promote our common. Oklahoma 1907, Preamble Invoking the guidance of Almighty God, in order to secure and perpetuate the blessings of liberty, establish this Oregon 1857, Bill of Rights, Article I Section 2. All men shall be secure in the Natural right, to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their consciences Pennsylvania 1776, Preamble We, the people of Pennsylvania, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, and humbly invoking His guidance.... Rhode Island 1842, Preamble. We the People of the State of Rhode Island grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing... South Carolina , 1778, Preamble We, the people of he State of South Carolina grateful to God for our liberties, do ordain and establish this Constitution. South Dakota 1889, Preamble We, the people of South Dakota , grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberties . Tennessee 1796, Art. XI..III. That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their conscience... Texas 1845, Preamble We the People of the Republic of Texas , acknowledging, with gratitude, the grace and beneficence of God. Utah 1896, Preamble Grateful to Almighty God for life and liberty, we establish this Constitution. Vermont 1777, Preamble Whereas all government ought to enable the individuals who compose it to enjoy their natural rights, and other blessings which the Author of Existence has bestowed on man . Virginia 1776, Bill of Rights, XVI Religion, or the Duty which we owe our Creator can be directed only by Reason and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian Forbearance, Love and Charity towards each other Washington 1889, Preamble We the People of the State of Washington, grateful to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution West Virginia 1872, Preamble Since through Divine Providence we enjoy the blessings of civil, political and religious liberty, we, the people of West Virginia reaffirm our faith in and constant reliance upon God ... Wisconsin 1848, Preamble We, the people of Wisconsin, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, domestic tranquility... Wyoming 1890, Preamble We, the people of the State of Wyoming , grateful to God for our civil, political, and religious liberties, establish this Constitution... ===============================================
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