Song for Josiah - Keith Green

 

Song for Josiah

Oh my son, you were born in a world that hates you,

And I swear I will never forsake you.

But there was a father centuries ago,

Who watched his beloved son die. Oh, die.

Oh my son, I am weak and I'm trembling,

For the Lord I am always remembering.

Oh what a strong shepherd holds you in His arms.

He'll break you and make you His own.

And then take you home.

Well if I could I would protect you from what you will see.

This world will promise love and beauty, but it lied to me.

And I will show you, if you will listen.

And I will promise, to listen too.

Oh yes, there are some who love the lies,

they will kill you if they can.

Though you speak the truth in love,

they will hate you like the man,

Jesus, although He was God,

He allowed himself broken for you.

Well if I could I would protect you from what you will see.

The world might seem so alive,

but it's dead to me.

And I will teach you,

if you will hear me.

And I will promise,

to hear you too. Yes I do.

Oh my son, I am only your brother.

For a sister, God gave me your mother.

But just like a mother, so long ago,

had to watch her beloved son die,

Oh son, we will try, to let you go

Keith Green

A modern perspective on Sex - Jane Goldman

 

You bet! You see, the hormones that cause all the physical changes in your body during puberty don’t just make you sprout hairs and suchlike. They also get working on your brain quite apart from that, sex is jolly interesting, and thinking about it can be a very nice, exciting thing to do with your spare time! Even if you can believe that you"re perfectly healthy and normal, thinking about sex all the time can still make you feel uneasy, because you can feel that you're losing control of your brain.

I often imagine having sex with people I know, or famous people. I really enjoy it. Is it okay?

Its called fantasising. It’s more than okay, and nearly everybody does it at some time in their life. It"s just like daydreaming, only its main purpose is to make you feel excited in a sexual way. Fantasising is a fantastically healthy way to discover more about your own sexual feelings, so you should never feel guilty about doing it.

others with strong religious beliefs that sex and the sexual organs only existed in order for married people to make babies, and that using the genitals for any kind of sexual pleasure B especially outside of marriage B was Asinful@. There are still people about who think the same way. Of course, everyone is entitled to their won beliefs, but people also have a right to know the truth. Facts are facts, and the plain truth is that masturbations is not harmful.

Some parents have very strong views that young people shouldn"t have sex at all, or that sex should be saved for marriage. Changing their minds is likely to be impossible. In cases like this, you"re best off keeping some things secret, but that doesn"t mean you should sneak around and go against what they say.

If you"re considering taking a relationship further i.e. Having sex not just for the first time but any time, you should always ask yourself these questions

Do I really like, fancy, care about or maybe even love my prospective partner?

Do they like fancy, care about or maybe even love me, too?

If I don"t feel like I want to have sex now, would my partner be prepared to wait until I do?

Am I certain that my partner is okay about us using a condom?

Have I or my partner got a condom already, or is one of us prepared to go out and buy some before we decide to have sex?

What if I don"t get a chance to think carefully before I have sex?

That happens. You might be in a very intimate situation - alone with someone, having a passionate snogging and petting session and suddenly you realise that you"re on the verge of losing your virginity. In these cases, you just have to go with your gut instinct do you really want to do it? Not because all your friends have, not because you"re scared of losing your partner, not because you figure you might as well now you"re this close to it, nor because your worried about being a tease if you back out, but because you really, really want to experience sex and closeness with this person, right now? If the answer is a definite yes, then as long as one of you has a condom ready to use, there"s no reason why you shouldn’t go ahead.

. . . 

Sex for sex's sake can be wonderful between two people who think the same way.

Source: Sex: How? Why? What? The Teenagers Guide, Jane Goldman Penguin Books, London

Image vs Morality - David Wells

 

Image and appearance assume the functions that character and morality once had 

-David F. Wells

There are Four Types of Retirees

There are Four Types of Retirees Which one will you be?

Ageless Explorers - Make up 27% of the older adult population 

Described as youthful, working, and happy, this group loves freedom, seeks personal growth and are often active volunteers. Of the four groups, [they spent their working years] preparing for their retirement, maxed out their 401(k)'s, had financial planners and have the highest net worth. When asked, "When will you feel elderly inside?" they responded, "Never".    

Comfortably Contents - Make up 19% of the older adult population

Living their Golden Years, they are relaxed and content not to work. Their primary desire in this stage of life is simply to relax and be free of worry, stress and obligation. . . . Of the four groups, they maxed out their 401(k)'s and had financial planners. When asked "when will you feel elderly inside?" they respond "Soon".

Live for Todays - Make up 22% of the older adult population

Describing themselves as fun loving and adventurous, this group loves the idea of continuing to grow as individuals. But the problem is that they . . . are not financially prepared. As a result, they are anxious about their predicament and worried about not having enough money in their modest net worth.

Sick and Tireds - Make up 32% of the older adult population

Making up the largest category, these people have been beaten down by life and are typically having a miserable time in retirement. Unhappy, unfulfilled and generally in most anything, they have given up and are prepared to suffer their way through. To no surprise, this group spent the least amount of time preparing for retirement.

Lincoln Financial Advisors

Marriage - William Shakespear

 

Many a good man has been saved a bad marriage by a good hanging.

Give me the Eyes of Christ

 

Give me the eyes to see the hurting.

Give me the hands to touch the hearts

Of those who live in utter chaos,

Whose lives are falling apart.

Chorus: I want to hurt the way You do.

I want to cry about them, too,

Give them the light C show them the way

Lord, strengthen me to obey!

Give me the feet to bring the gospel,

Peace into a weary land.

They’ve fallen, Lord they’re drowning.

They need the Rock on which to stand.

Amber Austine And Joyce Marcy, March 7, 1999

life is meaningless - Bertrand Russel

Man is….but the outcome of accidental concoctions of atoms, .. no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling can preserve an individual life beyond the grave, and … all the labor of the ages, all the devotion, all the labor of the ages, all the devotion, all of the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system. The whole temple of man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.

Bertrand Russel

Lasting Marriage - Mac Hammond

"But what if I married the wrong person?" many people ask. You'd be amazed how many people the devil torments with that question.

I remember a young lady who came to my office on day and insisted she had gotten out of God's will, married the wrong person. Now she was doomed to suffer until she got rid of him and found the right one or so she thought.

If you think that way, I have good news for you. God causes all things to work together for Good to those who love Christ and are called according to His purpose (Rom 8.28). Maybe you did miss God's best when you chose your spouse. Maybe you were in rebellion at the time. But God still wants to make that marriage Glorious, fulfilling reflection of Jesus relationship with he church.  He's committed to working that situation out for Good.

All you need to do is determine to make it work.

. . . 

The first attitude adjustment is decide once and forever that divorce is not and option. If you continue to consider divorce as even a remote possibility, you might as well stop reading this article ad go watch  television, because it isn't going to do you any good.

The second attitude adjustment you may need to make is this: you must be concerned with changing no one but yourself.

The third attitude adjustment you must make is forget the past. What do you need to forget the good things and things and the bad things.

Dwelling on the good things in the past will distort your perception of the present and undermine your hope for the future what do you need to forget, the good things and things and the bad things. They are startled to hear they should forget the good things in their past. If you dwell on how good things were in the past, you're creating in yourself dissatisfaction and resentment about the way things are now. you also open yourself up to a spirit of  grief and despair. It happens all the time. Women talk about how affectionate and considerate their husbands used to be, how attentive he was. But now, he's just an considerate louse.

Mac Hammond, Heirs together

A great separation - Blaise Pascal

What a vast distance there is between knowing God and Loving him!

Blaise Pascal, The History Of Christianity, Lion 1623-1662

Seeing is not ..... The Little Prince

 It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

- Peace, Eternity, God,

God is the Giver - George MacDonald

"Things are looking well for us- but God is the Giver- and He has plenty. It is sad for those who cannot trust in Him; it is miserable slavery." 

Letter of George MacDonald his father about John his bother staying with him. from Greville MacDonald, op. cit., p. 501.

Racism and standing up in the face of it - Colson

At New York's Shea Stadium, two years ago, baseball commissioner Bud Selig announced that number 42 would be retired by the major leagues forever. It was a mark of honor for the man who had worn that number-the man who broke baseball's color barrier in 1947: Jackie Robinson.

February is Black History Month, and our kids have been hearing a lot about Robinson's quiet dignity in the face of racial bigotry on the ball field. But what many of them are not hearing is the source of Robinson's ability to turn the other cheek: It was his faith in Jesus Christ.

Robinson was born in 1919 into a culture steeped in racism. And from early childhood it drove Robinson mad. Historian Jackson Lears, writing in the New Republic, says Robinson had "a reputation as a mad brawler, always ready to smash in the teeth of any white man who insulted him." Later, at UCLA, he gained a reputation as a thug.

But it was also at UCLA that Robinson began to encounter the forces that would free him from some of his rage. One was a nursing student named Rachel Isum, whom he later married. The other was a black minister named Karl Downs, whose hard-hitting sermons taught Robinson that Christianity was not a synonym for racial submission.

By 1945 Robinson had developed a firm conviction that God had an important purpose for his life. That purpose became clear when Robinson was summoned to the office of Branch Rickey, general manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Rickey was determined to make history by putting the first black player on a major league team. But first Rickey made certain Robinson understood what he would face: everything from racial epithets to physical assaults to hotel clerks refusing him accommodations.

Rickey challenged Robinson, telling him he was "looking for a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back"-a phrase that has since become legendary.

What is less well known is that Rickey also handed Robinson a copy of a book by Giovanni Papini called The Life of Christ. And he reminded Robinson of the words of Jesus: "Resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."

By quoting Scripture, Lears writes, Rickey "was hitting Robinson in the heart, invoking the Methodist Christianity that they shared."

Robinson's struggle began as soon as he walked out onto the ball field wearing a Dodgers uniform. During his ten years with the Dodgers, he endured racist remarks, death threats, and unfair calls by umpires. But Robinson's faith helped him keep his anger in check. Every night, he got on his knees and prayed for self-control. "Through all the frustrations," writes Lears, "his Christianity sustained him." Robinson left baseball in 1956 and spent the rest of his life working in the civil-rights movement. Despite personal tragedies and setbacks, Robinson's faith in Christ never wavered.

Before Black History Month ends, make sure your own children learn about Jackie Robinson. But beware: Some biographies of Robinson written for children don't even mention his Christian faith. Our kids deserve to know the full story of the hero who broke baseball's color barrier.

The man whose faith helped him overcome prejudice to make baseball history and become a great national legend.

Charles Colson, Breakpoint February 25, 1999

True love is - Anton Chekhov

What attracts me? 

What attracts me?

Beauty attracts me. 

She would turn my head in a second, but that's not love now is it?

Anton Chekhov

-Beauty, attraction, connection, lust, thoughts