THE ONE YEAR ILLUSTRATIONS CLUB

One of the great influences on Frederick Handle's life was while he was writing the Messiah in three weeks. in reading the passage in the Gospel of Luke, of the Messiah’s entry into the world. While reading the text, Handle was inspired to sit down and try to compose music to such a great event. When Frederick locked himself up in a room for 23 days and tried to compose music, as close to at least humanely possible, as to what this might have sounded like....something came over him!!! Handle, before writing the messiah, had rented a theatre for his own use, and though he had some successes, he had more failures; he was bankrupt twice through his opera business" But when Frederick Handle decided to sit down to write and compose music to the entry of Jesus Christ into the world, he ended up, supernaturally or miraculously, you could say, writing the most brilliant piece of music many say has ever been written. ....in a piece of orchestra, even redone by the great Mozart...

“Into Thin Air” a novel based on the personal account of the Mt. Everest disaster, where 8 climbers were killed and several others were stranded by a storm that hit the mountain. Even the guides were killed. Rob Hall and Andy Harris.  Beck Weathers were left for dead, where Beck suffered severe hypothermia and frostbite. Climbers descending the hill came across Beck Weathers but he looked like a corpse in a frozen cocoon, they assumed he was dead and left him. Frozen inside this cocoon, Beck could give them no indication that he was alive. Beck Weathers chipped away at the ice until he was able to break free. He walked into the base camp on frozen feet, the group thought they saw a walking zombie coming in to camp. Beck had his right arm amputated halfway between the elbow, all four fingers and thumb on his left hand were removed as well as parts of both feet. his nose was amputated and reconstructed with tissue from his ear and forehead. When asked how he survived when left for...

It is gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida . Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October, 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea . But there was an unexpected detour which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life. Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean...For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five. The b...

To All Ye Pilgrims: In as much as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and in as much as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.  

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. We have been the recipients of the  choicest  bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of re...

If all your life you’ve eaten a “healthy” diet.  You’ve followed the  USDA Food Pyramid  from the beginning, and were always told supplements were unnecessary as long as you ate a balanced diet (whatever that means). Maybe you’re wiser now, and are following a higher nutrient diet .  Either way, one of the most repeated beliefs among health conscious people is that you can – and should – get all of your nutrients from food.  With over  fifty percent of the nation consuming a multivitamin , this isn’t a universal belief.  However,  multivitamins often make people think they can eat even worse , which isn’t exactly productive.   Many people are shamed into avoiding supplements with statements like “So you’re too lazy to eat real food?  You think you can fix everything with a pill?”  We all have those health conscious friends who decry supplementation as dogma.  They are confusing drugs like statins with nutrients.  They are...

One man challenged another to an all-day wood chopping contest. The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch break. The other man had a leisurely lunch and took several breaks during the day. At the end of the day, the challenger was surprised and annoyed to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had. "I don't get it," he said. "Every time I checked, you were taking a rest, yet you chopped more wood than I did." "But you didn't notice," said the winning woodsman, "that I was sharpening my ax when I sat down to rest." L. S. Chafer, Grace.

According to a Greek legend, in ancient Athens a man noticed the great storyteller Aesop playing childish games with some little boys. He laughed and jeered at Aesop, asking him why he wasted his time in such frivolous activity. Aesop responded by picking up a bow, loosening its string, and placing it on the ground. Then he said to the critical Athenian, "Now, answer the riddle, if you can. Tell us what the unstrung bows implies." The man looked at it for several moments but had no idea what point Aesop was trying to make. Aesop explained, "If you keep a bow always bent & strained, it will break eventually; but if you let it go slack, it will be more fit for use when you want it." You will be at your best for the Lord if you have taken time to loosen the bow.

Benjamin Franklin, in his autobiography wrote these words. “There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if i could conceive that i had completely overcome it, I should probably become prideful of my humility.” How true that is, once we think we have defeated pride, we will become prideful that we are humble.

My son came running home the other day, rushed through the door, with his muddy boots on, screaming, “ma, ma… i got an a, i got an a on my report card!!!” “What is wrong with this kid?”  I thought, how many times have I told him not to come in with his muddy boots and slam the door. I am such a good mother, why is my son like this, why doesn’t he change?” He ran up the stairs… “mom, mom, you told me to pray and I did, I prayed for God to help me and I got an “A” my teacher was so proud of me, I couldn’t wait to get home and tell you, I was so excited I just ran up the stairs, I knew you would be so proud of me.” the boy exclaimed! “Jonny”, yelled the mother, “what is wrong with you, how many times have I told you not to come in with your boots and slamming the door, when are you going to change?”  The boy tried to defend himself, “but mom, i just wanted….” to no avail, the mom retorted,  “never mind, just go to your room…” As the mother prays to God, “Lord help me with m...

Booker T. Washington describes meeting an ex-slave from Virginia in his book Up From Slavery : "I found that this man had made a contract with his master, two or three years previous to the Emancipation Proclamation, to the effect that the slave was to be permitted to buy himself, by paying so much per year for his body; and while he was paying for himself, he was to be permitted to labor where and for whom he pleased. "Finding that he could secure better wages in Ohio , he went there. When freedom came, he was still in debt to his master some three hundred dollars. Notwithstanding that the Emancipation Proclamation freed him from any obligation to his master, this black man walked the greater portion of the distance back to where his old master lived in Virginia , and placed the last dollar, with interest, in his hands. In talking to me about this, the man told me that he knew that he did not have to pay his debt, but that he had given his word to his master, and his w...

A member of Alcoholics Anonymous once sent columnist Ann Landers the following: We drank for happiness and became unhappy. We drank for joy and became miserable. We drank for sociability and became argumentative. We drank for sophistication and became obnoxious. We drank for friendship and made enemies. We drank for sleep and awakened without rest. We drank for strength and felt weak. We drank "medicinally" and acquired health problems. We drank for relaxation and got the shakes. We drank for bravery and became afraid. We drank for confidence and became doubtful. We drank to make conversation easier and slurred our speech. We drank to feel heavenly and ended up feeling like hell. We drank to forget and were forever haunted. We drank for freedom and became slaves. We drank to erase problems and saw them multiply. We drank to cope with life and invited death.

Some people will not be denied purpose! In 1857, shortly before his graduation from Princeton theological seminary, Sheldon Jackson applied to the Presbyterian board of foreign missions for assignment to siam or Columbia, only to be turned down because he was "lacking in physique." young Sheldon accepted the challenge of home missions instead, demonstrating over the next half century that, though standing only slightly over five feet, he could become a giant among men. whenever a new frontier opened, Jackson was there, traveling almost a million miles in the course of his missionary work in Minnesota , the rocky mountain states, and Alaska . he went on foot and horseback, by railroad and stagecoach, by sailboat and canoe, and even by ox cart and reindeer sled. he survived severe snowstorms, shipwrecks and Indian uprisings. three times newspapers reported his death prematurely and once they printed his obituary. Jackson established over a hundred churches and missions, i...

John W. Gardner, founding chairman of Common Cause, said it's a rare and high privilege to help people understand the difference they can make, not only in their own lives, but also in the lives of others, simply by giving of themselves.  Gardner tells of a cheerful old man who asked the same question of just about every new acquaintance he fell into conversation with "What have you done that you believe in and you are proud of?"  He never asked conventional questions such as "What do you do for a living?" It was always, "What have you done that you believe in and are proud of?"  It was an unsettling question for people who had built their self-esteem on their wealth or their family name or their exalted job title.  Not that the old man was a fierce interrogator. He was delighted by a woman who answered, "I'm doing a good job raising three children;" and by a cabinetmaker who said, "I believe in good workmanship and practice it;...

In 1835 a man visited a doctor in Florence , Italy . He was filled with anxiety and exhausted from lack of sleep. He couldn't eat, and he avoided his friends. The doctor examined him and found that he was in prime physical condition. Concluding that his patient needed to have a good time, the physician told him about a circus in town and its star performer, a clown named Grimaldi. Night after night he had the people rolling in the aisles. "You must go and see him," the doctor advised. "Grimaldi is the world's funniest clown. He'll make you laugh and cure your sadness." "No," replied the despairing man, "he can't help me. you see, I am Grimaldi!"  It would be naive to think, that this man is the only man, with a painted on smile! We function in the realm of superficial relationships, even within the church. Ask anyone, "how they are doing?" And we know the answer is always, "great & fine" with a big smile,...

When you think of scams, you think of criminals in hiding inventing ways to trick people out of their money. but what about the legal scams that are perpetrated against consumers by corporate America ? Here is another corporate scam that is very deceptive and leaves many consumers buried in debt from unexpected interest charges. "No interest, no payments until 2016!!!" It sounds like you don't have to start making payments until 2016. it also sounds like interest will not begin to accrue until 2016, but that's not how the scam works. The consumer is expected to start making payments right away and the debt has to be paid in full before 2016 (this is hidden in the fine print). otherwise, the consumer is forced to pay a mountain of unexpected interest charges. Let's say that in 2014, you purchase a large screen tv for $1999. You finance it on a "no interest, no payments until 2015" plan. one of two things can happen:   1) you expect to start paying for ...

Thomas Jefferson, with all his accomplishments, fame and success confirmed this when he said, "the happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family." Home is the place to save society. It is the secret to the success of this nation. We must start here. "to put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order, to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order."

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., was a member of the U.S. Supreme Court for 30 years. His mind, wit and work earned him the unofficial title of "the greatest justice since John Marshall." At one point in his life, Justice Holmes explained his choice of a career by saying: "I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers."

Winston Churchill stated this when he said, "There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained." No matter what we accomplish outside of our homes and no matter how many challenges we face, our greatest challenges and our greatest rewards will be found within the walls of our own homes. Anthony Brandt put it in perspective when he said, "Other things may change us, but we start and end with family." Wherever our travels take us, whatever success we may attain, home and family will always be our greatest joy and accomplishment. As Anita Baker stated, "You leave home to seek your fortune and, when you get it, you go home and share it with your family." That's what it's all about; sharing with your family.  It is the first society we know. The first place we learn; and the place where we find the most pleasure a...

Ashley Madison is a Canada-based  online dating service  and  social networking service  marketed to people who are married or in a committed  relationship . its slogan is "life is short. have an  affair ." the website was launched in 2001. According to third-party  web analytics  provider  similar web , the site has more than 124 million visits per month,  as of 2015, and is ranked no. 18 among adult sites, the company received significant attention on July 15, 2015, after  hackers   stole all of its customer data —including names, addresses, sexual fantasies and credit card information—and threatened to post all the data online if Ashley Madison and fellow avid life media site establishedmen.com were not permanently closed. by July 22, the first names of customers were released by hackers, with all of the user data released on august 18, 2015. more data (including some of the CEO’s emails) was released on august 20...

One of the most successful way that natives catch monkeys on islands is to trap them with a coconut. The islanders hallow out the coconut and make a hole just barely large enough for a monkey to slip his hand and get food that is probably inside of that coconut, but the monkey will not turn the coconut loose to free himself once he is being chased by the islanders, thus allowing them to capture him. If the monkey would just let go of the coconut, he would free himself, but he will not! How accurately that describes human beings and their relationship with money. The paradox is; is you can only be liberated in the area of money when you are willing to let it go.

Filthy lucre indeed. It seems that paper money is a magnet for germs. A study presented at a meeting of microbiologists Wednesday concluded that most paper currency is contaminated with bacteria and could play a role in spreading disease. Dr. Peter Ender and colleagues at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio, collected dollar bills (swapping new bills for old) from patrons of a high school stadium concession stand and of a local grocery store.  Of the 68 bills they collected and studied, only four were free of bacterial contamination. Five contained types of bacteria that can commonly cause infections in healthy people, including Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Fifty-nine bills held bacteria that can cause significant infections in people who are hospitalized or have depressed immune systems. These included various species of Streptococcus, Enterobacter, Bacillus and Escherichia vulneris. "One-dollar bills are widely used and each is exc...

Before the auction of the finest paintings, the painter put in his will that first the painting of his son would be auctioned. The painting was of no value, it seemed, and nobody wanted to bid. Everyone was there to bid low on one of the painters famous paintings and then sell high to make out. The auctioneer said before we get bidding for his famous works, the artist requested in his will, that before we bid for his famous works, we auction off the painting of his son he did, before he ever became famous.  The auctioneer began, “let’s start the bidding” but nobody would bid. One heckler yelled, “never mind the old man’s son, let’s get to the good stuff”.  The auctioneer stood his ground,  “I will not violate the request of the deceased artist, I will not start bidding on the other works until we start bidding on the son, now let’s get started so we can move on.” Silence, all across the auditorium….finally one man raised his arm and said, “$1.00 I’ll give you $1.00 ...

Walter M. is suing the Amateur Mixed Martial Arts, otherwise known as, "MMA" amateur league for false advertisement. Walter responded to an add he’d seen advertising for a volunteer for a fight that would be fixed, earning him $100.00 for 15 min fight, the add called for..."some martial arts experience and/or wrestling skills", $100.00 for 15 minutes. Walter responded to the add and upon further interview was told personally, the fight would be fixed, eventually his opponent would allow himself to be tied up into a choke hold and he would  tap out and he would win the fight. Walter had a yellow belt in Taekwondo and wrestled in high school so he thought, why not, $100.00 for 15 min, fixed fight, no brainer! Walter got into the ring on may 7th, ready to win a fight, start his MMA career and bring home an easy $100 until he got a round house kick to the head, he went down immediately and could not seem to get back up. His opponent was leaning over him, whispering, “y...

USS Indianapolis (CA-35) was a Portland class heavy cruiser of the United States Navy. She was named for the city of Indianapolis , Indiana . Her sinking led to the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the U.S. Navy. On 30 July 1945, after delivering parts for the first atomic bomb to the United States air base at Tinian , the ship was torpedoed by the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-58, sinking in 12 minutes. Of the 1,196 crewmen aboard, approximately 300 went down with the ship. The remaining 900 faced exposure, dehydration, saltwater poisoning, and shark attacks while floating with few lifeboats and almost no food or water. The Navy learned of the sinking when survivors were spotted four days later by the crew of a PV-1 Ventura on routine patrol. Only 317 survived of the almost 1200 man crew. -After several days drifting at sea in a blazing sun, dying of thirst, many gave up the hope of being rescued; either drank salt water, or just slipped over the side ...

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (CNN) -- The Missouri attorney general has filed two lawsuits against a television psychic hotline for false advertising, fraud and other unlawful business practices, alleging the company bilked consumers out of money and caused them significant injury. The hotline advertises services by Miss Cleo, who speaks with a Caribbean accent and promises psychic and tarot card readings. The commercial, which has been broadcast across the nation, offers to "find the answers for free" with the slogan "Keepin' it Real." "They should've seen it coming, whether they were psychic or not," state Attorney General Jay Nixon told CNN. "The fact that they didn't see it coming shows they aren't psychic."  In a suit filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, Nixon charges Access Resource Services Inc., based in Fort Lauderdale , Florida , falsely advertises that certain services -- like tarot readings and psychic readings -- are free...

Soren Kiergaard was a prolific 19th Century Danish Philosopher and Theologian. He wrote this parable to describe the state of the church, it’s called “Duckland”. It was Sunday morning in Duckland, and all the ducks dutifully came to church, waddling through the doors and down the aisle into their pews where they comfortably squatted.    When all were well-settled, and the hymns were sung, the duck minister waddled to his pulpit, opened the Duck Bible and read: "Ducks! You have wings, and with wings you can fly like eagles. You can soar into the sky! Use your wings!" It was a marvelous, elevating duck reading from the Duck Bible, and thus all the ducks quacked their assent with a hearty "Amen!" . . . and then plopped down from their pews and…..waddled home.

Tullian Tchividian is the fourth Florida megachurch pastor to resign over an affair. A grandson of the influential evangelical pastor Billy Graham has resigned from the pulpit at a high-profile church in South Florida after church leaders discovered he was having an affair. Tullian Tchividjian said that he returned from a trip a few months ago to find his wife having an affair, and that he in turn went on to a friend with whom he “sought comfort,” in a statement to the  Washington Post . “I resigned from my position at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church today due to ongoing marital issues.” “Both my wife and I are heartbroken over our actions,” he said. The pastor, 42, has three children with his wife, Kim. Tchividjian was widely considered a rising star in evangelical circles and is the fourth Florida megachurch pastor to resign after having affairs, according to thePost. Beauty either in men or women, often proves a snare both to themselves and others. This forbids pri...

A cleaning woman at an Italian gallery  accidentally threw away thousands of dollars of art  by New York modernist  Paul Branca  when she mistook his crumpled newspaper, cardboard, and cookie installation scattered across the floor for garden-variety trash. The pieces, estimated to be worth around $15,000, were apparently  intended to make viewers think  of the environment. "We are obviously very sorry for what happened," city marketing Commissioner Antonio Maria Vasile said. The gallery says  they do not blame the cleaning woman , who "did not realize she had thrown away two works and their value she simply did not realize the value of what was in front of her. This woman is not the only one to have thrown away something of great value, “for what will a man give or sell, in exchange for his soul”  [

In 1519 Capitan Hernando Cortes and a small army left the Spanish held island of Cuba and set out on one of the greatest conquests in the history of the world, ~When Cortez, ordered his crew to  fight the Aztecs in Mexico , he met resistance. After all, his crew was grossly outnumbered. What was the incentive?  Once they were ashore, Cortez set fire to his own ships.  Bernal Diaz tells that Cortes was advised by his men to destroy his ships. Diaz states, “. . . we who were his friends advised him . . . not to leave a single ship in port, but to destroy them all immediately, in order to leave no cause of trouble behind.” (Diaz, 130) Diaz goes on to say, “The ships were destroyed with our full knowledge, w ith that act, he changed the question from “Why should we attack the natives?” to “How will we win the fight?” The incentive was now eminently clear to crew members-saving their own lives. They no longer had a Plan B to fall back on. Interestingly, the Aztecs, who witn...

When it was built for an international exposition in the last century, the structure was called monstrous by the citizens of the city, who demanded it be torn down as soon as the exposition was over. Yet from the moment its architect first conceived it, he took pride in it and loyally defended it from those who wished to destroy it. He knew it was destined for greatness. Today it is one of the architectural wonders of the modern world and stands as the primary landmark of Paris , France . The architect, of course, was Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. His famous tower was built in 1889. In the same way we are struck by Jesus' loyalty to another structure, the church; which he entrusted to an unlikely band of disciples, whom he defended, prayed for, and prepared to spread the gospel. To outsiders they (and we) must seem like incapable blunderers, but Jesus, the architect of the church, knows this structure is destined for greatness when he returns and He defends with a passions equaled to...

The supply clerk was captured March 23 after her 507th Maintenance Company convoy was ambushed in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah . The Prisoner of War was rescued from an Iraqi’s on April 1 by U.S. commandos, reportedly after a tip from an Iraqi lawyer, which also led to the recovery of eight bodies of soldiers who had been captured along with her. When U.S. commandos staged their daring rescue in Nasiriyah, they found a frightened woman who hid under a sheet when they stormed into her room. Jessica Lynch, called out an American soldier, approaching her bed. “We are United States soldiers and were here to rescue you and take you home”. Peering from behind the sheet as he removed his helmet, she looked up and said, “I’m an American soldier, too.” Never in her life was she so glad to see an American face, even more so, that is was the face of her deliverer. Have you seen the face of your deliverer? You are the captive and Jesus is the Deliver!

Few doubt that Americans care about improving their health. You might even say some of us are obsessed with it: Our smoking rate is down, sales of nutritional supplements are up, restaurants with low-calorie fare are thriving and throngs of walkers and runners crowd local 5K races every weekend. But there's one area where too many of us still stumble over good intentions — following our prescriptions. The American Heart Association reports that 12 percent of American adults fail to fill some prescriptions; 12 percent don't take a medication after bringing it home; 22 percent take a smaller dosage than prescribed; and nearly 30 percent stop taking their medicine before it runs out — and analysts believe that surveys underestimate  non adherence  because some patients lie about whether they're taking their drugs. "It doesn't work for patients to decide for themselves what medicines they'll take, when or for how long," she says. Diabetics who reduce their i...

Tom turned to Mark and said, “hey, Mark, what did you say to Paul yesterday? I saw him the day before and he was really down in the dumps; said he spoke with you and you really helped him. I tried talking to him too, I told him this, I told him that, but I couldn't seem to help him. What could you have possibly told him that I didn't, I’m really curious to know”.   Mark turned around and said, “actually I didn't’ say a thing, I just listened”.

How many Bibles do you have in your house? For most of us, Bibles are easily accessible, and many of us have several. That we have the Bible in English owes much to William Tyndale, sometimes called the Father of the English Bible. 90% of the King James Version of the Bible and 75% of the Revised Standard Version are from the translation of the Bible into English made by William Tyndale, yet Tyndale himself was burned at the stake for his work on this day, October 6, 1536. Back in the fourteenth century, John Wycliffe was the first to make (or at least oversee) an English translation of the Bible, but that was before the invention of the printing press and all copies had to be hand written. Besides, the church had banned the unauthorized translation of the Bible into English in 1408. Over one hundred years later, however, William Tyndale had a burning desire to make the Bible available to even the common people in England . After studying at Oxford and Cambridge , he joined the house...

William Tyndale was the Captain of the Army of Reformers, and was their spiritual leader. Tyndale holds the distinction of being the first man to ever print the New Testament in the English language. Tyndale was a true scholar and a genius, so fluent in eight languages that it was said one would think any one of them to be his native tongue. He is frequently referred to as the “Architect of the English Language”, (even more so than William Shakespeare) as so many of the phrases Tyndale coined are still in our language today. Martin Luther had a small head-start on Tyndale, as Luther declared his intolerance for the Roman Church’s corruption on Halloween in 1517, by nailing his 95 Theses of Contention to the Wittenberg Church door. Luther, who would be exiled in the months following the Diet of Worms Council in 1521 that was designed to martyr him, would translate the New Testament into German for the first time from the 1516 Greek-Latin New Testament of Erasmus, and publish it...

LONDON – A British pilot who was suddenly blinded by a stroke during a solo flight was talked safely down by a military pilot, the Royal Air Force said Friday. Jim O'Neill asked for help after he went blind 40 minutes into a flight from Scotland to southeastern England last week. The BBC reported that O'Neill, flying a small Cessna aircraft, lost his sight 5,500 feet in the air. "It was terrifying," O'Neill said. "Suddenly, I couldn't see the dials in front of me."  The air force said in a news release that O'Neill initially believed he'd been "dazzled" by bright sunlight, and made an emergency call for help. He then realized that something more serious was happening. RAF Wing Commander Paul Gerrard was just finishing a training flight nearby and was drafted in to help the stricken pilot. Gerrard located the plane, began flying close to it and radioed directions.  "Landing an aircraft literally blind needs someone to be rig...

Societies and Cultures rise and fall based on how dear the hold to what “God has established as truth”. If we reject the truth, we will fall for one lie or another; Heaven’s Gate is the extreme, but yet still true story. Heaven's Gate was the name of a bizarre cult of internet web designers who believed they could ride a spaceship behind Haley's comet if they all killed themselves simultaneously. Thirty-eight cult members, plus Applewhite, the cult's leader, were found dead in a rented mansion in the upscale San Diego community of Rancho Santa Fe, California, on March 26, 1997. The mass death of the Heaven's Gate group is one of the most widely-known examples of cult suicide. In preparing to kill themselves, members of the cult drank citrus juices to ritually cleanse their bodies of impurities. The suicide was accomplished by ingestion of phenobarbital mixed with vodka, along with plastic bags secured around their heads to induce asphyxiation. They were foun...

One spring our family was driving from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa , Florida . As far as the eye could see, orange trees were loaded with fruit. When we stopped for breakfast, I ordered orange juice with my eggs. "I'm sorry," the waitress said. "I can't bring you orange juice. Our machine is broken." At first I was dumbfounded. We were surrounded by millions of oranges, and I knew they had oranges in the kitchen--orange slices garnished our plates. What was the problem? No juice? Hardly. We were surrounded by thousands of gallons of juice. The problem was they had become dependent on a machine to get it. Christians are sometimes like that. They may be surrounded by Bibles in their homes, but if something should happen to the Sunday morning preaching service, they would have no nourishment for their souls. The problem is not a lack of spiritual food, but that many Christians haven't grown enough to know how to get it for themselves.

In The Last Days Newsletter, Leonard Ravenhill tells about a group of tourists visiting a picturesque village who walked by an old man sitting beside a fence. In a rather patronizing way, one tourist asked, "Were any great men born in this village?" The old man replied, "Nope, only babies."    A frothy question brought a profound answer. There are no instant heroes, whether in this world or in the kingdom of God.

​ Eric became a Christian and when he heard that his event was going to take place on a Sunday, do you know what he said, "NO can do!", Sunday is church and I don’t miss church for anything. Everyone said “this is what you live for”!  ​ And he said "no it's not, I live for Jesus!!”  So he ended up running in the 400, an event that he didn't even train for; and won the gold! But that's not the most amazing part of the story....the most amazing part is...Eric Liddell took his gold medal and moved on to better things, to be a missionary in China.

A river must have water pouring into it or it becomes stagnant. Not only does new life stop flowing into that river but everything that is in that river begins to die. The church is no different. The moment a church gives up on reaches other souls and is content to just exist with the members it has and not contend for new life, it signs it's own death warrant. New life must be flowing into a church for it to survive; otherwise it becomes stagnant and even the life that is in that church, will begin to die. Jesus' promise was, "out of you will flow rivers of living water". 

Six persons were killed and three seriously injured when a three-storey shopping complex caved in on Wednesday.  The incident occurred around noon. Police said construction work was in progress on the top floor of the building -- located in the City Centre complex of the New Industrial Township -- when it collapsed. Most of the victims were laborers. Several people are feared to be trapped inside the building.  Rescue operations were hampered for a while in the evening by the rain.  "We have recovered six dead bodies. Three injured have also been rescued. Rescue operations are on. As of now, we can't say how many people are trapped inside," said Praveen Kumar, Deputy Commissioner, Faridabad .  "The upper storey suddenly began crumbling on top of me," said Satya Dev, a laborer from Nalanda in Bihar , who has been working inside. Dev got away unscathed, but others were not so lucky. "Another laborer Sunil who was working right next to me got buried unde...

One of Wycliffe’s followers, John Hus, actively promoted Wycliffe’s ideas: that people should be permitted to read the Bible in their own language, and they should oppose the tyranny of the Roman church that threatened anyone possessing a non-Latin Bible with execution. Hus was burned at the stake in~1415, with Wycliffe’s manuscript Bibles used as kindling for the fire. The last words of John Hus were that, “ in 100 years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed. ” Almost exactly 100 years later, in~1517, Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses of Contention (a list of 95 issues of heretical theology and crimes of the Roman Catholic Church) into the church door at Wittenberg . The prophecy of Hus had come true! Martin Luther went on to be the first person to translate and publish the Bible in the commonly-spoken dialect of the German people; a translation more appealing than previous German Biblical translations. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs records that i...

Many years earlier, the psychologist B.F. Skinner had devised the operant conditioning chamber or “Skinner Box” in which a lever press by an animal triggered either a reinforcing stimulus such as delivery of food or water, or a punishing stimulus like a painful foot shock. Olds and Milner soon adapted the chamber so that a lever press would deliver direct brain stimulation through the implanted electrodes. What resulted was perhaps the most dramatic experiment in the history of behavioral neuroscience; rats would press the lever as many as 7,000 times per hour to stimulate their brains. They weren't stimulating a “curiosity center” at all-- this was a reward circuit, the activation of which was much more powerful than any natural stimulus. ~A series of amazing experiments revealed that rats preferred reward circuit stimulation to food (even when they were hungry) and water (even when they were thirsty). Self-stimulating male rats would ignore a female in heat and would repea...

This story comes out of Houston....(May 2014) 17-year-old student has been found dead in a Texas hotel room just hours after celebrating her prom with school friends. Jacqueline Gomez's boyfriend called 911 at about 11am on Saturday to report that the teenager had stopped breathing.The couple had booked into Houston 's Hyatt Hotel, where other students were also staying, at about pm. It is believed they had been drinking in their room before falling asleep.What's even more tragic is that her mom had told her "no" she could not go, but she snuck out to the prom anyway, if only she had known, her disobedience that night would cost her, her life, I think she may have listened, how about you?

Don't Laugh at Me" is a song written by Allen Shamblin and Steve Seskin, and recorded by American country music artist Mark Wills. "Don't Laugh at Me" was a number 2 hit on the Billboard country charts. The song received Country Music Association nominations for Country Music Association's Single, Song and Video of the Year in 1998. Allen Shamblin was inspired to write the song after his daughter came home from school one day, telling him that she was being teased by other children at school because of her freckles. Wills has received letters from teachers and students who have said that they can identify with the song's story. According to him, "everyone can relate to [the song]…Everyone at some point in their life has been picked on, made fun of or put down."He told Billboard magazine that the song is "one of the strongest songs I've ever recorded in terms of dealing with life in general."

One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, "Jump! I'll catch you." He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: "Jump! I will catch you." But the boy protested, "Daddy, I can't see you." The father replied, "But I can see you and that's all that matters." The boy had not considered this, that his father could see him, at that point he put his faith in his father and the fear left him and the boy jumped and was caught by the net the fireman had set beneath him.

I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. Anonymous

John Edwards found an enthusiastic following for his 2008 presidential bid, espousing a populist call for economic justice and the restoration of “ America ’s moral leadership.” To loyalists, it was more than political angle; Edwards campaigned at great personal sacrifice, traveling the country while his wife battled cancer. But scoops by a supermarket tabloid contrasted his high-mind rhetoric with base private behavior, the National Enquirer reported Edwards was having an affair with Rielle Hunter, (while his wife was struggling with cancer). Rielle Hunter was a former campaign worker, who was then pregnant. Sources told us Edwards was the father of the baby. Confronted with the report, Edwards lied, emphatically. He called the story “lies” and “tabloid trash.” He then engineered a cover-up, convincing an aide to publicly claim paternity of the baby. Six months later, the~Enquirer~caught Edwards in a Los Angeles-area hotel visiting Hunter and the baby. Up to that point, political ins...

HE kicked off his career at the age of four by fronting his uncle’s band, becoming Oahu 's youngest Elvis impersonator in the process. Ten years later, he was impersonating the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, as part of the Legends in Concert show. After graduating high school in 2003, he took his uncle's advice and moved to California to pursue a music career. After months of frustration, he met songwriter Phillip Lawrence, who convinced HIM to try his hand at writing songs for other artists. The two dubbed themselves the Smeezingtons and co-wrote “Long Distance,” which was recorded in 2008 by R&B singer Brandy. More offers arrived after that, and HE and Lawrence scored their first number one hit in 2009, when they co-authored Flo Rida's international smash "Right Round." After working a string of behind-the-scenes jobs -- including writing songs for Brandy, singing backup for the Sugababes, and impersonating Elvis -- HE put his name on top of the chart...

There was an article listed in the lost-and-found column of a Midwestern newspaper: "Lost dog, please call if found, he has brown fur, some missing due to mange, a skin disease caused by parasite mites, he is blind in one eye, 80 % deaf, lame leg due to recent traffic accident, slightly arthritic. If you see him, he goes by the name of 'Lucky.'"

Due to animosity between Jack and his wife, Lisa, Jack requested in his last Will & Testament, that he be buried with all his money. Lisa told her best friend about his wishes and she was aghast. Well the day of the funeral and burial finally came. As they were lowering the coffin down into the ground, Lisa's best friend couldn't help but ask Lisa, "so did you honor his wishes?" Lisa replied, "of course, what kind of woman do you think I am?!"  "A better woman than I", her friend respond.  Lisa said, "well, I had to honor his wishes, so I buried him with his wealth, I wrote him a check and placed it on his chest and if he can cash it where he's going, than he's more than welcome to it!".

Douglas Maurer, 15, of Creve Coeur , Missouri , had been feeling bad for several days. His temperature was ranging between 103 and 105 degrees, and he was suffering from severe flu-like symptoms. Finally, his mother took him to the hospital in St. Louis . Douglas Maurer was diagnosed as having leukemia. The doctors told him in frank terms about his disease. They said that for the next three years, he would have to undergo chemotherapy. They didn't sugarcoat the side effects. They told Douglas he would go bald and that his body would most likely bloat. Upon learning this, he went into a deep depression. His aunt called a floral shop to send Douglas an arrangement of flowers. She told the clerk that it was for her teenage nephew who has leukemia. When the flowers arrived at the hospital, they were beautiful. Douglas read the card from his aunt. Then he saw a second card. It said: " Douglas --I took your order. I work at Brix florist. I had leukemia when I was 7 years old. I...