THE ONE YEAR ILLUSTRATIONS CLUB

If only I hadn’t left the house that night in a fit of rage If only I hadn’t gone to the bar that night If only I hadn’t drank so much If only I had called a cab If only I hadn’t driven so fast I might have been able to stop If only, If only I was the one that had died Instead, I killed an unsuspecting mom and dad Coming home from an innocent night out And left two kids without parents If only, if only will be the words that haunt me to the day I die, how I hate those words, the echo in my mind every day, if only.

Job Shaming ….Owens who played Elvin Tibideaux, the son-in-law of Bill Cosby's character, during the final five seasons of The Cosby Show which aired between 1985 and 1992 was caught working at Trader Joe’s in New Jersey, the picture quickly surfaced on social media and the Job shaming begun. I was really devastated about the reporting of his job. Owens - who has worked on TV shows It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and That's So Raven - said he had worked at Trader Joe's in Clifton, New Jersey for 15 months. He added that he had been recognized by shoppers several times previously. No job is better than another job, I did what I had to do. Body Shaming ….After a tabloid published paparazzi photos of Tyra Banks on the beach criticizing her body, or body shaming, as it has come to be know, Tyra Banks made talk-show history with her  moving response.  She told off the haters in front of the live Tyra audience with the now-famous line, "Kiss my fat ass!" ...

In jury selection, The key in voir dire is to identify extremists and understand what it will take to satisfy those who are left and to make sure that you are left with jurors that will be fair and impartial and unbiased towards your client. A surgeon sits at the defense table on the first day of her malpractice trial. Looking at a jury that includes a retired data entry clerk, a bus driver, a construction worker, college student, a housewife, a mother who lost a son in a previous malpractice suit, a motorcycle mechanic and an accountant – but no doctors, no nurses, nobody in the medical profession – she whispers to her attorney, “This is not a jury of my peers!” Jury selection certainly can have dire consequences. A case can be won or lost in voir dire. All you need is one or two strident enemy jurors sitting in that jury, to pull you down. If you can prove you had an enemy in the jury, you are almost guaranteed to have a mis-trial. Imagine if you were in court for a sin you...

When my son was in middle school, they needed a coach for their football team, there was nobody volunteering, so I stepped up to the plate, ughh, I mean, the Field. We ran plays, practiced hard and had a winning team. Like any sports team, you have your main guys and you run your plays around them. My son was the designated quarterback and we had this really good running back, wide receiver…we used him on punt return, he was our man. I told everyone, “don’t eat before the game, it will slow you down and can even make you sick, eat something light, like a candy bar, we’ll all eat after the game. We won our first game, 2nd game, but in the 3rd game, this young man was playing horrible, he came up to me and said, “coach, I can’t do it anymore. I’m done, I can’t run.” “What?” I said He responded, “my mom brought me a big sandwich before the game and I ate it.” I quickly responded, “We’re here to win, why would you stuff yourself with a big sandwich and hinder our chances at winni...

In the 1930s, two pioneers changed the face of health care for the people of the Concho Valley. J.M. and Margaret Shannon brought tough work ethics, a keen business sense and frugal natures to West Texas. Their dedication to their land, their neighbors and to each other laid the foundation for the establishment of Shannon West Texas Memorial Hospital, which grew to Shannon Medical Center and has now matured to Shannon Health System. A pioneer by nature, J.M. Shannon brought an interest in sheep ranching, developed in Australia and New Zealand, to this area. Frugal to the point of wearing "breeches pinned together with safety pins or mesquite thorns," Shannon acquired land, insurance and banking interests, attributing his success to "always staying with the herd." A native of Scotland, Margaret Campbell, while traveling the world as a complement to her formal education, met Shannon on a ship in an Australian port. By the time the ship docked in San Francisco, the...

Puerto Rico — one year after hurricane Maria battered Puerto Rico, the island still struggles to recover. Hundreds of thousands of families were left with uninhabitable living conditions, seeking shelter in the mainland. Many evacuees stayed with relatives, stayed in shelters or received temporary housing through FEMA's temporary shelter programs. They received assistance from FEMA, but after a federal judge ruled to  end FEMA's funding of the program,  their time has expired and few options are left. In Puerto Rico, tourism is making its way back, but many businesses continue to rebuild. Maria's full destructive scale was not clear in the months after landfall, and the storm was followed by a slow, frustrating and deadly recovery. Three months afterward,  only a third of Puerto Rican households had received tarps for their damaged homes . Power was still not restored  for many across the island by the six-month mark. Puerto Rico’s government is suing...

This woman was doing her morning work out, she had her video on and was following the work out on her large screen mounted to the living wall. Her younger son walked in and asked, "hi mom, watcha ya doing?” “I’m working out son, can’t you see” [huffing and puffing], she replied How do you know what to do?, he asked inquisitively “I’m watching the gal up on the screen” answered the mom The son, a little bewildered… “so you’re doing the same exercises she’s doing?  “Yes son!” exasperated by her sons’ questioning The son thought for a little, a bit perplexed and then responded....  “so why don’t you look like her mom?”

     Former UFC champion  Ronda Rousey  says she thought about killing herself in the immediate aftermath of her knockout loss to  Holly Holm  in November.      Rousey, 29,  appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show  on Tuesday and spoke openly about her loss at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia. The championship fight ended when Rousey went down in a highlight-reel knockout after a kick to the head from Holm. Rousey was transported to a local hospital afterward. "Honestly, my thought in the medical room, I was sitting in the corner and was like, 'What am I anymore if I'm not this?'" Rousey said. "Literally sitting there thinking about killing myself. In that exact second, I'm like, 'I'm nothing. What do I do anymore? No one gives a s--- about me anymore without this.'"      Ronda Rousey had plenty of support inside the ring, but once she stepped out she was left to fend for herself. The church can often be guilt...

The North Star is quite a wonder in the sky...Because the North Star lies nearly in a direct line with the axis of the  earth 's rotation "above" the  North Pole —the north celestial pole—the North Star stands almost motionless in the sky, and all the stars of the northern sky appear to rotate around it. Therefore, it makes an excellent fixed point from which to draw measurements for navigation. What’s even more amazing is, it is 433 light years away, but yet the North Star is the most visible star and the most constant in the solar system. It is a trillion miles away, but has been the constant guide to man for centuries. What is god telling us thru the North Star? - That it is constant. - Never changes. - Can always be relied upon. Even though I am light years away, I can still be seen and I can still be your constant source of guidance.  “I AM…the true North Star”

The “entire north polar ice cap will be gone in five years,’’ Al gore predicted, now 65, told a German T.V. audience in 2008. Not only has that not happened but in fact, receding arctic ice rebounded between 2012 and 2013, growing by 29 percent into an unbroken patch more than half the size of Europe. And the ice cap is within 5 percent of what it was 30 years ago, according to the national snow and ice data center. And to add to the irony or contradiction…Listen to this; this is not made up! Last month near the South Pole, a Russian ship carrying scientists and tourists traveled to the bottom of the earth so passengers might document global warming and shrinking ice caps. But they met an obstacle, a rather large one, when the ship got stuck on ice that was thicker than at any time since records started being kept in 1978. The warming fans had to be airlifted to safety by helicopter, leaving behind confused penguins. When we humans, feel it necessary to help God out, with...

In south India, before a traditional full meal people eat a tiny mouthful of some dessert first before the actual savory meal Another person from India claims: “yes, it’s pretty common in Indian culture to eat sweets before eating the savory stuff”. To us, this is backwards….Now this example is pretty inconsequential, in the larger scheme of life and more pressing social and moral issues that are on the forefront today. It is nevertheless, a good example, that depending on....where you live, how you were raised/taught, Social and demographic conditions; all of these can greatly influence, what is right and what is wrong in your opinion.

     I was listening to this talk show and the host was quoting this man who predicted the melting apocalyptic end to the world, “we will all fry 30 years from now if we don’t do something about global warming.” Well, 30 years, seems like a pretty far out statement to make.  Who is going to question what someone predicts 30 years from now? However, in this particular case, we have the vantage point that it was said, quoted in 1990.  So, now that the 30 years has pretty much passed…..he had to re-set the date, another 20 years out.      The “entire north polar ice cap will be gone in five years,’’ Al Gore predicted, now 65, He told a German T.V. audience in 2008. Not only has that not happened but, In fact, receding arctic ice rebounded between 2012 and 2013, growing by 29 percent into an unbroken patch more than half the size of Europe. And the ice cap is within 5 percent of what it was 30 years ago, according to the national snow and i...

“You know what frustrated me the most when I started visiting churches? Susan M. asked us, Susan was a lifelong unchurched person living in the Cleveland area until a life crisis prompted her to seek god. She tried to find him and his truth in the churches she visited. “what really frustrated me was that I had a deep desire to understand the bible, to hear in depth preaching and teaching, she continued, but most of the preaching was so watered down that it was insulting to my intelligence. I went to one church where the message was on fear. I was eager to hear what the bible had to say about a subject that described my state of mind”. But Susan was sorely disappointed with what she heard, “it was more of a pop-psychology message. The biblical view was never explained. Bible texts were hardly mentioned”. From: “Surprising insights from the unchurched” by Tom Reiner

The Desert Fathers were Christian hermits, ascetics, and monks who lived mainly in the Scetes desert of Egypt beginning around the third century AD.’ The most well-known was Anthony the Great, who moved to the desert in 270–271 and became known as both the father and founder of desert monasticism Paul of Thebes is often credited with being the first hermit monk to go to the desert, but it was Anthony the Great who launched the movement that became the Desert Fathers. Sometime around 270 AD, Anthony heard a Sunday sermon stating that perfection could be achieved by selling all of one's possessions, giving the proceeds to the poor, and following Christ.(Matt. 19.21) He followed the advice and made the further step of moving deep into the desert to seek complete solitude. Over time, the model of Anthony and other hermits attracted many followers, who lived alone in the desert or in small groups. They chose a life of extreme asceticism, renouncing all the pleasures of the senses, r...

The North Star is quite a wonder in the sky! Because the North Star lies nearly in a direct line with the axis of the  earth 's rotation "above" the  North Pole —the north celestial pole—the North Star stands almost motionless in the sky, and all the stars of the northern sky appear to rotate around it. Therefore, it makes an excellent fixed point from which to draw measurements for  celestial navigation . What’s even more amazing is, it is 433 light years away, but yet is the most visible star and the most constant in the solar system. In Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, written around 1599, Caesar describes himself “as constant as the northern star”. It is 433 light years away, but has been the constant guide to man for centuries. What is god telling us thru the North Star?  That it is constant, that it never changes and can always be relied upon. That I (God) can be light years away, but I can still be seen and I can still be your constant source of guidan...

What is a promise? I find myself wondering these days. I promised my mother, who was ill and sick that I would go visit with her in the fall, fall came and went, my mother passed away last month, I never did fly out to the Midwest like I promised and I have no excuse. . My husband promised, that ~ he would be faithful to me, for better or for worse, now only 2 years later, he has cheated on me and left me and kids to fend for ourselves. What is a promise? Jimmy’s father, tom, promised he would still be a dad even though his mom and dad were splitting up; that he would stay here in l.A. And still be a part of his life. ~tom moved to Florida and little jimmy hasn’t heard from him since. In lieu of the situation, my sister promised the kids she would come visit this summer, and take them to Disney land, the kids waited all summer for her call or for her to show up, summer has come and gone, she never showed or called. I promised my daughter I would make every volleyball game thi...

     Lisa and I grew up in the church together, as we approached our 19th birthday I became tired of waiting for the “miracle” to come in. ~we were a church of 60 and what was the chance of me finding a husband in a church of 60, with 30 of them being kids. I decided to start dating guys on the outside. I met john a few months later, he too had grown up in church but had stopped going as he moved out and starting going to college. We fell in love, got married and a few kids and john starting coming out to church with me too. I would look at Lisa, now 24 and still not married and feel bad for her. I thought, “still believe for that miracle, that poor girl”.      Then it all started to unravel, john started missing church more and more. Than I found pornographic magazines in his gym bag and found 3 bottles of Jack Daniels in the garage. Once I confronted him he admitted he was still drinking. Once he knew that I knew, he started drinking openly and getting d...

There’s a new book that has come out written by Rob Maaddi , The name of the book: Birds of Pray: The Story of the Philadelphia Eagles’ Faith, Brotherhood, and Super Bowl Victory It chronicles the exploits of the Philedelphia Eagles and their quest for the Super bowl in 2017-2018 Season. The annals of football are filled with “God squads,” teams with widely publicized reputations for Christian faith. As far back as the 1890s, Yale football enthusiasts attributed the team’s success to the number of “praying men” on the squad. The undefeated 1954 UCLA team, with over half the starting lineup involved with Campus Crusade for Christ, was nicknamed the “Eleven from Heaven.” And professional football has had plenty of teams with strong Christian contingents, too: - the Baltimore Colts of the late 1960s, - the Miami Dolphins of the early 1970s, - the Washington Redskins of the 1980s and early 1990s, - the St. Louis Rams 1999, - and the Seattle Seahawks circa 2013, to n...

Why did the chicken cross the road? Cause he couldn’t fly... Ever wonder why chickens can’t really fly... Ever wonder why you never look up in the sky and say, ‘look; up in the sky... It’s a plane... No... It’s a chicken!’ Chicken coops can be built without much thought... No need even for a roof... In fact, roofs aren’t typically built to keep them from getting out... But to keep the rain off of them. Chickens can’t really fly because they were bred to stay in the ground... Humans modified a species called the red jungle fowl - they already were primarily designed to feed and forage on the ground; but they could fly up a tree to escape a predator... However, humans got ahold of them and created a hybrid that they could make them bulkier and stronger... They wanted it to have a huge breast muscle... So it would stay on the ground - that’s why chicken taste so good... A lot of muscle... But their wings are too small to handle their weight to allow them much endurance to fly... And ...

“They grow up so fast,”  parents  often lament. Today, children are being sexualized earlier and earlier, in part because they are exposed to sexual material in movies, television, music and other media earlier than ever. With widespread access to the Internet, curious teens may accidentally or intentionally be exposed to millions of pages of material that is uncensored, sexually explicit, often inaccurate and potentially harmful. So what? If kids don’t understand it, how can they be affected by it? Even if young children can’t understand  sex  or its role in relationships, the images they see can leave a lasting impression. Children as young as 8 and 9 are coming across sexually explicit material on the Internet and in other media. Although research is just beginning to assess the potential damage, there is reason to believe that early exposure to sexual content may have the following undesirable effects: Early Sex: Why are teens more likely to have sex af...

“What fuel has the Refiner added to the fire as He works to reveal Jesus in and through you? He has recently stoked the fire under me!” So began yesterday’s revelation by Anne Graham Lotz that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Anne received the news “three years to the day … at the very same time of day as her husband Danny’s  death  while swimming in 2015. “When I realized the strange ‘coincidence’ of the timing, I came to the chilling conclusion that it was an assignment from the enemy,” “But just as that thought was forming, I heard the soft, gentle whisper of the Spirit, reminding me that it was on a Friday, during that very same time … between 3:00 and 3:30 in the afternoon … that God’s Passover Lamb was sacrificed.  Jesus died on the very same day of the week, at the very same time of the day, crushing the head of the serpent, forever defeating the devil and death. Praise God!,” she wrote. “The cross … the blood of God’s Lamb … trumps...

Amy's mom was raped when she was a little girl and Amy’s mom was determined that never would her daughter stand defenseless and have men or anyone for that matter, assault her. She put Amy in Tai kwon Do from the time she was 7 years on until she was 18. Amy’s hands and feet became registered weapons as she was qualified as a black belt in Tai-kwon-Do & and Judo. She was only 115 pounds, but she was a deadly force. One night leaving a bar in October, walking back to her car she was mugged. They took her purse, her very expensive watch and pearl necklace, ironically that her mother had bought her when she graduated with her black belt in Tai kwon Do. She called her mother to let her know and her mother was furious! Amy, you are lucky you did not get raped like i did. What in the world did i pay all that money and put you through all those schools for? Why did you not do anything? You could have killed those men, you realize that. I don't know what to say mom, when I ...

There’s a lot of songs on the radio that are entertaining and we listen and we sing along, but I can tell you, when this song comes on by Zach Williams everybody hushes up and listens. This isn’t a song for entertainment, this is a song that has something to say to people, to minister to them. It goes…. when he told you you're not good enough when he told you you're not right when he told you you're not strong enough to put up a good fight when he told you you're not worthy when he told you you're not loved when he told you you're not beautiful that you'll never be enough fear, he is a liar he will take your breath stop you in your steps fear he is a liar he will rob your rest steal your happiness cast your fear in the fire 'cause fear he is a liar Zach Williams personifies fear we know… Because fear is not an entity in itself. We know the Devil is and in John Ch 8 we read that the devil is the father of all lies and we he speaks,...

     Arnold Schwarzenegger made headlines back in 2011 when he revealed to wife Maria Shriver that he fathered a child with their housekeeper Mildred Patricia Baena. The boy, named Joseph Baena, was 14 at the time, and Schwarzenegger  reportedly hadn't known  about him for years until the resemblance became undeniable.      Shriver, whom Schwarzenegger has four children with, filed for divorce after being married for 25 years. However, the marriage has not officially ended on paper, something the actor and former California Governor talks about in his book  Total Recall .      In an interview with  Men's Journal , Schwarzenegger said that he has since "repaired the damage" with his children — Joseph included. The 70-year-old Celebrity Apprenticehost even revealed that they now have a "healthy relationship."      Joseph, a student at Pepperdine University in California, just turned 20 last week, and his bo...

This past month would have marked the 39th birthday of Keith Broomfield, from Westminister, MA. He Was born August 1979 and died June 2015 Keith was a newly converted Christian, 36 years old, a civilian, with no military experience who felt moved to move to go to Syria and help the Syria/Iraqi Christians being persecuted in Syria by Kurdish Rebels, with no military training. On June 3, 2015 he was  killed   during  a skirmish with Rebel fighters near Kobani, a city in northern Syria. Broomfield felt “led by the Lord” to enter the fight despite his lack of military training, his father  told CBS . “He turned his life over to the Lord and he decided this was God's will and God wanted him to do it," his mother  told NBC . “I’m here to do what I can,” Broomfield  said  in an earlier video. “With everything that’s been going on, it seems like the right thing to do.”

“It was the lord who put into my mind the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me. There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit. Because he comforted me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures. ​ I am a most unworthy sinner, but I have cried out to the lord for grace and mercy, and they have covered me completely. I have found the sweetest consolation since I made it my whole purpose to enjoy his marvelous presence. For the execution of the journey to the Indies. I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics or maps. It is simply the fulfillment of what Isaiah had prophesied.” C. Columbus as quoted in “The Light & The Glory” I believe the same God that inspired Terah and then followed up with Abram, to complete the task is the same Holy Spirit that inspired Christopher Columbus to venture off …

In regions governed by Communist Party bosses who  persecute Christians , the underground church still remains underground. Some 'underground' churches now making newspaper headlines for openly challenging the government for the right to have their own building attests to the progress made. In fact, in  China , underground churches are no longer referred to as, "underground churches" but rather "unregistered churches" or " house churches ". The greatest need in the underground church in  China  today is not free Bibles or money, but Biblical teachers who can exegete the Bible and teach the  true gospel  from the Word of God.

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  Cambri...

     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 ...

Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American businessman, investor, pilot, film director, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most financially successful individuals in the world. HIS net worth at the time was somewhere in 6 billion. He first made a name for himself as a film producer, and then became an influential figure in the aviation industry. Hughes formed the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932, hiring numerous engineers and designers. He spent the rest of the 1930s setting multiple world air speed records and building the Hughes H-1 Racer and H-4 Hercules (the Spruce Goose). He acquired and expanded Trans World Airlines and later acquired Air West, renaming it Hu Later in life, he became known for his eccentric behavior and reclusive lifestyle—He died at 70 A recluse , half out of his mind. Lonely and at odds with his own existence and purpose.