THE ONE YEAR ILLUSTRATIONS CLUB

 Roger Staubach who led the Dallas Cowboys to the World Championship in '71 admitted that his position as a quarterback who didn't call his own signals was a source of trial for him. Coach Landry sent in every play. He told Roger when to pass, when to run and only in emergency situations could he change the play (and he had better be right!). Even though Roger considered coach Landry to have a "genius mind" when it came to football strategy, pride said that he should be able to run his own team. Roger later said, "I faced up to the issue of obedience. Once I learned to obey there was harmony, fulfillment, and victory."

 Every conscientious parent recognizes how difficult it is to exercise his God-given authority over his children. The delicate balance of being tough yet tender is not easy to maintain. Many parents intensify a rebellious spirit by being dictatorial and harsh. Others yield when their authority is tested. When a strong-willed child resists, the pressure to give in for the sake of peace and harmony can become overpowering. I am reminded of the mother who wanted to have the last word but couldn't handle the hassle that resulted whenever she said no to her young son. After an especially trying day, she finally flung up her hands and shouted, "All right, Billy, do whatever you want! Now let me see you disobey THAT!"  

  Hostage says he was blindfolded for 10 months September 24, 2005 MEMPHIS ,  Tenn.  -- An American contract worker who was kidnapped in  Iraq  and held more than 10 months says in an interview that his captors kept him blindfolded and bound throughout the ordeal. Roy Hallums, 57, described his experience to ''60 Minutes'' reporter Lesley Stahl in a segment that will air Sunday on CBS. Hallums also said the motive behind his kidnapping was ransom, but he refused to give his captors contact information for his family to spare them from having to negotiate. Hallums was rescued Sept. 7 by coalition troops from a 4-foot-high crawl space under a farmhouse. He returned to his hometown of  Memphis  two days later to a joyous family reunion. 'Happiest moment of my life' "When I saw him come down off the plane, it was the happiest moment of my life," his ex-wife, Susan Hallums, said earlier this month. Hallums, who worked for a contractor supplying food to the ...

  By JOYCE HULETT Published Thursday, August 18, 2005 A: Good parents should know that children need love. From the moment a baby is born, she needs love from her parents. That love is given in the form of holding, cuddling and nurturing. Parental love is vital for a baby to grow and develop. Without this love, a baby will progress much more slowly Babies need attention from their parents. Tending to only physical needs is not enough. Babies need interaction with their parents. Most parents understand the physical needs of their babies. They know babies must be fed, clothed and sheltered. Parents might not know that babies also must be cuddled and held. Babies must hear the voices of their parents. During the middle part of the 20th century, many people believed babies should not be held. They thought babies should be left in their cribs, or they would be "spoiled." This is far from the truth. We now know that babies grow and develop from being held and cuddled. Rocking and c...

                                 HOW DOES THE DOVE DIFFER FROM OTHER BIRDS      They Differ Anatomically: Scientists have found the anatomy of Doves is very different from that of other birds. In fact, these beloved birds have no gallbladder, an organ that typically secretes bile.      The dove is the rare bird that has not bitterness, gall in it’s body but also displays no sign towards other birds. It is no surprise then that the Dove is what God used to represent the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus, a bird with no bitterness in it. It was imperative to Jesus' ministry that He never allow bitterness to enter Him; even to the very end, upon His crucifixion where He refused the drink, mixed with gall. Don't drink the cup of bitterness/gall,....ever!

  I was listening to the story of a man on Focus on The Family radio. It was a story of a group of girls that he encountered at a ski resort; a rather obnoxious irritating group of teens.  There she was alone on the ski slopes, as the group were all approaching the gondola to take them to the top in the midst of this large youth group. They are all hip, rich and good looking, stylish teens, they’re in the gondola and there’s this girl who is in there seemingly alone and she just keeps saying whomever, whomever.... She’s trying to repeat what she heard one of the hip teen girls say, which was "whatever"….and she’s there, "whomever, whomever...."   And the teens are laughing at her and snickering, when she looked over, I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was retarded, it was obvious. Then this large man that was standing beside her, reached out, took his arms and puts them around her and says, that’s right honey, “whomever”, “whomever” And you could see the ...

 Thomas Jefferson was one of the early founders and authors of the declaration of independence, he wrote in it himself, he is most famously remembered for his declaration “all men are created equal” And I quote: “we hold these truths to be  self-evident , that  all men are created equal , that they are endowed by their creator with certain  unalienable rights , that among these are life, liberty, and the  pursuit of happiness —that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” Thomas Jefferson even made attempts at legislating laws against slavery. At the time of the Amer...

  That appalling figure was Beck Weathers, the author of this surprisingly cheerful book. Weathers was left for dead not once but twice during the disastrous day in 1996 which left nine climbers dead on Mount Everest. Part of one hand was saved, his nose was reconstructed surgically, and his sight came back before he left Everest, but his climbing days are finished.      Ordinary life was too boring to distract him away from his depression. Danger and crucial details of equipment and planning were able to mask his despair with the result that his life was completely unbalanced in favor of mountain climbing, with the summit of Everest the goal. As those at base camp watched Beck Weathers, barely recognizable stumble into camp they thought they were seeing his ghost. They had left Beck for dead days earlier as they passed him up on the way down to base camp, there was Beck, frozen inside an ice cocoon and they simply passed him up as dead. Yet when Beck was g...

  NEW YORK  — Adam Silver used the biggest weapon the NBA commissioner has when he banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life and said he would move to force  Sterling  to sell his team. Sterling  can pay the $2.5 million fine Silver issued. The lifetime ban for  Sterling ? It may be inconsequential as long as the Clippers are making money and filling his bank account But in his unprecedented rebuke Tuesday of Sterling, Silver made clear that he — along with several players, coaches, owners, fans, public officials and activists — wants a new owner for the Clippers. "I will urge the Board of Governors to exercise its authority to force a sale of the team and will do everything in my power to ensure that that happens," Silver said Silver is relying on the NBA's Constitution and By-Laws, which say the interest of an owner "may be terminated by a vote of three-fourths of the Board of Governors." Silver's predecessor, David Stern, never spoke on ...

  It went a little easier the second time around, the hormone fluctuations did not. I found myself spiraling downward in a sea of depression that seemed to rob me of all logic and rational thought, and I’m afraid I became a bit difficult for my boys to live with — both my little one and the one I’d married. I just didn’t want to be the caretaker and carrier anymore. I wanted desperately to be taken care of, to be carried through life and not have to be so responsible and so needed. It seemed one day I was crying because baby Maddie wouldn’t sleep, the next I was crying at Chuck E. Cheese because I just didn’t feel like playing with Nicholas, and the next I was crying because I didn’t think I could handle being their mother for one more day. When I wasn’t being ridiculously irritable and angry, I was desperately sad and weepy. My sole joy in life was sleep. It was all I thought about and all I wanted to do. Everything else just seemed pointless or too difficult to manage. I was drow...

  There I was having to make a decision….that well…to voluntarily give me life so that they could live. It hurt for me to watch the suffering If hurt for me to know the pain would get worse If I could help, if I could switch places, I would and now here was the opportunity. What would you do? I had given life to these and now ironically it would be me that would have the opportunity to sustain that life. Not just a human being, but a part of me, created by me, how could I just simply watch and do nothing. It was going to be painful, but better me….after all, wasn’t this true love. So I made up my mind, I was going to do it, I would die instead. That was over 2000 years ago, it was worth every ounce of pain, Love..... Jesus

  I HAVE A TRUE STORY HERE ABOUT SUCH A STORY, IT'S CALLED " OUR TESS-TIMONY The doctor had just called and said, "Nina, I want you to come back in for another test. There is something suspicious on the ultrasound, and I want to re-examine the baby." In that moment, my life began to change forever. I never imagined that I would have a complicated pregnancy. After all, my three sons were each delightful pregnancies and easy deliveries. I loved being pregnant; At 37 I looked forward to having one more child, one more dream to fulfill. I always wanted a little girl to dress in pink ruffles and ribbons. It seemed my dream was about to be shattered, and a nightmare was lurking around the corner. After we went back to the doctor's office for the second ultrasound and an amniocentesis, my husband and I got on our knees and begged God to give us a healthy child. Yet we would trust Him, no matter what His will was. We seemed to vacillate between hope and calamity. We were...

  Death begins when the heart stops beating. Deprived of oxygen a cascade of cellular death begins; beginning with the brain cells and ending with the skin cells. “Death is a process rather than an event.” Specifying the moment of death usually involves deciding on a point from which there can be no return. When the heart stops beating 1. Heart stops beating and/or lungs stop breathing. 2. Body cells no longer receive supplies of blood and oxygen. • Blood drains from capillaries in the upper surfaces and collects in the blood vessels in the lower surfaces. • Upper surfaces of the body become pale and the lower surfaces become dark. . Cells cease  aerobic  respiration, and are unable to generate the energy molecules needed to maintain normal muscle biochemistry. •Calcium ions leak into muscle cells preventing muscle relaxation. • Muscles stiffen and remain stiff ( rigor mortis)  until they begin to decompose. . Cells eventually die and the body loses its capacity to f...

  They did a survey of Christian Evangelical teens and asked them if they believed the Word of God was true. If it was the inexorable Word of God 95% responded it was true. And believed it to be god’s inerrable word. Then they asked if they believed it was true for the friends and peers at school. Only 47% said they believed it was true for them. The other 53% responded only if it’s true to their beliefs and faith.

  Crucifixion: Jesus Faced a Horrible Death Crucifixion sometimes began with a scourging or flogging of the victim’s back. The Romans used a whip called a flagrum, which consisted of small pieces of bone and metal attached to a number of leather strands. The number of blows given to Jesus is not recorded; however, the number of blows in Jewish law was 39 (one less than the 40 called for in the Torah, to prevent a counting error). During the scourging, the skin was ripped from the back, exposing a bloody mass of tissue and bone. Extreme blood loss occurred, often causing death, or at least unconsciousness. In addition to the flogging, Jesus faced severe beating and torment by the Roman soldiers, including the plucking of His beard and the piercing of His scalp with a crown of thorns. After the flogging, the victim was often forced to carry his own crossbar, or patibulum, to the execution site. The patibulum could easily weigh 100 pounds. In the case of Jesus, the record shows that H...

   The original seven page pitch for friends described the show as a comedy about six people in their 20’s who hang out at this coffee house. As a concept, it didn’t exactly scream success. But as we now know, friends turned out to be one of the most successful sitcoms ever produced. The success of friends is no secret. The simple ideal that each one of us wishes we had the friends and comradery displayed in the weekly episodes. Somehow each week, we could get lost, into a TV, into a world of a virtue of long lost, “friends”.    In today’s day and age, with the business of life and hectic pace we live, friends is a by gone era, but the days of friends and being able to get lost in this surreal environment where friendships were still vital and cherished, this was and still is the secret of the sitcom. Officially it has ended, but unofficially, friends lives on. Next year marks the 20 th  anniversary of the first episode of Friends and ten years since the show of...

  Paul Chudnow, 71 and Phyllis Chudnow, also 71 decide after 50 years to get hitched for another 50. The mood was lighthearted before the 7:30 p.m. service. "I figured if you can last 50 years, you might as well look for another [50 years]," said Phyllis Chudnow, 71, who will be married to Paul Chudnow, 71, for 51 years in June. "It's something to celebrate," Paul said. The couple lives in  Fort Lauderdale . What happened 50 years ago I’m sure is very special to this couple, but even more special, even more meaningful, is that 51 years later, whatever they felt, whatever moment they had, 51 years ago, it’s still going on 51 years later! This couple, “has it going on” beyond what any deluded teenager thinks about “how they have it going on”, this is the real deal!

 The church is not salvation, yet membership in a confessing body is fundamental to the faithful Christian life. Failure to do so defies the explicit warning not to forsake "our assembling together." His understanding of this prompted Martin Luther to say, "Apart from the church, salvation is impossible." Not that the church provides salvation; God does. But because the "saved" one can't fulfill what it means to be a Christian apart from the church, membership becomes the indispensable mark of salvation. "So highly does the Lord esteem the communion of His church," Calvin wrote," that He considers everyone a traitor and apostate from religion who perversely withdraws himself from any Christian society which preserves the true ministry of the word and sacraments." Charles W. Colson, The Body 1992 Word Publishing 

  DAYTONA BEACH SHORES, Fla. Ever get to church and wish you could just stay in the car? Here, you can. What was once the Neptune Drive-In Theater IS NOW the Daytona Beach Drive-In Christian Church AND allows families to sit in their cars and worship beneath the Florida sky. "We worship just like anyone else does, we just do it outdoors," and inside our cars. Sometimes you're not in the mood for people or shaking hands and this avoids, frivolous and meaningless greetings and small talk with people you don't really know.

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick's quick embrace with longtime former Patriots and current Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady after Sunday's game did little to silence questions regarding a possible falling out in their 20-plus-year relationship. However, the two apparently shared a private moment away from cameras after the on-field postgame hug that followed the Buccaneers' 19-17 win in New England. The Athletic's Jeff Howe reports Belichick "was in the Bucs locker room for 23 minutes" and "walked out with Brady" after the game, adding that the two "planned to meet up after the game, so they coordinated this meeting beforehand." Brady also confirmed the meeting during his postgame press conference, though opted to keep details of his conversation with his former coach private. AFTER 20 years with his former coach and 20 years of loyalty to the team and Belichick, Tom Brady was released from his team (New England Patriots)...

  PARIS, France -- An elderly man who was declared dead only to be found to be alive after his body had been sent to the mortuary, has died again. This time, it's official. The unnamed 68-year-old Frenchman was mistakenly declared dead last week at a rest home near the southwest city of Bordeaux.  A doctor called to the home issued a death certificate and the 'body' was then sent to a funeral parlor in nearby Macau, where it was refrigerated for five hours.  An employee at the funeral parlor was preparing the body for burial when he discovered signs of life. "When I ... opened the cover, I saw that his stomach was moving," said Laurent Besson on France-2 television. "I don't deny that I jumped."  The elderly man was transferred to the Bordeaux University Hospital and placed in intensive care.

  Two shopkeepers were bitter rivals. Their stores were directly across the street from each other, and they would spend each day keeping track of each other's business. If one got a customer, he would smile in triumph at his rival. One night an angel appeared to one of the shopkeepers in a dream and said, "I will give you anything you ask, but whatever you receive, your competitor will receive twice as much. Would you be rich? You can be very rich, but he will be twice as wealthy. Do you wish to live a long and healthy life? You can, but his life will be longer and healthier. What is your desire?" And be careful because he will get a double portion. The man frowned, thought for a moment, and then said, "Here is my request: Strike me blind in one eye!" Thomas Lindberg.

The most spiritual man in the world still has to do income tax returns, clip his toe nails, has to sleep, do 1 year old birthday parties etc…etc….The most spiritual man/woman in the world must still traffic in the mundane and shallow. The oceans are great, but they are also both deep and shallow. We traffic in both the shallow and the deep and the man that learns to do both,….is wise!

In 1986 Mark Sanderlin had a mountain top experience, he just had this great experience, felt the presence of God and felt impressed that he would one day preach to the nations; by the end of that year, Mark had obtained passports for everyone in his family to be ready for what God would do. 1987 not much had changed, Mark worked a job, he was a repo man and it was business as usual. In 1990, 4 yrs later, Mark is still in the church, working a job, raising kids, etc…but he still has the vision. Before Mark knew it, 10yrs had passed, his passports were expired, he had not once used them once! But during those 10 yrs., he never lost the vision. The most amazing thing was, in 1996 the passports came due for expiration and Mark Sanderlin had to make a decision. Do I renew these passports or let them expire? Mark renewed all four passports. To make a long story short, in 1998 mark was pastoring in California and in 2000 he was evangelizing in the U.S. and from 2001-2004 he evangelized all o...

When it comes to being pure and completely undefiled by bitterness, we have to look at the Dove and Jesus. Luke 3:21-22 “when all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.” Jesus did not have a raven, a crow or even an eagle descend on Him, but a white dove. The bird, of course, He (Jesus) created and knows every attribute about it. The gall bladder, that holds all the deadly toxins & poisons are person consumes through food. The dove is one of the rare birds that has no gall bladder. It not only has no gall bladder, symbolic of who the bird is, because the bird also has no gall. No gall = no bitterness; as most birds do, term "pecking order". The dove is a unique bird, a bird of peace, no retaliation. An Eagle is a cool bird, but Jesus chose the dove because it was the embodiment of who He would need to be. Jesus, would have to be a man, with no gal...

Late founder of Little Caesars Mike Ilitch quietly paid Rosa Parks' rent for years. Little Caesars founder and sports team owner Mike Ilitch was known for his number of contributions to the Detroit community, but many were unaware he quietly helped a civil rights icon. Mike Ilitch, who owned the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings, passed away at the age of 87. It was revealed in an article published by the Sports Business Daily in 2014 that Ilitch had paid for Rosa Parks' apartment for more than a decade until her death in 2005. Federal judge Damon Keith showed the Sports Business Daily a $2,000 check from Little Caesars Enterprises made out to Riverfront Apartments and dated November 1994. Parks had been mugged and robbed by a burglar at her Detroit home in August of 1994. Keith told the Sports Business Daily he vowed with real estate developer Alfred Taubman to find Parks a safer home. What contributions, generosity, charity…..will you be known for one day, ...

  The Civil War took place in 1861, when southern slave holding states, fearing the institution of slavery was under threat in a nation governed by the northern free states, 11 states (North & South Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee) seceded from the U.S. after the election of president Abraham Lincoln. The southern slave states of the south got wind of Abraham Lincoln wanting to abolish the slave trade and succeeded or tried to succeed from the U.S. union, thence the Civil War. In Abraham Lincolns’ second inaugural address he said, “with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. An estimated 750...

  My wife Mary and I recently had dinner with a longtime friend and surgeon. Clark is a rising star in the medical profession, god looking, wealthy, and a great deal of fun to be around. He has been searching for a wife for nearly twenty years. Since my wife and I agree that most women would classify Clark as quite a catch, I asked why he hadn’t found someone. Clark’s response astonished me. He told us that he dates women frequently, but the relationships always seem to end the same way. He said, “all the women I meet don’t just have emotional baggage, they have cargo! Clark who loves to laugh and enjoy life to the fullest, seems to find himself repeatedly in relationships with women whose lives are entrenched in deeply toxic emotions: resentment and bitterness, anxiety and fear owing to past experiences, depression, grief, gloom, and despair. After Clark had told us of several experiences, he held his arms over his black curly hair and boomed out in his deep voice, “isn’t anyone h...

  What happens when you strap yourself to a billowy cape and jump off the Eiffel Tower? Exactly what you think will happen – though nobody warned tailor Franz Reichelt, who dreamed of inventing a fashion accessory that would allow users to float safely from great heights. Everyone tried telling Franz he was loon but undeterred, he planned to demonstrate his “coat parachute” by leaping off the Eiffel Tower in 1912. Four seconds later, the tailor reached a descent velocity of 128ft per second, before splatting to the ground. Luckily for us, Franz’s ludicrous “I-Fell Tower” attempt was captured on video, and would presumably have been a huge viral hit, had YouTube been around 95 years ago.

  It wasn’t until this past century where heart transplants were becoming a more common and successful occurrences, that doctors began to take notice. Of a phenomena that was taken place inside of the patients that were receiving somebody else’s heart. Numerous stories have been chronicled since the procedures starting taking place. One of the cases was with David waters. David waters after receiving his heart transplant found himself developing a new craving for a snack food, a snack food he had never heard of before. Just like the young man whose heart now beats in his chest. Mr. Waters 24, cannot stop eating an Australian made snack food called burger rings, and he has now found out that the teenager whose heart he received was always eating the same snack. In another example, an eight year old girl received the heart of another ten year old that had die. A short time after the heart transplant, the young recipient of the heart began having terrifying dreams about a man murderin...