Christ is Risen... He is risen indeed!

Did you hear the news today? Jesus, the One crucified on the cross, is risen! Do you believe it? Have you told anyone about it? Jesus' resurrection is unreasonable and awe-inspiring. It was no more reasonable more than 2,000 years ago than it is today. Rise from the dead? How? And why wasn't there any warning? There was. The prophets, and Jesus himself, repeatedly foretold this death and resurrection. At least three times, we are told, Jesus predicted His impending death.

On Easter Sunday the church tells the story of the empty tomb and the charge by the messenger to “go and tell.”  For the next several weeks Christians tell and retell stories of Jesus’ first followers who encountered Him against all hope. Amidst their doubt, fear, and longing, suddenly He was present -risen from the dead, and encountering them in a locked room, by the lakeshore, on the road to Emmaus.

The church combines these resurrection stories with stories from Acts of the Apostles: the efforts of the first Christian communities to spread the gospel through the world. The early church celebrated these weeks after Easter. They instructed newly baptized Christians during this time, and encouraged them to explore, in their new community, the joyful mystery of the encounter of the risen Christ with their lives. As we celebrate, we learn again to recognize the risen Jesus where He is to be found: in our midst, in our stories, in the breaking of the bread - and as we faithfully bear witness to the reality of Christ’s presence to the world.

Jesus said: "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised" (Matthew 20:18-19).

Yet the witnesses at Jesus' tomb were surprised. The Gospel of Mark tells us that "terror and amazement" seized them. They were so afraid they said nothing to anyone - at first. But when they began sharing the good news of God's love for both Jews and gentiles, the Holy Spirit moved among them (Acts 10).

Likewise today, the Easter story of God's love for all should be shared. We too are disciples of Jesus, growing in Christ's image and our relationship with God. The Easter story inspires and asserts God's unfathomable love for us: Jesus broke the powers of sin and death, canceled our debt of sin and opened the way to new life through God's grace.

We need that good news, and so does our world. Economic turbulence, warfare and injustices run rampant today. We live in "catastrophic, catatonic, catalytic" times. Our world yearns for new movement. Evil, though not always acknowledged, is among us. But the Easter story reminds us how Jesus embodied God's redeeming love for all.

Like those first witnesses at Jesus' grave, how often are we afraid, unwilling or not invited to share our stories? Created in God's image, we each have a piece of God's story. As we welcome each other into this unfolding story, we empower each other. Storytelling, at its core, is an act of hospitality. And we have an amazing story to tell: Jesus no longer lives among us but within us.

We continue sharing today. "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it," says Psalm 118:24.

And what a reason for gladness and joy: The Lord is risen! Now let us share this good news with the world.

I AM - BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED ME! ~ Stafford

“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!” ~ Romans 5:10

Everything Under the Sun

Look around you; there is only one reality. The reason that you are here, wherever here is for you, is because it is the only place that you can be right now. But even though reality is right here, and even though there is quite literally nothing but reality, it is very possible for you to miss it altogether. By miss it I mean to imagine that reality is something or somewhere other than here. As strange as it may sound it is very possible, even probable, that even though you have eyes to see, you do not see. And even though you have ears to hear, you do not hear. What you see and hear is not exactly what is actually here, but what you imagine is here.

Our imagination is a very powerful force in determining what we perceive. If we imagine that the world is teeming with evil forces, we will surely perceive the world as evil. But if we imagine the world to be essentially good, we will perceive it as good. Either way it is the same world that we are looking at. But the world is neither good nor bad in and of itself; it is simply what it is. And if we see the world as either good or bad, we will not be able to see it as it actually is. We will only be able to see it as we imagine it to be.

Now take this idea and apply it to everything and everyone in your life. Try it for a moment, or an hour, or a day. And if you do, you may begin to notice that the world you imagine to exist does not exist at all. This may cause you some fear, or possibly the thrill of discovery, but either way the important thing is to get some distance from the habitual way the mind contorts and creates perception.

But even though our mind imagines the world and everything in it to be other than the way it actually is, the reality of existence remains eternally untouched by our mis-perception of it. This is both relatively good and bad. It is good in that existence is eternally what it is. We need not worry about reality becoming something other than reality. But it is bad in the sense that the world we imagine to exist is always colliding with the world as it actually is. This collision is the cause of immense human suffering and conflict.

So we are trapped within our illusions and mis-perceptions. And the greatest illusion of all is to believe that we are not trapped. But even when we realize that we are confined within a prison of our own making, we are trapped because all the ways we struggle to get out of our illusions are illusions themselves. So, yes, we are trapped, and helpless to boot.

But there is a very strange thing that can occur at exactly the point where you realize that there is no escaping the imaginary world of your illusions. You bare your heart open to illusion, surrender your eternal struggle against it, and admit to being bound by its cunning imagination. I don’t mean that you become despondent or resigned to your fate. I mean that you truly let go in the face of your utter defeat and stop struggling.

And when all the struggle ceases, we realize that the prison of our mind cannot hold us in anymore, because the prison was all along something we imagined into existence. And imagined things aren’t real, they don’t exist. But we could never really see this as long as we were fighting the phantoms of our minds. We needed the one thing that our imaginary minds could not bring about, could not fake or create: the genuine surrender of all struggle.

In the blink of an eye, we are no longer confined within illusion nor our attempt to avoid illusion. When all struggle ceases, there is nothing to bind us to a distorted perception of existence and we can finally see. What we see is that we do not simply exist within existence, but all of existence exists within us as well. And although everywhere we look we see the endless diversity of life, we also now see our own true face in everything under the sun. - Adyashanti


CIRCUMSTANCE: It cannot cripple love; it cannot corrode faith; it cannot shatter hope; it cannot eat away peace; it cannot destroy confidence; it cannot kill friendship; it cannot shut out memories; it cannot silence courage; it cannot invade the soul; it cannot reduce eternal life; it cannot quench the spirit... unless we allow it!

You need not feel guilty that you turn to Me when you have exhausted all other possibilities for joy and there is nowhere else to turn. Thank yourself for going where you are sure to find comfort. Now is the only moment there is. Now, we are joined as One. ~ GOD

Have a beautifully blessed day, y'all! (",)

Cross my heart...

Cross my heart

and hope to die

stick a needle in my eye

wait a moment,

I spoke a lie

I never really

wanted to die.

but if I may

and if I might

my heart is open

for tonight

though my lips are sealed

and a promise is true

I won't break my word

my word to you.

Cross my heart

hope to die

stick a needle in my eye.

a secret's a secret

my word is forever

I will tell no one

about your cruel endeavor.

you claim no pain

but I see right through

your words in

everything you do.

teary eyes

broken heart

life has torn

you apart

Cross my heart

hope to die

stick a needle in my eye

I loved you then

I love you now

I'll still love you

though I'll break my vow.

I can't hold this secret

any longer

it's hurting you

not making you stronger.

You're my friend

so I'll risk your respect

by hurting you

I can protect

I'll save yourself

since you will not

you might hate me

but I'll give it a shot.

I'm willing to risk

our bond that we own

so long as you're safe

you won't be alone.

Cross my heart

hope to die

stick a needle in my eye

break my promise

tell a lie

save my friend

though, maybe it's 'bye.

If you want to know if your friend will 'keep your secret' - try first, keeping it to yourself.

St. Mark: The Man Behind the Gospel - a feast of divine inspiration and hope eternal

I have somewhat neglected promoting discipleship recently - the following account, biography and insight into St. Mark's gospel and its effect on his peers and thus our lives, resounds to this day! - read on....

"And they all forsook Him, and fled. And there followed Him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on Him: and he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked."

This puzzling incident, mentioned only in the Gospel according to St. Mark, is taken by many Bible readers as a reference to Mark himself. It's tempting to assume that the Evangelist, perhaps still in his teens, was in the Garden of Gethsemane the night of Christ's arrest, and that he fled in panic when threatened with arrest himself. Whether he knew Jesus remains a matter of conjecture. His adult life, at any rate, was dedicated to the faith to which we owe one of the world's great books.

The second Gospel in the Bible, this book is the oldest of the four, and served as a model for the other two Synoptic ("common-view") Gospels, written by Matthew and Luke. John's "spiritual Gospel," the last to be published, stands apart. Perhaps because it is the shortest Gospel, Mark's work was for centuries the neglected book of the New Testament. Today Mark finds favour with a growing number of believers. His brevity, his crisp directness, his emphasis on deeds rather than words, make him the most immediate of the Four Evangelists.

His Hebrew name was John, and he is often called John Mark, the Latin "surname" Marcus pointing to a possible connexion with Rome, which was ruling Palestine. His family was well-to-do. Mark's mother, Mary, lived in Jerusalem in a large house that served as rallying point for the city's embattled little group of Christians. Some believe that it was this house Jesus chose for His Last Supper with the Twelve, and that the "goodman" referred to by the Lord in this connexion was Mark's father. Unquestionably, Mark grew up in an atmosphere vibrant with hopes and fears and the excitement of a new-born faith.

No wonder that the bright and personable lad was given an active role in the community. The Christian group in Antioch, a flourishing city on the Syrian Coast (now Turkey), had sent two emissaries with relief funds to the suffering breth­ren in Jerusalem. The messengers were Paul and Barnabas. While in Jerusalem, they probably lodged at the house of Mary, Barnabas' aunt.

When they set off on their first mission to the Gentiles, they took Mark along as their assistant. He shared the hardships of their trip and possibly helped with an occasional baptism or sermon. But when their mission arrived at Perga, on the coast of Asia Minor, Mark left his two companions and went home.

Scholars have tried to find a reason for this unexplained departure. Some think that it was a city boy's fear of the harsh, brigand-ridden mountain roads of Asia that led into the pagan depths of Galatia - the mission's goal. Or was he simply homesick for Jerusalem? Whatever the motive, Paul could not easily forget Mark's sudden turnabout. Later, the breach was healed. Paul forgave Mark, and even drew him back into his inner circle.

But the decisive influence in Mark's career was his close tie with Peter, Prince of Apostles. Their friendship may have formed when Mark was still a youngster in Jerusalem. The majestic figure of the fisherman must have made a profound impression on young Mark. Perhaps the older man instructed the boy in the new faith; it is even possible that he baptized Mark. Perhaps their paths crossed in Antioch where Peter was a leader of the Church, and the friendship deepened with their common work.

As Christianity turned its appeal from Palestine to the vast orbit of thr Gentile nations, it was logical licit Mark would join the fast-growing Christian community in Rome, the power centre of the Western world. We may assume that at some later date he was in Rome with Peter, who in all likelihood already played an influential role there and must have been glad to use the talents of his devoted friend. "Marcus my son," the grand old man affectionately called him at the end of his First Epistle.

"Mark wrote down carefully, but not in order, all that Peter remembered of the Lord's sayings and doings." So wrote Papias, bishop in Asia Minor, a generation after Peter's death. For Jesus of Nazareth had left no writings. The epic story of His life and death had been passed on by word of mouth. As eyewitnesses of those events were disappearing and as new, eager converts kept asking for more details, the need for a fixed record became pressing.

Whether one or two sketchy texts existed before Mark produced his Gospel remains a much-debated question. Matthew and Luke, while drawing overwhelmingly on Mark's original, seem to have used some other common source, lost to posterity. Majority opinion holds that Mark was the first writer to compose an account of the Lord's earthly days and that he based his work, for the most part, on eye­witness stories and live tradition. And we may well assume that his prime source was Peter, a leading member of Christ's inner circle from the early days in Galilee.

Mark was approaching 50 when, about A.D. 65, he wrote the 'Evangelion', the Good News, from which our own word Gospel, or "good tidings," is derived. Writing in Greek, then the common language of the eastern Mediterranean, Mark tends to use coarse phrases and expressions. Some scholars have discerned, behind the text, an author who wrote in Greek but thought in Aramaic, the mother tongue of Christ and the Apostles.

This Gospel is no history book, nor is it a biography of Jesus. Mark tells of the "Son of Man," whose deeds and suffering proved Him the Son of God. We look in vain for the Lord's Prayer or the Sermon on the Mount. Mark gives us but eight parables - against Matthew's 20 and Luke's 29 - and only one long sermon. The emphasis throughout his Gospel is on action. The narrative comes up like thunder, with the appearance of the Lord before the Baptist, and rolls on like a river to Christ's suffering and Resurrection.

Mark's breathless style speeds it along: "And they watched Him ... And He goes up ... And straight­way . . . And immediately . . . And forthwith . . ." In keeping with the oral tradition of the primitive church, Mark often switches to the present tense: "And they compel one Simon ... to bear His cross. And they bring Him unto the place Golgotha."

In the 16 crowded chapters of Mark's Gospel we follow Jesus' wanderings through Galilee, see Him work miracles, watch Him enter Jerusalem, and witness the momentous climax. Mark makes it plain that Jesus' ministry is one tremendous battle against overwhelming odds. We, the spectators, watch with bated breath as He moves to His inevitable fate. The story ends, abruptly and mysteriously, with the empty tomb: "And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid."

Many vivid details make us feel that "we are there." We tremble for the storm-tossed and sinking ship while Christ is in die stern, "asleep on a pillow." When Jesus raises the 12-year-old girl from die dead, we hear Him use his native Aramaic: "Talitha cumi—Damsel, I say unto thee, arise." Here and there, the jewel flash of poetry illuminates the text: "And He was transfigured before them. And His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller [bleacher] on earth can white them."

Mark never minces words. Time and again, he tells us that the Twelve were too obtuse to understand the meaning of their Lord's Messiahship. "Having eyes, see ye not?" He asks them. "How is it that ye do not understand?" They squabble among themselves who should be "the chiefest." Peter himself "rebukes" the Lord when He announces His inevitable suffering, and Christ tells him, "Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God."

Here is humanity - raw, unadorned and true. Here, also, is the stuff of persevering faith. Mark wrote his Gospel under Nero, the Roman emperor notorious for his bloody persecutions of the followers of Christ. His readers might, at any moment, be rounded up as enemies of the state, to be imprisoned, tortured or thrown to the wild beasts in Nero's circus.

When read in this light, Mark's Gospel may be called a Manual for Martyrs. Had Christ not told His men they would have to drain the cup of which He had drunk Himself? "Take heed... they shall deliver you up to councils; and ... ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake." It was such words that those brave men and women must have remembered in their final agony, with the promise: "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."

Thus, there emerges an author of great faith and strength. A manly vigour manifests itself in every verse. His courage to proclaim the truth as it had been revealed to him blends with his warm humanity to form the image of a truly apostolic figure.

Mark's Gospel, copied by pious hands, was circulated throughout the Mediterranean world, and was accepted as authoritative by all Christians. Among its avid readers were the Apostle Matthew and the Gentile Luke, both of whom must have found the book in the Near East. Of Mark's 661 authentic verses, 630 reappear, with or without variations, in their Gospels. It is less certain whether John read Mark. By the end of the second century, the elders of the Church united the four books, together with Paul's 13 Letters and the Acts of the Apostles, into a single volume that was accorded equal status with the sacred scriptures. Thus, the New Testament was born.

We have no reliable record of Mark's later life. According to some early Christian writers, he made his way to Alexandria in Egypt, where he served as bishop of the Christian Church, and is believed to have died a martyr.

In 828, two seafarers from Venice seized Mark's remains and brought them back in triumph to their home port. Mark was proclaimed the city's patron saint and a church was built to house his relics. As centuries went by, this church grew more beautiful and resplendent in gold and marble. Today, St. Mark's Cathedral, with its lofty cupolas and glittering mosaic, remains one of the world's great tourist landmarks, and an unrivalled monument of Christian art. And although the "Republic of St. Mark" has long passed into history, the Winged Lion, Mark's time-honoured symbol, is the official emblem of the sea-born city, Venice.

Mark himself is present, to this day, in every house where there is a Bible. Like his fellow Evangelists, he modestly lets the text of his "Good News" speak for itself. Yet, while the author might prefer the shades of anonymity to the bright light of fame, our knowledge of the man behind the Gospel contributes to the joy of reading it!

THIS WONDERFUL SYNOPSIS OF ST. MARK'S DELIGHTFUL AND SPELL-BINDING WRITINGS OF THE EARTHLY DAYS OF JESUS CHRIST WAS COMPILED, ON THE WHOLE, BY EARNEST HAUSER - I THANK GOD FOR THE INSPIRATION GRANTED FOR THIS HISTORY DIVINE - I FOUND IT MOST ENLIGHTENING AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING; AND TRUST YOU DO TOO! - ALL GLORY AND HONOUR TO GOD FOR GIVING US THE FREE CHOICE TO PEEL OPEN OUR EYES AND EQUIP US IN HIS SERVICE TO SAVE THE WORLD AT LARGE - Stafford (",)

Loving Departure...

She jumped up as soon as she saw the surgeon come out of the operating room. She said: "How is my little boy? Is he going to be all right? When can I see him?" The surgeon said, "I'm sorry. We did all we could, but your boy didn't make it." Sally said, "Why do little children get cancer? Doesn't God care any more? Where were you, God, when my son needed you?" The surgeon asked, "Would you like some time alone with your son? One of the nurses will be out in a few minutes, before he's transported to the university."


Sally asked the nurse to stay with her while she said good bye to her son.  She ran her fingers lovingly through his thick red curly hair. "Would you like a lock of his hair?" the nurse asked.Sally nodded yes. The nurse cut a lock of the boy's hair, put it in a plastic bag and handed it to Sally. The mother said, "It was Jimmy's idea to donate his body to the University for Study.  He said it might help somebody else. "I said no at first, but Jimmy said, 'Mom, I won't be using it after I die.  Maybe it will help some other little boy spend one more day with his Mom." She went on, "My Jimmy had a heart of gold.  Always thinking of someone else. Always wanting to help others if he could."

Sally walked out of Children's Mercy Hospital for the last time, after spending most of the last six months there. She put the bag with Jimmy's belongings on the seat beside her in the car. The drive home was difficult.  It was even harder to enter the empty house. She carried Jimmy's belongings, and the plastic bag with the lock of his hair to her son's room. She started placing the model cars and other personal things back in his room exactly where he had always kept them. She laid down across his bed and, hugging his pillow, cried herself to sleep. It was around midnight when Sally awoke. Laying beside her on the bed was a folded letter.

The letter said: 

"Dear Mom, I know you're going to miss me; but don't think that I will ever forget you, or stop loving you, just 'cause I'm not around to say "I Love You". I will always love you, Mom, even more with each day. Someday we will see each other again.

Until then, if you want to adopt a little boy so you won't be so lonely, that's okay with me. He can have my room and old stuff to play with. But, if you decide to get a girl instead, she probably wouldn't like the same things us boys do. You'll have to buy her dolls and stuff girls like, you know. Don't be sad thinking about me. This really is a neat place. Grandma and Grandpa met me as soon as I got here and showed me around some, but it will take a long time to see everything.

The angels are so cool. I love to watch them fly.  And, you know what? Jesus doesn't look like any of his pictures. Yet, when I saw Him, I knew it was Him. Jesus himself took me to see GOD! And guess what, Mom? I got to sit on God's knee and talk to Him, like I was somebody important.
That's when I told Him that I wanted to write you a letter, to tell you good bye and everything.  But I already knew that wasn't allowed.  Well, you know what Mom?  God handed me some paper and His own personal pen to write you this letter. I think Gabriel is the name of the angel who is going to drop this letter off to you.

God said for me to give you the answer to one of the questions you asked Him 'Where was He when I needed him?' God said He was in the same place with me, as when His son Jesus was on the cross. He was right there, as He always is with all His children. Oh, by the way, Mom, no one else can see what I've written except you.  To everyone else this is just a blank piece of paper. Isn't that cool?  I have to give God His pen back now. He needs it to write some more names in the Book of Life. Tonight I get to sit at the table with Jesus for supper. I'm sure the food will be great!

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I don't hurt anymore. The cancer is all gone. I'm glad because I couldn't stand that pain anymore and God couldn't stand to see me hurt so much, either. That's when He sent The Angel of Mercy to come get me.  The Angel said I was a Special Delivery! How about that?

Signed with Love from God, Jesus & Me. (Let's see Satan stop this one.)

“I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I have set my heart on your laws.” -Psalm 119:30

To My Parents - Malcolm and Edna

I finally understand and appreciate the important role that you have played in my life. I guess part of the maturing process is realizing how the discipline and teaching at a young age shape and mould one’s future. Politeness, confidence, respect and love for God, others and myself are treasured gifts I developed primarily because of my upbringing. Each time I see this I thank God for a mother and father who had the foresight and love, and most of all the patience, to instill these ideals in me.

The more independent I become; and the further away I am from you; the more I stumble and forget to remember that guidance; the more I depend upon what you have taught me. The more thankful I am.

This doesn’t mean I know everything. There is so much more I still need to learn; and I don’t think that will ever end.

Instead of constantly receiving, I feel that I want to give something back, and that is the satisfaction of you knowing how successful all your efforts were. To make you proud is just as important as my own success.

I love you. ~ Stafford

The quality of everything we do: our physical actions, our verbal actions, and even our mental actions, depends on our motivation. That's why it's important for us to examine our motivation in our day to day life. If we cultivate respect for others and our motivation is sincere, if we develop a genuine concern for others’ well-being, then all our actions will be positive. - DL

“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” -Colossians 4:5-6

Newborn facts...

This small, squirming object is a newborn baby. One of the thousands born daily, he resembles every other newborn. Yet he deserves attention, for there never has been and never will be another baby exactly like him. He is a brand-new person, different from either of, his parents and something other than a blend of both. He is unique.

Biologically, however, newborn babies do have common characteristics: He looks top-heavy, and is. His head is remarkably large - almost one quarter the length of his entire body. Most of his weight is concentrated in this big head and in the other disproportionately large part of his body, his abdomen. The reason for the latter is his relatively large liver, which has been storing iron for the next few months when there will not be enough of it in his diet.

The baby’s arms and legs are ridiculously short. Its bones, composed mainly of cartilage, are soft and almost rubbery. Its backbone is so elastic that, if the infant were put in traction, it could be stretched out another couple of centimetres. Its wrist-bones are not even formed. There is an open spot in the skull called the fontanelle, but it is covered by an extremely tough membrane which protects the brain. Its muscles are poorly developed; they haven’t been used much, and are soft and flabby - a condition which the baby sets out to rectify almost immediately by doing an extraordinary amount of squirming.

Its eyes are blue-grey, no matter what colour they are going to be. They will not acquire their individual pigmentation for another 90 days or longer. The baby’s temperature at birth is slightly higher than normal, and since it’s naked and wet, and since evaporation produces sudden chilling, the baby must be swathed in blankets almost immediately in order to survive. A human baby is, in fact, the most helpless of all newborn creatures.

Yet this baby is considerably tougher than it appears. It has already lived through a good deal. The Chinese system of counting age gives a baby credit at birth for having lived a full year. It considers the nine months of pre-natal life as equivalent to any subsequent 12, and certainly they were as eventful. None of the changes in store for the newborn quite compares with the drama of his development from a single fertilized cell to a well-organized 200,000-million cell individual.

That is the main thing to understand about the baby’s birth: it is not an abrupt beginning. Its heart has been beating, or instance, for more than eight months. The general form and structure of its body took shape some six and a half months ago. After five months of development the baby weighed only half a kilogram, but by then it possessed all the 12,000 million or more nerve cells that make up the human nervous system. The baby could wiggle, stretch, flex its arms and legs, and move its head.

Except for crying, yawning and sneezing, which it can perform for the first time today, the baby has been practising this entire repertoire for months - sometimes with marked vigour, of this its care-giver / mother is well aware. Even though the baby has never breathed air before, its chest has been moving in motions very similar to breathing for the past four months. If the baby is sucking its thumb today, it is probably not for the first time - many babies suck their thumbs before birth. As a result, the baby’s sucking ability is almost always first-rate when it is born.

The newborn baby has to cry within a minute or two after delivery in order to start breathing air. This cry is an emergency gasp, a bellows-like action of its diaphragm which sucks air into its lungs and drives the fluids out of its nose and throat. The noise the baby makes is entirely incidental; its vocal chords just happen to be there, and the air rushing past them sets them in motion.

Before birth, the oxygen it needed reached the baby through its umbilical cord. This was connected to that amazing filtering device, the placenta, which allowed oxygen - together with other things, including glucose, calcium, iron, fatty acids, salt and hormones - to pass by osmosis from its mother’s blood stream into its own and at the same time kept its blood and the mother’s from mixing.

At the moment he was born his blood began following a new route: a bypass in its heart, which would never be needed again, started to close and sent its blood pulsing into its lungs. And the first crying gasp, bringing air into its lungs for the first time, brought oxygen to the place where its blood could pick it up.

From its second breath on, the baby’s breathing was under the control of its brain’s respiratory centre. The baby had changed, in a matter of seconds, from an aquatic to an aerific environment. This awe-inspiring moment may be the greatest marvel of human birth.

Now, having established breathing with its first cry, the baby is prepared to cry for a host of other reasons - hunger, followed closely by wet a wet bottom, being the two main ones. Then, as the baby learns that crying brings help, it will start to develop a vocabulary of shrieks, whines and grunts, which its mother / care-giver soon understands, even if no one else does.

Besides crying, the baby can grimace, smile and scowl. But its expressions only seem to have meaning. They are attributable to its rapidly adjusting nervous system; and is simply trying on various faces for size rather than portraying emotion.

The baby also has a number of reflex reactions to discomfort or pain. It can shiver. If it is pinched it will draw away. Put a baby face down and it will turn its head to one side so that it can continue to breathe. The newborn hates to have its head held still or its hands held against its sides; in either case it will struggle with surprising violence to work itself free.

The baby’s strength on such occasions is comparable to its extraordinary grasping ability. Its grip is so strong that if a rod is put into its hand it will grasp it and hold on while it is lifted right off its bed. It may hang from it with a one-hand grasp for as long as 30 seconds. This grasp is a pure reflex; it will disappear in a few months when the baby begins to co-ordinate its hand movements with what it sees.

A newborn can blink its eyes, although it doesn’t do so until its eyeball is actually touched. It will take time for this protective reflex to develop to the point of making it blink, as grown-ups do, when somebody makes a threatening motion. Perceiving light is about the best its eyes can do, although within 60 days it will be able to recognize a number of familiar objects.

Probably the first sensations the baby feels, however vaguely, have to do with its sense of touch. But it is the baby’s skin that is sensitive rather than its fingertips. When, after a few weeks, it begins to explore the world around and surrounds, it will start by feeling things with the palms of its hands, not its fingers. As a more reliable method, the baby will try to taste things, for of its five senses taste is the best developed. While it may not distinguish clearly among sweet, sour, salt and bitter, the baby reacts to them – it likes them or it doesn’t - about as emphatically as an adult.

But this newborn baby amounts to much more than all these physical facts. It brings something unique into the world: its heredity; present physically in every cell of its small body in the form of genes. These genes are its inborn endowment, not only from its parents but from all its ancestors back through history. They have determined not only its sex, its size and how much its nose today looks like its mother’s, but they have directed the baby’s development from a single cell - a cell startlingly similar to the first cell of every other creature - into a human being rather than, say, a dog.

Above all, they have established the baby’s unique personality. No matter what its future environmental influences may be, it is the only person in the whole world with exactly this set of genes.

But the most impressive and accurate way of looking at this newborn baby is to consider it as a being in the midst of an almost incomprehensibly rapid process of growth. The baby’s capacity for development is unparalleled. For most of the coming year its rate of learning will be slightly inferior to that of a baby chimpanzee. From then on, however, the contest is over. After age one it will race ahead into a realm where no other creature can follow. Its power to perceive and to act will go on growing for decades, and its power to understand will increase until the day it dies. At the pinnacle of its capabilities its brain will be able not only to assimilate an infinite variety of ideas but to arrange them in patterns and draw conclusions and proceed, perhaps, towards answering the greatest of all questions: “What is Man?”

Oh, how wondrous – GOD is GREAT – indeed awesome! ~Stafford

You can lean on me

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise,walk with the knowledge that you are never alone."-Audrey Hepburn

This is for that little child with no father

For that man that doesn't have a place to stay

For that little boy living with AIDS

Can I tell you a story, tell you a story

You can lean on me

There's a man (oh yes)

Standing on the corner

He has no home

He has no food

And his blue skies are gone (yes it is)

Can't you hear him crying' out

And there's a girl

Searching for a father and a friend

Praying that the storm someday will end

But instead of walking away

Open up your heart and say

I am here

You don't have to worry

I can see...

I can see your tears

I'll be there in a hurry when you call

Yes I will

Friends are there to catch you when you fall

Here's my shoulder

Here's my shoulder, you can lean on me

Oh, there's a child

Who is sick and begging to be free

But there is no cure for his disease

He looks up to his mother and

As she holds his hand

Praying' that someday

The sun will shine again

And the pain?

And the pain will end

Pain will end....Come on

I am here

You don't have to worry

I can see your tears

I'll be there in a hurry when you call

Friends are there to catch you when you fall

I'm your friend and I'll catch you when, when, when you fall

Here's my shoulder, you can lean on me

Tell me, how can I, how can I love Jesus

When I've never seen His face

I see you dying

And I turn and walk away

So hold my hand

Let me take you to a friend of mine

He's waiting just to ease your troubled mind

He loves you more than you'll ever know

'Stead of walking away

Open up

Open up your heart and say

Come on

I am here

You don't have to worry

I can see your tears

I'll be there in a hurry when you call

Alleluia

When you call, friends will be there to catch you when, catch you when you fall

Here's my shoulder, you can lean on me

Thank you Jesus

Here's my shoulder, you can lean on me

Here's my shoulder, you can lean on me

You can lean on me

You're my friend but you're also my brother

Here's my shoulder, you can lean on me...

Every night we go to bed, we have no assurance to wake up the next morning but still we have plans for tomorrow. THATS HOPE.

 May God be Above you - For blessings.

 Below you - For support. 

Before you - For guidance. 

Behind you - For protection. 

Beside you - For comfort. 

Inside you - For sustainance. 

Amen, stay blessed!!!

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” -Romans 8:38-39

Praying that you get this in time...

...it as an unlimited warranty that you possess on something precious that I know and feel you still hold dear, and would if you could act upon. Under this guarantee be perfectly patient and peacefully content to wait, completely trusting in God’s guidance and wisdom in your and my life ahead. - SB

Guess the shoe still fits...

Where does one draw the line? How much happiness do we need to give up, who do we have to forsake, how many do we have to disappoint, how many sacrifices do we have to make, how much self-inflicted grief do we have to pile on ourselves,  how much precious time do we have to let waste?

Who determines the choices and decisions we take and their worthiness; for our wretched peace of mind to be appeased? How can we be sure the path decided upon holds divine appliance?

Sure we say, 'I've prayed about it', and 'God has ordained my actions' - how presumptuous of us to profess we fully understand the 'Aye' and 'Nay' of the Father without even fully understanding ourselves. How self-indulgent and misguided...

Much of the aforesaid builds a precinct in the mind for the following:

A desire to be well thought of makes people reluctant to say 'no' to anyone regarding anything. We should cultivate an ability to say 'no' to activities for which we have no time, no talent, and in which we have no interest or real concern. If we learn to say 'no' to many things, then we will be able to say 'yes' to things that matter most.

But rather we persevere with our short-sighted, blinkered aspirations of 'doing the right thing', no matter what the consequences may hold; because, in our limited understanding of ourselves and the will of God; we vindicate ourselves and wallow in the shallowness of false relief that we have thrown off the shackles of guilt and man's narrow-minded reproaches.

'From the sublime to the ridiculous', it is said, 'takes but one step'. How callously we embark upon and take this step, without fully exploring due diligence, without true guided direction, without challenging the status quo, without due consideration of the ensuing battle ahead. Relying solely on the convictions of our own limited and flawed ideals and hardened hearts; whilst unbeknown, still indeed an inherent and real result of life's struggles.

We usually take this rash path to 'make up' to those we feel we have grievously harmed or hurt, or caused unnecessary burdens to be placed upon; and carried further we do it in penance of our past self-destructive behaviour; which ironically we are now sub-consciously perpetuating...

If one really wants, or needs, to show and prove to our loving Lord and Saviour a pure and repentant heart, think about it, find a different alleviation. This self flagellation is tantamount to suicide, a mortal sin, reserved for the unsaved and hopeless; not for the Children of God. ~ Stafford

A bit of fame or notoriety do funny things to people. They start to think that anything they want is possible and even probable. They get the peculiar notion that they are creatures of special grace, and that the whole purpose of each day's sunrise is to warm them. Sometimes, for a while, it even works out for them, and they read in this run of good fortune an entire lifetime's destiny, rather than a single extraordinary chapter - Adler and Slavitt

A sporting chance...

I believe it is only fair to give ample warning to one's opponents and ill-wishers; when you become aware that they have embarked upon a path, decision or action bound to their ultimate demise. After all, it is the Godly thing to do. The misguided together with the wicked are in the end their own worse enemies and cause their own downfall.

Now why should I not just sit back and relish the plight of such wretched beings?

That is not the way I was brought up. In our home, we were taught to forgive immediately; forgetting was however all up to you. If you felt OK living in fear and dread of what might or maybe repeated by that entity upon you, was a personal matter between your peace (God's grace over you life) and the trappings, ego and arrogant vanity of your lifestyle and troubled mind - the twisted entanglement of misnomers that govern your being and all those it effects through and around you.

It is certainly not the ground my relationship and lifestyle in God teaches me to embrace. I would be remiss in not issuing a warning shot to all parties; direct, peripheral or complicit; busy fervently monitoring, beckoning and promoting the expectation of a fall from grace of another. You are entering a world of uncanny misfortune and endless dilemmas that will haunt you until you fall down, humble yourself, and beg relief. Not from me, or any other mortal; but from our Protector and Saviour.

I am compelled by my convictions to offer you this forbode as you seek to trample on any person.
Let us call this one of my testominies...

All through my almost 50 years on this earth I have been the recipient of divine guidance and miraculous good luck (as secular deviants and scorning scoffers would term it). The guidance was usually in the form of my parents (my late father more specifically) and other unique individuals (Guardian Angels) who inspire and show me the righteous way to do, allow and accept. (Understanding is over-rated, any enlightened true Follower would know that everything has a reason) - even a 'persecution' inflicted on me, has its reason - and I'm elated to say that I rarely understand it; but I know its end result will further my education of its initial absurdity; as well as that of its purpertrators - ironic - and even exciting...

When a Child of God is attacked by slander and his entire being is judged by his moments of unworthy passion and uncharacteristic behaviour, at these times I have noticed how I become the recipient of some real awesome divine favour. I simply hand it over into God's hands and He does the rest - he actually instructs me to sit back and watch.

It is indeed sad that at times I have to allow even those close to my heart to suffer this divine wrath that they have brought on themselves. It pains me to see the turmoil and grief they have to endure and come to terms with as their lives, self-worth, material gains and fickle, inflated status is trampled into the ground like so much dirt. How they begin to fail in all they pursue, how they are made to prosper; only to have that accomplshment and so much more ripped out from under and within - and this also applies to those who championed them on their woeful path and sadly even loved-ones have to bear the brunt of their sinful actions. If you are amongst these you are jointly liable to experience very many hards times - just watch; and I pray you be extremely cognisant of the signs that will manifest very soon.

No one has the power to stop the inflictions that follow - it is ordained. We serve a jealous and almighty God who will not stand idle while His own are accused, ridiculed and mistreated for longer than they can endure. He will and has stepped in - I can relate horror stories (many personal) that bear witness to His promise to love and keep His nearest and dearest in top form as they prepare themselves for an eternity with him. So many stories of how He smites those who overstep their self-imposed earthly duties, clutter themselves with self-importance, and ignore His purposes - (some even feign; and fool themselves into believing that they are doing His will - these are the worst of the lot, for their hearts are black and their souls are dead and primed for damnation)

Be warned of the Divine Favour that exists in these words... You will have only yourself to blame.  I still love you all and implore you to consider very carefully the road and box you deem necessary to open. Lord have mercy ~ Stafford

I often said you didn't exist 

Because my eyes wouldn't see

I may have given up on you Lord

But you never gave up on me 

When troubles happened in my life 

I would hang my head and cry

You let these things happen to me 

And at times I wondered why 

I was quick to say if there was a GOD

He wouldn't let these happen to me 

I may have given up on you Lord 

But you never gave up on Me 

At many times during my life 

When the troubles were hard to bear

I forgot the teachings of my youth

And said you were not there

I've heard your word again dear Lord

And my eyes they finally see

I thank you for every day of my life 

That you never gave up on me .

Between a Bullet and a Target

Citizen Cope - between a Bullet and a Target - YouTube

What are the implications of deliberately putting oneself in danger's way? Is it possible to ask for divine intervention in these cases? I guess if it is for a good cause, the hand of God should protect one from the real physical harm that may befall you. But should we rely or expect His protection?

We have been given freewill. We have also been blessed with common sense and surely life experience plays a part when committing body and limb to excesses. 'Better love has no man, than to lay down his life for another (friend)' - does it go without saying that such a man is promised a place in Heaven. Many radicals believe this; but can the true Believer gain comfort from this perceived promise?

You see therein lies the conflict to action. 'Love yourself..', means keeping yourself safe and not open to harm. Physical and otherwise. This journey of life has so many lessons and trials. It's difficult; and all the more reason to find the answers as soon as you can. Time is limited and we all get only so much of it - use your time wisely; it is truly the only resource that only exists on earth. Eternity is timeless...




So be careful about setting yourself up for a fall when you deliberately place yourself 'between a bullet and a target' - it could decide your destiny ~ SB

Mr.Dali Lamas

Another sister's shootin' heroin tomorrow

Amputees in Freetown

Sierra Leone's

The church wasnt honest

The state put the youth in a harness

Creatin' hostility among us

Teacher said no college

Still the kid's gotta get a check with a couple commas

People wanna bomb us

More people gotta scatter and run rom us

You can blame it on Zeus and Apollo and Adonis

But what you've done here

Is put yourself between a bullet and a target

And it won't be long before

You're pulling yourself away

But what you've done here

Is put yourself between a bullet and a target

And it won't be long before

You're pulling yourself away

I've been knowing her for years

I've been seeing her for years she got dark, dark wavy hair

With a voice like she just don't care

She got a skirt with a halter top

She's got a dad who nevr gave enough

She drink a beer with a proper shot

She got knocked up in a pickup truck

But she got engaged when she was nineteen

To this dude who was acting insane

Has a .45 that he always cleaned

Said one day one day one too many days

Now she ducked and she ran away

Never to be heard from, never to be seen

I check the cover of a magazine

I'm just wondering how, just wondering how

But what you've done here

Is put yourself between a bullet and a target

And it won't be long before

You're pulling yourself away

“Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”” -Mark 9:35