Ben Stein’s Christmas Message
I get ton’s of forwards a day, I’m rarely guilted into forwarding anything, mostly because I know it’s a spammers dream to receive one of these email’s all full of so many addy’s I post here to share instead.
I wish I could find the youtube video.
Romans 8:18 NIV
I consider that our present
sufferings are not worth comparing
with the glory that will be
revealed in us.
This is not a joke, but a very serious and interesting read, PLEASE don’t delete it before you read the entire thing, and I hope you will pass it on.
Remarks from CBS Sunday Morning (everyone should read!)
I only hope we find God again before it is too late!!
The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning
Commentary.
My confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees .. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel d iscriminated against. That’s what they are: Christmas trees.
It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu .. If people want a crèche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christ ians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, p eriod. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. &nb sp;I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: ;This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.
Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her ‘How could God let something like this happen?’ (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. & nbsp;She said, ‘I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?’
In light of recent events… terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn’t want p rayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible i n school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave bec ause their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he’s talking about. And we said OK.
Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with ‘WE REAP WHAT W E SOW.’
Funny how simple it is for peopl e to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages reg arding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing yet?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on
your add ress list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they
will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what Go d thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it… no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.
My Bes t Regards, Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein
A poem about reincarnation
Reincarnation
”What does Reincarnation mean?”
A cowpoke asked his friend.
His pal replied, “It happens when
Yer life has reached its end.
They comb yer hair, and warsh yer neck,
And clean yer fingernails,
And lay you in a padded box
Away from life’s travails.”
”The box and you goes in a hole,
That’s been dug into the ground.
Reincarnation starts in when
Yore planted ‘neath a mound.
Them clods melt down, just like yer box,
And you who is inside.
And then yore just beginnin’ on
Yer transformation ride.”
”In a while, the grass’ll grow
Upon yer rendered mound.
Till some day on yer moldered grave
A lonely flower is found.
And say a hoss should wander by
And graze upon this flower
That once wuz you, but now’s become
Yer vegetative bower.”
”The posy that the hoss done ate
Up, with his other feed,
Makes bone, and fat, and muscle
Essential to the steed,
But some is left that he can’t use
And so it passes through,
And finally lays upon the ground
This thing, that once wuz you.”
”Then say, by chance, I wanders by
And sees this upon the ground,
And I ponders, and I wonders at,
This object that I found.
I thinks of reincarnation,
Of life and death, and such,
And come away concludin’: ‘Slim,
You ain’t changed, all that much.’”
© Wallace McRae
My Thanks
This is a little something that I wrote to read at Church today, It went a little long so I just grabbed the points and threw them out, here is the complete version.
When Leeland asked me to give my testimony, my response was, I’ll have to think about it. Then, a few days later, when he reminded me that he was counting on me to get up here today and speak for a few minutes. I muttered a few things under my breath, some that I choose not to repeat in a place of worship, But then, after that, my mind started rolling, I, trying to understand, why was it important for me to speak? Why me?
Then it came to me, like a little whisper, it sounded something like “psst hey dummy, your Mother, Father, and most of your friends are police officers. You work for police officers. Who else would he ask?
For those who don’t know, my father gave the sate of Missouri 20+ years of his early life, as an Agent. He broke his back on the job 3 times, dislocated his shoulders in an effort to save a family in a flood. Was involved in three shootouts, and fought dozens of forest fires. When I was 8 years old I remember him being rushed to the hospitable because it hurt for him to breath. The Dr’s told my Dad that he could no longer work on the street, it would eventually kill him. He then returned to collage and received his Masters in public administration, and when I was 13 years old we moved to south east Georgia where he had taken the Job as Chief of Police in a small town. He served the rest of his career there trying to build and maintain a Police Department in one of the fastest growing areas in the country. The stress of the job finally got the better of him in 2003 and he retired early. My father enjoyed 5 years of retirement before he was put to rest in January of 2008.
My Mother, began her career in Law enforcement as a dispatcher in the small county where I grew up in Missouri, I remember spending many nights in the jail with her, since they both worked and couldn’t afford a sitter for me, I would spend my after school hours there with my Mom at the dispatch console, at the county jail, It was my job to heat up microwave dinners for the 2 or 3 inmates that we had there. When we moved to Georgia my Mom began work at the submarine base in the 911 center, as a dispatcher. She then became a certified officer herself. After my Dad’s retirement my mother continued her law enforcement career as a Marshall for federal court in Missouri. Where she still serves today.
I myself, at the age of 17 Broke out of the nest and decided to do my own thing, everyone expected me to go into law enforcement, except my Dad, and because that was what everyone expected I did quite the opposite.
I wandered from one job to the next found myself working with computers, strictly by chance, and in an effort to get out of a small town where everyone knew me I moved to Knoxville. At the age of 28 I managed to fall backwards into a technology position at the Sheriff’s office, here in Knox county.
I remember the day I called my dad and told him that I had started working for the Sheriff. His response was “Son, I thought I taught you better than that. Now why would you want to work there?”
I had been doing quite well in what my dad referred to as “the real world”, and he didn’t understand why I would want to put up with the politics, and headaches of government work.
“I miss them dad,” I said, “I miss knowing and working with the police,”
“Well son,” he said, “I guess it’s in your blood, you ran away for ten years, but you have came back.”
Over the next few months I found myself in the whirlwind of gossip and power plays, second guessing, and high school horseplay, that comes along with, what I like to call, “The joy of public safety”.
And I felt right at home.
Who can appreciate a police officer more than one who was raised by 2 of them?
Who knows them better than someone who works with them day and night?
I can say with most certainty that I have learned 95% of everything I know from a Police officer.
And the most important lesson that that an officer has taught me thus far is, that I am most defiantly, NOT a police officer.
See in order to be an Officer you have to be, a little off.
You have to be the kind of person that enjoys working with people. You know, the kind of people that beat their wives, that hurt and neglect their kids, and the ones that want you to raise their kids for them, and the kind of people that have no respect for their fellow man. And you have to treat these people, with dignity and respect, as you put them into the back seat of your car. The car that you, take very good care of, and spend most of your waking hours, this vehicle is your office, your second home. The car that they stink up, and try to destroy, on the way to intake.
These are people that try to bite you, spit in your face, call you every name and or word, that isn’t mentioned in polite company. And you, as an officer, are expected to call them sir or ma’am, and treat them better than they treat their own loved ones.
You are the person, who, deals with everyone on the very worse day of their life. Think about it, Have you ever had a really good day and thought “I’m gonna call 911. I want to have an officer come out to my place because this has just been a wonderful day. I just hope he can be part of it!”
No, I don’t think there are many calls to 911, from people requesting an officer to swing buy and have a cup of coffee, or just to say thanks.
People call 911 after they have been violated, hurt, robbed, assaulted, or because their neighbor’s dog barks at them. A police officer goes from one bad day to the next. He listens, does some paperwork, listens some more, gives some free advise that they know will no be taken, and then moves on to the next nightmare.
Then the next day, this officer gets the joy of finding out that he has to answer to the complaints that these people made on him. That they felt that he didn’t care, or they feel that she talked down to them, or his/her tone wasn’t very polite. A police officer is the kind of person that will, in the face of all this adversity, put his uniform on that next day, and be the first on the scene when any of these same people, that complained on him before, needs him the most. Sometimes I wonder if when Jesus said to, turn the other cheek, maybe he was looking over at the roman centurions, the peace makers of the day.
To be an officer you have to know the law like a lawyer, be an expert driver, know the streets like the back of your hand, know the human body like a doctor, know the mind of man like a psychologist, be educated on the latest weapons, and fight like a warrior. Not only this but he also knows that he will face ridicule and second guessing at every turn, and nothing, and I mean nothing, that he does will be the right thing in the eyes of everyone else. Everyone else, who, have never worked a shift or ran beat, who, have no idea what it takes to do the job, or the frustrations that follow.
An officer will have his job and life threatened daily, and will be sued many times in his or her career.
Police Officers are people that leave their home every day with full knowledge, that they may not come back home.
They are the people that are running in, when everyone else is trying to get out.
I am not one of these people, But I love and respect everyone of them.
I thank God for blessing me with a life filled with Police officers, for giving me the opportunity to be involved with so many wonderful, patient, and gracious people.
In closing I’d like to offer you an analogy that was giving to me by an good friend, and an officer. It goes something like this:
You have sheep, Wolves, and sheep dogs.
The sheep dogs are here to protect the sheep from the wolves, and keep the sheep close to the shepherd.
The sheep don’t understand the sheep dog’s, but need them, and they respect them.
The wolves hate the sheep dogs, and will try whatever they can to get too the sheep, but the wolves fear the sheep dogs.
The Sheep dogs are loved by the good Shepherd, He alone understands them and appreciates their sacrifice, he is always there for the Sheep dog, and he will help the Sheep Dog in it’s time of need.
Now I would like to ask all of the officers in here today to please stand up.
You all deserve so much more appreciation, honor, and respect, than you will ever receive from the sheep.
Please accept my humble Thank you.
Give them a hand.
Perfect Timing
I just added the page Perfect Timing, it’s a bit ruff, please excuse any grammer or spelling erors, I plan to fix it up over the next month.
Disney World has turned thier back on God
I noticed how things have changed in the last 20 years, found it a bit disturbing, this is only one example of how Disney Worlds has turned their back on GOD.
I sent this to thier Contact US site.
Comment/
Complaint about epcot ride:
Why do you people think you need to rewrite history? Back in 1984 I rode the epcot sphere ride, about information and
I remember it stating plainly that Gutenberg invented the movable type in order to reproduce the Bible, which is correct, now it says he did it to reproduce information, This is misleading, why the need to removed the Bible? I understand that you do not want to offend people, but, this is simply an attempt to push God even further away. Good luck with that.
EW
This is Preston Carpenter, Please Pray for him
Preston has Chiari Malformation.
What is Chiari Malformation?
Chiari malformations (CMs) are structural defects in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance. When the indented bony space at the lower rear of the skull is smaller than normal, the cerebellum and brainstem can be pushed downward. The resulting pressure on the cerebellum can block the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (the liquid that surrounds and protects the brain and spinal cord) and can cause a range of symptoms including dizziness, muscle weakness, numbness, vision problems, headache, and problems with balance and coordination. There are three primary types of CM. The most common is Type I, which may not cause symptoms and is often found by accident during an examination for another condition. Type II (also called Arnold-Chiari malformation) is usually accompanied by a myelomeningocele-a form of spina bifida that occurs when the spinal canal and backbone do not close before birth, causing the spinal cord to protrude through an opening in the back. This can cause partial or complete paralysis below the spinal opening. Type III is the most serious form of CM, and causes severe neurological defects. Other conditions sometimes associated with CM include hydrocephalus, syringomyelia, and spinal curvature.
In short Preston Will be havening brain surgery soon. Please pray for him, his family, and his Doctors. Thank you.
Good Search
http://www.goodsearch.com/default.aspx
Search and Shop and money will goto your favorite Charity. Try it with Ride on St. Louis.