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Archives for February 2019

“A Love Song to God”:

February 1, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

The Above YouTube Music Video Expresses the Blog Post Message Below

My friend paraphrased Josh Groban’s song: “You Raise Me Up” into “A Love Song To God”.

My friend had a variety of  people read the lyrics & watch the music videos of “A Love Song to God” to serve as a “Focus Group” to determine their reactions: Their responses were universally “Transformative”, sometimes, tearfully.

They found my friend’s paraphrasing of a popular love song an equivalent modern day’s Psalm’s expression of a person’s love of God. (Consider “God” as the “Antecedent” to the word “You” in the following Lyrics.)

 

“When I am down, and my soul is so weary,                                                                    

When troubles come, and my heart burdens me,                                                                             

 I am still, and wait here in the silence.                                                                               

Until You come, and spend a while with me.

 

You’re the Majestic Creator, of power & wisdom                                                    

You’re the Loving Redeemer, of mercy & forgiveness,                                           

You’re the Holy Spirit, of peace & joy.

You raise me up, to all hat I can be –

 

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains.                                                               

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas.                                                                      

I am strong, when I am on Your shoulders.                                                               

You raise me up, to all that I can be –

 

You Love me “As IS”.

Your Mercy & Forgiveness is Sufficient.

Your Forgiveness is like the fragrance

That the violet sheds on the boot that crushed it.

 

So, No Sin, no matter how vile or frequent,

Can exceed Your Forgiveness, of the welcoming embrace,

Of the outstretched arms, of the Redemptive Cross:

“Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

 

There’s No Need to keep Commandments,

Do Good Deeds, or Know Scripture.

to earn God’s Love. We will do All of those things,

In the process of Loving God & Others.

 

Made in Your Image & likeness, 

As Children of God & Heirs to heaven,  

To love You, and others, as You love me,      

Is “What I Did for Love”.

 

“A Love Song to God” captures the rich, fullness of the Beauty & True Essence of God’s Love.

Perhaps, we can transform the “Love Song to God” into a Daily Occurrence of “Loving one another as Christ loves us.”

Then, we can sing a version of Josh Groban’s song “What I Did For Love”. in the YouTube Music Video Below:

Each of us would be a better person,

Our Family would be better off,

The World would be a better place,

If  our hearts sang the lyrics of  “A Love Song To God”,  every moment, of  every day.

“The Rest of the Story…about Transformation

February 1, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

The Above YouTube Music Video Captures the Selfishness of the First Half on My Friend’s Life

My friend left Law School to create and implement a 70-bed Residential Care Facility for recovering alcoholics. At age 23, he convinced County Welfare Officials that it was in the County’s best financial interest and congruent to their mission as a social service agency, to end the costly, ineffective system of Arrest/Court/Jail/Rehab/Release/Arrest etc. cycle-of-failure.

My friend owned a 37-unit building that was intended to be up-scale housing for students attending the nearby university. He converted that building into the “Transitional Care Facility” which housed 2 men in a spacious room, with a private bath (doubling his rental income). The facility also provided nutritious meals, professional counseling, daily AA meetings, Parole & Probation Officer contact, Job training, etc. The County paid for all of those services, along with a handsome salary to my friend, to manage the care facility programs.

That controlled, supportive environment was far more effective, and less costly than dumping the men after incarceration & rehab back on the street with a monthly voucher that could only afford a flop-house, and daily shots & beers at a nearby bar. Hence, resulting in the repetitious, expensive cycle of Arrest / Court / Jail / Rehab / Release / Arrest etc. The County gladly paid for “Transitional Care” services, which were fare less costly than the previous cycle of failure, and Fulfilled its Social Service Mission.

The project more than exceeded the projected savings. While some men relapsed, many were transformed into productive members of society. One man called my friend decades later to thank him. He said, “When I left the facility, I got a job as a counselor, married, bought a house, and have a family. I know of many other men that also flourished because of the “Transitional Care Facility”.

While grateful for that appreciative call, my friend felt conflicted. He knew that he saved the County money. He knew that he returned Dignity to some men’s lives. But that call was a painful reminder why he left Law School to create and implement that project. He did it for the money.

The extra rent and handsome salary paid for his 280 SL Mercedes Benz convertible. It paid for the spacious 6th floor luxury apartment, with hard wood floors and 10-foot ceilings, overlooking lake Michigan. It paid for the professionally furnished great room, with a baby-grand piano in the corner. It paid for dates with beautiful women to concerts & plays, and dinner at 5-star restaurants. It could buy anything, but peace for his soul.

That project was also his entry to subsequent executive management positions with public and private companies, alike. When married, those opportunities provided for the large home in a subdivision with a lake, pool, and tennis courts. They also provided for the Country Club, Vacations to 5-Star Resorts & Europe,and Cars & College for his Children.

That phone call was a painful reminder of his selfishness. That call reminded him of Emerson’s verse about “Success”: “To laugh often, and much. To earn the respect of intelligent people, and the affection of children. And to know that even one life breathed easier, because you have lived.” (Only his life breathed easier.) He recalled the wisdom of Solomon, who tasted all of life’s pleasures & treasures, and concluded, “Vanity. All is vanity.”

When my friend lost all his income and assets to thieving friends & foes, alike, he recalled the Biblical Book of Job: A good man, robbed of all his possessions by thieves, who killed his sons and burnt his barns. Job sat on a dung hill on the outskirts of town, with dogs licking the open sores on his body, while his wife & townspeople mocked him. After all of that, Job said two things: “God knows me. And, my Redeemer lives.”

Job’s awareness of what’s valuable is akin to St. Paul’s assessment of things vs. a relationship with God: “I consider everything so much rubbish, that I might gain Christ.” Likewise, Kipling advised his son, “If you can watch the things you’ve given your life to, broken, yet stoop, and build them up with worn out tools, you’re a man, my son.”

So, in the twilight of his life, my friend is attempting to make even one life breathe easier, by sharing his life experiences with me, to publish as posts in my FREE website: www.messagesfrommyfriend.com, under one of the  6 Categories: Family /Relationships / Culture / Joy & Loss / Inspiration / “True North”.

My Friend shares these things without pride or pity, but with genuine concern that they might help someone. Like in the blog post below:

“A Life-Changing Experience”, for $5 Bucks, at Mc D’s

A Mother’s Love for Her Son…Against All Odds

February 1, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

A Mother’s Love for Her Son…Against All Odds.

She had a hard luck life from her first breath outside the womb. Her father and mother abused her emotionally and physically in different ways, from her childhood into her teens, until the police arrested them. Her parents were found guilty of separate crimes, with different jail terms. She would never see them again.

The Above YouTube Music Video Expresses the Essence of this Blog Post Story

Social Services placed her in the first of several foster homes, from childhood to adulthood.The only difference in foster parent abuse from her biological parents was a matter of degree. The predictable theft and drug abuse resulted in her criminal record.

A child out of wedlock increased her burden. Of course, the father was a bum, who disappeared without providing any support, of any kind. Part-time, commission only jobs ended when the background checks were completed. The sun never came up tomorrow. She survived with a variety of roommates, churning the continuous stream of part-time jobs, and her relentless focus on her son.

Then, her last pair of foster parents provided the nurturing support and guidance, absent her entire life. Their stability encouraged her to enroll in an online college. Their love encouraged her to enroll in counselor courses that would help troubled youth. Her foster parents adopted her. Their influence helped expunge her criminal record, which resulted in her full-time employment, with full benefits.

The young woman also worked as a cleaning lady on Saturdays. My friend was one of her clients. He knew her whole story, but trusted her to clean his home. His trust was priceless, and she never betrayed him.

During a recent Saturday cleaning, she told my friend that a banker told her that she could qualify to buy a home, next year. Her own home, for her son. She never looked more radiant. Her smile, never wider. In the same breath, she told him that her doctor found a malignant tumor in her breast.  She had cancer. It could be surgically removed, and subsequently treated with chemo & radiation, resulting in full recovery.

She told my friend that she would have it cut off, if that would insure her ability to raise her son. She would sacrifice anything for her son. My friend was awestruck. When she finally escaped the horror of her childhood, when she finally had a future filled with hope & love, she is told that she has breast cancer.

Rather than react with anger and bitterness, she embraced the news with confidence and would do whatever was necessary, to provide a future for her son. My friend never witnessed such genuine unselfish love in anyone, ever. There was never a hint of fear or remorse of the immense pain that she would endure. There was only hope and confidence that she and her son had a bright future.

The word confidence comes from 2 Latin words: “Cum Fide” – with faith. She has immense faith in God. Faith in the Majestic Creator’s power & wisdom. Faith in the Loving Redeemer’s mercy & forgiveness. Faith in the Holy Spirit’s gift of grace – peace & joy. Her trust that God is sovereign over all things permeates her soul.

Whatever happens to her physically, medically, financially, emotionally, personally, One thing is certain: The world could use a dose of her faith in God, which translates into her unconditional, unselfish love for her son. (“Love one another, as I, Christ, have loved you.”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yop62wQH498

There’s no doubt that the sun will come out tomorrow for the woman in the above blog post. Regardless.

 

 

Science Bibliography of “Who are We?”

February 1, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

Who Are We?

All current scientific empirical evidence clearly resolves one issue: “We are NOT the flotsam & jetsam of “common ancestry from a pond of premordial ooze, formed by many mutations of random chance thru time, guided by the natural selection of the survival of the fittest.”

Science does confirm the incredible, irreducible complexity of the DNA molecule. Currently, there are 7 billion DNA molecules, all different from each other, with precise, long chains of combinations of components that scream of DESIGN. And hence, a DESIGNER.

Above YouTube Music Video Enhances the Blog Post Message Below

My friend read the following books to resolve the “Science vs Science” debate concerning Darwin’s “Theory of Evolution”.

Bibliography

“Cosmos” by Carl Sagan’ “

“Ascent of Man” by Jacob Borowski

“god is not great” by Christopher Hitchens

“Our Universe” by National Geographic

“The Signature in the Cell” by Stephen Meyer,

“Darwin’s Black Box” by Michael Behe,

“The Evolution of a Creationist” by Jobe Martin,

“Darwin on Trial” by Attorney Philip Johnson,

“The Privileged Planet” by Wesley Richards,

“The Case for a Creator” by Lee Strobel

“Let There Be Light” by Jay Seegert

A very detailed, 3-page, previous blog (“Science Debunks Darwin’s Theory of Evolution”, Found on the 2nd page under the Cultural Category) provides irrefutable scientific evidence disproving the primary “proofs” of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. “Evolution’s Proofs” are at best, WRONG, or at worst, FRAUDULENT.

Current scientific facts prove: “Evolution is Faith in things hoped for, and the belief in things not seen.”

Sadly, the secular lives based upon Darwinian disciples’ deceit lead lives of quiet desperation asking, “Who moved my cheese? And, “Is that all there is?” Their lives are “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”. The suicides of the rich & famous are tragic testimony to that vacuous culture. Likewise, mothers abort babies, kids kill kids, and drug addicts snort themselves into oblivion.

Its Creed is, “What’s in it for me? And, “If it feels good, do it.” The secular culture’s currency is pride, lust, greed, anger, etc. which fester in the soft underbelly of humanity.  Compromise & rationalization are its pocket change. The result is waking up so lost, in a place so dark.

Science requires direct observation and repeatable reliability. So, Science does not directly prove the Biblical version of the Origin of Everything. No one was there at the Creation of the Universe to observe the origin of all things & Man. However, the above referenced detailed, 3-page blog post also provides numerous examples of irreducible complexity that clearly was the product of Design, Not Chance.

Einstein said, “You cannot look at the human eye, and not believe in God.” Some gaze at the vastness of the universe and the precision of the Laws of Nature and assign the Power & Wisdom necessary for their existence to God. Einstein dismissed a random, implausible “Big Bang”, by saying, “God doesn’t roll dice.”

Label that Designer whatever or whomever you want. Some call that Designer God. That’s a matter of faith. For those who believe in God, no further explanation is necessary. For those that don’t, no further explanation is sufficient.

The Above YouTube Music Video Captures the Essence of a “Believer”.

The answer to Shakespeare’s question, “What dreams may come when we shed this mortal coil? – will be answered after our last breath. Those that believe they were made in the Image & likeness of God will enjoy the companionship of God for eternity. Those that don’t will merely revert to dust-to-dust. That’s Pascal’s Gamble.

That “Gamble” is mitigated as displayed by the “Flash Mob’s”, “Ode to Joy” in a small Spanish Town’s Square. Young & Old alike, from all different stations in life, express gratitude to their Creator. Indeed, an “Ode to Joy”.

 

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