God is Always There .....

Quotation on True Love

"How can someone say that they love you if they keep you locked in the vault of their heart, shackled and unable to be a free spirit ever again? True love remains strongest when it is captivating without being captured, fascinating and yet free, interesting without isolation.
Love is as delicate as a butterfly that alights on the palm of your hand. It must be free to stay by choice alone. To imprison it will crush it for ever. the only thing that can make it stay is love itself." - Colin Gordon-Farleigh

Evolution & the Theory of Random Mutations

Evolution Depends On Mutations!

 By Thomas Heinze

Honest!

     I know it sounds stupid, but evolutionists really believe that your body and your brain were developed by a series of random, unplanned accidents passed on by inheritance from parents to children.

     They have faith that random accidents (called mutations) gradually changed the simple little brains of one celled animals into the wonderful brains inside their own skulls today!

     The evolutionists’ theory is that a first cell from who knows where gradually evolved to become you and me by random mutations. (accidental changes). Evolutionists believe that they now sit triumphantly enthroned at the top of a pile of increasingly complex forms of life created by unplanned, undirected random accidents.

     Imagine with me that Ford had to depend on accidents to design its new models: “They are paying us to design next years Ford, so let’s close our eyes and run the Ford we’re driving into that huge rock over there. That should be a big step in creating the design for next year’s Ford!”

     If you’re thinking, “No fool could be that stupid!” You’re almost right!

     Evolutionists, however really believe that their own bodies and brains got here by random accidental changes to earlier less evolved bodies and brains. They call those changes random mutations.

     In our experience, random changes to things that do what they were intelligently designed to do don’t make them do it better!

     Make a random change to a Ford or a bicycle, and it will make either one worse! Our bodies and brains function because they were made by the Master Designer. They are NOT the result of accidents. Accidental changes to things that were intelligently designed degrade them! Atheists get around this problem by believing that God never made anything so he couldn't have made living things. This leaves them stuck with the belief that living things must have been produced, or at least perfected by random mutations.

     Do you believe like the evolutionists that random changes make stuff better? Grab a hammer, put on a blindfold, and make some random changes to your car! Random changes to things that were intelligently designed mess them up! Random changes to cars make them worse whether they are caused by automobile accidents or your hammer. Even if your car is old and rusty you don’t want it to be in a wreck!

     Pity the poor atheists! They don’t trust in God the Creator because they have chosen not to believe in Him. When they ask themselves, “Where did we come from?” They limit their choices to a few really stupid alternatives. They end up believing that the very brain they are thinking with was built up by random accidents that happened to earlier brains that were worse. It’s like trying to account for the design of a Ford if you are absolutely convinced that Fords were built by accidents!

     It’s tough to be an atheist or one of their evolutionist followers. They have to try to believe that random accidents, which they call mutations, created the very brains they count on to do their thinking! So why trust their thinking?

     Feel free to use this article as you wish! Copy it in your publication; post it on your website. Forward it to your friends or enemies. Whatever!

Tom Heinze

heinze@hevanet.com

On the subject of Revival

     If you are serious about praying for revival then you are already alive in Christ and have already been revived yourself.
     Revival is needed for things that have become dead, for how can you revive what is already alive?
     That which needs revival is the church that has become complacent and lazy when it comes to the matters of God. For far too long the Church has followed its own agenda rather than God's, and has led worshippers astray by the liberal teaching of false gospels rather than sharing the healing, reviving Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's time to pray for the Holy Spirit to come down and visit our nation with the purifying fire of revival.
     The task of the Gospel preacher is not to fill the pews but to speak God's truth. That way he will be filling the halls of heaven. What comfort will it be in the next life if all people have been fed with in this life are the things that made them feel comfortable in the pew.
     I think that there was good reason for pews to be made of solid wood rather than letting folk sit in comfortable armchairs!

God is ALL you need!

Positive & Negative

Thoughts on sending a letter .....

     Do you remember the days when people communicated by sending letters, hand-written or typed, to each other? What a lift it added to your day to hear from someone you cared about! In these days of short communications such as Facebook, Twitt

er and email, I think that so much has been lost when it comes to communicating with each other.
     Perhaps today would be a good day to change someone's life by writing them a chatty letter and letting them know that you cared enough about them to share a little of your time with them.

     How well I recall sitting at my desk tapping away at the keys of my blue-cased 'Brother' typewriter. Somehow the keyboards of today don't seem anywhere near as friendly!

     Whilst writing a letter was a pleasurable task, receiving one from a friend was a tremendous joy. How many days have been brightened in the past when I lived in Africa, by my receiving a letter from someone which I would open and devour, reading and re-reading the contents throughout the day. I can only hope that I have managed to brighten a few people's days as much too.

Do You Remember When .....

....... It took five minutes for the TV to warm up

Questions & Answers regarding Evolution

The following arrived on my desk recently and I think it deserves as  wide an readership as possible, so I'm sharing it with all of you  folk.

Basic Questions Evolutionists Can’t Answer

By Thomas F. Heinze

Evolutionists wake up each morning to tiptoe around important problems their worldview won’t let them resolve. For example:

Matter:

Where did matter come from? Evolutionists generally follow the atheists in saying: “From the Big Bang, an explosion.” They convince themselves that a made-up explosion called the Big Bang which exists only in their imagination was different from all explosions that people have actually observed. They think the Big Bang produced matter! Explosions that we observe don’t produce matter. Real estate people don’t drop bombs on houses to fix leaky roofs. Explosions don’t do anything like what evolutionists claim the imaginary Big Bang did.

The earth is still Hot:

Volcanic eruptions attest that the earth is hot. If evolutionists were right and earth is billions of years old, it would have been cooling off for billions of years. Why does hot lava still spill out?

Life:

Evolutionists accept the atheist’s claim that some of the matter produced by the imagined big bang came together and made a living cell which then evolved becoming different kinds of cells, animals, and highly intelligent people like you. They imagine that all of this was unguided, that God was not involved!

God does not share this opinion! He says that He created, and that he did not just make an original simple cell. He made animals and people. (Genesis 1 and 2).

The idea of a “simple cell” was invented when the fantastic complexity of even the smallest cells was still unknown.  Cells were little, so people claimed they were simple. Actually even some of the parts they are made of: DNA, RNA, and proteins are very complex, but this was not yet known.

With better microscopes etc. it became clear that a living cell was so complex that its spontaneous generation would have been impossible. However, the idea that the first cell was an exception to the rule had already become a tradition. Atheists and evolutionists still believe in a first living cell that began without a creator. They have just quit calling its beginning “spontaneous generation.”

One part of their brains knows that DNA and various other components of living things are far too complex to have come about without a creator. Other parts of their brains believe that it must have happened once: “the first cell,” and that all living things evolved from it. To believe that there is no God evolutionists are stuck with spontaneous generation, though to avoid the stigma of the term they often call it something else. By any other name it still stinks.

Long ages:

For a single cell to have gradually increased in complexity to form people, its DNA  would have to have become that of plants, animals and people. This seems very unlikely! In our experience unguided changes in things that work, are more likely to break them than to make them become new different things that are more complex. The evolutionist’s explanation: “Unlikely events could happen because there was so much time.” They claim billions of years! Since you and I don’t understand billions of years, what can we say?

But did the first living single cell have billions of years to develop and evolve? There are ways to find out:

The Sea:

Even if we assume that the sea originally had no salt at all, and that all the sea’s saltiness accumulated at something like today’s rate, it would not take even one billion years, let alone the billions of years evolutionists think evolution would have needed. Russell Humphries has estimated that the maximum time sea salt has been accumulating would not be over 62 million years even if the ocean started with no salt at all. There is no reason to believe that God did not create the ocean with some salt already in it. I think He put in a lot. In any event, the time allowed by sea salt accumulation is many times less than evolutionists think evolution would have required. 

River Deltas

A glance at a world map will show you that river deltas are short: from very short up to a length of 100 to 150 miles. Had billions of years passed as evolutionists believe, some deltas would be long enough to circle the earth! The shortness of the world’s river deltas is evidence that the time required for evolution did not exist.

River deltas are straightforward. You can see how they formed by looking at a map. You don’t have to interpret tough concepts like radiometric dating which evolutionists use to support a very old earth. Deltas show that the earth is either young, or a huge flood washed the deltas away, or both.

The origin of information (particularly that in DNA): 

Evolutionists claim that random accidental changes to DNA called mutations have produced ever increasing information that gradually transformed the DNA of a single celled animal into the more complex DNA in the human body.

Random mutations destroy information, they don’t invent it. Random keystrokes don’t write books. They cause typos! Evolutionist’s can’t account for the huge amount of organized information contained in DNA. They  hope that the first DNA was formed by random movements of atoms, and was then improved by random mutations of DNA. But, DNA contains the most information concentrated in the smallest space! The idea that random movements built DNA is preposterous! Minds produce and organize information. Random changes don’t.

Random changes will never transform your car into a Ferrari. They will reduce it to junk! Neither did they produce DNA. Your DNA contains the huge amount of information necessary for building and maintaining you. That was not an accident. It was planned that way by God!

How did life start?

Most atheists and evolutionists claim that life began when little blobs got together in a pool of warmish water. (Imagine blobs in a mud puddle.) The microscopes of 100 years ago, were too primitive to disprove the idea, so it became a tradition. But the muddled minds of misguided men misunderstand mud! The prehistoric mud puddle would have to have to have provided not blobs but living cells complete with DNA, proteins, and other complex materials that pools of water can neither make nor organize. Not even great scientists in great laboratories can make living cells!

The warm pond idea became a sacred tradition when DNA, proteins, etc. were as yet unknown. Evolutionists today know that warm ponds could not have made living things, but many still copy and paste that stupid old tradition to confuse the gullible.

Only God could create living things, and He could do it with or without mud puddles!

Sex:

Which evolved first, male sex organs or female sex organs? Male sex organs are so different from female sex organs that neither could possibly have evolved from the other. Neither could either have evolved without the other! Think that through! Evolution could not make either male or female, but both would have been necessary at each stage of their supposed evolution.

Sexual reproduction could only have been successful if male and female organs fit one another and worked together at each stage from their very beginning. The only reasonable explanation is that both were created on purpose by an intelligent creator.

Since evolution could neither produce a male sex organ nor a female sex organ, there is no way evolution can explain sexual reproduction. Evolutionists have tried to give evolutionary explanations. I have read their feeble pitiable attempts.

Feel sorry for your evolutionist friends! If you don’t know enough to help them find God, ask them how sexual reproduction evolved. They will discover for themselves that evolution has no workable answer. If they look up the answers of other evolutionists, ask them to judge for themselves how stupid each answer is on a scale of one through ten. None are even half way reasonable! The evidence points to a Creator.

If there had been even one generation in which sexual reproduction was not already complete and functioning, those who believe it gradually evolved would not even exist! 

Tom Heinze

heinze@hevanet.com

Mary Had A Little Lamb

The Need for Better Communication

COMMUNICATION

In her book ‘Can't Wait to get to Heaven,’ Fannie Flagg wrote about a boy being given a gift of a red kite by the old lady who took him under her wing.  When asked why she'd chosen that particular gift her reply was: "Well, the boy was always looking down, and I wanted something that would make him look up for a change."

I guess that there are times in everyone's life when they need to stop looking down and start looking up!  The problem is that often there's nobody around with such a good idea as that old lady had.  When someone comes along who can help us to look up though, we see a whole different world, and we have a different way of looking at it as well.

The old lady used that red kite as a means of communication with the boy. She would go out and fly the kite with him in her garden, and all the time he was looking up he was seeing life from a new perspective.  Life became better, and it was all because someone found a way to communicate with him.

Communication is about more than words.  In fact often words can seem too empty to do the job properly. So how can we become better communicators?

I think that the best place to start is with the whole concept of communication.  Just imagine a world in which communication simply didn't exist.  Imagine all the things we would be without!

· There would be no words and so no books.

· There would be no music.

· There would be nothing but a silence that was interrupted by our own grunts.

· With no conversation, nor the means of it, the human race would die out.

· Without communication we would be incapable of showing, or feeling, love.

John Donne wrote that: "All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated .  As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness. ... No man is an island, entire of itself ... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. "  Donne recognised the need for good communication between human beings if they were to function as they were intended.

The Bible teaches us that “man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.”  In order to live our lives in a manner that's pleasing to God we need to communicate with Him through the medium of prayer.  Like all communication, prayer is a two-way happening.  To pray without believing that God is listening to you becomes nothing more than a meaningless babble that will have little more than a placebo effect.  For prayer to become meaningful then you need to pray believing that God hears you, that He will answer you, and you must also listen to what He says to you, remembering that communication is about much more than simply words alone.

· When you take a walk in the country then God communicates with you through the flora and fauna and the scenery, reminding you of His greatness in Creation.

· When you hear a beautiful piece of music that stirs your soul, then God is speaking to you through it.

· When you see a beautiful picture that fascinates and holds you, then God is speaking through that as well.

· When you love someone deeply, and when you are loved deeply, then God speaks to you through those feelings, reminding you that He is love and just how much He loves you.

For the greater part of my life I've been involved in communicating with people through the gift of writing, whether it be prose, verse, or song.  Many of the people who read my work will never meet up with me, yet the communication is still there. Through the words that I write they will find a way to communicate with others and, more importantly, they can find a medium through which God can speak to them.

Greg Scheer - the composer with whom I write so many of my songs - and I, have never met, yet we meet up in a sense through the words themselves.  We are on a similar wave-length, and that's because the words and the music of the songs communicate, linking us together.

When I write new words to an old hymn tune I am conscious that in a sense I am communicating with the composer of the tune, even though there may be one or two centuries between us. Perhaps in some future time, a new composer will decide to put new music to my words, and then in the same sense, that composer will be communicating with me.

Communication. The tool that enables us to live side by side, cheek by jowl, comfortably.  Without it we are empty, devoid of feelings and without companionship.  Without it we would be lost, for without communication we would be out of touch with God.  And life without God would be meaningless and empty.

Let's think about the way that we interact and communicate with others, for when we do then not only their lives are changed but ours also.

A kind word, a smile, a look, a touch.  These are all ways to reach out and touch people's lives. In our hands we have a powerful tool that can bring about change through all these ways.

© 2011 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh

I'm Not Ashamed of The Cross!

Email not showing correctly? Click here to view online. An initiative of Not Ashamed of the Cross: standing with Shirley, for the cross Today is Good Friday – the day marking Jesus' death upon a cross to rescue His people. The cross is an enduring symbol of the good news of that rescue. And yet today the place of the cross is questioned in our society – part of a wider trend to push the Christian faith out of public and professional life. Shirley Chaplin was barred from wearing her confirmation cross after nearly thirty years in front line nursing. Now hers is one of four landmark Christian freedom cases going to the European Court of Human Rights. Before Christmas, David Cameron said that 'we are a Christian Country. And we should not be afraid to say so.' Just this week, he told church leaders that 'the values of the Bible, the values of Christianity are the values that we need.' And recently his spokesman said that 'the PM's personal view is that people should be able to wear crosses.' And yet the British Government is not supporting Shirley as her case goes to the European Court of Human Rights and has even suggested that the cross is not a generally recognised form of practising the Christian faith. We need to ask: 'What does the Government really believe about Shirley's cross?' So today Christian Concern is launching the Not Ashamed of the Cross campaign to urge the Prime Minister and the Government to support Shirley and historic Christian freedoms – to stand with Shirley, and stand for the cross. We are asking you to contact the Prime Minister and your MP to ensure that the Government changes its official position and brings it into line with the Prime Minister’s public statements. Please join us in standing with Shirley and protecting Christian freedoms. Support Shirley - order postcards for you and those at your church to send to the PM and your MP. Meet Shirley - watch Shirley tell her story. Read the Daily Mail coverage View the website

How do you find a good electric toaster?

     How frustrating it is to try to find a good toaster! So many are unfit for purpose it makes you wonder what planet the manufacturers are on. Some won't take an average slice of bread, some won't toast thick bread, some toast on one side of the bread but hardly toast on the other. For goodness sake! How difficult can it be to manufacturer a toaster that actually does the job that it's supposed to?
     Years ago, when obsolescence was not automatically built-in to electrical goods, you could get a toaster like the Swan brand, all shiny chrome and two-slice efficiency, and it cost about a fiver for a toaster that lasted for years and years. 
     I expect, (although there's no guarantee), that if you buy one of the very expensive toasters then it might do the job that it's supposed to. But we are like the millions of other folk who have to buy what we can afford, which is the averagely priced toasters around the £50 mark.
     And they say that the world has progressed!

Party Time! Well, at least in my dreams!

Wouldn't it be great if I could throw a party with all of my online friends and readers attending!
I wonder where the nicest place would be? I think that it would be great to be somewhere where it was sunny but not too hot, and where the day seemed to go on for ever before melting into the star-filled night of a velvet sky. Then we would have to decide what to do --- perhaps we could have a great big sing-along. What do you think?

Manufacturer's Recall : Human Beings

The Maker of all human beings (GOD) is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to a serious defect in the primary and central component of the heart.

                                This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units code named Adam and Eve, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units.

                                This defect has been identified as "Sub sequential Internal Non-morality,"  more commonly known as S.I.N., as it is primarily expressed.

                                Some of the symptoms include:
                                1. Loss of direction
                                2. Foul vocal emissions
                                3. Amnesia of origin
                                4. Lack of peace and joy
                                5. Selfish or violent behaviour
                                6. Depression or confusion
                                7. Fearfulness
                                8. Idolatry
                                9. Rebellion

                                The Manufacturer, who is neither liable nor at fault for this defect, is providing factory-authorized repair and service free of charge to correct this defect.

                                The Repair Technician, JESUS, has most generously offered to bear the entire burden of the staggering cost of these repairs. There is no additional fee required.

                                The number to call for repair in all areas is: P-R-A-Y-E-R.

                                Once connected, please upload your burden of SIN through the REPENTANCEprocedure.

                                Next, download ATONEMENT from the Repair
Technician, Jesus, into the heart component.
                                 
                                No matter how big or small the SIN defect
is, God will replace it with:
                                1. Love
                                2. Joy
                                3. Peace
                                4. Patience
                                5. Kindness
                                6. Goodness
                                7. Faithfulness
                                8.. Gentleness
                                9. Self control
                                 
                                Please see the operating manual, eg. the B.I.B.L.E. (BEST Instructions Before Leaving Earth) for further  details on the  use of these fixes.

                               WARNING: Continuing to operate the human being unit without correction voids any manufacturer warranties, exposing the unit to dangers and problems too numerous to list, and will result in the  human unit being permanently impounded. For free emergency service, call on God.
                                 
                                DANGER: The human being units not responding to this recall action will have to be scrapped in the furnace. The SIN defect will not be permitted to enter Heaven so as to prevent contamination of that facility. Thank you for your attention!
                                 
                                - GOD
                                 
                                P.S. Please assist where possible by notifying others of this important recall notice, and you may contact the Father any time by 'Knee mail'! 

Warm thoughts for a Cold, Cold Day!

What better on a cold day than to dream about Summer, poppies, cornfields, the lark rising and beautiful warm, lazy days. Ah, well! I can dream can't I? Tell you what, why don't you share the dream with me and imagine that we are walking through the field above marvelling at the beauty of all that we can see, touch, smell and hear, and above all --- experience!

Why don't people say 'Thank You' any more?

(With acknowledgment to Pete Seager who wrote the original song)

Where have all the 'Thank-Yous' gone?

Long time passing;

Where have all the 'Thank-Yous' gone?

Long time ago;

Where have all the 'Thank-Yous' gone?

Quite forgotten, every one,

When will the people learn?

When will they ever learn?

When I was a small boy my godmother used to send me a postal order for 30/- (£1.50) every year for my birthday, which would be a considerable sum in comparison to today’s greatly devalued currency. Every year my father would tell me to write a thank you note to her, to show that I appreciated the gift, and every year, after several reminders, he would eventually stand over me until the task was completed to his satisfaction. This carried on until I was 14 years old, and that year my father reminded me to send the thank you note only once. Of course the inevitable happened and the task was left undone. That was the last year that my godmother sent me a gift, although I would still receive a birthday card. When I left school and started work, aged 16, one of the first things that I did with my very first pay-packet was to buy a bouquet of flowers and take to my godmother. I guess that I thought it made up for my tardiness when it came to writing the thank-you notes.

 The following year my godmother, who was in her early nineties, passed away, and some time later I learned from her companion that she had left a considerable amount of money to charity. I also learned that originally I was to be the beneficiary of her estate, but that she had changed her will because I had not demonstrated that I appreciated her birthday gift a couple of years previously. It was a hard lesson, but one that was well- learned, and subsequently I make a point of ensuring that people who are generous towards me get a proper word of thanks in writing.

Nowadays it seems that people no longer bother to say thank you any more. I can only assume that, living in a fairly wealthy society by global standards, the gifts that are received are considered either as a ‘right’ for which no thanks are due, or else not worth saying thank you for. Recently my wife and I gave a gift to a couple in the family who were getting married, and to this day I have no idea whether they appreciated it or not, because there has not been a word of thanks from them.

Speaking to friends about all of this, I learn that it is the norm nowadays rather than the exception. How sad to think that we live in a generation where everything is taken for granted to the point that the basic good manners of offering thanks for gifts is not considered necessary.

'Twas the Month Before Christmas

'Twas the Month before Christmas 

'Twas the month before Christmas

when all through our land,

not a Christian was praying

nor taking a stand.

Why the PC Police had taken away

the reason for Christmas - no one could say.

The children were told by their schools not to sing

about Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.

It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say

December 25th is just a ' Holiday'.

Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit,

pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!

CDs from Madonna, an X- BOX, an I-Pod,

something was changing, something quite odd!

Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa,

hoping to sell books by Franken & Fonda.

As Targets were hanging their trees upside down

at Lowe's the word Christmas - was nowhere to be found.

At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears,

you won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.

Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty,

are words that were used to intimidate me.

Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen,

on Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!

At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter

to eliminate Jesus in all public matter.

We spoke not a word, as they savaged our faith,

forbidden to speak of salvation and grace.

The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded,

 The Season's real reason, was stopped 'fore it started.

So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' underneath your 'Dream Tree,'

 sipping your Starbucks, just listen to me.

Choose your words carefully, choose what you say,

Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS,

not Happy Holiday!

Christmas tress or 'Holiday' trees?

Apparently the White House referred to Christmas Trees as Holiday Trees for the first time this year which prompted CBS presenter, Ben Stein, to present this piece which I would like to share with you. I think it applies just as much to many countries as it does to America .

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  discriminated 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 creche, 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 Christians.  I think people who believe in  God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.  I have no  idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist  country.  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 ?  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 Hurricane Katrina)..   Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.  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 prayer in our schools, and we  said OK.  Then someone said you better not read the Bible in  school.  The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal,  and love your neighbour as yourself.  And we said OK.     Then Dr. Benjamin Spock  said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because 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 okay.     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 WE SOW.'     Funny how simple it is  for people 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  regarding 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 address 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 God thinks of  us.     Share this with others if you think it has merit.  If not, then just ignore  it ... no one will know, apart from yourself, but if you ignore this thought  process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is  in.      My Best Regards,   Honestly and respectfully,Ben Stein