Matthew 24:42-44

"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."

Major Steps for Cuba

Cuba's new President Raul Castro has met a senior Vatican official for his first diplomatic talks since taking over on Sunday. President Castro, former leader Fidel Castro's brother, met Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone in Havana. Cardinal Bertone said he told the Cuban leader the Catholic Church was worried about Cuba's political prisoners. Raul had been acting president since Fidel had major emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006.
Fidel Castro stepped down last week after nearly half a century in charge.

Raul Castro broke from wearing his usual military uniform, and instead was seen in a blue business suit. After their closed-door meeting, Cardinal Bertone said with the "utmost respect for the sovereignty of the country and its citizens, I expressed to President Raul Castro the Church's worries for prisoners and their families". Cuban television said the two men "reviewed the status of relations between the Cuban state and the Holy See and the Catholic Church in Cuba" and also "discussed issues of multilateral and international interest".
Earlier, the Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican's number two official, said Cuban officials "promised me more openness in the print press and the radio - and in some exceptional cases, in television as well". Cardinal Bertone said he wanted to improve relations between the Church and Cuba and between Cuba and the world. During his six-day visit, Cardinal Bertone called the US embargo against the island nation "ethically unacceptable".

It's time to start going to church when.....

LONDON (Reuters) - A British man celebrated his 60th birthday in unexpected style at the weekend when a 50 pence ($1) bet on the horses turned him into an instant millionaire.
Fred Craggs, from Yorkshire in northern England, was not even aware of his win when he walked into a branch of the William Hill betting agency to see how he had done with his accumulator bet.
When he was informed of his good fortune he was said to have turned rather pale and muttered that he had better go home to tell his wife.
His coup was selecting eight winners running at various courses around the country -- starting with one called "Isn't That Lucky" and finishing with "A Dream Come True" -- at odds of 2,000,000 to one.
"This is the most amazing bet ever placed since betting shops were made legal in 1961," William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said on Monday.

Hudson Taylor - Platforms

All our difficulties are only platforms for the manifestation of His grace, power, and love.
Hudson Taylor

Ministries - Sex Workers need help from Christians

A Christian outreach for sex workers has told of its struggle to support women on the streets of London in a bid to raise awareness among the Christian community of the plight of sex workers in the capital.
Working in partnership with local organisations, Door of Hope offers refreshments, contraception and a listening ear to sex workers in the hope of building relationships with the women they encounter on the streets.
Debbie Shearing from Door of Hope told Premier's Woman to Woman show, "We are committed to long-term involvement in the lives of individuals caught up in prostitution and their families.
"We build relationships with the women we meet, getting to know them as a whole person. It is often through these encounters that they gain the confidence to access daytime services and make positive changes in their lives."
Door of Hope outreach teams are situated in areas between the City and the East End known for prostitution. The areas tend to be blighted by high unemployment, with many people living on low incomes or below the poverty, Shearing said.
“Poor education, poverty and domestic violence impact on families so severely as to cause both personal and family dysfunction,” she said. “All too often, those involved in street sex work become trapped in cycles of drug and alcohol abuse.
"Consequently, they are marginalised, isolated and discriminated against by their communities and families - they are robbed of traditional support networks, and their choices are limited even further," Shearing told Woman to Woman.
While Door of Hope regularly supports sex workers through their outreach programme, they also liaise with healthcare clinics, often accompanying sex workers to appointments, assist in re-housing women, referring them to employment training and supporting those suffering from domestic violence.
"It is tempting to regard street sex work as a faceless, insurmountable problem,” said Shearing. “Door of Hope challenges these common perceptions: each sex worker is an individual with needs, desires and aspirations.
“Each person has been shaped by their past and deserves the opportunity to make decisions about their future."

1 John 4:4

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

B.B. Warfield - Object of Faith

It is never on account of its formal nature as a psychic act that faith is conceived in Scripture to be saving. It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not in the act of faith or the attitude of faith or nature of faith, but in the object of faith.
B.B. Warfield

Papaya - the new macarana!!

John R W Stott

We have the means to evangelize our country; but they are slumbering in the pews of our churches. ... John R. W. Stott

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13

Romans 6:11-14 - Grace

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

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First Church In Qatar

DOHA -- A bitter debate has broken out in the tiny, oil-rich Gulf state of Qatar over construction of the Muslim country's first Christian church, set to open next month in time for Easter.
Critics have branded the concept as "repulsive" while supporters said building places of worship for other religions is a right guaranteed by Islam.

One former minister insisted there should have been a public referendum.
"The cross should not be raised in the sky of Qatar, nor should bells toll in Doha," wrote columnist Lahdan bin Issa al-Muhanadi in the Doha daily Al-Arab -- adding an apology in case the concept upset any readers in this country of 900,000, of whom only 200,000 are native Qataris.
The former dean of the sharia (Islamic law) school at Qatar University, Abdul Hamid al-Ansari, disagreed, saying having "places of worship for various religions is a fundamental human right guaranteed by Islam."
Ansari has written several newspaper articles welcoming the Roman Catholic Church in Doha, which is called St. Mary's and will be inaugurated on March 15 by Vatican envoy Cardinal Ivan Dias.
Four other Christian denominations are also planning to build churches in Qatar, whose ruling family and most of its small native population adheres to a strict rigorous doctrine of Islam known as Wahhabism.
Once St. Mary's opens, neighbor Saudi Arabia, which also practices Wahhabism, will be the only Arab nation in the Gulf that bans churches.
Gas-wealthy Qatar has opened up since current ruler and staunch US ally Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani seized control and ousted his father in a 1995 palace coup.
Qatar's leaders have even hosted Jewish rabbis and Christian clerics alongside Muslim religious scholars at annual inter-faith forums.
But Ansari sees the old influence in the current opposition. He attributes it to "a fanatic culture resulting from religious teaching (stipulating) hatred for the other and from social norms that denied non-Muslims their rights on the basis of old political and security considerations that have become obsolete."
St. Mary's parish priest, Father Tomasito Veneracion, a Filipino, stressed in comments to the daily Al-Raya that the church would be "merely a place for collective prayer."
It would not have crosses outside the building or serve as a platform for proselytizing, he said, adding that it would finally provide a place of worship for those who up to now were forced to practice religious rituals at home.
It would be open in time for the solemn Easter holy day, which this year falls on March 23.
For other Christians, construction of an Anglican church will begin in May, according to Qatar's Anglican priest Canon William Schwarz.
Building has already begun on a Greek Orthodox Church and another for Copts.
The Vatican website estimates about 100,000 Qatar residents are Christian. Most are Indians, Filipinos, Lebanese and Western nationals who, despite praying in private, have celebrated Christmas publicly for about a decade.
The debate meanwhile has spilled into the letters pages of Doha's dailies.
Engineer Rashed al-Subaie, in a letter to Al-Watan, agreed Christians should be allowed to practice their faith but should do so "in line with public morals without being given licenses to set up places of worship."
Christians should "worship their God in their homes," not publicly, he wrote.
Lawyer and former justice minister Najib al-Nuaimi also objected to building churches in Qatar on "legal and social" grounds.
"Qatar is a Muslim -- not secular -- state, as per its constitution. There should have been a referendum on the building of these churches in order to ensure they are socially accepted," he told Agence France-Presse.
But Ansari hit back at those citing Islamic texts to justify their rejection, notably Muhanadi who has quoted the Prophet Mohammed saying "no two religions will come together in the Arabian peninsula."
"This does not mean that churches should be banned in Qatar because [Islamic] religious scholars believe it applies to Hijaz -- specifically Mecca and Medina," Islam's two holiest cities in Saudi Arabia, Ansari said.
"Let's all welcome the presence of churches in Qatar as a demonstration of Islamic tolerance and human brotherhood," he said.
Agence France-PresseFirst Posted 12:59:00 02/19/2008

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Technology - Who-needs-it prayer!

Whether you drink or not, I think this speaks for a lot of things!

I received a wine warmer for Christmas. It's February now and, I have to admit, I have yet to take it from its box. I feel very ungrateful.
But perhaps you don't know what a wine warmer is. It's a jacket you put round your bottle of red wine and once activated it warms the liquid to the ideal temperature. Sounds good, doesn't it? I thought so too until I read the small print. Apparently, once the jacket is used you have to immerse it in boiling water for 20 minutes before it can be used again. In other words, here is a labour-saving device that actually requires more not less effort to operate. Rather like Fred Flintstone's car that moves by leg rather than engine power. So far I've always managed to warm wine quite successfully by leaving it standing in the kitchen - boiling water plays no part in the process at all.
The wine warmer comes with another interesting device - an electronic wine breather. Wow! Simply insert three batteries (not provided) and switch it on and it "gently bubbles" air through your wine bottle, so releasing all the hidden flavours. Perhaps next year I'll be given a device to drink the wine for me - and then comment eloquently on the experience.
Sometimes, just sometimes, do you wonder whether technology has gone too far? I enjoy gadgets as much as the next man, but I'm sure the next man, like me, also prefers to sit back and take his refreshment without first boiling a wine warmer and rushing out to the shops for three batteries. Or, to put it another way, when you're chilling out, who needs a wine warmer?

Lord God, may we learn where technology does and where it doesn't enrich our lives. Help us to enjoy simply the simple things, and to delight in all the rich flavours of your creation.

Amen

John Armes - BBC4

Hebrews 12:1-3

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

School resource to help at Easter - Teach TRUE Meaning

Church Mission Society (CMS) and the Diocese of London are encouraging churches in London to invite local schools over in the run up to Easter to help young people engage with the event of the cross and resurrection of Jesus.
New resources have been put together by CMS and the Diocese of London featuring dramatic new images by Dennis Morris depicting a modern representation of the Easter story.
The resources have been sent out to every church in the Diocese of London together with a box of support material. The churches are being encouraged to run workshops on the Easter story during Holy Week.
"The aim is to help young people engage with the Easter story and make connections with their own lives," explains the Rev Anita Matthews from the CMS Youth and Children's team.
"We hope that it will resource many people in telling the Easter story and exploring what it means in a fresh and creative way."
Churches can also build on their existing school relations by offering assembly ideas from the resource to use over the Easter period.
The resource is available to download at CMS.

Strange to pay so much for vanity... but a worthy cause!

Pity other governments don't use the income in such a way.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A license plate with nothing but the number "1" on it went for a record $14 million at a charity auction Saturday.
Saeed Khouri, a member of a wealthy Abu Dhabi family, wouldn't say how many automobiles he owned or which of them might carry the record-breaking single-digit plate.
"I bought it because it's the best number," said Khouri, whose family made its fortune in real estate. "I bought it because I want to be the best in the world."
The oil-rich UAE began auctioning off vanity license plates last May.
Ordinary automobile license plates issued to drivers here — and even most other vanity series plates — carry both Arabic and Western numerals and script, defining the issuing city and country.
Khouri's plate, however, has only the Western numeral and no letters.
The record sale surpassed the $6.8 million that was paid for an Emirati license plate at an earlier auction with the Western number 5 on it — also without Arabic numerals or letters.
Proceeds from the auctions, which are held in a lavish hotel here, go to a rehabilitation center for victims of traffic accidents.
On Saturday, 90 license plates were auctioned off in all, raising a total of $24 million. The previous five such events raised more than $50 million.

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Doug and Jen Mann - Our Missionaries in Peru

Doug and Jen Mann gave the service yesterday, explaining about their work and the work of the church in Peru. Apart from me messing up the slide show, it was a wonderful presentation with music, pictures and a story about a church member, Rev. Segundo Rimarachin, the Field Strategy Coordinator (I think). Anyway, thank you so much for taking the time to explain the good Lord's work you are doing and have a safe trip back to Peru.

Please pray for the Sayeed Family

A newsagent who was injured in a fire at his shop in Bristol during a burglary has died in hospital. Officers have now launched a murder inquiry after the suspected arson attack at Newsmart in Axbridge Road, Knowle, in the early hours of Friday. Nasir Sayeed, 46, who suffered severe smoke inhalation, died at Bristol Royal Infirmary in the early hours of Sunday.
A 32-year-old local man is in custody. Seven others arrested earlier were released pending further inquiries. Mr Sayeed, his daughter Nisha, 21, who is still critically ill, and another man were rescued in the blaze. Police believe the motive behind the fire was burglary but are investigating "racial harassment aspects".
Detective Superintendent Nigel Rock, who is leading the investigation, said: "Due to the injuries sustained by the victim, we have treated this incident with the utmost seriousness since Friday and this has now become a murder investigation. "I would appeal to anyone who may have been in or around Axbridge Road in the early hours of Friday to come forward and speak to police if they have not done so already."
Mr Sayeed's family said on Saturday that doctors told them his chances of survival were nil.
His wife was flying over from Pakistan to see her husband before his life support machine was due to be switched off.

1 John 3:16

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

Victim of fire 'will not survive'

Please pray for Nasir, Nisha, family and friends.

The family of a man, critically hurt in a suspicious fire, say his life support machine will be switched off because his survival chances are nil.
Nasir Sayeed, 46, his daughter Nisha, 21, and another man were rescued in the blaze at the Newsmart store in Axbridge Road, Knowle, Bristol, early on Friday.
Mr Sayeed's wife is flying from Pakistan to see her husband.
Police believe the motive behind the fire was burglary but are investigating "racial harassment aspects".
Seven people were arrested and released pending further inquiries.
Mr Sayeed's brother, Rashid, said doctors have told him the likelihood of survival is nil.
"He is still in a critical condition, he has no chance to live", he said.
"We are just waiting for my family to come to the UK. After they have seen him, then the doctors will be taking the machines out."
Discarded items
Earlier, Det Supt Nigel Rock said: "While it is too early to establish what started the fire, we are able to state that we now believe that a burglary occurred at the shop.
"Through our investigation we are actively looking for people in connection with that burglary and also want to appeal to anyone who may have been offered goods or products that could have potentially come from the shop."
He said it was not yet certain what exactly was taken in the burglary or destroyed in the fire.
"It is possible that while the person(s) were leaving the shop and the area they may have discarded items in people's gardens," he said.
"We are appealing for anyone who comes across items or goods that look as if they are from a newsagents shop to come forward."

John Owen

It is a safe rule in interpreting Scripture, that in places mentioning the love and grace of God to us, the words are to be taken in their utmost significance.
-- John Owen

The poor are the Winners for a change!

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Shirts and caps proclaiming the victory of the New England Patriots -- when the American football team actually lost the latest Super Bowl -- have ended up in the hands of poor Nicaraguan children.

Hundreds of shirts and caps, which had been manufactured in advance to celebrate the Patriots' expected victory over the New York Giants, were handed over to children in the southern city of Diriamba.

"The children are the winners," said Miriam Diaz, of World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization.

World Vision has links with the National Football League, or NFL, and every year helps out poor children in Latin America and Africa with the unwanted "winners" shirts of the team that actually loses the Super Bowl.

Winners' shirts and other garments are produced in advance so players and fans can put them on to celebrate immediately after the final whistle of the game. Garments of the losing team are obviously unwanted.

The Giants stunned the previously undefeated Patriots 17-14 in this year's Super Bowl.

Ephesians 5:1

In a word, as God's dear children, try to be like him,

Spike's New Knuckle Dusters

Talk about leaving an impression!

2 Corinthians 1:8-9

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

2 Corinthians 1:8-9

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A Different Christian Soldier

The Marine stood and faced God,
Which must always come to pass.
He hoped his shoes were shining,
Just as brightly as his brass.

Step forward now, Marine,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"

The soldier squared his shoulders and said,
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't.
Because those of us who carry guns,
Can't always be a saint.

I've had to work most Sundays,
And at times my talk was tough.
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.

But, I never took a penny,
That wasn't mine to keep...
Though I worked a lot of overtime,
When the bills got just too steep.

And I never passed a cry for help,
Though at times I shook with fear.
And sometimes, God, forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.

I know I don't deserve a place,
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around,
Except to calm their fears.

If you've a place for me here, Lord,
It needn't be so grand.
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand.

There was a silence all around the throne,
Where the saints had often trod.
As the Marine waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.

"Step forward now, you Marine,
You've borne your burdens well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
~Author Unknown~

Christian Soldier - George Downame

The Christian soldier must avoid two evils—he must not faint or yield in the time of fight, and after a victory he must not wax insolent and secure. When he has overcome, he is so to behave himself as though he were presently again to be assaulted. For Satan's temptations, like the waves of the sea, do follow one in the neck of the other.
-- George Downame
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The Fruit of our salvation

As the apple is not the cause of the apple tree, but a fruit of it: even so good works are not the cause of our salvation, but a sign and a fruit of the same.
--Daniel Cawdray

1 John 3:16

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

Just think....

The faster you squirmed in the driver seat the faster your car would go!

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. scientists have developed a microfiber fabric that generates its own electricity, making enough current to recharge a cell phone or ensure that a small MP3 music player never runs out of power.
If made into a shirt, the fabric could harness power from its wearer simply walking around or even from a slight breeze, they reported Wednesday in the journal Nature.
"The fiber-based nanogenerator would be a simple and economical way to harvest energy from the physical movement," Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology, who led the study, said in a statement.
The nanogenerator takes advantage of the semiconductive properties of zinc oxide nanowires -- tiny wires 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair -- embedded into the fabric. The wires are formed into pairs of microscopic brush-like structures, shaped like a baby-bottle brush.
One of the fibers in each pair is coated with gold and serves as an electrode. As the bristles brush together through a person's body movement, the wires convert the mechanical motion into electricity.
"When a nanowire bends it has an electric effect," Wang said in a telephone interview. "What the fabric does is it translates the mechanical movement of your body into electricity."
His team made the nanogenerator by first coating fibers with a polymer, and then a layer of zinc oxide. They dunked this into a warm bath of reactive solution for 12 hours. This encouraged the wires to multiply, coating the fibers.

Disrespectful? There intentions were, but....

...doesn't it also bring Christ into everyday life? or is it like art, good or bad, the primary thing is people talk about it? One to think about anyway.

A leading retailer in Singapore has withdrawn a cosmetics range with a Jesus theme after complaints from local Roman Catholics, local media report.
The range, named Lookin' Good for Jesus, was on sale at three Topshop outlets in the Asian city state.
Catholics complained the cosmetics' marketing was disrespectful, full of sexual innuendo and trivialised Christianity.
About 15% of Singapore's 4.4 million population is Christian.
The products included a "Virtuous vanilla" lip balm and a "Get Tight with Christ" hand and body cream, featuring a picture of Christ flanked by two adoring women.
"Why would anyone use religious figures to promote vanity products? It's very disrespectful and distasteful," the Straits Times newspaper quoted accountant Grace Ong, 24, as saying.
A spokesman for the Wing Tai company, which runs Topshop's outlets in Singapore, told the newspaper it did not want to offend its customers, and withdrew the products last month.
It was not clear whether other shops were still selling the range, which is produced by the US-based company, Blue Q.

Friday Friendship - Spring Schedule 2008

New schedule for 2008!! Hope to see you there.

24th February
Painting Pots with Carol

14th March
Making Easter Cards

28th March
Guest Speaker

11th April
Guest Speaker

25t April
Beetle Drive

9th May
Children's Hospice Wraxall - Mrs Frampton - Talk and slides

23rd May
Guest Speaker

6th June
Summer get together

20th June
Strawberry Tea

4th July
Guest Speaker

18th July
Day Out

Summer Break

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His Gifts - A W Pink

Prayer is not appointed for the furnishing of God with the knowledge of what we need, but it is designed as a confession to Him of our sense of the need. In this, as in everything, God's thoughts are not as ours. God requires that His gifts should be sought for. He designs to be honoured by our asking, just as He is to be thanked by us after He has bestowed His blessing.
-- Pink, A. W.

13th February 1895

French inventors Louis and August Lumiere patent the Cinematographe, a combination movie camera and projector. They also invented Hollywood, Bollywood and the Oscars. Maybe Charlie Chaplain would have been a tramp without them?

No Valentines in Saudi - Not even a Husband and Wife

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's religious police have banned red roses ahead of Valentine's Day, forcing couples in the conservative Muslim nation to think of new ways to show their love.
The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has ordered florists and gift shop owners in the capital Riyadh to remove any items colored scarlet, which is widely seen as symbolizing love, newspapers said.
"They visited us last night," the Saudi Gazette quoted an unidentified florist as saying.
It is not unusual for the Saudi vice squad to clamp down ahead of Valentine's Day, which it sees as encouraging relations between men and women outside of wedlock, the newspaper said.
Saudi Arabia imposes an austere form of Sunni Islam which prevents unrelated men and women from mixing, bans women from driving and demands that women wear a headscarf and a cloak.
Relations outside marriage are strictly banned and punishable by law.
Picture taken in Syria!?
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C.H. Spurgeon - Oysters of Life

I wish, brothers and sisters, that we could all imitate "the pearl oyster"—A hurtful particle intrudes itself into its shell, and this vexes and grieves it. It cannot reject the evil, but what does it do but "cover" it with a precious substance extracted out of its own life, by which it turns the intruder into a pearl! Oh, that we could do so with the provocations we receive from our fellow Christians, so that pearls of patience, gentleness, and forgiveness might be bred within us by that which otherwise would have harmed us.
-- Spurgeon, C. H.

The Christian Struggle in Islamic Countries

An Egyptian court has ruled that 12 Christians who converted to Islam and then reverted to Christianity can have their faith officially recognised.
The decision overturns a lower court ruling which said the state need not recognise conversions from Islam because of a religious ban.
This is a case that has tested Egypt's tolerance of conversions from Islam.
A lawyer for the 12 Coptic Christians described the case as a victory for human rights and freedom of religion.
He says it could open the door for hundreds of other Copts who want to revert to their original faith from Islam.
Limited application
It appears, though, that the court's decision will have a limited application.
Reports say the judge decided that the Copts should not be considered apostates for converting from Islam, because they had been born Christian.
This suggests that Egyptians born Muslim will still be unable to convert to other faiths and have those conversions recognised on their identity cards. Many Muslims believe that converting from Islam is wrong, and some believe it is punishable by death.
Last year, an Egyptian convert to Christianity was forced to go into hiding when he received death threats after trying to have his conversion officially recognised.

FAFF - Thursday

Dinner at Jo's Chinese Restaurant meet at the church at 6:30 sorry no kids for this one, but all the rest through the year are fine for kids.

1 John 4:7-8

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Rambo in Burma

Christian Freedom International (CFI) is urging the global community to call on the Burmese Government to end the large-scale violence that has caused the deaths of thousands of its own citizens, as thousands more continue to stream into refugee camps.
The challenge comes as Rambo IV releases in theatres worldwide. In the early stages of the script's development, Sylvester Stallone consulted with Soldiers of Fortune magazine and asked one where on earth the worst atrocities were taking place but receiving the least amount of attention. The magazine’s answer was Burma.
In the latest instalment of the 20-year-old Rambo movie franchise, Stallone attempts to revive his protagonist character, John Rambo, where the Vietnam veteran is living a solitary, peaceful life in Bangkok, Thailand - until the day he's summoned to escort a group of Christian missionaries up the Salween River to deliver relief aid to war-weary refugees in Burma.
When the missionaries fail to return from their trip nearly two weeks later, the veteran is once again approached by the missionaries' pastor, who pleads for his help in locating the aid workers that have been kidnapped by the Burmese army.
CFI, the US-based Christian humanitarian agency, anticipates that the movie's recent release will “draw more attention to the grim reality of the world's oldest civil war”, in a country where Karen and Karenni Christians have been especially suffering for decades.
CFI is headed by former White House policy analyst to the Reagan administration, Jim Jacobson, who has frequently visited Burma to personally deliver aid and encouragement to displaced Christians in the region.
He is currently on location in Burma, delivering Bibles and urgently needed medical supplies to Karen and Karenni refugees.
Since 1996, Christian Freedom International has built schools, orphanages and field hospitals, as well as provided food, medicine and Bibles for thousands of suffering Christians in Burma. The organisation also remains an active voice in the political arena on behalf of Burma's refugees, and in recent months worked closely with the US State Department to assist with the resettlement effort that is allowing many of the country's exiles to begin new lives in the United States.
CFI warned that even with many Burmese living as refugees abroad, “thousands more remain in grave danger as they continue to flee from the Burmese army”.

Dumbest Quiz Show Answers

LONDON (Reuters) -

Question: What was Gandhi's first name? Contestant's answer: Goosey Goosey.

Warning to all those know-alls who shout at the television screen when contestants offer dumb answers to blindingly obvious questions -- one day that could be you. From regional radio shows to "Who Wants To be a Millionaire?" and "University Challenge," people make fools of themselves -- as internet site www.jumpingjacksbar.com found in collating some of the worst howlers.
Here are leading contenders for the "Dumb Down" gold medal:

Presenter: What happened in Dallas on November 22,1963?
Contestant: I don't know, I wasn't watching it then

Presenter: Which American actor is married to Nicole Kidman?
Contestant: Forrest Gump

Presenter: In which country is Mount Everest?
Contestant: Er, it's not in Scotland is it?

Presenter: Name a film starring Bob Hoskins that is also the name of a famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci
Contestant: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Presenter: In which European city was the first opera house opened in 1637?
Contestant: Sydney

Presenter: How long did the Six-Day War between Egypt and Israel last?
Contestant: (after long pause) Fourteen days

Presenter: Where did the D-Day landings take place?
Contestant: (after pause) Pearl Harbor?

Presenter: What is the currency in India
Contestant: Ramadan

Presenter: Johnny Weissmuller died on this day. Which jungle-swinging character clad only in a loin cloth did he play?
Contestant: Jesus

Falling

Though Christians be not kept altogether from falling, yet they are kept from falling altogether.
William Secker

All that scratching is making me itch....

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Oh, it brings such blessed relief and now scientists can tell you why -- scratching an itch temporarily shuts off areas in the brain linked with unpleasant feelings and memories.
"Our study shows for the first time how scratching may relieve itch," Dr. Gil Yosipovitch, a dermatologist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said in a statement.
Prior studies have shown that pain, including vigorous scratching, inhibit the need to itch. Yosipovitch and colleagues looked at what goes on in the brain when a person is scratched.
He and colleagues used a technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging to see which areas of the brain are active during scratching. They scratched 13 healthy people with a soft brush on the lower leg on and off in 30-second intervals for a total of five minutes.
Scratching reduced activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex -- areas linked with pain aversion and memory. And the more intensely a person was scratched, the less activity they found in these areas of the brain.
"It's possible that scratching may suppress the emotional components of itch and bring about relief," Yosipovitch said.
But they also found why one scratch often begets another. Scratching increased activity in the secondary somatosensory cortex, a pain centre, and in the prefrontal cortex, which is linked with compulsive behaviour.
"This could explain the compulsion to continue scratching," Yosipovitch said.
The researchers noted that the study is limited because people were not scratching in response to an actual itch. But they said understanding what goes on in the brain may lend clues about how to treat people tormented by chronic itch, including people with eczema and many kidney dialysis patients. The study, which appears online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, was paid for by the National Institutes of Health.

Luke 18:27

Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."
Luke 18:27

Pennsylvania groundhog sees six more winter weeks......

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - America's most famous groundhog emerged from his burrow early on Saturday and declared that winter will last another six weeks.

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow shortly before 7:30 a.m. to the cheers of more than 30,000 people from as far away as Alaska and Texas, one of the largest crowds in the 122-year history of the event in the central Pennsylvania town of Punxsutawney.

The rodent was taken out of a tree stump on a hill called Gobbler's Knob, and delivered his prognostication to William Cooper, President of Punxsutawney's Inner Circle, who organizers say is the only person in the world who can speak "groundhog-ese."

According to the tradition that may have links with the European festival of Candlemas, if the groundhog sees his shadow, it will mean six more weeks of winter. If not, there will be an early spring.

Cooper read a scroll containing the groundhog's prediction. It said: "As I look around me, a bright sky I see, and a shadow beside me. Six more weeks of winter it will be."

Ken Pike - Deepest Sin

"Help!"
"Sorry! 'monmywaytochurch."
The deepest sins are camouflaged as holiness.
Kenneth L. Pike

Proverbs 15:15-16

All the days of the oppressed are wretched,
but the cheerful heart has a continual feast.
Better a little with the fear of the LORD
than great wealth with turmoil.
Proverbs 15:15-16