I don’t know how much truth there is in this story as a whole, but these words really make you think about God and questioning him and why he does stuff and what we have chosen as a world and the consequences it has….worth a read..

In light of the many perversions and 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 the attacks on September 11^th).

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 the light of recent events . . . terrorist attacks, school shootings, etc, I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools. And we said OK.

Then someone said, ‘You’d 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.

The, 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 OK.

Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. The school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don’t want any bad publicity, and we surely don’t want to be sued (there is a big difference between disciplining, touching, beating, smacking, humiliating, kicking etc). And we said OK.

Then someone said, ‘Let our daughters have abortions if they want and they won’t even have to tell their parents.’ And we said OK.

The some wise school board member said, ‘Since boys will be boys and they are going to do it anyway, let’s give our sons all the condoms they want so they can have all the fun they desire and we won’t have to tell their parents they got them at school’. And we said OK.

Then some of our top elected officials said, ‘It doesn’t matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs’. Agreeing with them, we said it doesn’t matter to me what anyone, including the President, does in private as long as I have a job and the economy is good’. And we said OK.

Then someone said, ‘Let’s print magazines with pictures of nude women and call it wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the female body.’ And we said OK.

And then someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children and then further again by making them available on the Internet. They are entitled to free speech. And we said OK.

Then the entertainment industry said, ‘Let us make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence and illicit sex. Let’s record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide and satanic themes. We said, ‘It’s just entertainment, it has no adverse effect, nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead.’

Now we are 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 newspaper say, but question what the Bible says.
Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through email and they spread like wildfire but when you are sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.
Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar, obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.’

Are we laughing now?’

Be challenged by this all   Grae

APHORISM: A SHORT, POINTED SENTENCE EXPRESSING A WISE, CLEVER OBSERVATION;  A GENERAL TRUTH OR ADAGE

1.  The nicest thing about the future is it always starts tomorrow.

2.  Money will buy a fine dog but only kindness will make him wag his tail.

3.  If you don’t have a sense of humor, you probably don’t have any sense at all.

4.  Seat belts are not as confining as wheelchairs.

5.  A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you’re in deep water.

6.  How come it takes so little time for a child who is afraid of the dark to become a teenager who wants to stay out all night?

7.  Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many people a company can operate without.

8.  Why is it that, at class reunions, you feel younger than everyone else looks?

9.  Scratch a dog and you’ll find a permanent job.

10.  No one has more driving ambition than the boy who anxiously awaits his 16th birthday.

11.  There are no new sins; the old ones just get more publicity.

12.  There are worse things than getting a call for a wrong number at 4AM :  It could be a right number.

13.  No one ever says “It’s only a game” when their team’s winning.

14.  I’ve reached the age where the happy hour is a nap.

15.  Be careful reading the fine print. There’s no way you’re going to like it.

16.  The trouble with bucket seats is not everybody has the same size bucket.

17.  Do you realize in about 40 years we’ll have millions of old ladies running around with tattoos? (And rap music will be the Golden Oldies!)

18. Money can’t buy happiness – but somehow it’s more comfortable to cry in a Mercedes than in a Kia.

19. After 70 if you don’t wake up aching in every joint, you are probably dead.

Film Addict? Just want an honest opinion about the latest films out in the UK. Check out Inside Film at www.insidefilm.co.uk.

The latest two reviews by Michael Barrett at the time of writing are The Time Travellers Wife – possibly the shortest review I have ever seen Michael write, and The Ugly Truth which I thought was a bit of a harsh review … but leave a comment and let Mikey know what you think!

Last week I helped at the local kids holiday club run by Splash (for Schools and Communities) and it was brilliant! I haven’t helped for about 4 years and it was good to be back.

Hard work and all that but very rewarding. It was fantastic to see how hungry kids are to know about God! I was leading the oldest group with someone called Rachel and in our group times we had some really deep discussions with questions that I would struggle to answer an adult on, let alone 11 year olds!

Our discussions about the bible story for that morning sparked talk on all different aspects of the Bible, Christianity and my faith as a whole, it was really challenging but awesome to have the opportunity to think about and have a go at answering the questions! I can’t say I got the answer across perfectly every time but hopefully I gave them something to think about!

Some examples of questions we got asked

• What is hell like?  (direct and to the point don’t you think!)
• Will my family go to heaven if I am a Christian and they aren’t?

Bring on next year!

Could this be true..

Welcome to Grae.co.uk … Enjoy!