OMG !!!!! How far inland this water went....
http://tinyurl.com/5srqtz7
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Mammograms and dental x-rays Thanks Sharon and Roseann
Subject: Fw: Dr. Oz info (Mammogram and Dental X-Rays)
Please read and forward to female friends and family...
Dr. Oz:
Precautions re Mammograms and Dental XRays/ A Useful Warning
On Wednesday, Dr. Oz had a show on the fastest growing cancer in women, thyroid cancer. It was a very interesting program and he mentioned that the increase could possibly be related to the use of dental x-rays and mammograms. He demonstrated that on the apron the dentist puts on you for your dental x-rays there is a little flap that can be lifted up and wrapped around your neck. Many dentists don't bother to use it. Also, there is something called a "thyroid guard" for use during mammograms. By coincidence, I had my yearly mammogram yesterday. I felt a little silly, but I asked about the guard and sure enough, the technician had one in a drawer. I asked why it wasn't routinely used. Answer: "I don't know. You have to ask for it." Well, if I hadn't seen the show, how would I have known to ask?
Someone was nice enough to forward this to me. I hope you pass this on to your friends and family.
Please read and forward to female friends and family...
Dr. Oz:
Precautions re Mammograms and Dental XRays/ A Useful Warning
On Wednesday, Dr. Oz had a show on the fastest growing cancer in women, thyroid cancer. It was a very interesting program and he mentioned that the increase could possibly be related to the use of dental x-rays and mammograms. He demonstrated that on the apron the dentist puts on you for your dental x-rays there is a little flap that can be lifted up and wrapped around your neck. Many dentists don't bother to use it. Also, there is something called a "thyroid guard" for use during mammograms. By coincidence, I had my yearly mammogram yesterday. I felt a little silly, but I asked about the guard and sure enough, the technician had one in a drawer. I asked why it wasn't routinely used. Answer: "I don't know. You have to ask for it." Well, if I hadn't seen the show, how would I have known to ask?
Someone was nice enough to forward this to me. I hope you pass this on to your friends and family.
Detroit- What is to become of our free nation?
Thanks Sonny and Clay!
Subject: Fw: If This Doesn't Get Your Attention ...DONT DELETE PASS IT ON
If this does not get the full attention of some "doubting Thomas's" nothing will.!
To help put the following article in perspective it is important to know that in 1960 Detroit had the highest per capita income in the US. In 1964 Lyndon B. Johnson declared a "war on poverty", created the "Great Society" and nominated Detroit as his example of this great society.
(Frosty Wooldridge (born 1947) is a US journalist, writer, environmentalist, traveler)
By Frosty Wooldridge
For 15 years, from the mid 1970's to 1990, I worked in Detroit , Michigan . I watched it descend into the abyss of crime, debauchery, gun play, drugs, school truancy, car-jacking, gangs, and human depravity. I watched entire city blocks burned out. I watched graffiti explode on buildings, cars, trucks, buses, and school yards. Trash everywhere!
Detroiters walked through it, tossed more into it, and ignored it. Tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands today exist on federal welfare, free housing, and food stamps!
With Aid to Dependent Children, minority women birthed eight to 10, and in one case, one woman birthed 24 children as reported by the Detroit Free Press, all on American taxpayer dollars. She collected over $90.000 a year.
A new child meant a new car payment, new TV, and whatever mom wanted. I saw Lyndon Baines Johnson's 'Great Society' flourish in Detroit . If you give money for doing nothing, you will get more hands out taking money for doing nothing. Common sense.
Mayor Coleman Young, perhaps the most corrupt mayor in America, outside of Richard Daley in Chicago, rode Detroit down to its knees... He set the benchmark for cronyism, incompetence, and arrogance. As a black man, he said, "I am the MFIC." The IC meant "in charge".
You can figure out the rest. Detroit became a majority black city with 67 percent African-Americans.
As a United Van Lines truck driver for my summer job from teaching math and science, I loaded hundreds of American families into my van for a new life in another city or state.
Detroit plummeted from 1.8 million citizens to 912,000 today. At the same time, legal and illegal immigrants converged on the city, so much so, that Muslims number over 300,000. Mexicans number 400,000 throughout Michigan, but most work in Detroit . As the whites moved out, the Muslims moved in. Shirah law is not far behind.
As the crimes became more violent, the whites fled. Finally, unlawful Mexicans moved in at a torrid pace.. Detroit suffers so much shoplifting that grocery stores no longer operate in many inner city locations. You could cut the racial tension in the air with a knife!
Detroit may be one of our best examples of multiculturalism: pure dislike, and total separation from America.
Today, you hear Muslim calls to worship over the city like a new American Baghdad with hundreds of Islamic mosques in Michigan , paid for by Saudi Arabia oil money. High school flunk out rates reached 76 percent last June, according to NBC's Brian Williams. Classrooms resemble more foreign countries than America. English? Few speak it! The city features a 50 percent illiteracy rate and growing.
Unemployment hit 28.9 percent in 2009 as the auto industry vacated the city. In Time Magazine's October 4, 2009, "The Tragedy of Detroit: How a great city fell, and how it can rise again," I choked on the writer's description of what happened. "If Detroit had been ravaged by a hurricane, and submerged by a ravenous flood, we'd know a lot more about it," said Daniel Okrent. "If drought, and carelessness had spread brush fires across the city, we'd see it on the evening news every night."
Earthquake, tornadoes, you name it, if natural disaster had devastated the city that was once the living proof of American prosperity, the rest of the country might take notice.
But Detroit , once our fourth largest city, now 11th, and slipping rapidly, has had no such luck. Its disaster has long been a slow unwinding that seemed to remove it from the rest of the country.
Even the death rattle that in the past year emanated from its signature industry brought more attention to the auto executives than to the people of the city, who had for so long been victimized by their dreadful decision making."
As Coleman Young's corruption brought the city to its knees, no amount of federal dollars could save the incredible payoffs, kick backs, and illegality permeating his administration. I witnessed the city's death from the seat of my 18-wheeler tractor trailer because I moved people out of every sector of decaying Detroit . Anarchy is coming.
"By any quantifiable standard, the city is on life support. Detroit 's treasury is $300 million short of the funds needed to provide the barest municipal services," Okrent said. "The school system, which six years ago was compelled by the teachers' union to reject a philanthropist's offer of $200 million to build 15 small, independent charter high schools, is in receivership. The murder rate is soaring, and 7 out of 10 remain unsolved. Three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans , unemployment in that city hit a peak of 11%. In Detroit , the unemployment rate is 28.9% and rising.
That's worth spelling out: twenty-eight point nine percent.." At the end of Okrent's report, and he will write a dozen more about Detroit, he said, "That's because the story of Detroit is not simply one of a great city's collapse, it's also about the erosion of the industries that helped build the country we know today. The ultimate fate of Detroit will reveal much about the character of America in the 21st century. If what was once the most prosperous manufacturing city in the nation has been brought to its knees, what does that say about our recent past? And if it can't find a way to get up, what does that say about our future?"
As you read in my book review of Chris Steiner's book, "$20 Per Gallon", the auto industry won't come back. Immigration will keep pouring more, and more uneducated third world immigrants from the Middle East into Detroit , thus creating a beachhead for Islamic hegemony in America. If 50 percent illiteracy continues, we will see more homegrown terrorists spawned out of the Muslim ghettos of Detroit. Illiteracy plus Islam equals walking human bombs. Don't be so naive to think it won't happen.
You have already seen it in Madrid, Spain ; London, England and Paris, France with train bombings, subway bombings and riots. As their numbers grow, so will their power to enact their barbaric Sharia Law that negates republican forms of government, first amendment rights, and subjugates women to the lowest rungs on the human ladder. We will see more honor killings by upset husbands, fathers, and brothers that demand subjugation by their daughters, sisters and wives. Muslims prefer beheadings of women to scare the hell out of any other members of their sect from straying. Multiculturalism: what a perfect method to kill our language, culture, country, and way of life. This is not radicalization of the Muslim religion. This is written in the Koran. Read it.
I PRAY EVERYONE THAT READS THIS REALIZES THAT IF WE DON'T STAND UP, AND SCREAM AT WASHINGTON, AND OUR STATE, CITY, AND LOCAL LEADERS THIS IS WHAT AWAITS THE REST OF AMERICA . IF YOU FOLLOW THE NEWS AT ALL YOU KNOW THIS HAS HAPPENED IN ENGLAND , AND FRANCE AND SPAIN .
IF YOU THINK THIS IS JUST A BUNCH OF BULL CRAP AND YOU FEEL NO DUTY TO FIGHT FOR THIS COUNTRY, THEN I'M SORRY, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT WILL TAKE FOR YOU TO STAND AND FIGHT THE VERY THING THAT WILL SOMEDAY CHANGE YOUR LIFE.
Subject: Fw: If This Doesn't Get Your Attention ...DONT DELETE PASS IT ON
If this does not get the full attention of some "doubting Thomas's" nothing will.!
To help put the following article in perspective it is important to know that in 1960 Detroit had the highest per capita income in the US. In 1964 Lyndon B. Johnson declared a "war on poverty", created the "Great Society" and nominated Detroit as his example of this great society.
(Frosty Wooldridge (born 1947) is a US journalist, writer, environmentalist, traveler)
By Frosty Wooldridge
For 15 years, from the mid 1970's to 1990, I worked in Detroit , Michigan . I watched it descend into the abyss of crime, debauchery, gun play, drugs, school truancy, car-jacking, gangs, and human depravity. I watched entire city blocks burned out. I watched graffiti explode on buildings, cars, trucks, buses, and school yards. Trash everywhere!
Detroiters walked through it, tossed more into it, and ignored it. Tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands today exist on federal welfare, free housing, and food stamps!
With Aid to Dependent Children, minority women birthed eight to 10, and in one case, one woman birthed 24 children as reported by the Detroit Free Press, all on American taxpayer dollars. She collected over $90.000 a year.
A new child meant a new car payment, new TV, and whatever mom wanted. I saw Lyndon Baines Johnson's 'Great Society' flourish in Detroit . If you give money for doing nothing, you will get more hands out taking money for doing nothing. Common sense.
Mayor Coleman Young, perhaps the most corrupt mayor in America, outside of Richard Daley in Chicago, rode Detroit down to its knees... He set the benchmark for cronyism, incompetence, and arrogance. As a black man, he said, "I am the MFIC." The IC meant "in charge".
You can figure out the rest. Detroit became a majority black city with 67 percent African-Americans.
As a United Van Lines truck driver for my summer job from teaching math and science, I loaded hundreds of American families into my van for a new life in another city or state.
Detroit plummeted from 1.8 million citizens to 912,000 today. At the same time, legal and illegal immigrants converged on the city, so much so, that Muslims number over 300,000. Mexicans number 400,000 throughout Michigan, but most work in Detroit . As the whites moved out, the Muslims moved in. Shirah law is not far behind.
As the crimes became more violent, the whites fled. Finally, unlawful Mexicans moved in at a torrid pace.. Detroit suffers so much shoplifting that grocery stores no longer operate in many inner city locations. You could cut the racial tension in the air with a knife!
Detroit may be one of our best examples of multiculturalism: pure dislike, and total separation from America.
Today, you hear Muslim calls to worship over the city like a new American Baghdad with hundreds of Islamic mosques in Michigan , paid for by Saudi Arabia oil money. High school flunk out rates reached 76 percent last June, according to NBC's Brian Williams. Classrooms resemble more foreign countries than America. English? Few speak it! The city features a 50 percent illiteracy rate and growing.
Unemployment hit 28.9 percent in 2009 as the auto industry vacated the city. In Time Magazine's October 4, 2009, "The Tragedy of Detroit: How a great city fell, and how it can rise again," I choked on the writer's description of what happened. "If Detroit had been ravaged by a hurricane, and submerged by a ravenous flood, we'd know a lot more about it," said Daniel Okrent. "If drought, and carelessness had spread brush fires across the city, we'd see it on the evening news every night."
Earthquake, tornadoes, you name it, if natural disaster had devastated the city that was once the living proof of American prosperity, the rest of the country might take notice.
But Detroit , once our fourth largest city, now 11th, and slipping rapidly, has had no such luck. Its disaster has long been a slow unwinding that seemed to remove it from the rest of the country.
Even the death rattle that in the past year emanated from its signature industry brought more attention to the auto executives than to the people of the city, who had for so long been victimized by their dreadful decision making."
As Coleman Young's corruption brought the city to its knees, no amount of federal dollars could save the incredible payoffs, kick backs, and illegality permeating his administration. I witnessed the city's death from the seat of my 18-wheeler tractor trailer because I moved people out of every sector of decaying Detroit . Anarchy is coming.
"By any quantifiable standard, the city is on life support. Detroit 's treasury is $300 million short of the funds needed to provide the barest municipal services," Okrent said. "The school system, which six years ago was compelled by the teachers' union to reject a philanthropist's offer of $200 million to build 15 small, independent charter high schools, is in receivership. The murder rate is soaring, and 7 out of 10 remain unsolved. Three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans , unemployment in that city hit a peak of 11%. In Detroit , the unemployment rate is 28.9% and rising.
That's worth spelling out: twenty-eight point nine percent.." At the end of Okrent's report, and he will write a dozen more about Detroit, he said, "That's because the story of Detroit is not simply one of a great city's collapse, it's also about the erosion of the industries that helped build the country we know today. The ultimate fate of Detroit will reveal much about the character of America in the 21st century. If what was once the most prosperous manufacturing city in the nation has been brought to its knees, what does that say about our recent past? And if it can't find a way to get up, what does that say about our future?"
As you read in my book review of Chris Steiner's book, "$20 Per Gallon", the auto industry won't come back. Immigration will keep pouring more, and more uneducated third world immigrants from the Middle East into Detroit , thus creating a beachhead for Islamic hegemony in America. If 50 percent illiteracy continues, we will see more homegrown terrorists spawned out of the Muslim ghettos of Detroit. Illiteracy plus Islam equals walking human bombs. Don't be so naive to think it won't happen.
You have already seen it in Madrid, Spain ; London, England and Paris, France with train bombings, subway bombings and riots. As their numbers grow, so will their power to enact their barbaric Sharia Law that negates republican forms of government, first amendment rights, and subjugates women to the lowest rungs on the human ladder. We will see more honor killings by upset husbands, fathers, and brothers that demand subjugation by their daughters, sisters and wives. Muslims prefer beheadings of women to scare the hell out of any other members of their sect from straying. Multiculturalism: what a perfect method to kill our language, culture, country, and way of life. This is not radicalization of the Muslim religion. This is written in the Koran. Read it.
I PRAY EVERYONE THAT READS THIS REALIZES THAT IF WE DON'T STAND UP, AND SCREAM AT WASHINGTON, AND OUR STATE, CITY, AND LOCAL LEADERS THIS IS WHAT AWAITS THE REST OF AMERICA . IF YOU FOLLOW THE NEWS AT ALL YOU KNOW THIS HAS HAPPENED IN ENGLAND , AND FRANCE AND SPAIN .
IF YOU THINK THIS IS JUST A BUNCH OF BULL CRAP AND YOU FEEL NO DUTY TO FIGHT FOR THIS COUNTRY, THEN I'M SORRY, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT WILL TAKE FOR YOU TO STAND AND FIGHT THE VERY THING THAT WILL SOMEDAY CHANGE YOUR LIFE.
Mortgages... Thanks Marge Rusnak!
Sent: 3/29/2011 9:02:21 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: FW: interesting info
I am sure you are aware of this.... but I thought it was an interesting
article.
Is it curtains for the 30-year mortgage?
If the government stops subsidizing mortgages for the middle class, home loans could look a lot more like they do in other countries. That could mean the nation's favored mortgage could nearly disappear.
By Marilyn Lewis of MSN Real Estate
After more than 40 years of subsidizing and boosting homeownership, the federal government is talking about backing away. The Obama administration wants to eliminate federal guarantees for home loans for all but creditworthy buyers "with modest incomes" who otherwise could not get a mortgage from a private lender, according to a report that the administration gave to Congress in February (PDF).
Change like that could make buying a mortgage more expensive. Americans' favorite home loan, the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage, would lose ground against other mortgage types.
There's even talk that the popular 30-year loan could become extinct, though that's unlikely.
"There would definitely be fewer 30-year mortgages, but they would not disappear," says Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He wrote the books "Taking Economics Seriously" and "False Profits: Recovering from the Bubble Economy."
It's all talk, at this point, about how to shrink, change or eliminate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two huge, government-run corporations that have kept costs low for middle-class homeowners by guaranteeing home loans.
Massive defaults by homeowners, along with management and accounting scandals at Fannie and Freddie, are costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. Even political rivals agree it's time for a new approach.
The debate among regulators, economists, politicians, consumer advocates and lobbyists could continue for years before Congress passes a plan, experts say. After that, any changes would be phased in slowly over many more years.
Read: Why Fannie and Freddie may never die
Meanwhile, homeowners may wonder how this change could affect mortgages today and in the long term.
What's happening to 30-year mortgages?
Today, 80% of all mortgages are 30-year, fixed-rate, "conventional" loans, Freddie Mac says. "Conventional" means Fannie and Freddie can guarantee them, as long as they're below a maximum amount, so they're cheaper. By spreading lower payments over decades, conventional loans more expensive in the long run, but they've allowed many people to buy a home.
Article continues below
At the tail end of the housing boom in 2008, the conventional loan's market share dropped as low as 67%. But at least 80% to 90% of all mortgages since 1990 have been conventional, Freddie Mac says.
But if the government eliminates the guarantee for conventional mortgages, buyers might look at other loan types.
"Without the guarantee, I think long-term, fixed-rate mortgages will still exist, but they'll be higher priced, and there'd be less of them," says Michael Lea, director of The Corky McMillin Center for Real Estate at San Diego State University. "You wouldn't see 90%, but you'd see maybe 30%."
MSN Money: 3 mortgage refinancing nightmares
Mortgages haven't always been cheap and easy. Look at the 1920s.
"It was a prosperous period, but if you wanted a mortgage loan, you put 40% down and got an interest-only loan for 10 years. And then you refinanced it," says mortgage expert Jack Guttentag, author of "Mortgage Encyclopedia: An Authoritative Guide to Mortgage Programs, Practices, Prices and Pitfalls" and of the Mortgage Professor educational website for consumers.
Read: 4 mortgage alternatives
In most other countries — where governments don't subsidize mortgages or where they do it differently than we do here — the 30-year mortgage is a rare bird. In Denmark, the exception, it comprises about half of all home loans.
What's your home worth?
"You don't need 30-year mortgages to have high rates of homeownership," Baker says. In the U.S., homeownership is 66.5%, down from a high of 69.2% in 2004, the Census Bureau says. But other countries do as well or better with different financing systems and different loan types, and many suffered less during the housing crash.
Lea cites these 2008 homeownership rates, for example:
Ireland: 74.5%
Australia and the United Kingdom: 70%
Canada: 68.4%
Japan: 61%
Emerging markets often have even higher rates of homeownership because they don't have well-developed rental markets, Lea says.
Subj: FW: interesting info
I am sure you are aware of this.... but I thought it was an interesting
article.
Is it curtains for the 30-year mortgage?
If the government stops subsidizing mortgages for the middle class, home loans could look a lot more like they do in other countries. That could mean the nation's favored mortgage could nearly disappear.
By Marilyn Lewis of MSN Real Estate
After more than 40 years of subsidizing and boosting homeownership, the federal government is talking about backing away. The Obama administration wants to eliminate federal guarantees for home loans for all but creditworthy buyers "with modest incomes" who otherwise could not get a mortgage from a private lender, according to a report that the administration gave to Congress in February (PDF).
Change like that could make buying a mortgage more expensive. Americans' favorite home loan, the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage, would lose ground against other mortgage types.
There's even talk that the popular 30-year loan could become extinct, though that's unlikely.
"There would definitely be fewer 30-year mortgages, but they would not disappear," says Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He wrote the books "Taking Economics Seriously" and "False Profits: Recovering from the Bubble Economy."
It's all talk, at this point, about how to shrink, change or eliminate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two huge, government-run corporations that have kept costs low for middle-class homeowners by guaranteeing home loans.
Massive defaults by homeowners, along with management and accounting scandals at Fannie and Freddie, are costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. Even political rivals agree it's time for a new approach.
The debate among regulators, economists, politicians, consumer advocates and lobbyists could continue for years before Congress passes a plan, experts say. After that, any changes would be phased in slowly over many more years.
Read: Why Fannie and Freddie may never die
Meanwhile, homeowners may wonder how this change could affect mortgages today and in the long term.
What's happening to 30-year mortgages?
Today, 80% of all mortgages are 30-year, fixed-rate, "conventional" loans, Freddie Mac says. "Conventional" means Fannie and Freddie can guarantee them, as long as they're below a maximum amount, so they're cheaper. By spreading lower payments over decades, conventional loans more expensive in the long run, but they've allowed many people to buy a home.
Article continues below
At the tail end of the housing boom in 2008, the conventional loan's market share dropped as low as 67%. But at least 80% to 90% of all mortgages since 1990 have been conventional, Freddie Mac says.
But if the government eliminates the guarantee for conventional mortgages, buyers might look at other loan types.
"Without the guarantee, I think long-term, fixed-rate mortgages will still exist, but they'll be higher priced, and there'd be less of them," says Michael Lea, director of The Corky McMillin Center for Real Estate at San Diego State University. "You wouldn't see 90%, but you'd see maybe 30%."
MSN Money: 3 mortgage refinancing nightmares
Mortgages haven't always been cheap and easy. Look at the 1920s.
"It was a prosperous period, but if you wanted a mortgage loan, you put 40% down and got an interest-only loan for 10 years. And then you refinanced it," says mortgage expert Jack Guttentag, author of "Mortgage Encyclopedia: An Authoritative Guide to Mortgage Programs, Practices, Prices and Pitfalls" and of the Mortgage Professor educational website for consumers.
Read: 4 mortgage alternatives
In most other countries — where governments don't subsidize mortgages or where they do it differently than we do here — the 30-year mortgage is a rare bird. In Denmark, the exception, it comprises about half of all home loans.
What's your home worth?
"You don't need 30-year mortgages to have high rates of homeownership," Baker says. In the U.S., homeownership is 66.5%, down from a high of 69.2% in 2004, the Census Bureau says. But other countries do as well or better with different financing systems and different loan types, and many suffered less during the housing crash.
Lea cites these 2008 homeownership rates, for example:
Ireland: 74.5%
Australia and the United Kingdom: 70%
Canada: 68.4%
Japan: 61%
Emerging markets often have even higher rates of homeownership because they don't have well-developed rental markets, Lea says.
Teen ager's view into Heaven Thanks Tom & Carolyn!
Very moving!!!!!!
I can only imagine...
"THE ROOM" as written by a 17 Year Old Boy.
This is excellent and really gets you thinking about what will happen in Heaven.
17-year-old Brian Moore had only a short time to write something for a class. The subject was What Heaven Was Like. "I wowed 'em," he later told his father, Bruce. It's a killer. It's the bomb It's the best thing I ever wrote." It also was the last.
Brian's parents had forgotten about the essay when a cousin found it while cleaning out the teenager's locker at Teays Valley High School in Pickaway County .
Brian had been dead only hours, but his parents desperately wanted every piece of his life near them, notes from classmates and teachers, and his homework. Only two months before, he had handwritten the essay about encountering Jesus in a file room full of cards detailing every moment of the teen's life. But it was only after Brian's death that Beth and Bruce Moore realized that their son had described his view of heaven.
It makes such an impact that people want to share it. "You feel like you are there," Mr. Moore said. Brian Moore died May 27, 1997, the day after Memorial Day. He was driving home from a friend's house when his car went off Bulen-Pierce Road in Pickaway County and struck a utility pole. He emerged from the wreck unharmed but stepped on a downed power line and was electrocuted.
The Moore 's framed a copy of Brian's essay and hung it among the family portraits in the living room. "I think God used him to make a point. I think we were meant to find it and make something out of it," Mrs. Moore said of the essay. She and her husband want to share their son's vision of life after death. "I'm happy for Brian. I know he's in heaven. I know I'll see him.
Here is Brian's essay entitled:
"THE ROOM"
In that place between wakefulness and dreams, I found myself in the room. There were no distinguishing features except for the one wall covered with small index card files. They were like the ones in libraries that list titles by author or subject in alphabetical order. But these files, which stretched from floor to ceiling and seemingly endless in either direction, had very different headings.
As I drew near the wall of files, the first to catch my attention was one that read "Girls I Have Liked." I opened it and began flipping through the cards. I quickly shut it, shocked to realize that I recognized the names written on each one. And then without being told, I knew exactly where I was. This lifeless room with its small files was a crude catalog system for my life. Here were written the actions of my every moment, big and small, in a detail my memory couldn't match. A sense of wonder and curiosity, coupled with horror, stirred within me as I began randomly opening files and exploring their content. Some brought joy and sweet memories; others a sense of shame and regret so intense that I would look over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching.
A file named "Friends" was next to one marked "Friends I Have Betrayed." The titles ranged from the mundane to the outright weird. "Books I Have Read," "Lies I Have Told," "Comfort I have Given," "Jokes I Have Laughed At."
Some were almost hilarious in their exactness: "Things I've Yelled at My Brothers." Others I couldn't laugh at: "Things I Have Done in My Anger", "Things I Have Muttered Under My Breath at My Parents." I never ceased to be surprised by the contents. Often there were many more cards than expected. Sometimes fewer than I hoped. I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the life I had lived.
Could it be possible that I had the time in my years to fill each of these thousands or even millions of cards? But each card confirmed this truth. Each was written in my own handwriting. Each signed with my signature.
When I pulled out the file marked "TV Shows I Have Watched," I realized the files grew to contain their contents. The cards were packed tightly, and yet after two or three yards, I hadn't found the end of the file. I shut it, shamed, not so much by the quality of shows but more by the vast time I knew that file represented.
When I came to a file marked "Lustful Thoughts," I felt a chill run through my body. I pulled the file out only an inch, not willing to test its size, and drew out a card. I shuddered at its detailed content. I felt sick to think that such a moment had been recorded. An almost animal rage broke on me.
One thought dominated my mind: No one must ever see these cards! No one must ever see this room! I have to destroy them!" In insane frenzy I yanked the file out. Its size didn't matter now. I had to empty it and burn the cards.
But as I took it at one end and began pounding it on the floor, I could not dislodge a single card. I became desperate and pulled out a card, only to find it as strong as steel when I tried to tear it. Defeated and utterly helpless, I returned the file to its slot. Leaning my forehead against the wall, I let out a long, self-pitying sigh.
And then I saw it. The title bore "People I Have Shared the Gospel With." The handle was brighter than those around it, newer, almost unused. I pulled on its handle and a small box not more than three inches long fell into my hands. I could count the cards it contained on one hand.
And then the tears came. I began to weep. Sobs so deep that they hurt They started in my stomach and shook through me. I fell on my knees and cried. I cried out of shame, from the overwhelming shame of it all. The rows of file shelves swirled in my tear-filled eyes. No one must ever, ever know of this room.. I must lock it up and hide the key. But then as I pushed away the tears, I saw Him.
No, please not Him. Not here. Oh, anyone but Jesus. I watched helplessly as He began to open the files and read the cards. I couldn't bear to watch His response. And in the moments I could bring myself to look at His face, I saw a sorrow deeper than my own. He seemed to intuitively go to the worst boxes.
Why did He have to read every one? Finally He turned and looked at me from across the room.. He looked at me with pity in His eyes. But this was a pity that didn't anger me. I dropped my head, covered my face with my hands and began to cry again. He walked over and put His arm around me. He could have said so many things. But He didn't say a word. He just cried with me.
Then He got up and walked back to the wall of files.. Starting at one end of the room, He took out a file and, one by one, began to sign His name over mine on each card. "No!" I shouted rushing to Him. All I could find to say was "No, no," as I pulled the card from Him. His name shouldn't be on these cards. But there it was, written in red so rich, so dark, and so alive.
The name of Jesus covered mine. It was written with His blood. He gently took the card back He smiled a sad smile and began to sign the cards. I don't think I'll ever understand how He did it so quickly, but the next instant it seemed I heard Him close the last file and walk back to my side. He placed His hand on my shoulder and said, "It is finished."
I stood up, and He led me out of the room. There was no lock on its door. There were still cards to be written.
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
If you feel the same way forward it to as many people as you can so the love of Jesus will touch their lives also. My "People I Shared the Gospel With" file just got bigger, how about yours?
IF THERE IS ONE EMAIL THAT I HAVE READ THAT NEEDS TO GO AROUND THE WORLD, IT IS THIS ONE, PLEASE PASS THIS TO EVERY ONE YOU KNOW, CHRISTIAN OR NOT! "LET'S FILL OUR OWN FILE CARD" AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL!
You don't have to share this with anybody, no one will know whether you did or not, but you will know and so will He.
I can only imagine...
"THE ROOM" as written by a 17 Year Old Boy.
This is excellent and really gets you thinking about what will happen in Heaven.
17-year-old Brian Moore had only a short time to write something for a class. The subject was What Heaven Was Like. "I wowed 'em," he later told his father, Bruce. It's a killer. It's the bomb It's the best thing I ever wrote." It also was the last.
Brian's parents had forgotten about the essay when a cousin found it while cleaning out the teenager's locker at Teays Valley High School in Pickaway County .
Brian had been dead only hours, but his parents desperately wanted every piece of his life near them, notes from classmates and teachers, and his homework. Only two months before, he had handwritten the essay about encountering Jesus in a file room full of cards detailing every moment of the teen's life. But it was only after Brian's death that Beth and Bruce Moore realized that their son had described his view of heaven.
It makes such an impact that people want to share it. "You feel like you are there," Mr. Moore said. Brian Moore died May 27, 1997, the day after Memorial Day. He was driving home from a friend's house when his car went off Bulen-Pierce Road in Pickaway County and struck a utility pole. He emerged from the wreck unharmed but stepped on a downed power line and was electrocuted.
The Moore 's framed a copy of Brian's essay and hung it among the family portraits in the living room. "I think God used him to make a point. I think we were meant to find it and make something out of it," Mrs. Moore said of the essay. She and her husband want to share their son's vision of life after death. "I'm happy for Brian. I know he's in heaven. I know I'll see him.
Here is Brian's essay entitled:
"THE ROOM"
In that place between wakefulness and dreams, I found myself in the room. There were no distinguishing features except for the one wall covered with small index card files. They were like the ones in libraries that list titles by author or subject in alphabetical order. But these files, which stretched from floor to ceiling and seemingly endless in either direction, had very different headings.
As I drew near the wall of files, the first to catch my attention was one that read "Girls I Have Liked." I opened it and began flipping through the cards. I quickly shut it, shocked to realize that I recognized the names written on each one. And then without being told, I knew exactly where I was. This lifeless room with its small files was a crude catalog system for my life. Here were written the actions of my every moment, big and small, in a detail my memory couldn't match. A sense of wonder and curiosity, coupled with horror, stirred within me as I began randomly opening files and exploring their content. Some brought joy and sweet memories; others a sense of shame and regret so intense that I would look over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching.
A file named "Friends" was next to one marked "Friends I Have Betrayed." The titles ranged from the mundane to the outright weird. "Books I Have Read," "Lies I Have Told," "Comfort I have Given," "Jokes I Have Laughed At."
Some were almost hilarious in their exactness: "Things I've Yelled at My Brothers." Others I couldn't laugh at: "Things I Have Done in My Anger", "Things I Have Muttered Under My Breath at My Parents." I never ceased to be surprised by the contents. Often there were many more cards than expected. Sometimes fewer than I hoped. I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the life I had lived.
Could it be possible that I had the time in my years to fill each of these thousands or even millions of cards? But each card confirmed this truth. Each was written in my own handwriting. Each signed with my signature.
When I pulled out the file marked "TV Shows I Have Watched," I realized the files grew to contain their contents. The cards were packed tightly, and yet after two or three yards, I hadn't found the end of the file. I shut it, shamed, not so much by the quality of shows but more by the vast time I knew that file represented.
When I came to a file marked "Lustful Thoughts," I felt a chill run through my body. I pulled the file out only an inch, not willing to test its size, and drew out a card. I shuddered at its detailed content. I felt sick to think that such a moment had been recorded. An almost animal rage broke on me.
One thought dominated my mind: No one must ever see these cards! No one must ever see this room! I have to destroy them!" In insane frenzy I yanked the file out. Its size didn't matter now. I had to empty it and burn the cards.
But as I took it at one end and began pounding it on the floor, I could not dislodge a single card. I became desperate and pulled out a card, only to find it as strong as steel when I tried to tear it. Defeated and utterly helpless, I returned the file to its slot. Leaning my forehead against the wall, I let out a long, self-pitying sigh.
And then I saw it. The title bore "People I Have Shared the Gospel With." The handle was brighter than those around it, newer, almost unused. I pulled on its handle and a small box not more than three inches long fell into my hands. I could count the cards it contained on one hand.
And then the tears came. I began to weep. Sobs so deep that they hurt They started in my stomach and shook through me. I fell on my knees and cried. I cried out of shame, from the overwhelming shame of it all. The rows of file shelves swirled in my tear-filled eyes. No one must ever, ever know of this room.. I must lock it up and hide the key. But then as I pushed away the tears, I saw Him.
No, please not Him. Not here. Oh, anyone but Jesus. I watched helplessly as He began to open the files and read the cards. I couldn't bear to watch His response. And in the moments I could bring myself to look at His face, I saw a sorrow deeper than my own. He seemed to intuitively go to the worst boxes.
Why did He have to read every one? Finally He turned and looked at me from across the room.. He looked at me with pity in His eyes. But this was a pity that didn't anger me. I dropped my head, covered my face with my hands and began to cry again. He walked over and put His arm around me. He could have said so many things. But He didn't say a word. He just cried with me.
Then He got up and walked back to the wall of files.. Starting at one end of the room, He took out a file and, one by one, began to sign His name over mine on each card. "No!" I shouted rushing to Him. All I could find to say was "No, no," as I pulled the card from Him. His name shouldn't be on these cards. But there it was, written in red so rich, so dark, and so alive.
The name of Jesus covered mine. It was written with His blood. He gently took the card back He smiled a sad smile and began to sign the cards. I don't think I'll ever understand how He did it so quickly, but the next instant it seemed I heard Him close the last file and walk back to my side. He placed His hand on my shoulder and said, "It is finished."
I stood up, and He led me out of the room. There was no lock on its door. There were still cards to be written.
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
If you feel the same way forward it to as many people as you can so the love of Jesus will touch their lives also. My "People I Shared the Gospel With" file just got bigger, how about yours?
IF THERE IS ONE EMAIL THAT I HAVE READ THAT NEEDS TO GO AROUND THE WORLD, IT IS THIS ONE, PLEASE PASS THIS TO EVERY ONE YOU KNOW, CHRISTIAN OR NOT! "LET'S FILL OUR OWN FILE CARD" AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL!
You don't have to share this with anybody, no one will know whether you did or not, but you will know and so will He.
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