Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world.

September 8, 2007

Publishers Favourite Sites:

Rosanne Catalano

http://www.rosannecatalano.net/

Michael Smith

http://subs.zinester.com/86758/

Barbara Weymouth

penwormprayerwarriors-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Helen Dowd

www.occupytillicome.com

Dean Perchick

http://symzonia.blogspot.com

Today’s Stories

~**~**~

 ValueSpeak

A Weekly Column

By Joseph Walker

valuespeak@msn.com

HARNESSING THE BEST THAT IS WITHIN YOU

It wasn’t that my first semester at college was a total waste academically.  My roommate, Dave, and I learned a lot together.

 For example, we learned that if you’re really careful you can squirt an entire can of shaving cream into a large balloon, and that the content of one such balloon, accurately dropped from a fifth-floor dorm window, is sufficient to completely cover a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle.

            We also learned that peas have the perfect density for long-distance bombing in a cafeteria food fight – and that applesauce doesn’t.

 And we learned that it takes about two seconds for heavily amplified sound to travel a quarter of a mile.  We conducted this experiment ourselves, using Dave’s stereo, four speakers facing out of our dorm window and the long scream from “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by the Who.  Two seconds after we cranked it up, heads started turning on campus.  We even made the university newspaper the next day under the headline: “Mystery Sound Baffles Security.”

            Unfortunately, I didn’t take physics that semester so I didn’t get any credit for all of that exhaustive research.  This is consistent because I didn’t get much credit in any of the classes I actually took, either.  Not that I tried to fail.  I studied – when there wasn’t anything else to do.

            When I showed Dad my first collegiate grade report I expected a flash of anger and frustration.  He was, after all, footing the bill for what appeared to be a fairly bogus educational adventure.  He was entitled to a little righteous indignation.

            “Dad, let me explain . . .” I said, opening a speech I had been practicing for days.

            He held up a hand to stop me.  “You don’t need to explain anything,” he said, calmly.  “I know that the first semester of college can be tough.”  He glanced at the report again.  “I just wasn’t expecting it to be THIS tough.”

            I could see the disappointment in his eyes – eyes that had always been filled with pride at every high school accomplishment and success.

            “The thing that concerns me,” he continued, “is that you didn’t even try.  These grades don’t tell me that you’re not smart enough for college.  They tell me that you didn’t put forth any effort.  And if you don’t learn anything else from your first semester, you’re going to learn that if a thing is worth doing at all, it’s worth giving it your best effort.  Anything less than that is a waste of time, money and talent.”

            With that he tore my grade report in half and tossed it in the garbage.  He started to leave, then he stopped and turned to face me once more. “You’ve got one semester to see what you can do when you try,” he said.  “Aren’t you curious to know how far your best effort can take you?”

            As it turned out, I was.  I didn’t become a Rhodes Scholar or anything, but I tried harder and my grades improved.  And every once in a while I attacked a project with my whole heart and soul and I found out that my best effort was . . . well . . . pretty good, if I do say so myself.

            Of course, I’m no different than most folks that way.  Many of us are content to cruise through life, expending only as much energy as required to keep ourselves afloat.  Only occasionally, when circumstances thrust themselves upon us, do we achieve the level of excellence of which we are capable.  At such times we often amaze ourselves with what we are able to accomplish when we really, really try.

            And then we slip back into calm waters and resume floating.

            Life saves its greatest rewards for those who have the strength and courage to escape their comfort zone.  These people aren’t necessarily more talented or more capable than anyone else.  They’ve just learned how to harness the best that is within them.  They refuse to settle for “adequate” when they are capable of “superb.”  And they understand that the only thing that’s good half-done is a steak.

            That’s what Dad used to say.  And he was right.  “Do Your Best” is a powerful philosophy for living.  If you’re going to do it – whatever “it” is – do your best.  That doesn’t mean you have to be the best there is – just the best you can be.

            Even if that eliminates new advances in shaving cream balloon bombing along the way.

~**~**~

Luke Sunday school class, August 26, 2007 evidence of another world!

By Chris Hansen

chrishansen54@sbcglobal.net

Author: “Revelation Revisited,” “Secret of the Psalms,” “Grandfather’s Journal.”

Tapes and Publications (my home church) www.fbcmodesto.com  or

My publisher www.xlibris.com or 1-888-795-4274 or local bookstores.

Throughout the Bible, there is evidence of another world, that humans have physically gone there, that we have been visited by others from that world, and that physical evidence has been left behind from this other world.  We call this world Heaven, but it is nothing like the world we know and it is somewhere outside our known universe!

You recall the story of shepherds quietly watching their flocks by night in Luke chapter 2.  “Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God …” (Luke 2:13.)  We notice that when a door to this other world opens it opens very suddenly in a brilliant display of blazing glory and that sights and sounds can come through this opening into this other existence for a brief time.

“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, …” (Luke 2:15.)  The next thing we notice is that the door to this heavenly world closes just as suddenly as it opens, and it is as if there had been nothing there.  The night sky appears to have returned to its normal state. Not all of this world is safe and good.  “Many times it had seized him and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.  Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”  “Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him.  And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the abyss.”  (Luke 8:27-31.)  A host of hideous creatures unseen by human eyes from another existence were exerting physical manifestations in this world.  This poor man was given the combined strength of thousands of these hideous creatures which Jesus was able to control at a single word!  This world outside our universe has a wonderful place where angels praise God, and a terrible abyss that terrifies even the most hideous of demonic creatures. 

“As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.  Two men, Moses and Elijah appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus.  They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:28-32.)  For a brief moment, Peter, James, and John, were able to hear and see into this odd existence.  Evidence of brilliant light that actually transformed those who saw it could be seen.  This glorious light transformed Jesus, Moses, and Elijah too.  This is even more intriguing when we consider just who it was that appear to Jesus. 

“And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said, He buried him in Moab in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is.  Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.”  (Deuteronomy 34:5-7.)  As we shall see, Moses had some very odd encounters with God.  His death is unusual because he did not die of old age.  His health was still very good.  The only reason he died was that God decided that it was his time.  Now, after some 1400 years or so, suddenly, Moses appears to Jesus and James and John and Peter!  This proves beyond doubt that a human body is not necessary to make this transition to this new existence.  The body of Moses had been buried for well over a thousand years, and yet, there he was!  God is master of the aging process.  God is not hindered by the decay of the body.  God can even let human eye witnesses see that this is so.

Consider this intriguing passage in which we find that God actually left physical evidence of this other world!

“Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel.  Under His feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself.” (Exodus 24:9:10.)  When God makes an appearance from this other existence, the molecules of our physical world can undergo a peculiar change from this brief encounter!

Consider these next very intriguing passages: “To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain.  Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain.  And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.”  (Exodus 24:17-18.)

“Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water.  … When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.  When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.  … When Moses finished speaking to them he put a veil over his face.”  (Exodus 34:29-35.)  Something very peculiar had occurred to the physical structure of the body of Moses merely by being in God’s presence from this other world.  Moses needed no food and no water.  His body was transformed so that it glowed from the inside out.  Evidently, each atom in his body had been changed for a time.

Consider this intriguing and very dramatic passage in which a human being physically goes into this other world alive!

“As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven, in a whirlwind.  Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!”  And Elisha saw him no more.  … He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.” (2 Kings 2:10-13.)

Physicists will explain that when a particle of the universe disappears and they don’t know where it has gone, they know it has gone somewhere, but they don’t know just where.  They call this mysterious place, “elsewhere.”  We don’t know just where Heaven is, but we do know that when we put our trust in Jesus, we too are going “elsewhere.” 

Are you prepared for the adventure of your life?  You too will be taken into an adventure that will last for eternity!    

~**~**~

Poetry Corner

~**~**~

A Selection of Haikus

By Tania Cilia

tanjachilja@hotmail.com

Leaves are a carpet
Slipstream of my emotions
Dewdrops on cobwebs

Like ducks to water,
Our souls have melded as one
You and I, all time.

Listen to the bells
They peal and toll my story
The sound of my soul

Love like a shadow
Following my every move
When will I be free?

Love was born today
Silvern and golden kisses
Together is now.

Mist all around me
Bleakness meets my unshed tears
Time cannot heal me

Monochrome vistas
Memories will fade so fast
Unless they're renewed

Music to my ears
Are conversations with friends
Although we don't talk

My thoughts disperse like
Clouds scudding across the sky
Ethereal froth

No rose without thorns
Except when it's of plastic
But then there's no scent!

Orange sky at dusk
Smell of skin warmed by the sun
Sand between my toes.

Pebbles become sand
Glaciers melt into oceans
But love enhances

Pencil writes my thoughts
The eraser tries its best
To make me forget

Playing hide and seek
Emotions are kept hidden
But the truth will out

Pleasure flies away
The doom of doubt surrounds me
Darkness returns anon

Rainbows straddling skies NEW!
Emerging after tempests
Colouring my life

Ring the bells for joy
Today my life is renewed
Blank pages to write

Sapphire ocean
Amber clouds in opal skies
Diamonds in your glance

~**~**~

Readers Feedback

Clara Wersterfer – Fraidy Cat - Oh I love heart warming pet stories. So nice to have a warm body curled
up to you on a cold night.

Carol, - Angels Watching Over Me
    Your writing has a power to it that draws the readers into the story and makes them one with the characters.  We feel their pain, suffer their loss, share their joys, and celebrate their triumphs.  Great work my friend.  Wishing you every joy, Joe

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