Poems from my past

Okay guys. I mentioned before that I would be posting some poetry that is used to write. Take not that this is from when I was in high school, a loooong time ago! Now that I think of it, I haven't written any poetry at all in about that long a time. Maybe I should start up again? I guess I will determine that by the comments left by the readers! So, here it is... I look up in the starry sky and lose myself in the many sparkles ... and the wonder I experience is given to me thourgh the magical way these far away dots of brilliance show me what beauty and mystery truly are. And all I have to do to feel this way is to look up on a black night, and let my imagination reach out to the stars and tell them all the things that they could be, to me.

Blogging for money. This is so easy!

Blogging doesn't come very natural to me. I actually began when a friend of mine from church mentioned that he did it all the time. He showed me several places where I could set up a free blog and start sharing with the world what was on my mind! At first I hadn't realized how much blogging could help me... that is until he took me to http://www.blogsvertise.com/. He told me this was a site which could help me earn money just by something as simple as blogging! That seemed very cool to me. I could already picture the things I could do if I saved the extra money I would be earning! Its really simple, just go to http://www.blogsvertise.com/ and register your blog. Blogsvertise matches you up with advertisers who want to pay you to advertise their product on your blog. Who or what you want to advertise is completely up to you! I am just getting started but you can bet that I will be taking advantage of this opportunity, and telling my friends to go to http://www.blogsvertise.com/ so they can get started making money as well. Also know that this service does not have to be limited to one blog. If someone has more than one blog, they can blogsvertise on every single one if they wanted to! Well folks, I hope you take advantage of this, and happy blogging!

The ministry of prosperity

I heard a news report on NPR saying that a senator was going to be investigating a few of the evangelical mega-churches who teach the prosperity ministry! I thought that it was amazing to see that even the government realizes there is something going wrong here. Mostly though, the government is simply responding to the lavish lifestyle displayed by the church and their ministers, and say they are concerned that the money is not being spent wisely, and they may be abusing their tax-exempt status. (Spending exhorbitant amounts of money on furniture and cars and private jets etc...) Now don't get me wrong, it isn't a sin to be rich, but neither is it a sin to be poor! The trouble comes when we put our pursuit of material things before our pursuit of God. (Mat 6:33) We may say God is first in our lives....but lets be honest with ourselves. What does our way of life reflect? What does our thinking reflect? How is the money being spent? Teaching that God wants to bless everyone monetarily is not biblical! God may bless you monetarily, and he may bless you in other ways. In fact, instead of encouragement to pursue material blessings, the bible encourages us to be content with having our needs fulfilled, and warns against the temtations of riches. (1 Tim 6:7-10, Mat 19:23-24)

Ever make a big change in your life...

Recently I made a career move from the engineering field to the teaching field. I have decided to go back to school to learn how to teach for a living about what really matters in life! That is our relationship with God! That is our relationship with Jesus Christ. Teaching is vital to being a christian, but one doesn't have to change careers to teach about Christ, he or she can do it in any area they are working in right now. I hope that if you are a christian and you are reading this, you are taking advantage of every opportunity you have to teach about Christ. If you are not a christian, I hope that you would take a serious look at the bible, the evidences for its validity as a historical document, and the path it lays out for us to take, to be reconciled to God through Christ.

"We are ambassadors of Christ. As if God were making his appeal through us. We beg you, on behalf of Chirst: be reconciled to God." 2 Corinthians 5:20

The most important thing in the world

I am a 1st degree black belt in Cuong Nhu, a vietnamese style of martial art. For our black belt test we are evaluated on our communication skills as well as our physical skills. Writing a paper is one of the requirements as well as speaking to an audience about the subject of the paper that was submitted for our test. I chose to write about teaching because I believe it is the best way to make a difference in the world. Everything, and I mean everything, is based on teaching! Without it we would have no way to share our knowlege with eachother, no way to build off of what others previously learned. No technology, no art, no religion, no sports... And I could go on and on. Thank goodness we treat our teachers with so much respect nowadays! I mean what would happen if we didn't ourselves teach our children to respect teachers; if we didn't teach them to value learning and education; if we took our teachers for granted; if we... Wait a minute... Isn't this already happenning?

Life is made up of...

I am not sure who wrote what is posted below, but I really like it! Relationships are what is most important in our lives! Surpremely the relationship we have with God...which will improve every other relationship you have. Years ago I began teaching and proclaiming that "relationships are the essence of life." I came to that conclusion after thinking hard about the relationships in my life, the way I was raised and where I was at the time. I do not believe that we have anything that is more important than relationships. We (humans) were designed for community and fellowship. It is in relationships where we find love. Life without love is meaningless. Love without relationships is not possible. As important as relationships are, they are what we take for granted the most. We allow other things in life interfere and interrupt our relationships on a consistent basis. I was talking to a young lady the other day about the importance of relationships. She was telling me how she had too much going on for a relationship. Life is too hard and too full for "that" right now. This is the way a lot of people think. However, it is because life is so difficult and challenging that we NEED relationships. When life is seems to be too much you need someone who can help share your load, provide an escape and help you keep your sanity. Of course I understand that not everyone needs or desires a romantic relationship. I'm not advocating romance, I am advocating relationships in general. In the case of the young lady I was talking to I was trying to get her to see that now is when she should make time for friendship. Too often we allow life to rob us of the thing that God has provided for us to deal with life…relationships. Don't get so caught up in "making a living" that you forget to live. Even in the most severe and traumatic situations, our ancestors understood the importance of family and fellowship. We allow our jobs to rob us of valuable time with our children. We put growing and strengthening our friendships on the back burner while we try to provide a better life. At some point you have to realize that there is no "better life" without quality relationships. No amount of money or material possession can grow your children into emotionally whole adults. There is no job worth your marriage. There is no promotion or project that can replace the little league games you miss, the family dinners at night or the conversations at Starbucks with your best friend. If you are not careful, the thing that you work so hard to get will rob you of your joy. Real joy only exists in the confines of relationships. Joy is not the same as happiness. Joy is deep and is not affected by circumstance. Joy is what you look too when everything else seems to go wrong. You need quality relationships. Make the choice today to invest more of you into your relationships. Your children need you more than anything thing else. Your wife wants to know she has you whether you ever get that dream house or not. Don't let life steal your joy. Clifton E. Brantley

Oh, what JOY!

I am the kind of person who needs to be reminded of things! If you know me or anyone close to me they would tell you that sometimes I can forget things very easily! Very recently a prayer that I had been praying for a long time (about a year) was answered by God. Not only I was praying for this but many many others as well, especially my girlfriend. On October 31st my girlfriend's son received a kidney transplant! He is only 4 and had been on the transplant list for such a long time! I am writing because I want everyone to know what a blessing God has given us. I remember praying that God bring a kidney for jonathan and praying for the day where we could praise God specifically for the new kidney. That day has come! Praise God! I don't ever want to forget the blessing God has given. And so I remind myself everyday.