LOVE is free, yet costly, giving unselfishly.  It is so broad it’s impossible for it to be categorized in any way.  It fills up everything in its path.

No other word is used more freely than the word LOVE.  It possesses such transforming power, many people are afraid of it.  What is LOVE really? Is it a word, an emotion?  Perhaps it is everything.  While many are still working on figuring out love, it does not wait around to be figured out but is taking hold of people and manifesting itself in various, and unexpected ways.

The Samaritan in the bible was going about his business when he came upon a man, robbed and beaten half to death. He stopped and took him up on his horse, took him to an Inn where he cared for him, using his own money.  He extended love, expecting nothing in return.  And what if he was walking by and didn’t have money to care for him, does that mean he could not extend love?  By no means, he could have ran and gotten help.  Love always cost something, someone.

A man or a woman who loves someone will put everything on the line for that person.  They will risk being rejected, being ridiculed by others, and even being an outcast to their family.  There are times when some couples are seen as the “odd couple”.  Their friends and neighbors would refer to them as that; behind their backs of course, and say things like “what does she sees in him?  What does he sees in her?”  The truth is, he/she sees something that nobody else sees.  All the flaws of that person that is visible to the eyes of the casual person is veiled to the eyes of the one who loves them.

The love that is found in parents is one that is so unique in that it has no end, or, beginning.  It is also one that is incomprehensible to the person who have not had a personal experience with it.  There are people sometimes who have been heard to say, after a young man has committed some heinous crime, “I do not understand, how can she still be asking the courts to extend mercy toward him”? speaking of his mother.  You have to stand in that same place for you to understand that, even to the point when he has robbed someone else of their child’s life.  You have to understand that, she still sees in him that same little baby she has held lovingly in her arms just twenty short years ago.  He is a monster to some while he is an angel to others.  That is the power of love.  It will divide and devour.

We live in such an imperfect world. Figuratively speaking, you could find that, some people are filled with love, some people are filled with hate, and some people are filled with, nothing.  Being aware is important.  In giving of ones’ self, often times people tend to overlook those closest to them.  Without a doubt, love does give a sense of wholesomeness, of accomplishment.  It is satisfying to the well-being of the soul both to the receiver as well as to the giver.  It is good for people to get out of themselves a little. Words are powerful and, therefore, important; but love does more when it is not confined in words alone, but in action as well.  Love cannot be dormant.  There are different dimensions to apply in different situations to different people.

I drove to one of the hottest States in America to be with a sick relative in the hospital.  I took my dog, Rasper, along on this trip even though he hates driving. When we arrived after driving for approximately 6 hours, my relative, Margie, was excited and could not wait to get out of the hospital so she could meet Rasper.

About the third week after we got there Margie was discharged from the hospital to recover at home but had to go for doctor’s appointments.  This particular Thursday I had to take her to a 10:30 am appointment.  I sometimes let Rasper out so he could go to the bathroom and stretch his legs, after which he would run back inside.  Another thing he hated is the hot weather. In the evenings and early mornings, however, I take him for walks.  If I take the leach off during those walks he would race on the road so hard you could tell it’s one of his greatest delight, being let off the leach.

The road is usually quiet with not many cars going by and with a lot of dense wooded area all around. I was told it would not be wise to walk when it was dark for “it was an area they were trying to tame but there might be snakes and other undesirables in those woods.”

I left Rasper inside the house to go to the doctor’s appointment.  Margie’s fiancé was also home when we left.  It was shortly after 11 am and we had just left the doctor’s to return to see him again at 3:30 PM when Margie got the call.  She closed her phone and told me her fiance called to say Rasper broke loose and ran away.  She also said she had told him to let the dog go out, thinking they both would have a good time.  He told her he was playing basket ball when he broke loose.  She must have noticed how concerned I looked and said: “Rasper will come back”.  I said to myself: “that is not likely to happen for he knows I am not there”.

We went to a few places taking care of the things she wanted to get done, with all the time my mind being on the dog out in the heat. I became obviously quiet.  It was about 100 degrees and as the hours slipped by all kinds of thoughts filled my mind. “He could be killed, or get seriously tangled in the thickets for we were told he broke loose with the long string he was tied with.  As we approached evening and there were no word about my dog I didn’t know what to think.  Meanwhile, Margie noticed I was unusually quiet and remarked I must be “having a down time” as all of us get them from time to time.

I told myself that if I should go back to the house to find Rasper still gone I would be very upset.  But then I prayed too that God would let him be alright. It was 5 PM when we drove up outside the house. “I hear Rasper” Margie said—“he must have heard you “.  I never heard anything, but I calmly walked into the door calling “Rasper”.

Looking around for the dog I barely heard him asking Margie if she told me Rasper was gone. I didn’t stop or pause to hear her response but walked back through the door and into my car again.  I was tired, hot and hungry that time of the day even though we had stopped and refreshed ourselves with something to eat and drink earlier.

Before I could move the car Margie was beside me saying she would come along to find him.  I was worried for he had been gone now for several hours, very worried.  We drove along every street looking toward the thick wooded areas and calling out his name.  He and I had a little whistle between us that even when he ignores me at times when I call his name the moment I whistle his head snaps up toward me.   If he was out of my sight and I whistle he would come racing at about a 100 miles toward me. I was whistling now and I kept it up as we rode along.  But I could hear myself as the whistle becomes weaker and weaker.  There were tears in my whistle and I could hear it.  We had searched all over and still there was no sign of him. Margie kept quiet beside me in the car.

I stopped at a couple of the homes and rang the door bell. No one had seen him.  I left them my phone number so they could call in case he came by. After covering every street we ever walked we decided to go back and call for help.  First I called 911 and they gave me the number for the Sheriff’s office.  When I called them they gave me a number for Animal Control but told me to “call tomorrow”.  You see, some of the neighbors suggested Animal Control might have picked him up.  I was supposed to sit and wait until the next day to hear something about Rasper.  Since the time I’ve had him when he was only 6 weeks old I have never gone to bed one night without knowing where he was.  By then it was about 5: 35 PM approximately.

I sat down then and decided to eat something. I was eating; but I was not tasting.  I ate with my face toward the window—looking out I thought: “am I going to lose him—just like that?  I found at that point—I was crying.  Crying and eating do not go well together. It is not a pretty sight, I imagine.  The thought of losing him was very unsettling, to say the least.  You see, Rasper, he is such a lovable creature, like a mischievous child who you can’t help but love.  He also can be very trying as well.  He puts up his two front paws on my shoulders with his face turned up to mine as if to speak to me one on one.  He looks straight in to my eyes most times trying to understand whatever I am saying, and he does understand me to a great extent.

I finished eating and walked out the door to find Rasper. This time I was going on foot. It was almost 6 PM.  I thought: “since he had been gone for several hours he could have wandered far and beyond the boundaries of that neighborhood”.  Therefore, I decided to go outside to conduct my search.  I stopped at the corner house leading away from the scheme.  After I rang the doorbell and got no answer I walked across the street to go over onto the other side which was mostly thick woods on both sides of the street.  As I walked now a little in from the main it was quiet.  Not even the birds were chirping.  There were no houses that were visible from the street.

I stopped now and thought, “I hadn’t prayed and ask God to lead me to Rasper”.  As I was about to pray in my mind “Lord plead lead me to Rasper” suddenly the sound of a single cry came in on me.   “I am sure I heard it” I thought. It was not a whuff sound—it was more like he had tried to call out to me saying: “here I am”.  I started whistling again and again, hoping to hear that sound once more. Then it came. Yes, it was Rasper, but the location from where the sound was coming now was so very thick with woods and tall trees. “How would I get in there” my mind races; “should I go for help, should I get the car and drive it up in there?  I can’t leave him.  I have to make a decision”.  I thought of the snakes and I was scared.   All the time I kept calling out his name: “coming Rasper, I’m coming”. Meanwhile, I was inching my way in looking for a place where it was not as thick.  I almost reached over on the far side before I saw an area I thought I could enter from.

“I have to do this” I thought. “I have to take the chance”.  By then he was making more sounds perhaps because he was now sure it was me and in his excitement was getting more energy.   I gingerly stepped through the woods to get my dog, and the snakes must have gone to sleep for thanks to God I never saw one.  Although, a couple of days later, Sunday morning, when we were leaving the area I saw one slithering across the road as we drove by on that same road.

I will always remember the feeling when I laid eyes on Rasper coming toward me from the thickest part of the woods.  He was frightened and very hot to the touch.   First he came straight into my arms but as I got him out into the clear he started pulling away from me.  I held on to him by his harness and took him straight to the house as quickly as I could. Margie joined us and we both kept rubbing his head as he thirstily drank down large quantities of water without pausing to look at any body.   We took away the water a couple of times fearing he may get sick.  Still, he continued drinking when we gave it back.

The Lord led me to Rasper, I am sure of it; for I could have stayed in the scheme and going over it more thoroughly.  It was a pretty big area to go over.   I still thank the Lord for leading me to and for bringing Rasper back to me.  He is still traumatized from the experience and doesn’t want to leave my side for nothing, but he will be alright.

Life takes us to some places sometimes and then brings us back again; or, so it appears.

“You get to a point in your life where you find out all you believed in life was a lie and you want to start life over again” Those are words with a lot of weight. (Taken from the article below)

If there were no second chances where would some of us be today? They come in many forms: second chances do. Sometimes it is someone’s literal life that has been given back to them; while there are also those of us who sometimes spend years on the wrong track of our short journey here, holding to viewpoints that only lead to chaos and destruction. We may then need to back up and start the journey all over again.

Second chances are not to be taken lightly: they are not to be wasted. Those of us who have been fortunate to get one will do well to be aware it is not something everyone gets.

Yes, there are those who have been fortunate enough to get not only second– but third and forth; however, I believe this to be very rare in the general scheme of things and there are also those who, unfortunately, never got one.

It is always a joy, though, to see when someone who has every reason to be dead in every way one can think of comes back, finds him or herself and also, finds a waiting world to receive them back for whatever reason there is.

I believe, based on our individual life and circumstances, it may appears as if second chances are given to some of us while others may have to employ ways and means to take theirs. But ultimately, I strongly believe God is the One who gives those second chances. He is the One who knew from day one that such persons would survive the tides of the terrain of life to come back and make a difference in society. Because He has a purpose for each life, He is the One who prunes and shapes us through whatever it is our foolish waywardness takes us. I imagine He also says to Satan, when he would have taken us out completely, “hands off you wicked, wicked one, for there is time yet to do something with this one”.

And so this is what we are seeing in this article below: the manifestation of the goodness of a God who loves us unconditionally.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

Tyson makes it alive and well to the Hall of Fame

By TIM DAHLBERG, AP Sports Columnist 14 hours, 32 minutes ago

• tweet5
• Email
• Print

The road isn’t very far, about 140 mostly freeway miles from Catskill to Canastota in New York.

It took Mike Tyson a lot of years and more than just a few lives to get there. A betting person might have gotten good odds a few years back that any induction of Tyson into the International Boxing Hall of Fame would be of the posthumous variety.

But Tyson was very much alive on Sunday, his daughter on his lap as he smiled and waved at fans gathered for the boxing’s hall annual parade. The out-of-control character he once was is the only thing dead now, and Tyson tries to bury his former persona even deeper every time he opens his mouth.

CANASTOTA, NY – JUNE 12: Mike …
Getty Images – Jun 12, 7:16 pm EDT

• Boxing Gallery

The crooked smile and bizarre tattoo on his face are the only reminders of the day when the now slimmed down vegetarian and budding movie star was indeed the baddest man on the planet. He doesn’t even look like a heavyweight anymore, much less one who would terrify opponents long before they entered the ring.

But they don’t induct bit players in Hollywood comedies into the Hall of Fame, no matter how good the “Hangover” movies are. You have to at least play a fighter to get in the boxing hall, which was how Sylvester Stallone also found his way there on this day.

The best fighter among the inductees wasn’t even Tyson. Julio Cesar Chavez, the Mexican idol who relentlessly beat down almost everybody put into the ring against him, was a much more accomplished boxer than Tyson and was as feared by smaller fighters as Tyson was by the heavyweights.

The best speaker was Stallone, who closed his talk with a famous line from the “Rocky” movies, telling the crowd in Canastota that “Yo, Adrian, I did it.” Tyson, meanwhile, was so overcome by emotion that he couldn’t even finish remarks that were meandering at best to begin with.

Yes, Iron Mike was crying. Crying unabashedly, as he tried to honor the memory of the late Cus D’Amato, who became a surrogate father to him growing up in nearby Catskill.

But if this was a way to finally close a career that no longer needs closure, consider it done.

The Mike Tyson who was honored for his work in the ring is still a fan of the sport that made him rich and famous at an age where he had no idea how to handle either money or fame. He still appears at big fights in Las Vegas, where he is always greeted by fans with the biggest applause of anyone sitting ringside.

They remember the fighter who wore black trunks, no socks, and threw left hooks so powerful they knocked guys down even when they missed. The fighter who instead of celebrating was more likely to walk over to his vanquished opponent to make sure he was all right.

The fighter who was so fascinating they couldn’t take their eyes off of him even as his life spun out of control.

What they don’t remember is that Tyson was a one-trick pony, a fighter who relied on intimidation and brute power to make up for what he lacked in boxing skills. His cornermen would call out numbers for punch combinations they wanted Tyson to throw, but by the time he became the youngest heavyweight champion ever at the age of 20 he was pretty much done listening to anybody about anything.

His career peaked with a string of knockouts in the late ’80s, including a 91-second one of a petrified Michael Spinks in Atlantic City. But Buster Douglas stopped him in one of the biggest upsets ever in 1990 and things pretty much went downhill from there. While he looked ferocious again briefly after serving prison term for rape, he was unmasked by Evander Holyfield for good in 1996 and from there it was just a matter of chasing paydays.

Look at his record objectively, and there’s no way he goes down as one of the great heavyweights ever. But no one—especially those among us who were along for the ride in his brief prime—ever looked at Tyson objectively.

He’s Hall of Fame material just for being Mike Tyson. There was nothing more spectacular than a Tyson fight, nothing more electrifying than the wait just before the opening bell.

That he survived prison, drugs, street fights and the people who always had a hand in his pocket is remarkable enough. That he has reinvented himself in recent years as a lovable philosopher and student of life is way more remarkable.

“You reach a point in your life where you find out all you believed in life was a lie and you want to start life all over again,” Tyson told me a few months ago. “I want to be a good person, not just be known as a great person.”

He predicted before going to Canastota he would not make it through his speech before breaking down, and he was right. Memories of his beloved Cus were too close to the surface

But that was all right to the several thousand fans who cheered him with chants of “Come on Mike” as he struggled for words.

Seeing Tyson there alive and—and quite well—was more than reward enough.

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg(at)ap.org or at http://twitter.com/timdahlberg

Our hearts are with all the folks who thought that God was coming on May 21, 2011 to take them and their families away. I am sure they have been living for that day and must be very disappointed; for, right now, to a lot of people the earth is getting weigh too hot for comfort. Heaven, or any place away from here sounds a lot more inviting to some of us.

Please do not be overly disappointed God did not appear when you looked for Him for I believe if you wait a little while longer you will see Him come. It is just that He may not come in the way or at the time you expect Him to. I have said before, how important it is for every man to study the WORD of GOD for himself. You see, the interpretation is what throws some people off entirely. But just like there is God there is also the Holy Spirit to teach us all things. The Word was written by man’s hand inspired by God. So then, God would not give us the Word to live by and not give us help to understand His Word.

Let’s look at what the WORD says about the coming of God:

Signs of Christ’s Coming to Judgment.

Jesus here was talking to His followers about the things that would happen in the last days. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

And then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of earth mourn, and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”.  Talk about power and glory: just three weeks ago over 300 people died just in the time it would take you to snap your fingers; more tornadoes touched down than anybody has ever seen or heard of. That was judgment for the people who were in the path of those tornadoes.

“And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn a parable of the fig tree; (Jesus talked a lot in parables, then) when his branch is yet tender, and put out leaves, you know that summer is near: so likewise you, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. I say now unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all these things are fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away.

But of that day and hour know no man knows, no, not even the angels of heaven, but my father only”.

“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the son of man be”.

My understanding of the coming of God is that it is in no way going to be a secret affair; no, not with all those angels and trumpets announcing his coming. But, we can certainly see that when He come a lot of us will not be expecting Him to come and He will find us doing whatever it is we have been doing. Now, here comes the part that I think confuse a lot of people and have them thinking of a secret rapture:

“Then shall two be in the field; one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; one shall be taken and the other left. Watch therefore; for you know not the hour your Lord comes. Know also that if the good man of the house had known in what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken into. Therefore, be ready, for in such an hour as you know not the son of man will come.”

We see here that Jesus is advising the people to keep their souls in readiness that if the Lord should come like a thief in the night (something pretty much like the appearance of the tornadoes) they would be ready to go with Him. Those of us who are desirous of making it to the kingdom, then, should realize that there is no putting it off for tomorrow. But, every day we are given breath to rise and see the sunshine is likely to be the last chance for us to straighten out ourselves with God and with our fellowman.

I would appeal to those who were ready to go Saturday, to, please, stay ready; it is going to take humility and strength to do it but remember, God draws near to those who humble themselves: and those who want to be ready, please, there is no time to waste; for I believe the signs of His coming are all around us. He is even at the doors. Furthermore, I believe that what we have seen and heard this past weekend could be further signs of God’s coming. I hate to say this, but, seems to me like this is an upcoming date for everyone of us; no matter who we are, who we see ourselves to be, rich and poor alike, we will face Him in the same way; same place. He is the one God of gods and sees us all as one; with no distinction.

God bless us all.

Those who would like to read this it is found in the book of Matthew chapter 24 of .   KJV of the holy bible.