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Death has no sting: http://youtu.be/siZE4q52gBk

Simply Raw Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days: http://youtu.be/2pjkC71exKU

For most of my life, Labor Day was the closing of the weekend that I watched the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon and wanted to see how much money was raised. I had no clue as to what Labor Day really was about or how it got started so I decided to see what the United States Department of Labor had to say about it. This department is led by Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis.

The department of labor says, “Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

“The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a “workingmen’s holiday” on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.”

This celebration is supposed to be honoring our country’s labor achievements. In the 40 years I have been aware of this holiday I never knew what it was for. I don’t recall us doing anything to celebrate working, except by taking the day off which seems like an oxymoron to me.

This reminds me of the Martin Luther King holiday. I disagree with children having the day off from school. I would think Dr. King would want more learning on this day. What if in celebration of Dr. King’s commitment to excellence, why not have a marathon of learning. Or even have academic challenges where kids can earn bonds for scholarships. Or maybe it’s a day where the kids who excel in school assist those students who have trouble. Having no class for the King holiday proves we have no class.

Back to labor day:

I think on this day we should have a rally and an incredibly large career fair for those who are unemployed. Maybe we should also have the working class donate professional clothing, resources and their time to spend giving advice to those who are not working. I don’t have the greatest ideas, but I just think we could be doing more with this day. Labor Day could be so much more than it is. Maybe the only telethon on this weekend should be a fundraiser to replace the money given out by each state for unemployment or aid for those not working.

I love the scene in the movie Cinderella Man where the main character is shown giving money back to the welfare office because he didn’t want to have to take the aid anyway. What if this was happening all across the country as people got jobs, they thought to pay some part of the money they received back. This to me is what Labor Day should be about.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Love has got to be one of the most misused words in our language. It’s been so watered down that we use it for like, lust, greed (as in I would love to have that car or that purse or those shoes), and definitely religious practices.

The scriptures say for us to love one another. It’s not a suggestion. Love one another for love is of God. This means whoever loves is born of and knows God (1 john 4:7).

The same chapter in 1 John gives you the converse and the conditions thereof. If you don’t love, you do not know God for God is love.

If this is to be understood correctly, one must take from this that the result of your encounter with God would give you this quality forever. You would exercise love simply because you now know God and have been born of him.

Please understand that if every so-called church today really loved as this scripture in 1 John 4 teaches, they wouldn’t have the room to hold the amount of people that would come.

Your greatest modern day miracle is your ability to love. Not raise the dead or speak in tongues or heal anyone. First Corinthians 13 says the greatest (of these gifts) is love.

Therefore, we help unconditionally, we never meet strangers and we put expectations only on ourselves.

All we need to do is love like God loves and we’ll change the world.

Can you guess why I told you this?

Everybody needs a friend.

The word friend comes from the Old English word “Freond” and it means to love or to favor. This beautiful word has become so watered down as with the very loose interpretation found on Facebook. In 2005 Facebook coined the phrase ” to friend someone” changing our noun to a verb and look what happened. The word has lost its power. It’s lost its spunk! It’s lost its vitality!! Now this generation goes around calling anyone who walks around bipedal a friend. It seems Facebook has given insecure people a venue to prove their self-worth. They say with a smile, “I have 1000 friends on Facebook!”

Really?

We don’t know it, but we are being robbed of one of the most powerful bonds of our day. Take away the true meaning of the word friend and what kind of place would this world be? Every Fred needs a Barney. Every Lucy needs an Ethel. Every Burt needs an Ernie. Secrets are shared among friends. Loneliness can be destroyed by a good friend. True friends don’t allow suicides. Who else could tell you that you are wrong? True friendship breathes honesty, integrity, truth, solidarity and true love. We truly get by with a little help from our friends.

A true friend can look at you and you know what that look means. Friends allow us to be ourselves when the rest of the world says we can’t. Friends give us a sense of belonging. Friends make us feel like someone gives a damn about us.

So you see, contrary to Facebook’s zeal for the word only, I’m attempting to show you a more excellent way. I’ve noticed that instead of having tons of “friends” online, I have a close circle of people, who I can count on one hand, that I know will run through a fire for me. It’s through that circle that we’ve created trust. My closest friends only know of each other through me. They are not friends, but will do things for each other at my request. To have money, cars, support and love at my disposal whenever I need it is what true friendship means to me. And the coolest thing about it is that I get to reciprocate.

I get to be there when they need me. I get to rush to the bank when they need money. I get to tell them the truth when no one else will. I get to make sure they never spend a birthday alone or never have to worry about being homeless. Their children don’t have to worry about what if something happened to mommy or daddy.

We see this type of camaraderie among police officers, gang-bangers, sports teams,wise guys and military troops. We need a few more folks in the world willing to step up and be a true friend and not a foe. If you don’t know friendship like this, you must investigate why and I promise you will learn something very important about yourself.

Here’s to friendship! May everyone have the chance to experience its purity, truthfulness and honor like I do. So to my bosom buddies, chums, companions, comrades, consorts, partners and soul mates … well, you know.

Rewind the Future: http://youtu.be/xUmp67YDlHY

In my previous blog I talked about grace being, ” … the sweet spot where what’s supposed to happen doesn’t and learning occurs.” If we really understand what this means we can effectively examine our roles in these situations to see if we are glorifying God. Imagine in the heat of your anger with your flesh seeking revenge, how you conduct yourself to bring about God’s conclusion is what really matters to the father.

We could always choose to allow our flesh to rule us and begin to pronounce sentencing on our oppressor. Saying things like:

“I want you to pay me back with interest!”

“You brought this on yourself!”

“This hurts me more than it does you.”

We feel in the flesh some type of justification when we have been wronged. That makes it “ok” to be the judge and jury in these cases. God, on the other hand, does not treat us that way. Remember the woman caught in the very act of adultery? (John 8:4). That mob of people felt justified because  of the law. The powerful part of that story for me is that the law made those folks bring this woman to Christ! Was that not the intent of the law? So when she is brought before our king, he challenges us to remember being in her place. An adulterer? Nope. A sinner! All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). If that’s true, then we need to leave the judging to the one who is righteous and assist in making sure God’s agenda is promoted and not ours.

The bible says, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). He allows for free will and did not create us in his image (giving us intellect) only to take our choices away by making us do his will.

Dear reader, are you holding a grudge against someone? Do you feel worthy to sit in any judgement seat? Can you even punish anyone better than God? Instead of dwelling on what happened, where is the honoring of God for what didn’t happen?

Have you ever tasted revenge? To set out to repay someone for some wrong doing is a difficult task. It puts you on the dark side — literally. To allow revenge to kindle inside of you is to allow hate to be your master.

We use these so-called laws of ours and sit in the seat of  judgement to pronounce a verdict for a situation that we don’t fully understand, nor have the authority to pronounce.

God allowed laws for one purpose. And can you guess that purpose? Order? Nope. For people to know right from wrong? Wrong again. To communicate with his people? That’s a negatory.

Read this carefully because I don’t want you to miss it. What I’m about to tell you should make you not ever want to sit in a judgement seat.

Ready? Here it is: God gave His laws, rules, commandments and the like for the sole purpose of bringing us to Christ. Did you miss it? Remember in the bible (Gal. 3:24) which says the law is our schoolmaster to bring us where?

Why would God use the law this way? The better question is why aren’t we using laws this way today?

You see, if we allow the love God gave us to grow, we would want everyone we touch to come into the knowledge of Him who has called us to glory and virtue.

To get them there, they have to understand that they need Him. Well how will anyone recognize that they need Him? This is only because they recognize themselves as a sinner. And that won’t happen without laws to break. Becoming clearer?

We tend to get caught up in the right and wrong of it and we miss the weightier matter which lies in the middle — the gray area!

This is the area that says maybe. This is the sweet spot where what’s supposed to happen doesn’t and learning occurs. This gray area in the middle is grace.