12 Candidates For Management Positions

TO:
Jesus, Son of Joseph
The Woodcrafter’s Carpenter Shop
Nazareth 25922

FROM:
Jordan Management Consultants
Jerusalem 26544

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests, and we have not only run the results through our computers, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocation aptitude consultant.

It is the opinion of the staff that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capacity.

We have summarized the findings of our study below:

Simon Peter is emotional, unstable and given to fits of temper.

Andrew has absolutely no quality of leadership.

The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interests above Company loyalty.

Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.

We believe it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been black-listed by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau.

James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus definitely have radical meanings. Additionally, they both registered high scores on the manic depressive scale.

However, one of the candidates shows great potential. He’s a man of ability and resourcefulness; he is a great networker; has a keen business mind; and has strong contacts in influential circles. He’s highly motivated, very ambitious and adept with financial matters.

We recommend Judas Iscariot as your Controller and Chief Operating Officer.All the other profiles are self-explanatory. We wish you the utmost success in your new venture.

What if Jesus had chosen the twelve based on the modern methods of leadership selection? Most of them would have never had a chance to participate.

Jesus chooses people not for who they are, but for what they can become in Him. Aren’t you glad that when Jesus looked at you, He didn’t take you for what you were (a sinner); but He took you for what you could be.

Jesus sees the potential in all of us, and has called us to be disciples.

Jesus is still saying, “Follow Me!”

By Author Unknown

3 Thoughts

(1) Zero Gravity

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ball-point pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat this problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion developing a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside-down, on almost any surface
including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 C.

The Russians used a pencil. Your taxes are due again - - enjoy paying them.

(2) Our Constitution

"They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq. Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, and it's worked for over 200 years. And, we're not using it anymore."

(3) Ten Commandments

The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments in a Courthouse is that you cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" and "Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians.

It creates a hostile work environment.

You Still Have Hope

If you can look at the sunset and smile, then you still have hope.

If you can find beauty in the colors of a small flower, then you still have hope.

If you can find pleasure in the movement of a butterfly, then you still have hope.

If the smile of a child can still warm your heart, then you still have hope.If you can see the good in other people, then you still have hope.

If the rain breaking on a roof top can still lull you to sleep, then you still have hope.

If the sight of a rainbow still makes you stop and stare in wonder, then you still have hope.

If the soft fur of a favored pet still feels pleasant under your fingertips, then you still have hope.

If you meet new people with a trace of excitement and optimism, then you still have hope.

If you give people the benefit of a doubt, then you still have hope.

If you still offer your hand in friendship to others that have touched your life, then you still have hope.

If receiving an unexpected card or letter still brings a pleasant surprise, then you still have hope.

If the suffering of others still fills you with pain and frustration, then you still have hope.

If you refuse to let a friendship die, or accept that it must end, then you still have hope.

If you look forward to a time or place of quiet and reflection, then you still have hope.

If you still buy the ornaments, put up the Christmas tree or cook the turkey, then you still have hope.

If you still watch love stories or want the endings to be happy, then you still have hope.

If you can look to the past and smile, then you still have hope.

If, when faced with the bad, when told everything is futile, you can still look up and end the conversation with the phrase… “yeah….BUT..” then you still have hope.

Hope is such a marvelous thing. It bends, it twists, it sometimes hides, but rarely does it break. It sustains us when nothing else can. It gives us reason to continue and courage to move ahead, when we tell ourselves we’d rather give in.

Hope puts a smile on our face when the heart cannot manage.

Hope puts our feet on the path when our eyes cannot see it.

Hope moves us to act when our souls are confused of the direction.

Hope is a wonderful thing, something to be cherished and nurtured, and something that will refresh us in return. And it can be found in each of us, and it can bring light into the darkest of places.

Never lose hope.

By Author Unknown

'Munich' Is Artistic Indecency

http://newsok.com/article/1739484/

'Munich' is artistic indecency

By Eli Reshef, M.D.

Imagine the unimaginable -- Jewish religious zealots murder in cold blood members of the Palestinian Olympic team during the 2008 Olympic Games. Anybody, even an accomplished writer or director, who tries to soften the horror of such an event by "objectively" presenting both viewpoints may suffer a worse fate than Salman Rushdie.

Enter "Munich," Steven Spielberg's greatest missed opportunity. Here was an event, the killing of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympics, that had the drama, the villains, the heroes, the horror -- all clearly outlined in plain view; the perfect ingredients for another one of Spielberg's genius epics.

What I saw in the movie "Munich," as an Israeli who joined the Israeli army in that same year, was a miserable attempt to glorify the drama, while diluting its message with self-serving simplistic intellectual fluff. I'm not sure a movie depicting Muhammad Atta's misgivings and apprehension about crashing into the World Trade Center would win any hearts anywhere but in certain madrasas in Pakistan. Similarly, any attempt to attribute humane or intellectual properties to the Munich killers does a tremendous disservice to those of us with even a hint of clarity of vision.

As an Israeli and a Jew, I became angry at the movie's inability to portray the enormity of the crime to the uninitiated and less informed. Instead, Spielberg and his screenwriter Tony Kushner (a proverbial anti-Israeli self-hating Jew) used the silver screen as a platform for a pseudo-intellectual existential ideology that rotted long ago in French bistros.

Those of us who witnessed this act via the media will eventually be a minority. What remains for future generations is the visual and printed media to define and commemorate cataclysmic events. What is the message to generations to come via "Munich" -- that there is goodness in anything that is evil, and that revenge is inherently evil? True, violence often begets violence. Does that dictum imply that we should use the pen against a vicious terrorist using an AK-47 or an airliner as a weapon?

I tolerated, though barely, the fake Israeli accents, the bogus misgivings of the Israeli assassins, even the sexual climax scene while a cold-blooded murder was taking place -- all presumably for the sake of stimulating an intellectual debate. Poetic liberties are, after all, the essence of art. What I could not take was how diluted the portrayal of pure evil has become, how the death of innocents has been so trivialized by this faulty intellectual exercise.

Reshef practices medicine in Oklahoma City.

Rules For Being Human

1. You will receive one body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire time you’re here.

2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn the lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error, and experimentation. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately works.

4. A lesson is repeated until learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. There is no better a place than here. When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here”.

7. Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. Your answers lie inside you. The answers to life’s questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

By Author Unknown

Words

Words. Story. Life.
Words. Sounds. Empty.

Plans. Purpose. Perseverance.
Party. Sporadic. Procrastination.

Work. Struggle. Strife. Sweat. Passion.
Play. Pretend. Drift. Rest. Dawdle.

Earn. Build. Work. Compound. Lead.
Spend. Use. Play. Withdraw. Follow.

Pride. Satisfaction. Joy.
Regret. Envy. Despair.

Words. Story. Life.
Words. Sounds. Nothing…

By Leslie Chandler 2006

FREEDOM

Fallen soldiers have given us their all
Running out to answer the call
Every soldier understands the sight
Each has seen the blood of the fight
Duty calls to each and every one
Oppression is to be undone
May God grant all His grace to our Army

Without them, FREEDOM would not be.

By Leslie Chandler 2006

Stepping Stones

The Lord came to me like a dream one day and asked, “why do you sorrow?”
I answered, “Lord my life is so full of pain, I can’t face one more tomorrow.”
The Lord sat down beside me, and gently took my hand.
He said, “Let me explain to you and then you’ll understand.

Each sorrow is a stepping stone
you must surmount each day,
And every stepping stone you climb
is a sorrow that’s passed away.

The road of life is a mountainside,
with crevices in which to be caught,
But as you struggle on your way,
I the Rock, will lend support.

Every stepping stone you climb,
makes spirit and heart grow strong.
Exercising character and faith
this road seems painful and long.


The way is paved with stepping stones,
to uplift your heart and soul,
Though difficult they aid your way,
to a City paved with gold.

I know that you are tired,
for I too have walked this way,
My sorrows did they multiply,
but I cleared many stones away.

I left my rock to lift you up,
I left behind my story.
To give you strength to make your climb,
to that special place in glory.

And never fear, the Rock is here,
You’ll never climb this mountain alone
Surmount life’s sorrows, continue on,
For they are but stepping stones.

By Author Unknown

The Devil's Beatitudes

Blessed are those who are too tired, too busy, too distracted to spend an hour once a week with their fellow Christians in Church, they are my best workers.

Blessed are those Christians who wait to be asked and expect to be thanked, I can use them.

Blessed are the touchy, with a bit of luck they may stop going to Church, they are my missionaries.

Blessed are those who are very religious but get on everyone’s nerves, they are mine forever.

Blessed are the troublemakers, they shall be called my children.

Blessed are those who have no time to pray, they are easy prey for me.

Blessed are the complainers, I’m all ears for them.

Blessed are you when you read this and think it is about other people and not yourself, I’ve got you.

By Author Unknown

GABRIEL ESCAPED FROM A HORRIBLE SANITARIUM

While this story concerns Romania, this happens in many Eastern European countries and also in Russia. One finds it hard to believe we are now in the 21st century. Apart from God, man's heart is wicked and has no limits to the evil it can cause. The below sounds like a camp you would find the Nazi's running.

From Evenimentul Zilei newspaper, Tuesday, January 10, 2006

GABRIEL ESCAPED FROM A HORRIBLE SANITARIUM

He had been tied with handcuffs. When he would see soap he would eat it. If he refused to work, he would be locked in a cage. He slept with two or three others in a bed. He received only pig slop to eat. This is what happened until recently, with the sick ones in a center for psychiatric illness in Romania. Earthshaking testimonies and photographs recreate this gloomy picture of modern slavery. All of this happened at Urlati, at the center "Steaua" ("The Star"), there where a director for many years, made money at the expense of the sick ones. On this sinister background, in1995, eight sick people lost their lives, intoxicated by gas from a defective heating stove. And for the picture to be complete, recently a child was discovered at Urlati who grew up for a period of five years among crazy people, without the institution that should have been responsible for his fate, knowing this thing. This is a case without precedent in Romania.

The center for neurological recuperation and rehabilitation "Steaua" is situated at the edge of the city Urlati (Prahova County), at the top of a hill, safe from indiscriminate view. Here, live 200 people with severe psychological handicaps, who were declared unable to live in society. Here also was, until recently, Gabriel's home, a little boy age 5. The boy was discovered two months ago when the Psychiatric Centers passed from the administration of The National Association for the Handicapped under the authority of the County commissioner. From January 1, 2006, The Child Protection Services in Prahova united with the neurological rehabilitation centers in the county under the leadership of director Gheorghe Curelea. Then began inspections which led to the finding of Gabriel and the dismissal of the director of the "Steaua" center, doctor Silviu Dontu.

I'VE NEVER SEEN A CHILD SO SAD IN ALL MY LIFE
"When I discovered the existence of Gabriel, it took my breath away", said Curelea. "I couldn't believe that something like this was possible. His mother, Liliana, is retarded and became pregnant while she was at the center "Steaua". The father is unknown. The child remained with his mother and was raised along with people with serious psychological problems. It is inconceivable that this happened." Curelea said that he was very moved by the state of this child. "I have never seen a child so sad in all my life. It is a deliberate crime for him to be kept so long in this way." The director said Gabriel has been visibly affected by the fact that he has stayed so long among mentally disabled people. "With all of this, he is as normal as possible. I can even say he has an above average intelligence."

BURSTING OUT IN TEARS
Gabriel is now in the care of a maternal assistant in the village of Magureni, 30 kilometers from Ploiesti. Viorica Cernica receives $160 a month to care for him. "Now it is better, but at the beginning he would cry constantly," she maintained. "Every morning he would burst into tears for no reason." The woman says about Gabriel that, since he's been with her, he feels much better and doesn't have the longing for his mother, with whom he didn't succeed in bonding very well. While he is speaking, the child plays with little cars. He avoids any contact with strangers. "Every time someone comes to visit," explains Gabriela, "he hides in fear that he will be taken from here."

LIFE LIKE IN A LABOR CAMP
Gheorghe Curelea says about the center "Steaua": "I found there a kind of extermination labor camp. I found things there beyond my imagination. People were held locked in a type of pen and it looked like a pigsty. A normal man would not be able to survive in that mess for even one week. I told Dontu that something like this isn't possible, that something must be done immediately. Every time Iwould go to the center to see what progress was made, I never found him there. When at last I found him, he told me he couldn't do anything because the employees don't listen to him. I told him then he must leave his job to someone more capable."

THEY WOULD EAT SOAP
The new director at the center, Marilena Gheorghe, also speaks about the grave situation in which she found "Steaua". "I've worked all my life in these types of centers," she said, "but I am shocked with what I have seen here. They were like animals. The first time when I gave them soap, they began to eat it because they never saw such a thing. The majority were undressed and slept two or three to a bed. The excuse that the former director used for the deplorable state of the center was a lack of money. I also know what it's like to not have the means, but every time I asked for something I was given the minimum necessary. Doctor Dontu, for example, didn't even ask for anything except one roll of toilet paper per person per month. In this situation, there isn't any way there could be anymore."

ALCOHOL AND FIRE
Marilena further said that she was shocked when she saw that in the storage room there were tons of clothes, but the patients were kept undressed in the cold. "But in regards to the food, the situation is indescribable. There were slops of food that not even a dog would touch." Marilena Gheorghe confirmed that Dontu kept his 'assisted ones' (the name used for sick ones at psychological centers), locked up permanently because he said they are unstable and dangerous. "Since I got them out of the pens where they were held, they are very peaceful. Not one of them has had even one manifestation of violence." Still, acts of violence did exist at the center. "When I came here I believe that I disturbed many of the people", says Marilena. "From what I can tell, the employees were much freer under the old leadership. Someone gave alcohol to the people so they would become violent. In the same week they set fire to three haystacks." The director of the center says that, now two weeks later, fire was set to a whole pavilion. "I was convinced that it was sabotage, but the firemen told me that it was because of the electric wiring. What can I do? I must believe them because they're specialists."

INSANE BOUND....WITH HANDCUFFS
The last commission that verified the situation at "Steaua" brought to light some earthshaking details. At "Steaua" there were rooms where in winter there were no glass in the windows. Broken windowpanes were covered with blankets. The sick were many to a bed, others had no mattresses and slept directly on the bare metal springs of the bed. The medications of those held in isolation were put in a common bucket and given with a mug through a hole in the door. The sickones were held weeks there. Meals were the same process. Some of the sick were held bound with metal handcuffs and were forced to work until they were exhausted.

Friends

TWO FRIENDS WERE WALKING
THROUGH THE DESERT
DURING SOME POINT OF THE
JOURNEY THEY HAD AN
ARGUMENT AND ONE FRIEND
SLAPPED THE OTHER ONE
IN THE FACE.

THE ONE WHO GOT SLAPPED
WAS HURT, BUT WITHOUT
SAYING ANYTHING,
WROTE IN THE SAND:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND
SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.

THEY KEPT ON WALKING,
UNTIL THEY FOUND AN OASIS,
WHERE THEY DECIDED
TO TAKE A BATH.

THE ONE WHO HAD BEEN
SLAPPED GOT STUCK IN THE
MIRE AND STARTED DROWNING,
BUT THE FRIEND SAVED HIM.

AFTER HE RECOVERED FROM
THE NEAR DROWNING,
HE WROTE ON A STONE:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND
SAVED MY LIFE.

THE FRIEND WHO HAD SLAPPED
AND SAVED HIS BEST FRIEND
ASKED HIM, "AFTER I HURT YOU,
YOU WROTE IN THE SAND AND NOW,
YOU WRITE ON A STONE, WHY?"

THE OTHER FRIEND REPLIED
"WHEN SOMEONE HURTS US
WE SHOULD WRITE IT DOWN
IN SAND WHERE WINDS OF
FORGIVENESS CAN ERASE IT AWAY.
BUT, WHEN SOMEONE DOES
SOMETHING GOOD FOR US,
WE MUST ENGRAVE IT IN STONE
WHERE NO WIND
CAN EVER ERASE IT."

LEARN TO WRITE
YOUR HURTS IN
THE SAND AND TO
CARVE YOUR
BENEFITS IN STONE.

THEY SAY IT TAKES A
MINUTE TO FIND A SPECIAL
PERSON, AN HOUR TO
APPRECIATE THEM, A DAY
TO LOVE THEM, BUT THEN
AN ENTIRE LIFE
TO FORGET THEM.

God's Deck of Cards

A thing to note. In the Middle East where are troops are bravely serving, those countries do not want our troops to have access to any written Scripture unless it is the Koran. Yet, while Middle Eastern persons come to America, no one objects to them having their Scripture.

God's Deck of Cards

It was quiet that day, the guns and the mortars, and land mines for some reason hadn't been heard.

The young soldier knew it was Sunday! The holiest day of the week.

As he was sitting there, he got out an old deck of cards and laid them out across his bunk.

Just then an army sergeant came in and said, "Why aren't you with the rest of the platoon?"

The soldier replied, "I thought I would stay behind and spend some time with the Lord."

The sergeant said, "Looks to me like you're going to play cards."

The soldier said, "No, sir. You see, since we are not allowed to have Bibles or other spiritual books in this country, I've decided to talk to the Lord by studying this deck of cards."

The sergeant asked in disbelief, "How will you do that?"

"You see the Ace, Sergeant? It reminds me that there is only one God.

The Two represents the two parts of the Bible, Old and New Testaments.

The Three represents the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The Four stands for the Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Five is for the five virgins, there were ten but only five of them were glorified.

The Six is for the six days it took God to create the Heavens and Earth.

The Seven is for the day God rested after making His Creation.

The Eight is for the family of Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives - the eight people God spared from the flood that destroyed the Earth.

The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy. He cleansed ten, but nine never thanked Him.

The Ten represents the Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses on tablets made of stone.

The Jack is a reminder of Satan, one of God's first angels, but he got kicked out of heaven for his sly and wicked ways and is now the joker of eternal hell.

The Queen stands for the Virgin Mary.

The King stands for Jesus, for he is the King of all kings.

When I count the dots on all the cards, I come up with 365 total, one for every day of the year.

There are a total of 52 cards in a deck; each is a week - 52 weeks in a year.

The four suits represent the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

Each suit has thirteen cards - there are exactly thirteen weeks in a quarter.

So when I want to talk to God and thank Him, I just pull out this old deck of cards and they remind me of all that I have to be thankful for."

The sergeant just stood there. After a minute, with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart, he said, "Soldier, can I borrow that deck of cards?"

Please let this be a reminder and take time to pray for all of our soldiers who are being sent away, putting their lives on the line fighting.

They No Longer Needed God

One day a group of scientists got together and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. They picked one scientist to go and tell Him that they were finished with Him.

The scientist went to God and said, “God, we’ve decided that we no longer need you. We’re to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so why don’t you just go on and go somewhere else.”

God listened patiently and kindly to the man, and after the scientist had had his say, God said, “Very well! How about this? Let’s have a man making contest.”

The scientist agreed without hesitation and God added, “Now we’re going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam.”

The scientist said, “Sure, no problem” and bent down and grabbed himself a handful of dirt.

God looked at him and said, “No, no, no. You have to get your own dirt!”

By Author Unknown