FREEFALLING

Guns and Granny

2010-07-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

DEPORT HER TO AMERICA !

The Rambo Granny of Mel bourne , Australia

Gun-toting granny Ava Estelle, 81, was so ticked-off when two thugs raped her 18-year-old granddaughter that she tracked the unsuspecting ex-cons down... and shot off their testicles.

The old lady spent a week hunting those men down -and, when she found them, she took revenge on them in her own special way, said Mel bourne police investigator Evan Delp.

Then she took a taxi to the nearest police station, laid the gun on the sergeant's desk and told him as calm as could be: 'Those bastards will never rape anybody again, by God.'

Cops say convicted rapist and robber Davis Furth, 33, lost both his penis and his testicles when outraged Ava opened fire with a 9-mm pistol in the hotel room where he and former prison cell mate Stanley Thomas, 29, were holed up...

The wrinkled avenger also blew Thomas' testicles to kingdom come, but doctors managed to save his mangled penis, police said. 'The one guy, Thomas, didn't lose his manhood, 'but the doctor I talked to said he won't be using it the way he used to,' Detective Delp told reporters. 'Both men are still in pretty bad shape, 'but I think they're just happy to be alive after what they've been through.'

The Rambo Granny swung into action August 21 after her granddaughter Debbie was carjacked and raped in broad daylight by two knife-wielding creeps in a section of town bordering on skid row.. 'When I saw the look on my Debbie's face that night in the hospital, 'I decided I was going to go out and get those bastards myself ''cause I figured the Law would go easy on them,' recalled the retired library worker... 'And I wasn't scared of them, either - because I've got me a gun and I've been shootin' all my life. 'And I wasn't dumb enough to turn it in when the law changed about owning one.'

So, using a police artist's sketch of the suspects and Debbie's description of the sickos, tough-as-nails Ava spent seven days prowling the wino-infested neighborhood where the crime took place till she spotted the ill-fated rapists entering their flophouse hotel. 'I knew it was them the minute I saw 'em, but I shot a picture of 'em anyway' and took it back to Debbie and she said sure as hell, it was them,' the oldster recalled...

'So I went back to that hotel and found their room and knocked on the door, 'and the minute the big one opened the door, I shot 'em right square between the legs,'right where it would really hurt 'em most, you know. 'Then I went in and shot the other one 'as he backed up pleading to me to spare him.' Then I went down to the police station and turned myself in..'

Now, baffled lawmen are trying to figure out exactly how to deal with the vigilante granny. 'What she did was wrong, and she broke the law, but it is difficult to throw an 81-year-old woman in prison,' Det. Delp said, 'especially when 3 million people in the city want to nominate her for Mayor.'

DEPORT HER TO AMERICA - WE NEED HER!

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Australian Gun Law Update

Here's a thought to warm some of your hearts...
From: Ed Chenel , A police officer in Australia

Hi Yanks, I thought you all would like to see the real figures from Down Under.

It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by a new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by our own government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars.

The first year results are now in:
Australia-wide, homicides are up 6.2 percent,
Australia-wide, assaults are up 9.6 percent;
Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!

In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent. (Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not and criminals still possess their guns!)

While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since the criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.

There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the elderly, while the resident is at home.

Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort and expense was expended in 'successfully ridding Australian society of guns..' You won't see this on the American evening news or hear your governor or members of the State Assembly disseminating this information.

The Australian experience speaks for itself. Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws affect only the law-abiding citizens.

Take note Americans, before it's too late!

Will you be one of the sheep to turn yours in? WHY? You will need it.

Oh God, Hold Her (from "Along Came a Stranger" by Lydia Kohlmeier. My comments follow)

2010-05-05T08:59:00.000-07:00

If I’m going to tell the story about the people who have had the greatest impact on my spiritual life, I couldn’t possibly leave out my courageous Frances.

I just walked into her room one day, and here’s what I saw:

A young girl, maybe in her mid-30’s with big brown eyes and sort of a pixie look. She looked ready to smile given half a chance.  
She was so still lying there, flat on her back. Nor part of her moved at all. Finally I asked what on earth she was doing in a convalescent hospital. In a flat, unemotional voice she said...
“I have Multiple Sclerosis and can’t move from my neck down.”

This was said in such a way I knew she neither wanted, nor expected, sympathy.

I asked her a few questions about the disease, and she talked easily, almost objectively, as if maybe all this had happened to someone else, someone she used to know, in a different world, a different place.

My heart was aching for her, but I had learned a few things the hard way, and one of them was this.

Never, never, violate or intrude on a person’s privacy, especially the sick, as they seem to have a greater need to keep their individuality. Maybe it’s because they must depend on others for their help and care. They can still be a person: if they keep part of themselves untouched.

I believe if we are to do God’s work, we must become “all things to all people that we might by all means save some.”

I could see that Frances had accepted and adjusted to the cold, hard fact that she would never get better, and so she was ready for some light-hearted laughter and so was I.

We established sort of a “fun and gams” relationship and I really looked forward to seeing her once or twice a week.

I found out quite a bit about her. She had to leave four teenaged children at home when she finally had to give up and enter a hospital, knowing she could never go home again. No one but our Heavenly Father could know what kind of private hell she went through. Somehow, by sheer courage, she managed to stay on top of things and live her life the best way possible with the deck stacked against her.

We talked about many things, and I felt very close to her, but she let me come just so far, and no farther. I began to see she had built and armor of protection around herself like an invisible wall.

She couldn’t take the chance of becoming vulnerable. I could sense her thoughts.

Don’t care too much. Don’t trust too much. Don’t be obligated to anyone. Don’t let go. Don’t get hurt any more.

She was holding her finger in the dike and dared not remove it, or she would be swept away.

I understood, and respected her privacy., but if I get carried away on some emotional tangent, like I’m so inclined to do, I could see the curtain come down, and the show was over.

As I began to put together bits and pieces, I found out Frances had been a “sitting duck” for every faith healer and every insensitive “religious fanatic” in town.

One day as I shared some of the “mountains and valleys” I’d encountered on my road to the Lord, she opened up a little and began to talk about some of the “do-gooders” who had come to see her.

Some tried the “laying on of hands”. Others read the Bible hour after hour, never once asking what she wanted. What an invasion into her life! And there was no escape from her bedridden captivity.

I found myself getting very angry, and also very protective. If it had been possible, I would have stood guard outsider her door and given a “mental frisking” to all who came.

Frances knew that I could identify with her in a world without God.

And so, drop by drop, we began to share, and her starving soul picked up a “crumb”. Both our pastors began to visit her, and I could see she had started to think abut some hellish past she had pushed away and out of sight.

One day when I waked in, those big brown eyes were sending out spark signals. I knew something good had happened, so when I asked, she said, “Of all things - I bought myself a typewriter”.

Tis sounded so incongruous, we both started to laugh, and when Frances and I got on that laughing spree, it was as if all sunshine and rainbows in Heaven joined together in her little room.

You see, we had reached a plateau in our friendship where we could see a kind of pathetic comedy in some of her ridiculous situations. Sometimes I think we laughed to keep from crying. I know I did. But Frances had more courage than I and had learned to live in an impossible world.

And so now she had a typewriter. She had been a secretary and decided she would hold a pencil in her teeth and hit the keys. She was able to be put in a wheelchair twice a day and as she couldn’t sit up very long, she had to memorize what she wanted to write. That way she could make use of every minute.

What a thrill! Now she could write her parents, relatives, friends. She felt a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Now at last she could do something for herself.

And we rejoiced together.

One day I got a letter in the mail and when I saw the address was from Frances, I just sat there, almost afraid to open it. She had typed a beautiful poem just for me. I’m always deeply touched by a gesture of love. All I could see in my “mind’s eye” was Frances holding a pencil in her teeth and making this kind of effort to bring a moment of happiness into someone’s life.

I asked God for His special blessing for her from this day on, moment by moment, and I prayed.

“Oh God. Hold her in Your everlasting arms. She’s coming to You, Lord, faltering, blindly stumbling, agonizing, but coming, just the same.”

It’s enough for now.

Thank You, Jesus.

I had to share this with someone, and who else but Myrna?

When I handed her the letter, I was sort of weepy and she must have thought it was the “letter edged in black”, until she read it. I’m afraid my poem is tattered and tearstained, but it’s more precious, I suppose because of that.

When I saw Frances, I tried to tell her what her “labor of love” did to me, and I’m afraid I didn’t do a very good job, because of the lump in my throat, but she got the message.

She looked so happy, and I prayed she would get her reward--”Good measure, press down, running over”.

In control as usual, she said
“Maybe something good can come from this after all.”

And I knew the time was right, and I asked,

“Have you thought about going to church with me?”

Her answer,
“Yes, I’ll go Sunday.”

And so... I pushed a wheelchair through the open doors with someone who had been victorious. So this is what we have. A hope of things to come, so we can hold out against the world.

One faith. One church. One Lord. One Father of us all.

Forever.

My Thoughts
This chapter came from the book Along Came a Stranger by Lynda Kohl. In the book she used the name Janice for Frances because my mother was still alive and she was serious about privacy. Lynda Kohl is even a pseudonym for Lydia Kohlmeier. This book was written in 1975 two years before Frances passed away.

Lydia wrote this to define her own journey in her walk with God. She chose my mother because of her courage. It’s enlightening to know my mother was courageous. I always thought of her as “my mother”. But seeing her through another’s eyes and 32 years later, I see her courage and always loved her sense of humor. She would laugh about the most ridiculous things. And we all laughed with her even as we cried with her through the pain and anguish her disease brought.

I left home in 1972, got married, had two children by the time she passed. So I didn’t get to enjoy the last 5 years of her life. I really missed the best part of it.

I thought I had lost this book.  
Earlier this year I was grieved to realize I was missing it. When I had to rearrange things in the garage and found some old boxes of the children’s momentos I was keeping, I ran across the book with a photo of her at her typewriter, my little sister standing there with her.

This is my Mother’s Day gift (2010) to my children and grandchildren. They never knew their Grandma Bender and hopefully this will give some insight into her life.

Sue Hanauer

No words

2010-01-03T13:58:00.000-08:00

I have a friend online that brings so many different ideas about God. Maybe 5 years ago I would have considered some of these things as heresy, but as my relationship with a loving God has grown and blossomed into an intimacy that cannot be described by plain words, I now consider her ideas and thoughts as her journey to get closer to her heavenly Father.

I don't need all those different ideas. I have so much going on inside my head already that adding more to it seems like eating at a buffet when I already had a big steak dinner. Too much to digest on too small a brain. But my heart feels like it is growing bigger every day. I can't really explain that, either. But the more His love is shining in my heart the more I am understanding His love for EVERYone around me.

I used to have a very small world view, mostly because I was firmly ensconced in religion and didn't realize it. But my world view has become broader and now embraces not just those who think like me, but those who don't, those who are searching, and those who just don't seem to care. Because all of these people are loved by Jesus who gave up His life to win their hearts back to the Father.

I would love to write something so totally profound that people would go ga-ga over my blog, but the truth is...I just love Him and He loves me, and that causes me to love others like I never have loved people before...

Dena's blog post is here www.simplechurch.com

Living in HIS love without expectations

2009-08-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

Just an encouragement to continue to live in HIS love....

** "Do you realize how much you are loved (by God)? Do you have the experience of how deeply, tangibly, relentlessly, passionately, unconditionally you are loved? Do you realize--not in a theoretical way, but in a profoundly human way--how the love of Jesus Christ is so passionate whether you are in a "state of grace" or disgrace, whether you live up to the expectations of His Gospel or you don't, do you realize that God loves you beyond unworthiness and worthiness, beyond fidelity and infidelity, that He loves you in the morning sun and the evening rain, without caution, regret, boundary, limit, breaking point,--no matter what's gone down He can't stop loving you. Can you see, right now, Jesus looking into your eyes and saying, "I have a word for you, and my word is this; are you listening, I love you, I love you no matter, I can't stop loving you.""The craziness of thinking we must become worthy of God's love. If we will just let God be God--a Savior of unbearable forgiveness with infinite patience with a love that keeps no score of our wrong-doing. For us, love is a virtue. For God love is His identity." **

Speaking of "keeping score", I have been greatly influenced by this from Thomas Merton speaking to one of the brothers at the monastery;**

"If I make anything out of the fact that I am Thomas Merton, I am dead. And if you make anything out of the fact that you are in charge of the pig barn, you are dead."

Merton's solution? "Quit keeping score altogether and surrender yourself with all your sinfulness to God who sees neither the score nor the scorekeeper but only his child redeemed by Christ." **

Reader Question

2009-08-17T15:18:00.000-07:00

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a
day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a
day.

2 Peter 3:8, New International Version

Hey Sue

As usual.......if I don't get it, I come to you. WHY is this an important scripture? WHAT does it mean? I'm sitting here scratching my no-so-bald-anymore head going huh??

Thanks!
Love ya
Cyndy

I suppose the context is important...he is speaking of last days and the fact that we need to be vigilant...but some take this to extreme and lay down law upon law for us to follow when Jesus left us with only ONE commandment...to love one another as he loves us....

As we grow in the Lord the meaning of certain verses seems to change...where it is said that if we love Him we will obey his command...i used to be of the idea that because I obey it showed how much I loved Him, but now it see that the other way around...I love him so much I just automatically obey because of the love...

I think this verse you are struggling over is similar in that one person will see it one way and another will see it as a totally different meaning...i find it just what it says...and leave it alone....to God it is ALL eternity...no beginning, no ending....WE are caught in a space of time....WE have no real concept of eternity....HE does, so a thousand years being like a day and a day as a thousand years seems a good way to express a concept of eternity...this is speaking of the end times...we are caught hoping the world will end (or not yet, please, while I am still here) when all we have is a short life span in comparison to forever...it’s barely a blip on God’s radar screen, kinda like a hundred million dollars in cuts from a couple trillion dollar budget....hardly worth a thought...

So it’s so great that He truly loves each of us...it’s like a big love story going on in our hearts when we are but a blip to eternity....and we have a tendency to take our little bit of “scripture” written about a God we can’t truly fathom and create all kinds of doctrines and laws regarding His love for us....

When He decided that written word was not enough for the Israelites, he sent His Son to wipe out the sin nature in the world and open up an entire new paradigm for EVERYone to come in....now He lives within US and the Holy Spirit leads us to Jesus and to Papa every moment of every day....HE made the way into His heart...all we have to do is accept it....and open up our hearts to hear from Him....

Granted, some of that can be through what we read in the Bible....but HIS WORD is already living within us...even if we had never read a word on the written page of the Bible we KNOW what is right and wrong to do....in Ecclesiates it says that HE put eternity in the hearts of men....and that was before Jesus came to physically reconcile the world....

What about those in deepest darkest Africa who have never ever heard the Bible? I am more aware now than at any other time in my life that our American, Western “Christianity” with it’s emphasis on the Bible being “the Word of God” is pretty bogus....the Bible is very important, don’t get me wrong, (I just quoted some of it, right?), but the WORD is Jesus Christ, speaking in our hearts thru the Holy Spirit....now we can either believe this or not....but since I quit taking every jot and tittle of t he words in the Bible to convey doctrine, and just listen to HIM in my heart, I have encountered a whole lot more peace and joy in my walking with Papa...

I have changed my way of thinking about God from one where it was up to ME to change and be like HIM to one like a child where I can screw up and know He still loves me...He loves me no matter what I do or how evil I am...however, the difference is that when I discover HIS love for ME...and it begins to show up in everything I do, I don’t WANT to screw up or do bad things. He already did away with the sin, Apart from the Law there is NO sin, and we ARE apart from the law....Romans something....

The REST of the gospel is just that...

2009-06-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

resting in HIM. How to do it? I think it's a bit of fatalism, mixed with contentment, peace and joy, embued with LOVE for Father and all that entails. Fatalism in itself is selfishness, but when you KNOW the He loves you so much the resting gets easier and easier and you begin to understand the deeper meaning of His love. There is no fear in love. Fear's end result is punishment. Love's end result is a deeper more abiding peace with God and all those around.

Most of my life has been lived through fear. I am beginning to see when the fear is gone and replaced by intent to love, that my motivations are changed. Instead of trying to get the upper hand because I fear I will be lost in the crowd, I take the path of love and do what needs doing because I love.

2009-04-01T16:09:00.000-07:00

i am now on twitter. don't know how to let you know to get to me, but try "silversaddle".

Open Parachute and Freefall in Jesus

2008-06-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

I was reading some Google spots trying to figure out how to get this blog to the top and ended up thinking about parachutes. Before the parachute opens it's called "freefalling" and the feeling (I assume, because I have never done it) is exhileration at the highest level. Then of course you have to eventually open the parachute before landing.
But wouldn't it be cool not to have to open the parachute? And then you could just touch down light as a feather?
This is similar to the experience of leaving a church building behind (not the church because we are the church). It feels like jumping out of the plane and descending at a high rate of speed toward the ground. But eventually the parachute (Jesus) opens and lets us down to earth softly and we want to do it again...and again...and again. Like a child who is twirled around in his father's arms...do it again, Daddy.

Who Is God Really?

2008-06-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

I listened to a podcast recently that expressed this thought-who is God really? Is he the big loving God who wants to show His children that He accepts them as they are or is He the Big Mean God who is ready to whack us whenever we make a mistake or misstep or really screw things up?

I vote for the loving God...why? because I tried that mean one for about 40 yrs. or so and it didn't get me anywhere except frustrated, confused, and alienated from everyone in my family. As I have gotten to know the loving, creative, and forgiving God, I finally have friends who want to talk to me, not to mention the fact that I now get along a lot better with my children and husband.

Because I always thought God ruled with an iron fist, that's the way I "ruled". No one could cross the line with me because they knew they would get hammered with some bible verse that I could use for whatever offense they committed. I studied the Hebrew and Greek words and I knew what they meant.

But not only were those words sending people flying from my presence but it was shoving me further and further from Jesus Himself.

Boy am I glad He is patient...and kind...and loving...and doesn't become upset...and doesn't think too highly of Himself...

I Cor. 13...isn't this a picture of Christ Himself?? Isn't this who He is?? So why am I trying to make Him into some tyrant who demands justice and holiness? Isn't holiness a part of being whole?

Just some questions running thru my head...

Not Just Church

2008-05-22T10:39:00.000-07:00

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." c.s. lewis "Is Theology Poetry"

Quote

2008-05-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

c. s. lewis

Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction.

Epiphany

2008-05-04T08:37:00.000-07:00

Ever had one of those days when you just knew something was wrong but couldn't put language to it?

This happened to me about 13 yrs ago after chuch one Sunday. We had changed churches AGAIN and still my spirit was all churned up and I wanted to never go back. I couldn't understand the whole Sunday service thing. Now mind you, I got saved in 1972 and was all gung-ho for Jesus. I finally had found what I was looking for in life. Peace. Meaning. A place for me to fully throw my energies. But after nearly 25 years I was missing all of these elements.

I struggled daily seeking the face of God to show me something that I had originally signed up for. I was frustrated, tired, angry, and mean because I couldn't grasp the last vestiges of Jesus that were quickly slipping through my spirit.

"I quit!" I shouted inwardly at God. "I am NOT going back to church!"

Then it was all quiet in my insides, as if a weight had just been lifted off me. And I heard in the quiet this voice - "Are you finished now?"

"Yes," I answered. "Totally done."

It was like a cosmic sigh of relief. My spirit jumped at the peace that I felt. And over the next few days I could sense the Spirit showing me that it was OK that I wouldn't go back. It was OK if I never darkened the door of another "church" because He was in this. He was in the frustration and head-banging I had been going through for so many years; in the constant stress of trying to find His "perfect will".

to be continued....check back soon....