I logged into my account tonight and was reading the June wrap up and at the bottom of the page was listed this event, here in my little own city. How exciting. Some of my blogger friends are on the attendee list already – it will be a fun time for all. Log Into WordPress.com and check it out if you are in the city, or coming to a city near you.

Woo Hoo !!!

The month of July, I have to write a 30 page paper for my Pastoral Ministry course, working in task groups. If I write one page a day of solid writing I can finish in 30 days. My birthday on the 31st of July.

Pilgrim wrote me a note about passion… I heard it said a few years ago that, one should “Find your passion – Do it – Money will follow…” I’ve been doing it for a long time, and money seems to be eluding me.

When does one know that they have a passion for God? Do you interview for the position? Does God call you into his office and says, “you know what – you might have to follow me now because I said so!” “Do we just, one day, hear the call of God speak to us in the still small whisper?”

There are three types of people:

1. Those who know God
2. Those who think they know God
3. and those who know the difference

Slight differences but key in our discernment process.

There are those who just know God, the prayers, the monks, priests, nuns, mystics and the religious. I offer the priests, because I know a number of really Good Christian Men. There are just some people you encounter in life that you “know” that they know God. There is not an aire of ego, or personal gain, or attitude of self righteousness. These are the men and women who bekon us to “sit, listen and follow…”

I like to think of myself as one of these people. I’ve told the story about my introduction to God in “Naked and Sacred” over there -> in the pages section. I know for a fact that Memere struck a deal with God for my survival. In that agreement it was decided that I would follow him whereever he led me.

Suffice to say that I stayed on the path for a few years out of high school. Then I fell off the path and fucked up my life in big ways. I call this period my “temptation in the desert,” for lack of a better analogy. When I decided to get sober the second time, and I sat and prayed on that beach at night, I got right with God and stepped back on the path, and I have not looked back since.

When do we know we have a passion for God?

I don’t know. For me it is like this. Life is Path, Path is life. They are intertwined very carefully and intricately. It has been my experience in 42 years that, if I step too far off the mark, I get swiped with the 2×4. If I stay on the mark, things seem to just happen, in spite of myself. I can’t explain God to you if you aren’t on the path just the same.

Over the last decade of my life, I have learned how to pray and meditate. I have studied how to pray and meditate. I have spent the last seven years studying religions of the world and most recently some theology. I know how religion is practiced around the world through many eyes. And I also know a little theology, the study of those men and women who knew God before we were ever created. Origen, Athanaseus, The Shepherd of Hermas, Thomas Aquinas… the list goes on and on. These are a few of the men I read in the last class I took on Trinity.

Getting sober and following God is kind of the same thing. I can’t, He can, So I will let Him. They go hand in hand. One informs the other. This is where those of us who know God, use the gifts of intuition and experience. We have enough years behind us that we can “for certain” know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has implicitly moved in our lives. In a few days, I celebrate 15 years of living with AIDS. Had I not slipped in sobriety, I would be celebrating 15 years of sobriety. Instead, this December will be 8 years.

I am still alive.

Is that a God thing, or a me thing? Is it a medical thing, or a faith thing?

I leave that to you to answer for yourselves.

The second type of people are those people who “Think” they know God. These people may read their bibles, and go to church and raise their hands in the air and speak in tongues and have the expressed idea that because they do these things, they know God. And have an expressed right to tell the rest of us how to live our lives, how to follow God and how not to sin… These folk are described with the following terms: self righteousness, Holier than Thou, those people who “literally” read their bibles.

There is a difference between those people who “read” their bibles – and those people who “literally” read their bibles.

I am going to put myself on the block here in writing this but lets be honest, I can write about this subject with some certainty. These are those class of Christians who think they know God because they read their bibles word for word, and they take at face value every word printed in red. They have the audacity to think that they own the market on Christian teaching, morality and understanding. I beg to differ…

If you study religion, faith and God long enough, you may find yourself in our third type of people list. Those who know the difference. And if you follow the thought back to the beginning, those who “know” God are one in the same as those who might “know” the difference. The caveat here is, that those who know the difference may not follow into a life with God like their brothers and sisters who know God. But they will follow those people who know God.

Edit:

I also read like a madman. I read voraciously. I read for class, I read for fun, I read because books are life and what you find in them make the path with God all the more sweeter. I LOVE, love, love, side literature. Side literature is literature that is and can be fiction or non-fiction. It can be religious in nature, it can be biblical in language and topic, and then there are books that are written from many different standpoints like archeology and theology.

When one reads side literature, you get a sense of what the writer is trying to say and if you STUDY the bibliography of any book, you KNOW for sure where they are getting their information.

There are so many books I consider SIDE literature in my personal library. Books I read, and re-read over and over again. If you read your bible like a scholar and you have learned how to do that from people who know how to do that, and you incorporate side literature you begin to see a wider picture of the bible in its written form.

This is not suggested for people who DO NOT have a SOLID footing in their own faith and  journey. Because some people may not be able to reconcile side literature and a “literal read” of their bibles. The more you read and the deeper your study, the bigger your biblical world will get. And the stronger your faith will become, when you can sort through all the information and be able to present ideas to your blog and to your faith community. Just like I do here.

Reading for class has brought this blog a great deal of religious and spiritual teaching over the years, and I would say that a “passion for God” shows up when you really need it to present itself. If you are able to pick up in a conversation and keep it going with a solid knowledge base. That when you are given a topic you can weave spiritual and religious knowledge into your teaching. It just comes naturally, like a second skin of knowledge.

I can handle any discussion or critical assessment of my knowledge and I can go head to head with any fundy out there on the planet. I can SNIFF OUT the bullshitters from the fact talkers. I can call out the simple bible thumper from a real scholar. That is passion for God.

THEN …

There are those people who “read” their bibles and study the book like a scholar. We know about method, history, theology, ideology, allegory, metaphor, analogy, and parable.

We understand that reading for enjoyment is different than reading for scholarly purposes. There are those who study their bibles for church. And there are those who study their bible for educational purposes.

In my New Testament studies, I have learned a great many things. I’ve read through and studied the Gospels, and Acts. The letters, Epistles and Revelation.I love Luke – Acts. I Love the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Luke.

If I continue this post, you would automatically assume I have a passion for God. And I do. The longer you spend studying religion and theology, the deeper into the study you get. You get stuck in the vortex and it takes you into a world you never knew before.

So how do you know you have a passion for God? It just comes. The bride and the bridegroom. The Father, the Word, the Logos, the Incarnation, the Spirit.

You know you have a passion for God when you sit with the scriptures and they sing a song of praise to you. That once you begin reading, you don’t want to stop. The Gospels and the Letters of Paul are like this. Much of the Old testament is fantastical reading that once you begin you can’t stop.

Cultivating a relationship with God is like breathing the air. It is something you do for a lifetime. You can’t get away from God, even if you tried, because if you are anything like me, you have tried to get away from God and he becomes mindful and relentless. No matter where you turn, there he is. He might not bang you on the head, like some of us, but he waits patiently for you to return.

And this is where we see God laugh, and smirk…

“You silly human, see what you did to yourself ? If only you stayed on the path… Welcome Home…”

Soon, if you are like a few men I know like Scotty or Adam, you learn to love God and to worship him in all his grandeur. You read the word as if it was life giving bread and water. You live your faith, instead of just living.

Those people who are infirm or sick, those who live with the daily struggle of disease and Dis-ease, know God. Because our lives are closely intertwined with the life and being of God. We have a gift, or we learn the gift of gratitude for every good day, and also for every bad day. Because as long as there is air in our lungs, then, God is not finished with us yet …

Then it falls to people like us to teach people like you the same spiritual teachings. God the Father gives life, the Son confirms that life, the Spirit invigorates that life, and if there is air in your lungs tonight as you read, then God is not done with you yet.

SO WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT ???

Close reading: This is passion for God…

Mark 5:1-20 – The Gerasene Demoniac

They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!“

Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis (Ten Cities) how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

1. Where is Jesus before he arrives in the country of the Gerasenes?
2. Look at a map of Palestine (of that time) from your bibles, and locate Garaza in the Decapolis. How does the location of the city complicate matters?
3. In what way is the evil spirit described?
4. What “Titles” are attributed to Jesus in this story?
5. Does this text recall other texts found in the Biblical tradition?

If you are up for the challenge and you have your bibles handy, take a few minutes and do the assignment. And see HOW we are to read this passage from scripture. Do we read it Literally or Theologically?

Mark has a problem with geography in his gospel as this story will demonstrate if you take the time to find the map and answer the questions.

Answers:

1. Jesus is in Galilee (on the Western side of the Sea of Galilee).
2. Geraza is 35 km from the Eastern edge of the Sea of Galilee, in the desert. If you read in Matthew (8:28-34)  and Luke (8:26-39), they offer other cities in their stories. It is all about location. Gadara is about 9 km from the Eastern edge of the Sea of Galilee. Still if we read the story, Jesus gets out of the boat and immediately meets the demoniac. And the story takes place by a lake because that is where the swine meet their demise.
3. Legion, Unclean Spirits (Legion – referring to the Roman contingent of soldiers), for we are many, demons, evil spirits
4. Jesus, Son of the Most High God (Christological, Messianic title)
5. Yes, from the book of Exodus when the Egyptian soldiers were following Moses and the Israelites at the Red Sea, the soldiers and horses were drowned by the waters that Moses had parted. Exodus 14:21-31.

My IMVU Avatar in Canadian Shirt …

I just went out on the balcony to see the sky and I took this shot of a streak of blue light that was shining through the dark clouds over the mountain. I upped the settings on the photo to show the blue color against a dark sky…

Photo Credit: The Good Pastor Randall Friesen

The sky is dark and the clouds are beginning to fall over the city at this hour. Ominous storm clouds mean one thing, rain, in the sense of cats, dogs and little fishes. I got home just before the sky opened up and the deluge began to fall.

OH SO Tuesday …

The day started off very early for me. I did not sleep well last night so I was up with the birds this morning. I hate when the birds start singing before I hit the pillow. You know the birds in this city know the sun is coming, I think before the sun knows its coming…

I had a tete a tete with hubby this morning which was not pretty, not a way to get up in the morning. We rarely argue if ever… His choice of friends is beginning to make me wonder where my husband went sometimes.

He is, as of late, re-friending people he swore off years ago. Me thinks he’s having a crisis of identity in his mid life. UGH !!! but that’s not for here.

I got in the shower and got dressed and got off to the clinic for labs and a blood sugar check. I see my HIV doc on the 8th of July – Anniversary day, it must be fate that I see him on that particular day to congratulate him on keeping me alive for the last seven years…

The weather was really nice this morning. The sun was shining and it was warm and breezy. Weather changes very quickly here.

Then I set off for the mall to pick up my stash of med’s from the pharmacy. That did not set me back too much today. Next week I get the Major Meds refilled, and that’s a $70.00 expense. UGH !!!

I was starved at 10 a.m. in the morning so I waltzed into the diner where we have coffee before meetings and ordered a HUGE cheeseburger with pickles, fries and a tall coke… yes, I know I’m not supposed to have soda… It did not spike my blood sugar – so that’s all good.

You see the mall is 3 blocks from home, it is a Metro Stop on the Green Line and has multiple stories in it with big box stores on each floor and a nice size food court and shopping mall, it’s also where we get our hair done.

THIS is the mall in the “center” of the photo. In the foreground on the right is the Old Pepsi Forum which is an AMC theatre and across the street behind it with the tall tower lit on the roof is Alexis Nihon Plaza – and the Atwater Metro Stop. I just went and took this picture from my balcony.

I spent the afternoon doodling on the computer and took a nap for a couple of hours before I left for the meeting. I went to set up, I am good at working by myself. My set up system never fails me.

I called my sponsor before I left the house to hear what she had to say to me about what would happen at the business meeting with the little nemesis newcomer, she told me to keep my mouth shut and not to say anything. So that’s what I did. We did not speak one word to each other the entire time I was in that room through the entire meeting. I did hear him say my name when it was my turn to share though, so the ice may be thawing…

OH BUT EXCITING… “What are the odds that someone from the city that you got sober in, who’s home group was your home group for a while would come to visit and land up in our meeting tonight?” A woman came into the meeting and introduced herself from Miami and the SOBER on SOUTH BEACH room of AA was sitting across from me, I almost fell out of my chair. After the meeting we went through a list of people we both know from the room, it was so exciting… she goes back in a couple of days – how cool was that???

So that was the night. Calm, Cool and Collected …

It seems that the rain did not fall as a deluge – it isn’t raining at the moment either, so it got dark so quickly for no good reason, dammit !!!

I need to eat so I am going to go now…

Stay tuned, more to come …

“The unity, the effectiveness, and even the survival of A.A. will always depend upon our continued willingness to give up some of our personal ambitions and desires for the common safety and welfare. Just as sacrifice means survival for the individual alcoholic, so does sacrifice mean unity and survival for the group and for A.A.’s entire fellowship”

As Bill Sees It, pg. 220

I have learned that I must sacrifice some of my personality traits for the good of AA and, as a result, I have been rewarded with many gifts. False pride can be inflated through prestige but, by living Tradition Six, I receive the gift of humility instead. Cooperation without affiliation is often deceiving. If I remain unrelated to outside interests, I am free to keep AA autonomous. Then the fellowship will be here, healthy and strong for generations to come.

Tonight is our monthly business meeting, and when there is meeting there is drama. Stay tuned for the update later on this evening. Let Us Pray !!!

Photo Credit: Shannon Boh

Cue the music – start the fog machine – blue light GOBO slow pans across the floor through dimly lit space, and the first beat comes…

I am alone, it is early, the bar is not yet open, but I am there alone. Just me, the music and the spirit of God. Well, what little spirit of God there was at that time of my life. It is mid-summer in Ft. Lauderdale. I have just told Todd that I was going to die…

He wept.

Over the next few weeks, the teaching would begin. The team rose to the call, one of the boys was sick and was left on the side of the road with nothing but what little dignity was left in his soul. All I needed would be provided come hell or high water. Wild Horses would never stop the charge for life. We were all sick, we were all dying. Save for two people in the entire organization. My champions would save me, if I wanted it or not. Death was not an option and I would either get it or I would die…

So it began…

At that time, the temple of sin was alive and things happened so quickly that if you blinked you would miss it. The temple was filled with every earthly delight, Dante would have been pleased with our Garden of Earthly desires, carnal, profane and truly sinful. I loved every minute of it.

The rule was set…

You have a life, outside the temple. When you come to work, you leave your baggage at the door, do not bring it in here. No exceptions. Come to work, and you will serve me your Master and do whatever you are told without question without complaint, is that clear!

Yes Sir…

I took that time of my life as sacred and profane, but that is another story. You can read about the Sacred and the Profane over there in Pages… This is another thread to a long running story of how this boy was made a man, a saved man, a profane man, and in the same vein Sacred. You never know where your lessons are going to come from, and you are grateful for the wisdom and time people took out of their lives to care for you and teach you lessons that nobody else was going to teach you. So pay attention Little One.

This is your life we are talking about…

The gobos are tracking across the floor slowly through smoke and mirrors as the music plays just for you. I learned very early on, in that space that music would identify particular moods, paint particular pictures. Farkle and I had a ritual. He IS the only one left from the fray of men who lived and died from the temple of sin. We began each shift in our own way, begging god another night, another day, another minute. I was surrounded with warriors fighting their own significant battles with AIDS. I was not hit by the KS demon. I was not plagued by things I saw and witnessed, thank the creator. It was ugly. It was brutal and it was most importantly the fight of the century for all of us. Many men went to their deaths in our arms. We bathed them, clothed them and in the end we buried them.

Angry Larry…

When I got sober there was a man with AIDS named Larry, he was a drunk like me. But he was unique. He sat with a bottle on the table and a loaded revolver to shoot himself. He carried that gun with him and showed it to every one of us, and he told us relentlessly that he was going to kill himself. He got sober with the rest of us. Over the years following his spiritual awakening, he did something that no one else thought to do.

People with AIDS were being left in the streets. Mortuaries would not process sick people, they would not touch a body that had been infected with AIDS. Families would not bury their children. We did that. Larry opened his services to the community and he became another champion of the cause. I knew him. He eventually got rid of the gun, so I heard.

For a few minutes during transition, I would warm up the smoker, fire up the turntable and start the computer so that I could worship my God to the music of my soul. I did that every night. I worshiped whatever was going to save me.

I was servant to the men. I was servant to my Master. I was a slave for God, be he dressed or undressed. You never saw God until you witnessed true beauty of the soul in all its carnality. There is something sacredly profane about this part of my life. What went on inside the temple stayed in the temple. Many months would pass and I battled my demons of alcoholism before I finally fell into the pit of death, and there happen to be somebody watching from the sidelines.

Danny saved me that night. He was the man who cradled me in his arms, oxygen mask on my face and had called the paramedics to try and revive me. Danny took me home that night, and did not leave my apartment for a week. He fed me, bathed me and cared for me, under that watchful eye of my Master Todd. When the word was spoke, action was taken, and hell hath no fury if you did not jump when told to. Todd was very protective over his boys and men.

We were reminded that Todd had lost love to AIDS. Bob was buried across the street in the cemetery that faced our building. It was hard – it was painful, and it was sacred. Kevin and Larry did things for me that no man ever did for me in the real world. We were the three musketeers. We were the team to beat in bar management and service. We ran a tight ship and we were accountable, respectable and reliable. We proved a mighty force against the odds we all faced.

Let’s get it on…

Shift was begun at eight. The wells were filled the beer was stocked and the ice bins were full. Put your money in the drawer and let’s get the music thumping. Like clockwork at the strike of eight bells the first note hit the turntables. They were lined up around the building. Cars were parked all over the place. The temple worship had begun. Heaven was found amid the souls of suffering men who knew they were all marked for death, but for tonight, whatever you desired was fulfilled. You could drown away your sorrow and dip into the well of living water if you wished as well. You have never lived until you party like your dying with crowds of undulating flesh as far as they eye can see. The ghosts of those men now inhabit the fantasies and dreams I have still to this day.

One by one, two by two, they died in our arms. We held them until they took their last breaths. Memorialized in the careful and blood soaked threads of quilts, as the years went by, they started collecting by the dozen, then by the hundreds. If you’ve ever seen the entire quilt unfurled, all the men who were part of my life in those first years of my epidemic life, they are all together in death, as they were in life. Memorialized until the end of time. And we remember each of their names.

So many young boys torn from life before they knew what hit them. Men who infected them had died as well. Many of my friends were taken on trips that were detrimental to them, and just robbed them of life that was still left to live.

Todd saw to it that I would never go there…

You come to work, dress as you will, you obey me and do not waver from my eye, for I know your carnal desires and you are too young to tempt the devil with his dance. Because I surely did not know what could befall me if the right charmer enticed me into his web of desire, and they all knew I was fair bait. But in order to dine from my buffet, you needed explicit permission of my Master, who never allowed any man to defile me like many had been. I was off limits. I never crossed the line provided because that meant disrespect and I could never bear to break my Master’s heart with disobedience.

I loved Him, and He loved me – I had many problems. I was depressed and angry and resentful. I had the scars of traumatic visions of my dead lovers corpse in my head, and the words of his mother still ring in my ear today “I hope that every night until you die, that you see the corpse of my dead son in your field of vision.” That curse still lives with me and will go with me to the grave. Five day old corpses are not pretty. I had to identify the remains when all was said and done. Save that he was wearing jewelry that I could identify and part of him was still recognizable – God forgive me…

I remember that day, it was early afternoon the morgue called me from work to come and do the deed. I drove in and looked upon him in that room, I wept tears that burned into my soul forever. I just could not imagine – the pain was so hard to bear. I drove over to the bar. Bill was working behind the bar. I drank until I could not stand up on my own. I drank for a week, straight…

Todd and Bill needed to find me a solution and quick, because I was on the outs.

I started suicide therapy in a group setting that lasted 32 weeks. Nothing like rehashing death week after week, until the pain was purged from your soul, but is it ever? Months went by until I got my news.

But they cared for me in all my brokenness. A young angel would earn his wings back. Come hell or high water. In the end, when all was said and done, at the end of the day I survived, but so many did not. And each night I offer them prayers in hope that when I meet my death that all of them will be waiting for me in the Temple Of Earthly Desire in the promised land of the Kingdom of God, where the sacred and profane are mingled with the blood of the Almighty and the blood of my friends who have gone before me, on that day we will be cleansed of our sins.

And forgiven by God…

Amen

Goodnight angels of men

In a church,by the face,
He talks about the people going under.

Only child know…

A man decides after seventy years,
That what he goes there for, is to unlock the door.
While those around him criticize and sleep…
And through a fractal on a breaking wall,
I see you my friend, and touch your face again.
Miracles will happen as we trip.

But we’re never gonna survive, unless…
We get a little crazy
No we’re never gonna survive, unless…
We are a little…

Cray…cray…cray…

…Crazy yellow people walking through my head.
One of them’s got a gun, to shoot the other one.
And yet together they were friends at school
Ohh, get it, get it, get it, get it no no!

If all were there when we first took the pill,
Then maybe, then maybe, then maybe, then maybe…
Miracles will happen as we speak.

But we’re never gonna survive unless…
We get a little crazy.
No we’re never gonna survive unless…
We are a little…
Crazy…
No no, never survive, unless we get a little… bit…

Oh, a little bit…
Oh, a little bit…

Oh…
Oh…

Amanda decides to go along after seventeen years…

Oh darlin…
In a sky full of people, only some want to fly,
Isn’t that crazy?
In a world full of people, only some want to fly,
Isn’t that crazy?
Crazy…
In a heaven of people there’s only some want to fly,
Ain’t that crazy?
Oh babe… Oh darlin…
In a world full of people there’s only some want to fly,
Isn’t that crazy?
Isn’t that crazy… Isn’t that crazy… Isn’t that crazy…

Ohh…
But we’re never gonna survive unless, we get a little crazy.. crazy..
No we’re never gonna to survive unless we are a little… crazy..
But we’re never gonna survive unless, we get a little crazy.. crazy..
No we’re never gonna to survive unless, we are a little.. crazy..
No no, never survive unless, we get a little bit…

And then you see things
The size
Of which you’ve never known before

They’ll break it

Someday…

Only child know….

Them things
The size
Of which you’ve never known before

Someday…
Someway…
Someday…
Someway…
Someday…
Someway…
Someday…

Found on: Joe My God

It’s looks like the Obama administration is finally going to implement a directive signed by Dubya almost a year ago.

The first step to ending the HIV travel ban in the United States has been taken by the Obama administration. The Office of Management and Budget posted a notice on its site Friday afternoon indicating that the department of Health and Human Services could move forward with steps to change a regulation that has restricted HIV-positive people from gaining entrance into the United States. The proposed change will likely have an impact on both travel and immigration to the United States. Under current regulations, non-U.S. citizens who are HIV-positive cannot travel to the United States unless they are granted a waiver by the Department of Homeland Security. Immigrants have also been required to be tested for HIV. The actual regulatory change, however, will not be available until next week and advocates are waiting to analyze the exact language.

If implemented, the repeal should be in place by this fall.

Labels: HIV travel ban, HIV/AIDS, Obama administration

I never had a problem getting into the United States. Nobody asked me, and nobody needed to know. This will be good news to travelers world wide. Hopefully this will come into effect sooner than later.

Matthew 8:5-13

The Faith of the Centurion

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.”

Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour.

The alchemist said, “No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn’t know it.”

The Alchemist, The story about dreams, pgs. 156-159

Scripture from the Gospel of Matthew

May all of those who rest tonight, rest in the peace of God forevermore.

King of Pop Michael Jackson is dead: report

Posted Jun 25th 2009 5:20PM by TMZ Staff

We’ve just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50.

Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We’re told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.

A source tells us Jackson was dead when paramedics arrived.

Once at the hospital, the staff tried to resuscitate him but he was completely unresponsive.

We’re told one of the staff members at Jackson’s home called 911.

LaToya ran in the hospital sobbing after Jackson was pronounced dead.

Michael is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Michael Jackson, the child star turned King of Pop who set the world dancing to exuberant rhythms for decades, died on Thursday, the Los Angeles Times said. He was 50.

“Pop star Michael Jackson was pronounced dead by doctors this afternoon after arriving at a hospital in a deep coma, city and law enforcement sources told The Times,” the newspaper reported on its website.

Jackson had been taken ill at his home and found not breathing by paramedics who rushed him to a hospital, the paper said.

The paper’s report followed news of Jackson’s death first reported by the TMZ entertainment website, which said that the singer suffered a cardiac arrest. There was no immediate comment from spokespersons for Jackson.

Known as the “King of Pop,” for hits that included “Thriller” and “Billie Jean,” Jackson’s dramatic stage presence and innovative dance moves were imitated by legions of fans around the world.

His one-gloved eccentric style also earned him plenty of critics and another nickname, “Wacko Jacko.”

Jackson, who had lived as a virtual recluse since his acquittal in 2005 on charges of child molestation, had been scheduled to launch a comeback tour from London next month.

TMZ said on its website that Jackson suffered a cardiac arrest on Thursday afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. “We’re told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back,” the site said.

Earlier, the Los Angeles Times said the singer had been rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital by fire department paramedics. The newspaper said paramedics performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the singer’s home before taking him to the UCLA Medical Center hospital.

COMEBACK CONCERTS

Jackson had been due to start a series of concerts in London on July 13 running until March 2010. The singer had been rehearsing in the Los Angeles area for the past two months.

The shows for the 50 London concerts sold out within minutes of going on sale in March.

His lifetime record sales tally is believed to be around 750 million, which, added to the 13 Grammy Awards he received, makes him one of the most successful entertainers of all time.

There were concerns about Jackson’s health in recent years but the promoters of the London shows, AEG Live, said in March that Jackson had passed a 4-1/2 hour physical examination with independent doctors.

New Yorkers and tourists in the city’s Times Square were shocked at the news of Jackson’s death.

“I don’t know what to say. It’s sad, it’s really, really sad,” said Nicole Smith, an 18-year-old student from Brooklyn, New York, in Times Square. “My mother was a fan. I listened to his music.”

“I’m shocked. I thought someone was lying to me when I first heard it. I was a fan from when he was a little boy and then he got weird,” said Sue Sheider, 51, a teacher from Long Island.

CHILD STAR TO MEGASTAR

Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana, the seventh of nine children. Five Jackson boys — Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael — first performed together at a talent show when Michael was 6. They walked off with first prize and went on to become a best-selling band, The Jackson Five, and then The Jackson 5.

Jackson made his first solo album in 1972, and released “Thriller” in 1982, which became a smash hit that yielded seven top-10 singles. The album sold 21 million copies in the United States and at least 27 million worldwide.

The next year, he unveiled his signature “moonwalk” dance move while performing “Billie Jean” during an NBC special.

In 1994, Jackson married Elvis Presley’s only child, Lisa Marie, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1996. Jackson married Debbie Rowe the same year and had two children, before splitting in 1999. The couple never lived together.

Jackson has three children named Prince Michael I, Paris Michael and Prince Michael II, known for his brief public appearance when his father held him over the railing of a hotel balcony, causing widespread criticism.

(Additional Reporting by Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles and Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Frances Kerry, Editing by Jackie Frank)