Jan

The After Effect

Fri Jan 27th 2012 @ 3:55 am

So what comes after the Wake Effect? Of course, it’s the After Effects. Days, weeks, months and even years after your wake has rolled over the people in your path, the After Effects continue to reverberate through their lives. We call them “consequences.”

Harold Arlen, the Broadway composer, once wrote a song for the musical “Cabin in the Sky.” It‘s called, “Life’s Full Of Consequences”:

'Cause then comes the consequence
That old devil consequence
Flings you back with a bound
It's consequences what count

Life's full of consequence
That old devil consequence
He takes all the fun out of fun

When you've got the candle lit
At both ends the scandal it creates
Always keeps you on the run

Just when you're weakenin'
Fate sends the Deacon in, crash
And your cash ain't worth an ounce

'Cause then comes the consequence
That old devil consequence
Flings you back with a bound
It's consequences what count

My wake created all kinds of After Effects. Negative, painful consequences: not just for me but also for those I loved most. Wounded children, a shattered marriage and divorce. As the song says:

That old devil consequence
Flings you back with a bound
It's consequences what count

Sometimes the After Effect creates positive consequences. For example, after my friend Ken’s wake rolled over me and I gave my life to Christ, I was completely transformed: nothing was ever the same again. Since I was a total jerk at the time; that was a VERY good thing. As a new creation, my wake washed over family, friends and associates filled with the good news of Jesus Christ and as a result, many of them ultimately committed to Christ and were saved. And that’s a VERY, VERY good thing! Then, as those folks moved through their lives, more people were swept along in their wakes and those people…well, as you can see; one person, driving the boat in the right direction, can create a wake of “Living Water” that sweeps over countless others with incredibly positive consequences. Isn’t it amazing how one guy, Ken, could sail across my path and create a wake for me that now, years later is still reverberating through my family and friends and their families and friends?

Moral: Just set your course for Jesus and let your Wake Effect create an After Effect that will yield positive consequences for the Kingdom… and for you.

Bon Voyage!

Epilogue

I remember hearing of a man at sea who was very sea-sick. While this man was sick and confined to his cabin, he heard that another man had fallen overboard. He was wondering if he could do anything to help to save him. He laid hold of a light, staggered to a port hole and shined his light onto the ocean. The drowning man was saved.
The man who had recovered from his attack of sea-sickness was up on deck the next day, and talked to the man who had been rescued. The saved man said he had gone down the second time, and was just going down again for the last time, when he put out his hand. Just then, he said, someone held a light at the port-hole, and the light fell on his hand. A searcher in a lifeboat saw the hand in light, grabbed his hand and pulled him into the lifeboat.
It seemed a small thing to do to hold up the light; yet it saved the man's life. If you cannot do some great thing, you can hold a light for someone who may be won to Christ and delivered from destruction. And that’s all it takes to create a wake.

Thought for the Day

The optimist is the fellow who hopes to make enough money next month to pay last month's bills.

Turn the radio on

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Semi-interesting fact

Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute

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Joke du Jour

Mo goes to a revival and listens to the sermon. After a while, the pastor asks anyone with needs to come forward and be prayed over. Mo gets in line and, when it’s his turn the pastor asks, “Mo, what do you want me to pray about?” Mo says, “Pastor, I need you to pray for my hearing.” So the pastor puts one finger in Mo’s ear and the other hand on top of his head and prays for a while. He removes his hands and says, “Mo how’s your hearing now?” Mo says, “I don’t know pastor, it’s not until next Monday.

Cool Music

We’ve added more cool songs you’ve never heard on radio. Check the player on the upper right, click and brighten your day.

Questions I ask myself

If the cops arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent?

Really?? Actual News Stories

Nearly 60 Percent of Young People Leaving the Church A recent study by the Barna Group found that almost 60 percent of Christian young people ages 15 to 29 have distanced themselves from active involvement in church. David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, says a few reasons behind the mass exodus include young people finding churches "shallow," feeling that God is missing from services, and feeling that church is not a safe place to express doubts. He added that in many cases, churches have failed to equip young people to live "in but not of" the world. "[Young people] tell us that ... Christianity has become so hip, so watered-down, so about entertainment -- and they're looking for something of more substance," Kinnaman said. However, not all is lost: Kinnaman said this has led some young people to begin attending more traditional, conservative churches. "They want to feel that their faith matters, that they're learning the truth of Scripture," he said.

You go, girl! She may be 85 years old and weigh under 100 pounds, but an Alaska woman is being hailed as a hero

after fighting off a moose. Dorothea Taylor was waiting in a pickup truck as her husband, George Murphy, 82, went to round up their dogs from their morning run when she heard the pets barking loudly. She got out of the truck, saw a moose strike something with its hooves — and immediately knew something was wrong. "I thought he was trying to kill Fellar, the old dog," she said. She raced back to her vehicle, grabbed a shovel and took a swing at the moose, who was attacking the dog. With a few more swings — and the help of a dog — she managed to get the moose to back away. "Then I saw it wasn't Fellar the moose was after at all," she told the newspaper. "He was striking over the top of Fellar to get George." She immediately tried to stanch her husband’s bleeding as a good Samaritan dialed 911. George Murphy was rushed to an Anchorage hospital, where he is resting with a gash to his head and a few broken ribs. And he couldn't be more proud of his wife of 40 years. "Jeez, that was a pretty hard thing for anyone to do, to walk up on a moose like that," he told the newspaper. "Heck, all she had was a shovel."

Duh

An embarrassing misspelling of "school" is gone from the street outside a New York City school building. Utility workers used heavy machinery to ground up the wrongly placed "H" and "C" in the "SHCOOL X-NG" sign on Tuesday. The correction was made a day after the New York Post reported the spelling error. The words were created with industrial "textured tape" that permanently sticks to the asphalt. Con Ed told the Post that the blunder occurred when a contractor ripped up the street for utility work and replaced the existing markings. It says the mistake outside the Lower East Side building that houses three schools had been there since July 2010.

Poster child for Lane Bryant? A 448-pound British woman training with the Japanese national women's sumo wrestling team said the sport taught her to love her body. Sharran Alexander, 46, of London, said she took up sumo six years ago. "There's not many sports women my size can do, so when I found sumo six years ago it changed my life," The Sun reported Monday. "I used to be ashamed of my size and wore unflattering clothes -- but after taking up sumo up I learned to love my body." Alexander, who has won four gold medals at international sumo competitions, said she is training with the Japanese team this month.

Are you kidding me???

Esther 8:9 is the longest verse in the Bible

Groaner

Did you hear about the dyslexic Satanist? He sold his soul to Santa

Point to Ponder
From an unknown source comes an article titled, "How To Be Miserable." It says, "Think about yourself. Talk about yourself. Use "I" as often as possible. Mirror yourself continually in the opinion of others. Listen greedily to what people say about you. Expect to be appreciated. Be suspicious. Be jealous and envious. Be sensitive to slights. Never forgive a criticism. Trust nobody but yourself. Insist on consideration and respect. Demand agreement with your own views on everything. Sulk if people are not grateful to you for favors shown them. Never forget a service you have rendered. Shirk your duties if you can. Do as little as possible for others."

Remember, Christianity is more about walking than about talking