WHAT LOVE?

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Having watched scores of Hollywood movies it is difficult to consider this topic, forgiveness. Actually it isn't only about the other person, but also about our own growth. We have been taught to, pay people back in their own coin, because it feels good - expected even - to revenge after being hurt.

Four bullets hit Pope John Paul II - two of them lodging in his lower intestine, the others hitting his left hand and right arm. This assassination attempt on the Pope in May 1981 left him severely wounded and with considerable blood loss - his health was never the same again. In July 1981 the perpetrator, Ali Ağca, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Pope John Paul II asked people to pray 'for my brother Agua, whom I have sincerely forgiven'. Two years later, he was to take

RAY BLANKENSHIP

"Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall." - Ray Bradbury

Muhammad Ali, who once said of himself, "I am the greatest" no doubt had his own fears. He said, "He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."

One summer morning as Ray Blankenship was preparing his breakfast, he gazed out the window, and saw a small girl being swept along in the rain-flooded drainage ditch beside his home. Blankenship knew that farther downstream, the ditch disappeared into. He dashed out, and raced along the ditch, trying to get ahead of the foundering child. Then he hurled himself into the deep, churning water. Ray surfaced and was able to grab the child's arm. They tumbled end over end. Within about three feet of the yawning culvert, Ray's free hand felt something--possibly a rock-- protruding from one bank. He clung desperately, but the tremendous force of the water tried to tear him and the child away.

JUST WASH!

"Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world." - George Bernard Shaw

In 1818, Ignaz Phillip Semesters was born into a world of dying women. The finest hospitals lost one out of six young mothers to the scourge of "childbed fever." A doctor's daily routine began in the dissecting room where he performed autopsies. From there he made his way to the hospital to examine expectant mothers without ever pausing to wash his hands. Dr. Semmelweis was the first man in history to associate such examinations with the resultant infection and death. His own practice was to wash with a chlorine solution, and after eleven years and the delivery of 8,537 babies, he lost only 184 mothers--about one in fifty.

He spent the vigor of his life lecturing and debating with his colleagues. Once he argued, "Puerperal fever is caused by decomposed material, conveyed to a wound...I have shown how it can be prevented. I have proved all that I have said. But while we talk ,talk,

MOTIVATE YOURSELF

"I'd rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed." - Robert H. Schuller

Pliny the Elder, was a Roman writer who lived - we are told - during the same time period as Jesus. He told a story of the setting of an obelisk, which when erect would stand 99 feet tall. Twenty thousand workers where chosen to pull on the ropes and activate the hoisting apparatus. There was great responsibility and risk in the operation. Just one error could cause the obelisk to fall, ruining years of work. The King demanded one act which insured the complete attention and best direction of the engineer. He ordered the engineer's own son to be strapped to the apex of the obelisk, so that his heart as well as his head would be given to the task.

To achieve any level of success one must of all necessity apply his heart into it. One must, as it were fix his eyes on the goal, with an understanding that something vital is at stake if one fails.

VICTORIA ACETA!

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." - Philo

I do not know, to whom I'm writing this morning, but I like you to know that "The battles of your life. The ones you're facing now - in your relationship against your marital destiny, or career, whatever - need not intimidate you. Life, is one huge battlefield. All through history God's people have faced obstacles and challenges. The key to winning these battles, according to David, is not to rely on your own strength, but to put your trust in God ALONE.

You need to put your trust in God, because it gets to a point in your life's battles, where best friends turn their backs on you: abandon, and leave you helpless. Why? This is because at the end of the day, human strength and power is not enough: the arm of flesh ALWAYS does fail. Understand that "No king succeeds with a big army alone, no warrior wins by brute