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Amityville Horror (1.5 Minutes to Read)

10/27/2014

 
The story of what happened in Amityville is a true story according to a family who lived there. The house is in a suburban neighborhood located on the south shore of Long Island. What they experienced is questioned by some people but it’s hard to say based on the fact the family only lasted 28 days in the house and then took off leaving everything but their clothes and a few other items.

Regardless of whether it’s true the family sure seemed scared. In December 1975, George and Kathy Lutz and their three children moved into 112 Ocean Avenue, a large Dutch Colonial house in Amityville, New York. Around 18 months earlier a father shot and killed six family members (his wife and children), stating they were demons. By the way the real estate agent did provide clear disclosure of the murders that occurred there but because of the extraordinary deal the couple bought it anyway for $80,000.

They said they saw the family that previously lived there in the state they were found after being murdered. For example their six year old daughter became friends with the little girl who had died there and the girl had a hole in her forehead. Her parents first thought the apparition (Jodie), was an imaginary friend. In the early morning hours of Christmas Day 1975, George looked up at the house after checking on the boathouse and saw the girl standing behind his daughter at her bedroom window. When he ran up to her room he found her fast asleep. No one else in the family saw the little girl but they had visions of other family members including the wife who had died with half her head blown off. At one point they found out the teddy bear their daughter found was buried with the little girl. Detractors said it was a coincidence. The doors and windows in the house were constantly opening on their own along with the boathouse door which the father had padlocked because he didn’t want the kids going in there. The lock wasn’t cut and the father was the only one with the key. The wife was a Catholic and she kept finding the crucifix in her house upside down. Many other things happened but you get the picture.

I don’t know if their story is true but it’s strange that the family ran out of a beautiful Victorian home with six bedrooms they had purchased so inexpensively. With the stories about the house getting even worse the next owners bought the house for $55,000…they didn’t have the same experiences as the Lutz family so even more questions were asked about the validity of the story. Whether it’s true or not it sure has made for some good books and movies. As for me and my house, we’re ghost free (well except for the ghost that keeps hiding our keys).


The Amazing Rich Mullins (Three Minutes to Read)

10/12/2014

 
There’s no more famous Worship and Praise song written than “Our God is an Awesome God;” we certainly have sung it countless times at the teen mass/service. Mullins was unbelievably unique a man who struggled with alcoholism his entire life although almost no one except for those in his inner-circle knew.

Mullins went to a Baptist college and met his dream girl but she left him because he was planning on travelling to Nashville to pursue a career in music; she wanted to settle down in their home town and get married. He never got over this and never got married. This relationship and the terrible one he had with his father constantly weighed on him and helped lead to his problems with alcohol.

Even though Mullins made millions of dollars he never knew it as he had his record label give almost everything away to charities and churches except for a small living allowance. Mullins hero was St. Francis of Assisi so he tried to live by some of his poverty principles. It was difficult to spot Rich in regular shoes as he typically wore sandals or even more often bare feet. This made sense because his favorite personal cause was to work with children on Indian Reservations.

Speaking of working on a reservation, a Catholic church was the only one there so Rich began going to daily mass and took a RCIA class (a class about Catholicism and overall our Christian faith in general), one of my favorite courses ever. Every time I left a meeting I was pumped about being a Christian. Mullins never converted as he wasn’t a denomination kind of guy he just wanted to pursue God not religion.

Rich wasn’t a very happy person some believe he was depressed. He grew up on a small family farm in Indiana. His family (two sisters and two brothers), were poor and their mom and dad struggled to put food on their table. His dad was a hard man abusing Rich slightly physically (in his opinion shaking some sense into him), but mostly mentally. Mullins thought little of himself growing up because he wasn’t farming material like his siblings instead he was an artist/musician something his dad had no need of on the farm and he told him this constantly. He also told Rich he was a dreamer who would never amount to anything. Throughout his life Rich and his dad’s relationship was a struggle not even having his dad tell him he was proud of him when he began singing to sold-out crowds.

Most of his songs were about a broken man the very type person God wants not someone who pursues perfection. Remember when Jesus was getting heat by the Pharisees for hanging around the sinners? Jesus said he was there for the sinners not those who believe they don’t need him (paraphrased).  

Mullins didn’t like performing large concerts preferring instead to sing in small churches and venues. He could go from singing to a crowd of 20,000 and the next week singing to a church with 100 people. He liked to interact with his audience talking about the struggles life possesses and how Jesus can heal our wounds. This was difficult to do with larger audiences. I think his willingness to perform in front of small crowds at the height of his career goes to show he was a humble person.

His first huge hit was “Awesome God” followed by “Hold me Jesus” both absolutely beautiful songs; a couple of my favorites. I don’t think you could go anywhere where young people don’t know the lyrics to Awesome God …amazing! Some of the best Christian artists sang songs he had written; Amy Grant was his biggest fan using his music long before Rich started his own singing career. The fact is Mullins never would’ve made it in Nashville if it weren’t for his extraordinary writing skills as it got his foot in the door; Amy’s label ended up signing Rich to a contract…extraordinary good move on their part.

Mullins is a great example of how God doesn’t pursue perfection. If we were perfect we wouldn’t need him. God takes us as we are shaping us as long as we pursue him. With the exception of Job I can’t remember anyone else in the Bible who had it together. The disciples were ragamuffins (the title of one of Rich’s albums), yet through Jesus they accomplished amazing things. We can’t let our imperfections hold us back from being Disciples of Christ. Other people can relate to us better if we understand their pain and imperfections; we can be more effective because of our personal struggles.  

On September 19, 1997, Mullins and his friend Mitch McVicker were traveling to a benefit concert (he had just finished a radio interview), at Wichita State University when his Jeep rolled over. They were not wearing seat belts and were ejected from the vehicle; Mullins was killed while McVicker was seriously injured. They never did figure out for sure why the vehicle crashed their best guess was that Rich fell asleep at the wheel as there were no skid marks.

Shortly before his death Mullins taped ten songs in a small church (seated about 50), on a cassette player; these songs were a tribute to Christ. Christian artists like Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith came together to sing and release this final album called: “The Jesus Album.” Another hit with all profits going to Rich’s favorite charities.

Mullins died young still helping out at the Indian Reservation. Someone said the length of your life is less important than its depth. His legacy through his music and writings (plus his personal struggles), helped others grow in their faith; I don’t think he wanted anything more.

Here’s to one of the amazing ragamuffins!


Dragon Flies (One Minute to Read) 

10/2/2014

 
The reason I’m writing about this is a dragonfly has some record breaking traits. They are among the fastest flying insects (I read the fastest in various reports), in the world. Dragonflies can fly backwards (no other insect or bird can do this), change direction in mid-air and hover for up to a minute. They were studied to help develop drones.

A dragonfly is strange in appearance; its wings forward and back are different sizes thus allowing it to fly backwards. It has large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body. Another unique thing about dragonflies is when they’re in a sitting position they don’t tuck their wings like other insects do…for example if you have a fly land on you it’s wings are tucked away. Think about how smart this is as a dragonfly can take off in a flash whether pursuing something or avoiding something.  

Dragonflies are major predators that eat mosquitoes, and other small insects like flies, bees, ants, wasps, and very rarely butterflies. They are usually found around marshes, lakes, ponds, streams, and wetlands because their larvae, known as "nymphs", are aquatic.

Though dragonflies are predators, they themselves are subject to being preyed (typical food chain in progress), upon by birds, lizards, frogs, spiders, fish, water bugs, and even other large dragonflies.

This is just a short article but I wanted to give you insight into this amazing insect. As humans we have a tendency to become numb to things around us so we don’t appreciate some of God’s amazing creations…as someone once said we need to stop and smell the roses. Roses…maybe a future article… but then again, maybe not. 

Three Sides to Every Coin (Three Minutes to Read)

10/2/2014

 
I’ll explain the title at the end of this article. One terrible trait about humans is we have a tendency to accept what we hear as gospel. Depending on which news networks we watch they direct our thoughts about the world even though we like to believe they don’t influence us.  Think about a conversation you might have had at work, is it filled with your personal insight or are you often time pretty much a mouthpiece for where you get your news? One person reads the New York Times and another the New York Post and both of them end up thinking about life differently; each of them absolutely believe they’re right…thus don’t talk politics and religion.

We used to be more diligent about information we receive because we had time to think about what we were hearing and reading but now we’ve packed in so many things into our day in the life that we accept things on the fly. I find things every day that news networks share that isn’t correct.

Not long ago there was a report that is being used in a commercial today about parents needing to use their vacation days; it features kids shocked that their parents give those days away; anyhow they say in the report that approximately 400,000,000 vacation days aren’t used each year. Now this is any easy one…how in the world would they know this? I’ve given up vacation days and I know there isn’t any organization that knew about it besides my company. I know this sounds ridiculous but these types of things are all around. Now I’m not saying you do it, but many people would take this information and be amazed there are so many vacation days not used.

Here are some of the areas where reports are shared that can manipulate our thoughts and like I said, each day is filled with them…

1) Where’s the data coming from, for example if the information is coming from California or New York, how in the world would it apply to us?

 2) What is the data’s integrity? Since I research a lot I’ve come across many instances where one report was based on another report that was based on another report, etc. I’ve had to go through report after report to find where the original data came from and whether the information was legitimate.

I’ve mentioned this before but one time I heard a report by ABC News (Diane Sawyer) that bashed Fox New and it sounded strange to me so I performed due diligence and found they were using a report from the Huffington Post (maxed out contributor to the Democrat’s coffers), that was based on a report from a small college in New Jersey. I contacted the college and found they surveyed 600 people in their area. Think about this. Sawyer treated it as national news when it wasn’t. I ended up talking to the associate producer of the nightly news and he apologized admitting they don’t vet reports like they used to as news is coming in so fast these days because there are so many sources, way beyond the their days of just having the AP and UPI. I did appreciate his honesty.

3) Who and why was a report generated because someone paid for the information. I worked in the world of marketing and I can’t tell you how many times I caught companies spinning data…my company wouldn’t allow this which was dicey in dealing with some of our clients. We never lost a client due to these reasons so we did help change ethical standards (my company has won numerous “Ethics in Business Awards”).

Slightly off topic but in line with the overall theme is when you conduct research on line to find things like the best restaurants in your area. Many companies contact the web provider who generates the report that you pull up and they pay to get on “the best” list. Of course they pay way more if they get on the top of the list. So in this case you’re innocently searching for information that isn’t valid. It’s important for us to look at everything with something in mind; most things are about influence and power because both can be sold.

Now back to the three sides to every coin. Have you ever been amazed that a coin drops and stands up or you’ve stood it up on a table and spun it? Congratulations you’ve seen the third side to a coin. Something very simple but I think a great example of what I’m talking about. We get too busy to think anymore and it’s hurting our country. News networks and their news cycles direct our thoughts. Think about how huge the Ferguson, Missouri story was and then it was dropped and we stopped talking about it. Like I said they   control our thoughts…scary.

News networks have more influence and power than anything else in the world so we need to have our head on a swivel so to speak. Life is moving so fast so I understand why it’s difficult to really think whether something is legit but my recommendation is if anything is important don’t accept the information as the truth dig into it a little more; for example if you watch Fox News maybe double check an important story and the way they spin it on CNN. Critical thinking must become part of our existence again.

If there is anything you’d like for me to check out for you just let me know; I have some people doing this with me because they are way busier than I am; mostly to legitimize information they received. . I love research so it would be no problem to help you out.

Keep your head on a swivel! 


    Author: John Mann

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