Rise and Shine
by Cara Hanson

Mark 1:35
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

John 8:2
At dawn he (Jesus) appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.

If I had to guess, I would say that Jesus never hit SNOOZE. Okay, even if they had alarm clocks back then, he still wouldn’t have done it. Scripture tells us that Jesus got up before the sun to pray by himself. Jesus also said that he came to do God’s will and that he always did what pleased God (John 6:38 & 8:29). Logically speaking, it cannot be God’s will for us to fritter away our days by lounging around in bed or even to start out our day without prayer.

Many people live in a perpetual state of zombiehood. They “burn the candles at both ends,” and when it is time to get up in the morning, there is little energy or time left for God and our Lord. Henry David Thoreau got it right when he wrote, “The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it.” He believed morning to be a sacred time when we should “awake to a higher life than we fell asleep from. Morning is when I am awake and there is dawn in me.” Too many people awake to a “higher” life induced by the fact that morning is “when I am exhausted and there is coffee in me.”

Jesus knew the secret about early morning that I never discovered until I had babies. When newborns are breastfeeding, they need to eat every two hours, and each session lasts about an hour, including time to burp and change the baby, well…you can do the math. When I was nursing each of our three children, I had to endure many sleepless nights. Just when my head hit the pillow, it would be nursing time again. Even though my eyes felt like someone had poured sand in them, what else could I do but take care of my babies who were depending on me? Those days were also the best prayer times of my life. All night long, I was praying and speaking in tongues. I am so thankful that babies get up at the crack of dawn, because they helped develop my love for the sacred time of morning.

The Bible has many references to the dawn, including:

Psalm 119:147
I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word.

Psalm 57:8
Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.

Psalm 65:8
Those living far away fear your wonders; where morning dawns and evening fades you call forth songs of joy.

Not only is daybreak the most peaceful and beautiful time to view God’s creation, it is also a great time to meditate on His Word and talk to Him. Everyone needs to depart to a solitary place and pray, so do not let yourself get talked out of this valuable one-on-one time with our Father. He is the one who made the day to begin with, so it makes sense to begin the day in thankfulness and prayer. It energizes us for the day, and puts us in a God-focused frame of mind to face the challenges of the day ahead.

Psalm 118:24
This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

My three year old asked me why the lettuce is happy (lettuce rejoice and be glad in it), and I figure he has a point. When you start your morning off the right way, everything seems to be filled with joy.

Back in the days before electricity, people kept sensible hours by going to bed when it got dark and then rising with the sun. Thomas Jefferson once bragged that in his entire lifetime, the sun never once caught him in bed. No wonder he was an architect, scientist, musician, politician, and more. Just think how much more productive we could all be if we started our days off the right way.

God is such a gracious father to give us night and day. There is a tremendous comfort and peace in the fact that no matter how much we may mess things up during one day, there is always a new dawn to try it again. Kids are a great example of this principle. By the time morning comes, they have completely let go of the previous day’s sins. I have had nights where my children woke me up several times for ridiculous reasons. Even when there has been crying and frustration, they greet the next morning with a bright smile and no mention of the previous night. By God’s mercy and grace, He does the same thing for us.

Psalm 30:5
For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

I am certain that Jesus never greeted his apostles in the morning with a grunt and “Don’t speak to me until I’ve had my coffee.” When you begin your day acknowledging God with sincere prayer, He will direct your paths. You can give Him the glory just by the way in which you choose to start your day. If our kids come out of their rooms in a funk, I send them back to start over and try again. I tell them to remember the words of a great song, “Rise and shine and give God the glory, children of the Lord.”

Believe me, I am well acquainted with the SNOOZE button, but I have since trained my brain to resist the temptation. You can challenge yourself to open the day with praise. When you immediately start talking to God, you resist the urge to fall back asleep. After all, when we are talking to Him, you can bet He’s not dozing off. When we say, “Amen,” He doesn’t suddenly snap to attention. He’s hanging on our every word, and since this is a relationship, we should give Him the same consideration.

How frustrating it must have been for Jesus when he was about to die and his closest friends were sleeping. Rather than blasting them with a foghorn, he lovingly responds with, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Mark 14:38). I know that when he needs me, I don’t want to be caught asleep on the job. The words of our Savior ring loud and clear–we need to watch, pray, and train our flesh to be strong.

The planet Venus is called the “Morning Star” because it is the dominant object in the morning sky, exceeded only by the brightness of the moon. Clearly our Lord knew the beauty of the light of dawn; he even referred to himself as the “bright morning star” (Rev. 22:16). You can bet he and God are ready and willing to fellowship with us at this sacred time of day. Be sure to show up early like children, forgetting the previous day and reaching out toward the day ahead with a cheerful heart, ready to give God the glory.

E

Down Sound Recording artiste Khago ‘shelled down’ a dancehall show at Club Pisces in Atlanta, Georgia, over the weekend.

The club was packed. The audience was predominantly female, with a sexy collection of Jamaican girls, black Americans, Latinas, and even white girls dressed in sexy chic summer attire for the Labour Day weekend.

Khago kicked off his set with the club anthems: thenumber- one hit singles Tun Up Di Ting and Tax Inna My World, which had the girls screaming. The vibes were so intense that Khago actually jumped off the stage and began to perform his latest radio hit, Pretty Wine. Immediately, he had the girls throwing elbows as they competed to show him who could do the best ‘pretty wine’.

The performance brought the house down as their liquor-influenced contortions had the audience in stitches. Khago returned to the stage and continued his set. He made mention of his celebrated feuds with artistes such as I Octane, Assassin, and Sizzla. With the expert selection of songs, he had the audience enraptured. He left the stage after doing a few bars of Nah Sell Out Mi Friend Dem(Part One), the audience begging for more.

When he returned for his third encore, he did themegahit Nah Sell Out Mi Friend Dem(Part One) again and then segued neatly into Part Two. When he finally exited the stage, the ladies were still screaming for more.

Khago will next appear on a club show in Tampa Bay, Florida, on September 15.

In the meantime, the deejay’s latest hit single, Pretty Wine, entered the HYPE TV Top 20 charts in the Bubblers section this week. The artiste’s management team also shot a video for the singles, Pretty Wine, and the pop-flavoured Green Light last week.

just a brief description of these people.
these girls r (Edited) . they are also the the woman of a long time big money man (u know what i mean) that pimp them out to the younger men in the game. the first pic is papa lova with his 3 woman .
they all go with each other too every man talk to one get the other fren cause him affi mine all a dem.
the 1 name kesha pic #2 is tameka she married too but she love (Edited).
kesha have a man name (B)Warren live a new york pic # 3 him fight everyman she deh wid the last time him fight bout 2wks now was in the hospital inconscious name Avon in pic #4. Warren always a beat her toleave the man them but she say she not leaving them cause she dont know what him doing when him in new york him beat her up afta him beat up this last guy name Avon and do her up . burst up face and ting but she start to party again but him a call and beg her to stop cheat and go down to stay at his house in Bogue and drive him x6 pic 5 but that not stoping her..She and tameka the married woman not leaving cuz the rest a supreme girl and pappa lova a keep freak show and Basil the husband know and caan say nuttin.

Hey Met I’m not hating but I just wanted to be a little nosy and ask anyone if they know this girl,,,I know a little about her… she is from Mobay,she calls herself Tracy BritJam.. The only reason I want to know is cause she says & does some really provacative things on facebook but then won’t answer up to questions people ask if she’s a freak. (no I’m not a lesbian or interested in her) but if you see her comments & pics you will know what I’m talking about. She just too nuff!!! I have more Mobay peeps to send in

‘Go home!’ Boys in tight pants, girls in short skirts turned away
… from Steer Town Academy
BY ALESIA EDWARDS Observer staff reporter [email protected]
Tuesday, September 04, 2012

STEER TOWN, St Ann — Several students, the majority of them males, were turned away from the newly opened Steer Town Academy yesterday after their attire was deemed inappropriate.
Chairman of the school board, Neville Williams — who said he wants the school to become a model institution — said indiscipline including lack of respect for school rules will not be tolerated.
Students and parents wait outside the newly opened Steer Town Academy in St Ann, yesterday. (Photos: Alesia Edwards)
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“Go home! You are not coming in here like that! That pants cannot come in here!” Williams shouted to a male student who was wearing a tight-fitting pants yesterday on the first morning of the new school year.
“Those of you with the tight pants, don’t even try it!” Williams declared.
The boy and several others were sent through the school gate as well as several females whose skirts stopped inches short of the required length.
Williams, joined by the school’s Dean of Discipline Hugh Johnson, other members of staff and a police team manned the entrance to the facility, ensuring that only students who were properly attired were allowed on campus.
He later told the Jamaica Observer there will be a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of indiscipline, whether from students or their parents.
“For me, the first sign of discipline has to do with uniform and if you are not in compliance with that, you are at liberty to break whatever rule you want to break when you get in here,” he told the Observer.
Yesterday, a number of parents who wanted to enter the school compound for various reasons, including registration and to hand over lunch money to their children, had to wait in the scorching mid-morning sun while school administrators ensured that the students were settled before they were attended to.
Acting principal for the school, Kelly Rowe explained that the parents could not have been accommodated before the students were dealt with, and that all procedures had been fully explained to them prior to the start of school yesterday.
“It’s all in the name of discipline and that is one of our main focus here at Steer Town Academy. We have to start from now to ensure that we don’t have a recurrence… we couldn’t [tend to] them (parents) before the students were settled,” she told the Observer.
She explained, too, that the school was working to reach as many parents as possible to ensure that the standards and rules of the schools were upheld while at and away from school.
“We just need to reach the parents. The parents are our main concern, as we know discipline and everything starts at home. So, once we get the parents on board, everything will be fine,” she said.
Yesterday, majority of the approximately 900 students turned out for classes at the facility, for which construction was delayed for about two years.
“School got off to a fine start and we will work with what we have until we get all that we want,” Rowe said, explaining that in addition to other amenities, there were some 21 classrooms and 17 laboratories.
“We plan to work with the students to get them to where we want them. Some might not be academically inclined, but currently our curriculum caters to those… students,” she said.
“So we have the hands-on courses that they will do such as cosmetology, plumbing, agriculture, woodwork and so forth,” Kelly said, noting that soon Steer Town Academy, which is one of two centres of excellence across the island, would become the school of choice in the parish.
Meanwhile, the school’s dean of discipline said the initiative which was started yesterday to get students and parents to conform with all the school’s rules, including the dress code, would be sustained.
“It is a work in progress; it is a new school and we will be having new rules and it’s a zero tolerance. We will not allow parents to interfere with the way we run this school,” he said, pointing out that there are also plans to patrol the streets to ensure discipline is upheld off campus.
Some of the parents who were barred from entering said they were happy that measures were being implemented to ensure that the school operates in a similar fashion to other “top” high schools in the island.
“Every parent gets a handbook and if they had read it no child would [have been] turned away. We, the parents, just have to work with the school and the teachers and help make the school the best school in St Ann,” one parent, Judith Bernard, told the Observer.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/-Go-home—Boys-in-tight-pants–girls-in-short-skirts-turned-away_12433521#ixzz25VzOSDxj