 
# A Plain Book Of Common Sense For Your Life And Christian Faith

Written by Rev. Patrick Kelly

Copyright 2013 Shepherd's Care Publishing

Smashwords Edition

_Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved._

_Dedication_

_This work is dedicated to Grandma Pickett and Grandma Kelly who both lived a life of evident faith on earth and who are now watching me from heaven._

_The work is also dedicated to Dianna and Owen who give me a reason to love and live._

_In addition, the work is dedicated to the million or more people who visited the ministry web site at http://www.findthepower.com_

#  Table Of Contents

Chapter 1: Adversity (93 articles)

Chapter 2: Answers (1 article)

Chapter 3: Assurance (1 article)

Chapter 4: Blessings (1 article)

Chapter 5: Build (3 articles)

Chapter 6: Change (9 articles)

Chapter 7: Children (1 article)

Chapter 8: Choices (23 articles)

Chapter 9: Christ (41 articles)

Chapter 10: Commitment (2 articles)

Chapter 11: Communication (7 articles)

Chapter 12: Communion (6 articles)

Chapter 13: Confusion (1 article)

Chapter 14: Control (4 articles)

Chapter 15: Costs (1 article)

Chapter 16: Courage (1 article)

Chapter 17: Crisis (4 articles)

Chapter 18: Darkness (5 articles)

Chapter 19: Death (12 articles)

Chapter 20: Decisions (2 articles)

Chapter 21: Defend (1 article)

Chapter 22: Denial (3 articles)

Chapter 23: Depression (4 articles)

Chapter 24: Desire (1 article)

Chapter 25: Destiny (1 article)

Chapter 26: Disappointment (1 article)

Chapter 27: Doubt (2 articles)

Chapter 28: End Times (2 articles)

Chapter 29: Eternal Life (1 article)

Chapter 30: Excuses (1 article)

Chapter 31: Expectations (4 articles)

Chapter 32: Failure (2 articles)

Chapter 33: Faith (95 articles)

Chapter 34: Fear (6 articles)

Chapter 35: Finding God (2 articles)

Chapter 36: Foolishness (1 article)

Chapter 37: Forgive (2 articles)

Chapter 38: Forgiveness (4 articles)

Chapter 39: Frustration (2 articles)

Chapter 40: Future (6 articles)

Chapter 41: Giving (6 articles)

Chapter 42: Goals (1 article)

Chapter 43: God Vs. Satan (2 articles)

Chapter 44: God's Love (1 article)

Chapter 45: God's Power (2 articles)

Chapter 46: God's Voice (4 articles)

Chapter 47: God's Will (3 articles)

Chapter 48: Goofiness (1 article)

Chapter 49: Grace (4 articles)

Chapter 50: Greatness (1 article)

Chapter 51: Grief (1 article)

Chapter 52: Growth (11 articles)

Chapter 53: Healing (31 articles)

Chapter 54: Heart (1 article)

Chapter 55: Heaven (4 articles)

Chapter 56: Hell (3 articles)

Chapter 57: Heresy (1 article)

Chapter 58: Holy Spirit (31 articles)

Chapter 59: Honesty (2 articles)

Chapter 60: Hope (121 articles)

Chapter 61: Humility (6 articles)

Chapter 62: Hypocrisy (1 article)

Chapter 63: Ideas (1 article)

Chapter 64: Inner World (1 article)

Chapter 65: Integrity (2 articles)

Chapter 66: Joy (1 article)

Chapter 67: Leaning (1 article)

Chapter 68: Light (3 articles)

Chapter 69: Listening (5 articles)

Chapter 70: Living (111 articles)

Chapter 71: Loneliness (1 article)

Chapter 72: Love (95 articles)

Chapter 73: Man's Will (1 article)

Chapter 74: Meditation (9 articles)

Chapter 75: Mind (9 articles)

Chapter 76: Miracles (1 article)

Chapter 77: Mistakes (11 articles)

Chapter 78: Need (2 articles)

Chapter 79: Openness (3 articles)

Chapter 80: Others (20 articles)

Chapter 81: Pain (14 articles)

Chapter 82: Past (1 article)

Chapter 83: Patience (2 articles)

Chapter 84: Peace (2 articles)

Chapter 85: Pentecost (1 article)

Chapter 86: Persistence (4 articles)

Chapter 87: Planning (5 articles)

Chapter 88: Possibilities (1 article)

Chapter 89: Power (8 articles)

Chapter 90: Prayer (15 articles)

Chapter 91: Pride (1 article)

Chapter 92: Promise (2 articles)

Chapter 93: Protection (3 articles)

Chapter 94: Purpose (3 articles)

Chapter 95: Rebirth (1 article)

Chapter 96: Redemption (1 article)

Chapter 97: Repentance (1 article)

Chapter 98: Responsibility (2 articles)

Chapter 99: Rules (2 articles)

Chapter 100: Sacrifice (4 articles)

Chapter 101: Salvation (2 articles)

Chapter 102: Satan (7 articles)

Chapter 103: Security (1 article)

Chapter 104: Seeking (6 articles)

Chapter 105: Self-esteem (1 article)

Chapter 106: Self-image (1 article)

Chapter 107: Self-interest (1 article)

Chapter 108: Selfishness (4 articles)

Chapter 109: Self-pity (1 article)

Chapter 110: Sex (1 article)

Chapter 111: Sin (11 articles)

Chapter 112: Society (9 articles)

Chapter 113: Song (1 article)

Chapter 114: Spirituality (2 articles)

Chapter 115: Strategies (2 articles)

Chapter 116: Success (1 article)

Chapter 117: Suffering (35 articles)

Chapter 118: Surrender (7 articles)

Chapter 119: Tenderness (1 article)

Chapter 120: Thankfulness (5 articles)

Chapter 121: Thanksgiving (1 article)

Chapter 122: Thinking (19 articles)

Chapter 123: Treasures (1 article)

Chapter 124: Trials (4 articles)

Chapter 125: Trust (1 article)

Chapter 126: Truth (9 articles)

Chapter 127: Understanding (1 article)

Chapter 128: Victory (16 articles)

Chapter 129: Vision (12 articles)

Chapter 130: Wisdom (2 articles)

Chapter 131: Witness (1 article)

Chapter 132: Witnessing (2 articles)

Chapter 133: Works (3 articles)

Chapter 134: Worry (2 articles)

Chapter 135: You (15 articles)

# Chapter 1: Adversity

Sub-topic: Adversity And The Light

Article Content: Can adversity lead to the Light? Any adversity, any hurt, any heartache, any illness, any sickness, any infirmity, any obstacle of any kind has a spiritual component. This spiritual component can lead to the Light and the love we call God. The belief any adversity can lead to God is a belief you can prove to yourself to be true. The belief any adversity can lead to God will transform any adversity in your life into an opportunity to find Him. This belief, when proven to yourself, becomes certain knowledge God will lead you to Christ as the Light of the world. When you find Christ as the Light of the world in your adversity, you will then find Christ is the total essence of victory in any circumstance under any condition.

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Sub-topic: Adversity As A Teacher

Article Content: Adversity can be used to teach us and guide us. Adversity can be used by God and used by us to learn the wisdom of God. If you are in adversity you surely must be thinking "But how can pain, disappointment, and failure teach me? If God really wanted to tell me something, He wouldn't have to do it with a whip or put me in such dire straits." If you are thinking this way then you are right. God does not do anything with a whip. God is not the source of your misfortune. God is not the source of what you might call "bad luck." However, God can help you use bad circumstances to your advantage. Although you might be saying, "Use it to my advantage? Give me a break! There is no way I could use all these bad circumstances in my life to my advantage!" However, there IS an advantage. To find the advantage, you just have to learn to be taught. You have to be willing to let God lead you and teach you in your adversity. In addition, if you are willing to let God work in your life whether you are in adversity or not, you live differently, think differently, and walk and talk differently. With God as your teacher, you learn to live a victorious life instead of living a life in defeat. Some people look at surviving and thriving in adversity as saying we make our own luck. We do make our own luck, but we must all understand what we call luck depends upon how we live, not upon good fortune falling upon us for no apparent reason. God can help you turn your lemons into lemonade if you will open your mind, heart, and soul to learn His teachings and learn His ways.

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Sub-topic: Adversity As A Way To Find Hope

Article Content: Psalms 25:5 (NIV) "Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and my hope is in you all day long." Finding and keeping hope alive in our life is work. The ability to find and keep hope alive is learned by working through adversity in our life. As we work through adversity, one of the most important factors in finding and keeping hope alive is the quality of making ourselves teachable. The more willing we are to be taught by God, the more we learn. Like being a student in school, the more willing we are to learn, the more we learn. In school, if we are rebellious and do not pay attention, we lose out and learn little or nothing at all. With God as your teacher, you can take on the darkness and take on adversity with a winning attitude rather than sitting in bewildered silence over your circumstances. In addition, things happen differently when you are seeking wisdom from God while you are in adversity. When you take in and learn the wisdom of God, everything within you changes. Even if your outside world of adversity has not changed, learning the wisdom of God changes you on the inside, and being changed on the inside means you have been touched by God.

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Sub-topic: Adversity As An Opportunity

Article Content: In the question or controversy over whether God does bad things, what is often intermingled in the debate, but quite often discounted, is a most important truth about God and adversity. Within every adversity, God presents a special door of opportunity for each of us to find and open. The door of opportunity in adversity is often hidden from our view. The door of opportunity is most often slammed shut when adversity strikes. What we too often and wrongly expect is for God to show us the door. We wrongly expect God to open the door for us before we find our door of opportunity. We too often and wrongly expect God to arrange things in adversity so we will not have to seek, ask, and knock to find our door of opportunity. We too often and wrongly expect God to pick us up and carry us through our door of opportunity once we have found the door. Unfortunately, the truth about God and the truth of life will clearly show us when adversity comes in our life, we must first find the hidden door of opportunity on our own by seeking and asking. We must then try to open our door of opportunity by knocking. When the door of opportunity opens we must then gather our resources together and walk through the door. What is most important of all is God will always, always, always give you a door of opportunity in every adversity. What is also most important is how you must you seek, ask, and knock, for the door will be opened. A New Testament example is the Apostle Paul's imprisonment which gave Paul opportunities to blaze trails for Christ. We see from Paul's life how Paul was an opportunist. From the seeds of adversity in Paul's life grew the fruits of opportunity to serve God. Suffering gives us a door of opportunity. When we view suffering or adversity as an opportunity, our view of suffering or adversity gives us enormous power.

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Sub-topic: Adversity, Pain, And Faith

Article Content: In adversity and pain, you need faith. In adversity and pain, you need someone to believe in, to depend upon, to use as a resource, and to supply you with power you do not normally have. In John 5:19 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. 24 "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. 25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. 28 "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out--those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. 30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me. 31 "If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. 32 There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid. 33 "You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. 36 "I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (NIV) In Jesus there is life, even in adversity and pain. In Jesus, we can believe. In Jesus, we can trust. This gospel of John illustrates the power available to us when our life is broken and torn to pieces. When adversity strikes, some people self-destruct through self-centeredness. Their self-centeredness is the result of not having Christ in the center of their life. When people self-destruct, both the cause of their self-destruction and the result of their self-destruction is hopelessness caused by not having Christ at the center of their life. Healing from our brokenness and healing from our adversity and pain requires our cooperation and obedience to Christ plus an acknowledgement of our brokenness. We must recognize our brokenness in order to be able to take our brokenness to Christ.

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Sub-topic: An Incredible Victory

Article Content: Joe: "I have little hope. I am forgotten". John: "If you are forgotten who forgot you?" Joe: "God and other people forgot me." John: "I know what you are saying. You are saying no one knows or cares about you, and what you are going through is something you have to go through alone." Joe: "Yeah. You do not see anybody coming to the rescue do you? You do not see anyone being a Good Samaritan, do you?" John: "No, I do not see anyone. No Samaritans, no do-gooders, no helpers, no, I do not see anyone. However, you cannot see God either and He is there within you. God is the ultimate helper. When no one else knows or cares, God knows and cares." Joe: "I would like to believe you but after all, He is invisible. This whole God thing could be a joke." John: "Yes, I admit it could be a joke, but reasonable people do not laugh about God, and they do not laugh at you or your situation. You are not forgotten or overlooked by God. You would not be forgotten or overlooked by people of compassion and caring either." Joe: "Then why doesn't God do something? Why doesn't He get me out of this mess? Why doesn't He make things better?" John: "He can and He will, if you let Him. He can and He will, if you will let Him talk to you and teach you. Here is the ultimate truth and the ultimate deal. God wants us to use every bit of our adversity for His glory. When we use every bit of our adversity for His glory, God wins an incredible victory. Then when God wins an incredible victory, so do we." Psalm 25:5 (NIV) "Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and my hope is in you all day long."

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Sub-topic: Answers To Questions About Misfortune, Tragedy, And Trauma

Article Content: In searching for answers and meanings about misfortune, tragedy, and trauma, the easiest answers come to us when the causes of tragedy and trauma are clearly related to human sin. We would all like to have easy answers when it comes to sin as a cause of tragedies. However, Jesus noted misfortune, pain, and suffering come to both the righteous and unrighteous. Matthew 5:45 He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (NIV) Why would God have created a system like this? Wouldn't it be more fair for the bad people to always "get theirs?" When we look at how Christ instructs us to live, then we see His teachings have a "love only" foundation. God has created conditions for our relationship to Him to be based solely upon our loving Him. We must love the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for who He is, what He is, and we must be willing to throw off our sinfulness.

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Sub-topic: Bad Times

Article Content: Everyone has bad times in life. No one is immune from adversity. For some people, the adversity may come late in life and these people are devastated if they have never tasted adversity before. For other people, bad times surround them at birth and adversity follows them for life. We must understand bad times fall on a person's life regardless of their race, creed, economic status, age, or origins. We must never expect the good times to roll on forever. We must never expect good times to come to us and stay forever. If we expect the good times to roll on forever, we will be in shock when disaster strikes or bad times fall upon us. Our willingness to admit bad times do happen enables us to prepare our heart, mind, and soul in advance for what may come. Indeed, the person who prepares in advance today for potential bad times in the future has a decided advantage when bad times fall. In addition, the person who prepares in advance for bad times has a greater sense of well-being and security during the good times because necessary preparations have been made. We must not delude ourselves into thinking everything will be comfy and cozy in the future. A construction manager in parts of the world where bad weather strikes should prepare in advance for bad weather conditions. A person who needs to fight traffic jams every day should prepare for adverse traffic by leaving at an appropriate time. Knowing bad times may fall does not need to make us unhappy. Knowing and preparing in advance for adversity can give us a peace, happiness, and security no matter what happens to us in the future.

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Sub-topic: Be Unwilling To Suffer

Article Content: Suffering can wring us out if we are willing to let the suffering do whatever the suffering wants to do to us. When we are in suffering, we have to be unwilling to suffer. When we are suffering, we have to take on a feisty attitude against the pain, discomfort, and disorientation suffering often brings. When you are in suffering... Be unwilling to go along. Be unwilling to hurt. Be unwilling to be in pain. Be unwilling to cave in. Be unwilling to give up. If you take on this kind of "refuse to lose" attitude against the suffering, suddenly you are empowered against whatever the suffering wants to do to you.

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Sub-topic: Blessings Out Of Disaster

Article Content: Years ago a tornado struck the prairies of Minnesota, killing many, injuring hundreds and almost demolishing the town of Rochester. An elderly doctor and his two sons worked for days aiding the stricken, bandaging wounds, and setting broken limbs. Their heroic work did not go unnoticed. Financial backing was offered for a large hospital, provided the doctor and his sons took charge. They agreed. Founded in 1889, their clinic soon attracted wide attention. For years, from fifteen to twenty operations were performed daily. People came from all walks of life to the 'Mayo Brothers' Clinic. When the tornado struck, people reacted with, "God has forgotten!" Yet blessing came out of disaster, and today this prairie city is known around the world. This disastrous tornado resulted in a blessing to uncounted millions. What seemed to be a time of anguish and travail resulted in unimaginable blessings and victory. Each of us must strive to find a way to turn our own anguish and travail into blessings and victory.

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Sub-topic: Blindness

Article Content: We do not like to feel guilty. Feeling guilt is a bad feeling. We are afraid of feeling guilt. Often our fear of guilt is the reason we do not want to talk about sin and the reason we are not set free. How could we not see the obvious when it comes to our sin and our feeling guilty? How could we be in church all our life and not see what Jesus wants us to do? Jesus wants us to surrender our sin to Him and be free of our guilt. He died so our sin could be washed away. Most of us know this as a fact. But how many of us have truly given our sin to him? Christ died so the terrible yoke of sin could be lifted from us now, while we are still alive. 1 Peter 3:18 "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body, but made alive by the spirit." (NIV) How could so many who know this fact have missed the point of actually surrendering? How could most of the world have missed it? If He taketh away the sin of the world we must ask when is our sin taken away? Our sin is taken away when we see what our sin is. When we see what our sin condition is and we reach out to Christ our sin begins to die. John 12:24 "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a simple seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." (NIV) Our condition is such that the phone is ringing. We know Jesus is calling, we know without a doubt He is calling. However, we are so blinded by our sin we do not have the vision to see Christ on the Cross and therefore we do not answer His call upon our heart.

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Sub-topic: Choices In Adversity

Article Content: Regardless of your circumstances, you can make choices. Your power to choose may not appear to be much at first. However, your power to choose is the power you can use to control who you are, what you do, and how you respond to adversity and darkness. Commit your life to making choices when adversity or darkness strikes in your life. Then, when you make choices, you are empowered. When adversity falls upon you...

●You can choose: to be enthusiastic or you can choose to be dour, sullen, and pessimistic.

●You can choose to be happy you are alive or you can choose to be extremely unhappy.

●You can choose to be filled with joy or you can choose to be filled with darkness.

●You can choose to give others a lift or you can choose to bring others down.

●You can choose to see life as a time to be lived up or you can choose to see life as a time to be endured.

●You can choose to be rich in spirit when you are poor or you can choose to be poor in spirit when you are rich.

●You can choose to see others in a spirit of unconditional love or you can choose to see others in a spirit of love only under certain conditions.

●You can choose to see the potential in all things or you can choose to see only the fault in all things.

●You can choose to live in a spirit of acceptance or you can choose to live in a spirit of rejection.

●No matter what you choose, always embrace and make the decision to make a choice.

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Sub-topic: Controlling How You Live

Article Content: Although we do not control where or when we die, we can control how we live and what adversity in life does to us in the meantime. The idea of taking charge, of taking on life rather than letting life take on us is not so revolutionary an idea on the surface. However, the idea IS revolutionary underneath. The idea of controlling our life is revolutionary when we take charge of our heart, our mind, and our soul. For many of us, our life seems to be controlled by powers and forces beyond our control. We do not control our aging. We do not control some of the issues we face in our health, in our relationships, in our finances, or in many of the other aspects of our life. However, if we want to do so, we can control how we respond to what we face in life. We can control whether we respond with despair or with hope. We can control whether we respond with weakness or with power. We may not control many of the exterior circumstances of our life. We can control our interior circumstances. We always have a choice in controlling our life. We always have a choice every minute over how we will and can respond to every circumstance.

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Sub-topic: Counteracting Adversity

Article Content: How do we counteract physical, emotional, and social adversity? First, we must have the right attitude. Then, we must know the truth will set us free. To counteract adversity you have to know two facts: (1) There is life in your spiritual being (2) There is death in your physical body. After you know the facts, then you must take the following actions.

●To counter any adversity you must raise your awareness to the spiritual and beyond your material or physical body.

●Raising your awareness to the spiritual and beyond the physical heals you.

●Awareness-raising of the spirit depends upon your ability to give and receive unconditional love as you get outside of yourself. When you are trapped inside yourself you are trapped in your physical body.

●Your physical body ought to be a servant to your spirit. However, your spirit is often a slave to your physical body, especially if your physical body is in pain or your body is suffering some kind of adversity.

●When you are ill and hurting, you tend to ignore your spirit.

●Most importantly, remember you are a spiritual being having physical experiences, and you, by your choice, do not need to be a physical body having a spiritual experience.

●Recognizing this truth...the truth you can be spirit first and physical body second...can change everything in your life.

●The change coming from realizing you are spirit first and body second begets to you life dominance, life power, and a victory over circumstances.

●Consequently, within every adversity, you can choose to live within a shield of Light. You can actually live within this shield of Light because your real nature is that of a spiritual being.

●With your intention to do so, you can put your body's needs, deprivations, and discontents under the control of your spirit.

●Instead of living in or living with physical negatives, you can live in and live with the positives of peace, love, and joy when negatives come into your life if you work at the spiritual level of things.

●When you live in the spirit rather than in the physical, there may be deprivation but there will also be an overflowing of God's love within you to compensate for the deprivation.

●External changes within your body and within your world take place when the spirit rules the body through love.

●Change on the spiritual level is concerned not with what you do, but who you are.

●Using these principles, you can live your life with love in spite of disability.

●Using these principles, you can conduct your life with peace and serenity in spite of adversity.

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Sub-topic: Counting The Blessings Of Adversity

Article Content: Because of your adversity, people can learn to count their blessings and come closer to God. Because of your adversity, people can become less greedy, more caring, more loving, and more compassionate. Because of your adversity, people can pray who never prayed. Because of your adversity, people can reach up to God who might have ignored Him. Understanding how the magnitude of your victory over your darkness influences thousands of person's lives is critically important. In reality, the darkness tries to extinguish hope and the Light in your life. The darkness also tries to extinguish hope and the Light in the life of thousands of people you know. The darkness cannot extinguish hope and Light if you do not let the Light be put out in your own life. Counting the blessings of your adversity requires you see beyond the obvious. Counting the blessings of your adversity requires you try to see all things as God sees them. Counting the blessings of your adversity requires you learn the lessons adversity can teach you. Counting the blessings of your adversity is one of the most difficult activities of your life, yet counting the blessings of your adversity has one of the greatest payoffs in accumulating wisdom and experiencing the love of God.

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Sub-topic: Dealing With Issues We Do Not Control, Part 1

Article Content: Are there circumstances beyond your control in your life pointing you in a certain direction? None of us control the time, place, and circumstances of our birth. We do not control our genetic make-up. We do not control who our parents are or were, nor do we control the conditions under which we were reared. In our youth, we may not be given a good shot at life. In any part of our life, we may be blinded by circumstances over which we have no control. However, if we have been born blind or if the circumstances of our life have kept us in the dark we can still learn to survive and prosper. God gives us an innate ability to learn from life. Each of us has been given the ability to learn from every darkness and learn from every adversity. Even battling against the darkness, we can still learn where things are when we cannot see. Each of us, to some degree, is born in darkness. We must grope around in life to succeed. Some of us have had more advantages keeping us safe and alive in God's love and grace. Some of us have not had these advantages of safety and security. However, to control those factors in our life seemingly out of our control, one of our first priorities is to learn where things are in the darkness. One of our first priorities in life is to learn all about the shape, size, and place of where things are in our darkness. Only from learning or figuring out all about our surroundings in our darkness can we begin to gain power and control over what seems out of our control.

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Sub-topic: Dealing With Issues We Do Not Control, Part 2

Article Content: Many people are born in adversity. Many people experience fear. Everyone experiences death over which we have no control. However, circumstances over which we have no control can point us in God's direction. Although accidents, mishaps, or traumas are not the will of God or the work of God, we can still get messages from God during every darkness. In every darkness, we can see patterns in the circumstances of our life. If we were born with burdens built-in, born with handicaps or disabilities, or we were reared in circumstances which tear away at our humanity, God is still for us and not against us. No matter what we have had to live with or live through, God still speaks to us. God still shows us His way, no matter how dark our circumstances. If, on your life map, you lay out the dark circumstances of your life seemingly beyond your control, remember to look for the directions God gives you in each place of darkness.

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Sub-topic: Dealing With Life Issues Or Letting Them Slide

Article Content: Sometimes not doing anything can be easier than trying to fix what is broken. Coasting along on the highway toward our destruction can be easier than turning right or left and driving on a rough and uncertain side road. Life issues can have such a gripping and ripping effect upon us dealing with an issue is often as difficult or more difficult than living with the issue. Telling a person they cannot drink again after years of living in a culture of beer and booze drinkers...at a hangout where everyone knows them, sympathizes with them, laughs with them, and seems to be their friend...seems to be a ripping away of what gives people of this persuasion the only substance they have in life. In our disdain of things sinful, Christians must remember as ugly as sin is the life of righteousness following repentance and acceptance of Christ can be excruciatingly painful for a person with a life issue. Life issues can grip us and rip us making us slaves. Life issues are able to make us slaves because we think life issues have a payoff. The drug induced high experienced when on drugs is a physiological and sometimes mental high. When a person is on a drug induced high they are totally removed from the pain, problems, stresses, strains, grief, and worry of life crashing upon them when the high is gone. For a few minutes, the binge eater forgets all about the after affects of eating too much. For a few minutes, the gambler, the over-spender, and the person addicted to destructive behaviors is high above the forthcoming pain surely to follow. However, when we play with fire we get burned. The person enslaved by issues must come to a point in their life where they must make a decision whether to try and deal with the issue or just keep on being a slave. Some of us have major issues that can, have, or will enslave us. Others of us have minor issues. A few lucky people have no real issues. For those people who live in slavery to issues, there is hope. If you live in slavery to issues, remember God wants you free. If you live in slavery to issues, God wants you totally removed, renewed, and regenerated in heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit. When you decide you want to be free, God is with you and will not forsake you if you do not forsake Him.

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Sub-topic: Dealing With The Root Cause Of Adversity

Article Content: The darkness from Satan is the root cause of all adversity, illness, sickness, disease, and slavery. To deal with the root cause, deal with your response to the darkness. If the darkness has its way with you, the darkness will render you helpless, hopeless, and lifeless. Your focus in adversity should not be on the cause or the darkness, but upon your response. When you start looking at your response to the darkness, suddenly you begin to have power. When you start looking at your response to the darkness, the darkness is no longer the central part of your perceptions and your thought processes. When you begin to look at your response to the darkness, you can see you have the power to help yourself. You find hope in your life where there seemed to be no hope. Then your life takes on meaning and purpose. To deal with the root cause of adversity, deal not with the adversity, but always deal with your response to the adversity.

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Sub-topic: Dealing With The Rough Times

Article Content: For many people, at every turn of life, on the road of life there is a roadblock, a pothole, bad pavement, or a wall. However, with Christ as our infinite resource we can deal with the roadblocks, potholes, bad pavements, and walls. This is not to say we do not feel the effects of the rough road. Persons of faith have an incredibly effective way of dealing with the rough times...an incredibly effective way called faith in God, faith in Christ, and faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.

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Sub-topic: Devastation And The Light Of God

Article Content: No matter how devastating an adversity may be, when we truly love the Light of God, the Light of God shines in our darkness. The Light of God can put the desire of our heart into proper perspective. When we can see ourselves and see our world with the Light of God shining within us, we see past the devastation and darkness. When we have the Light of God shining within us, we would rather do what the Light desires of us, even in our moments of darkness. The pain of our darkness and devastation, no matter the cause, is fed by the darkness. When the Light of God is brought into our darkness, the darkness disappears. The darkness does not fill the emptiness in our soul. The darkness only stirs up a pain-filled hunger and thirst in our soul to such an extent we will often do anything to take away the pain caused by satanic evil. However, the Light of God fills our emptiness and replaces the devastation in our soul with a peace and contentment beyond our understanding.

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Sub-topic: Dictating The Terms Of Our Life

Article Content: We may not be able to dictate the terms of our outside life because of obstacles, burdens and circumstances we cannot control. However, we can determine what our life is like on the inside. What we must ultimately strive for in life is not to try and avoid obstacles or circumstances outside of us, but to be smart enough to win at life by dictating the terms of our inner life. We must try to be smart enough to beat back the inner opponent in us who whispers in our ear to give up, all is lost, the game is over, and to stop trying. Your greatest obstacle in life is not a car refusing to run, a job you cannot find, or your loneliness. Your greatest obstacle in life is your dark inner opponent telling you everything is lost when, in fact, you can find fullness and meaning in life in spite of your dark obstacles, situations, and circumstances. When you dictate the terms of your life, you dictate how you will win by declaring your inner life is controllable and you are the controller.

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Sub-topic: Education And Taking Charge

Article Content: In any adversity, knowledge and wisdom are mandatory if you want to take charge. In any adversity, to take charge you must become a specialist in your well-being, in your issue or issues, and in your adversity. In any adversity you must know everything about your adversity to take charge and take control. When you deal with experts related to your adversity, you must challenge the experts, challenge the doctors, challenge the counselors, challenge the consultants, challenge the advice givers, challenge the writers, and challenge the know-it-alls. Take charge by becoming an active participant, not a passive victim in your adversity. Never be willing to sit back and let others run your life.

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Sub-topic: Eight Things To Do Against Insurmountable Odds

Article Content: Assuming you pray from your heart each day: 1. Refuse to play the victim by refusing to see yourself as the victim. 2. Educate yourself about the insurmountable condition and educate yourself about yourself, about life, and about God. Educate yourself about your insurmountable condition, about growing up, about maturing as a human being regardless of your age or prospects in the future. 3. Become your own specialist in your own domain regarding the circumstance you are in. Know everything about your adversity. 4. Challenge the experts, the doctors, the counselors, and the know-it-alls, but challenge them only on solid points based upon your own research into the conditions you face. 5. Become an active participant in the circumstance and not a passive victim. Do not be willing to sit back and let others run your life. In many adversities, we must let others run part of our life in order to deal with or get out of the adversity. Our response to helplessness of insurmountable odds is one of the keys to getting out of the adversity alive. 6. Demand dignity from yourself, refuse to quit, and refuse to let the adversity touch you or deal with you. What does it mean to not let adversity touch you? In most adversities, we are plunged into a darkness stripping away our dignity. We lose contact with who we are, what we are, what we believe in, and the ways we relate to the world in more normal times. Most often, we go willingly along with things in adversity in normal circumstances we would never accommodate. Do not let yourself be led, pushed, pulled, or jerked around without your assertion of your dignity. 7. Demand person-hood from yourself. In your darkness, you can get very, very lost. In your darkness, your circumstance may seem to have no way out. In your darkness, you might be thinking there is no light at the end of the tunnel. We must demand from ourselves an attitude to be better, not bitter. We must demand from ourselves an attitude of forgiveness instead of wanting revenge or wanting to get even. We must demand an attitude where we respond with soft kindness instead of hard and bitter anger. 8. Demand control regardless of the circumstance or the course of the circumstance. Demand control regardless of the nature of the adversity. Demand control from within yourself. How will you handle the frustration of wanting to be in charge but not being able to take charge? Take charge of the minute and let the hour take care of itself. You can be in charge of some things but not necessarily all things. Being in charge is something you have to demand from yourself. Being in charge of small things is the way you achieve control over large things. Really decide when you eat, how you eat, what you eat, what you wear, when you bathe, what you watch, and what you read. Avoid, at all costs, the hopeless and helpless ride of grief, pain, and anxiety we ride when we are in the darkness. Above all, look upward and outward.

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Sub-topic: Encountering Obstacles

Article Content: After crossing over or conquering an obstacle, stay far away from the obstacle. Do not go back to the obstacle. Do not look back at the obstacle. Do not think about the obstacle. Human beings sometimes have a fixation with challenges or obstacles to their success. Obstacles, if we let them, can grab us and possess our thinking and even possess our heart. Once you have conquered or overcome an obstacle, move on. You must not spend time celebrating the successful crossing or conquering of an obstacle. You must not celebrate the conquering of an obstacle, for the time of celebration is wasted time the enemy or satanic opponent can use against you. Obstacles must be regarded as respectfully as you regard the satanic opponent. The satanic opponent can and will place obstacles in your path.

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Sub-topic: Facing Adversity Instead Of Running Away

Article Content: Have you ever wondered why you can't get away from your problems and adversities? You can run away from everything and run away from everyone except yourself and God. You cannot run away from God because God lives within you. You cannot run away from yourself because you carry yourself with yourself everywhere you go. To achieve victory in life, you must not run away from your adversities, but face your adversities head on. To forcefully face your adversities head on, you must learn to put your mental and spiritual adversities outside yourself. Because you cannot run away from yourself or God, better to live from the inside out, rather than from the outside in. If you live from the outside in, then wherever you go, you permit these outside adversities to come inside of your life. Living from the outside in is the weak way of living because you bring the outside adversities inside of you and you are then weakened. Living the weak way has no escape. We conquer the adversities inside of us by taking our adversities and putting our adversities outside of us where the adversities belong. To achieve victory, you must stay within yourself. To achieve victory you must remain strong rather than letting the outside adversities come inside of you to weaken you. If you let your outside adversities come inside of you and you then let your inside adversities control you because the inside adversities are inside of you, the only way to try to get away from your internal adversities is to run away. However, you cannot really run away from what you carry inside of you. To get away from your inside or outside adversities, you can pretend your inside or outside adversities do not exist. However, pretending your inside adversities do not exist does not help. Most of the time, pretending our inside or outside adversities do not exist only makes things worse. Pretending is the opposite of believing. Pretending our adversities do not exist is lying. Pretending our adversities do not exist, used in the place of believing we have power over our adversities, only leads to a further piling on of our difficulties.

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Sub-topic: Fighting Back

Article Content: There is in each of us the capacity to be on fire for God and for Christ. To have this fire and maintain this fire for God is sometimes incredibly difficult. In your life, Satan puts adversity, pain, and suffering upon you without your will and without your consent. Satan can put a disability upon you robbing you of all your energy, all your enthusiasm, and all of your life force. However, as long as you have a mind you can come against Satan. Satan might kill your energy and put you on the floor but he can't get your mind if you are determined to keep your mind in Christ and Christ only. Satan can't make you wish Christ was not your Savior without your consent. Satan can't make you renounce your faith in Christ without your consent. Satan can't make you desert and run the other way without your consent. The apostle Paul noted, 2 Corinthians 12:10. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (NIV). In your life, when you are weak against Satan, you can be and must be determined to be strong in your faith for Christ.

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Sub-topic: Finding Peace, Power, And Love In Adversity

Article Content: Peace, power, and love in adversity are found in the kingdom of God within us, not on the outside of us. However, where do we normally look for peace, power and love? When we look for peace, power, and love, we wrongly look outside of ourselves rather than within ourselves. We never learn peace, power, and love are within us if we always try to live outside of ourselves rather than inside of ourselves. If we continue to try to live outside of ourselves, we have one problem after another. If we continually try to live outside of ourselves, our problems never stop, and we never find any power, peace, or love on the outside. To find peace, power, and love in adversity, look within where Christ is always alive always supplying us with an abundance of peace, power, and love.

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Sub-topic: Forgive God

Article Content: We must forgive God. We do not need to forgive God because has done anything wrong. We must forgive God because we can often hold God accountable for obstacles, illnesses, and pain God did not create. We can become angry with God for allowing things to happen. We may often think, "How could God do this to me? God is at fault. Life is not fair. God is not fair. God is to blame." If we think this way, we must forgive God. We must release ourselves from the crippling resentment against Him. We may not approve of all God's methods or results, but we can learn to accept Him working in the world as we learn to trust Him. The result of forgiving God is to be closer to Him and to be immersed in His healing. Instead of blaming God and asking, "Why me?" we must ask, "To what end?" Illness, disability, and misfortune are not a result of God's punishment. Adversity is something God can use for your benefit and so can you. God is always present. God is with you to walk with you, to talk with you, to guide you, and to assure your victory. From you, God wants victory. God wants victory every time, all the time, God wants victory from every second of your life. When you forgive God, you have scored big points in achieving His victory.

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Sub-topic: Getting Out Of Your Circumstances

Article Content: The problem in our life is we often fail and once we have failed then we too often get to a point of being trapped. We may not be able to get out of our failure-laden circumstances. As another example of being trapped by circumstances, let's take a typical state legislature. Generally speaking, these people can't get along and they seemingly cannot get out of their circumstances. In the Middle East, we have a Middle East problem and the problem is people seemingly cannot get along. They cannot get out of their circumstances. In many communities, there is a sin problem. Sin has taken such a grip on so many people they think they cannot get out of their circumstances. In addition, the problem with many people is they feel greedy. They feel there is a problem if their money is not enough. Many people feel if they don't get a new "thing" then their life will be a mess and they cannot get out of their circumstances. As we look at these problems, all the problems have one root cause and the cause is sin. People who do not get along with each other is an example of sinful behavior. Letting sin get a grip on you is a sin. Never wanting to break the grip of sin is a sin. Greed is a sin. To break the grip of sin and sin's greediness, turn away from the sin, turn to Christ dying for you on the cross, and kneel down before Him in holy sorrow as you give up all you are to Him.

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Sub-topic: God As A Part Of Our Life During Adversity

Article Content: Does God have to become a part of our life during adversity? Many people who are in crisis get defensive when they are told to turn to God. In adversity, everyone has the option or choice of leaving God out or ascending up to God every moment. What we must all clearly understand is we have the freedom to include God or exclude God in our adversity. We must also clearly understand there is always a result to everything we think, believe, and do. There is always a result for including or excluding God in our life. When we have an inclusive mind, a mind including the power of the universe we call "God", there is always a result produced by having this inclusive mind. There is always a result when we include the power of the universe in our heart and life. When we have an exclusive mind, a mind excluding the power of the universe from within us, there is also a result produced...the result produced is darkness. The result of excluding God in your adversity is to live only in emptiness...an emptiness full of darkness. The result of including God in your adversity is you include the Light of the universe in your darkness...and then the darkness is no more.

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Sub-topic: God's Action In Our Suffering And Adversity

Article Content: God has two choices in our suffering and adversity. God can either put His hands on us to fix things or not put His hands on us to fix things. In either case, our fundamental thoughts, questions, doubts, beliefs, and certainties must remain fixed, no matter what God does or does not do. We can ask, "Why doesn't a prayer to Jesus bring me a solution, a cure, or a fix to my problems?" In answer to the question, the truth is...Jesus always has compassion on us and He always loves us. Whether we get a cure or a miracle from Jesus will not change the fact Jesus loves us. In some hearts and minds, Jesus is made out to be a person who only acts because we want Him to act or because we think we can make Him to act. However, Jesus will act only in ways to bring Him glory, even if bringing Him glory is not to answer our prayers like we want them answered. The value of a strong and relentless faith in God comes to us only when we keep believing, keep hoping, and keep trusting in God despite any action or inaction of God. When Jesus does not heal us, or fix us, or give us what we ask, it should make no difference to us or to our faith in Him. Miraculous fixes, solutions, and cures do not always happen because the miraculous is not always in God's will. However, our wholeness, our faithfulness, our righteousness, and our unselfishness in all matters is a part of God's will for us. God's will is for wholeness, faithfulness, righteousness, and unselfishness to always be in your heart and in the heart of every person on earth. Most important of all, God's ultimate healing, the healing you find only in your heavenly home, is within your reach and within the reach of every person on earth. In considering God's action in our suffering and adversity, we must all understand God will not be put to the test. God not being put to the test is one reason why we do not see automatic healings and miracles at a simple command. After all, if you really love Him, why would you want to test Him? Healing and miracles are not a matter of show business. Jesus healed people because He loved them and had compassion on them, not because He wanted to put on a show.

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Sub-topic: God's Will In A Time Of Suffering, Part 1 Of 2

Article Content: To find, keep, and have hope while we try to get through our times of suffering and adversity requires we fit our life into the will of God. To more fully understand how we can have hope by knowing the will of God we can characterize the will of God as wind. Wind has force and power. Although we cannot see the wind, nor can we capture the wind in a bottle, we can still use the wind. To go against the wind requires us to exert extra force as we push into the wind. When we have the wind at our back, the wind pushes us along and can help us on our way. To take advantage of the wind we need to be able to have the wind at our back. To have the wind at our back, we need to know in what direction the wind is blowing. If we are not moving in the wind's direction we can expect to be blown about and even be blown off course. Although we cannot capture the wind in a container or bottle, we can still use the wind by building windmills. The windmill has a vane. The vane always keeps the rotating blades of the windmill facing in the direction of the wind. The wind applies pressure against the blades forcing the windmill's rotor to turn. Although we cannot capture the wind directly, we can capture the force of the wind by converting the rotating force of the windmill's rotor into electrical power or use the windmill's mechanical power. Like the wind, the will of God is a power and a force. In our times of suffering and adversity, we can choose to move in the same direction as His force or will. We also can choose to go against His will. We cannot capture or bottle His power but we can use His power if we know the direction of His will. Just as the windmill has a vane to keep its blades facing the direction of the wind, each of us must have a spiritual vane to keep us sensitive to the direction of God's will. For many people, no part of God remains more aloof and more apart from them than His will for their life. Some of the mystery of God's will can be unraveled but not all of His will. However, what we do know about God's will is substantial. Our great quest in life must be to do as much of God's will as we know how to do, no matter what obstacles we face at the time.

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Sub-topic: God's Will In A Time Of Suffering, Part 2 Of 2

Article Content: The big picture of God's will is a picture God readily gives us. However, most of us do not want to bother with the big picture of God's will. We want the small picture. We want hour by hour details and instructions concerning what He wants us to do. God has given us His big picture directions through the wisdom and guidance of the Bible. Unfortunately, we often have trouble living our life according to the big picture instructions found in God's word. In truth, we may never get our detailed minute by minute account of what God wants from us because we are too ignorant of His big picture instructions for us. If we cannot live our life in ways glorifying God and restoring hope to others according to God's big picture directions, God (being a rational being) would certainly not be inclined to give us minute by minute details we could not follow. In other words, if you cannot follow the big general directions of God, God will likely not give you the small general directions. In addition, we may not be given detailed instructions on a minute by minute basis from God because these instructions might make us excessively dependent upon God for direction and insight. An excessive dependence upon God might destroy our free will. Our free will is a precious gift God has abundantly given humanity.

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Sub-topic: Growing In Adversity

Article Content: General rules:

●No one wants to be or ought to be totally "mature" or "adult" all the time but we also should not want to be childish.

●Be kind to and love the child within you. You carry your child with you all the time.

●Everyone needs to "let go" of the old ways of childishness and not hate these old ways.

●Grow or mature by building upon your earlier self rather than rejecting it.

●People get hooked on childhood, especially if the childhood has been a bad one. Unfortunately, people who have had bad childhoods try to re-capture the missed bliss of childhood all their adult life.

●Moving ahead to happiness or stagnating in misery is a minute by minute choice we can make every minute.

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Sub-topic: Hanging By A Thread

Article Content: Every human being is suspended above the darkness of death by a slender thread. The thread is not the thread of DNA. The slender thread is the energy activating the DNA, or the energy we call "life." Generally, you are not even aware of hanging by a slender thread above the dark pit of death until your life is threatened. When your life is threatened, by whatever circumstance, you then begin to realize you are vulnerable. When you realize you are vulnerable and you realize how vulnerable you are, there can be feelings of desperation, fear, and even panic. However, as you hang by the slender thread of life, those of you who have accepted Christ as Savior are not feeling any desperation, fear, or panic. Instead of looking forward to darkness and uncertainty, those of you who have accepted Christ look forward to Light, Love, and the certainty of living in God's heaven for all eternity.

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Sub-topic: Hard Questions About Adversity

Article Content: 1. Why did this adversity happen? Is there a reason and a purpose for this adversity? 2. Why did this adversity happen to me or to us? Am I more deserving of adversity than others and if so, why? 3. How can a loving God allow or maybe even cause this adversity to happen? 4. Could I control more of what happens to me than I want to believe? 5. What can I control when adversity strikes? 6. Are misfortunes and terrible things more likely to happen to people who lead lives of sin or lives of obedience to God? 7. Does living in sin or living in righteousness make any difference in terms of adversity striking in my life? 8. What is the meaning of misfortune? 9. Could misfortune be a test of my faith and obedience? 10. Could the Lord be strengthening me for a greater purpose by letting adversity happen? 11. Could the meaning of a misfortune be shrouded from me? 12. Could it be God cannot work in my life in this adversity the way I demand or want Him to work? 13. Would faith and love of Christ be necessary if He always gave me an answer to every question I ever asked? 14. Could God have a certain procedure or method He must follow in order to work in my life, especially in times of adversity? 15. Is it within my human power to take a terrible event and use the terrible event to glorify God and His Son Jesus Christ? 16. If I believe God will not forsake me, and I believe He will be beside me, around me, beneath me, behind me, before me, and within me...then why doesn't He protect me from all the harm of life? 17. Where are the real mansions of life built for me? 18. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. Do those of us who have committed our lives to Christ and we live a life of obedience to Him have an advantage when the rain starts to fall? If so, what is this advantage?

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Sub-topic: Help From Christ When We Face Adversity

Article Content: Everyone, even innocent victims, must deal with the power of darkness. Everyone must deal with the power of darkness or the darkness will deal with them. For Christians, Christ is the way we deal with the darkness. In Christ and in His earthly ministry, we see the power of the love of God. Jesus conquered the physical limitations of humanity with His love. Jesus even conquered death by this power of love. We find in Christ's suffering and death on the cross, a picture of our own isolation, pain, brokenness, suffering, and separation from God. However, because He won out over death, we can also win out over death. Jesus suffered so we can win and at some point, not only will we suffer no more, but we will rejoice in Heaven where there is never any suffering or pain. For us not to try to win out over our earthly problems, pain, and issues is to turn away from the Cross and ignore what Jesus did for each of us.

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Sub-topic: How Adversity Can Affect Us Physically And Emotionally

Article Content: With any kind of adversity or disability, we can become captives of the physical nature of our life and body. In adversity, we can become powerless over our body, powerless over our emotions, and powerless over our mind. When we encounter any kind of adversity or physical disability we can begin to think we have been betrayed by the foundations of our belief and faith. We can begin to think we have been betrayed by God. We can begin to think we have been betrayed by our physical body. When we begin to think in terms of being betrayed, we begin to be trapped by our emotions of fear, anger, and frustration. When we begin to think in terms of being betrayed we can be pounded by our mind into thinking the worst about the present. We can end up predicting doom for the future. Adversity can eat away at our heart, mind, and soul if we let the adversity do so. However, when we encounter any kind of adversity or physical disability we have not been betrayed...we have been attacked, piled upon, and dumped upon by Satan and his evil cohorts. Although we may think we have become Satan's target, we must realize we have a way to access infinite power, access infinite hope, and access the infinite mind of God. With God on our side, we have the eternal capability to fight back against Satan with love, kindness, compassion, and creativity in the spiritual war for our soul.

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Sub-topic: How Adversity Can Be Overcome

Article Content: You can overcome the spiritual, emotional, and mental effects of adversity, even if you cannot overcome the physical effects of the adversity. Victory over darkness and adversity is won within your mind. Within your mind you commit your life and commit yourself to changing what is negative in your life into what is positive. To overcome adversity, you must overcome the mental aspects of what adversity tries to do to you. You must win the mental aspects of the game. To win out over adversity, you must measure each day by your emotional, spiritual, and mental accomplishments, not by how you physically feel. The truth is, you can be well by changing your mind, even when you are not well in your body.

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Sub-topic: How Adversity Can Be Turned Into Things Positive

Article Content: The personal obstacle before you may turn into a launching pad instead of a hindrance. The obstacle before you may now be an asset rather than a liability. To be able to turn an adversity into something positive you must have a mindset to look beyond the obvious negatives to find some kind of positive attribute. You must have a mindset to turn what appears to be a disadvantage into an advantage. With discipline and hard work, adversities can be turned into assets. Instead of asking "why", you should ask how the adversity or obstacle can be used, changed, manipulated, or turned against itself. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel if you are committed to finding the light. If there is no light at the end of the tunnel, you might have to make a light. If there is no obvious way, you might have to make a way. Dealing with adversity requires we expect to do for others and ourselves instead of expecting others to do for us. Asking "why" when we face adversity is really asking for pity, or asking God to feel sorry for us. Quite often, some of our "why" questions are a search for reason and meaning when there seems to be no reason and no meaning. However, our reason and meaning from adversity is found only as we take charge of ourselves, not when we let an obstacle or adversity run out of our control and take charge of us. If you are mired in the "why" questions, then you are stuck in the adversity and you are not moving, you are mired in self-pity, you are tormented by the obstacle, and you are likely full of hostility about the adversity. To win out over the obstacle or adversity you must let the self-pity, the torment, and the hostility slip away from you by being forgiving. When you forgive you live. When you hate you die. With God, hate is death, forgiveness is life.

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Sub-topic: How Jesus Relates To Our Adversity

Article Content: Adversity disappears in His Light. In spite of your problems, issues, disability, illness, sickness, disease, or the influence the darkness has upon you, there is no power greater than the light of God. Because God is the light, you can defeat the darkness by bringing in the Light of Christ. The darkness is a part of your earthly life. However, the darkness is only temporary for those of us who have accepted Christ. Since Christ is eternal, you can stand in the presence of God's Light and Love in Christ now and forevermore. Your temporary darkness will be made into nothing in the light and love of God as you stand with Him for eternity in Heaven.

●Christ touches us in our adversity. In Old Testament times people who were disabled, ill, sick, or diseased were banned from the temple where God lived. In striking contrast, when Jesus came into the world He did not reject us or banish us. Instead of rejecting us or banishing us, Jesus put His hands upon us and healed us.

●Christ is present. Jesus is present in our life to help us deal with the adversity, not necessarily to make the adversity go away. On the surface, there does appear to be unfairness about adversity for people of faith. Certainly, if we look at adversity from the standpoint of the world, people of faith should get an easier life because people of faith believe in God. From the standpoint of the world, believers in God should receive protection from God because of their faith, at least more protection than non-believers. However, our mission on earth is to glorify God in all ways, at all times, and in all circumstances. Our mission on earth is to glorify God in the dark times as well as in the good times. As twisted as the logic may appear to be, we are to use every adversity, someway, somehow, to glorify God. When we glorify God as a result of the darkness in our life, the darkness is most surely defeated. To find the power to do our glorification work, Christ is present in our heart every hour.

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Sub-topic: How To Get A Clue

Article Content: We jokingly talk about people getting a clue in their life. What we often refer to in speaking about getting a clue is finding enough wisdom to maneuver around the obstacles we face each day. We all make mistakes and getting a clue means we have either made mistakes or we are trying to avoid mistakes. Wisdom to avoid mistakes comes to us from many sources. One of the greatest sources of wisdom is the Bible. Using the wisdom of the Bible in daily life requires faith in God. Our biblical source of wisdom in how to deal with everyday circumstances requires we believe in the power of God manifested in the words of scripture. Unfortunately, this investment of faith results in our "getting a clue" and our "getting a clue" turns off many people. From the viewpoint of a person with faith in God, getting a clue means having faith and using the wisdom of God in practical ways every day.

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Sub-topic: How Togetherness Can Help Us

Article Content: Our togetherness as a family of human beings is a weapon against the darkness. When we share our burdens with each other, we lighten the load of our adversity. Reaching out to each other, sharing our pain, our fear, our anger, and our love opens us up to one another and to God. Trust and confidence in each other brings us closer to each other by making room in our heart for each other. To maintain and carry on our togetherness requires we give as well as receive.

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Sub-topic: How We See Ourselves In Adversity

Article Content: When someone states "I have cancer" their statement can become "I am cancer." "I have arthritis" can become "I am arthritis." "I have suffered abuse" can become "I am abuse." "I have a sickness" can become "I am sick." "I have a disability" can become "I am a disability". "I have pain" can become "I am pain". "I have gone through a divorce" can become "I am divorce." We must not let the adversity become who we are. We must maintain our selfhood. When we face any adversity we must always separate out the "I" from any adversity. We must always separate the "I" from "I am a failure," or "I am unworthy."

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Sub-topic: How Your Mind Can Impact Your Health

Article Content: What effect can our mind have upon our body and upon our response to adversity? When you face adversity of any kind you must do everything possible to tune in your mind to what is going on within your emotions and your thoughts. Know what you are doing with your fear, your anger, and your pain. Remove yourself from the merry-go-round of self-destruction so often found in adversity. Remove yourself from self-destruction by stepping back from where you are and viewing what you are doing, how you are doing it, and why you are doing it. When you are in adversity, do away with your negative mind and negative emotions. The more negative mental and emotional energy you produce, the greater the negative impact the adversity will have upon your physical body. Psychosomatic illness is a result of the mind and spirit causing illness. If the mind creates health problems, the mind and spirit can also create health solutions. The word "psychosomatic" is derived from the Greek words "Psyche" and "Soma" which mean mind (or soul) and body. The word refers to both the positive and negative aspects of the connection between our mind and our body. If you imagine you have an illness, or you believe you have an illness, your imagination and belief can produce the symptoms of the illness. If there is such a thing as psychosomatic illness, there can also be psychosomatic wellness. Your mind can make you well or make you sick. Your mind can also control your physical pain by concentrating your mental images upon other sensations other than pain. Your mind can help you live longer. For example, the survival rate among breast cancer patients who were members of a support group was twice that of non-participants. The more you resist and doubt in your mind, the greater the pain and destruction when adversity falls upon you.

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Sub-topic: In Times When You Are Overwhelmed

Article Content: There are going to be times in your life when you are overwhelmed. In times when we are overwhelmed, we see how bad things look and we immediately feel overwhelmed by our circumstances. Then, upon being overwhelmed, we lose faith and we think we are going to be swallowed up and drown in our sea of troubles. The apostle Peter had an experience like this. Matthew 14:28-31 "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" (NIV) We can see from what happened to Peter, when we get overwhelmed, we can lose our faith, we can start to sink, and then we must cry out for help. There is no way Jesus would have let Peter sink and drown. Jesus won't let you sink or drown either. No matter what your circumstances, you always have a hand reaching out to you, and a hand to pick you up when you are needlessly afraid. Many times we can be afraid of things, people, or circumstances when there is no reason to fear. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John had this kind of experience. Upon seeing Moses, and Elijah... Matthew 17:4-7 Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid." (NIV) The disciples were needlessly afraid just as we can be needlessly afraid. However, the disciples learned they had no reason to fear.

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Sub-topic: Keep Your Head

Article Content: Keeping your head in adversity should be the very first rule for dealing with adversity. If the great opponent or great adversary has an ultimate weapon against you, this weapon is the weapon of war called psychological warfare. To win the war against an opponent, you want the opponent to think defeat is absolutely certain. When your opponent is absolutely convinced defeat is absolutely certain, the opponent may give up. The reverse is also true. When your opponent can convince you defeat is absolutely certain or you are willing to be convinced defeat is absolutely certain, you are already defeated in your mind. Keeping your head means you always know the absolute realities. Most of the time, the absolute realities are much different than what we perceive. Keeping your head means you keep everything in perspective. You keep thoughts of defeat out of your head unless or until the game is over. Even when the game is over, there is, in this life, a next game, especially for those of us who believe Heaven waits for us. Keeping your head means keeping your emotions in check. Keeping your emotions in check means keeping the emotions of hopelessness, anger, frustration, fear, and anxiety out of the so-called rational thought processes going on in our mind.

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Sub-topic: Knowing And Taking Charge

Article Content: You cannot take charge of an adversity you know nothing about. To take charge of adversities and circumstances instead of letting adversities and circumstances take charge of you, above all else, know the facts about your adversities and circumstances. In addition, to take charge, you must also be able to see the circumstance as well as know the facts. To take charge of an adversity you must be able to see what is around you. You must be able to see the adversity you want to control. Being an expert on an adversity is of no value if you cannot see all aspects of the adversity. Also, to take charge, you must see how the adversity is both a hindrance and/or see how the adversity can be an advantage. Your belief system also comes into play when you need to take charge because you cannot take charge of an adversity if you believe the adversity has nothing to do with you.

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Sub-topic: Knowing The Truth

Article Content: Knowing is essential in dealing with any adversity. In addition, knowing the truth must lead to action. For example, what would happen if a terrorist plants a nuclear bomb in a major city? There are steps to take against adversity. The first essential step in dealing with any adversity is to see the bomb or adversity. You must see the bomb or obtain concrete evidence of the bomb's existence. You cannot do anything about the bomb or a difficulty in your life if you do not see the difficulty. In our example, you must obtain concrete evidence the bomb or adversity exists. You know from your own experience it is easier to see the problems other people have than it is to see your own problems. This is because you can walk all the way around another person and see them. However, the only way we can physically see ourselves is by a reflection in a mirror. We cannot take charge of something we cannot see. To take charge of the adversity in your life the first step is to see the adversity or know the truth about it.

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Sub-topic: Knowing The Truth About Adversity

Article Content: Once you see an adversity, you must know the adversity is, in fact, an adversity. Perhaps you are thinking everyone knows adversity when they see adversity but this is not always true. Many people live in denial of all kinds of adversities in their life. For persons who live in denial, the adversity can hurt them and they will never know until after the suffering starts. A person addicted to a substance or caught up in a hurtful behavior may never see what is obvious to others. When we see an adversity, we must know the adversity is what we think it is and not something else. To overcome an adversity, we have to know whether the adversity or problem is real or whether the adversity or problem is not real. Some problems are not real, we just think they are real. Our imaginations generate all kinds of fears, phobias, and reactions to unreal things. If a problem or adversity is real but we think the adversity is not real, we can die from our lack of knowledge. Knowing the truth not only makes us free, knowing the truth about an adversity or non-adversity can keep us and others from being badly hurt.

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Sub-topic: Lies About Illness, Disease, And Obstacles

Article Content: Lie No. 1. Catastrophic illness, life changing disability, hurtful memories from the past, painful experiences in the past, or obstacles in the present, mean death or a life of low quality. Lie No. 2. Any kind of hope for any kind of treatment or solution is ineffective. In addition, treatments or solutions have bad side effects. Lie No. 3. There is little you can do to help yourself regardless of the circumstances. These lies take away our hope. However, there is a truth about illness, sickness, disease, and obstacles.

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Sub-topic: Living A Victorious Life

Article Content: A person leads a victorious life not when there are no obstacles, burdens, or circumstances. A person leads a victorious life when obstacles abound and the obstacles are all turned to dust by how the victorious person lives. We all have an inside life and an outside life. There are times and circumstances in our outside life we cannot change. There are permanent unchanging inanimate objects and situations outside of us. Our defeat as persons comes about when we let inanimate objects or life obstacles get us down and we stay down. We may have dreams or hopes not filled or not realized in the outside world, but we can live a victorious life when we dictate the terms of our inner life.

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Sub-topic: Living With Obstacles And Burdens

Article Content: We may not be able to do anything about some of our obstacles, burdens, or circumstances in life. In this case, we may have to just let the obstacle, burden, or circumstance sit in our life. We may just have to let the obstacle, burden, or circumstance be where it is at the moment. We might have to climb over the obstacle, go around it, tunnel under it, or live with the fact the obstacle is always going to be where the obstacle rests at the moment. We may have to learn to live in spite of the obstacle or burden. In many of the circumstances we cannot change, our greatest victory is learning to live in spite of the obstacle, burden, or circumstance. As ridiculous as this sounds, if darkness has its way, an inanimate obstacle or a circumstance will get you down, keep you down, and will not let you live. The will of God for you is to come back against obstacles, burdens, and circumstances by living fully in spite of them.

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Sub-topic: Meeting Adversity Head-on

Article Content: There are secrets to living and even prospering in adversity. Here are twenty of these secrets to prospering in adversity. 1. Meet your own expectations after you have met the expectations of God. Ask yourself how you would feel if you let something slide. 2. Enjoy the experience of being in charge of yourself after you have submitted all you are to God's will. 3. Routine matters like housework and homework are a small part of life. The times when you see yourself as a victorious child of God are the times your life takes on a victorious presence. 4. Establish priorities of importance in your life based upon what God thinks is important. 5. Doing what makes you feel good about yourself is not self-indulgence unless doing what makes you feel good about yourself is against the will of God. 6. As you put others first, take care of yourself or you cannot take care of others. Take care of others or eventually you will not be able to take care of yourself. 7. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Then love they neighbor better than thyself. 8. Love God. Love others. Love yourself. Always in that order. 9. Charity begins with you always doing what God wants you to do. 10. Sacrifice and self-denial in favor of another person and in favor of sustaining a relationship keeps the relationship in tact and whole. Self-indulgence in thoughts, words, or actions detrimental to a relationship occurs because there is no willingness to sacrifice and no willingness to deny oneself in favor of another. 11. Listen to God. Listen to others. Listen to yourself. Don't smother out your needs and inner voices, but also do not act on your needs and inner voices without your actions being a reflection of God's will. 12. Don't go along with what other people say unless they reflect the will of God. Always desire and mean to go along with the will of God. 13. Speak up! 14. To really change you must have perseverance. 15. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. 16. To change you must want to change even when you don't want to change. 17. Accept your messiness and mistakes, you are human. 18. Talk to yourself. Listen to yourself. Reassure yourself. Tell the child in you "no." 19. Forgive and love the misbehaving child in you. Know him or her. Love him or her all the time. 20. Find self-love by taking your sin to Christ. By taking your sin to Christ, by turning away from your sin, by kneeling at the foot of His cross in humble regret and sorrow, your sin will be erased by His love. Then you will come to love yourself as God loves you. Finally, accept His forgiveness.

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Sub-topic: Moving Mountains By Faith

Article Content: Matthew 21:21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. (KJV) Jesus kept making these radical statements about faith, statements that even today seem unbelievable. Jesus kept making these statements because He knows the only way you can move the mountains in your life is by faith in Him. The question is, "Why hasn't someone been able to do this mountain moving thing in 2000 years?" Here are other important questions, "What good would it do to throw a mountain into the sea? What would it demonstrate what has not already been demonstrated by Jesus? What are the priorities? Is restoring the sight to a blind child less important than moving a mountain? Is saving a soul less important than moving a mountain?" Throwing a mountain into the sea is not nearly as important an event as leading someone to make a decision for Christ. After all, a mountain is just rock and dirt. Rock and dirt can be thrown into the ocean all day long and these activities are not going to make any real difference to anyone. Jesus came to earth to make a difference in your life (dramatically more important than rocks and dirt thrown into the ocean). Jesus died on the cross to make a difference in how you see God (dramatically more important than rocks and dirt thrown into the ocean). Jesus suffered and died so maybe, if the right words are used, you will accept He died for you (dramatically more important than rocks and dirt thrown into the ocean). Jesus came to earth so you will use your faith and accept as fact He was the real Son of God (dramatically more important than rocks and dirt thrown into the ocean).

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Sub-topic: Obstacles And Strength

Article Content: If you are ten times stronger than the satanic opponent and have the resources to do so, you can surround the opponent. If you are strong enough to obliterate the obstacles put in your path by the opponent without using up your strength or your resources you must do so. Do not use your strength or resources to obliterate obstacles unless you have an advantage greater than the lost strength or the resources you use up. If possible, you must obliterate obstacles on the playing field so you can engage the opponent on a level field of battle, without obstacles, and to your advantage. If possible, always engage the opponent on a field of battle to your advantage and to the opponent's disadvantage.

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Sub-topic: Our War In Life

Article Content: Our war in life is not with the burdens we must bear. Our war in life is with the dark powers wanting us to believe we cannot live because of the burdens and obstacles we face each day. The inside of your life is God's domain, His territory, and His kingdom if you give the inside of your life over to Him. The inside of your life is the place where the mighty victories of your life are won with His help. You can pray for things to change on the outside of your life. However, God's greatest victory through you is when He and you defeat the satanic influences on the inside of your life...the influences keeping you down, defeated, depressed, and hopeless.

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Sub-topic: Overcoming Adversity

Article Content: Overcoming adversity means we have taken charge of our life. Overcoming adversity does not mean we have made the adversity go away. Overcoming adversity may mean we learn to be flexible in dealing with a part of our life we cannot change. Overcoming adversity may mean we learn to adapt to a reality we may not like. Overcoming adversity may mean instead of trying to change an unchangeable adversity, we learn to live with the adversity as if the adversity did not exist. Overcoming adversity may mean we have to change who we are on the inside or change our inner self. Overcoming adversity may mean we have to grow up and accept responsibility for our life, accept responsibility for who we are, and accept responsibility for what becomes of us in the future. Overcoming adversity may mean we have to burn up our ego and our selfishness, because in adversity, we often find we cannot have our own way.

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Sub-topic: Pointing Your Will

Article Content: We all have a will of our own needing to be subverted to the will of God. Our will, given its own way, leads us into adversity, pain, and suffering. God's will, if we give His will leadership in our life, leads us into His Light and love. Sickness is not the will of God. Death is not the will of God. Disease is not the will of God. Isolation is not the will of God. Imprisonment is not the will of God. Desperation is not the will of God. Hopelessness is not the will of God. Consumption by the darkness is not the will of God. The will of God is wellness. The will of God is life everlasting. The will of God is the absence of all disease. The will of God is total unity with others in love. The will of God is freedom. The will of God is unending hope. The will of God is living forever in His light. In every second of your life you can point your will in the direction of wellness, in the direction of life everlasting, in the direction of absence of disease, in the direction of total unity with others in love, in the direction of freedom, in the direction of unending hope, and in the direction of living forever in His light. Where you point your will is a choice you can make. Where you point your will is under your control. Therefore, when the darkness of sickness comes to you, instead of being a passive victim, point your will in the direction of wellness. When the darkness of death comes, instead of being a passive victim, point your will in the direction of eternal life with Christ. When the darkness of disease comes, instead of being a passive victim, point your will in the direction of the absence of disease. When isolation comes, instead of being a passive victim, point your will in the direction of togetherness with others in love. When desperation comes, instead of being a passive victim, point your will in the direction of God's power. When hopelessness comes, instead of being a passive victim, point your will in the direction of God's unending hope. Where are you going to point your will today?

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Sub-topic: Positive Believing

Article Content: Belief is made up of the mental and emotional. The mental part of believing is the intellectual acknowledgement of an obstacle, a roadblock, or a hindrance. In addition, the mental part of believing uses logic and systematic thinking. The mental part of believing uses a full and complete recognition of the facts. Illness, obstacles, and roadblocks can generate powerful emotional responses. False beliefs have negative emotions and inaccurate acknowledgements. False beliefs and negative emotions all lead to despair and hopelessness. Fear, doubt, terror, and insecurity...are all negative emotions. When facing illness, obstacles, and roadblocks, intuition can be a powerful ally. Intuition can be a powerful ally in the acquisition of positive beliefs. Many people intuitively know what is right with regard to their belief. Many people intuitively know a positive and hopeful belief is the right belief. However, it is easier to acknowledge the negative and to believe the worst. Most importantly, you have a choice here. You can choose hope, or you can choose hopelessness. To sustain your life and to continually make progress, any beliefs fostering hopelessness have to be eliminated. These beliefs are, in themselves, more dangerous and devastating than the illness, obstacle, or roadblock. Accepting an idea intellectually is not the same as believing. Real belief mobilizes a powerful emotional component.

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Sub-topic: Pruning In Adversity

Article Content: God does not wish adversity upon us. God does not inflict pain and suffering. However, He does help us after the hurting and suffering has started. God's ultimate victory for us is to help us turn our pain into something productive. The Christian faith often calls God's ability and our willingness to turn our pain into something productive the act of pruning. In nature, the act of pruning is an act of cutting away unnecessary limbs and branches of wooded plants. The act of pruning enables the pruned plant to more efficiently distribute juices and nutrients to the fruit of the plant. Pruning thus insures a bountiful crop come harvest time. In the same manner, God enables us to grow stronger and be more productive by helping us use our pain and suffering for His glory instead of just letting our pain hurt us for no reason. After we have been pruned, our spiritual "juices and nutrients" can be more concentrated in us and our spiritual productivity can be increased. A lady recalls her experiences when her husband began pruning their peach tree. "A peach tree stands in our back yard. Un-pruned, the tree grew big and leafy. And it was loaded with peaches but the fruit was disappointingly small and tasteless. The year he was out of work, Larry went to work on the tree. When I came home from school one day and saw how far back he had pruned it, I stared in shock. 'You've killed it,' I cried. 'Now we won't have any peaches at all.' I was wrong. That spring the pruned branches burst forth with a beautiful blanketing of pink blossoms. Soon little green peaches replaced the blossoms. 'Leave them alone,' I begged. Larry ignored me and thinned the fruit. By the end of the summer the branches were so heavily laden they had to be propped up. And the peaches -- oh, how large and sweet and juicy they were! There was no denying it: the tree was far better off for the painful cutting it endured under Larry's pruning shears." In a spiritual and emotional sense adversity prunes us and gives us a better vision of real life. In addition, pruning reorients our expectations to be more realistic, inspires us to draw more definite plans for our life, and gives us the hunger to be in His Light.

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Sub-topic: Responding To Bad News

Article Content: Here is how people respond to bad news... A. Some people say "Fine" when they hear bad news and they force a grin. However, these people are not fine. These people are the "Smiler's". B. Other people respond with fear, panic, and emotional hysteria when they hear bad news. Their world comes crashing down. This response is not uncommon. These people are the "Wilters". C. The victorious choice, when we hear really bad news, is grounded in our commitment to not let the bad news turn us into a victim. There are people who, when they hear really bad news, by their own decision, turn proactive. Upon hearing bad news, there are people who refuse to be victims because they decide not to be victims. Upon hearing bad news, there are people who make a decision to take charge of their life. Upon hearing bad news, there are people who make a decision to take charge of the experts. Upon hearing bad news, there are people who make a decision to take charge of their plans. Upon hearing bad news, there are people who make a decision to take charge and pursue their objectives. Upon hearing bad news, there are people who make a decision to take charge of every possible moment. These are the people who make a decision to insist upon full information on every issue related to the bad news. These are the people who make a decision to insist upon full participation in every decision made in the future. These are the people who make a decision to use the challenge presented. These people are the "Chargers." These people are the eventual winners when bad things happen.

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Sub-topic: Results In Adversity

Article Content: Our adversity comes from two basic causes. Our adversity is either our fault or our adversity just happens to us. We must know the difference! We must know whether our adversity is caused by us or caused by the darkness in our world. We must know the cause of adversity because knowing the cause of our adversity helps us deal with our adversity. Sin is a part of Satan's darkness in our world. Sinful acts may or may not lead to physical sickness. However, sinful acts definitely lead to emotional, spiritual, and physical adversity of our own making. Our sinful acts cause adversity in our life and in the life of others. Sometimes Satan's darkness overwhelms us. However, even when we think we are overwhelmed, we have a God who demands and expects victory.

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Sub-topic: Seeing Consequences And Taking Charge

Article Content: To take charge of an adversity you must see the end result of what the adversity can do to you. You must see the consequences of the adversity in your life. This ability to see into the future with regard to the consequences of an adversity will give you the ability to make plans and devise ways of dealing with an adversity now as well as into the future. If you do not know what the adversity will do to you in the future, you will not be able to take charge of the adversity. For example, if one does not see into the future and understand how smoking cigarettes can cause cancer, how drunk driving can kill people, and how drug addiction can destroy ones ability to function, then successfully dealing with these issues will likely never happen for the person who is blind to these consequences. We must accept the reality of what an adversity can do to us now as well as what the adversity can do to us into the future. To lie to ourselves about what may or may not happen puts us at a disadvantage when we try to take charge. To lie to ourselves cuts us off from the truth.

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Sub-topic: Steps In Finding The Light

Article Content: What are the steps we must take to go from the power of darkness attacking us, into the power of the light and love of God? These steps are: 1. Experiencing adversity and being able to see the adversity for what the adversity is in truth 2. Experiencing anger and then dealing constructively with the anger 3. Experiencing denial and then being courageous enough to tell the truth about the denial while leaving the denial behind 4. Experiencing bargaining and then realizing there can be no bargains made with Satan or with the darkness, no bargains made with the adversity, and no bargains made with God 5. Experiencing resolution and coming to a point where we honestly accept some circumstances in life must be faced head-on for what they are, not for what we want them to be or need them to be 6. Experiencing understanding and coming to understand adversity can bring with it the opportunity for being more of who God meant each of us to be 7. Experiencing acceptance and learning even in the darkest adversity we can overcome only what we accept as a reality at the time. 8. Fully understanding after this life is over we then move on to experiencing infinite joy, infinite peace, infinite happiness, and infinite love.

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Sub-topic: Steps To Freedom In Adversity

Article Content: So many times, adversity puts us in chains. But no matter how enchained you may be, there are steps to freedom you can take. Here are eight steps to freedom: 1. Choose the best interests of God. Then choose the best interests of others. Then choose your own best interests, in that order. 2. Accept responsibility for your choices. 3. Dwell upon the victorious choices you have made in life, not upon your defeats. 4. Encourage yourself. 5. You can't do anything if you believe you can't. Understand since all things are possible, then anything is possible. 6. Don't use your past mistakes, poor behavior, lack of ability, or lack of behavior as a gauge for the future. 7. Growth is doing things you've never done before. 8. Don't set limits on yourself.

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Sub-topic: Taking Charge And Controlling How You Live

Article Content: Although we do not control where or when we die, we can control how we live and what adversity does to us while we are alive. The idea of taking charge, of taking on life rather than letting life take on us may not seem like such a revolutionary idea on the surface. However, the idea IS revolutionary underneath. The idea of controlling our life is revolutionary when we take charge of our heart, our mind, and our soul. For many of us, our life seems to be controlled by powers and forces beyond our control. We do not control our aging. We do not control some of the issues we face in our health, in our relationships, in our finances, or in many of the other aspects of our life. However, if we want to do so, we can control how we respond to what we face in life. We can control whether we respond with despair or with hope. We can control whether we respond with weakness or with power. We may not control many of the exterior circumstances of our life. We can control our interior circumstances. We always have a choice in controlling our life. We always have a choice every minute over how we will respond and how we can respond to every circumstance.

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Sub-topic: Taking Charge Of Your Adversity

Article Content: When we are in any kind of adversity, whether it be adversity related to our finances, our family, our education, our relationships, our health, or any other area of life, we are easily tempted to throw up our hands and give up. When we are overwhelmed by adversity we are tempted to surrender control of our life to the opponent who seeks our ultimate defeat. When we are in adversity and the adversity has overtaken us and is dominating us, we have not taken charge of the opponent because we have not marshaled our resources. The opponent comes into our life and overtakes us because we have not grasped onto the Light. When we are attacked, we must put our faith in God through whom we can do all things. Some of us may live in our adversity for years or even die in our adversity. However, the final score of our life is not written on earth. We play out the game as best we can and it is God, the just and righteous judge, who alone writes the final score of our life. Our life is a winning life only if we fully embrace the Light and embrace the love of God through Christ. When we fully embrace the Light and love of God through Christ, we win. When we do not fully embrace the Light and love of God through Christ, we lose. Although we cannot touch the hem of the Great Physician's garment like we might have when He walked the earth, we can touch and be touched by Christ's spirit still touching, still healing, and still restoring.

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Sub-topic: The Adversity Of Jesus...From Ugliness to Beauty

Article Content: Good Friday, the ironic name given to the day Christ died was the darkest day in human history. The day Christ died was the darkest day in human history because of what humans did. In truth and awesome wonder Easter is the really good day. Easter is the brightest day in human history, not because of what human beings did, but in spite of what they did. Easter is the brightest day in human history because of what God did. Some of us who believe and who accept Christ as Savior and Lord come to a spiritual place in our life where we gather in awesome and solemn wonder before Him. We also wonder about how people can see Christ's death and not respond. We wonder how people can see Christ's death and not show something. We wonder how people can see Christ's death and not let the solemn wonder show. We wonder how people can see Christ's death and not experience the fire burning in their heart to be His child. We wonder how people can see Christ's death and not be touched to repent in the deepest part of their heart and soul. If we see Christ on the Cross and we are not moved to repent and seek His forgiving grace, are we not surely dead? If we remain frozen in our deadness, Christ cannot do anything for us. We have to melt and become pliable so He can shape our lives. God took the most shameful, horrible, lowest thing human beings had ever done and used this terrible act to give the very human beings who had done this shameful, horrible, lowest thing a chance to own His most beautiful, wonderful gift...eternal life.

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Sub-topic: The Effect Of Adversity Upon Free Will

Article Content: How can we use our free will in adversity? What effect does our adversity have upon our free will? Our free will determines whether we are ruled by the darkness or we rule over the darkness as we use the Light of God as our resource. Adversity or darkness wants to kill off your free will. Adversity or darkness wants to kill off your ability to make choices and decisions. When sickness, illness, pain, or suffering come into your life, these dark times normally make us feel helpless, without power, and without the ability to make decisions. Addictions and dependencies rob us of our ability to make choices free of the influence of the dark powers inherent in addictions and dependencies. The more we believe in the power of God to be with us and help us in adversity, the more influence the Light can have in us and through us when darkness tries to destroy us. The more we embrace the power of God, the more power we receive from God to make godly decisions. There is no limit to the influence God can have in our life if we put our life in the hands of God and exercise our free will. To glorify God in adversity by using our free will means we try to make decisions to do all we can do with what we have in His name and for His glory.

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Sub-topic: The Meaning Of Tragedy, Trauma, And Misfortune

Article Content: The meaning of tragedy, trauma, and misfortune is up to you. If you do not find meaning in the dark times of life, the consequences of the event are up to you to make meaning from these consequences. You may never find a specific self-evident purpose or meaning in darkness. However, because you have the ability to control and discipline yourself and your life, you can always make meaning. Garbage dumped into your life can be turned into beauty but you have to work and exert force on the garbage. Tragic circumstances can be turned into blessings for God. The secular world embraces the idea of hopelessness and helplessness. In the secular world, tragedy, trauma, and misfortune have no hope connected to them. In our Christian faith-based views, every circumstance, no matter how tragic, has an element of hope, care, compassion, and a love from God. Because of the element of hope, you, as a Christian, can make the decision to either rule over circumstances or let circumstances rule you.

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Sub-topic: The Problem

Article Content: What problem exists today God cannot fix? Cancer, AIDS, money, family strife? Satan has only negative power for us. Tragically, by the way we negatively think, we mistakenly and tragically think Satan is the one who has a warehouse full of positive power and great things for us. Problems come when we experience the love of God and we are still left suffering or wanting because of what we selfishly want. Is grace sufficient or do we need more than grace? The biggest problem for many people today is they don't want grace, they want the latest techno-gadget, they want liquor, they want drugs, they want sensual pleasure, or all of the above. Do we need more than the love of God? No. However, many people today won't admit they only need the love of God. Do we need God to eliminate our problems or can we live with them? Well, yes we need to have our problems gone. However, we can, with God's love and grace, use our problems for God's glory as we also defeat the influence our problems have over us. Do we have to put up with our problems or is the love of God a problem eliminator? Sometimes the love of God is a problem eliminator but as long as we have the problem then we need God's power to gain victory by first using the problem for God's glory. Subsequently, as we gain victory over our problem, we can live a great life in spite of the problem. Think about this...if the love of God through Christ is a problem eliminator then why was not Paul delivered? Paul was not delivered because sometimes in this life God does not solve the problems we want solved. We all need to grow up and get used to the idea the love of God is not always a problem eliminator in this life but the love of God IS a problem eliminator as we move to our new mansion in the sky.

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Sub-topic: The Problem Of No Shield In Adversity

Article Content: The reality of life is such that we have no shield to protect us against bad things happening. We have no shield against adversity to protect us from the darkness in life. However, there is something we can do about not having a shield against adversity. What we can do is build a shield against what bad things do to us on the inside. The quality of our inner life is not determined by whether we keep bad things out of our life. The quality of our inner life is determined by how we respond to bad things with Christ as our shield and defender. We may not be able to shield ourselves from bad events. However, we can shield how those bad events make us think, act, and believe. For example, how we handle the death of a loved one is an event where we can determine how and what the event will do to us as well as how we will respond. When we lose a loved one, we can choose to handle this bad event with either bitterness or grace. With Christ within us, we can respond with grace because He lives.

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Sub-topic: The Truth About Illness, Disease, And Obstacles

Article Content: Truth No.1. Catastrophic illness, life changing disability, hurtful memories from the past, painful experiences, or obstacles in the present, may or may not mean death or a life of low quality. Truth No. 2. Treatment and solutions to difficulties are becoming more effective. Treatments and solutions have less severe side effects. Hope for any circumstance is eternal. Truth No.3. There are many things you can do to help yourself in any circumstance. These truths inspire us to see the light in the darkness. These truths can be the literal difference between physical life and physical death, or between emotional life and emotional death.

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Sub-topic: The Ultimate Adversity

Article Content: The ultimate adversity is living in the outer darkness over which you have no choice and in which you have no freedom. The outer darkness is a spiritual and emotional place where there are no strings, no ties, no connections, no relationships, no vision, no hope...nothing existing at all inside of you with no freedom to change your circumstances. The outer darkness is so empty even pain is a relief. The outer darkness is an ultimate hell in life or an ultimate hell in death. The outer darkness is so terrible some people take their life to get out of the darkness. However, unfortunately for persons who take their life, they find out too late they will be in the outer darkness for eternity. The ultimate adversity, the ultimate darkness, the outer darkness is called anomie. The opposite of ultimate adversity or ultimate darkness is:

●Total freedom to have total strings or not to have strings.

●Total freedom to have total ties or not to have ties.

●Total freedom to have total connections or not to have connections

●Total freedom to have total relationships or not to have relationships.

●Total love.

●Total vision.

●Total hope.

●Total existence.

●Total light.

●Total fullness.

●Total perfection.

●Total spiritual fulfillment.

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Sub-topic: Times Of Testing

Article Content: All of us move through times of testing in our life. In these times of testing, no one may understand you. In times of trial and hardship, you may be totally alone and lonely...or so it seems. Sometimes our life and our reality stinks. We do not freely choose to be burdened down and undermined by Satan. We are put into times of testing to see of what we are made. Satan comes to tempt and test us to see if he can get us to fall. Satan comes into our life to try to turn us away from Christ. Some people are tested and tempted because of mistakes they have made. Other people are tested and tempted because of mistakes others have made. Other people are tempted and tested because of what other people have done to them. Other people make decisions and are tempted and tested because they did the right thing. Some people are tempted and tested because they never cared about anyone. The times of testing are much like school. In life as in school, the test question is not important, your answer is what's important. What will your answer be to Satan's test and temptation?

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Sub-topic: Trying To Overcome The Past

Article Content: The past is locked away in a vault. The vault of the past cannot be fully opened. We can see in the vault. We can, through numerous means, sift through the contents of the vault. However, we cannot fully unlock the vault because the past is not with us in the here and now. The past is gone and gone forever. We cannot change the past. We cannot remake the past. Much as we might want to go back and make things over, we can never go back. Tragically, we can live every day thinking "If only...". "If only I hadn't..." "If only I could have..." "If only I weren't..." We can spend time trying to overcome what we did or did not do in the past but what we cannot do is change what we did or did not do. What we can do is focus on the here and now and change what we do in the here and now. We cannot change what happened in the past but we can change the way we deal with what happened in the past. If the obstacles of your present life are obstacles from your past, your best chances of success are dealing with your present obstacles in the here and now. You can only live today, not yesterday, not last week, or last year, or ten years ago. You can only fix problems you have now, even if your present problems are from ten years ago. Change what you can change today because you cannot change what you did or what happened to you yesterday. For example, today you can forgive in order to erase the hurt from yesterday.

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Sub-topic: Turning Adversity Into Light And Productivity

Article Content: * You do not have to like adversity to use it. With the right mental approach, any accident, illness, pain, abuse, disability, misfortune, or darkness can be used to benefit you and others. You can turn darkness into a gift, but turning darkness into a gift is not what the darkness wants. With your will and intention pointed in God's direction, darkness can be turned into a gift setting you on a path toward spiritual and unconditional love. The darkness in your life is not necessarily a negative if you choose to take the spiritual path as a response to the darkness.

●Every darkness can be turned into a turning point, even a good turning point, if you turn your heart, mind, and soul toward God, toward the direction of Light, and toward the direction of His Love.

●Turning points are places in life where you are able and do make choices to use your adversity rather than letting your adversity make you think you are helpless and defenseless against attack.

●The choices you make in adversity do more for you or against you than the adversity itself. Your response to the adversity makes all the difference.

●You have a physical body and a spiritual body. The darkness can be used to teach you to love unconditionally because when you have seen the darkness you can decide you want the Light of God.

●When you walk the spiritual path toward God, the darkness has no power over you. When you walk the spiritual path toward God then you give love an opportunity to work in your life.

●Success, personal achievement, and well-being should not be the goal of your life. The goal of life should be giving unconditional love producing success, personal achievement, and well-being. When you pursue the goal of giving unconditional love your giving love produces a return of the love you sent out coming back to you multiplied many times over.

●Unconditional love heals. When Jesus puts His hands on people the unconditional love in His hands heals them.

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Sub-topic: Ultimate Fairness

Article Content: If we were to construct a reality of ultimate fairness, where only the good people are spared adversity, then everyone would be good. Not a bad idea you say. On the surface, we would all want a system where misfortune falls only on the bad people. In a system of ultimate fairness, you would think everyone would be good. However, in a system of ultimate fairness, people would be good not because they love God with all their heart and with all their might. They would be good only because they did not want adversity in their life and they would leave God out of their life. In many ways, we do operate on a system where acts of good are rewarded and acts of evil are punished. Yet, people still do acts of evil. In a system of ultimate fairness, if persons included God in the picture, most persons would worship and honor God only to avoid adversity, pain, and suffering. In a system of supposed ultimate fairness, we could even question whether people would love God at all. What we must remember is we are to love God with no conditions. We are to love God when we are in pain and not in pain. We are to love God when we are poor and when we are rich. We are to love God in season and out of season. We are to love God whether there is fairness or injustice.

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Sub-topic: Using Adversity At The Time

Article Content: * Re-confirm lines of authority and responsibility. It is especially important to re-confirm the authority of God and your responsibility to God when adversity strikes.

●Demonstrate skills and knowledge. In adversity, "if you got it, show it". Use what you know, use what you have at your command, and use everything you have in your life to deal with the adversity.

●Keep life's meaning paramount in your mind, heart, and soul. Adversity brings disorientation. To counter the disorientation, repeatedly reaffirm life's meaning.

●Keep on your toes. Be alert. Adversity can try to dull you down, numb you, and dull your senses.

●Strive to be more rational and calm. Adversity is often a time of upset. Making an effort to be rational and calm will always counterbalance the time of upset.

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Sub-topic: Values In Adversity

Article Content: Your values in adversity determine more of your fate in adversity than does your adversity. In adversity you are either led by the adversity or you lead the adversity. In adversity, you either lead or you follow. By using your power of choice, you can always make the choice to lead rather than to follow

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Sub-topic: What Adversity Can Do To You

Article Content: If you let it...adversity can plunge you into darkness and the darkness strips away your dignity and humanity. However, you have a choice about whether adversity does anything at all to you. If you let it...adversity can make you lose contact with who you are, what you are, what you believe in, and the ways you relate to the world in more normal times. However, you have a choice about whether adversity does anything at all to you. If you let it...adversity can make you willingly go along with things and let yourself be led, pushed, pulled, or jerked along in whatever direction the darkness wants to take you...even in directions you know are wrong or sinful. However, you have a choice about whether adversity does anything at all to you. If you let it...adversity can rip our heart out. However, you have a choice about whether adversity does anything at all to you. If you let it...adversity can make you want to give up. Adversity can make you more fragile than you already are. However, you have a choice about whether adversity does anything at all to you. If you let it...adversity can take away the hope in your life. However, you have a choice about whether adversity does anything at all to you. If you let it...adversity can take away your dreams. However, you have a choice about whether adversity does anything at all to you. If you let it...adversity can take away your future. However, you have a choice about whether adversity does anything at all to you. If you let it...adversity can make you live only in the physical world and totally block out the spiritual world. However, you have a choice about whether adversity does anything at all to you. In adversity, strike back, fight back, and make Satan pay!!

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Sub-topic: What Life Conditions Can Do To Us

Article Content: Life conditions can and do break down our heart, mind, and body. The negative life conditions breaking down parts of our life can be changed to positive conditions. By changing our negative conditions to positive conditions, we begin the healing process and we begin to take charge of our healing. The condition of your mind can influence your health and every other part of your life. You can control your mind or you can let your mind control you. You can control your thoughts and your emotional life or you can let your thoughts and emotional life control you. When you begin to exercise control over your mind, then you begin to exercise control over your life. When you begin to exercise control over your mind, you can begin to change your negative conditions to positive conditions.

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Sub-topic: What To Do About Your Pain

Article Content: When adversity causes pain, you can make a choice to use the pain or you can lose your mind because of the pain. Although you might not lose your mind as we normally think of people losing their mind, pain does have that kind of impact upon us if we let it. When adversity causes pain, any kind of pain, strive to make a profit from everything you do. Strive to make every minute of pain count against the pain. Do not waste a minute of your life on unproductive pain and suffering. Do not waste a minute of your life on any activity the pain degrades unless you must spend a minute on the activity. Make the pain pay, instead of letting the pain make you pay.

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Sub-topic: What Victory Over Adversity Really Means

Article Content: Victory means healing. Victory means winning out over adversities and afflictions. Victory means living this minute to the fullest extent this moment will allow. Although we cannot live forever in our physical body, we can live now. We can live and love as much as we can fully live and love this instant. When we face adversities or afflictions, these adversities and afflictions try to grind us down. Adversities and afflictions try to diminish our moments. Adversities and afflictions try to make our moments meaningless and hopeless. When we resolve and take action to live out every moment IN SPITE OF the darkness of adversity and afflictions, we are winners. Although we cannot always instantly crawl out of our circumstances, we can still demand a life from within ourselves. We can be victorious when we can demand we get as much as possible out of every moment. We can be victorious by asserting our inner life. We can be victorious by making changes within.

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Sub-topic: What We Can Do In The Face Of Our Adversity

Article Content: We can help our healing. We can help our life. We can help our ability to deal with pain. We can help ourselves. We can help others. In adversity, our mind (or our thoughts), our heart (or our emotions), and our spirit (or our soul) can either work for us or against us. In using our mind, heart, and spirit, we can choose to have our way with adversity or we can choose to let the adversity have its way with us. If we choose to have our way with adversity, we must keep our hope alive. To have your way with adversity you must believe and then actually make a positive response to life's circumstances. To have your way with adversity, you can respond to how you handle emotional conflicts, you can respond to the call of God to walk in the Light...and you can make a difference in your experience with adversity.

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Sub-topic: What We Must Do To Take Charge

Article Content: We must see what it is we must do about an adversity in order to take charge of an adversity. If we do not take care of the "doing" part of taking charge, the adversity can worsen and we can be hurt or injured in some way. Knowing what to do in adversity is not enough. Seeing what we are supposed to do in adversity is not enough. Seeing the danger of a circumstance is not enough. Being an expert and knowing what to do in adversity is not enough. Understanding the adversity in its entirety is not enough. What we must always realize is the rubber meets the road when we are prepared "to do", or to go from inaction to action. For example, if you are faced with a habit of some kind, you can be the world's greatest expert on or about the habit. However, the nitty gritty is what you are going to do about the habit? Are you going to quit the habit? Are you going to get help to quit the habit? Are you going to physically do something to quit the habit? If you are willing to actually do something to quit the habit and then follow up your willingness with action, you are on the road to taking charge. You are on the road to freedom.

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Sub-topic: When Bad Things Happen To Good People

Article Content: Good people have bad things happen to them. In truth, we do not always understand how or why bad things happen to good people. In our minds, we generally think good people should get a pass and not have to suffer like others. However, look at the lives of good people who have had bad things happen to them. In nearly every case, the best people, the really, really, good people, have still been able to be victorious in spite of bad things happening. Within themselves, even in their darkest hour, God-believing people have a shield and defender who keeps the Light or spark of hope in them. Finding, keeping, and having hope is really a thing of faith...a thing of faith in God. If you believe in God then your faith keeps hope alive. If you do not believe in God then when the exterior of your life comes apart, all hope goes with the exterior because you have no hope within you. If you believe in God's unfailing love then you have access to it. If you do not believe in God's unfailing love then you cannot find it. When bad things happen to good people, the best people still find hope in any darkness because their faith in God gives them an eternal future.

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Sub-topic: When Life Is Difficult

Article Content: Life is difficult. Even for people who seem to have it all together. Life has pain, strife, and difficulties. Losing someone is one of life's most painful experiences. However, in our pain and strife we need to try to remember what faith is supposed to be about. Our faith is about Jesus, who he was, what he did, and what he said to us about going through deep water. In Jesus our Lord and savior, we find peace, comfort, and consolation in life's dark moments.

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Sub-topic: When The Dark Times Come

Article Content: When the dark times come and you have to start over, you need to open your spiritual eyes and take a good look around you. Feeling alone is normal when dark times come. When life cuts us off from someone or something important we can go spiritually blind. The pain of the loss is often so great we are distracted. With a loss we may only be half-conscious of what is going on around us. When you open your spiritual eyes, you will see many other people who are going through the same deep water as you. Their circumstances may be different, or their loss may be different, but the inner core of their life is as wounded as is yours. When you open your spiritual eyes, you can also see God is still working in the world. You can also see God is still alive and working in you and others. When you open your spiritual eyes, you can also see how other people in the world need you, perhaps more than you need them.

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Sub-topic: When Your Life Is Torn Asunder

Article Content: When you are left without a clue as to why your life has been torn asunder, Christ still pours His love into your heart. Even in the darkest moment, Christ is with you pouring His love over you to wash away your pain. Remember, in your darkest hour Christ wants you to be with Him in Heaven when your walk through life is over. Please know you may walk through life with pain and suffering and there may be no easy answers to why things happen as they do except that Satan and evil are out to get you or harm you. In growing up in your Christian faith, you must learn to be content with no easy answers to some questions. In growing up in your Christian faith, you must learn to live in childlike faith in God and trust God with all you have and all you are. When your life is torn asunder, you must learn to deal with unanswered questions and keep moving forward in your life. Christ calls upon you to trust Him. When you ask some questions when you have suffered or are suffering trauma and tragedy, perhaps you have lost some of your trust in Him. Losing faith in God when you are severely beaten down by Satan and you are hurting is normal. What is not normal for many people to do when their life is torn asunder by Satan is to fight back with love and wholehearted trust in God in every circumstance, no matter how terrible the circumstance may be.

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Sub-topic: Why We Are Alone In Our Troubles

Article Content: Loneliness and isolation may be the biggest problem in our culture. In our culture, there is immense darkness because of loneliness. Conversely, living in trouble produces loneliness and isolation. In our culture, we think loneliness and isolation is the problem. However, loneliness and isolation are not the problem. The problem of our culture is the darkness of sin. Loneliness and isolation are only the symptoms of being in the dark. We can be surrounded by thousands of persons but if we are in the dark, we cannot see the thousands surrounding us. When we are in the dark and away from God's light and love, we are isolated. However, living in the Light dispels the darkness and we can then see others around us, we can see past our loneliness, and we can see God. In any culture or in any nation on earth we could all dispel our loneliness if we would turn away from the darkness and turn toward the Light...the Light found in Jesus Christ.

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# Chapter 2: Answers

Sub-topic: Getting Answers

Article Content: Romans 10:10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are Justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (NIV) Getting answers when you need them generally depends upon how you live when you don't need answers. Getting answers in the tough times depends upon how you live during the good times. If you do not live a holy and righteous life during the good times, do you really think you will have all the answers from God during the rough times? When you don't need answers, then live for Christ and love others. When you do need answers, remember your decisions should always be based upon what is best for God and what is best for the other person, not what is best for you. When you need answers, remember you are called to love others regardless of circumstances. If you live only for yourself, you will not only be miserable all the time when things are going smooth, you will be devastated when things get tough.

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# Chapter 3: Assurance

Sub-topic: Calm Assurance

Article Content: Many people refuse to accept the certainty that they will die. When you finally see you surely can die, then you get serious about surviving death. You, along with every other human being, are vulnerable to the moving scythe of the grim reaper. You are vulnerable because your life is not permanent. Although life is terribly fragile and can slip away from you at any moment, you need not have any fear of what happens after you die. Although your life is temporary, you can have the calm assurance no matter how vulnerable you are now, you can live forever through Christ who died for you.

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# Chapter 4: Blessings

Sub-topic: The Secret To All Blessings, Power, And Life In Abundance

Article Content: There is a secret to all blessings, power, and life in abundance. This secret contains the healing of our wounds. The secret to all blessings, power, and life in abundance is reaching out to God. No, this reaching out is not the kind of reaching out to grab what we want or even the kind of reaching out to grasp what we think we need. Reaching out to God is the opposite of sitting back and waiting for God to deliver the goods to you. Reaching out to God requires you to actively push all you want and need away from you in favor of living in the contentment of what God has already provided for you. Reaching out is the expression of our soul, the expression of our thirst for God, and reaching out is the way and the how of drawing near to God. This secret, this reaching out to God, is the primary focus of religion. This secret, this reaching out to God, is the heart of religion. When we discover the secret there is no secret we begin to live in a sense of God's presence. When we live out this secret we then live in the ethereal, in the heavenly, and in the place where there is no time and no space...a place called Heaven. When we live out the secret we live as if heaven is in our heart because heaven IS in our heart. When we live with heaven in our heart and soul we are making contact with God. When we make contact with God we have finally discovered the secret to all blessings, power, and life in abundance.

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# Chapter 5: Build

Sub-topic: Build And Rebuild

Article Content: Many of the processes in life require we continually build and rebuild. It would be nice if we only had to build one house and never have to remodel, repair, or maintain. It would be nice if we could only buy one car never needing maintenance. However, reality dictates we come to grips with the fact things in life break down, wear out, or become obsolete. In the same way material things become obsolete, our ways of thinking, our approaches to solving problems, and our heart, mind, and soul need building and rebuilding on a regular basis. When your heart, mind, and soul are in a continual state of building and rebuilding you are continually ready to move forward, advance, and achieve. The heart, mind, and soul mired down in one place and unwilling to build or rebuild will suffer. Our problems and pains of life demand our attention. When we have a heart, mind, and soul being maintained, modernized, remodeled, and rebuilt, we can live successfully and we can dominate every adversity.

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Sub-topic: Build Mental Endurance

Article Content: We live in changing and perilous times. Every age and every generation faces challenges. As we undergo the changes of our life, we must learn to build mental endurance on a daily basis. Every day we must strive to keep our mind focused upon what is ahead and not let ourselves be mentally distracted from our goals and objectives. When we build mental endurance, we must learn to never quit before quitting time. We must never give in or give up unless the time is right. Our mental endurance keeps our mind going, even when our body wants to quit. Our mental endurance insures us even when our body wants to quit, we still have the mental capability to move forward.

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Sub-topic: Build On The Positives

Article Content: With great intent you must focus your efforts on building upon the positives in your life. Although we all might recognize the common sense value of building upon our positive attributes, we too often fail to take an inventory of our positive resources and use these resources to our advantage. God has endowed each person with incredible positive potential. However, our potential is only that...potential. To fully achieve all God has for you to achieve in your life, you must take the positives you have been given in every setting and use those positives. Negative circumstances may give us the impetus to make changes and do things differently. However, to make positive changes and to make a positive impact, we need to find, use, and build upon positives. We can often get too focused on negatives and cleaning up the messes we make. To fully clean up our mistakes, we must build upon the positives we have available to us. The positives of truth, planning, forgiveness, strategy, honesty, goal-setting, and a host of other innate positives in our life, all give us an incredible capability to deal with every circumstance.

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# Chapter 6: Change

Sub-topic: Always The Same

Article Content: Some things never change. There is enormous security and trust built into God and into the kingdom of God. Today, we are delivering the same message about God and Christ that was delivered two thousand years ago. Today we have the same Savior. We have the same joy, the same peace, the same encouragement, the same trouble and trials, and the same kingdom we have had since the days of old. The Solid Rock upon which we stand is the same. He has never changed and never will change. The world changes every moment. In the world, there is new technology, new invention, new knowledge, and new information. Yet, our Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. There is enormous security in knowing the everlasting arms of God are still there, just like His arms have always been there for thousands of years. The God of the Old Testament and New Testament still wants to bless us, keep us, and watch over us just like always. The healing power of God is the same. His saving power is the same. The Holy Spirit is the same. The good news is still the same good news. God's power is the same. God's love is the same. The same power that raised Jesus, healed a leper, healed a blind man, raised Lazarus, spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus, fell upon the apostles at Pentecost, parted the Red Sea, spoke to Mary the mother of Jesus, and gave the gospel writers the inspiration to write the gospel message is the same: The gospel message, the prayers people pray, God's love, grace, and compassion are all the same. In most ways, in the kingdom of God, nothing has changed. People have the same struggles, doubts, freedoms, restrictions, and miracle working power or lack of power. The same prayers offered up to drive out demons are still being prayed and demons are still being driven out. The result of all this sameness is an unbroken chain, an unbroken circle of which you are a part. Take heart and rejoice, because of people willing to carry on in faith, we have not disappeared as a faith in two thousand years. We may be battered, beaten down, disappointed, and bloody at times, but we still carry the same banner of our crucified Christ.

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Sub-topic: Changing Course Or Changing Destinations

Article Content: As we progress on our course through life we might change our destination. We may find during our journey a destination we have chosen is unreachable. At these times we must change direction and chart a new course to a different place in life. When we change our destination we must then change our plans and change our to-do list. The charting of a new course along with the realization we cannot get to where we hope to go demands strength and a power we get from the Light of God. Many people try to live, exist, or walk the path of their life on their own power. However, when changing course is required, personal power can often be lacking. Many people have achieved worldly greatness by means of their own power. However, for those of us who know the value of hope, the power from the Light of God keeps us going through any adversity...even the adversity of changing our course or destination.

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Sub-topic: Changing The Old, Receiving The New

Article Content: Matthew 21:22 "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." (NIV) God may not give us unlimited power when we pray. The reason God may not give us unlimited power when we pray is probably because He knows such power will be abused when sin enters in. That's why we never fully believe...because sin enters in. When we receive what we pray for, and we receive our request because we believe, we believed and received because we raised up the voice of our heart to God...and we believed He heard us without sin entering into our plea and petition. When we believe and we are "in prayer", God will make us whole, and He will give us everything we need if we are really "in prayer" as Jesus says we are to be. To be "in prayer" does not mean we take a list of stuff we want for ourselves to Christ. What "in prayer" does mean is we can take a list of our heartaches, burdens, and pain to Him and He will listen and answer us. Being "in prayer" is not saying words. Being "in prayer" means we are talking directly with God in a state of our mind and heart where we submit our will to Him...where we place our whole life in His hands. Being "in prayer" is a state in our heart, mind, and life where we bow down before Him, in reverence, in awe, in wonder, and most of all, in love for Him because He sent his Son to die for us.

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Sub-topic: Changing The World

Article Content: We do not always understand why God does what He does or how He does what He does. When we look at the world and see what the birth of Jesus in humble beginnings did for the world, we begin to get just an inkling of how God's wisdom and love work in our life. In a worldly sense, you would think Mary and Joseph would have deserved better than a stinking cave where livestock were kept. In a worldly sense, you would think the king of the world should have been born in the world's largest castle with hundreds of thousands of people standing by for the news. In a worldly sense, you would think the birth of Jesus should have set off some kind of beautiful revolution changing the world in an instant with no pain and no suffering. However, in the most worldly way of looking at how things make sense, the world does not make sense. In the most worldly way of looking at the world, the world has gone insane. In our insanity, God is always trying to change the world from its insanity to sanity by the love brought to the world by a baby being born to simple people, in a stinking cave where livestock were kept.

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Sub-topic: Dealing With The Difficulty Of Change

Article Content: Change in life is difficult. We all want our times of change to be easier. No matter what our life circumstances may be, as long as we can get by with what we have, we prefer not to change. However, when we lose what we have then we try to change. Some people have to deteriorate before they grow, change, or get better. This requirement to deteriorate before we are willing to change is not always true, but usually true, especially for adults. Unfortunately, this deterioration factor related to change makes not wanting to change a huge barrier to our healing, wholeness, and restoration. To grasp the promise of healing, wholeness, and restoration, we must change or give up the old. We must give up the old illness, the old disability, the old attitudes, the old mindset, the old pain, the old suffering, and the old darkness. However, we resist change to such an extent we would rather sit in the pain of our darkness than go out into the newness of the Light. We would rather sit in the pain of our darkness and not change because of the fear and insecurity associated with change. The path of winning or the path of God requires change and change requires work. Giving up the old or changing means we no longer always insist on being right. Giving up the old or changing means we admit we make mistakes, perhaps we are mistake-laden. Giving up the old or changing means we forgive others and forgive ourselves. Giving up the old or changing into the kind of person God wants you to be means giving up and extending your life in new and vulnerable ways to experience His unconditional love. Giving up the old or changing in positive ways means not resisting the spiritual. Changing in positive ways means you give up the old secular will as you become a spiritual person doing the will of God. Giving up the old or changing in positive ways means abandoning your pride. Giving up the old or changing in positive ways requires you become meek, humble, gentle, and develop a spiritual humility. Giving up the old or changing in positive ways requires you to always strive to be in the middle ground between self-degradation and grandiosity. Giving up the old or changing in positive ways means you believe enough in your personal value as a child of God to want to live without emotional, spiritual, or physical pain.

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Sub-topic: Facing Change

Article Content: We must face the facts and realities of life. Times change. Things change. People change. Circumstances change. Few things last forever here on earth. All human beings come to an end. When our life ends, our pain, our hurt, our disappointment, and our sorrow also ends. However, no matter how much things change in our world, when times in our life are at their worst, we can always take charge of our life enough to go to God amidst the changes and the chaos the changes bring. In God we find rest from the turmoil and strife caused by the changes of life. God is a shelter from the storms of life if we will only go to Him and trust in Him. In truth, trusting in God may not change your circumstances on the outside of your life. However, trusting and having a hope in God changes everything on the inside of your life. Many of the things on the outside we cannot change, but the inside is God's territory or kingdom. He will rule on the inside of your life if you give Him a chance and if you learn to keep out of His way.

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Sub-topic: Making Changes

Article Content: We don't like change. The older we get the more difficult change can become. We do not always know what we can change and what we cannot change. Plus, there are all kinds of things we cannot instantly change in our life. Some of the circumstances in our life we can never change. What we can change and what needs to change are those things we must go after if we are to be all God wants us to be. Quite often we resist change to such an extent we deny we can change what can be changed. Too often, when we have to make a change, we focus on the outside changes in our life because those changes are the easiest to make. We can change where we live, but can we change who we are? It is easier to change your address than to change who you are on the inside. However, even when you change your address, unless you change who you are on the inside, changing your address will make no real difference in your life. People move from one place to another to be happier or to find happiness. After they move, they find they are just as unhappy as before. When God is in the center of your life, you don't care much about changing your address. When God is in the center of your life, you care a great deal about changing into the person God wants you to be and your street address does not make any difference.

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Sub-topic: Stubbornness And Change

Article Content: We can be very stubborn. We resist change and we resist trying to change. Habits get so ingrained in us we often find habits are incredibly difficult to break. Being stubborn and resisting change can be a good thing. When we live a righteous life blessing others and blessing the work of God, we must resist changing. However, if we are locked into a lifestyle or a destructive habit where we are hurting ourselves or others, being too stubborn to change can be deadly for us or deadly for others. When we look in the mirror and we see someone who is not living a righteous life, and we are then dishonest about this unrighteous behavior, our ego can feed our stubbornness. If we are full of ego and pride, we will not want to change who or what we are. If we are full of ego and pride, we will want to maintain our unrighteous behavior and we will want others to keep us from changing. If we need to change our behavior, we must beat down our ego with humility. In the utmost humility we can finally and truly change who we are.

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Sub-topic: The Truth About Change And The Future

Article Content: There is a glorious and enlightened truth about your future. The glorious and enlightened truth about your future is this. You can choose where you want to be tomorrow. Although some of you may disagree, let us look at this idea of choosing your future. You may not be able to make an instant change in tomorrow's place, time, or situation, but you can make some change about tomorrow within your heart, mind, and soul. If you measure your life by the invisible ingredients of life instead measuring your life using your material possessions and your physical circumstances, then instant change in your life and in your future is possible. Remember change in our life takes longer if we are going to measure change in physical terms rather than in measuring life in spiritual terms. Last, you can be in the same place tomorrow and have a dramatically new and improved life if you change your heart, mind, and soul by resolving to choose your future. In practical terms, outside circumstances may come against us, but we can rule over these circumstances when we have the Light and love of God inside of us.

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# Chapter 7: Children

Sub-topic: Teaching Children

Article Content: You can't live a child's life for him or her even when you want to. Even when you intervene in a child's life and you shield the child from all perceived harm, the child still lives in the same dangerous world in which you live. When you raise children or you are a teaching adult, teach them. Teach them the value of hard work. Teach children hard work may not pay off until a long time into the future. Teach children the value of joy in work rather than expecting joy to come from work. Teach children to give without expecting anything in return. Teach children to live in joy and peace even when they do not get what they want. Teach children patience. Teach them joy in poverty. Teach them poverty is no excuse for not feeling the presence of Jesus in their heart. Teach them poverty is no excuse to want what they cannot have. Teach them poverty in spirit is the worst poverty. Teach them being rich in spirit and life is the pinnacle of success. Teach children success is not a matter of fame or fortune but success is finding joy amidst the ruble, pain, and suffering of life. Teach children a heart full of hope is the greatest wealth of life.

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# Chapter 8: Choices

Sub-topic: Abundance By Choice

Article Content: We can reach abundance in life by making choices. We can transcend the emotional pain in life by rising above negative feelings and embrace the higher spiritual levels of abundant love and abundant joy. Although we may be battered and bruised by life's circumstances, we can anchor or attach ourselves to an abundant loving God. This activity of attaching ourselves to God anchors us in the spiritual. In addition, we can find abundance in life when we choose to live in emotional peace, especially God's emotional peace. We find abundance even in the poverty of life's circumstances when we choose to count our blessings with a grateful heart as we give thanks. The journey to finding enough power to choose abundance in life requires faith, a simple childlike faith. To find abundance in life requires faith, trust, and belief in a loving God. Lastly, finding abundance in the poverty of life is a spiritual journey requiring patience, love for others, love for self, and love for God.

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Sub-topic: Always A Choice, Part 1

Article Content: Have you ever felt powerless? Have you ever felt out of control? Have you ever thought you have no choice in where you are, what you do, or what your life is like right now? Here is an essential truth. You always have a choice. No matter what the circumstances might be like, you can make choices and decisions.

●You can choose to be Christ-like.

●You can choose to show the love of God.

●You can show forgiveness, mercy, and kindness. In every circumstance, with Christ's help, you can have power, control, and choices over where you are, what you do, and what your life is like right now.

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Sub-topic: Always A Choice, Part 2

Article Content: You can choose--

●To live in the Kingdom of God rather than the kingdom of men.

●To be a leader in life by the way you live rather than following the crowd.

●To learn the lessons of life taught by God in His wisdom rather than ignoring His wisdom.

●To live each moment rather than living to live another moment in the future.

●To light up your world because you have the Light of the world in you.

●To live in spite of your limitations rather than letting your limitations spite you.

●To love rather than hate.

●To search for God's meaning in all things rather than letting all things be meaningless.

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Sub-topic: Being In Charge Means Making Choices

Article Content: Being in charge means you actively and aggressively seek to make as many choices about your life and your circumstances as possible. Being in charge means you actively and aggressively seek to make as many choices about what goes on inside your inner life. Taking charge is not possible without the power to make choices. The power to make choices is the power to take charge.

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Sub-topic: Choices In Doing And Being

Article Content: Choices Related To Doing ---

●You can choose to act in a fashion either reliable or unreliable

●You can choose to act or react

●You can choose to act in a fashion either grounded or ungrounded

●You can choose to affirm or not affirm

●You can choose to decide or not to decide

●You can choose to manage a crisis or live from one crisis to the next

●You can choose to serve others or seek to have them serve you

●You can choose to submit to a circumstance by choice or submit without a choice

●Choices Related To Being \---

●You can choose to be stable or unstable

●You can choose to be trusting or untrusting

●You can choose to be impenetrable or exposed

●You can choose to be unmoving or moved by consequence

●You can choose to be invincible or totally vulnerable

●You can choose to be unleashed or diminished

●You can choose to be pain free or hurting

●You can choose to be a person whose potential is exposed or whose potential remains unused

●You can choose to be calm and peaceful or filled with anxiety

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Sub-topic: Choices We Have In Life

Article Content: You can choose to be enthusiastic or you can choose to be dour, sullen, and pessimistic

●You can choose to be happy to be alive or you can choose to be extremely unhappy

●You can choose to be filled with joy or you can choose to be filled with darkness

●You can choose to lift other up, or you can choose to bring others down

●You can choose to believe life is to be lived up or you can choose to believe life is to be endured

●You can choose to be rich in spirit when you are poor in money or you can choose to be poor in spirit when you are rich in money

●You can choose to expect unconditional love or you can choose to give conditional love

●You can choose to be approving or you can choose to find fault

●You can choose to be accepting or you can choose to be rejecting

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Sub-topic: Choosing A Goal

Article Content: You can make choices in your life. You can choose to pursue a goal rather than not to pursue anything. Imagine a meeting with God after you die where God shows you all the choices you had to pursue goals that led to showing others His greatness. Imagine what you might have to say to God about squandered opportunities, about decisions you knew you could make at the time but where you simply put them off. God made you into a goal seeking creature. To glorify God, you need to define, set, and work toward goals and objectives in your life. To wander aimlessly through life with no goal and no purpose is to defy God's creative design for your life.

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Sub-topic: Choosing To Take Control

Article Content: You can choose to take control in every circumstance. In every circumstance you can choose the temporary or you can choose the eternal. In every circumstance you can choose the body or you can choose the heart, soul, and spirit. In every circumstance you can choose death or you can choose life. In every circumstance you can choose to not want control or you can choose to want control. In every circumstance you can choose to look at the circumstance as if there is nothing you can do or you can choose to look at the circumstance as if there is everything you can do. In every circumstance you can choose denial or you can choose recognition of the facts. In every circumstance you can choose to let fear run rampant or you can choose courage to act in spite of the fear. In every circumstance you can choose the prison of fear or you can seek the freedom of confidence, security, and peace. In every circumstance you can choose the prison of death or you can choose the freedom of eternal life. In every circumstance you can choose the prison of illness and disease or you can choose the freedom of pursuing health and wellness. In every circumstance you can choose to be overwhelmed by panic or you can choose to be overwhelmed by the love of God. In every circumstance you can choose to feel as if no one understands or you can choose to feel as if people do understand. In every circumstance you can choose to live isolated from life and hope or you can choose to live life connected to life and hope. In every circumstance you can choose to look down or you can choose to look up. In every circumstance you can choose to sit in the darkness or you can choose to sit in the Light.

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Sub-topic: Choosing Your Future

Article Content: We can choose our future. Moment to moment, we make conscious and unconscious decisions every minute. These decisions inevitably lead us into tomorrow and all the days to follow. Our lives are the sum total of all the choices we have made in our past. Even when misfortune and adversity strike against us, we have choices. We can make decisions. When darkness falls, we must choose what we are to do. When darkness falls, we choose whether to let the darkness touch us and further invade our life, or we can choose to resist and let the Light of God shine in the darkness. When darkness falls, we are not helpless against disaster because we can make choices that affect our future. No matter how grim the reality of our life becomes, the Light of God always provides us with a peace, comfort, and tranquility within our souls beyond our human understanding. When darkness falls, our decision about our future is to either choose the way of the Light or to choose the way of the darkness. When darkness falls, we must make an active choice for the way of the Light of the world, because the Light will not invade us against our will.

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Sub-topic: Decide What To Do Before You Start

Article Content: Common sense should always dictate to us we must decide what we are going to do and where we are going to go before we start. Common sense may dictate but common sense does not always rule. Common sense does not always rule because our life can sometimes turn in directions pushing us downhill very fast with limited options. When we reach the bottom of the hill, or sometimes on the way down, we may not have enough control over things to decide what to do next. The realities of some situations in life are that we may not be able to decide what we are going to do before we start over or restart things. If we have the wherewithal to make decisions about our next steps when starting over we must make those decisions without fear and without hesitancy. We must always plan where we are going before we start over if at all possible. Too often, we begin new efforts without a clear and convincing plan. We too often think things will work out, we can figure things out on the fly, and momentum and enthusiasm will be enough to get us through. If we think this way, if we do not plan for the future when we have the opportunity to do so, we are delusional. We know in truth, things do not always work out as planned, we do not always have the capability to figure things out on the fly, and momentum and enthusiasm are not always enough to get us through. We must all realize one of the most important activities of our life, even when we are heading downhill fast, is to plan our next move or course of action.

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Sub-topic: Making Choices To Choose Your Future

Article Content: You can choose your future when you accept your physical limitations and circumstances. When you accept your limitations and circumstances then you can start making choices about your heart, mind, and soul. History is full of accounts of people who have never eliminated physical limitations and circumstances but went on to become major contributors to our life, culture, and civilization. Helen Keller, who was deaf and blind, made a major impact upon our world. Franklin D. Roosevelt never made his crippled legs go away, but he changed the course of our nation's history in a time of peril. When you make choices to accept your physical limitations and circumstances, you can take charge of your heart, mind, and soul. When you take charge of your heart, mind, and soul then you effectively neutralize the darkness brought on by physical limitations and circumstances. Each of us can score an incredible victory in our life when we take charge of what is within us. When we make choices to choose what is within us we begin to truly choose our future. If we characterize the darkness in our life as an opponent, the darkness opponent wants us to believe our future depends upon our doing away with or changing our physical circumstances or limitations in the here and now. However, the Light and love of God wants you to understand your physical circumstances or limitations may never go away, but your heart, mind, and soul are changeable by you as a result of the decisions you make. The Light and love of God has given you power. You are expected by God to use His power for His good and for the good of humanity.

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Sub-topic: The Gift Of Making Choices

Article Content: One of the greatest heavenly gifts of God is the opportunity we have to make choices. Every day we make choices. Every second we make choices. We can choose what we think. We can choose what we treasure. If we could not choose or make choices Jesus would not have told us about choosing what we store away. No matter where we are or what we must undergo in life, we have, until our last moment, many choices we can make. God has preserved in us the ability to make choices. What a treasure we have in the ability to make choices!

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Sub-topic: The Power To Make Conscious Choices

Article Content: Making conscious choices about how we spend our life is critical. We spend way too much of our time and energy letting whatever happen in us happen without any conscious thought about how we can and will respond. We spend way too much time letting others and letting circumstances control what we think, how we think, and how we should feel. Making a conscious choice means you gather all the facts. Then with rational thought processes, make a decision with a willingness to live with and deal with the consequences, even the bad consequences, of the conscious decision you make.

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Sub-topic: You Can Choose, Part 1

Article Content: You can choose...

●To help rather than hurt

●To live a holy life rather than a secular life

●To invite the Holy Spirit to become real in your life or ignore His love

●To be honest rather than dishonest

●To honor and cherish the important persons in your life

●To live with hope by seeing over the horizons

●To live in humility rather than living with ego and pride

●To hunger for the things of God rather than the things of darkness

●To search for wisdom rather than living in ignorance

●To mold your character to be decisive for God rather than indecisive

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Sub-topic: You Can Choose, Part 2

Article Content: You can choose...

●To not be a passive victim

●To take charge every day

●To acknowledge the realities of life without despair *To rejoice over gains *To heal from losses

●You can choose...

●To not run away from the truth

●To tell yourself the truth

●To learn more about your obstacles

●To learn more about how you can help yourself

●To live your life to the max today and then do the same tomorrow

●To live with the power of hope today and then do the same tomorrow

●To live with joy today and then do the same tomorrow

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Sub-topic: You Can Choose, Part 3

Article Content: You can choose...

●To see the wrongs, hurts, and injustice of life

●To choose to make a difference in the world in which you live rather than living in a world of indifference. If you choose to make a difference, you run the risk of upsetting the apple carts of the street vendors who depend upon the world staying as it is. Injustice needs to be corrected but there are few people who want to make a difference. You can choose to see and experience the indwelling nature of God within you rather than searching for Him outside of yourself. Although He lives within us because His kingdom is within us many people find God outside of themselves. Perhaps God is more interested in the fact you search for Him than where you look. You can choose to be a person of integrity rather than a person living in deceit. This sounds easy to do for a devout Christian who always commits to telling the truth. However, in the real world where pressures to keep your job, keep your income, keep your house or apartment, keep your children and yourself fed, and keep your personal world going, always being honest has a cost. If you truly commit your life to Christ, you are always willing to pay the price of being honest.

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Sub-topic: You Can Choose, Part 4

Article Content: You can choose...

●To ask questions and seek answers

●To ask questions rather than keep silent

●To give beauty rather than ugliness

●To believe rather than doubt

●To read His word rather than watch television

●To use the Holy Bible as a source of God's truth and wisdom

●To give blessings and be a blessing rather than give curses and be a curse

●To share the Bread of Life rather than trying to keeping silent about Him

●To carry the burdens of others rather than pile your burdens on to them

●To care for others rather than being cold and insolent

●To carry a light in the darkness rather than groping and hurting with others

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Sub-topic: You Can Choose, Part 5

Article Content: You can choose...

●To put your energy to use rather than letting your energy evaporate

●To rise up in controlled anger at injustice rather than looking the other way

●To seek answers instead of avoiding them

●To take action when you face anxiety rather than shrink back

●To ask questions rather than keep silent

●To give beauty rather than ugliness

●To give blessings and be a blessing rather than give curses and be a curse

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Sub-topic: You Can Choose, Part 6

Article Content: You can choose...

●To meditate upon the things of God rather than thinking about the things of darkness

●To live in meekness rather than living so others will notice you

●To bestow mercy and forgiveness on those who hurt you rather than trying to get even

●To develop your mind rather than letting your mind waste away

●To minister to others who are in pain rather than believing someone else will help them

●To pray for miracles and be present to assist in their delivery

●To live a moral life rather than living an immoral life

●To see each morning as an opportunity to produce for God rather than a burden to bear for God

●To lay your sorrows of mourning at the foot of the Cross

●To be mystified by the mysteries of God and life

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Sub-topic: You Can Choose, Part 7

Article Content: You can choose...

●You can choose to develop your character and do the right thing rather than ignoring your character and doing the wrong thing

●You can choose to bring cheer into the gloom rather than letting the gloom take away the cheer

●You can choose to live as a child of God rather than as an orphan who has been abandoned

●You can choose to accept Christ as the true Son of God who died for you on the Cross

●To accept Christ into your heart and life rather than just thinking about Him

●To give compassion when someone is hurting rather than doing nothing

●To visit the widow for a few minutes

●To hear and comfort the weeping

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Sub-topic: You Can Choose, Part 8

Article Content: You can choose...

●To turn dependence into an opportunity to warn others

●To turn dependence into a victory against more dependence

●To turn dependence into a war for independence

●To turn a time of depression into a time of counting your blessings

●To turn a time of depression into a time of reaching out to others and producing goofiness

●To turn a time of depression into a time of creative outlet rather than a time of disabled hell

●To devote your time rather than letting your time slip away

●To disobey the conventional wisdom keeping you down as you obey the Love of God propelling you upward

●To be devout in your beliefs rather than throwing them in the trash

●To be as difficult with the difficulties as the difficulties are difficult with you

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Sub-topic: You Can Choose, Part 9

Article Content: You can choose...

●To see how all things are continually made new even when it appears all things grow old

●To live in obedience to God's commandments rather than disregarding them

●To live as a child of God rather than as an orphan who has been abandoned.

●To live as a person who has been truly rescued from the depths

●To see pain is a weapon of Satan and Satan's darkness

●To live in peace with your brothers and sisters rather than wanting to make war

●To understand persecution comes to all who love the Lord

●To reach out to the poor

●To understand poverty of the spirit is a choice for all persons

●To seize the real power of the love of God rather than letting His power slip through your fingers.

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Sub-topic: You Can Choose, Part 10

Article Content: You can choose...

●To confess your sins before God rather than carrying guilt

●To free your conscience through confession rather than letting your conscience burn and imprison you

●To console others in times of grief

●To choose contentment over turmoil

●To be contrite rather than shrugging your shoulders because you do not care

●To control your life rather than letting "whatever" operate in chaos over you

●To live a life of self-control rather than letting life control you

●To live in conviction rather than letting everything slide

●To have courage by acting in spite of your fear rather than letting fear control your actions

●To dedicate your life to something rather than hoping something will draft you into an activity you like

●To deliver as much of the goods for others instead of staying at home waiting for someone to deliver the goods to you.

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# Chapter 9: Christ

Sub-topic: A Broken Heart For You

Article Content: Jesus died of a broken heart so you can have a whole heart. Jesus died of a broken heart so you could have a new heart, a reborn heart, and so you could become a new person. Jesus died of a broken heart so you could have a clean, forgiving, positive, faithful, touchable heart full of life and light. Jesus died of a broken heart so you could open your heart to hear Him tell you "I love you." Jesus died of a broken heart so you would open your heart and let Him touch you. When Jesus touches you, He becomes real to you. If you want Him to touch you then you have to want to change who and what you are. If you will surrender all you have and all you are to Him, Jesus will touch you and He will become real to you. Jesus died of a broken heart so when you truly want Him to touch you He will always do so. If you will direct your wish toward Christ in prayer for Him to touch you, He will come to be with you and you will more fully understand how He died of a broken heart just for you.

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Sub-topic: A Force Of Light And Love

Article Content: We have been desensitized to the gruesome ideas of abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, and scientific experimentation. We no longer treasure life. We consider life to be expendable, unless, of course, it is our own. Many dark forces in the world come against us to convince us life is not worth living. Many forces in the world come against us hoping we will cave in and give up our Christian faith. However, we have a force of Light, Love, and Redeeming Glory within us called the Holy Spirit.

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Sub-topic: A Heart Transplant

Article Content: In the medical world, a heart transplant is now a reality. In the spiritual world, getting a new heart is possible with no transplants, no surgery, no bypass, no doctor, no hospital bill, and no hospital stay. In the spiritual realms, your heart can be reborn and live in a whole new world. Each person has a choice about the kind of heart they have. You can have a heart full of darkness leading to death or you can have a heart full of Light leading to Life. We can fully choose which kind of heart we want. The only way we can have a changed heart or receive a spiritual heart transplant is by letting our heart be touched by Christ. For when we let Christ touch our heart, our heart need not remain in darkness. Christ came to give us the Light and love of God. When we let Christ touch us, our heart is changed and we can remain changed if we so will it.

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Sub-topic: At The Foot Of The Cross

Article Content: The door of your heart is opened as you truly stand at the foot of the Cross, as you see Christ's suffering, and you feel the guilt of your sin pinging your conscience. When you stand at the foot of the Cross and the grief of your sinfulness overwhelms you, then your heart is in a position to be surrendered to Christ. If you stand at the foot of the Cross and do not feel any grief or you do not feel or acknowledge any responsibility for His suffering then your heart is not ready for His love. When your heart is hardened and closed to the grief of Christ's suffering, you can ask Him to come into your heart. However, you may not really want Him. You can repeat the invitation in your mind but if your heart is not open then you will leave Him out. When you truly go to the foot of the Cross, your heart is opened to His glory and grace .

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Sub-topic: Because Jesus Came Back

Article Content:

●Because Jesus came back, we can trust Him to be with us for ever and ever.

●Because Jesus came back, we know we can rely upon Him to have a new home ready for us in heaven.

●Because Jesus came back, we know we can depend upon Him to help us get through the really tough times here on earth.

●Because Jesus came back, we know we have someone who will stand with us for ever and ever.

●Because Jesus came back, the disaster of death was turned into enormous promise.

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Sub-topic: Both God And Man

Article Content: When we look at Jesus, we see a man with a human body. His body was like our body if we want to make a comparison. However, Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. He had every physical, emotional, and psychological attribute we have. Yet, He was also God. We will not unravel this mystery. We can understand this idea of being fully human and fully divine only as an idea. We cannot get into Jesus' shoes and walk His path as both man and God because no human has ever been both man and God except the Savior.

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Sub-topic: Christ's Suffering And Your Sacrifice

Article Content: Do you suppose Jesus wanted to suffer and die upon the cross? Do you suppose Jesus wanted to suffer, be tempted, and nearly die in the desert after forty days? Do you suppose the early church martyrs and many of the martyrs since then wanted to pay the price of suffering and death? How much of a price are you willing to pay for Christ? We live in an age of luxury. We live in an age encouraging, perhaps even demanding, we NOT sacrifice. Are you willing to go against your protective human instincts and give your life for Christ? We sit in an age where, in most places, we are comfortable in our Christian life. We can sit in heated or air conditioned sanctuaries. We can sit on padded pews. Most of us need not fear for our life or fear for our safety in any respect when we worship Christ. What will you do when being a Christian is a threat to your life?

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Sub-topic: Churches And Sacrifice

Article Content: No church was ever built without sacrifice. Generally speaking, churches because no one in the church either wants to sacrifice or is able to sacrifice because of some other hardship. The word "sacrifice" is a bad word in the new millennium. The new millennium kinds of words are... "It's easy. Easy credit. No credit. Nothing down. Easy to clean. Easy to fix. No payment till next year. Get it now. Get it free. No waiting. Instant." Those are the new millennium words used to tickle our ears. Inside or outside the church we have to expend so much energy to get people excited to do a job, when we ask for sacrifice, people can go into shock. One of the greatest challenges of our age is to live out the gospel as a member of a generation pampered, waited on, and whose every need and whim is filled in an instant.

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Sub-topic: Finding God

Article Content: Luke 17:20 Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." (NIV) You can see Him working everywhere, if you try. However, the first place to look for God is inside of you. You will find God inside yourself. If you seek Him, you can find Him. If you are waiting for Him to swoop down out of the sky without your doing any work, He won't be there. Where is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is inside of you because inside of you is where peace and love abounds. Inside of you is where you find contentment. Inside of you is the kingdom where love, peace, and joy prevail. In God's kingdom within you, there is an end to turmoil, an end to fighting, an end to frustration, and an end to your pain. You cannot see this place within you with your physical eyes. To see the kingdom of God within you requires you use your spiritual eyes.

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Sub-topic: He Was Like Us

Article Content: He walked and talked. He had a body similar to ours. He had knowledge and wisdom. He faced temptation. He felt anger. He surveyed the things of nature. He prayed. He cried. He suffered pain. He died. However, Christ did not stay dead. He came back in His body. His body was renewed and restored with life even after His body was in the tomb for three days. Although Jesus was like us, He was also divine. Jesus was both human and God. Because Christ was like us, He understands us, and He understands all the trials, pain, and heartache we experience.

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Sub-topic: How Christ Relates To Our Spirit

Article Content: In the physical, we pay a physical price for being alive. In the spiritual, Christ paid the price for us. Between the physical part of our life and the spiritual part of our life there is a wide space filled only by faith. For some people there is no wide space because their faith is strong, their physical life is not demanding, and for these people, their spirit and physical nature are as one. For others who are filled with doubt, skepticism, physical pain or all three, there seems to be no way to bridge the gap between the physical and the spiritual. However, Christ came into the world to build for us a bridge between where we are in the physical world and where God wants us to be in the spiritual world. Christ built a bridge to Heaven for us by suffering and dying the most horrible of deaths on the cross. The bridge built for us by Christ is how Christ relates to our spirit.

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Sub-topic: I Am The Door

Article Content: During his reign, King Edward VIII of England was especially concerned about social conditions. He once decided to visit some of the homes in a slum section on the waterfront where he was to christen a ship. He stopped first at a house in which lived one of the most disreputable men in the area. He had become a social outcast. Hearing a knock at his door, he shouted in a gruff voice, "Who is it?" The answer came back, "I am your king. May I come in?" Thinking it was a cruel joke, the man refused to open the door. The king, a gentleman who respected the rights of a man in his own household, would not force his way in, so he turned and left. And this poor man missed seeing his king. What about you, if your King knocks on the door of your heart, will you invite Him in? Source: Unknown

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Sub-topic: In The Arms Of Jesus

Article Content: Some people appear to live a charmed life. They were born under the best circumstances, raised in homes where trouble never visited, and went on to adulthood without facing any kind of major problem. However, most of us do not fit into that category. Most of us need to feel the presence of the arms of Jesus wrapped around us. Have you noticed how life can be like a piece of rope? The rope and life can both get frayed out on both ends, then the rope and life can start burning in the middle. At these times we need to feel the arms of Christ wrapped around us. In the arms of Jesus, we find warmth in a cold and cruel world. In a world where Satan is taking advantage of our every weakness and hitting us from every angle, in the arms of Jesus we find spiritual warmth we cannot find anywhere else. In His arms, we find caring. We find caring and compassion in Christ because he knows our every thought and hurt. He cares deeply about how we are, where we are, who we are with, and how we deal with the arrows being shot at us from every side. In the arms of Jesus, we find protection. His arms protect us from every kind of ultimate defeat.

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Sub-topic: Investing In Christ

Article Content: We are willing to invest our lives in Christ because He defeated death and He came back to life after being dead three days. When we make our investment in Christ our investment means we trust His words, we trust His truth, and we trust Him. Investing in Christ means we have or can have a real, live relationship with Him. When we invest in Christ we have a real, live relationship with Him because He is alive this minute within us. For those of us who have faith, Heaven does not exist on the other side of the universe. For us, because we have made an investment in Christ through faith, Heaven is just an instant away. With our faith investment in Christ, the Holy Spirit, the very essence of Jesus, lives inside of us forever and ever.

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Sub-topic: Inviting Christ Into Your Life

Article Content: The invitation for Christ to come into your life may not always take the form of active words of invitation. Your invitation may take the form of offering your life and your heart to Christ as you fall prostrate at the foot of the Cross in godly sorrow. Most often, we expect every sinner will use words to communicate to Christ. However, the invitation to Christ to come into ones heart must go beyond words. Like all communication with God, we must have the desire in our heart and soul for Christ to come in and live within us. We must have this holy unction underpinning anything we say to Him. We have the vision of our life and our guilt for crucifying Christ before us. Upon seeing this vision of our life and our guilt we then turn towards Christ standing at the door with His light and His love of forgiveness. Then there is an opening of the door of our heart by us so He may come in.

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Sub-topic: Jesus Hurts With Us, Bike Riding -- Keeping Our Balance

Article Content: When my son was learning to ride a bicycle, falling down, and getting hurt during the learning process, my son never knew I was hurting and agonizing with him. He never knew I desperately wanted to take his pain onto myself so he would not have to go through the pain. When he finally learned to keep his balance and ride normally I sat on our back steps and watched him ride up and down the sidewalk. He was grinning from ear to ear. I suddenly realized Jesus hurts with us without our knowing it. Jesus agonizes and winches in pain along with us. Jesus sometimes sits back and lets us shove off on our journey in life knowing full well we are going to experience pain, and if He could, He would take the pain all onto himself. In truth, He is with us even when we think He isn't. In our darkest hours, He is next to us. In our darkest hours, He is constantly encouraging and supporting us. God knows everything we go through. He knows about every painful moment. While we are struggling and trying so hard to keep our balance and keep the pedals going in our life, we are often not conscious of Him or His love for us. Too often, we think we've been deserted with no one to turn to, but He is there all the time.

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Sub-topic: Jesus Is With You

Article Content: If you open your heart and let Christ in He embraces you and tells you how you are His. When no one else even seems to recognize you exist, Jesus not only recognizes you, He puts His arm around you and touches your heart. He gently tells you no matter what you are going through, you are with Him and He is with you.

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Sub-topic: Jesus Knows Your Hurt

Article Content: Jesus is everywhere and in all things. There is no circumstance, no event, and no happening occurring outside of His knowing. When you thought your home life crippled you, you were in His eyes and He was watching over you, as He is still watching over you this minute. God is timeless and so is Christ's power to heal and undo what has been done in the past. We cannot know or understand all there is to know and understand about time. However, we do know Christ can move back into your life and heal the hurts inflicted in the past if you are willing to let Him. In the past, even in your very worst moments, Christ had His hand upon you, and His hand is still upon you today. He knows what you have gone through in the past because He was always with you. No matter what has happened, no matter how you reacted or responded, no matter how intense the pain was and may still be, He still calls you one of His own. Christ's power over time can make things as if they never were, even when you still remember them.

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Sub-topic: Jesus Loves You

Article Content: Christ's love heals the scars left by revenge and hatred. His love heals the scars left by years of feeling hatred and can make the angry heart full of revenge become a forgiving heart. His love relieves us of the hurt we want to inflict upon others. Christ's love heals the broken parts of our life. Our job circumstances, home circumstances, money circumstances, and other circumstances might stay with us, but the problems, the parts of the circumstances causing us the pain, will go away under Christ's loving hand. Christ's love brings joy to the eyes of children. When you give a child a gift, give love along with the gift. Remember Christ's love in the heart of a child may take awhile to blossom. You may never live to see the effects of His love, but His love will still be there. Christ's love heals the body hurting from physical pain. His love makes all the body systems work more efficiently. His love can push us way beyond the human limits of our endurance.

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Sub-topic: Jesus Loves You Any Which Way

Article Content: There are some theologies telling you how you have to be rich, healthy, proud, bold, and successful or you are not living right. This theology is the health and wealth gospel. This theology is a theology for big babies and spoiled brats. The health and wealth theology tells people what they want to hear. Jesus does not like it when you are sick, but He loves you anyway. Jesus does not like it when your money runs out and you are poor, but he loves you anyway. Jesus does not like it when you are stepped on and run over by life, but he loves you anyway. Jesus does not like it when you fail, but He loves you anyway. Jesus does not like it when you sin, but he loves you anyway. Jesus came to give you eternal life in heaven, not eternal money. Jesus came to give you eternal life in heaven, not eternal power. The power of the gospel truth means when you don't have anything, you can still have everything that means anything and still be happy because Jesus loves you any which way you are. In Hebrews 11:1 we find a biblical definition of faith. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (NIV)

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Sub-topic: Jesus Obeyed

Article Content: In the garden of Gethsemane, even in the agony before His arrest, Jesus obeyed his Father in heaven. Knowing everything in advance, knowing everything He was going to go through, knowing everything in advance about His torture, about His flogging, about His humiliation, about the pain of His crucifixion, about the agony of His death, Jesus obeyed. Jesus made no attempt to argue with God, and He did not accept another way other than the Cross. Jesus prayed for God's direction and will. When Jesus realized in His humanity God said no (that Jesus would have to go to the cross) Jesus fully committed himself. Jesus was arrested in His place of prayer. Jesus was arrested in the very place where He and his Father in Heaven shared things together as none of us could ever understand. In spite of all He knew in advance, Jesus obeyed. How can any of us not have a broken heart when we kneel at the foot of His Cross over what we did to Him? How can any of us not be so overcome with grief we must immediately turn away from the sin in us that put Christ upon the cross?

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Sub-topic: Jesus Understands

Article Content: We can know He understands us because we know He has walked in our shoes as a person. Jesus understands us and knows what we go through each minute because He lives with us. He lives both within us and outside of us. In addition, no one can understand us like He understands. Even we cannot understand ourselves as He understands us. He knows more about us than we will ever know about ourselves until we see Him face to face. We have His spirit alive within us. When we recognize we have this person, Jesus, with us on the inside, this recognition is the most profound step in our journey on earth. The recognition that Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit are alive within us is so profound the recognition is life changing and life altering.

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Sub-topic: Jesus Was God, Part 1 of 2

Article Content: When we think of Jesus, we most often think of Him as a human being. In God's wisdom and love, God sent Christ to us as a person with whom we could identify and a person to whom we could relate. However, to think of Jesus as a human being is to be only half-right. Christ was not "just human." He was not "just human" because he was more. Jesus Christ was both human and divine. Christ was God in human shape and human form along with being totally divine and totally God. He looked like a man and by our standards of measuring whether someone is human, He was a human being. However, there was more going on than the physical senses could measure and understand. Most people of Jesus' day rejected Him because they could not see beyond Him as a human being. People in His day could not and would not see Him as God. In the same way, people today reject Christ because they can not and will not see Him as God.

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Sub-topic: Jesus Was God, Part 2 Of 2

Article Content: Jesus was a human being. However, He was more than just a man. He was also God. He was both the Son of God as well as God Himself. He referred to God in Heaven as His father. Yet, Father and Son are both One. They are inseparable yet Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father. Are you confused? You may be confused about these matters because there are many things we do not understand about the spiritual realms. Although Jesus was clearly a human being, He had the ability to do all God could do.

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Sub-topic: Jesus Was...

Article Content: Jesus was more than just a man. Look at what He did. He floated up into the clouds. He stilled the waters. He made the blind to see and the lame to walk. He died but he came back to life After He came back to life, He appeared to people who knew Him in the form of a person they did not recognize. Jesus was not just a man. Jesus was God.

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Sub-topic: Jesus Within You

Article Content: Jesus has the same love for you today He had for the people He touched two thousand years ago. You cannot control your life on your own all the time. There are times when life seems to spin out of control. The truth about life is you sometimes need help. When you need help, you can look to Jesus to be your friend and resource. When you truly see Jesus, His love overtakes you and He starts working in your life. His love starts changing you and the impossible situations of life that were so uncontrollable become controllable. When you see Jesus and have let Him live within you, His love makes everything doable. When you are hurting and broken, you cannot heal on your own but with Jesus within you, healing takes place. When your life is broken, you cannot repair the broken parts of your life on your own. However, with Jesus within you, your broken heart and life mend in ways we do not always understand.

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Sub-topic: Our Intercessor

Article Content: For those of us who daily put God first in our hearts, we can easily say "Yes, God cares." We can easily to say "Yes, God cares" when we are not the victims of the darkness. What each of us must do is go beyond the easy and glib answers we give and look at the heart of God. When we look at the heart of God we see not only our precious Lord Jesus weeping for His children, but we also see a Father God who is both sad and angry. There is anger in Heaven because of what so many of God's children have brought upon the world. God is angry so many have turned away from Him. God is angry so many have rejected the Love of Christ. God is angry so many people have filled their life with sin and darkness when these very people had a choice about how they live. God is not hateful or in a mood to get even with us. God is angry as a parent gets angry with a rebellious child. However, we have an intercessor. We have Christ who intercedes for us and speaks to God the Father on our behalf.

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Sub-topic: Our Little Light

Article Content: Some people have gigantic flames. They burn brightly before the world. However, most of us are just little glimmers or tiny sparks. However, when the conditions are right, our tiny spark can unleash power beyond our wildest dreams. When we experience great loss, we are often so caught up in the loss we cannot see any Light at all. However, no darkness in life is total. Not even death is a total loss because a part of us lives on after we die. For many of us, the best part of our life is yet to be seen after we die. After we have experienced great grief and loss, our real mission in life is to keep our little Light shining. No matter how bad things get for us, we must hold our little candle high so more of our life and the life of others will be illuminated. In addition, we must not be so caught up in our own grief we cannot see the pain of others. Self-consuming pain is the worst kind. Self-consuming pain feeds on itself and tries to put out the fire of the light we may have left over after our loss.

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Sub-topic: The First Day Of A New Age

Article Content: When Christ was born, a new age of humanity dawned. The social, religious, and political consequences of Christ's birth are incalculable. At the dawning of this new age two thousand years ago, God enabled each of us to end our arrogance and rebellion against Him. In the new age of Christ in which we are now living, God enables each of us to have faith in Him and have faith in His Son who walked the earth. In the new age of Christ, the unbelievers and disbelievers in Him are loved and forgiven. In the new age of Christ, God is worshipped in new ways, in new forms, and in enlightened truth. In the new age of Christ, God is not worshipped for selfish reasons but for unselfish reasons. In this new age, what God has done for each of us is to send His Son to redeem us and give us an opportunity to find eternal life in Heaven. In the new age of Christ, a new kind of power covers the earth...a power called Christian love. We all know the work of God in bringing this new age of Christ is not finished and is sometimes imperfectly implemented by men and women. However, the start of God's work in transforming us began in a manger long ago. For the love He sent us on that day long ago we praise Him and seek to glorify His name...in this new age of Christ.

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Sub-topic: The Gardener

Article Content: Luke 13:6 Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, for three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' 8 " Sir,' the man replied, leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' " (NIV) The fig tree failed to produce fruit or figs. The owner says to cut it down. The fig tree is useless and is taking up space that could be used by a more productive tree. The gardener pleads with the owner to give him and the tree one last chance. The gardener will go the extra mile. The gardener will fertilize the tree, prune it, and aerate the soil around the tree. The gardener will encourage the tree, maybe pray for it, and water it when needed. The gardener may even talk to the tree. Truthfully, the future of the tree is uncertain. The cause of the tree's failure is unknown. Time is short. A reprieve is given. A year of work lies ahead. The outcome of the gardener's work is unknown. The gardener willingly takes the burden upon himself, not knowing if anything good will happen. Failure is probable since the tree has not produced in three years. The gardener assumes responsibility for the future success of the tree. The gardener will do everything he can to make the tree bear fruit. However, the gardener cannot really make the tree do anything. The gardener cannot really control the tree. The gardener can only provide the tree with all it needs in hope the tree will respond. In our life, Jesus is the gardener, for Jesus cannot make us do anything. Yet, He has taken our life upon Himself in the form of the Cross. He has taken our life into His hands and now seeks to help us, nurture us, and love us.

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Sub-topic: The Meaning Of Christ's Touch, Part 1

Article Content: The word "touch" means many things. The meanings of "touch" are all ways Jesus can change you. To "touch" means to lay hands upon. Jesus laid His hands upon others, and He will do the same for you. To "touch" means to partake of, like to eat or to drink. Jesus drank the bitter cup of The Cross, and He will share your bitter cup of life if you will turn to Him and give Him your life. To "touch" means to play with, to make good times, to make happy times, and to play: Although in our pain we often overlook the power of God to make us happy, if you are willing, Jesus will come to you and give you joy and laughter. To "touch" means to impress or to influence. Jesus is always and definitively trying to influence you without invading your heart. Jesus is always trying to impress upon you how much He loves you and how much He wants you to be His child. Jesus is always trying to get you to open the door of your heart and let Him in.

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Sub-topic: The Meaning Of Christ's Touch, Part 2

Article Content: The word "touch" means many things and the meanings of touch are all the ways Jesus can change you. To "touch" means to leave a visible mark or impression upon. When Jesus touches you, then spiritually and sometimes visibly there is a change in you when you give your heart to Him. To "touch" means to relate to or to understand. Jesus understands everything you are going through. He understands your problems and your pain. In mystery to you, He understands how what you are going through now or how what you have gone through in the past will bless Him and bless you. He understands and knows in full certainty what you are going through now or have gone through in the past will work out to your benefit and to His glory when you give all you are over to Him.

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Sub-topic: The Tomb Was And Is Empty

Article Content: Jesus is alive. Jesus is risen. Jesus is next to you today. He is real. The tomb is empty. Mark 15:21 "in the place where Jesus was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one was ever laid". In 1881, a man named Christian Gordon, found at the west foot of the "skull hill" or Golgotha, a "garden". He set a crew of men digging, and under five feet of rubbish and garbage, He found a tomb of Roman times, cut in a wall of solid rock, with a trench in front of the tomb's entry where a stone is rolled to the door. The tomb is a room 14 feet wide, 10 feet deep, and 7 1/2 feet high. At the right, as you enter, there are two graves, one next to the front wall, and one next to the back wall. The graves are slightly lower than the floor of the room, with a low dividing wall between the graves. The tomb is large enough to easily hold a group of women, and two angels, with an angel sitting at the place where Jesus feet were, and another angel sitting where his head was. The tomb shows no sign that it was ever used. There were no remains.

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Sub-topic: The Way Of Jesus

Article Content: The triumph of the cross of Calvary is in some ways a failure. The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is not what Jesus, or God wanted. The glorification by the masses is not what we would want. The objective or goal of reaching all the hearts of all the people on the earth 2000 years ago was not reached. When Christ died on the Cross the enemy won. The result of Jesus' triumphal journey into Jerusalem was His death. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem with the crowds glorifying Him and wanting Him to take over Israel as a worldly leader, time was running out. Opportunities were few in getting the masses to understand. Tensions were high. Confusion and misunderstanding about Jesus reigned. There were uncertainties. There were anxieties. Days of testing were just beginning. Christ's followers were bewildered. They, along with others, had hope upon hope somehow Jesus would reign as a worldly king. However, Christ's way is not the way of the world. Christ's way was to surrender Himself to be crucified at the hands of those who praised Him and wanted Him to take over the world.

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Sub-topic: Those Eyes

Article Content: Luke 18:19 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'" 21"All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said. 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (NIV) Jesus looked at the rich man and loved him. Did the rich man look back at Jesus and did the rich man really see Jesus? Was the rich man only interested in getting extra life? Maybe the rich man thought extra life could be purchased. The rich man was not scum of the earth. He was not only rich, he was also righteous. The rich man wanted to do right, be right, keep what he had, and not give anything up. In the story, we think we see the ending when the rich man walks away sad. Now if the rich man truly looked into Christ's eyes, there may have been a different ending to this story. The other ending to this story is the rich man indeed gave away all he owned because the rich man saw Jesus for who He really was. The rich man may have seen those eyes, walked away sad, but later remembered those eyes and the love beaming out from them.

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Sub-topic: Ties To God

Article Content: Who do you turn to when things look bleak? Who do you go to and ask for help? Who is there for you night and day? For many people the answer is "no one." Without a deep spiritual connection to God we lack the tie that binds us both to God and to other people in a genuinely healthy way. We can have non-Christian friends, but when things get difficult, we want someone who is connected to the ultimate power of love of the universe. We want to be connected to a person who truly understands. In addition, we want a person who will pray for us. The worst part of dealing with rough times is going through them alone with no ties to God or no ties to people with a strong positive faith in Christ. As a Christian, you must remember you can be the person who helps others make the tie that binds them to the heart of God.

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Sub-topic: We Can Trust Him

Article Content: We are willing to invest our lives in Christ because He defeated death and came back to life for each of us. We can trust His words, trust His truth, and trust Him. Because Christ is just as alive today as He was 2000 years ago we can have a real, live relationship with Him. Christ is alive this minute. Heaven does not exist on the other side of the universe. Heaven is just an instant away. And Jesus spirit, the essence of who he is, can live inside every minute.

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Sub-topic: What God Did

Article Content: What God did was send His son to you personally so when you are the slowest in the race, in His eyes, He makes you the fastest. He is there to cheer you on, and in Jesus' eyes, you are always the winner. What God did was send His Son down to earth when Jesus could have remained in the glory of Heaven. God sent His Son down into the darkness of the world. God sent His Son down into the world to die just for you.

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Sub-topic: What God Sees In You

Article Content: When Christ went to the Cross, He could see past your surface layer of sin. Christ could see the worth, value, and potential you carry. Because you have worth, value, and potential God pours out his love, grace, kindness, mercy, and Holy Spirit upon you. Because you can become so much more than what you are as a sinner, God has compassion, tolerance, and charity towards you. Because you can share in the substance of the Holy Spirit, God repeatedly forgives you. God sees you fall down countless times. In His grace or generosity towards you, the grace so great and so strong, causes Him to reach down to help you up after you have fallen.

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Sub-topic: What Jesus Is Like

Article Content: Jesus is patient with you. How many times have you tried to do things your way? Jesus knows sooner or later, with your heart in the right place, you will see things His way. Most likely, He is more patient with you than you are with yourself or you are with Him. Jesus is always patiently waiting for you to come to Him. He is never in a hurry. Although He does not like to see you make mistakes and fall down, what is most important to Him is how your heart is in the right place by trying to do His will each day. Jesus is kind to you. He always has his arm around you because he cares for you. He is always there to give you a kind word, comfort when you are down, and help you when you need help. His kindness is unselfish. He never wants anything in return for what He gives you. Jesus is gentle and tender. Jesus does not boast to you about who and what He is. Jesus is silent about how He blesses you. Since He is not loud He doesn't go out and say, "Hey, look at me. See what I did?" All these things, and more, are what Jesus is like.

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Sub-topic: Your Shepherd

Article Content: There is an image people have of a shepherd in a quiet place looking out over his flock of sheep. The setting is serene and tranquil. The reality of a shepherd's life is dramatically different from the tranquil setting most people have in their minds. The reality? A shepherd is out in the wind, rain, snow, freezing cold and blistering heat. Sheep get themselves caught in stickers, in mud, in water trapping them from in places which they cannot escape. Sheep get caught in numerous other scrapes over which they have no control. Sheep are totally defenseless and have no way of protecting themselves. The job of the shepherd to fight off predators. When a young lamb is attacked, the ewe (or mother), has no way of protecting the lamb. In Jesus' time, the shepherd carried a rod or club to fight off wolves and other predators. Shepherds also carried a staff to pull sheep out of dangerous places. Today, predators want to devour your spiritual life. These predators want to rob you of the love of God. However, you have a Great Shepherd. His name is Jesus.

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# Chapter 10: Commitment

Sub-topic: Commitment

Article Content: To carry out the great commission we have to be committed. We have to be so committed we must be willing to go through any hardship to see the gospel of Christ spread all over the world. We have to be so committed to Christ we are willing to be put in prison, willing to be stoned, willing to be beaten with rods, willing to be lashed until the flesh comes of our back, or be shipwrecked. That kind of commitment changes the world. That kind of commitment does not just change the part of the city or county you live in. That kind of commitment changes the whole world. We have to be willing to give up our life as a martyr to be burned at the stake. We have to be on fire with the love of Christ in our hearts. No matter how many troubles you have, you need some kind of fire to burn inside of you. The love of God though Christ has to burn in you or you will never overcome the obstacles. Without the fire, you will never run the race. Without the fire, you will never go anywhere in your Christian walk. You have to be willing to do anything to live for Christ. Being a Christian has to be more than a good idea. Doing anything for Christ means just that...anything. You need to be willing to go through any hardship, go through any sickness, climb any mountain, or forge any river to see the gospel proclaimed in both word and deed.

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Sub-topic: Commitment In Action

Article Content: Commitment is an act of pledging or engaging oneself to do or to perform. To translate commitment into action and see the power of commitment, do the following and see the power of the result of making a commitment. 1. Commit to prayer because prayer works 2. Commit first to thinking and then to acting. Hands and feet have no power of thought on their own, so think before you act 3. Commit to writing down your goals. The individual, the family, and the organization need written goals. 4. Commit to doing AND caring. Caring is not enough. A lot of people care but not enough people are willing care AND "to do"? 5. Commit to keeping on. Once you get some momentum then keep the momentum going. Remember action begets action. Physical and spiritual laws are similar when it comes to power, force, and momentum.

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# Chapter 11: Communication

Sub-topic: Communicating Love And Recognition To Others

Article Content: We must always communicate to others we hear them, understand them, and accept them. We do not need to agree with a person to hear, understand, and accept them. When we communicate to others we do indeed hear, understand, and accept them, we add value to the other person's life. When we communicate we hear, understand, and accept another person we have elevated the other person from being just an anonymous person to being a person of importance. All of us want the world to recognize we exist. All of us want the world to love us. The first step in giving recognition and love to others is to communicate we hear what others say regardless of whether others say what we want to hear or what we like to hear. The second step in communicating recognition and love to others is to understand what others are trying to say when they communicate back to us. Hindrances to our understanding another person rest in our attitudes about them, about what they think, and about what they believe. The third step in communicating recognition and love to others is to accept others as a member of the human race. Even if we do not accept what another person thinks or believes is true, valid, or worthwhile, we can still accept him or her as a person. Many of the world's problems exist because people reject others rather than accepting them as worthwhile members of humanity.

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Sub-topic: Communication Skills, Part 2 Of 5

Article Content: Space Important Points Out. Save information to meet a resistant answer or comment. Don't use all your convincing points at the outset of your conversation. Go gently into a conversation with someone so you can know what their thinking might be, even when their thinking might be against what you would propose. Once you have determined where another person is in their thought processes, then you can begin to talk about the benefits of choosing your course of action. Anticipate Resistance. It's easier to give honest complete answers if you know what the resistance may be. Think Ahead. Be ready for resistance comments. If you already know what the resistance comments are going to be, you can plan to give your complete and honest answers to these comments in advance. Resistance is common because people do not like change. People do not like changing from one opinion to another opinion. Group Associated Thoughts Together. A selective approach to positive suggestions will not annoy the other person. "Hit and Miss" attempts to convince another person annoy people because "Hit and Miss" attempts make it sound like you are not well-informed or knowledgeable. Group your thoughts and comments together so your thoughts and comments logically fit together. By grouping associated thoughts together, you avoid sounding like you are using a "Hit and Miss" approach.

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Sub-topic: Communication Skills, Part 3 Of 5

Article Content: Phrase Your Request By Giving A Choice. Use the "which" method not the "if" approach to get the other person to make a commitment to a course of action. Help the other person see there are always options and always choices. Choices empower people. Boxing people in with an "If" statement takes power away from people and angers or antagonizes others. Speak In Terms Of Consequences. Many people do not understand the consequences of taking a course of action. To communicate fully to another person or persons, speak to them about consequences of taking a certain approach. If people understood the consequences of taking a course of action more fully, better decisions would be made. Try Your Approach. Only through trial and (sometimes) error can you strengthen your weak points when communicating. Success and failure lets you know what your weak points might be in communicating what you need to say. Remember the result of what you say. Monitor the result of what you say. Do not hesitate to change your wording or timing from time to time in order to improve your results.

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Sub-topic: Communication Skills, Part 4 Of 5

Article Content: Be Ready. Answer questions promptly and let the other person know you are eager to help. Don't put people off and make them wait to get answers. Answering questions, as questions come up, let's people know you are listening and you regard their thoughts. Not answering questions antagonizes people and can communicate to others you think poorly of the other person. Listen. Pay attention and, if possible, take notes on what the other person says. The facts the other person gives will help you be convincing later on. Listen to how others respond to your words. Pay attention to how others respond to what you say. Keep your emotions out of your assessments. Keep your emotions out of your listening. Visualize The Needs Of The Other Person. Talk the other person's language. Try to see things from the other person's point of view. When you communicate, communicate in the others person's language and communicate from their point of view. The other person will then know what you are saying and will respect what you say when you communicate from their point of view.

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Sub-topic: Communication Skills, Part 5 Of 5

Article Content: Be Alert To Hidden Needs. Listen for hidden needs the other person may not directly express. Listen for hidden needs the other person may not realize are present. Tactful questioning will help the other person crystallize unexpressed needs. Getting unexpressed needs out where the needs can be addressed gives you an opportunity to connect the benefits of your recommended action. Emphasize Bargains. Bargains are not just monetary matters at the discount store. There are many kinds of bargains in life. Showing the other person how they can benefit or "save" will help the other person make an important decision to move in your favor. Few people can resist a bargain. Ask For A Commitment. Be aware of the other person's readiness to make a decision. Do not try to convince a person who is ready to decide in your favor. Don't be afraid to ask for a commitment. At some point in a conversation where you need someone to make a decision or a commitment, ask for a commitment. Do not be afraid of a "No" answer. Assure the other person they have the power to make a decision, to make a change, or to take your course of action. Show Appreciation. Leave the other person with a friendly feeling whether he or she makes a commitment or not. A pleasant encounter will keep a friend or make a friend. Showing appreciation by saying "Thank You" will pave the way for future contacts and follow-up.

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Sub-topic: Speaking To One Another

Article Content: Speak in everyday language to yourself, to others, and to God. Speak in regular words even when there are spiritual worlds you share with others. Our ability to speak the truth in everyday language about the gospel is a gauge of maturity. Do not try to use your words as a weapon but only as an instrument of love, caring, kindness, and forgiveness.

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Sub-topic: Speaking Up, Speaking Out

Article Content: If you have been required by any life circumstance to keep quiet about any kind of persecution, attack, or victimization from any source you must speak out to someone about this event. To tell yourself God knows and God knowing is all that matters is fine as far as it goes. The trials of Christ's life should be a lesson for all of us. Christ's trials could have been made known only to God, but the darkness and evil perpetrating these trials upon Jesus would have won a huge victory if no one had ever known what the evil did to our beloved Savior. Even if we have been the victim of an attack, or we have been persecuted, or we have been victimized, we must still realize these things are of Satan and need the Light of exposure. To speak out about the evil done to us, to speak out about the evil done to others, or speak out about what we can presently do, is mandatory for our civilization to continue to exist and our personal lives to remain intact.

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# Chapter 12: Communion

Sub-topic: Communion

Article Content: We exhibit our passion for Christ in Holy Communion. When we observe Holy Communion in the church our observance requires us to be quiet and listen to God's voice. When we wish to have communion with God during our daily walk we are also required to be quiet and listen to God's voice. If God spoke to you, could you hear him? Some will say God hasn't done anything, said anything, or reacted to them. Maybe they and maybe you have been talking to Him and not listening to Him. Maybe you haven't given Him the chance to get through to your heart because you are too busy talking instead of listening. If you think He is listening but not doing for you, maybe God is not doing for you because you can do whatever needs done yourself. How many of the problems and requests on your prayer list could you do something about if you were really pressed to the wall? Sometimes there is no true communion between you and God because you go your way, regardless of what Christ wants from you. There is a separation between God and man and this separation causes a communication breakdown. For some people, prayer is like talking to the wall. In a time of communion with God, there is something deep, personal, and mountain-moving going on between you and God. Communion is where we know and feel His presence in our life. Communion is a time when we are alive in Him and He is alive in us. Communion is a time when we have an active relationship with Him

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Sub-topic: Communion And Remembrance

Article Content: Christians honor Christ by celebrating communion or the Lord's Supper. We participate in communion not just because communion is a ritual and commanded of us by Christ, but because we have not forgotten. We come to the Lord's Table in reverence and humility because of the sacrifice Christ made for us. We celebrate communion as an act of solemn worship because Jesus paid such a dear price for each of us. As we take the bread and wine into ourselves, we take part of Christ into our heart. He becomes a part of us and we remember Him. During communion, we remember His teachings, and we strive to live His teaching out moment by moment. We remember His life, and we are humbled. We remember His crucifixion, and we know we are guilty of His death on the cross. We remember by His grace, we are forgiven. We remember His death, the darkest moment in human history. We remember He rose from the dead, the brightest moment in human history. We remember He bore our sins on the cross, and we are convicted because of our guilt. We remember He forgives us of our sins, and we feel His love and the freedom His brings. We remember He has prepared a place for us in heaven, and we have a hope for the future in eternity. We remember He speaks to our heart, and we strain to listen to His voice. We remember we are blessed in uncountable ways because of Him. We praise His name above all names. We remember we are small and frail, and need His love. He strengthens us. We remember we fail, we sin, we make mistakes, and we are humbled. We remember He washes us as white as snow by His blood shed for us. We remember so we can rededicate our life to His service. We remember so we can more fully care for each other, love each other, and share with each other as members of His family.

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Sub-topic: Communion In Prayer I

Article Content: Communion in prayer is a way of living with God. Communion in prayer is a way to have God alive and vibrant inside of you. Never needing to get your prayers answered is a miraculous power associated with communion in prayer. Communion in prayer is a time when there is a continual exchange or interchange between you and God. This interchange between you and God means He is fully present with you and you are fully present with Him. Communion in prayer requires you do four things. 1. Fully accept Christ into your heart and life as your Savior and Lord. 2. Love Christ for dying for you on the cross. 3. Dedicate your life to Him. 4. Live in His grace through faith at all times. In doing these four things, you can begin to share your prayer life with Him in a time of communion between His spirit and your spirit. In this communion of spirit in your prayer time, you must fully understand you cannot force God to do something. You cannot force God to do anything no matter how much you try. Instead of trying to force God to do something like answering your prayer, you can, in your communion in prayer, share your life with Him. Communion in prayer means your relationship with God in your prayer time is:

●A time of joy rather than a time of burden

●A time of spontaneity rather than a time of dry and mechanical action

●A time of finding strength from God rather than a time when you are drained

●A time when you want to pray rather than a time when you feel you have to pray

●A time when you live in a spirit of giving to God rather than taking a shopping list to Him to get what you want

●A time of glory because you want to be with Him not because you want something from Him

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Sub-topic: Communion In Prayer II

Article Content: Our prayer time is a time of communion with God. Our prayer time is a time we make our needs known. Prayer time is a time of spiritual contemplation. Prayer time is a time to inform God of what we want. Time of prayer is a time of sharing our innermost thoughts, feelings, hopes, and dreams with God. When we pray, we announce to God our desires. When we pray, we attempt as much as possible to bring a harmony between our will and His will. When we pray, we try to make our will go in the same direction as His will. Prayer time is a time when we apprise God of what is going on in our life. The hour of prayer is a time of moving our spirit with His spirit. Our special prayer time of communion with God is a time to tell God our secrets. Our prayer time is a time of bringing His mind and our mind into one accord. During prayer, we seek to only have one mind with God, one heart with God, and one soul with God. Oneness with Christ is always the objective in prayer but oneness is sometimes difficult to achieve. Yet, even in the difficulty of achieving true oneness, God wants us to tell Him of the difficulty and not pretend the difficulty does not exist. As we approach prayer time and our oneness in our communion with Christ, we come to be in agreement with Him about what is important and what is valuable in our life. In prayer, we convey our heartaches to Him and we convey our love for Him. Prayer time is also a time for us to open our heart to Him so we may receive His love for us. Prayer time is a time when we and God can truly be together. In prayer, we are free and open and can disclose our plans to God. Prayer is a time when God can express His sympathy toward us and we can understand Him. In prayer, we can learn to care for others. In prayer, we can divulge our sins. In divulging our sins, we can express our sorrow and receive His forgiveness. In our communion time with God, there can be free flowing ideas, free flowing feelings, and free flowing thoughts. Our special time with God each day is a time we can reveal our innermost thoughts to Him. In our communion in prayer time, we can contemplate the deepest questions and meditate on His greatest wonders.

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Sub-topic: Communion Of Love

Article Content: When we think about the word "communion" we normally think about the Easter season because the first Holy Communion, as we observe Holy Communion in the church, was observed at the Last Supper. However, our celebration of Holy Communion must not only be a taking in of wine and bread, but must also be a communion of love between us and Christ. At every moment, we are to be in communion with God and with His love. For example, Christmas is much more joyous than Easter because we are celebrating a birth without the horror of the cross overshadowing our remembrance. In our quiet time just, we might want to think there was a holy stillness covering the whole earth upon the appearance of our Lord. However, the reality was probably something quite different. The reality of the immediate impact of Christ's birth upon the world was probably quite minimal. The day of Christ's birth was most likely just another normal day for all those people in the world who knew nothing of Christ or for those people who received no special message from God about Him. Upon the appearance of Christ, if the world had fully and completely known what was happening, the world might not have been a normal place, but a place where all people in every country would have stopped and celebrated by participating in a communion of love with God.

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Sub-topic: Complacency

Article Content: Complacency is the work of Satan. Satan tells people they don't need to spread the gospel. Satan tells people they don't need to be involved. Satan tells people they don't need to go to church. Satan tells people they have too many problems to be in church. Satan tells people things are OK as they are. But for us to accept things are OK as they are is to accept a lie. Things are not OK in the world. In many parts of the world, things are coming unglued. When we become complacent we become the handiwork of Satan.

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# Chapter 13: Confusion

Sub-topic: In Times Of Confusion

Article Content: There are going to be times in your life when you are confused. There are many circumstances in life when we truly don't know what to do. Many times we are left hanging in mid-air with no signs to guide us. We often have to make a decision, we don't have enough facts, and we have no way of finding the facts. In your times of confusion, when all your choices seem to be bad ones, Jesus is with you. Jesus will lead you even if you don't know where you are going. The prophet Isaiah talks about being led when we are blind. Isaiah said... Isaiah 42:16 I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.

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# Chapter 14: Control

Sub-topic: Control In Life

Article Content: Much of life comes at us and we think we have limited control. Sometimes our life seems to be out of control.

●A million refugees are driven out of their homes.

●Six million Jews die in a Nazi death machine.

●The doctor says, "I'm sorry, there isn't anything we can do."

●Jobs are lost.

●Time slips away and we find out it is too late to do or be whatever it was we wanted to do or be. However, maybe life is not always what it seems. Maybe there is more going on around us and through us than we can imagine. Jesus tells us there is more going on around us than what we see, hear, or touch. Jesus tells us there we have a storehouse in heaven. What the storehouse contains is up to us. We control what we store away. We cannot put things of earth in this warehouse in heaven, but we can put the things of heaven there. Where your treasure is your heart is. Notice what we store away goes before our heart. Jesus says we must be actively storing away at all times.

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Sub-topic: Inner Control

Article Content: There may be circumstances outside of yourself in your life taking a long time to change or fix. There are many outside circumstances not under our control. A few examples of outside circumstances not under our control would be war, weather, earthquakes, and economic depression just to name a few. Too often we let outside circumstances dictate our inside world. We must remember the kingdom of God is within. When we focus our thoughts on the fact the kingdom of God is within, then all the "within" responses we make can be controlled, handled, and made productive. What happens on the inside of us should never be controlled by what is outside. We must also remember how we react on the inside of us is what determines how we glorify God.

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Sub-topic: Possession Means Control

Article Content: When you possess and own your life then you control it. When the circumstances of your life possess you, then the circumstances are in control. The lesson here is to possess your life instead of letting life possess you. In every way, you must strive to possess the circumstances of your life. If you possess the circumstances of your life, you can then dedicate all of your life to God. You can surrender up your life to God if you have possession of your life first. If you do not possess your life and own your life, everything you say, think, and do is only a reaction. Control in life or control over life happens when we stop being reactive and start being proactive. You can make extensive plans, but unless you have possession of circumstances and control circumstances, you will not be able to implement the plans without possession and control over all the elements of your plan or your life.

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Sub-topic: What We Control

Article Content: In a world full of chaos, we all have some control. In a world full of chaos, we have much more control than we think. If we are willing to accept the idea we have control over our heart, mind, and soul, then we can control where our heart goes, where our mind goes, and where our soul goes. If we let our heart, mind, and soul control us then anything falling into our heart, mind, and soul can turn us in any direction. If we think of selfish things and selfish thoughts come into our heart, mind, and soul, we will reap the sad rewards of always thinking of ourselves. However, if we put unselfishness into our life and we put unselfish thoughts into our heart, mind, and soul, then we reap the blessings from God by putting unselfishness into our life. Although selfishness and unselfishness are not characteristics in our physical world, selfishness and unselfishness are things in the world of our heart, mind, and soul. The point is we have control over our heart, mind, and soul if we want control. If we chose to control what is in our heart, mind, and soul, then we have control over our life. No matter what happens outside of us, we still have the ability to control what goes on inside of us. Inside of us, we can talk with God every second, even if we cannot see Him or we cannot talk to Him in words with out mouth.

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# Chapter 15: Costs

Sub-topic: Costs And Benefits

Article Content: In our world and in our present reality, misfortune falls on everyone at some point. In our present reality there is a cost to sinning. Conversely, there is a benefit to living a right or righteous life. In our world, those persons who live in sin bring more misfortune upon themselves than do those who maintain a life of righteousness or right living. The wages of sin is not only death in the body but also death in the soul. Sin brings trauma in a person's life. No matter how much the sinners of the world want to cover up this fact or paper this fact over, sin has a cost. The terrible tragedy regarding the cost of sin is that sin reaches out and hurts or destroys persons who may not have committed a particular sin in the first place. A father or a mother who commit adultery in their marriage immeasurably hurt the spouse and children in the marriage. When we look at who is hurt in this instance, the lives of the children are damaged by someone else's sin. Sin has a cost. Righteousness has a benefit.

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# Chapter 16: Courage

Sub-topic: Courage To Speak Out

Article Content: To come forward and speak out about the private tortures of your life takes courage. Courage to speak out is required because one of the greatest weapons of the darkness is fear and anxiety. Organized crime has existed in the United States and around the world for over a century because organized crime uses fear and anxiety as a tool to keep people silent. Satan uses fear and anxiety to keep you quiet so Satan can continue to kill, maim, hurt, and destroy. Indeed, if we all knew about all the darkness of the world then the world as we know it might crumble from the weight of the shock. However, out of the crumbled world, we could rebuild a new and better world. In your life, you may falsely believe your immediate world may crumble if you tell the whole truth, but with God, all things are possible. With God and Christ within you, you can have the courage to expose the truth.

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Chapter 17: Crisis

Sub-topic: How A Crisis Weakens Us And Blinds Us

Article Content: Our relationship with God is not only tested in a crisis because we can have only a one-way relationship during the crisis. During a crisis, we do not always "feel spiritual." Be prepared to not "feeling spiritual" during a crisis. If you know ahead of time what to expect when darkness falls upon you, then you can prepare your heart, mind, and life to withstand the beating a crisis can put upon your faith and upon your life.

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Sub-topic: How We Survive A Time Of Crisis

Article Content:

●1. We pray

●2. We spend time together

●3. We voice mutual needs

●4. We share the stress of devastation from the crisis with others

●5. We hold each other accountable for our behavior during the crisis

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Sub-topic: Preparing For A Crisis

Article Content: A crisis is a time of being totally uprooted with all of your normal ties cut off from the world. Examples of a crisis:

●New baby

●Job lost

●Career change

●Kids leaving home

●Growing older

●Sickness

●Death of a loved one

●Disaster from weather, war, or terrorist attack

●Loss of home When we are immersed in a crisis, all the old threads tying us to each other and to our surroundings are cut off. We feel helpless, hopeless, and as if we have no "lifeline" to anchor us down. However, just knowing the facts about what we experience in a crisis is a huge advantage. Another advantage is to plan ahead for a time of crisis even if a crisis does not appear on the horizon. If you plan ahead extensively enough, when things begin to unravel you will have a plan in place from your planning efforts. During a crisis, we often do not have the resources to make a plan, to make decisions, and to sort through much of what we have to confront at the time of the event. So plan ahead, plan ahead, plan ahead.

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Sub-topic: Symptoms Of A Crisis

Article Content: You are in a crisis...

●If you are doing things you know are wrong.

●If you are doing things you can't stop doing.

●If you are doing things you can't help doing.

●If you are doing things you can't control.

●If you need help but don't know what to do.

●If you are responding to another person in ways you know are not right.

●If you are responding to another person in hurtful ways.

●If, within yourself, you are hurting beyond belief.

●If anything in your life resembling a normal (inner or outer) life does not exist.

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# Chapter 18: Darkness

Sub-topic: A Fix For All The World's Problems

Article Content: Our lives are plagued by problems, adversities, and challenges which often seem never to end. In many cases we can adjust to and work around our adversities. We can even get a cure for what ails us in our life. We could even get a cure for what ails everyone in the world. However, what would be changed if all the problems and ails of the world would suddenly be made to go away? Would there be no more war or would war come again? Would there be no more poverty or would poverty reappear? Would there be no more pain or would pain come again? Would there be no more darkness or would darkness come again? Tragically, even if we solved all of the world's problems today, tomorrow the old reasons for the present problems would begin eating away at us and all the problems would return. The old problems would return because what the world does not need is a quick fix to problems. What the world needs is a permanent fix for our hearts and souls from the hand of God...the hand of God delivering His healing Light...the hand of God seeking to touch us with His Love. This hand of God, this hand full of so much love, did come to us, but we nailed this hand to the cross in the most tragic crime we have ever committed.

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Sub-topic: Attacking The Darkness

Article Content: We must not be deceived. We must not be misled. We must know and live the truth. The truth is this. The darkness is our enemy. The darkness is our opponent. To be victorious over this opponent we must see the opponent, recognize the opponent, and take action against it. We must fully understand we are in mortal combat against the darkness. Consequently, we must attack the darkness. The starting point of our victory in life is where our soul and spirit rests. If our soul and spirit rests in the material matter of this world, then our soul and spirit rests in the darkness upon what will rot and decay. If our soul and spirit rests upon our unchanging God, then we have the capacity to not only attack the darkness but to win out over the darkness. When we choose good over evil, we are defeating the darkness. When we seek wisdom to know the difference between good and evil, that knowledge and wisdom can give us armament against our opponent...our opponent called Satan who seeks both our spiritual and physical destruction.

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Sub-topic: Deeds Of Darkness

Article Content: The darkness and evil of the world hates the Light because when the Light is turned on, the darkness disappears. We are not just talking about the physics of light and darkness. We are talking about good and evil. A criminal does not want the criminal deeds exposed not only because the criminal does not want to get caught, but also because the criminal does not want the weight of carrying the guilt. Whenever evil does a deed in darkness and the deed stays in darkness then the evil is permitted to keep on doing evil things because no one knows about the deed. This is simple logic but logic is not a friend of the darkness. Darkness despises logic.

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Sub-topic: How The Darkness Makes Us Lonely

Article Content: The darkness makes us build walls between others and ourselves. When the darkness comes into our life, we are living as if we are in a dark room and we cannot see the people or the world around us. The darkness in our life cuts us off from the other people, places, and things in our life. Pain and suffering cuts us off from others. Issues, problems, mistakes, worries, self-centeredness, or relationship problems are all a form of the darkness. This darkness cuts us off from others. To remedy being cut off, we need to open ourselves to receiving. When we are in the darkness, we need to open our heart to receive love from others, receive love from God, receive ideas to lift us up, and most of all, receive the essence of life we call hope. When we are in the darkness, hope changes everything. Hope in the darkness brings the light and love of God into our heart.

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Sub-topic: What The Darkness Tries To Do To Us

Article Content: Isolation, the isolation we commonly call loneliness, is from the darkness. Of all the trials, tribulations, and dark times we must experience in life, the one common experience all persons who are attacked by the darkness experience isolation. The darkness tries to cut us off from God. The darkness tries to cut us off from the power of God. Sometimes, the darkness is successful in cutting us off or isolating us. However, we are not helpless against the attack of the darkness. When we are in pain or deep in suffering, the attack by Satan upon us is intense. However, in our isolation from God, we can pray and rest in the presence of God. Our prayers are always heard by God. God always acts on our prayers. The darkness may blind us to God and His power. The darkness may try to put doubts in our mind about whether God hears us or responds to our prayers. The darkness may put questions about God into our mind we cannot answer, giving us reason to doubt. However, no matter how the darkness attacks us, we can use all we have to fight back in the spiritual war in which we are engaged. When we fight back against satanic evil, God sees we have a heart for Him and He comes to us. Then we are not isolated from Him any more.

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# Chapter 19: Death

Sub-topic: Beyond Death

Article Content: Unknowns in life are everywhere. We live with unknowns every day. Anything can happen to us...anything from accidents, good fortune, or hurtful mistakes. The worst thing to happen to us is death...whether it be our death or the death of others. Before Jesus came to earth, mankind could not see past death. In many ways, we still cannot see past death. We hear people recount their near-death experiences or NDEs, but we still know very little about what we will experience beyond our last breath. However, we do know some things. We know we can survive death in our spirit. We know we have the ability to reach Heaven. We know the decision we make to accept Christ into our heart and life assures us of His promise of living with Him for eternity.

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Sub-topic: Beyond The Last Moment

Article Content: Before Jesus came to earth, humanity could not see past death. In many ways, we still cannot see past death. We get reports about the after-life. We hear people recount their near-death experiences or NDEs, but we still know very little about what we will experience beyond our last breath. We have no power over death. We cannot change death. Death happens to everyone. Death is the great leveler of humanity. Every human will face an end. If we look at death only in a secular way, death is a terrible tragedy for the person who dies as well as for friends and loved ones of the deceased. However, as a Christian, you can see beyond death. As a Christian, you can see glory beyond the last moment of this life.

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Sub-topic: Death

Article Content: Death may be simply defined as the termination of life. It is represented under a variety of aspects in Scripture: (1.) "The dust shall return to the earth as it was" (Eccl. 12:7). (2.) "Thou takest away their breath, they die" (Ps. 104:29). (3.) It is the dissolution of "our earthly house of this tabernacle" (2 Cor. 5:1); the "putting off this tabernacle" (2 Pet. 1:13, 14). (4.) Being "unclothed" (2 Cor. 5:3, 4). (5.) "Falling on sleep" (Ps. 76:5; Jer. 51:39; Acts 13:36; 2 Pet. 3:9. (6.) "I go whence I shall not return" (Job 10:21); "Make me to know mine end" (Ps. 39:4); "to depart" (Phil. 1:23). The grave is represented as "the gates of death" (Job 38:17; Ps. 9:13; 107:18). The gloomy silence of the grave is spoken of under the figure of the "shadow of death" (Jer. 2:6). Death is the effect of sin (Heb. 2:14), and not a "debt of nature." It is but once (9:27), universal (Gen. 3:19), necessary (Luke 2:28-30). Jesus has by his own death taken away its sting for all his followers (1 Cor. 15:55-57). There is a spiritual death in trespasses and sins, i.e., the death of the soul under the power of sin (Rom. 8:6; Eph. 2:1, 3; Col. 2:13). The "second death" (Rev. 2:11) is the everlasting perdition of the wicked (Rev. 21:8), and "second" in respect to natural or temporal death. THE DEATH OF CHRIST is the procuring cause incidentally of all the blessings men enjoy on earth. But specially it is the procuring cause of the actual salvation of all his people, together with all the means that lead thereto. It does not make their salvation merely possible, but certain (Matt. 18:11; Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 1:4; 3:13; Eph. 1:7; 2:16; Rom. 8:32-35). Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries Fair Use. Presented for educational purposes only.

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Sub-topic: Death Has No Sting

Article Content: If Christ had not died and come back, He would probably have been considered a wise man. His wise teachings might have survived. His tragic figure on the Cross might have been memorialized. But there was something different about this man Jesus. He defeated death. He died and was dead for three days. He didn't just die for a few minutes and have a near death experience. He was not just brain dead. He really was, really dead. Because Jesus came back from death, Easter is a celebration of victory. Because of Jesus, death has no sting.

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Sub-topic: Death Is Not the End

Article Content: Death is not the end although most people think so. Everyone is wrong. Our spiritual world is not flat. The truth is we are all dying. Our days are numbered. Every day we live, we have one less day to do the will of God. However, death is not the end, but the beginning. Death can be the start, not the end. Death can mean light not darkness. Death can bring the power of love around us, not the absence of love. Death can be warm, not cold. Death can be safety, not danger. In many ways we are blind to blind to God and his love. We cannot see over the horizon so the earth looks flat. In this life we cannot see beyond the grave, so death looks like the end. However, Jesus said no, that death is not the end, and He not only said it, He proved it. What death becomes for you is up to you and the decision you make for Christ.

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Sub-topic: Eternal Death

Article Content: Eternal death refers to the miserable fate of the wicked in hell (Matt. 25:46; Mark 3:29; Heb. 6:2; 2 Thess. 1:9; Matt. 18:8; 25:41; Jude 1:7). The Scripture as clearly teaches the unending duration of the penal sufferings of the lost as the "everlasting life," the "eternal life" of the righteous. The same Greek words in the New Testament (aion, aionios, aidios) are used to express (1) the eternal existence of God (1 Tim. 1:17; Rom. 1:20; 16:26); (2) of Christ (Rev. 1:18); (3) of the Holy Ghost (Heb. 9:14); and (4) the eternal duration of the sufferings of the lost (Matt. 25:46; Jude 1:6). Their condition after casting off the mortal body is spoken of in these expressive words: "Fire that shall not be quenched" (Mark 9:45, 46), "fire unquenchable" (Luke 3:17), "the worm that never dies," the "bottomless pit" (Rev. 9:1), "the smoke of their torment ascending up for ever and ever" (Rev. 14:10, 11). The idea that the "second death" (Rev. 20:14) is in the case of the wicked their absolute destruction, their annihilation, has not the slightest support from Scripture, which always represents their future as one of conscious suffering enduring for ever. The supposition that God will ultimately secure the repentance and restoration of all sinners is equally unscriptural. There is not the slightest trace in all the Scriptures of any such restoration. Sufferings of themselves have no tendency to purify the soul from sin or impart spiritual life. The atoning death of Christ and the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit are the only means of divine appointment for bringing men to repentance. Now in the case of them that perish these means have been rejected, and "there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins" Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries Fair Use. Presented for educational purposes only.

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Sub-topic: No Death

Article Content: We say people die. We say people have passed away. We say people have met their end. We say someone is gone. We are only half-right. Our bodies quit working. It seems we go to sleep. On the surface, whatever life is, life seems to have left the person or the person's body. On the surface, that is. However, there are things we cannot see. There are places invisible to us. In truth, life does not stop, and will not stop if we accept Christ. When someone dies, people say they have passed away. True, our body may stop working but we do not. In Christ, the person who laughs and cries does not die. In Christ, the person who has memories does not just disappear. In Christ, the person who has hopes and dreams stays alive.

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Sub-topic: Propelled Into Paradise

Article Content: Unknowns in life are everywhere. We live with unknowns every day. Anything can happen to us. Anything from accidents, good fortune, or heart-breaking mistakes can hurt us. The worst thing to happen to us is death...whether the death be our death or the death of others. However, as a Christian, the worst thing happening to us propels us into the best place in all reality...eternal Paradise.

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Sub-topic: The Last Hour

Article Content: You will at your last hour want to be able to see over the horizon of death's darkness. At your last hour of life, you most certainly will want to see Jesus waiting for you with open arms. However, you do not know when your last hour will be. Your last hour may come at any minute. A nuclear war or a natural disaster can strike at any time. A drunk driver may take your life tomorrow. Today is not just the first day of the rest of your life; today can be the first day of your eternity in Paradise or hell, depending upon your decision. Decide now. Accept Christ into your life and heart right now. He is calling you this minute. He has been calling you but you have not listened. In spite of the great horror of His crucifixion you put upon Him, He forgives you. He loves you dearly. He loves you more than any words can express.

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Sub-topic: The Outcome Of Death

Article Content: On the surface, it seems foolish to address the issue of the outcome of death. We all know, or at least we think we know, the outcome of death. We think we know the outcome of death is death. However, if we think the outcome of death is death, we are wrong. For the outcome of death is not death. The outcome of death can be eternal life in Heaven or eternal life in outer darkness. Specifically, now is the time when you determine the outcome of your death. After you die, it will be too late to determine what happens to you. Like many other parts of life, you hold the keys to your future. You hold the keys to your future and you determine what will happen to you after you die. You determine in this life where you are going to spend eternity. Your responsibility is to make a decision about where you want to spend eternity. You can spend eternity in the outer darkness of hell or you can spend eternity in the light of God's love in Heaven. When you do not respond to the love of God, or when you do not respond to the reason God sent Christ to die for you, not responding God's gift in Christ is the same thing as turning your back on Christ. Refusing to let your heart be touched by God in this life has an eternal consequence. You can shirk your responsibility connected to your future. However, there are no excuses will work with God. God knows all of the excuses. God has heard all of the excuses. He also knows what you have seen, heard, and experienced. He knows the pain, problems, and burdens you have carried. Although you may have excuses or even reasons to turn your back on God, God will never turn His back on you. In maturity, you are to love God back as much as He loves you.

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Sub-topic: The Perfect Ending

Article Content: If we were going to write a story about a person's life and we wanted a perfect ending, there would be no ending. There would be no death, no passing away, no end. Instead of death or an end to a person's life story, there would be instead of an end, there would be a new beginning. In the perfect ending of the story about a person's life, there would be a transformation of the person. In a story with a perfect ending, the person would keep what they call themselves, but they would be able to cast off their old human body for a new body. They would have a new body made so the body would never grow old, or weak, or sick, or infirm. In our story, the person would get a transformed body, a body made to be indestructible and imperishable...a body forever young...a body that cannot be hurt or injured...a body staying perfect forever and ever. Our story is a true story, a perfect ending, a story you can make as the story of your eternity.

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Sub-topic: What If I Find Out I Am Going To Die?

Article Content: What if I am not cured of a life-threatening disease? What if I must face my own death? We must all face facts. Whether we want to face the fact of our imminent death is the central issue in asking any question about whether we will get our cure to keep us from death. For if we get our cure to keep us from death, we must all realize our cure is only temporary. Sooner or later all the cures and fixes for every condition, every malady, and every adversity run out. Sooner or later we must all face the fact there is no cure for death. However, facing the fact of our imminent death does help us. Facing our imminent death gives us a chance to see the Light at the end of the tunnel. Facing our imminent death gives us a chance to find the Light of the world who easily erases our prospect of death. If we are not cured, and face our death, and we know for sure we will soon die, in our faith, we will still be OK. As Christians, at the end and in the end, we will find eternal peace, joy, and happiness in Heaven. Our present anxiety over our present adversity can always be soothed if we understand we never see much of the big picture in life. For if we saw the whole picture of our present life, including our eternal life, our present life would be barely noticeable in the infinite length of time we spend in Heaven. When we see the whole picture of both our earthly life and our eternal life, we can be content with our physical death. However, we do need to be content with not always getting or receiving the answers we want when we want them. Most of the time we do not know for sure about adversity, about its reasons, about its causes, its outcomes, and God's designs in adversity. What we do know for sure in our faith is how God loves us enough to give us an opportunity to live forever and be free of the plagues, ills, and adversities of this earthly life.

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Chapter 20: Decisions

Sub-topic: Making Judgments

Article Content: Before we make judgment's about who will be going to heaven and who won't be, we need to remember none of us walk in another person's shoes. We know very little about the life of the people we think we know well. We know very little about what they pray about or even if they pray, unless they tell us. Even if the people we are closest to tell us about their faith, what they believe, and about their religious life, we still could not begin to imagine all they hold inside of themselves. Many people are very private about their faith. Our job is to love others unconditionally and not make judgments about them. God is to judge, not us.

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Sub-topic: Managing The Physical And The Spiritual

Article Content: Every person's life contains both a physical and a spiritual component. We are to take charge of the physical and surrender the spiritual. The physical and the spiritual are not separate and isolated from one another. The spiritual overlaps the physical. The physical and spiritual can be blended together with determination and faith on your part. The spiritual is God's province, and the physical is your province. A deep and abiding faith in God is vital when you need to handle the physical part of your life. Faith is needed because the physical part of your life if full of trials and adversity.

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# Chapter 21: Defend

Sub-topic: How We Defend Ourselves

Article Content: Defense mechanisms are part of our personality. Defense mechanisms are ways we use to preserve our self-esteem and self-worth. Defense mechanisms work through mental adjustments we make in our environment. Defense mechanisms help us escape recognition of personal qualities or motives which might lower our self-esteem or heighten our anxiety. In more laymen's terms, our defense mechanisms: A. Distort reality in one way or another B. Are self-deceptive and are used by normal people in everyday behavior. They are helpful towards adjustment if used appropriately and in moderation. Maladjustment comes about when defense mechanisms are dominant modes of problem solving. Defense mechanisms are generally only labels of ongoing behavior and do not explain what causes the behavior. The causes of behavior spring from the needs of the individual exhibiting the behavior. To find a cause for a behavior we must analyze a person's needs.

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# Chapter 22: Denial

Sub-topic: Examples Of Denial

Article Content: Examples of denial are presented here not so you will use these examples but so you will be able to identify forms of denial within your thinking and within your emotional responses. Here are some examples: "This isn't happening to me." "Oh no, not me." "Everything will be all right." "It will all go away." "I really don't have a problem." "Don't think about it and it will go away." "It isn't my fault, it is _____'s fault." "Things just didn't work out." "I messed up." There are opposites of these thoughts or there are additional thoughts a responsible person will want to tag onto the end of these statements. Here are some examples of more constructive ways of thinking. "This isn't happening to me" becomes..."These things are happening to me but I know I can find a way to handle or deal with things." "Oh no, not me" becomes..."Yes, it is happening to me but I have confidence and assurance through God who strengthens me." "Everything will be all right" becomes..."Everything will not be alright but I know I can find a way to live again and live productively in spite of what has happened." "It will all go away" becomes..."It will all not go away but I know God has given me the power and the authority to deal with the way things are and to make something very good out of something very bad." "I really don't have a problem" becomes..."I recognize I have a problem and I take full responsibility for finding and implementing a solution." "Don't think about it and it will go away" becomes..."I will think about this problem or issue and I will find solutions while I make choices to deal with this problem or issue." "It isn't my fault, it is _____'s fault" becomes..."It is my fault. I take full responsibility." "Things just didn't work out" becomes..."Things did not work out because I made mistakes. I will not repeat these mistakes again." "I messed up" becomes..."I messed up but I know what I did wrong, I will fix the mistake, and I will not make the same mistake again."

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Sub-topic: How We Get Out Of Denial

Article Content: The truth has power in our life only when we are able to admit to and know the truth. However, we often find it difficult to face the truth. Our life is often easier to live in denial of the truth, at least until our denial of the truth begins to erode our abilities to function effectively in our daily life. How do we face the truth? How do we face what we inwardly know is a fact or circumstance full of pain? We face the truth by opening our mind up to the possibility of our not facing the truth. When we admit maybe, just maybe, what we think is true may not be true, we then open the door for truth to become victorious in our life. When we keep the door of our mind and heart closed to the truth, we cannot even test what we believe to be true to see if our belief holds up to be valid. Denial of the truth may not hurt us in the short-run. However, denial of the truth will certainly hurt us in the long run. When we open our mind and heart up to the possibility maybe things are not what we perceive or believe them to be, then we can begin to sort through our thoughts. We can also sort through our attitudes, and our beliefs. When we can sort through our thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs while admitting things may not be as we think, we then have the chance to grow in power and grow in wisdom.

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Sub-topic: Living In Ignorance And Denial

Article Content: We do not have the luxury of living in ignorance and denial about any part of our life. We do not have this luxury because ignorance and denial lead to colossal failures in relationships, failures in performance, and failures in all aspects of life. When we pretend we DO NOT know during times when we really DO know, we set our relationships and our life up for grievous mistakes. It is commonly recognized the truth can hurt. What is commonly forgotten is the hurt we put upon ourselves and the hurt we put upon others by ignorance and denial is far greater than the hurt we feel from knowing the truth. When we live in ignorance and denial we keep ourselves from living in the beauty and grandeur of truth, even when the truth hurts. When we live in ignorance and denial we put ourselves in a prison from which there is no escape except telling the truth. The truth sets us free. Ignorance and denial enslave us. The very first step in overcoming obstacles and adversities is to tell the truth about the obstacles and adversities. When we deny there are problems or issues in our life then the problems or issues never get solved. Personal victory comes only to those willing to face the truth. Personal defeat is guaranteed to those who live in ignorance and denial.

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# Chapter 23: Depression

Sub-topic: Dealing With Depression

Article Content: You may not just snap out of depression. Dealing with or getting rid of depression takes more than an act like just snapping your fingers. Here are suggestions on what you can do when you are depressed. The list is not complete. You may have to find your own way and develop your own recipe.

●Pray

●Entertain yourself

●Get to work on your mission

●Banish Satan as much as you can

●Praise God every hour

●Count your blessings, name them one by one

●Worship God

●Touch God

●Praise others

●Touch others

●Join a support group

●Start a support group

●When you get low or down, remember your mission for God

●Remember Jesus is with you if you really want Him to be

●Remember His Holy Spirit is a helper

●See your doctor

●See other people

●Call your pastor

●Call a friend

●Call a family member

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Sub-topic: Depression

Article Content: Being depressed can be like having a bad pet you can't live with but you can't get rid of because no one else wants it. There are logical and reasonable reasons for depression.

●Perhaps you are sick or ill.

●Perhaps you have made mistakes and have to live with the consequences.

●Perhaps you are grieving and you cannot find a way out of the grief.

●Perhaps you have lost hope for no known reason.

When you are depressed, remember you have a true friend in Jesus who understands you more than any person you know. Remember His will for you is that you should be lifted up and that you should not suffer. Remember He has a job for you to do in life and wants you to do it. God wants you to grow your church, be His witness, and live life to the fullest extent possible. God's will is not for you to sit in the darkness of depression. God's will is for you to live without depression instead of living with it.

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Sub-topic: Facing Depression

Article Content: Turn a time of depression into a time of counting your blessings. Turn a time of depression into a time of creative outlet rather than a time of disabled hell. Turn a time of depression into a time of reaching out to others and producing goofiness.

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Sub-topic: What Does God Want You To Know In Depression?

Article Content: Depression means you feel like you are dead on the inside. In the depression of life, what does God want you to think, do, and feel? What does God want you to know about the uplifting power of His spirit when you are depressed? Sadness means your heart is crying. In the sad times of life, what does God want you to think, do, and feel? What does God want you to know about the power of His love when you are depressed? Loneliness means you feel like you are the only one in the world who knows what you are gong through. In the lonely times of life, what does God want you to think, do, and feel? What does God want you to know about His presence when you are lonely? Despair means you feel there is no hope and nothing matters. In the despair of life, what does God want you to think, do, and feel? What does God want you to know about His hope when you are in despair? Life is not fair. We are all dealt unfair blows against us, some from the time of our birth, others not until the very end of our life. In the unfairness of life, what does God want you to think, do, and feel? What does God want you to know about His justice in the unfairness of life? In the darkness of life we can feel full of resentment and anger over what life is or has done to us, but what does God want you to feel? What does God want you to know about being forgiving in the dark times of your life? Our responses to the darkness of our life can be rude behavior, lashing out, silence, closeting ourselves off, and self-hatred, but what does God want you to do? What does God want you to know about His peace in the dark times of your life? When dark times come, we too often look back and say "if only..." but what does God want you do to? What does God want you to know about your future when you want to look back and say "if only..."? The dark power wants you to think and feel you are the only one who has ever felt the way you do, but what does God want you to think and feel? What does God want you to know about His being with you and beside you? The dark power wants you to think and feel no one will ever understand, but what does God want you to think and feel? What does God want you to know about His understanding? The dark power wants you to think and feel no one can help, but what does God want you to think and feel? What does God want you to know about His willingness to help? What God wants from you and for you is love. Even if love seems unreachable in depression, God is pouring His love and His will into your heart every moment. God wants you to keep trying. Eventually, if you are patient with God and with yourself, He will show you the way and the truth of His love in all things, even in your depression.

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# Chapter 24: Desire

Sub-topic: Desire...The Hardest Questions Of Life

Article Content: When misfortune and terrible things happen to us we ask questions. Find answers in your heart, in your soul, in scripture, and in the mind and heart of God. Here are the hardest questions of life. We ask why did this misfortune happen? Is there a reason and a purpose for misfortune? Why did these things happen to me or to us? Am I singled out to be the victim of misfortune? How can a loving God allow or maybe even cause misfortune to happen? Can I control more of what happens to me than I want to believe? What can I control? Are misfortunes and terrible things more likely to happen to people who lead lives of sin or lives of obedience to God? Does it make any difference how I lead my life? Will God protect me if I lead a righteous life rather than a sinful life? What is the meaning of all this misfortune? Are we called upon to share the burdens of the weak? Can we share the burdens of the weak without their knowing about it? Does it benefit the weak if we share their burdens in prayer or anonymously and they don't know about our sharing? Is misfortune a test of faith and obedience? Does the Lord strengthen us for a greater purpose by bringing misfortune into our lives? Could the meaning and purpose of misfortune just be shrouded from us? Could it be God cannot work in our lives the way we demand or want Him to do? Would faith and love of Christ be necessary if He always gave us an answer to every question we ever asked? Could it be God has a certain procedure or method He must follow in order to work in our lives? Is it within our human power to take a terrible event and use the event to glorify God and his son Jesus Christ? We believe God will not forsake us, He will be beside us, around us, beneath us, behind us, before us, and within us...why then, doesn't He protect us from all the harm of life? The rain falls on the just and the unjust. Do those of us who have committed our lives to Christ and live lives of obedience have an advantage when the rain starts to fall?

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# Chapter 25: Destiny

Sub-topic: Fate And Life Events

Article Content: Is there such a thing as fate controlling the events of our life? Without a positive belief in a positive God, we end up believing we are at the whim of fate. Without a positive belief in a positive God, we live our life as if we are at the mercy of an unjust and unloving power or at the mercy of unjust or unloving persons. Worse yet, without a positive belief in a positive God, we end up believing we are at the whim of few organized events as we walk our road of life. With no belief in a positive God, we come to see ourselves as the true victims of any bad occurrence. With no belief in a positive God, we come to see ourselves as only the receivers of good fortune because of luck. In suffering, with no belief in a positive God, we see ourselves as victims. However, we are victims in life only if we consent to be the victims. With a positive belief in a positive God, we end up believing we control our fate no matter what happens to us. With a positive belief in a positive God, we live our life as if we are blessed by a just and loving power and are surrounded by just and loving persons. With a positive belief in a positive God, we end up believing we organize the events of our walk down the road of our life. With a belief in a positive God, we come to see ourselves as the true victors or winners over any bad occurrence. With a positive belief in a positive God, we come to see ourselves as the receivers of good fortune because of our own decision-making and the outpouring of Christ's blessings. In suffering, with a positive belief in a positive God, we see ourselves as victors not victims. If we had a childhood full of tragedy, we can still be a whole, healthy adult...if we choose to be a whole healthy adult and if we choose to hold a positive belief in a positive God. Our "fate" or destination in life is something we can determine on our own because we have the power to choose. We determine or choose how we will respond to the events of our life. We determine or choose how we respond to good fortune or misfortune. We determine or choose what happens to us in eternity by whether we accept Christ as Savior and Lord of our life.

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# Chapter 26: Disappointment

Sub-topic: Crushed Dreams

Article Content: An actor who finally gets a big break then finds out he has AIDS. A salesman lands the career-making account of a lifetime then finds out shortly thereafter the account collapsed due to the account company's bankruptcy. A disabled mother dreams things are going to get better, but then they don't. Dreams and lives get crushed. When these things happen, we have to make do with what we have. We have to use what God has given us at the time. When dreams get crushed, we have to take lemons and make lemonade. When your world falls apart what do you do? When everything you worked for and dreamed about comes crashing down, what do you do? When your business fails... When you are fired or lose your job... When you lose your home... When your child runs away and ends up in jail... When your marriage fails... Jesus knows what you are going through in these moments because He went through crushing moments as well. As He rode into Jerusalem, Jesus knew what was going to happen. Jesus knew His earthly ministry and His body would soon be crushed. When you go through crushing times, turn to Him, lean upon Him, talk to Him, learn from Him. Christ knows what your life is like in crushing times. For in Him, the lemons get squeezed into lemonade, and what you have gets used for Him in ways we call miraculous. Most importantly, because Jesus came back in victory, so can you.

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# Chapter 27: Doubt

Sub-topic: In Times Of Uncertainty

Article Content: There are going to be times in your life when you are uncertain. There are many times in life when we are not sure which way to turn. One way we know to turn is in the direction of Jesus because He will never forsake us or leave us. In times of our uncertainty, we need to listen to His voice inside of us, especially if we are not sure what to do. Keeping us unsure is a way Satan has of getting to us. However, the prophet Isaiah talks about the voice of God and how God can lead us. Isaiah says... Isaiah 30:21 whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." You are to listen to this voice, the actual voice of God inside of you when you are uncertain. Too often the world is so full of noise we cannot hear God's voice even when He might be yelling at us. When we are listening to His voice we can always find a way to do His will. He can find a way to make His will become manifest in any circumstance.

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Sub-topic: People Have Questions

Article Content: People have questions about God, and questions about what He does. Some of these questions are the hard questions. People ask things like, "Where are the answers when I need answers but no answers can be found?" "Where are the answers when I have cancer and I have to decide whether I want surgery or chemotherapy?" "Where are the answers when I am elderly and I am forced into leaving my home and I have to decide whether I will go to a retirement home or move in with my children?" When we need answers, sometimes it seems God is far away. The Psalmist talked about God when it seems God is far away when the Psalmist wrote in Psalms 22:19 "But you, O Lord, be not far off; O my strength, come quickly to help me." (NIV) Where is the answer when you have to decide whether to put your parent in a nursing home or try to take care of him or her yourself? Where is the answer when you are a single parent and you have to decide whether to put your child in a day care center or whether to hire a babysitter you barely know? Where is an answer from God and God's guidance for decisions you have to make when all the choices are bad ones? Part of the answer must rest in trust in the Lord and in trusting our ability to be His humble and contrite child. Part of the answer is in our ability to be willing to do only His will and not our own.

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# Chapter 28: End Times

Sub-topic: Are These The End Times?

Article Content: We do not know if these are the end times but what we do know is these times reflect a lack of goodness, caring, compassion, and a true love of Christ. The human race murdered God's Son, and now most of the human race is ignoring God and ignoring His Son. The human race has built weapons to can destroy the world and all the people in it. The human race is rampant with hatred, abuse, immorality, slavery, vile sins, and induced chaos. The fundamental question of our age is, "Is God happy with us?" and if He is not happy, what might He do or not do?

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Sub-topic: One Sign Of The End Times

Article Content: The first sign of the end of a culture is a society no longer worshipping or acknowledging God. In recent years it has actually become unpopular to advocate traditional Judeo-Christian values, such as the Ten Commandments. Thanks to Political Correctness, the popular culture ridicules those who worship God as the sovereign creator. Instead, it is popular to put our faith and trust in ourselves or in other creations of God. In May of 2000, Matt Drudge reported on his web site NASA has banned prayer day. Granted, banning prayer day is just a small ripple in a very big pond, but many small ripples will combine to form a tidal wave creating an empty pond.

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# Chapter 29: Eternal Life

Sub-topic: Eternal Life

Article Content: The expression "eternal life" occurs in the Old Testament only in Dan. 12:2 (R.V., "everlasting life"). It occurs frequently in the New Testament (Matt. 7:14; 18:8, 9; Luke 10:28; comp. 18:18). It comprises the whole future of the redeemed (Luke 16:9), and is opposed to "eternal punishment" (Matt. 19:29; 25:46). It is the final reward and glory into which the children of God enter (1 Tim. 6:12, 19; Rom. 6:22; Gal. 6:8; 1 Tim. 1:16; Rom. 5:21); their Sabbath of rest (Heb. 4:9; comp. 12:22). The newness of life which the believer derives from Christ (Rom. 6:4) is the very essence of salvation, and hence the life of glory or the eternal life must also be theirs (Rom. 6:8; 2 Tim. 2:11, 12; Rom. 5:17, 21; 8:30; Eph. 2:5, 6). It is the "gift of God in Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23). The life the faithful have here on earth (John 3:36; 5:24; 6:47, 53-58) is inseparably connected with the eternal life beyond, the endless life of the future, the happy future of the saints in heaven (Matt. 19:16, 29; 25:46). Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries Fair Use. Presented for educational purposes only.

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# Chapter 30: Excuses

Sub-topic: No Excuses

Article Content: We must never make excuses for any part of our life. When we make excuses we essentially avoid focusing on the present or future as we shirk our responsibility in the present. We often make excuses when we falter. Instead of telling the truth about our mistakes and miscues while pushing ahead, we instead cook up useless reasons, called excuses, about what caused the mistake. If we make excuses, we never come to grips with what we did to cause the mistake. We must come to grips with what needs fixing and what we need to do today or tomorrow to avoid the mistake in the future. Not making excuses enables us to be aggressive, flexible, and forward thinking. Making excuses stops our being aggressive because making excuses immediately stops us from actively pursuing solutions, goals, and objectives. Making excuses reduces our ability to be flexible in dealing with circumstances or situations. Making excuses freezes us in one place (the past) while the excuse is being made. Making excuses keeps us from being forward thinking, because while we are making excuses we are looking back at the past and giving useless reasons why the past was like it was.

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# Chapter 31: Expectations

Sub-topic: Establish Positive Expectations And Communicate Them To Others

Article Content: To engage in any effort without positive expectations is like turning yourself into a robot. Yet, not establishing positive expectations for the future is exactly what many people do. Imagine playing a game without any positive expectation of winning. Imagine working on a job without any positive expectation of getting paid either in money or paid in psychic rewards. No matter whom we are or where we are, we should all have some kind of positive expectations about what our future holds. If we are in a leadership position, we must learn to communicate our positive expectations to others. One of the most critical aspects of leadership is communicating positive expectations about what we want others to do and to be.

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Sub-topic: Expectations About God, Part 1

Article Content: Do you really and truly expect the Lord to do a miracle in your life or are you dreading some awful outcome? Telling the truth is important here. After all, we are human beings, subject to the failings of human beings. If the truth were told, don't you really expect the worst to happen rather than the best? The reason you may expect the worst is because the human heart is covered over with sin. The sin covering the heart creates sinful desires and dark expectations. Our sin prevents us from realizing God's will in our life. Sin keeps our faith weak. Expectation is the dynamic of faith. Expectation is the mental possession of the love of God before you have it. In the realms of the supernatural, when you truly expect to receive the miraculous love of God you end up with the love of God in your immediate possession. What do you possess at this moment? Do you hold and possess the miraculous love of Christ in your heart or do you just want the love of Christ? Do you hold and possess His miraculous tenderness, miraculous compassion, and miraculous understanding in your heart or do you hold selfishness, greed, and lust in your heart? In Christ, what can we expect? In Christ, we can expect to see Jesus rather than the dark things of life. We can expect Him to work in our life rather than expecting a bad tomorrow. We can expect to have the power to live right, do right, and be right rather than being whipped around by life like a rag in the wind doing what we know is wrong and not being able to do anything about it.

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Sub-topic: Expectations About God, Part 2

Article Content: Since God created every human, every nation and everything in our reality then why are hundreds of thousands killed in horrendous natural disasters? Why do young children have to die of disease, starvation, lack of attention, or all forms of abuse? Why does anyone have to suffer in any way? Of all the questions we have about, God these are the most difficult. These are difficult because we have expectations about God. We expect God to act in predicable ways. Most of the time, we want God to act according to our timetable, our needs, our wants, and our set of criteria. What we must remember is God created a perfect world but human beings fell out of this world. When God created the perfect world, Satan also came into the world and brought suffering, death, sickness, disease, and all the terrible sufferings human beings have suffered.

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Sub-topic: Expectations Explored

Article Content: We too often erroneously expect other people in our life to give us hope. We too often erroneously expect other people in our life to fill the needs and wants only we can fill. We too often erroneously expect others to fill the emptiness in us caused by our lack of hopes and dreams. In addition, when other people fail to fill this void in us, we get angry and frustrated. On top of our erroneous thinking, in our age of tremendous change, the object of our hope keeps moving and changing. Consider a person who changes careers and later finds out the new career choice is diminishing in opportunity because of social, economic, or technological change. What does the person hope for who knows the career will end in five years because of reasons beyond the person's control? What does this person hope for or worse yet, dread? The answer for this person and for everyone else is our hope can be placed in the physical of life or our hope can be placed in the spiritual. Physicality ends. Spirituality lasts forever.

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# Chapter 32: Failure

Sub-topic: God And Failure

Article Content: We fail. Sometimes, we fail in miserable ways. At times, even the most successful person fails in miserable ways. Everyone must confront failure. For example, Adam and Eve failed. Adam and Eve did not respect God or respect His love enough. Adam and Eve did not believe in Him or trust Him enough. Because God created Adam and Eve with the ability to think for themselves, they were tempted, and they failed. The record of all mankind is a demonstration of man's failure to come to God as His fallen children. As Christ rode into Jerusalem He knew His sacrifice was only going to touch a small remnant of humanity. In terms of just the numbers of people He would reach, His sacrifice could be considered a failure in worldly terms. It would have been humanly reasonable for Him to hope only for a little more time to reach others. It would have been humanly reasonable for Him to want to do a little more work, and to exert a little more effort in hopes of reaching still others who were lost. At the moment of His death, world-wide conditions upon the earth were pretty much the same as they were at the time of His birth. As Christians, today we are only a remnant. We are only a small band of believers. Today we face a world of torment, death, sickness, disease, poverty, war, and the rejection of God at nearly every turn. Failure to turn things around is apparent. What do we do when efforts fail? What do we do when there is no hope? What we are supposed to do is glorify God by trying to live as God's Son taught us to live. What we are to do is come back against failure by trying again, and again.

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Sub-topic: Our Response To Failure

Article Content: What do we do when we fail? What do we do when our business fails, our marriage fails, or our child rearing fails? What do we do when we fail on our job, we fail to build our church, we fail to conform our life according to Christ's teachings, or we fail to resist temptation? Do we give up, cut our losses, and declare bankruptcy? Do we throw in the towel when we are beaten? Do we surrender when everything falls apart? Do we turn tail and run and then lie to ourselves about what we wanted in the first place? Jesus gave out a message of love, hope, and salvation upon the earth, but people did not receive His message. Only a few people believed Him then and only a few people believe Him now. In worldly terms, it would seem His life and His sacrifice was a failure. What do we do when we fail? Do we give up? Did Christ give up? Has Christ given up on us? No! If Christ had given up on us He would not have come back from being in the tomb. Although we fail, we must not give up because Christ will not give up on us. We depend upon God, and God depends upon us to do His work in love. Alone we are nothing without Him. To succeed we must be willing to receive from God while God gives to us. To succeed we must be willing to give our all for God despite the consequences to us.

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# Chapter 33: Faith

Sub-topic: A Big Question About God

Article Content: Is trauma, tragedy, and misfortune a test of faith and obedience? The "Yes" answer is almost too easy, too ready, and too superficial. This "Yes" answer is too easy, for the question is not complete. The real question, the complete question, "Is trauma, tragedy, and misfortune a test of faith and obedience a test sent FROM GOD"? Those last two words, "FROM GOD", are the key words. These words are the stickler words. For in times of tragedy or misfortune the doubts and questions about God mount and for many people the questions remain unanswered. However you answer this complete question, you must also answer the question "Does God love me, and if He does love me, how much does He love me?"

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Sub-topic: A Guiding Light

Article Content: A deep faith results in our having a guiding Light in our life. This guiding Light, the Holy Spirit, produces wisdom. Many of the decisions we make every day, even the decisions of seeming insignificance, require wisdom. Wisdom is not something with which we are born. Wisdom is acquired. Deep faith produces within us a hunger to know about God and about how to live our life according to His guiding Hand. Deep faith produces within us a starting point for acquiring wisdom. Persons of faith should always want to do the right thing. We should always want to do what God wants from us. As we hunger and thirst to do the right and the smart thing, we acquire wisdom.

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Sub-topic: A Key Ingredient Of Faith

Article Content: A key ingredient of faith is looking forward. Looking forward means directing your mind's eye or your mental vision into the future rather than looking back at the past. Faith is not required to look back into yesterday. Great faith is required to look forward to the next minute, hour, week, and year. When you look forward, in faith and using faith, you can see in the future the attainment of what the Lord wills for you. If you look forward to nothing, your faith remains unused and you receive nothing from holding your faith. As a Christian believer, we look forward to that great day when Jesus returns or we meet Him on His heavenly shore. In faith, using our faith, we should all look forward to the healing of our body, our mind, our spirit, and our relationships. When we look ahead, we see Christ being with us in all our moments and we see situations being resolved through His power of love. In addition, our faith is not passive, so our vision of the future includes living and serving Christ in our daily life.

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Sub-topic: A Matter Of Faith

Article Content: Without a deep and tangible connection to Christ through faith, every time a person hits a roadblock, a pothole, bad pavement, or a wall, an all-out emergency is often declared. With no faith, there is often panic, a feeling of being lost, a feeling of floating in darkness with no one to turn to and no place to go for answers. With no faith a person must not only deal with the rough pavement of life; he or she must deal with the fact they have no spiritual resources to deal with life's difficulties. Faith in God does not have to be monumental. Faith can be as small as a mustard seed. However, to maintain balance in the turmoil of life, faith is required.

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Sub-topic: A Non-protective God?

Article Content: Why should anyone believe in a God who does not protect us from the same troubles everyone else has to face? Sometimes it seems many Christians aren't any better off than non-Christians. However, you have to look deep inside those who truly believe in a caring, comforting, and compassionate God to see the truth. When you look inside believing people, you see a shining Light penetrating the darkness. This shining Light may not always be visible on the outside, but inside those who believe in a caring God, you will find a peace of mind passing all understanding. What is even greater for Christians is one aspect of our faith many non-Christians do not understand. As Christians, we are able to praise God for His greatness, kindness, and compassion even when we are suffering. In addition, when we praise God, our hope is increased because God loves us so much. Believers have testified for thousands of year He does not leave us to suffer without coming to our aid or being of assistance in our time of tribulation. God rescues our hearts and souls. God ministers to our pain on the inside in sometimes mysterious and invisible ways. Although Christians have tribulation, we know God is working in us on the inside even when it looks as if we are overwhelmed in defeat on the outside.

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Sub-topic: A Reason To Believe

Article Content: Jesus victory over death gives us a reason to believe. When Jesus came back from death on the cross, He gave our faith substance. Many situations in life defy using words. Our ideas of faith and material substance do not go together. You may believe in angels without ever seeing one. However, when you see an angel pick a car up off a child to save the child's life, then you have substance to your faith. The difference is believing and BELIEVING!

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Sub-topic: About Belief

Article Content: Belief is made up of the mental and emotional. 1. In adversity, the mental part of belief is the intellectual acknowledgement of an obstacle or an adversity. In adversity, the emotional part of belief is one's emotional response to an obstacle or an adversity. 2. The emotional part of our belief becomes evident when we face illness and obstacles, the kinds of circumstances often generating powerful emotional responses. 3. Positive belief uses logic and systematic thinking as a response to emotion. Positive belief uses recognition of the facts. Negative belief uses emotion without any logic or systematic thinking. 4. False beliefs have negative emotions and inaccurate acknowledgements. False beliefs lead to despair and hopelessness. Fear, doubt, terror, and insecurity are all negative emotions we experience in adversity. 5. True beliefs have positive emotions and accurate acknowledgements. True beliefs support us and bring us hope. True beliefs cancel out emotions of fear, doubt, terror, and insecurity. 6. Accepting an idea intellectually is not the same intellectual activity as believing. Real belief mobilizes a powerful emotional component within us.

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Sub-topic: About Invincibility

Article Content: The end of a person's spiritual life can be foreseen. Some persons never enter a spiritual arena where there is any kind of tangible spiritual experience. For these people, there is no end to a spiritual life because the spiritual life has never started. One of the first indicators a spiritual life is headed in the wrong direction is the attitude of invincibility. When any person or any group comes to believe they are invincible, the end is near. The attitude of invincibility brings with it a self-destructive ego, an intellect separated from reality, and a heart ignoring each person's need for other human beings. The attitude of invincibility erases any need for God and therefore any need for godly conduct. When attitudes exist making people believe they are untouchable, immorality surely follows.

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Sub-topic: Absolute Resolute Faith

Article Content: There are light years of difference between mental knowing, hope, and absolute resolute faith. Mentally knowing God is not enough. Many people mentally know about the moon. They can look up and see it. If people could not see the moon they could mentally know about the moon but they would likely not believe the moon exists without some kind of evidence. With God, you have to have absolute, resolute faith. This means you have to believe without seeing. Faith is the result of hope becoming reality. Faith is a thing hoped for taking on substance. Faith turns an idea into substance. There is no faith if there is no spiritual work. Everyone must beware of being absolutely resolute because being absolutely resolute can lead to selfish arrogance. There is a thin line between ironclad faith and selfish arrogance. In holding to our faith, we must never lose our contriteness or humility before God. Through faith, some people grow into the Lord's love and light over time, while others are instantly immersed into His light and love. With God, anything, and all things are possible through faith.

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Sub-topic: Access To God

Article Content: Gen. 11:3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." (NIV) These Genesis people in this verse wanted access to God. They were protesting the idea of being scattered over the whole earth. They refused to do what God asked of them and at the same time actively sought God out as a power source. They would be very comfortable in today's Christian worship world where we take such pride in building our mega-worship places, take pride in what we are doing, praise ourselves for what we will do, and enthrall ourselves with ourselves. These Genesis people would be especially captivated by our claims of getting great power from God. They would be comfortable in our worship services where we talk about our great achievements.

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Sub-topic: All Things Fit Together

Article Content: Matthew 6:30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (NIV) We have never had a problem of too much faith. For most of us, our problem is we don't have enough faith. Many people don't feel they need any faith at all. One of the reasons we believe there is a God is because we can see God's magnificence in how God created all things. As an example of God the Creator as a being of love, Jesus talks about the grass of the field. Jesus focuses our attention on the tangible world as evidence God the Creator truly exists. In the words of Jesus we see God as the maker of all things as well as the caretaker of all things, including you. Jesus tells us God will take care of what He creates. When you need more faith, look at what God has created. Scientists are now beginning to realize all things fit together. Scientists are beginning to establish in science what Christians have taken for granted. Christians and now scientists believe all things fit together in amazing ways as if some super intelligence, an intelligence way beyond man's ability to conceive of intelligence, created all things.

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Sub-topic: Candy Of The Faith

Article Content: Children love candy and sweets. Kids would rather eat candy than meat, potatoes, and veggies. There are parts of the Christian faith much are like candy. Some Christians never understand there is more to the faith than just excitement, power, drama, getting what they want, getting prayers answered on time every time, and always getting their needs met. Candy is an exciting food. Potatoes are dull, but a loving parent knows better than to just feed a child candy. Children need a balanced diet with a little candy thrown in as a treat, not as a main course. Candy is not even needed after every meal. Jesus called each of us to walk the hard road of the faith. The hard road of the faith is a place on the road where there is no candy. If you are starving for something in the faith, you may be eating too much candy and not getting the real food you need to grow and mature as a child of God.

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Sub-topic: Connectedness

Article Content: When we have Christ alive and living in our heart, we have a spiritual connection to the power of God. Being a part of a church or faith community also gives us ties that bind us to other Christians around the world. These ties cement us to each other and to Christ.

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Sub-topic: Desire...The First Ingredient Of Faith

Article Content: Faith is 1. The substance of what you desire, 2. With an expectation of obtaining what you hold as a vision 3. That comes by looking forward 4. To receiving the vision you hold 5. With confidence. These are the five ingredients to faith: desire, expectation, vision, looking forward, and confidence. Like baking a cake, none of these five ingredients of faith can stand alone or be left out. The first ingredient of faith is desire. You have to want what you are praying for each day. You have to want what you are praying for so bad you can taste it. You have to want what you are praying for so bad you will give up your life for it. You must desire what you pray for with a fire inside of you. In your faith, your desire to have what you are praying for should be so intense the fire of the Lord's will burns inside of you. Nothing happens in the kingdom of God without a consuming fire of faith in the soul. Missionaries do not risk their lives without having this fire of desire in the soul. Ministers do not submerge their egos without this fire of desire in the soul. Believers don't battle physical ailments to get to church without this fire of desire in their soul. If you desire nothing in Christ, you get nothing. The desire or the fire burning of desire within you has to be a desire to please God, to do his will, to risk anything and everything to see His will would be done.

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Sub-topic: Everyday Faith

Article Content: We hope and trust in many things. We use faith and we trust in common everyday things. We do not realize we use faith and trust every minute of every day. Every bite of food we eat, we eat by faith, hoping we do not get poisoned. Every pill we take, we take by faith hoping we do not have some kind of reaction to the medication. We trust the pills we take are made to stringent scientific standards. There isn't anything we do during the day when we don't use faith. When we walk outside, we have faith some weather phenomenon will not sweep us away and kill us. When we drive our car we have faith we will not be in an accident. When we turn on our TV or an appliance, we have faith the TV or appliance will not start a fire. When we get out of bed in the morning we have faith the floor beneath us will hold us up. When we turn on our electronic devices we have faith all the components will work as expected. When we read a newspaper we have faith the ink in the newspaper is not laden with some kind of poison. The fact is, for people who think they doubt or who think they are skeptical, they have faith just like the rest of us. The fact is, we all have faith and we all use our faith. We could not easily survive or get along in the world without faith. The most important question is, will you just put your faith in temporary breakable material things, or will you put your faith in God who is everlasting?

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Sub-topic: Expectation As The Second Ingredient Of Faith

Article Content: Expectation is having God as a real person in your heart before you have a chance to wonder where He is. Expectation is possessing God and His love before you receive them. Expectation is where you own something in your mind and heart before you own it in the physical world. If we expect something bad to happen it usually does. If we expect something good to happen, it usually does. If we expect nothing from God, we will receive nothing. A little book, long out of print, called "Expectation Corner", tells of a king who prepared a city for some of his poor subjects. Not far away he constructed a large storehouse where everything they needed would be supplied if they would only send him their requests. There was one condition, however. The subjects should constantly be on the lookout for his messengers so when the messengers came with the gifts in answer to their urgent pleas, the subjects would always be found waiting and ready to receive them. One faithless subject, not actually expecting to get what he asked for, never watched for the messengers or the delivery. One day he was taken to the king's storehouse; and there, to his amazement, he saw scores of packages that had originally been made ready for him. The messengers had come to his door, but because he was not looking for them, the king's gifts never satisfied his needs. Sometimes God brings us blessings and we do not see them, simply because we are so unbelieving and insipid in the way we ask for his heavenly favors. Many persons miss their desired blessings because they close themselves in the gloomy chambers of doubt. How much better to be stationed in the faith-illumined section of the garden of prayer called "Expectation Corner".

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Sub-topic: Faith

Article Content: Faith has two extremes. One extreme of faith is characterized by total and complete trust and obedience. At the other extreme of faith we find doubt, suspicion, and disbelief. Many of us want to be on the extreme where we have complete trust and obedience. Most of us are somewhere on the faith line other than at the complete end of total trust. When we hit difficult places in our life we may slide even further away from the trust end of the line. Some people have questions about God because they are interested, curious, and fascinated. Other people ask questions about God because they have doubts about when, where, and how He can or will act in their lives. Even in the toughest times of life, we can determine our place on the faith line or continuum by surrendering as much as we have and are to Christ. Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (NIV)

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Sub-topic: Faith

Article Content: The word "faith" is in general the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true (Phil. 1:27; 2 Thess. 2:13). Faith's primary idea is trust. A thing is true, and therefore worthy of trust. Faith admits of many degrees up to full assurance of faith, in accordance with the evidence on which it rests. Faith is the result of teaching (Rom. 10:14-17). Knowledge is an essential element in all faith, and is sometimes spoken of as an equivalent to faith (John 10:38; 1 John 2:3). Yet the two are distinguished in this respect, that faith includes in it assent, which is an act of the will in addition to the act of the understanding. Assent to the truth is of the essence of faith, and the ultimate ground on which our assent to any revealed truth rests is the veracity of God. Historical faith is the apprehension of and assent to certain statements which are regarded as mere facts of history. Temporary faith is that state of mind which is awakened in men (e.g., Felix) by the exhibition of the truth and by the influence of religious sympathy, or by what is sometimes styled the common operation of the Holy Spirit. Saving faith is so called because it has eternal life inseparably connected with it. It cannot be better defined than in the words of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism: "Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel." The object of saving faith is the whole revealed Word of God. Faith accepts and believes it as the very truth most sure. But the special act of faith which unites to Christ has as its object the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 7:38; Acts 16:31). This is the specific act of faith by which a sinner is justified before God (Rom. 3:22, 25; Gal. 2:16; Phil. 3:9; John 3:16-36; Acts 10:43; 16:31). In this act of faith the believer appropriates and rests on Christ alone as Mediator in all his offices. This assent to or belief in the truth received upon the divine testimony has always associated with it a deep sense of sin, a distinct view of Christ, a consenting will, and a loving heart, together with a reliance on, a trusting in, or resting in Christ. It is that state of mind in which a poor sinner, conscious of his sin, flees from his guilty self to Christ his Saviour, and rolls over the burden of all his sins on him. It consists chiefly, not in the assent given to the testimony of God in his Word, but in embracing with fiducial reliance and trust the one and only Saviour whom God reveals. This trust and reliance is of the essence of faith. By faith the believer directly and immediately appropriates Christ as his own. Faith in its direct act makes Christ ours. It is not a work which God graciously accepts instead of perfect obedience, but is only the hand by which we take hold of the person and work of our Redeemer as the only ground of our salvation. Saving faith is a moral act, as it proceeds from a renewed will, and a renewed will is necessary to believing assent to the truth of God (1 Cor. 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:4). Faith, therefore, has its seat in the moral part of our nature fully as much as in the intellectual. The mind must first be enlightened by divine teaching (John 6:44; Acts 13:48; 2 Cor. 4:6; Eph. 1:17, 18) before it can discern the things of the Spirit. Faith is necessary to our salvation (Mark 16:16), not because there is any merit in it, but simply because it is the sinner's taking the place assigned him by God, his falling in with what God is doing. The warrant or ground of faith is the divine testimony, not the reasonableness of what God says, but the simple fact that he says it. Faith rests immediately on, "Thus saith the Lord." But in order to this faith the veracity, sincerity, and truth of God must be owned and appreciated, together with his unchangeableness. God's word encourages and emboldens the sinner personally to transact with Christ as God's gift, to close with him, embrace him, give himself to Christ, and take Christ as his. That word comes with power, for it is the word of God who has revealed himself in his works, and especially in the cross. God is to be believed for his word's sake, but also for his name's sake. Faith in Christ secures for the believer freedom from condemnation, or justification before God; a participation in the life that is in Christ, the divine life (John 14:19; Rom. 6:4-10; Eph. 4:15,16, etc.); "peace with God" (Rom. 5:1); and sanctification (Acts 26:18; Gal. 5:6; Acts 15:9). All who thus believe in Christ will certainly be saved (John 6:37, 40; 10:27, 28; Rom. 8:1). The faith=the gospel (Acts 6:7; Rom. 1:5; Gal. 1:23; 1 Tim. 3:9; Jude 1:3). Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries.

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Sub-topic: Faith And Consequences

Article Content: There is a direct connection between faith and what happens in our life. Of course, if we do not have faith in God, we do not want to hear there is a connection between faith in God and what happens to us in our life. For those of us who do believe in God and in His power, too many of us want to misuse our faith. When we misuse our faith, we misuse our faith to produce earthly results instead of heavenly results. When we misuse our faith, we misuse our faith to help us do things our way instead of using our faith to help us do things God's way. When we misuse our faith, we misuse our faith to get our will done instead of using our faith to get the Lord's will done. As an example of misused faith, many people don't pray enough because they think they won't get what they pray for. So, insulted and arrogant over what they think God won't do, they walk away from God and they don't pray. Faith has consequences. You may think your prayers are not answered. However, every single prayer you pray has a consequence. God works in and around the unseen. Learning faith has consequences and learning prayer has consequences is a hard lesson to learn. However, if you do not get what you pray for, then maybe you need to pray for something else. If you do not get the material or tangible "stuff" you pray for to make you happy then pray for spiritual "stuff" to bless others.

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Sub-topic: Faith And Courage

Article Content: Possessing faith requires courage. Sometimes in our life, walking in the darkness takes courage. Sometimes we need courage to travel on paths we have not trod before. In our life we need courage to act in situations where there is no earthly possibility of an action being taken. Sometimes we need courage to yield everything to God when we want to keep everything to ourselves. In Hebrews the apostle Paul talks about the life of faith, and Paul tells us in Hebrews 11:13 the Old Testament patriarchs lived by faith. Hebrews 11:13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. (NIV) Living by faith takes a form of courage because when we live by faith we extend ourselves outward by trusting in God. Living by faith is what we must do. We live by breathing and in the same way we must courageously live by faith because faith keeps us alive in our spirit. We live by eating food and drinking water. In the same way we must courageously live by faith because our faith gives our spirit nourishment. We live by residing or seeking shelter. In the same way we must courageously live by faith because our faith gives us shelter from the storms of life.

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Sub-topic: Faith And Disbelief

Article Content: Disbelief is a form of doubt. Rather than seeing in the mind's eye some kind of positive action coming about through the Holy Spirit, people living in disbelief see no positive action coming about through the Holy Spirit. This lack of vision is a form of spiritual blindness. This lack of vision causes nothing to happen in a person's life when the person is spiritually blind. Spiritual blindness causes nothing to happen in a person with disbelief because God's action is stymied when a person does not believe. Most importantly, we achieve for God and achieve for ourselves when we can see ahead in faith. When we cannot see ahead in faith, we run blindly into walls, make mistakes, and continue to live in our disbelief. To make faith work in our life, we must find the courage to give up our disbelief.

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Sub-topic: Faith And Distrust

Article Content: Distrust is a form of doubt. If we are caught up in distrust, we do not want to give over our cares and burdens to Christ. In distrust, we prevent the Holy Spirit from working in our life and in the life of those we pray for each day. In distrust, we too often try to do all things ourselves. When we distrust, we carry the burden of distrust in addition to carrying the burden of trying to do everything. The result of our distrust is carrying crushing burdens. In addition, when we carry all these crushing burdens, we can give up completely because we cannot carry the load. To make faith work in our life, we must give up our distrust and give over to Christ. To make faith work in our life, we must take a chance and let God work instead of trying to make everything work by doing all the work ourselves. Making faith work does not mean we should be lazy or irresponsible. Being responsible means we give one hundred and ten percent of our effort in all our tasks as we trust God to use us in whatever way He sees fit. In addition, in our trust, we must maintain total control over ourselves so we are always self-controlled and self-disciplined.

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Sub-topic: Faith And God's Action

Article Content: What happens to our faith when we have faith the Lord will act in a given way and He does not act like we expect? What do we do when God does something we do not want done? What do we do when He delivers something to us we do not want? What we must do, what we must absolutely do in every instance, is keep on believing, keep on trusting, and keep on expecting. Just because God acts in ways we do not want should mean nothing because we are His servants not His master. He is the master, we are the servant. Unfortunately, our sin causes us to ask God to serve us and serve our needs. In righteousness, we should always be asking God to help us serve Him as we put our wants and needs aside. Our sin tries to make us bring God down to our level. In righteousness, we should pray and ask God to lift us up, over, and above our sinful selfishness so we are ascending up to God rather than asking God to descend down to us. In seeking to ascend up to God, what God does or does not do in our life should make no difference, when we are moving on up to Him it.

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Sub-topic: Faith And Hesitancy

Article Content: When we have faith there is no hesitation on our part to go to God, and no hesitation in placing ourselves, our problems, or our life in Christ's hands. With no faith there is great hesitation. With no faith, we want to wait. With no faith, we want to put off. With no faith, we want to stop for just a minute. With faith, we do not think or say...maybe later. With faith, we do not think or say...maybe tomorrow. With faith, we do not think or say...maybe someday. With faith, we do think or say...maybe when I... With faith, there is no hesitancy.

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Sub-topic: Faith And Hope

Article Content: Psalm 39:7 "But now, lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you." (NIV) When things go bad, when everything comes unglued and we are facing incredible adversity, our adversity can make it seem as if we are sitting in darkness. In adversity, we can lose hope. In adversity, we do not know where to look for hope because we cannot see anything in our life or see anything in our future giving us hope. A resounding faith in God, a living faith in God, an active faith in God, and a positive faith in a positive God gives us hope. Our faith in God gives us the Light at the end of the tunnel. Our living faith tells us our suffering is only temporary. Relatively speaking, in the span of all the time of the past, and in the span of all the time to exist in the future, our suffering on this earth lasts only a fraction of a second. Christian's believe beyond any doubt we will spend eternity in heaven where there is no suffering, no pain, and no adversity...all while we live in God's bliss of love where time is no more. Our faith in God and our belief in His eternity for us indeed make us stronger on the inside. Our faith in God makes us full of hope even when our outside circumstances look hopeless.

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Sub-topic: Faith And Indecision

Article Content: Indecision is a form of doubt. When we face questions dealing with morality and ethics, having faith in God means we act in an automatic nature according to God's will rather than sitting in a haze of indecision as we try to decide what we should do. If we are in tune with God's will, questions of morality and ethics are always answered according to what God wants us to do. Our holy scripture is full of answers about how we should act when we face questions of a moral or ethical nature. Questions of morality and ethics can be answered using the sin-laden ethics of the world or answered using the righteousness of God's word in the Holy Bible. When we face a morality and ethics question and we sit in indecision, we may sit in indecision because we really DO KNOW the answer to our question while we do not want to face the answer. Quite often, answers found in the Bible are difficult answers to accept. Biblical answers are answers telling us to walk the narrow path and these answers are not the kind of answers we may wish to hear. When we put our heart and will in the direction of God's will, we not only find His seemingly difficult answers easy to accept, we find His answers are full of joy when we accept them.

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Sub-topic: Faith And Peace

Article Content: In our faith, we can find peace in knowing after our purpose on this Earth and in this life has been fulfilled, we will be rewarded for our faith here on Earth. In our pain, suffering, and worries of this life, we can find sweet peace in knowing our new life in heaven will take us on an incredibly wonderful journey. How about you? Do you believe?

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Sub-topic: Faith And Power

Article Content: Faith gives us a power we do not have without faith. Faith gives us confidence God will act and do His will through us. Faith gives us the ability to put off getting what we want or put off getting what we expect in favor of humbly accepting what God wants and expects. Inordinate faith gives us the power and ability to go though hardships and tough times without any expectation of reward from God. Inordinate faith is a kind of godly power giving us a tough-mindedness amazing those who have little faith or who have a faith based upon getting something from God. Inordinate faith is a kind of faith giving us the power to be joyful even in the face of death because we know in faith with certainty we shall not die but we shall be changed and fly away to glory as we shed our mortal body.

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Sub-topic: Faith And Questioning

Article Content: Perhaps you are the kind of person who questions. Perhaps your mind is full of questions all the time. If you mind is full of questions, especially questions about God, questions about Christ, and questions about God's word, your questions could be a sign of lack of faith. To question might mean we are standing back and wanting to know how, why, when, who, how much, which, and so on, because we do not trust or because we do not have faith. To question might mean, instead of taking everything on God's word, we step back, rather than stepping forward, to accept His word on faith. To have a fully alive walk with God, a walk where Christ is as alive to you as much as other people are alive to you requires you step forward in faith rather than stepping back and questioning God.

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Sub-topic: Faith And Satanic Interference

Article Content: The work of God in the world is limited by the satanic influence of Satan. Satan will try to come and interfere with God's work. This interference in God's work by Satan limits our ability to tap into God's unlimited power. God is all powerful and He has invested His power on earth in the men and women who serve Him. However, Satan tries to interfere with our service to God. Satan tries to interfere with our willingness to surrender our life to Christ. Satan tries to interfere with our prayer life, our Christian relationships, our moving about in our day to day activities, and in our family life. We must not be deceived by thinking Satan does not exist. We must not be deceived by thinking Satan is a passive joke. Satan is active this minute in every person's life. Satan tries very hard to get you and every person on earth to abandon his or her faith in God.

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Sub-topic: Faith And Sin

Article Content: Having faith in God can be easier when we don't have any choice in a matter. Sickness, death, and disease, are examples where we may have limited choices. When we have limited control or choice, we may feel like we have to trust God. However, to go to God when there IS a choice is often difficult because sin comes in and tries to take us away from God's caring love. When sin comes in, our faith is lessened because of the doubt placed into our mind and heart by the sin. We increase our faith as we decrease our sin. We increase our faith when we affirm God's place in our heart and life. We increase our faith when we refuse to let sin take a foothold in our thinking or in our life.

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Sub-topic: Faith And Skepticism

Article Content: Skepticism is a form of doubt. Where there is skepticism, there is not only doubt, there is a wholesale rejection of any possibility God will act. Skepticism often has a terrible result. When we are skeptical we cannot place any of our problems or issues in the hands of God, meaning we must bear the whole burden of what we carry in life. When we are skeptical, we are left spiritually alone in our life. When we are skeptical, we must walk the road of our life all by ourselves. When we are skeptical, we keep the greatest power in the universe out of our life. If you are skeptical, entertain the possibility of God. Even if you do not believe in God, at least let the possibility of the existence of God be with you.

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Sub-topic: Faith And Suffering

Article Content: No matter what you think of God and no matter who you consider creates suffering, consider suffering a personal test. Consider suffering to be a test of personal endurance. Think of suffering as if you are in the center of a great communications network connecting you to millions of other people all over the globe. In this scenario, consider how your response to suffering will impact these millions of other people. In our pain, we get incredibly selfish. However, seeing our pain as a test connecting our life to millions of other people helps us see the reality of our faith. The reality of your faith tells us our life really does connect to millions of other people all over the globe. Your life connects directly to others and most certainly your life connects to others through the actions of God. Faith is tested by suffering. However, you can strike back at suffering by using your faith. When you strike back at suffering, do so actively by seeing the Lord's hand molding and shaping people all over the world because of how your respond to your suffering. When you have faith, miracles always follow, either in the present or definitely in the future. Matthew 13:58 And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. Matthew 14:31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"

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Sub-topic: Faith And Wisdom

Article Content: Have you ever made what you would consider a "dumb mistake?" Most of us have. When there is no hunger for wisdom in faith, then mistakes are frequent in the lives of those people who have little or no faith. In addition, when mistakes are made and there is no faith, there is often no hunger and thirst to permanently fix the mistakes. Without faith, there is often no hunger and thirst for the inordinate common sense of the scripture. Without faith, there is no desire to live according to the ways of God. People who break the law consistently want to go their own way, not God's way. When people of no faith have a selfish impulse, their selfish impulse becomes their behavior. For the selfish person, there is no wisdom at work, because with no faith within the person, there is no voice of reason, no voice of God, or no urging or unction of the Holy Spirit to stop selfish behavior.

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Sub-topic: Faith And Work

Article Content: Faith without work is dead. Oops, we have a small misquote. We should have said, "Faith without works is dead." However, the word "work," leaving off the "s" hits the nail on the head. Billy Graham noted there is no conflict between faith and works. In the Christian life, faith and work go together like inhaling and exhaling. Faith is taking the gospel in; work or works is letting the gospel out. When James proclaims the relationship between faith and works, James declares you cannot have faith without having work or works. A true Christian has both faith and work. A faith grounded in humble contrition before Christ is a faith energizing the believer into doing more than just sitting and listening. A faith energized by the love of God is a faith turning into humble service for Christ. We are not saved by work or works. However, once saved, we are impelled to give away a tiny portion of the love Christ has given to us. We must also remember if there are no works, there may not also be true salvation or there may be a salvation is not fully matured, fully absorbed, or fully taken in.

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Sub-topic: Faith Equals Giving

Article Content: The essence of our Christian faith is giving, not taking. Giving away for no reason other than as a blessing to God is natural when we have the love of Christ within us. If you are self-reliant and like to control things, there is difficulty in giving from your heart, unless you have seen Jesus' eyes. However, if you have seen Him or you have looked fully into His eyes, then not keeping what you have and giving your life away is instinctive, involuntary, and uncontrolled.

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Sub-topic: Faith In A Crisis

Article Content: A crisis is a terrible circumstance. In a crisis, when so many parts of your life seem to have come unraveled, you may want to slip back into sin because in a crisis we seem to lose our footing. In a crisis, you can easily lose your faith. In a crisis, you may not want to pray because you think praying won't change anything. In a crisis, you may want to give up because trying to deal with the circumstance of the crisis is too painful and too difficult. Sometimes, in a crisis, it seems the energy you need to live is not enough to fight on. In a crisis, there is no fun or enjoyment in your life. Because you cannot escape the crisis, there is no security, and there is no escape. In a crisis, the loneliness is unbearable and there is fear, paralysis, anxiety, panic, anger, defeat, and bewilderment. In all this darkness, surely God must be someplace. Most certainly, in all this darkness, God IS someplace...He is within you. For in all this darkness, God is closer to you than any lack of energy, closer to you than any fear, closer to you than any paralysis, closer to you than any anxiety, closer to you than any panic, closer to you than any anger, closer to you than any defeat, and closer to you than any bewilderment.

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Sub-topic: Faith Is

Article Content: Faith is a trust you hold or possess. You can have a quantity of faith or trust. You can have little faith or a lot of faith. Faith or trust in God can manifest itself as a healing power, for one person's faith can heal another. With faith or trust, there must also be love. Faith or trust is a dynamic and growing part of our life. As faith or trust grows, so does love. Fear and faith cannot go together, for if you have a lot of fear, you do not have much faith. When John Paton was translating the Bible for a South Seas island tribe, he discovered the tribe had no word for trust or faith. One day a native who had been running hard came into the missionary's house, flopped himself in a large chair and said, "It's good to rest my whole weight on this chair." "That's it," said Paton. "I'll translate faith as 'resting one's whole weight on God.'" In Hebrews 11:1 we find a biblical definition of faith. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (NIV)

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Sub-topic: Faith Tested

Article Content: God does not make people suffer. Some people think God is the author of their suffering because the idea of suffering is easier to take if God is to blame than if Satan is to blame. However, Satan is the enemy. Satan has always been the enemy. Satan will always be the enemy. Satan is the author of our darkness, pain, and suffering. When Satan makes us suffer then our faith is tested. When we suffer, Satan is testing our faith in hopes of making us fail the test. In suffering, God wants us to pass the test of suffering. Not only does God want us to pass the test, God wants us to get an A+ on the test as we use our suffering to glorify Him. Satan's test of our faith can be used to make us dig deeper into our reservoir of strength from God. However, quite often, when people get into the deep water of suffering, they lose their faith. Keeping your faith is vital in suffering because out of the miracle of keeping your faith when you suffer, a new, bigger, even better miracle will be produced. You may never live to see the miracle made as a result of your faith. You may never have the miracle you want to have in this life. But you must keep your faith in all circumstances so in the end, your keeping the faith will bless God's work. The miracle produced from your faith will resound into every corner of the universe. Whenever the deep waters of suffering rise and you are immersed in the deep waters, count your testing as a blessing, for in this blessing, miracles will always grow as you continue to keep the faith.

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Sub-topic: Faith, Hope, And Miracles

Article Content: What causes lack of faith? A sense and feeling of unworthiness brings a lack of faith. This lack of faith brings the darkness. The darkness tries to keep out the Light of Christ. When we accept His love and light, we feel worthy again. Reach out with your mind, heart, and soul and believe. Mental knowing is the starting point of hope. Hope is the starting point of faith. Faith is the starting point of miracles.

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Sub-topic: Faithful

Article Content: The word "faithful" used as a designation of Christians, means full of faith, trustful, and not simply trustworthy (Acts 10:45; 16:1; 2 Cor. 6:15; Col. 1:2; 1 Tim. 4:3, 12; 5:16; 6:2; Titus 1:6; Eph. 1:1; 1 Cor. 4:17, etc.). It is used also of God's word or covenant as true and to be trusted (Ps. 119:86, 138; Isa. 25:1; 1 Tim. 1:15; Rev. 21:5; 22:6, etc.). Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries

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Sub-topic: Find Hope With Positive Expectations

Article Content: An important step in finding hope is to hold positive and real expectations based upon your reason and faith. For example, an artificial expectation is a lie we tell ourselves. Often we tell ourselves we expect a future event but in truth, we do not have a real expectancy. We may want something but be afraid of it. We cannot be afraid and have positive expectations. We may want the outcome of an event but fear the work it takes to get there. In this case, there is no positive expectation. Positive expectations cannot be made up. Expectations, whether positive or negative, spring from within us. Positive expectations are the result of evaluations we make about whether a future event is possible. If we truly feel, through the use of our mind, a future event is not only possible but also probable, then positive expectations are the result. Hope appears every time we have positive expectations.

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Sub-topic: Fruit Of The Spirit

Article Content: Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. (NIV), John 15:8 This is to my father's glory, that you bear much fruit, Showing yourselves to be my disciples. (NIV) John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the father will give you whatever you ask in my name. (NIV) A godly desire is to want to discover and experience the love of God made possible only through the Holy Spirit. When you experience this love of God made possible only through the Holy Spirit, His love will come out in your life like fruit on a tree. There is a story of an apple expert, in a land far away, a long time ago. In this land, there lived a man who loved to grow apples. There was another man in this land who loved to eat apples. The moral to the story is that some people only love the gifts of the Spirit. These people love the tongues, the healing, and the charisma. People who love the fruit are like consumers of the Spirit. People who love to eat of the fruit, consume the fruit, and the fruit becomes part of them. Generally, the people who love the fruit and who love to consume the fruit need others to grow or produce the fruit. This consumption of the fruit of the spirit is not wrong or bad, for all of us need the love of God. This statement about the consumption of the fruit is just a statement of the way things are. In the kingdom of God, some people love the Spirit Himself without a need or expectation of consuming. What is most important of all is you love Christ with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might. Then what is next in importance is you produce an abundance of fruit in your life for the kingdom of God.

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Sub-topic: Fuzzy Line Of Faith

Article Content: There is a place where our faith ends and our responsibility begins. Because we are speaking about faith, there is no physical line to view. There is no special mark anyone can identify as being the place where faith ends and personal responsibility begins. For most people, dealing with this fuzzy, hazy, murky area of real life is the greater test of faith. For example, when you pray for someone and you trust God to answer your prayer, are you obligated to "help" God along by making sure the prayer gets answered? We all must try and trust God more. We must pray and trust God will answer the prayer in a way God sees best. However, some persons will not try to fit into God's will. Instead they sit back and wait for God to deliver at their appointed time and place. Instead of sitting back we have the option of conforming our life to His will and molding and shaping our life so He can answer our prayers through us.

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Sub-topic: God Became A Man

Article Content: Salvation is by God's grace alone, His unmerited favor upon undeserving sinners. When we turn from our sinfulness towards our holy God, we are placing our faith solely upon Jesus. In faith we are not relying on anything we could do, but we trust in His all-sufficient, one time for all time atoning sacrifice on the cross 2,000 years ago. God imputes, or credits, the righteousness of Jesus to us. (2 Cor. 5:21) At the moment of saving faith, we are justified, or declared righteous in His sight so He no longer sees us as sinners, but as saints clothed in the righteousness of His dear Son. (Rom. 3) This is the gospel of Christmas and the gospel of God: that God became a man in the Person of Jesus Christ to live the holy life we cannot and to die in our place on the cross, paying the full penalty for all our sins, to be buried and rise again, to ascend to the Father's right hand until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled when He will come again in great power and glory. Christ came to earth to make a way for man to go to heaven. "I am the way..." (Jn.14:6) "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." (Acts 16:31) True faith removes all human works (Rom. 4:5) and gives God all the glory. Saving faith is trusting Jesus alone for our salvation. Not trusting in Jesus plus our good works, a church, a human authority, sacraments, Mary, etc., but trusting completely on Jesus the only Mediator, for there is no other (1 Tim. 2:5). "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life." (John 3:36) Believers in Jesus have blessed assurance of eternal life and a heavenly home. (1 Jn. 5:13) Article Reference: Title: The Gospel Of Christmas Data Source: email submitted by Rick Swenson, Hopatcong, New Jersey, Article Author: Paul Trachtman Typist Or Article Provider: David Holwick

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Sub-topic: God Is Not Needed, Unless...

Article Content: In the state of the world today, humanity believes humanity can do more for itself than God can do. Prior to our modern age, humanity considered itself to be at the mercy of God and thus worshipped Him. Today, God is pretty much seen as our servant. In the recent past, humanity was always needing God's help. Today, with our vast powers we think we control our own destiny. Today, the way humanity has come to behave, God is no longer needed or is no longer effective in life. However, there are still a few hangers-on to the old ways. A few doom and gloom people still predict God will take action against us if we desert Him, but most people today think this kind of thinking is naïve and childish. Frankly, we have the power and we know it. There isn't anything we cannot do, and there is no place we cannot go. Unless God really is as powerful as a few people think He is. If God really is as powerful as a few people think He is does this mean most people are in for a rude awakening.

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Sub-topic: God's Way

Article Content: To go God's way, you have to believe without seeing. You have to use faith. However, if we sincerely believe Christ died for us and we are willing to die for Him, our difficulties on the road we travel make no difference if we have surrendered up all we have and all we are to Christ. If we have surrendered up, we will not care if there is a pay-off from God.

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Sub-topic: How Faith Is Gained

Article Content: Faith is not a commodity we can buy. Faith is not a tangible item we can hold in our hand. Faith is not contained in a pill or capsule. Faith is gained by throwing our line into the ocean and either catching fish or at least knowing fish are in the ocean to be caught. In this example, we see the two sides of the faith coin. So many people tie their faith to some kind of result or end product. Some people will believe the ocean has fish in it only if they catch a fish. Other people do not have to catch a fish to believe. Whichever side of the faith coin, to increase your faith you must throw your line into the water.

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Sub-topic: If You Believe

Article Content: Matthew 21:22 "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." (NIV)

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Sub-topic: Knowing God In More Profound Ways

Article Content: Many people want to know God in more profound ways. To know God more profound ways, and end our struggle of faith we must give up our sin. If we give up our sin we can know God in more intimate ways and experience His power. God's power, God's majesty, and His healing touch are just as real today as they were 2000 years ago...if we remove the sin barrier between us and Him. Is there a limit to how much we can know God? Is there a limit to the love He will pour out upon us? No. There is no limit. However, the problem in knowing God is not a matter God's doing, but our doing. Regarding our sin problem, we either do not want to face the truth about our sin or we have never been told the truth about our sin. God wants you to turn away from and renounce your sin this instant. He is calling you to give all of your sin up to Him. To know God in more profound ways, we need to pray "Lord, help me to give up my sin" and we need to pray this sentence on the hour every hour every day. Be assured we cannot know God more in more profound ways or know others in Christ more fully until we see and recognize our sin burden. Reaching out to God and finding God is possible only by pouring out your soul to God including pouring out your burden of sin to Him. In addition, we can all know the will, purpose, and direction of the Holy Spirit as soon as we give up our sin burden to Christ. We give up our sin problem by repenting or turning away from our sin before Christ on the cross.

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Sub-topic: Living By Faith

Article Content: You use faith every day. When you go into your church sanctuary, by faith, you sit down on the pews. You do not check the pews out to see if they will hold you up. When you are driving your car and you come to a stoplight, then the light turns green. By faith, on the green light, you enter the intersection, hoping no one will run a red light and involve you in an accident. You put faith in many daily activities. You do, by faith, take many things for granted. If you did not live by faith, you would barely survive life. Wouldn't it be terrible if you had to check every little thing out before you did it...all because you did not trust or have faith? Living life without faith would be living life paralyzed by fear. You could not truly live if you did not have faith. When you buy a soft drink from a soft drink machine, you put in your money, by faith, hoping you will get a can of beverage. When you walk down the sidewalk, by faith, you put one foot in front of the other, hoping the sidewalk will not collapse. When you get out of bed in the morning, you put your feet on the floor, by faith, hoping the floor will hold you up. You would live in a world of fear and anxiety if you did not live by faith. When you are a Christian, you live by faith, in the certainty of Christ's spirit lives within you.

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Sub-topic: Never Give Up

Article Content: Mistakes are part of being human. However, mistakes are no reason to ever give up. Live in the time you've got at the moment even when you make mistakes. Don't worry about tomorrow or what tomorrow will bring. Never be afraid to give up or give in, but never give up or give in if you are doing the will of God. Never be afraid to say I can't do a task, but don't be afraid to try if you know the task is the will of God you are supposed to be doing.

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Sub-topic: Our Real Work

Article Content: We must not take our faith, our church, or our Christian service for granted. We are not to take failure for granted. We are not to be satisfied with things as they are. We are always to look for ways to improve. We are to always look for ways to reach out to others. We are always to show others the love of God. We are not to take for granted the church family with whom we fellowship. We are to strive to make things better for them and with them. We are to make things more attractive. We are to strive to attract more people to our churches. We are to strive to have a better program. We are to strive to have a better worship service. There are thousands of needs in the people around us if we just open our eyes. Don't take it for granted you are going to be sick. Don't take it for granted your church attendance will always remain at its present level. Never be satisfied with things as they are. One of the major attributes of our real work for God is to hold within ourselves a quiet discontent over the fallen nature of our world.

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Sub-topic: Our Relationship With God

Article Content: In all the relationships we have in life, each relationship should be a relationship full of peace filled with joy. Our relationship with God should be personal, deep, mountain-moving, and heart-touching. Our relationship with God should be how we get our self-worth. Our relationship with God should be based upon our reaching out for closeness to Him. Our relationship with God should be one based upon our desire for oneness with Him rather than upon our seeking healing or our seeking other things we want from Him. Our relationship with God should be based upon our desire to receive His love rather than upon our desire to have Him give us material things. Our relationship with God should be based upon our desire to be immersed in the outpouring of His spirit, not upon a desire for personal power. Our relationship with God, if we are willing, can be a relationship full of peace filled with joy.

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Sub-topic: Our Relationship With God

Article Content: Before the fall, Adam and Eve lived in total harmony with God. Adam and Eve did not need to pray. They did not need to pray because their relationship with God was perfect and unbroken. For Adam and Eve, there was perfect unity with God. Adam and Eve had the power of choice. However, their power of choice was used to disobey God. When Adam and Eve fell from the Garden of Eden, their separation from God was both physical and spiritual. Sin always diminishes life and separates us from God. Murder, lying, stealing, greed, lust, immorality, and all the other sins became a part of us. Human beings started to love possessions, things, and even the darkness after our fall from grace. To repair our broken relationship with God the Father, God sent Christ into the world. Our relationship with Christ is the most important relationship we will ever have. However, our relationship with Christ is often a struggle because of our sin. How well our relationship with God is repaired depends upon how much of our sin-based selves we are willing to surrender to Christ hanging on the Cross.

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Sub-topic: Over The Mountains

Article Content: Our faith can carry us over the mountains of this life, At the end of our days on earth, our faith will end up transforming us, and we will inherit a new body. In Heaven, we will have a body never being sick again, a body never feeling pain again, a body forever young. We will always be in Jesus arms. We will be more alive in heaven than we could ever be on earth.

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Sub-topic: Putting Our Faith

Article Content: Without question, we put our faith in many things and we put our faith in many people in our life. With respect to God and our religious practices, the question we must ask and answer about our faith is where will we put our faith? In what direction will be put our faith? In the sport of track and field, an athlete is to throw an iron ball called a shot put in a certain direction. In relation to our faith, where will we put or throw our faith? Will we put our faith in God or will we put our faith in ourselves knowing we are sin-covered. Will we put our faith in ourselves knowing we can make mistakes? In Matthew 9:20 - 22 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed. Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "Your faith has healed you." and the woman was healed from that moment. The woman "put" her faith. The woman directed her faith. Her faith did not just appear out of nowhere because her faith was a result of her hope and expectation. Then, once she had faith, she "put" or directed her faith toward the hem of our Lord's garment. In what direction will you put your faith?

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Sub-topic: Real Faith

Article Content: Faith and the material world we live in are not alike. Faith does not have a physical boundary like a table or chair. In our lives of faith, God puts limits on us so we will not use Him for our own ends. We should not try to use God for selfish purposes, yet this is how many people approach God. Many people believe in God. However, because they cannot see Him, they have a weak faith about how God can or will interact in their life. The dictionary defines faith as a confident belief or a belief that does not rest on logical proof or tangible evidence. For most people this definition works in their life. Our belief in God can be strong if we do not need some kind of physical or tangible evidence He exists or is real. Our faith can be weak if we expect God to produce something, perhaps anything, in a tangible fashion. One person can be perfectly content to kneel in prayer each day and never have any request answered. This person's faith carries him or her to a point in life where whatever God decides to do as a result of a prayer is acceptable. Another person will never be content in his or her faith journey regardless of prayers answered because he or she wants and needs God to manifest Himself in some way. Those people who do not need a manifestation of God but who only wish to rest in His presence are truly blessed.

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Sub-topic: Selfish Vs. Unselfish Love For God

Article Content: Our faith in God should not be an "I do for God so God will do for me" relationship. We should not love God for what He can give us or for what we can get out of Him. Instead, we should love God for who He is now and what He has already done for us by sending Christ into the world to die for us. Many people expect their faith in God to have some kind of payoff. They expect God to deliver whatever they want or need because they believe in Him. Expecting God to deliver what we want as a result of our faith is a selfish faith. As true believers of a positive, living God we are called to be selfless in giving, selfless in spirit, and selfless in love. A valid question to ask is "Shouldn't faith in God and faith in Christ result in 'something' for me? Shouldn't I expect a payoff from God?" Yes, we should all expect something from our faith, but this "something" is not a thing of this world. What we should expect from our relationship with God should be the often invisible, intangible, internal, and eternal working of God called love.

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Sub-topic: Society In Decline

Article Content: As we leave behind what has been billed "the Century of America," our society is in the midst of a moral and cultural crisis unlike any time in its history. Most Christians and persons of faith are concerned about the moral and cultural crisis of the world. What is not so apparent is how small of a minority persons of faith are in our civilized world. Our society, according to society's current worldly standards, is not in decline but is entering a new phase of freedom. In America and in many other western civilizations, one of the greatest threats to civilization is not from without, but from within. As a society begins to rot from within, the burden upon the society's social support mechanism gets to the point of collapse. Go to any inner city area where crime, drugs, prostitution, and poverty reign, and you will see a social support mechanism that has already collapsed. When the social support mechanism collapses, the solution to problems engendered by the collapse are no longer addressable. There is a rapid societal descent into chaos when the society reaches its final phase of existence.

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Sub-topic: Some Will Never Believe

Article Content: Some people will never believe Christ was the Messiah. Or, they will reject Christ no matter what kind of evidence is brought to them. These people will not believe in Christ because believing in His death and resurrection for them has strings attached. Believing in Christ, believing He is a personal Savior means you or anyone who believes must repent, turn away from sin, surrender all you are to Him, and forever reject sin. Some people will not care about Him, unfortunately for them and for their souls.

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Sub-topic: Someone To Live And Die For

Article Content: For people who have a deep, tangible faith there is... Someone to live and die for named Jesus Christ. In our faith, we are called to sacrifice. We are called to give. Jesus said, "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." Matt. 10:8 (NIV) In our humanness, we do not always readily respond and become a giving and sacrificial person. However, with a tangible faith we have someone to live for and if need be, to die for. That person we have to live and die for is Christ, as well as all believers everywhere in the world. When we respond to Christ's call to give and sacrifice there is for us a heavenly reward.

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Sub-topic: Stepping Out In Faith

Article Content: Each of us must step out in trust and belief in God. We must step out in faith and take a risk with God, regardless of whether our belief is strong or weak. When we begin to step out in faith, or we start to throw our line of faith into the water, the difficulty of our faith makes no difference. Matters of faith can become difficult because in our life we must take a chance with God. We all want concrete assurance and protection in many ways. We all want guarantees nothing bad will happen in our life. We want God to promise us our paths will be smooth and safe. We all want to walk through our life without pain or difficulty. Most of us, if we told the truth, have expectations God will provide for us in these matters. We do want God to protect us from pain and strife. We do want God to make our paths smooth. We do want God to always make sure we have a job, income, housing, and food to eat. We do want God to protect our loved ones. We want God to heal the sick. We definitely want God to answer all our prayers like we want them answered. These are very real life wants. When we hold these wants up to God in our prayers, thoughts, and meditations we are concretely connecting God to these wants. We must remember when we want God to produce a result for us we may be using our faith but we may be may be pointing our faith in the wrong direction.

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Sub-topic: Storing Up Blessings

Article Content: In reality, sometimes our faith is strong and sometimes our faith is weak. Faith is seldom at a constant level for most people. Faith is often like the wind. Our faith can often seem to be non-existent. Because we all have times when our faith is weak, we must constantly be in preparation for these times. When we are strong in faith, we must pray and prepare for those times when God seems far away. When we are strong in faith, we must store up all our blessings from God in preparation for the days of famine.

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Sub-topic: Taking Charge And Faith

Article Content: How are faith and taking charge related? You have to have faith to take charge because so much of your life is walled up behind a barrier you cannot surmount. You cannot take charge of an obstacle over which you cannot cross and over which you have no control. Taking charge requires faith because of our insurmountable obstacles. Faith is necessary to deal with the impossible, because faith makes what seems impossible, possible. Faith is necessary to deal with the improbable, because faith makes the improbable, probable. Faith is necessary to deal with the unlikely, because faith makes the unlikely, likely. Faith is necessary to deal with the unknown, because faith makes the unknown, known.

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Sub-topic: Tangible Faith

Article Content: We do not normally associate the word "tangible" with the idea of faith or things spiritual. However, with faith in Christ, and with the Holy Spirit in our heart, then having a tangible faith is possible.

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Sub-topic: Telling The Truth

Article Content: If we take the greatest sweeping look at all the greatest teachings of our Judeo-Christian faith, these teachings show us darkness and evil must come to a place where darkness and evil must be exposed in order to be defeated. These teachings show us we are the ones who must call the truth or the light of God to shine in the darkness. The darkness of evil and corruption will never expose itself unless by accident. We cannot win the war against darkness and evil by keeping secret the methods, purposes, and ways of darkness and evil. For us to have Christ alive and living within us, we must expose our personal darkness of sin to God. In the same way, we must expose the darkness, sin, and evil that has been done to us by others.

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Sub-topic: Testing God

Article Content: When we activate our personal faith we must never put God to the test. We want to see God act for us, do for us, intervene for us, yet we do not allow God to do His will through us. Too often, we stand in the way of God's will. God's will may not be to act upon your prayers, needs, and wants the way you want Him to act. We must never put God to the test because putting God to the test is like saying to God, "We don't really trust you or believe in you, so prove yourself to us." What God wants from us is not a test as to whether He will answer or not answer our prayers. What God wants from us is loving unwavering devotion regardless of how prayers get answered. Unfortunately, the person to be tested is us, not God. Our faith is tested every day. When we pass each day's test there are rewards. The problem is most of us will have to die in order to collect our reward. Although this idea of dying to collect our reward is not a joke (because it is the truth), it is funny. Many people cannot stand the idea of waiting till they die to collect their reward. Many people want the faith rewards in the here and now, not in the great hereafter.

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Sub-topic: The Battlefield Of Life

Article Content: Christian believers must do battle on the battlefield of life. On the battlefield of life, where incredibly bad things have happened and will happen, we would like our faith to empower us so we can (in many respects) control God. We say (erroneously) to God, "Get rid of all the bad things. Bring in only good, wonderful, and beautiful things." Our salvation gives us a vision of our future in heaven but we must live on a battlefield here on earth. We are all Christian soldiers.

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Sub-topic: The Effects Of Faith

Article Content: By using our physical senses, when we touch something tangible, our sense of touch lets us know the object exists. When something is touchable, we say it is real. When something comes into our senses, we say this something in our senses is real. In your faith, the effect or the result of your faith is just as real as an object you touch with your hands. More importantly, your faith can make the in-dwelling Holy Spirit as tangible in your life as any object you experience with your senses.

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Sub-topic: The Incalculable Value Of Faith

Article Content: There are times in our life when we do not have the answers we want. There are times when we must push forward without knowing what we are doing, what the outcome of our actions will be, or without knowing how to do what we are supposed to do. Obviously, we want to avoid this kind of flying blind circumstance if we can avoid it. However, life moves ever forward, sometimes without our control. During these times of not having the answers we need, the direction we need, and the knowledge we need, we must run on faith. Faith is of incalculable value in any circumstance, but in circumstances when we must face the unknown, faith enables us to be all we can be. Faith gives us the power to live our life with direction, purpose, and answers when we have yet to find. One of the biggest tests of life is not what we do when we have all the answers. The biggest test of life is how we manage in circumstances when our answers are unknown. In the uncontrollable and unknowable circumstances of life, faith is the answer, faith is the hope, and faith is the future.

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Sub-topic: The Ingredients Of Faith

Article Content: The five ingredients of faith are desire, expectation, looking forward, confidence, and vision. All these ingredients can be put together for godly or evil purposes. The work you do in life can be a work for God or a work for Satan. Having and using these ingredients of faith does not make us godly. Faith alone does not make a difference in our lives. Where we place our faith makes all the difference. In whom you place your faith, or in what you place your faith, determines whether your life is lived for Christ or fpr Satan. So where do you put your faith? Do you put your faith in yourself? Do you put your faith in technology? Do you put your faith in another person? Do you put your faith in God? Truthfully, we can and do put our faith in all of these. However, putting our faith in God should come first. The ingredients of faith, when put together, will move mountains. If we desire the will of God to be burning within us then the Lord will be with us and guide us. In faith, we look forward to the work He gives us to do. In faith, we have a vision of ourselves taking action doing the Lord's work. In faith, we have a confidence and sureness when the power of God is within us. In faith, mountains move.

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Sub-topic: The Irony Within Our Faith

Article Content: It seems we have no power over death. We must stand back and watch death come and take others away and we cannot change what happens. Death happens to everyone. The grim reaper mows down the famous and the infamous. The rich, the poor, the powerful, and the powerless, all stand to be cut down by death. Death is the great leveler of mankind. Every human will face an end. If we look at death only in a secular way, death is a terrible tragedy for the person who dies as well as for friends and loved ones of the deceased. However, in the Christian faith, death is not the end. In the Christian faith, death is the beginning of a glorious new life. What irony there is in our faith! The most tragic moment of our earthly life becomes the most glorious moment in our spiritual life. What wonderful irony!

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Sub-topic: The Power From Our Faith

Article Content: Our faith gives us a power to deal with or overcome many obstacles in life. Christ gave us examples of His power available to us. The power available to us through Christ and the Holy Spirit can produce miracles. Luke 1:37 For nothing is impossible with God.(NIV) Just about everyone, at some point in his or her life, would like to tap into Christ's power. The fact we have the power available to us does not always mean we are going to get answers to our prayers like we want them answered. Nor does having the power available to us mean we can use the power for anything we want at any time we want. The power we have from God is real. The power has tangible effects. The power works, however, only as God wills His power to work, and only when He wants His power to work. The fact remains we do have the power of God available to us because of our faith. We have a power Jesus quantified as strong enough to move mountains. Mark 11:22 "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

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Sub-topic: The Power Of Miracles

Article Content: We all have power. However, we do not all have the kind of power Jesus spoke about when He talked about having faith the size of a mustard seed. When we have a deep faith touching the spirit of God, we plug our souls, spirits, hearts, minds, and lives into the power of God. When we reject deep faith we have cut ourselves off from the power of love we call God. God or His power of love heals and restores. Without a connection to God through Christ and the Holy Spirit, we are nearly powerless over the circumstances of life. With no deep faith there is no source of power to heal relationships, heal the body, assure us of eternal life, or make miracles happen.

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Sub-topic: The Power Of Prayerful Meditation

Article Content: Although we may not want to, we too often lead lives apart from God. In our life, we can have enormous faith but still never make the kind of contact with God forever changing and transforming us into new persons day by day. God is the power of the universe. One of the ways you can make contact with His power is through prayerful meditation. So powerful is prayerful meditation this form of emotional open heart surgery can even reverse heart disease! When you meditate in a prayerful way and in a prayerful mood, all of God's power can flow into you. All the love God is can become a real experience in your heart and soul when you prayerfully meditate. When you meditate, think about the hope offered by God. When you meditate, surrender all you are up to Him. When you meditate, think about how much God accepts you into His arms. Soon you will find you have made contact...real, live contact with the living God.

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Sub-topic: The Relation Between Faith And Taking Charge

Article Content: How are faith and taking charge related? You must have faith to begin to take charge of what you consider to be the impossible, the improbable, the unlikely, and the unknown. Taking charge of what you already control, know, own, or possess is not such a big problem. However, when you try to take charge of what you consider to be the unknown, there can be a risk, often a huge risk. With risk comes fear and anxiety. With fear and anxiety comes the desire for inaction, withdrawal, or running away. However, our faith in God is like a shield. Our faith in God is like a shield for us when we have to take a risk. Our faith may never make our fear and anxiety go away, but our faith can give us the courage to act in spite of our fears. Our faith can give us the courage to do what we are afraid of doing by taking charge of ourselves, even if we cannot take charge of what might be happening outside of ourselves in terms what we perceive to be the impossible, the improbable, the unlikely, and the unknown.

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Sub-topic: The Two Sides Of Faith

Article Content: Faith is like a coin. Every coin has two sides. In the same way, faith has two sides. The two sides of faith are surrender and control. The two sides of a coin are opposite each other. The two sides of faith are also opposite each other. In faith, we surrender all we are to Christ because we love Him and we experience His love in us. In His name, because we love Him, we take control of our life. We give over our life to Christ in trust and devotion. However, we also take control of our life to fight evil, correct wrong behaviors within ourselves, and take a stand against satanic evil outside of ourselves. In faith, we surrender our life to gain control over the influence of evil in our life and gain control over the influence of evil in our hearts. In faith, you do not have to be helpless, hopeless, or out of control because when you have surrendered your all to Christ, you gain control, gain hope, and you are more enabled than those persons who are without faith.

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Sub-topic: Tragedy And Trauma As A Test

Article Content: Are trauma, tragedy, and misfortune a test of faith and obedience from God? It is this writer's position, held by only a few, we can clearly and unequivocally say "No". No, God does not pour out trauma, tragedy, and misfortune on you or others to test you. People do encounter the wrath of God in the form of trauma, tragedy, and misfortune. However, this encounter with the wrath of God is often a result of their actions. There are other encounters in life when we meet tragedy, trauma, and misfortune not from the wrath of God. God hold's us responsible for all our actions. When we step over God's boundary lines, there is a penalty called the wrath of God. God's wrath coming from our disobedience is not a test from God. God's wrath coming from disobedience is a message we failed the test. God's wrath coming from disobedience is not a test but a demonstration of His consequences. God's wrath coming from disobedience is like a report card God gives us to tell us we have failed. To make amends with God when we disobey, we must confess our sins to God and get back within His boundary lines by being obedient. God does not administer a test in your life as if you were in school. The whole system of life God created is a test. The fact God allowed Satan in the Garden of Eden as a demonstration of His trust and faith in us established the whole system of life as a test. God does not need to single you out to test you because He already knows you. God knows in advance whether you would succeed or fail a test through traumatic circumstances. God knows your mettle. He knows your strengths and weaknesses. He most certainly does not want to see you fall or fail. Tragedy and trauma come to us, not from God, but from our real adversary, the source of all evil, pain, suffering, and death, our real adversary Satan.

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Sub-topic: Tragedy, Trauma, & Misfortune As A Test Of Faith

Article Content: Are trauma, tragedy, and misfortune a test of faith and obedience? Yes, trauma, tragedy, and misfortune are a test of faith and obedience. However, this answer is almost too easy, too ready, and too superficial. This answer is too easy, for the question is not complete. The real question, the complete question is, "Is trauma, tragedy, and misfortune a test of faith and obedience FROM GOD"? Those last two words, "FROM GOD", are the key words. These words are the stickler words. For in times of tragedy or misfortune the doubts and questions about God mount and for many people the questions remain unanswered. The short answer is "No!" for God is not in the business of hurting, killing, and maiming. Notice in the book of Job, it was Satan who delivered the blows.

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Sub-topic: Trauma And Our Need For Support

Article Content: The victim of any kind of trauma needs support, maybe for the rest of a person's life. If we experience trauma, deluding ourselves into thinking everything is fine when everything is not fine. The important point here is getting the support. We can never be emotionally healthy enough in normal times even when we have never experienced trauma. When we have to go through trauma, we need help even more than we would need help in normal times as if we had never experienced the trauma in the first place. The point is, if one has trauma, one should get help and support.

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Sub-topic: Undying Faith

Article Content: Faith in God and faith in Christ must be undying. Faith in God, the kind of faith moving mountains, is the undying faith keeping us believing no matter what. Undying faith works. Undying faith heals. Undying faith produces miracles. Undying faith is the key to the power of love. Undying faith makes all things possible. Undying faith is the key unlocking the door to the kingdom of Heaven. However, we must put the undying faith key into the heavenly lock and turn the key to see the Kingdom of Heaven. In a practical sense, faith is what keeps us going every day. When we have undying faith then our undying faith removes the barriers between us and God. When we have undying faith, our faith removes the barriers of our life so we constantly move forward. When we have undying faith, whether we get what we hope for, makes no difference. With undying faith we are going to maintain our faith no matter what happens to us in our life. Matthew 9:27 - 29 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, son of David!" When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" "Yes , Lord, "They replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, According to your faith will it be done to you." (NIV)

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Sub-topic: We Have Faith

Article Content: Some people will believe anything. What some people will believe is quite amazing. A grocery store tabloid had the following headlines: Dinosaurs honked like Buicks, Cow mattresses help cows produce more milk. Mom on diet of only chicken lays huge egg. WWII bomber found on the moon. Woman gives birth to 2 year old baby, child walks & talks in 3 days. Adam & Eve's bones found in Asia: Eve was a space alien. People will read and believe nonsense, but refuse the evidence concerning God and Jesus Christ. To "have" means: to hold, to be in possession, to grasp hold of, to control, to own, to entertain in the mind. "Faith" means: assurance. In Christ, we have blessed assurance. In Him we have no fear, or anxiety whatsoever about the storms of life. We believe with certitude Christ is real, alive, and working this minute on our behalf. We have no uncertainty at all in our mind or heart about Christ. We do not need a supermarket tabloid to tell us fantastic things for we know in our heart and believe in Christ in our heart. We have faith.

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Sub-topic: What Difference Does Faith Make?

Article Content: The air we breathe is absolutely necessary, for without air we will surely die. Water to drink and food to eat is absolutely necessary, for without water and food we will surely die. However, what about faith in God? Is faith in God absolutely necessary? We need air, water, and food to survive and to live, but do we need faith in God to survive and live? Some people don't have any faith and they stay alive just like people who have faith. A key question we must ask about faith and life is whether we want to just survive or do we want to really live? For many people, just getting by is enough. Many people are living a minimal life and they are so full of sin and hopelessness they do not care about much more than getting minimal amounts of food, air, water, and sinful pleasures. Many people live on the brink of spiritual death. They live from one day to the next, just getting by financially, physically, and spiritually. As a possessor of faith, you can live a full, happy, joyous life in spite of hardship, trouble, pain, and heartache. If you want to really live, rather than just survive, then you need faith in God.

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Sub-topic: What God Has Not Given You

Article Content: What talents and traits do you NOT have that impact upon your life? Knowing what God has not given us can often tell us as much about His will as knowing what He has given us. If God has not given you raw musical talent, then any hopes or dreams you might have about being a professional musician with a symphonic orchestra may not be what God wants you to do. However, just because you do not have talents or a trait in a given field does not mean you should not strive to be the best you can be in other areas. People often make up for their lack of talent or innate ability by hard work. People also make up for their lack of talents or traits by overcompensating in other areas of their life. People who love music who do not have the "Ear" or other natural abilities may still be a part of the music industry by being producers, accountants, agents, sound engineers, and so on. Too often, people want what they do not have. People are often discontented with what they do have while wanting what they do not have. If God did not give you certain talents and traits then what you do not have points you away from certain endeavors while pointing you toward other endeavors. What you do not have means God wants you to do "something else". To hope and dream about playing basketball in the NBA is better and more admirable than dreaming about being a drug pusher. However, is being an NBA player what God wants for you if you are 5'6" tall, weigh 130 pounds and have no athletic talent? Having hopes and dreams is fundamental to our success but our hopes and dreams have to be realistic. Our hopes and dreams should be in the direction of God's will. Most of us know more about what we do not have then what we do have. However, knowing what we do not have is important only if we have a clear idea of what we do have. If you lay your list of have's and your have not's along side each other there are indicators giving you direction, meaning, purpose, and hope...all from God.

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Sub-topic: What Good Is Faith?

Article Content: Unfortunately, in the back of their minds, many people have the following questions in their mind. What good is faith if faith doesn't produce something? What good is faith if faith doesn't change someone or something? What good is faith if faith doesn't produce a result? What good is faith if faith doesn't give me what I want? Answer: We should not have faith in God to get something from God. We should have faith in God because we love Christ back because He first loved us. In faith, without expecting anything back, we should want to do the work of God because He loves us and because we love Him.

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Sub-topic: What The Lord Trusts You To Do And To Be

Article Content: When you are praying, remember to pray in humility. Remember what you want and what the Lord wants from you, can be two different things. 1 Corinthians 4:2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. (NIV) The Lord has given you a trust. He has trusted you with the ability to reach the souls of others. Each day the Lord gives you an opportunity to be a witness to souls around you. He trusts you to show His truth and love. God trusts you to shine His light in an unsaved world, a world dying and crying for salvation. In your world, people are dying in spirit. They are hungering and thirsting for the living water of Christ. In your world, people are hungering and thirsting to see Christ come alive in another person, and that person is you. Unbelievably, churches close their doors because congregations decline. In decline, the church cannot support the pastor. In a spiritually starving world, too few people see the spiritually starving masses. In a spiritually starving world, too few people hear the cries for spiritual food and spiritual water. God trusts you to be aware of starving souls around you. He trusts you to reach out to them.

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Sub-topic: When There Is No Earthly Winning

Article Content: In our faith, and in many of our lives, there is no earthly winning. So, do you keep going or just quit? Knowing in advance there is no way of winning in a worldly sense, knowing in advance there is no pay-off and no benefit, what do you do? For many people on earth there is no pay-off, there is only a pay-out. Should they still keep at it? Before you answer, consider our journey on earth is about learning, growing, and the education of our souls. Your journey on earth is about finding a way to glorify Christ. Learn now how to look deep into the mind of Christ because what the world might value or think is important, is of no consequence to God. The material things so highly valued by the world make no difference to God. The earthly treasures we store up will eventually rot, decay, or will be destroyed. Our pay-off comes later, when we see Him face to face.

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Sub-topic: When Wrath Can Be Good

Article Content: A man lied about who he was. He represented himself to be someone he was not in a business transaction. At the time this man committed this sin, he felt justified in committing the sin. He had good reasons for misrepresenting himself. He even had noble reasons for doing what was not in God's will. However, just after he did these wrong things, God spoke to Him and he listened to God. God spoke to him through his conscience. When God spoke to him through his conscience, the wrath of God fell upon him and he was devastated by what he had done. When his conscience stabbed him and pierced his heart, he took action by telling the truth to and apologizing to those people to whom he lied. The end result of this wrath was a good result. The people who were lied to got to see a godly man recant, become humble, and tell the truth. Their life was impacted. The end result for the man who lied was he never repeated that sinful mistake again. For you, because you know this story, this man's wrath can also be good if you follow this man's example and always do the right thing. Further, if you do not do the right thing and you make a mistake, learn from this man's example, own up, apologize, and do not repeat the mistake again.

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Sub-topic: When You Don't Need Answers

Article Content: Matthew 22:39 And the second commandment is like the first. 'love your neighbor as yourself.' (NIV) When you don't need answers because you have real faith, you can live totally for God. When you don't need answers because you have real faith, then your decisions are always based upon what should be done to glorify God. If all the decisions you make are dedicated to living for Jesus and living totally for him, then making decisions when the tough times roll in aren't as difficult. Every decision we make in tough times and in tough circumstances ought to be totally for Him. If you don't need answers because you have the answer then any remaining questions you have are questions about what God wants from you and what you want to do for God. When you don't need answers, your direction and purpose in life are directed not by the outside world, but by God working within your inside world.

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Sub-topic: Where Is God?

Article Content: This question is a result of our thirsting for God. In one of the many contradictions we find in our faith, a godly and devout person has a hunger within the heart for God's presence, power, and wisdom. In Psalms 42:2, we read, "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." (NIV) When can I go and meet with God? Where is God, when God isn't there to give you a direct answer? All people struggle with this question. The Psalmist also wrote in Psalms 42:9 - 11, "I say to God my rock, 'Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?' My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, 'Where is your God?' Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my savior and my God. (NIV) There has always been a separation between God and man. Jesus came as a savior and messenger to bridge the gap between man and God. The Holy Spirit today serves as the bridge since Jesus cannot be physically with us. But the separation between man and God still exists because of our sin. Although many people do not like to hear the word, "repent", the act of repentance brings us closer to God. With enough repentance, we are brought to the very heart of God.

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Sub-topic: Why We Believe

Article Content: Can you imagine working your whole life at something and not seeing any results? Can you imagine working day in, day out, and not seeing any personal benefit? Aren't most of us who are Christians now because we want something out of our faith? Aren't we here because we want to live forever in heaven with God and with the angels? Of course, for most of us, the answer is "Yes"; we are in the faith because we want a pay-off. However, we should only be in the faith only because Christ died for us "period" regardless of whether we get a pay-off. We should all be in the faith, no matter whether we get eternal life from our faith or not.

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Sub-topic: Wisdom As A Result Of Faith

Article Content: Psalm 25:9 He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. 10 All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant. (NIV) Notice in this verse, the Psalmist says we must be students. The word "students" is not used, but we are told God will teach us. As our faith becomes deeper our minds become more "humble" and we become better students. When we are willing to go God's way rather than our own way, tremendous wisdom is the result. As we gain wisdom, our common sense is honed and developed. We are able to discern the truth from a lie. We are able to see spiritually, not just physically.

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Sub-topic: Without Faith

Article Content: Without faith, we can look forward to an end to life. a real end, a total end. Without faith, we can look forward to a life without meaning or purpose. Without faith, we can look forward to living a life without direction. Without faith, you can look forward to a life where the only person you have in the world is yourself...a life where the only hope you have is getting more things. Without faith, we live a life where there is no true love given out to others and thus no true love received back from them. Without faith, we live a life where there is no true love given out to God and no love received back from Him. Nothing really important happens in life, in business, in the heart, in the family, or in the church without faith. We can build great monuments, great businesses, great church buildings, even great church congregational numbers, but nothing of substance really happens without faith in God. In Hebrews 11:1 we find a biblical definition of faith. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (NIV)

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Sub-topic: Working Faith Or Faithfully Working

Article Content: The book of James balances off our confusion about the matter of faith and works. James reminds us Christians must have both faith and works. We are not saved by works, but James reminds us also we are not saved if good works do not follow from our faith. Some people argue the point all that is needed by us is salvation alone. They argue this point vehemently. The word "believe" comes from two words, "be" and "live". Faith helps us to "be" spiritually. After we receive a new life in Christ, James tells us we are to find an expression of our life or "being" in Christian works and deeds. To show there is no conflict in the scriptures between the faith and works, Paul, the advocate of faith, speaks of "Being rich in works," and James, the exponent of works, says we are to be, "rich in faith." Why should we be content with either faith or works when God has provided for, and says we must have both? You can trust, believe, talk, even bleed for your hearts desire, but unless you work and sweat, all the faith in the world is not going to produce any result until you work. Look at how revolting these statements of "faith only" sound. "I always had faith someone else would reach out to the poor." "I always had faith someone else would witness to my children." "I always had faith someone else would do the work in the church." These statements are not statements of faith. These statements are statements of laziness. These statements are statements of shirking responsibility.

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Sub-topic: A Fear Of The Future

Article Content: Innate to human life is a fear of our future after death. On a non-spiritual, human level you are right to fear your future after your death because you do not have what a scientist would call "hard data" on what is beyond your last breath. However, when you accept Christ, you have no reason to fear your future beyond death. When you accept Christ, you have a hope and a certainty you will live forever in a new mansion in Heaven.

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# Chapter 34: Fear

Sub-topic: Conquering Fear

Article Content: Fear generates episodes of laziness in our life because fear essentially freezes us in place. Over time, fear generates laziness where laziness becomes a habit then the laziness persists and becomes a lifestyle. There are many times when we experience fear. We can experience fear in the face of uncertainty. We can fear the judgment of God. We can fear a change in our lives. We can fear the discomfort of the new in the face of the comfort of the old. We are too often lazy in the face of fear because fear freezes us into inaction. To face our fear requires we build a new person within us, and to build a new person within us requires work and courage. We are frozen by fear because we fear we may not be able to handle the unknown. We are also frozen by fear because we fear we may change beyond what we are in the present. When we live in fear we are frozen in place in our life. In fear, we are never able to grasp the promise of life. To face our fear, we must have courage as a daily component of our life. We must have daily courage and challenge ourselves to face uncertainty and do what is uncertain with uncertain outcomes. We must have daily courage and understand there is no judgment of God if we seek His forgiveness and redemption while we are alive. We must have daily courage and make efforts to change our life even when we are afraid of making changes. We must have daily courage and replace the old with the new in our life. We must have daily courage and learn having courage is doing what we fear. We must have daily courage to learn our fear is 99% illusion. We must learn there is, in fact, nothing to fear at all. For after we have done what we fear, we most often learn our fear was groundless and our fear was just our imagination working against us.

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Sub-topic: Fear Of The Lord

Article Content: The term "fear of the Lord" is in the Old Testament and is used as a designation of true piety (Prov. 1:7; Job 28:28; Ps. 19:9). Fear of the Lord is a fear conjoined with love and hope, and is therefore not a slavish dread, but rather filial reverence. (Comp. Deut. 32:6; Hos. 11:1; Isa. 1:2; 63:16; 64:8.) God is called "the Fear of Isaac" (Gen. 31:42, 53), i.e., the God whom Isaac feared. A holy fear is enjoined also in the New Testament as a preventive of carelessness in religion, and as an incentive to penitence (Matt. 10:28; 2 Cor. 5:11; 7:1; Phil. 2:12; Eph. 5:21; Heb. 12:28, 29). Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries Fair Use.

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Sub-topic: In Times Of Fear

Article Content: Children are afraid of the dark. Children learn early they could stumble, fall, and get hurt as they try to move about in the dark. In addition, children hear stories about monsters, ghosts, or creepy crawly things in the dark. As an adult, there are going to be times when you are afraid. Whether you are a child or an adult, the dark is the unknown and adults are afraid of the dark unknown just as are children. Adults are afraid of what lies ahead in uncertain times and especially in times where we have to face death, sickness, or choices we don't want to make. The prophecy of Zechariah foretells of the coming of Jesus into the world. The prophecy speaks to us about how Jesus is working in our lives in the darkness of the here and now. Luke 1:78-79 ...because of the tender mercy of our god, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace." (NIV) In any dark circumstance Jesus is with us, He will always be there to guide us, and He will be a Lamp unto our feet...even when we face death.

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Sub-topic: The Antidote For Fear

Article Content: No one could say George Smith didn't have courage. A daring jet test pilot in the 1950's, back when the sound barrier was first being broken, he could face anything - until he had to bail out of a jet going 805 miles per hour (Guideposts 1958). Though he survived, he was afraid of ever flying again. Then, during his hospital stay, a nurse gave him an antidote to fear. He took her words to heart: "Courage," she said, "Is knowing the worst - and discovering that, in God's world, the very worst can't really hurt you."

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Sub-topic: We Are Not Afraid

Article Content: What makes us afraid? It isn't pleasant to talk about what is fearful, but if we run from what makes us afraid, what makes us afraid can get us and can devour us. In our life we are afraid of job loss, illness, death, terrorism, separation from others, loss of income, and loss of money, plus many other things. We are also afraid of what others may do to us, afraid to speak our mind due to embarrassment, and in many ways, we are afraid of change. The older we get, the more fearful we can become. When we are young, we tend to have less fear, but even the young can be afraid. However, with God and with Christ, we need not be afraid. With God and with Christ, we need not be afraid of change because when we grow in God's love and grace, our growth is a most wonderful and pleasant gift from God. With God and with Christ, we look forward to the future, not with dread, but with anticipation. With God and with Christ, we look forward to a new day every day to do His will and do His work.

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# Chapter 35: Finding God

Sub-topic: Seeking And Finding God

Article Content: Living in expectation the sky will fall upon you is no way to live life. For some people, waiting for the next shoe or bomb to drop is a way of life. Certainly, there may come a time in our life when we may live under threats of bombs and misfortune. Due to recent events, our sensibilities have been heightened about the threats around us. However, waiting for the next crisis is no way to get the most out of life. If we truly want to find God, we will not find Him by waiting on another crisis to occur. We find God by seeking out his righteousness and His kingdom within us. In our daily life, we are not supposed to sit back and wait for life to bring the next crisis along. We are not supposed to sit back and see what happens next. We are not supposed to fear the future. To meet the future positively we are to seek the future out with positive expectations. This means you are not supposed to let life come at you. You are to meet life aggressively before life "gets to you." In your spiritual life, you are to go to God who lives within you. To find God, you are to always try to do the right thing. When you always try to seek out the right way to live, love, and care for other people, you find God. Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (NIV)

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Sub-topic: Seeking And Finding God In Daily Life

Article Content: When you devote every minute of your life to seeking God, you will find Him. Seek His forgiveness with all the power and earnestness you have, and you will find His forgiveness and find Him. The result of finding His love and His kingdom is all things are added to you if you seek Him first. What does this mean? Seeking God and seeking His love first means you seek His love the first thing in the morning and you seek Him and His love the last thing at night. When something good happens during the day...your first thought ought to be Him. When something bad happens during the day...your first thought ought to be Him. When you eat breakfast...when you eat lunch...when you eat dinner...your first thought ought to be Him. When you see the sun, the rain, or the clouds...your first thought ought to be Him. When you turn on the television...when you turn on the radio....when you go to get in the car...your first thought ought to be Him. In all you do in life, make seeking the love of God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, your first priority...and you will find Him. For everything you do can either be done seeking the Lord or seeking something for yourself. If you seek Him, you will find Him.

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# Chapter 36: Foolishness

Sub-topic: How Foolish Can We Be?

Article Content: Everything belongs to God. Every part of our life belongs to God. Everything we think, say, and do, belongs to God. However, we do not really want to believe this. Accepting all things belong to God is difficult because we have our personal wants, our personal needs, our personal material things. Let's look at an example of how foolish we are when we do not see how all things belong to God. Here is an example of how things really are in life. You are sitting in a room filled with all kinds of electronic devices, gadgets, gizmos, and equipment. There is another person in the room with you. The other person sits behind a control panel and the control panel has a power wire going to every item in the room. All the things in the room are under the control of the person at the control panel. You can choose to ignore the person at the control panel, or you can choose to recognize the person has control over everything in your environment. To ignore this person at the control panel with all this power would be utterly and totally foolish. However, in our scenario, we have left out a key element. In the room is not just the control panel person, but also another person, a great adversary, who is trying to hurt us and get us to ignore the control panel person who has all the power. Some people, by the way they live and act, not only ignore the source of all the power (God), they befriend the great adversary (Satan) who wants to hurt, maim, and kill. Our little scenario breaks down a bit because in our life, we also have control, responsibilities, and a will to make decisions. What does not break down is how foolish we can be when we ignore God has the real power.

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# Chapter 37: Forgive

Sub-topic: Forgive Yourself

Article Content: You must forgive yourself. We all need to let go of the horrible yardstick of perfection we carry within us. All of us have hurt others and we have fallen short. The more decent we are the more we feel the pain we have caused others. When you forgive yourself, you release yourself from the prison of remorse and shame. Remorse and shame destroy you. Remorse and shame tear apart your soul. Both remorse and shame are a form of self-hate. Regret is what we feel about what we have done when we have committed a wrong. We may not meet our expectations of ourselves but not meeting our expectations of ourselves does not mean we are condemned for it. We have great potential for good, for kindness, for forgiveness, for love, and for healing, but not if we live in a sea of guilt and self-condemnation.

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Sub-topic: Forgiveness Is...

Article Content: Forgiveness is an unseen act because you cannot see forgiveness taking place. Forgiveness is an inner process occurring in the heart. Once forgiveness takes place, forgiveness can then lead to an action of expressing forgiving words to the person who inflicted hurt upon you. Forgiveness is an attitude of the heart because a forgiving heart does not accumulate the burdens of hurts others inflict. Instead of a piling up of the hurts others inflict, the forgiving heart readily dispenses with the pain inflicted or does not feel the pain at all. Forgiveness is a mind-set. The forgiveness mind-set understands the deadly cost of the mental and emotional burdens of seeking revenge for hurts inflicted. The forgiveness mind-set is fully aware of the value of forgiveness and embraces forgiveness as one of the underpinnings of all relationships. Added together, all of these ingredients of forgiveness equal a way of life.

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# Chapter 38: Forgiveness

Sub-topic: God Knows You

Article Content: Our God knows we sin and make mistakes, but God is a forgiving God. Our God is a forgiving God...forgiving each of us for our trespasses if we will but ask Him and turn away from our sin. God does not want to hand out a punishment to us because our God is a God who loves us. When we pray, we can feel and experience His love and forgiveness inside our heart. God is now and has always been within your heart. He has been within your heart no matter how bad your suffering might have been. In suffering, you have a great battle in being responsive to God because your suffering is the result of Satan's attempt to separate you from God. However, especially in your suffering, your God is a personal God who wants to be alive inside of your heart and life. No matter how it seems, in suffering, God is not impersonal or far away. God is personal and He knows our name. God is personal and He loves us even if, in our suffering, we doubt Him and turn away from Him. How can this be? Is not God's continual love for us even when we turn away the greatest wonder of all time? Is not the greatest wonder of all time God loving us in spite of our behavior against Him? God does not condemn us with darkness and suffering. Instead, God wants us out of the darkness and suffering. God does not punish us with the darkness. He wants us out of the darkness and into the Light. The darkness of pain, suffering, loneliness, and isolation is not an act of God. Most importantly, God can use your darkness in powerful ways. God can, if you let Him, use your darkness to inspire you to turn to the Light, to change your life, to give you a place in eternity.

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Sub-topic: How Forgiveness Can Help Us Take Charge

Article Content: What kinds of people, things, and situations upset you? Do you think people who are wrong, incorrect, or misguided need to be straightened out? Is your anger at people who are wrong, incorrect, or misguided justified? Can you choose your thoughts and feelings when you think about people who are wrong, incorrect, or misguided? Do memories nag at you and make you mad or angry? Do people make you mad or angry? Are you severely critical and condemning toward others? Do you have a hard time admitting you are wrong? Do you remind other people of times they have made mistakes, of times they are thoughtless, or times they have needed correction? If you answered "yes" to some of these questions and if you look within your life, you may find you do not control some of the feelings and the thoughts you experience when thinking about others. If you answered "yes" to some of these questions, then you can gain more control over your life and heart by being forgiving. When you are truly forgiving, you are truly a person with a forgiving heart. When you have a forgiving heart and another person does something you might think is wrong, incorrect, or misguided, your forgiving heart blots out the other person's behavior. When you have a forgiving heart, you have peace. With peace, love has a chance to grow.

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Sub-topic: How Forgiveness Connects To Loneliness

Article Content: Forgiveness dispels loneliness. The heart always for giving rather than always for taking is not a heart cut off. The selfish heart does not easily forgive if the selfish heart forgives at all. However, when we are for giving, we brush aside all the circumstances in our life causing us to be lonely. When we are for giving, we bridge the gap between us and others. When we are for giving, we do not think about what we want. When we for giving, we think more about giving to others than we think about taking for ourselves.

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Sub-topic: Pushing Aside Revenge

Article Content: Romans 12:17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (NIV) Notice the enormous truths in this verse. Verse 18 There is a limit to pushing aside revenge because pushing aside revenge may not always be possible. If an evil person is intent on harming you or others, you may have to defend yourself or defend others when attacked. Verse 19 Revenge belongs to God and when God avenges evil, God does avenge. Verse 20 Doing good to your enemy burns the enemy. Verse 21 Evil is overcome with good. You can be overcome by evil, thus losing control.

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# Chapter 39: Frustration

Sub-topic: How To Constructively Handle Frustration

Article Content: 1. Sit down in a quiet place or during a quiet moment. 2. Identify the need being blocked. A blocked need is the cause of frustration. 3. Identify what satisfies the need. There can be many ways to satisfy the need. 4. Identify constructive ways to satisfy the need. 5. Identify the destructive ways to satisfy the need. 6. Answer the question, "How long can I hold off satisfying this need?" 7. Answer the question, "Do I want to build or do I want to destroy because of this frustration?" For persons who have little self-control and who are deeply immersed in themselves, there is little if any attempt to do any of the above activities. Persons with little or no self-control have little power to hold off on satisfying the need. Some of the most destructive behaviors and destructive personal acts we take are borne out of frustration. Because we can so easily self-destruct we must confront frustration with logic and strategy rather than confronting frustration with just an unthinking reaction to our impulses generated by the frustration.

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Sub-topic: Inappropriate Ways We Use To Handle Frustration

Article Content: * Aggression: Attack toward a person or object. Forms of aggression are verbal and physical. Examples: gossip, digs, slights, off color remarks, swearing, and making negative value-judgments

●Regression: Reverting back to earlier forms of behavior. Examples: temper tantrums and pouting. This person always got his or her way when he or she threw a fit as a child.

●Fixation: Repeating the same non-constructive behavior over and over again. Example: trying to put a large bolt into a small hole long after it becomes apparent the large bolt was too large for the small hole.

●Resignation: Giving up, becoming apathetic, or not caring anymore.

●Negativism: Adoption of a negative, resistive frame of reference. Example: Thinking negatively when a positive expectation is realistic.

●Repression: Blocking out the conscious thought of a problem in hopes the problem will go away. Example: Thinking positively in light of a problem needing action.

●Withdrawal: Withdrawing from a situation either physically or psychologically. Example: A loner

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# Chapter 40: Future

Sub-topic: A Glory-filled Future

Article Content: Some people do not need much of a vision of the future. Some people only need to see past the next hour or two and they can be satisfied and happy. The older you get, perhaps you need less of a vision of the future than would a younger person. However, when you have come to a place in life when you are starting over, you need a positive vision of your future. When starting over, you need a positive vision for each day. Then you need a positive vision for the next day, the next week, and the next months and years. Adversity has a way of making us blind to our present and blind to any vision of our future. When you lose someone or lose an opportunity you must remember you may need a new vision of your future because all of your yesterdays and most of your tomorrows were wrapped up in the person or opportunity you lost. For some of us who believe in Christ, our future is in Him. In Christ, we have a glory-filled future full of beauty, love, and a peace we cannot begin to describe or imagine.

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Sub-topic: God In Your Future

Article Content: When you look into your future, do you see God working and present in every circumstance? When you look into your future, do you see a God who is absent or asleep on the throne? If many people today told the truth, even if they are not in suffering, they would tell of a God who is way up in the sky somewhere and who may or may not have a place in their future. The way many people live today shows us they may believe in God but they have no connection to God in the present or any hope for a connection to God in the future. God is not asleep on the throne in the sky. God can be a real dynamic force in your life today, tomorrow, and on into your future. No matter what happens in your future, your future can be full of optimism and promise if you see God in your future. God does not disappoint. God will never fail you. God will be with you until the very end of this life. Then, after this life is over, both you and God will rejoice in Heaven forever.

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Sub-topic: Our Future In The Here And Now

Article Content: Whether we realize it or not, each of us determines our future by what we do, think, feel, and believe in the here and now. You are doing today what you planned for yesterday. Even if you did not plan for anything yesterday, your lack of a plan resulted in what you are doing today. If you do not like what you are doing today, you could have planned yesterday to do something different today. In planning our future, each day is the product of the previous day's hope and your action or inaction on that hope. This connection between yesterday's hope and yesterday's action or inaction is why hope is so important in your life. What you hoped for and your actions in the yesterdays of your past determine where you are and what you are doing today and tomorrow. Someone caught up in hopelessness plans little and lives only from one day to the next. Each day of hopelessness is a day full of drudgery with little thought or planning about determining ones future. Each day of hopelessness is more of the same of what went on during days of hopelessness in the past. Eventually the grinding nature of a hopeless life kills the heart, soul, and spirit. However, you can choose to embrace hope in all you do, think, feel, and believe. For when you choose to embrace hope, you have chosen a way of life that need not have any end. You have chosen a life with hope, with plans, and with results.

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Sub-topic: Our Glorious Future

Article Content: We have a glorious future regardless of our present circumstances. In the scripture, we find words have a lot to do with our life at this time. The words are "He is not here, He is risen." These words have a lot to do with our future because we know we have a future in heaven. The way of human beings is to build hope for their life by doing things other than looking toward Christ. In Christ, we have a hope we accept in our heart. Our future as individual persons depends not upon what we can do for ourselves as an individual, but upon whether we accept Christ who died for us.

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Sub-topic: Our Present And Our Future

Article Content: No one knows when Christ will return. However, we can begin to use our common sense to see what is happening to the world in which we live. We do not need to be prophets to see what is happening in the here and now. We do not need to be prophets to see what our world will turn into as current trends continue. Crime, violence, immorality, sexually transmitted diseases, and a breakdown of the family just to name a few of the problems have drastically shaped our present and will even more drastically shape our future.

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Sub-topic: Your Future

Article Content: One of our real plights in life is how we deal with the end. Most people do not want to think about death because when you think about death, what is left after death? Is there just nothingness, blackness, or some kind of uncertain and horrible hellish unknown when we die? Alternatively, is there something wonderful and beautiful, a place lasting forever and ever? What happens to you at the moment of your death is a result of the choices your make today and what you treasure in your heart today. What happens to you later is really up to you now. You build your bridge to your future today. What is on the other side of this reality is a product of the decisions and actions you take today. Your future is in your hands, not written by fate or held in some kind of murky crystal ball.

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# Chapter 41: Giving

Sub-topic: Giving And Sacrificing

Article Content: In the First World War there was a young French soldier who was seriously wounded. His arm was so badly smashed the arm had to be amputated. The soldier was a magnificent specimen of young manhood, and the surgeon was grieved the young man must go through life maimed. So the surgeon waited beside the young man's bedside after the surgery to tell the young man the terrible news about having to amputate the arm. When the young man awakened from the anesthetic and the young lad's eyes opened, the surgeon said to him: "I am sorry to tell you that you have lost your arm." "Sir," said the lad, "I did not lose it; I gave it-for France." Jesus was not helplessly caught up in a mesh of circumstances from which He could not break free. Apart from any divine power He could have called upon, to the end of His earthly life Christ could have turned back and saved His life. However, Christ did not lose His life; He gave it. The cross was not thrust upon Him; He willingly accepted the cross for us. (Adapted from William Barclay, Gospel of John)

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Sub-topic: Giving Help

Article Content: Many of us fail to realize how much others need us and how much we need others. Because of our pride and ego, we do not easily admit we need help. None of us can go through modern life without others helping us and supporting us. We seldom grow our own food, weave our own cloth, and make our own furniture and appliances. In addition, you are surrounded by people who need your help. Remember when you give help to others you must try to do so anonymously. Try to help others so they do not know who you are. Giving of help without your receiving any ego rewards demonstrates God's true love and compassion. When you help others anonymously, others may come to believe the help received was not a human being who helped, but God or one of His angels. When you help others in anonymous ways you can come to understand more about God. In addition, you may even learn to do the work of His invisible angelic agents, His invisible angelic agents who surround all of us all the time.

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Sub-topic: Giving Thanks

Article Content: Matthew 14:19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to Heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. (NIV) The word "thanks" means kindly or grateful thought, gratitude, acknowledgement, or appreciation. Thanksgiving is not just a holiday. Thanksgiving is an act of giving kindly or grateful thought, or an act of acknowledging the source of blessings. Giving thanks ought to be a way of life. Giving thanks ought to be a way of life because the more thanks you give to the Lord, the more blessings He pours out upon you. Giving thanks is not so much something you do. Giving thanks is a way of looking at your world. Two people can have the very same things in life but see the world very differently. One person will always be unhappy because they see what they do not have and feel cursed by the void. Another person will always be happy because they will see what they do have and feel thankful and blessed by the fulfillment.

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Sub-topic: Giving Thanks After Surrendering Your Burdens

Article Content: After we have won a victory we need to give thanks in humble submission. When we raise our fist in personal victory and we give praise only to ourselves over what we have achieved, then we have not really won. What we do when we raise our fist in personal victory as we praise ourselves is generate another lie on its way to surely come back to haunt us in the future. Yes, we all have the power to heal. Yes, we can all find healing. Yes, we can all find the power. Yes, we can all win. Yes, we can all surrender our burdens. However, we can find healing from our wounds not because of ourselves. We can find healing from our wounds because God wills we be healed. God wants our healing to take place within us. Because God wants our healing within us, we need to give thanks. God has always wanted your healing. God has always wanted you to be free. There has never been a time in your life when God did not want you to be free of the grip of hell's influence and power over you. So when you win, you must look to God and give God the glory for giving you His power of hope, His power of love, His power of surrender, His power of grace, and His power of mercy. We are able to surrender and find healing not because of our own actions, but because God works in our life. To seal and signify our victories, even the tiniest of victories, we need to give thanks. We are able to find healing because we put our will in the direction of God's will. By directing our will in giving thanks, we walk with the healing wind of God's will at our back pushing us forward. We find walking with the power of God is easier then walking against the will of God.

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Sub-topic: Giving With Help

Article Content: Jesus encountered a rich man and told the rich man to inherit eternal life the rich man needed to give up all he owned. We cannot give up our selves or our possessions on our own. Giving up to God, giving up all we own and all we are requires help. We need the help of Jesus through the Holy Spirit to surrender our life up to Him. We need the Holy Spirit to help us see Jesus' eyes, because seeing Jesus' eyes makes all other things and ideas in the world unimportant. When we look into Jesus' eyes the things of earth grow dim. When we look into Jesus' eyes, giving up the things of earth is no longer difficult because giving is something we want to do for Christ and not ourselves.

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Sub-topic: We Will Give

Article Content: Millions have given their lives for their countries in time of war, or given their lives in times of political upheaval or purges. Hundreds of thousands throughout history have heroically given their life to save the life of another. Our Christian faith calls us to give up our life if necessary. A person who has no faith may sacrifice his or her life to save another. However, too often, a person with no faith will turn away when a sacrifice is needed. The character trait of selfishness remains strong in the person with no faith. With no faith, there is not a call upon the heart to give because Christ gave. Christians treasure life. We treasure life here on earth. We treasure our eternal life in Christ. We do not need a call to arms to make the ultimate sacrifice. We do not need danger to give up our life. In Christ, we will not turn away. We will not turn back. We will give.

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# Chapter 42: Goals

Sub-topic: Goals Not Achieved...

Article Content: When our goals are not achieved, we need to listen to God. In our disappointment over what we see as defeat, we naturally turn selfish and tune God out. When our goals are not achieved, we need to listen to God tell us perhaps our goals were not His goals. When our goals are not achieved, we must learn to not sit in selfish dejection. Instead of selfish dejection and disappointment, we must lift up our eyes to Heaven and understand every experience in life can either teach us good things or bad things. When we place our will in the direction of God's will, even our greatest goals not achieved can teach us good things and great wisdom. When our goals are not achieved our feelings of dejection and disappointment can be used for the glory of God. When we use dejection and disappointment to glorify God, God pours His power and glory over us. We are then able to savor His victory by achieving what He wanted us to achieve from the very beginning.

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# Chapter 43: God Vs. Satan

Sub-topic: God Vs. Satan (1)

Article Content: Satan and God are always opposing each other in you. Satan and God are always at war with each other in you. In this spiritual war, you and your soul are the object Satan and God want to win. Satan wants you to make the choice of evil. God wants you to make the choice for good or Him. Satan wants to turn you into a victim. God wants to turn you into a victor. Satan wants you to be rendered into a being with no free will. God wants you to be renewed and redeemed into a person with free will freely used. Satan wants you to be tossed and full of doubt and insecurity. God wants you to be anchored and secure in Him.

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Sub-topic: God Vs. Satan (2)

Article Content: Our world is a dark place. However, there is more going on around us than what we see with our physical eyes. For this reason, we need to take a second look at our life and what goes on within us. We need to take a second look at what is supposed to be the truth. Perhaps we will find there is more truth about life than we imagined. When we are honest and we truly look at the supernatural with as much wisdom and insight as possible, we can see the power of God doing battle against the power of Satan.

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# Chapter 44: God's Love

Sub-topic: He Surrounds And Enfolds You

Article Content: The Lord surrounds you and enfolds you. He protects the tenderness of your heart, even when you are sick and dying. He puts a cover or shield over you so the storms of life will not destroy you. Christ takes you in when no one else seems to care.

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# Chapter 45: God's Power

Sub-topic: God's Power

Article Content: We must remember God does have ultimate power but power is not exclusive only to God. Jesus was able to walk upon the water and stop a raging storm. When we want to know why God permits a natural disaster to occur we are presuming God has not shared any of His power with any other part of our reality. We would like, in some respects, to have a God who has total dominant power and who is totally managing all things. We want a God who prevents horrible circumstances of our life and who exchanges the horrible circumstances for blessedness or blessed circumstances. God does not intervene as we want because He is more glorified by our struggles and the maintenance of our faith.

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Sub-topic: God's Power And Us

Article Content: God has the power to do all things and to be in charge of all things. However, at this time and in our present existence, God is not controlling all things because each of us has free will. God has given each of us some control over our life. For reasons we do not understand, God has permitted the force of darkness to exist in our reality or in our world. We do not know entirely why our reality is structured as it is. It may be the darkness is a part of our reality because our reality somehow requires the darkness in order for our reality to exist. However, God does have ultimate power over all things. God's use of His power at any moment is always a possibility. We know God has given us some power over our lives, our world, and our existence. We must use the power we have been given in His name and within His will. God leaves our reality like our reality exists at the moment to preserve our power of choice.

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# Chapter 46: God's Voice

Sub-topic: A Real Voice

Article Content: When you touch a tangible object your sense of touch lets you know the object exists. What makes something "real" to you is the effect of the object upon your senses. When something is touchable, we say it is real. When something comes into our senses, we say it is real because we sensed it. Concerning your faith, the effect, or result of your faith is just as real as an object you touch with your hand. What is real in our heart can be just as real as what is real from our sense of touch. When God speaks to your heart, His voice can be just as real as the voice of another human being reaching your ears.

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Sub-topic: God's Hidden Messages

Article Content: God can and does send us messages, often hidden, pointing us in the direction He wants to go. Most people do not get letters, faxes, or email from God. This does not mean He cannot send letters, faxes, or email. and it does not mean He won't send them. Letters, faxes, and email from God just simply do not happen very often. However, God still communicates with us. God communicates with us if we are willing to listen. He communicates with us if we are willing to look at our life and be painfully honest with ourselves and with Him. If you could draw a map of your life from your previous days, weeks, months, and years you would see a pattern emerging. As an exercise, let us say you draw a map or list all your failures and successes. In the exercise, you would want to list your failures and successes in all your relationships. You would include all your connections to all the things of life. You would also want to list all the situations in which you have ever found yourself, both good situations and bad ones. In your list, you would also want to list all the mistakes you have made and the wrongs you have committed or thought. After you have done all this, you would see your life pointing in certain directions. Looking at your life map, you would see some of the directions in which you have gone are directions you wanted to pursue while other directions were directions not of your choice. In the final analysis, the course of the events of our life can be a lesson for us if we are willing to see the hidden forces of God at work. Hidden in the events of your life is the hand of God at work. Even in the darkest days and times, God is always trying to influence us. God is always trying to touch us. God is always trying to align our hopes and dreams with His will. Because of God's will always working on us and within us, we need to be sensitive and aware of the direction in which His will is pushing or pulling us. Let us use the example of drawing a life map to look at a real life circumstance about how we can be sensitive to God's touch. Let us say you find yourself sitting in jail. Let us assume you have lost your driving privileges because you were arrested for drunk driving. Let us also say you have lost several jobs because of your drinking problem. In jail, you find yourself alone, with no one coming to see you or caring about you. Sitting in jail, if you draw your life map, you should see a pattern. What you should see are many wrong turns. Looking at your map, you should see every time you make a wrong turn or make a mistake, bad things happen. However, every mistake, every wrong turn, every painful memory in life contains a message from God. Likewise, every success, every joy, every good memory contains a message from God. Figuring things out in life can sound incredibly simple. However, in reality figuring things out is not always easy because we often get obvious and blatant messages from God requiring we look at our life in realistic ways. Looking at your life map and all your correct and incorrect turns should show you the hand of God upon you.

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Sub-topic: Messages From God

Article Content: Has God ever sent you messages (either hidden or obvious) pointing you in a particular direction? Most people do not get letters or faxes from God. This does not mean He cannot send you a letter or fax, and it does not mean He won't. Getting letters and faxes from God just simply doesn't happen very often. However, God still communicates with you. He communicates with you if we are willing to listen. He communicates with you if you are willing to look at your life and be painfully honest with yourself and with Him. If you could draw a map of your past and present life, you would see a pattern emerging. Let us say you draw up or list all your failures and successes during your lifetime. In developing your list, let us include all of your failures and successes in all your relationships. In addition, as you draw up your list you would also want to include all of your connections to the things of life, and also list all the circumstances in which you have found yourself, including the good circumstances and bad ones. On your list or life map, you would also want to list all the mistakes you have made and the wrongs you have done and wrong things you have thought. After you have developed this extensive list or map, you would see your life pointing in certain directions. Some of the directions in which you have gone in your life are directions you wanted to pursue while other directions were directions not of your choice. In the final analysis, the course of the events of your life can be a lesson for you if you are willing to see the hidden forces of God and Satan at work. Hidden in the events of your life is the hand of God at work. Even in your darkest days and times, God is always trying to influence you. God is always trying to reach you. To align your hopes and dreams with His will, you need to be sensitive and be aware of the direction in which His will is pushing and pulling you.

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Sub-topic: Messages From God Within God's Touch

Article Content: We can all be sensitive to God's touch. However, hidden in every mistake, in every wrong turn, and in every painful memory there is a message from God. Likewise, every success, every joy, and every good memory of your life also contains a message from God. Figuring things out in life sounds incredibly simple put in terms of drawing a life map. However, in reality things are not this simple because we so often do not want to look at our lives in realistic ways. Quite often we do not want to draw a map of our lives even if we had the capability of doing so. Figuring things out about our life and how God communicates to us can be simple. This process of hearing God requires we be truthful with God and with ourselves. However, being truthful with God and with ourselves is not easy. Yet when we are truthful with ourselves and with God, we point ourselves in the right direction. Even when we tell ourselves the truth, things are still not easy, but when we tell ourselves the truth, we become free.

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# Chapter 47: God's Will

Sub-topic: God, Control, And Bad Things Happening

Article Content: Some people believe God controls our future and controls our life. Other people believe each of us has the power of God within us to control our life. When we believe our life is controlled by God we can end up wanting to love God to get Him to give us what we want instead of loving Him for who He is and what He has done for us. Bad things happen to people not because God wants bad things to happen but because Satan makes bad things happen. When bad things happen because of Satan we have a choice. When bad things happen because of Satan we can respond by choosing to make good things happen for God or let the bad things make us do bad things for ourselves. When we choose to make good things happen for God in the face of darkness, pain, our mistakes, and suffering, we are in control. We are then winners for God.

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Sub-topic: The Benefits Of Doing God's Will

Article Content: 1. You experience a peace passing all understanding, even in the face of the impossible. 2. You experience a love filling you. You experience a love overflowing to others. 3. You live in the experience and knowledge God cares for you. 4. You experience real enveloping compassion from God. 5. You find eternal life through repentance and faith in Christ Jesus.

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Sub-topic: The Difficulties In Following God's Will

Article Content: There are difficulties in following God's will in life. If following God's will was easy, everyone would do so. What are the difficulties of following God's will or walking God's path? God's way is not tangible. You cannot see, hear, or touch the substance of God or His path. If you follow God's will you may have to pay a price, sometimes a price in pain. Paying a price for our faith is not a popular sermon topic today because too many people want the free and easy road. Sorry. Suffering is a price you may have to pay to follow in Jesus' footsteps. Denial of self is a price you may have to pay. Even paying with your life may be a cost of following Christ. Unfortunately, we cannot serve our selves and serve God at the same time. We cannot take care of No. 1 and serve God at the same time. To go God's way requires you deny your wants and needs. There may come a time in the future when you may be required to pay for your faith by giving up your life. However, whatever sacrifice we make here on earth, gets rewarded an infinite number of times over in heaven.

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# Chapter 48: Goofiness

Sub-topic: Goofiness

Article Content: In life, there needs to be the joy of goofiness. There needs to be a place in us where we do radically different and radically joyful things no matter what our circumstances. As we get older and have more dark times, we lose the goofiness we may have possessed as a part of our childhood. For some of us, childhood did not have much joy in it. For us, we need to establish our own space where we can experience joy without guilt put on us by Satan. Satan desires to kill all joy in the world. We need to establish a space in our life for the total purpose of letting the joy come forth. We need to let the truly real person in us who is not guilt-ridden express goofiness and fly free of this world of care and woe. God does not want us to be burdened down by our life and the lives around us. If we are crushed by the lives around us then we cannot effectively serve Him or serve them. The first lesson a paramedic learns about a life-threatening situation is to save his or her own life. For if the paramedic dies, the person who needs saving may die too. Let all of us learn the wonder of goofiness.

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# Chapter 49: Grace

Sub-topic: Continuous Grace

Article Content: When we begin to understand grace, then we begin to understand what we can become. We can also begin to understand what we must strive to be as a child of God when accept His grace. When we accept His grace, we must strive to become all He wants us to be. If we accept God's wonderful gift of continuous grace, we are then under a spiritual obligation to respond to His gift of grace. To receive a gift without gratitude or thanksgiving is incredibly childish and selfish. As the steel wall between God and us melts away because of His grace, we ought to then be eternally grateful for His continuous grace. Continuous grace accepted with humility brings with the humility an attitude of continuous gratitude and praise.

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Sub-topic: Grace

Article Content: You are saved from the fires of hell or the horror of outer darkness by the grace of God. The grace of God keeps you from falling into the fire...the fire burning the soul forever and ever. No matter what happens in your physical world, you are covered and immersed in the grace of God, if you want His grace. Protection by God as a result of His grace depends upon your turning away from your natural and inborn life of sin. You are a sinner at birth. When you are born you are a fallen creature before God. You have no way of changing your fallen nature using your own power except by repenting and turning away from your fallen nature. After repenting and turning away from your sinful self, you can inherit eternal life by accepting Christ as your Savior. The blood of Christ poured out for saves you from falling into the fire of hell. The hand of God protects you when you have accept Christ into your heart and life.

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Sub-topic: How God Sees You

Article Content: Do you think God looks upon you as a lowly worm? Do you believe you are nothing but scum in the eyes of God? Do you think you are despised by God? Indeed, we are all sinners. Indeed, we have all fallen short of God's mark for us. However...God does not despise us. Rather than despising us, God loves us. If God did not love us He would not have sent His Son into the world to die for us. When God sees you, God sees a way for Him to shine out in the world. When God sees you, God sees a way for His love to spread out to the utter ends of the earth. When God sees you, God sees His child whom He dearly loves going astray, but His child is redeemable, whose sins can be washed away in the blood of His only begotten Son.

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Sub-topic: Mercy And Grace

Article Content: There is no human work or human effort available to melt the icy steel wall between God and ourselves. We cannot build a ladder to Heaven. Even if we could build the ladder, we could not climb it. We cannot do handstands, cartwheels, or other physical acts to get our soul in a condition to be saved. Only grace can melt the icy steel barrier between God and your soul. Only grace is the way your soul is saved. Only the kindness and mercy of God's grace in the form of Christ's nail-scarred hands can reach through the icy steel wall to touch your heart. Only His grace can enable you to walk with Him and talk with Him. The continual mercy of Christ enables Him to overlook your human weaknesses. His mercy and grace understands your temptations, and your times of falling away. His mercy and grace keeps you within His hand when you are tempted and besieged on every side during your journey here on earth. God's mercy and grace understand you always want to do the right thing yet you are weak and sometimes end up doing the wrong thing. God's mercy and grace continuously puts up with you repeatedly making the same mistake. His mercy and grace keep you in His forgiving hand.

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# Chapter 50: Greatness

Sub-topic: Greatness

Article Content: In 1920, a British socialite had a great perspective as to how humility fits into our life. "The first element of greatness is fundamental humbleness (this should not be confused with servility); the second is freedom from self; the third is intrepid courage, which, taken in its widest interpretation, generally goes with truth; and the fourth- the power to love-although I have put it last, is the rarest." Margot Asquith (1864-1945), British socialite. The Autobiography of Margot Asquith, vol. 1, ch. 8 (1920).

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# Chapter 51: Grief

Sub-topic: Our Grieving God

Article Content: What grieves God so deeply is so many people reject Him. No matter how many excuses we might use to reject God, the fact remains we use excuses before God. Everyone has at least one good excuse to not come to the heart of God. Everyone has at least one good excuse not to lay all of his or her life at the foot of the Cross. Everyone has a resounding reason they can use to say God does not care about them. However, God knows all the excuses and reasons you may use are lies. In the heart of every person, every person also knows every excuse and every reason used to reject Christ, is also a lie. We can reject God and have our reasons. We can reject God and have our excuses. Some of us can even blame God for our rejecting Him. However, we all know we are using a lie to not be close to Him. In our relationship with God, each of us knows when we are telling lies. Each of us knows when we are not telling the truth. God also knows when we lie. However, even when you lie to Him, God still loves you. Even when you use excuses, God still holds your life and heart close to Him.

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# Chapter 52: Growth

Sub-topic: Growth As Circular

Article Content: When we are first born we begin to grow in stature. We get taller as we mature and we normally continue our physical growth process until our late teens. When we reach adulthood, we stop growing physically. In our adult years, we can choose to continue to grow in spirit, in mind, and in heart. For most of us, our growth in spirit, mind, and heart is a matter of learning and relearning. We tend to grow in our spirit, mind, and heart by going around in circles. Some people unfortunately never go beyond the dimensions of the circle they created in the beginning. Some people are content to stay where they are, travel the same circular path day after day, and end up in the same place they were in a short time ago. Others, who are motivated to grow and achieve each day, travel in an ever-increasing circle. For those persons who are growth-oriented, their circle of growth gets larger every year. Their circle of growth gets larger, their inner resources inside their circle of growth will increase, and their talents, skills, and abilities increase. Progress or personal growth is not always linear. When we come to a point in our life where we think we have not made any progress or we think we are not making any progress, we must realize we tend to come back around to where we have been before. During our times of doubt about our lack of progress we can actually be farther along and farther out from our starting point in the center of our circle of progress than where we were when we first began.

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Sub-topic: Improving Yourself

Article Content: Willful thought and willful intent are required to improve ourselves each day. Our lives are often so busy with the parts of our life demanding our attention we do not have much attention left for willfully get better at living. Our jobs and professions can often change dramatically. These changes demand our growth. However, in other areas of our life, we can tend to slack off and ride out each day by doing only what we did yesterday instead of trying to be better and do better. We are all made with the ability to learn and grow. We are all made with the ability to learn and grow so we WILL learn and grow. We were not created to be stagnant and stale. When we look at our future and see nothing ahead of us, our spirit tends to falter. In the case of many senior citizens, if they look ahead and see nothing, they can soon collapse physically, mentally, and emotionally. We were made to move ahead each day. We were made to move ahead by learning more and getting better. In our so-called declining years we need to make a willful and conscious effort to improve in every aspect of our life. We focus on growing and getting better no matter what our circumstances might be in life. If the power of darkness working within us achieves a victory over us, the power of darkness achieves a victory only when we sit in a stupor and stop trying to get better in every aspect of our life.

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Sub-topic: Learn As Much As You Can

Article Content: The amount of what we learn in our lifetime is staggering. The amount we need to learn to succeed in life, no matter who or where we are is also staggering. The world in our daily life offers us incredible opportunities for learning and gaining wisdom. When we are forever students, we open our life up to incredible opportunities to grow, succeed, and achieve. Few life objectives can be achieved without learning new information. With the rapid changes taking place in every part of our life, learning new information is mandatory just to keep up. No matter who you are, the more you know, the more likely you will be able to solve new problems and find new opportunities. When we stop learning, the world speeds on ahead of us. We are left at the back of the pack trying to catch up. Every part of our life requires new learning and new information. The up-to-date person who stays abreast of new developments, new trends, and new methods is much more likely to be successful. Learning as much as possible must become a conscious effort every day.

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Sub-topic: Learn As Much As You Can As Quickly As You Can

Article Content: To increase our knowledge base we must have a mindset we are in a race to absorb as much learning and wisdom as possible as quickly as possible. Learning new skills, new knowledge, and new wisdom must be approached as a race against time because our knowledge base needs to be continually upgraded. To achieve more in life, we do not have the luxury of sitting back and waiting on new knowledge to come to us. Because the world changes so rapidly, we get farther and farther behind in coming up to speed on new developments. For any person to keep up on any subject or topic is incredibly difficult. To keep abreast of current developments in a chosen field of endeavor or topic of interest, we must reduce our area of interest down to a small unique specialty. Once we have acquired the necessary basic knowledge in a small unique specialty, we can begin to expand our foundational knowledge base by adding similar specialties connected to our base. To stay up-to-date, speed of knowledge acquisition is of the essence. Time is of the essence when you are trying to learn as much as you can as quickly as you can.

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Sub-topic: Learn From Every Circumstance

Article Content: Every circumstance in life is a learning opportunity. Even the worst circumstances in life can be used to learn and grow. While we live through a deep adversity, we may not think much about learning and growing. However, by purposefully using every circumstance in life, even using a bad circumstance, we can learn. While we may be stunned and shocked by adversity, we must keep our mind not only upon dealing with the immediate circumstance of an adversity, but we must also keep our mind on what we can draw from any circumstance. Every circumstance offers incredible opportunities to learn if we are willing to control ourselves and control our environment to make every circumstance work for us. Every circumstance can be analyzed and taken apart bit by bit. In analyzing every circumstance, ask yourself these questions. Ask yourself: A) Where have I been? B) Where am I going? C) What have I learned along the way? D) What are the possibilities and potentials for me in this moment?

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Sub-topic: Learn To Learn As You Go

Article Content: We must learn to learn as we move forward each day. We must also learn to learn as we succeed or fail. Our learning time can be considered a break time or as a time for a sabbatical. However, life offers us incredible opportunities to learn and grow every minute. We must regard daily learning as serious business. Every minute you can use the minute to learn more and grow more. One of our personal development objectives each day should be to use every minute of every experience as a learning experience. We can use every activity as a time to learn. We may not have the luxury of taking a learning break to learn more about a particular topic. However, if we cannot take a break from our work or vocation to go back to school, we may have to learn as we go forward each day. To learn as you go, take positive and overt actions to learn. Ask questions, read, inquire, and continually seek out new information. In the most mundane tasks, there can also be an incredible opportunity to acquire new information and new data.

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Sub-topic: Learning Not To Fear

Article Content: A little boy was afraid of storms. When the dark storm clouds of summer would appear, the little boy would grow anxious and fearful. The boy's father was also afraid of storms when he was a boy. Indeed, the boy's father understood what the little boy was going through. The boy's father would try to console the boy and talk the boy's fear down to a more reasonable level. The boy's father would tell the boy that he, the father, understood, but the boy's fear remained. As the boy grew older he not only lost his fear of storms, he studied meteorology and even wanted to chase storms! If the boy had loved storms as a small boy, he would not have been afraid. Fear is a terrible enemy of our soul and spirit. In most instances, our common fears are groundless. We, like the boy who grew out of his fear of storms, eventually find what we are afraid of is nothing to be afraid of at all. Fear is a basic part of life. We must realize few great achievements in life are ever realized without fear. However, God provides a way of facing fear. God's way of facing fear is called courage.

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Sub-topic: No Progress Without Risk

Article Content: We make no progress in life without taking chances. When we do not take chances and we shrink back from moving forward, we make no progress. Moving forward or making progress by its very nature means we are always moving into uncharted water. None of us knows what the future holds. None of us can predict with certainty and with genuine accuracy what lies just ahead. However, we must not let our uncertainty about what is just ahead deter us from pushing ahead. In truth, we cannot make progress without the risk of failure. However, just because we fail one time or we fail several times does not mean we will fail again. To make progress, we must put our fear of failure aside and make plans and execute our plans with vigor and enthusiasm.

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Sub-topic: Time To Grow Up

Article Content: For every person, whether Christian or not, the present is always the time to spiritually grow up. The present is always a time to mature, for all of us have room to grow. All of us have untapped spiritual potential. For all of us, now is time to get off the baby bottle. In growing spiritually, there is good news and there is bad news. The bad news is you may live your life on this earth and always be poor, sick, downtrodden, meek, humble, and a failure in the eyes of the world. In the eyes of Christ, the good news is you can be poor, sick, downtrodden, meek, humble, and a failure in the eyes of the world and still be His most important lamb on earth. The good news is no matter what the exterior appearances of your life might be like, God's presence changes everything in your life from the inside out. No matter how your life appears on the outside, you can still be full of the love of God on the inside. No matter how things appear on the outside, you can still be happy, fulfilled, and overflowing with joy on the inside. The sufferings of life may take away some of the joy for the moment, but God's eternal joy remains. The poverty of life may grind you down for the moment, but the eternal wealth of God's love remains forever and ever. The devastation put upon you by Satan may empty your heart for the moment, but the fulfilling love of Christ fills your heart for eternity.

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Sub-topic: Totally New

Article Content: If you are spiritually born anew you can have a truly incredible spiritual life. If you are spiritually born anew you can become a totally new person. If you are spiritually born anew you can achieve a new start in life. If you are spiritually born anew you can become a new you. If you are spiritually born anew you can have a new life. If you are spiritually born anew you can have a new outlook on life. If you are spiritually born anew you can have new hope. If you are spiritually born anew you can have a new vision. If you are spiritually born anew you can have a new future. If you are spiritually born anew you can have it all, all new, all the time. You can be spiritually born anew if you turn away from your old life, turn away from your old spiritual life, and surrender all of your old life up to Christ. You can have it all, all new, all the time, if you accept Him into your life and heart as Savior and Lord.

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Sub-topic: Turning Your Life Around

Article Content: Your whole life can be turned around, not by material things or material circumstances, but by the cleansing power of surrendering all you are and all you have to Christ. Your whole life can be turned around by undergoing the humbling experience of seeking forgiveness for your sins in Christ. The empowering experience of freedom from sin turns your life around. The enabling experience of feeling the love of God through Christ and His grace because you are forgiven turns your life around. The freedom from sin and the grace of God are such life-turning experiences, God's grace is so sufficient, even in suffering or even in the worst hardship, you can praise God who sent his Son to die for you. When you turn your life around, you are not the one who does the turning. Certainly, there is a turning going on, but the love of God is the turning power or turning force. You are the "turnee." :)

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# Chapter 53: Healing

Sub-topic: A Healing Witness

Article Content: When you show others the healing love of Christ, you are Christ's witness. As His healing witness, you serve Him like a physician gives care to his patients. God gave you talents, traits, gifts, and abilities. The way you heal people as a healing witness is by being a witness to Christ's love in your life. To witness or give a witness means to give a testimony or proof. When we love others in healing ways, others can see Christ's love in us. Seeing His love in us confirms to others Christ's love can be real for them. Through us, as witnesses, we give tangible evidence of Christ's love. As witnesses, we establish the truth of Christ in the life of others. As witnesses, we document the love of Christ, show the love of Christ, and exhibit His love to others. When other people see His healing love in you, they will want His healing. As we think of being healing witnesses, we must remember doctors do not heal because the body heals itself. Since the body is designed to heal itself the body can recover from illness or injury on its own if we and if doctors provide the body with needed physical input. A cut on your finger heals itself. A cut from surgery heals itself. Spiritually speaking, everyone can be a healing witness or a spiritual doctor. Everyone can be a spiritual physician with the help of the Holy Spirit. Even if you need to heal up yourself, you can still reach out and heal others. When the love of God through the Holy Spirit comes into a person's life, the healing process instantly starts. Everyone can heal relationships. Jesus came as a healer or as the Great Physician. Christ sent his Holy Spirit back into the world to enable you to be a healer. All His messages and teachings give us healing words. His messages heal relationships between God and us, between us and others, and even our relationship to us.

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Sub-topic: A Spiritual Hospital

Article Content: Let us build a spiritual hospital. In this hospital, we can all be doctors. We can all be doctors because on every ward we can place our hands and hearts onto the pain and problems of people we see. We can all qualify as a doctor because we all have the capacity to give Christ's healing love away to others. When we touch another person, in or out of our spiritual hospital, we can touch them with the same love Christ used to bring healing to people two thousand years ago. His healing love flowing through you to others can heal broken hearts, broken lives, broken relationships, and broken dreams. His healing love flowing through you can also heal you, heal your heart, heal your broken life, heal your broken relationships, and heal your broken dreams.

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Sub-topic: Being A Healing Witness

Article Content: In our life, there are three relationships. There is a relationship with God, a relationship with your self, and the relationship you have with others. All of these relationships are naturally broken because of our sin. All the relationships in your life need healing or fixing on some level. You may not realize it, but you have the power, through Christ, to heal and fix your relationships and those of others. When you are within the will of God, you can bring spiritual healing to relationships. The ability to bring a healing spirit of Christ's love into the relationships of others is a form of healing witnessing. When you do healing witnessing or ministry, you do what seems ordinary, but through Christ, you see extraordinary results. When you do healing witnessing, you do what seems incredibly natural. When you do healing witnessing, you run errands, baby sit, send cards, send letters, send emails, shake hands, have fun, listen, visit with people, call people on the phone to see how they are, and more. In all these ordinary things, you show love. When you show love, healing takes place.

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Sub-topic: Erasing Emotional Wrongs And Hurts

Article Content: Minor events of life can often set off feelings of hatred more readily than the occurrence of major events. In this regard, we must make every effort to erase or discard our inner scorecard of wrongs and hurts inflicted against us. Keeping a record of wrongs within your heart will kill you. When reminders come up reminding us of a past hurt or past wrong, we must, at that very moment, seek God's help to forgive. We must prayerfully seek God's help to let old hurts fade away. Forgetting or trying to push the memory of emotional wrongs or hurts out of our memory is not forgiving. Forgetting permits the wrong or hurt to come back later to haunt us. However, forgiving heals us and permanently gets rid of the wrong or hurt. When we fully and completely forgive, the effort to forgive means we have let the old hurt go. When we forgive, we are healed. When we do not forgive, the old hurt keeps hurting, we keep hurting, and over time all the hurting accumulates and we pay a price in sickness or even death.

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Sub-topic: Find The Power For Healing

Article Content: A cure is physical, while healing is spiritual. The closer you get to the spiritual cause of your illness, your adversity, your pain, or your suffering, the more powerful your healing and the more likely your cure. In every illness, adversity, pain, and suffering there is a spiritual component. The spiritual component of your illness, adversity, pain, or suffering may appear because of your great adversary who seeks to destroy you. When you come to grips with the fact you have a great adversary and you can oppose this adversary with love, healing followed by a cure becomes more and more possible. With enough love, first healing then a cure becomes more and more a probability.

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Sub-topic: Getting A Physical Cure

Article Content: For some people there are instantaneous physical cures, for others the healing process takes longer. For still others, the healing process is never completed until death when we gain new bodies. In trying to get a physical cure, we must realize our journey through life is a process of accepting wellness. We must accept our journey is work to be done hourly each day. For a few people, the healing journey is nothing more than a name-it-and-claim-it event. However, for most people, the healing journey is long, arduous, often very hard work. Getting a physical cure is best achieved by first understanding we are spiritual beings with a physical body rather than physical beings with a spirit. When we realize we are truly spiritual beings, our needs and priorities for a physical cure are rearranged. When we realize we are spiritual beings with a physical body, our need for a cure is focused first on our spirit and then on our body. For those of us who walk the long hard road to physical healing, we have a friend and comforter to walk with us named Jesus. Jesus helps us find newness and restoration in our spirit, even when our body needs a physical cure. At the end of our journey on earth, He will lead us home where there is no more pain, no more suffering, and total wellness for eternity in Heaven. When we pray for others we cast the needs of others up to God. In prayer, we send their needs upward in prayer so God can work on the needs of others as He does miraculous things in their life.

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Sub-topic: Healing And Scars

Article Content: Surgeons can erase the physical scars upon our body. However, what about the emotional scars upon our heart and soul left over from past traumas? When we are truly and completely healed, that is, healed in our heart, mind, and soul, even our emotional scars disappear. When we are emotionally healed, memories can remain. When we are emotionally healed, facts can remain in our memory. However, our memories, when we are truly emotionally healed, are only objective remembrances without any emotional content. To find true healing, we must find redeeming love. Redeeming love erases the scars within us. Redeeming love takes us and makes us into a totally new person without any scars. When we are redeemed in the love of Christ Jesus, healing can surely follow.

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Sub-topic: Healing And Unconditional Love

Article Content: We must learn to accept love by not judging. Not judging means being open and understanding. Not judging means not wanting to judge others, not wanting to put others in their place, not putting others down, and not wanting to think poorly of others. Instead of judging others, we must strive to put others only in God's arms. We must learn to accept others without letting our approving or disapproving of what they do or who they are interfere with our ability to love them. Giving acceptance means loving without expecting anything in return. When we give acceptance, we release tremendous energy for healing. When we give acceptance, love becomes more than emotion. In acceptance, love becomes a physiological reality and may cure illness. In acceptance, healing is a releasing of our fears causing us to love without conditions. When we can love in acceptance without any conditions, we know peace. When we can love in acceptance without conditions, we can live without fear, anger, pain, or guilt. When we can love without conditions, we can love totally independent from any physical condition. When we can love without any conditions, we are winning. Loving without any conditions may require we give up many beliefs and attitudes. One of our goals in life should be to know the peace and serenity of God's unconditional love. Healing is a side benefit of unconditional love.

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Sub-topic: How Love Heals

Article Content: Love heals. Christ's love can heal every broken dream. We all have broken dreams or dreams we have put on hold. However, Jesus can heal us and give us the inspiration to keep dreaming. In life, there are many rough roads, dead ends, mountains to climb, and insurmountable obstacles. Christ's love heals us from the broken parts of the past. His love heals every hurt caused by another person. Sometimes people do mean to hurt others. Sometimes people get hurt by accident. Sometimes we just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. No mater what causes a dream to crumble, Christ's love heals the body, mind, and spirit. Love changes the physical nature of our body. Love takes away the burdens of our mind and heart. When we are overcome with doubt and indecision, all the doubt and indecision fades away when we reach up to take Christ's hand. Christ's love heals a hurting heart. When you have been disappointed, love fills up the hurting place in you. Love takes the pain away. Christ's love heals the troubled mind. In Christ's love, there is no more confusion and no more feeling insecure. Christ's love makes worry go away. His love removes dark tomorrows. His love removes the dark imaginations of our soul. Instead, He gives us bright tomorrows and wonderful imaginations.

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Sub-topic: Letting Go Of The Old Life

Article Content: * Each and every day, loosen the grip of old dreams by dreaming new dreams.

●Each and every day, see present misery as reality but also see the reality there can always be a better tomorrow.

●Each and every day, see the dawn of a new and exciting life in the infinity of God.

●Each and every day, pay attention to what you do and how you feel.

●Each and every day, demand from yourself the action to find answers.

●Each and every day, stop putting yourself through the torture to try and recreate your childhood.

●Each and every day, know who you are and be who you are.

●Each and every day, know when you stop trying to get from people what they can't give - the fun begins. Then, answer these questions about the grip of the old life... 1. Why are you unkind to yourself? 2. Why are you tripping yourself up? 3. What are the rewards of being unkind to yourself? 4. What kind of vision do you hold onto? 5. If you act helpless enough, will someone come and take over for you? 6. Will failure really make you lovable?

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Sub-topic: Letting Go Of Your Issue Or Hanging On

Article Content: Everyone has some kind of life issue. Some people have more than one issue. Some people have issues more severe and more enslaving than other people face. If you have enslaving life issues, you need to let go of the issue. If you are chained down and shackled to the floor by life issues, be assured you can be set free. To be set free, you must want to be free. To remain free, you must treasure your freedom and hate your slavery. Letting go of an enslaving life issue is like letting go of a best friend. How this love-hate relationship with a slave master works is beyond the scope of this small paragraph. What we must all remember is the issues destroying us can make us think we need the issue to survive. In most instances, the issue will not quietly go away. The issue will beg and plead to say around. The issue will come back every hour to remind us we need the issue. The issue will make our heart, mind, body, and soul ache when we achieve our freedom. When we achieve our freedom, the issue will come back to convince us our freedom is not worth doing without the issue. Every minute you have the choice of hanging on to the issue or letting the issue go. The issue does not want you to let go. The issue will speak, scream, whisper, cry, beg, and shout at you in loving terms you can hardly resist. Here is the truth. The issue is Satan come alive within you. In truth, you need to let go. You know you need to let go. You know you can let go. You know you have the power to let go. God wants you to let go and God is pulling, actively and aggressively pulling, and sometimes even pushing you upward and away from the slavery of the issue you face. God is for you. God is with you. God loves you beyond your ability to know or understand. In fighting your issue, God understands everything. In fighting your issue, God has His hand upon you as you pull away from the slavery seeking to destroy you.

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Sub-topic: Letting Go Of Your Issues To Find Healing

Article Content: Healing is both possible and probable. Within the span of eternity, your healing, no matter how deep or grievous your injury, is a certainty when you put your life in the hands of God. To find healing you need to find God. To find God, you must turn your back on all those powers that brought on the grievous hurt or injury. To find God, you must renounce within your heart and soul all those influences hurting and destroying you. God loves honesty. God loves surrender. God loves humility. God loves the person who admits to making a mistake and who seeks to surrender up to Him. To conquer and overpower your issues you must let go of your issues. To let go of your issues you must understand you can let go of them. You can let go of the terror your issues produce in you. You can let go of the influences produced by your issues. Your issues live in the shadows of your soul and feed you lies. Your issues deceive you minute after minute. When your issue speaks sweetly in your ear and tells you how you "need" and your issue makes you think you "need" so much you can never let go, you have just heard a lie. You are lied to when your issue tells you how you are powerless. You are lied to when your issue tells you there is no hope. You are lied to when your issue tells you there is no God. You are lied to when your issue tells you there is no healing. You are lied to when your issue tells you how you do not count because no one cares. The truth is that you can let go of your issues because you can let go of the influences produced by your issues. You can let go of the chains put upon you by your issues. We all live with lies and illusions. One of the greatest lies and illusions is we cannot undo the shackles and break the chains our issues put upon us. In truth, we are not involuntarily chained or shackled by the issue. We can freely grip our issues tightly in our hands and we can all let go of these issues. We can all release. We can all surrender. We can all look up to Christ dying on the cross and find, from His suffering, the freedom we seek from all of our afflictions.

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Sub-topic: Letting God Act When Tribulations Come

Article Content: Why doesn't God do something when I hurt? Why doesn't He get me out of this mess I am in when I am buried under in trials? Why doesn't He make things better? To find an answer to these questions, God can and will act in your life if you let Him. God can and will act if you will let Him talk to you and teach you. For reasons we do not always understand or know, God chooses most often not to act on external circumstances, but most often chooses to act on our internal circumstances. The kingdom of God is within and within is naturally where He does most of His work. God chooses most often to do His work in us, rather than on the external darkness opponent we face. This does not mean God cannot do anything in the world He wants to do. This does not mean God will not do anything He can do. This does not mean God cannot or will not change your external circumstances. However, let's face the truth. God is more interested in changing you than He is in changing the physical world in which you live. If humankind can make a mess out of the world, then human beings can or should clean their world up. In your days of suffering, God wants you to live, seek, and live through the Light. In your days of suffering, God wants you to stand up as a mature person, to be responsible, to take charge of your life, and to be accountable for your actions. In your darkness and suffering, God wants you to be teachable in your trials so He may act to teach you rather than rescuing you without teaching you.

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Sub-topic: Life With Redemption

Article Content: Redemption is not a quick fix to get into heaven. Redemption can be most beautifully thought of as a process of healing. Without redemption we are broken and sick. With redemption, we are whole and well. Without redemption we have no home. With redemption we have a home in Heaven. Without redemption we have little reason for living. With redemption, we have the grandest reason of all for living...to glorify God in all we say, think, and do.

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Sub-topic: Our Mission

Article Content: When we fully believe the love of Christ heals all wounds, then our life and our church becomes an instrument for God and of God. When our life and church becomes an instrument for God and of God we have a mission for God. Each of us has a part to play in helping people lead better, fuller, more holy, and more devout lives. When we fully believe the gospel, great things start happening. Tragically, we don't have more people in the Christian faith. Even more tragic, we don't each have an individual mission we have accepted from God. In the Southwestern United States, during the region's formative years in the 1800's, a mission was both a building and also a group of missionaries. Can you imagine the impact and excitement a little group of people could have in your city or neighborhood if everyone in the group had the zeal of a missionary? Another definition of the word "mission" is the meaning associated with a course of sermons and services designed to quicken the faith and zeal of Christians or to convert unbelievers. Who gets quickened today? Religious fire and fervor sometimes comes out in a church service with a lot of vocalizing of Amen's and hallelujahs. But the fire and fervor of the Christian faith must also come out in what the church does in the world. Evangelical fire that only stays in the church sanctuary does not help the work of God as much as letting the Light of Christ's love burn brightly in the world outside the church walls. Love must be taken to others who are not in church. Our mission should be to let Christ's love burn within us outside the church walls.

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Sub-topic: Relating To God And Others When We Need Healing

Article Content: One way people relate to God is through an "I/it" relationship. When we hurt and need healing, we too often treat God as an occult power to help us get a fix for our healing needs. We too often try to use God as our servant or we try to "get out" of God what we want and need. We try to use Him in times of trouble to fix our trouble. We may often treat people the same way. We may often treat people as things to be used up and thrown away. We hear people saying the following about people they cannot use, control, or dominate..."I do not have any 'use' for them." God and people are not to be used or exploited, no matter how much we hurt and need healing. The darkness in us takes us to a point of trying to use God and use people. Everyone, at some point, tries to relate to God in this selfish way. We all want, at some point, for God to be our servant, to help us get what we want. More constructively, another way people relate to God is through an "I/thou" relationship. When we pray, we must seek an "I/thou" relationship with God, rather than seeking an "I/it" relationship. We must try to relate to God and to others as persons, not as things or as beings of impersonal power. We must try to relate to persons we love and cherish without trying to connect them to our healing. We must try to relate to God without trying to relate God to our healing. We must learn to love others and love God whether we are hurting and need healing or not. In our trials, we must learn to love God and others in a responsible, caring, giving, selfless, outpouring way with no regard for any kind of personal reward. Even when we need healing the most, when we look at others, we must regard others as persons created in the image of God who need to see Him in us.

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Sub-topic: Seeking God Without Ceasing

Article Content: In your walk of faith, you are to seek God's love, pursue His peace, request His real presence in your heart, solicit his warmth and caring, and ask for Him to come into your heart and life. To find God, look for His working in all the places you go and in all the people you meet. You will find Him. Seek out God's wisdom and strength and you will find it. Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.(NIV) God created man and put in him a seeking heart. God placed man upon the earth to do God's will and to seek God out. Seeking God out is one of the basic purposes of our life. To seek out God, you are to attempt, without hesitation, to try to find Him. When we seek God out with our heart, we are seek Him night and day. We are to try, try, and try again, no matter how long it takes to find Him. We are never to stop trying to find His reality. For in the heart of our effort we do find Him. And when we find Him, He is real, alive, and living within us.

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Sub-topic: Taking Charge And Physical Limitations

Article Content: Of course, there are many limitations in life. All kinds of things we cannot instantly change can be limitations. We have limitations like age, health, past education, past experiences with hurt and pain, money, employment, mistakes we've made, grief, death, the list can be endless. Some things we can never change. However, there is always hope. There is always a glimmer. There is always a sparkle. What we can change we must go after and do everything we can to change. Most of the time, we mistakenly think if we change our outside circumstances then our changed outside circumstances will be all we need. However, we live our life from the inside out. If you were distraught and unhappy, no matter where you were, you would likely still be distraught and unhappy. Remarkably, the changes we most often need are the inner changes. The changes bringing us the greatest blessing are the inner changes.

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Sub-topic: The Connection Between Health And Morality

Article Content: Real health of both mind and body, is possible only if you are both morally healthy and physically healthy. If your mind becomes morally sick, your body will likely follow and also become sick. If your body is sick, you must guard your mind to not let your mind become morally sick along with your body. When you engage in immoral behaviors, eventually those immoral behaviors will lead to sickness in mind and in body. A person can get by with being healthy and doing immoral things for awhile, but sooner or later the immoral behavior catches up to the person who commits immoral acts.

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Sub-topic: The Difference Between Being Cured And Being Healed

Article Content: A cure is physical, healing is spiritual. If a cure is your test of whether God truly loves you, you do not fully understand His love. God heals because He loves. Healing is possible for all humanity at all times in all seasons. When we are healed, a cure becomes secondary. However, when we are healed, we are more likely to be cured.

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Sub-topic: The Difference Between The Darkness And The Light

Article Content: The darkness is illness, the Light is wellness. The darkness is sickness, the Light is health. The darkness is suffering, the Light is joy. The darkness is isolation, the Light is oneness. The darkness is helplessness, the Light is empowerment. The darkness is hopelessness, the Light is hopefulness. The darkness is greed, the Light is gratitude. The darkness is jealousy, the Light is self-worth. The darkness is lust, the Light is love. The darkness is "having to," the Light is "wanting to." The darkness is death, the Light is life. The darkness is meaninglessness, the Light is meaningfulness. The darkness is sin, the Light is righteousness. The darkness is being controlled by..., the Light is being in charge of... The darkness is slavery, the Light is freedom. The darkness is destruction, the Light is construction. The darkness is doubt, the Light is certainty. The darkness is fear, the Light is fearlessness or courage. The darkness is sin-consciousness, the Light is Christ-consciousness. The darkness is inferiority, the Light is being superior over the darkness. The darkness is feeling unworthy, the Light is feeling worthy. The darkness is failure, the Light is victory. The darkness is unfaithfulness, the Light is faithfulness.. The darkness is lies, the Light is truth. The darkness is taking a life, the Light is saving a life. The darkness is the work of Satan, the Light is the work of God. The darkness is depression, the Light is the uplifting power of God. The darkness is temptation, the Light is the power of self-control and self-discipline.

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Sub-topic: The Essence Of Relationships

Article Content: The essence of a relationship is in connecting to another person and having another person connect to you. We make connections when we hear, understand, accept, and care for another person. There is an art to hearing, understanding, accepting, and caring for the whole person. This art can be learned and practiced. To fully understand the utter importance of these ideas about connecting to another person, let's think about these ideas in reverse. What would life be like for you if you talked but no one heard you? What would life be like for you if you talked but no one understood you? What would life be like for you if no one accepted you? What would life be like for you if no one cared about you? Think about these questions long and hard. Through these questions and your quite obvious answers you can see how hearing, understanding, accepting, and caring for others are the essence of all our relationships.

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Sub-topic: The Essential Ingredients Of Healing

Article Content: * Healing is not possible without forgiveness.

●To find healing we need to communicate in giving and receiving love.

●To find healing we need to communicate with others and with God in love.

●Body and spirit are equal parts of healing.

●Caring is healing.

●Caring is the deepest respect.

●The real healer helps people heal themselves.

●Accepting and loving yourself is a giant step toward healing.

●To make a step toward healing, we must accept responsibility for our weaknesses.

●When we accept responsibility for our weaknesses we then take a step toward finding our ultimate strength...a strength to completely heal.

●People want the healing presence of love in their life.

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Sub-topic: The Most Important Factor In Healing

Article Content: Love leads to healing. Love, even without our ability to give and receive love in words, heals others and heals us.

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Sub-topic: The Nature Of True Healing

Article Content: We do not become totally divine in this life, but we still carry the spark of God or spark of the divine within us. This spark of the divine in us tells us everyone is to be loved, cared for, and healed. The nature of true healing requires casting off the sinfulness of our humanity. The nature of true healing replaces our sinful humanity with the spark of the divine. When someone is truly healed, they instinctively give themselves away to others and to God. However, the ultimate glorification of God occurs when we are not fully healed maintain our love for Christ. True healing becomes reality when we reach Heaven.

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Sub-topic: The Opportunity Of Suffering

Article Content: When Joseph was isolated in the pit, thinking He was going to die, even hearing the bad news of being sold into slavery sounded good. Suffering carries God's opportunity to heal, restore, and move out of our present circumstance of being isolated in the pit. The opportunity of suffering gives us a chance to wage war against the darkness instead of letting the darkness do whatever it wants with us. In suffering, we have the opportunity to refuse to lose. In suffering, we have the opportunity to witness about how our faith in God gets us across every mountain and across every obstacle. In suffering, we have the opportunity to find the power to avenge every attack by the darkness upon us. In suffering, we have the opportunity to seek peace, seek love, and seek hope. In suffering, we have the opportunity to seek, ask, and knock.

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Sub-topic: The Problem With Wanting A Physical Cure

Article Content: If all you want is a physical cure, you do not want enough of what you really need. No matter what shape your body might be in at the moment, your spirit is the part of you lasting forever. Your soul is the most important part of you. When your physical body needs the healing power of God, His interactive healing power comes to you because you have a soul. God's interactive healing power comes to you, in most cases, because you or others have faith. Healing comes when we exercise our soul and spirit by praying and meditating. Ultimate healing comes when our soul leaves our body and sails home to be with God in Heaven. Our ultimate victory in life comes to us not when we achieve physical dominance, but when we achieve spiritual dominance with Christ.

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Sub-topic: What To Look For

Article Content: We live in a nation of wounded people. We live in a nation of people seeking healing. We live in a nation of people seeking the healing available only if they find God. In Job 23:3, Job proclaims, "If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling!" Today, many people are living from one crisis to another and this no way to live life. For many people this is a normal way of life. For those persons who live in a crisis, or for a crisis, these people walk into walls, almost on purpose. A crisis for some people gives them a reason to live. Many people are susceptible to this way of living. Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (NIV) Jesus said we are supposed to seek out his kingdom and his righteousness. We are not supposed to sit back and wait for life to bring the next crisis along. We are not supposed to sit back to see what kind of crisis happens next. We are not supposed to fear the future, but to be aggressive and seek the future out. Do not let life come at you, go to it before it gets to you. Go to God before you need Him. Then when you do need Him, He will be with you. Always try to do the right thing. Seek out the right way to live, and seek out the right way to love and care for other people. Jesus said, "Seek first his kingdom." Seek first. We seek after many things before we ever get to Jesus. We seek cars, houses, money, and many other things. We are to seek out Christ's way to be healthy and not be sick. We are to seek out Christ's way to actively get rid of our problems.

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Sub-topic: When You Are Chronically Ill

Article Content: When you are chronically ill with a disease or condition medical science cannot cure, you must deal with the darkness head on. In addition, if you are chronically ill you may never be cured while you are alive. However, you can have a better life no matter how long you live. You can have a better life if you embrace hope. When discussing chronic illness, the issue of giving people false hope is often raised because people do not want to meet with disappointment. However, a life view without hope is not realistic. A life view without hope is pessimistic and unrealistic. If you have no hope you may never be disappointed but the cost of living with no hope is devastating. When you have no hope you make negative things happen. When you have no hope you insure negative things will happen. In addition, if given free reign when you have no hope the darkness will take your life. The point of living is to always strive for a better life regardless of how much darkness and adversity you face.

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Sub-topic: Wholeness And Healing

Article Content: The root of the word "heal" means "to make whole." The word "heal" means wholeness of mind, body, and spirit. No matter our age or condition, we can be whole in spirit and whole in mind. Our body can age and break down. Our body can be attacked by diseases, germs, viruses, and environmental factors. Our body can ache in suffering. However, our mind and spirit can always achieve wholeness. Achieving wholeness in mind and spirit takes work, effort, and commitment. To achieve wholeness, there can be setbacks, but there can also be victories. There can be problems but there can be solutions. Brokenness is a reality but so is wholeness. To achieve wholeness, one of our most important challenges is to rest in our quiet moments so we can pray and meditate upon the greatness of God, upon His will for our healing, and upon the healing hands of Christ who will always come to touch our heart, mind, and soul.

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Sub-topic: Why Can't I Just Get My Cure And Move On?

Article Content: When we need healing, we must pursue a healing lifestyle, not just pursue a healing event that happens one time and never again. To find and have healing, our way of life or lifestyle must be a healing way of life. The healing way of life is not just being spiritual, although being spiritual is a vital part of healing. The healing lifestyle is composed of having the right attitudes and fully taking advantage of becoming an expert in your adversity. You will need to become an expert in medicine and medical advances if you face a medical issue. You will need to adhere to the right kind of diet and exercise routine, as well as spending time in meditation and prayer with God. The pursuit of wellness must not be the means we should use to avoid sickness, to find a cure, or to achieve more. The pursuit of wellness, finding a cure, and achieving more in any endeavor should be the result of our lifestyle. When you live a lifestyle where you spend time in adoration, praise, and rejoicing, the love of God heals and restores.

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# Chapter 54: Heart

Sub-topic: Heart Like A Vessel

Article Content: The heart of a human being is like a vessel or a container. What you put into your heart is result of the choices you make every day. God does not invade your heart or the container of your spirit. God tries to influence your choices but God permits you to freely make your decisions. God calls you to eternal life by the love of God in Christ Jesus. Your decision is to either accept Him or reject Him. To fully accept Him you must pour out the darkness within your heart, show Christ the pouring out of the darkness, confess to Christ the darkness of your heart was of your own choosing, and seek Christ's forgiveness. When you pour out of your heart all you are, Christ comes and fills your heart vessel with His grace, mercy, love, care, compassion, and wonderful Spirit of Life.

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# Chapter 55: Heaven

Sub-topic: Heaven

Article Content: We think of heaven as some far away place up in the sky. Since we have traveled into outer space and have telescopes that can read the content of our universe from millions of light years away, Heaven, we are certain, is not in the sky in a physical sense. Heaven is closer to us then away because heaven is only a thought away. Heaven is another dimension of our life. Heaven is not necessarily a physical place. We are certain God lives in heaven. From many statements in the Bible, we know with certainty God lives there. However, we also know God inhabits our Earth, and He inhabits our own life, body, and mind if we are willing to seek Him out and let Him in. Heaven is not far away, God is not far away. If you look inside yourself, Christ is alive within you this moment. You will find Heaven and you will find God are within you.

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Sub-topic: Life In Heaven

Article Content: Heaven is a place full of complete joy and the joy is not tinged with sadness, grief, or mourning. In heaven, there is not even a shadow of sadness, grief, or mourning. In heaven, there is not even the remote chance sadness, grief, or mourning will ever occur. In heaven, there is infinite happiness. In heaven, there is an infinite happiness we cannot describe with words or describe with sentences of the most beautiful prose. In heaven, the Lord's work is done with hearts full of joy and no one gets tired of working. No one wants to take a break from stress or boredom because there is no stress or boredom. In heaven, there is indescribable beauty in every direction. In heaven, there is unlimited fun, unlimited excitement, unlimited opportunities to express all God has given you to express.

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Sub-topic: Our Life In Heaven

Article Content: For eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard the beauty and wonder of heaven. Many people believe at the end of this life, there is an end. However, in Jesus there is no end, there is only a beginning. As Christians, we can look forward to a new life in heaven. A life of no more suffering...a life where there are no diseases...a life where we can see Jesus and all the marvelous wonders of God's love. In heaven, we will work and never grow weary. We will run and never grow tired.

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Sub-topic: Standing Before God

Article Content: Death takes its annual toll around the world. Millions will die from old age, disease, plague, war, or natural disaster. At some point in the future, you will also die. When you die you will be called to account. This day of your accounting will be your judgment day where you stand before God. You will stand before God and He will ask you, in whatever manner He chooses, to give an account of your life. When you give your account, you will also explain how your sin placed Christ on the Cross. What will you say about your putting Christ on the Cross? Will you say to God you did not know you helped put Christ on the Cross? No, you will not say this because you will not be able to lie to God. Will God show you your life? Will you see a life too busy to love the Lord? Will you look back at your life and see so many people you could have touched with the love of Christ but whose lives were diminished because you had other priorities?

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# Chapter 56: Hell

Article Content: Many people today don't want hell talked about because the idea of hell scares them. Many people today do not want to believe or hear there is a hell after death. Luke 12:5 But I will show you whom you should fear: fear Him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him. (NIV) Better to live forever in Paradise because you saw reality and got scared, than to burn in hell forever because you didn't want to face the truth. You ought to be afraid of burning in hell. Fear is a great motivator. Jesus didn't have any trouble in telling people they were going to burn if they did not accept His truth into their heart and life. Luke 16:19 "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine Linen and lived in luxury every day. 20. at his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21. and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22. "The time came when the Beggar died and the angels carried Him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' 25. "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.' 27. "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, 28. for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' 29. "Abraham replied, 'they have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them.' 30. "'No , father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' 31. "He said to him, 'if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" 17:1. Jesus said to his disciples: "things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. 2. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3. So watch yourselves. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. (NIV) Corinthians 15:55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (NIV) If you have ever gotten a bee sting, a bee sting will not be what the unsaved person experiences in hell. No, there is not just a constant stinging, but worse. After physical death comes judgment. The alternative to living forever in heaven is living forever in hell. However, living in hell is worse than dying. Living in hell is an after-life where you remain conscious. This after-life is the hellish death of not breathing but gasping for air, starving for a tiny morsel of food but not being able to eat, begging for life but constantly dying, and begging for a drop of water on your tongue but never receiving a drop. This after-life in hell is worse then knowing snakes and rats are crawling all across your body without your having any way to stop them. This after-life in hell is the worst horror movie you can imagine or the worst nightmare you have ever had, all come true. This after-life in hell is a living nightmare. This after-life in hell is what the loser chooses because the loser wants to ignore hell so the loser can sin. Now, do you really think God will give you a pass from class when you chose not to attend?

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Sub-topic: Hell Fire Or Great Eternity

Article Content: Millions of persons do not want to accept God would permit them to slide into a place of fire or into the hell of outer darkness. In our present era, it is not fashionable or acceptable to tell people they have a future of hellish proportions. Today we find it unfashionable to tell people they can spend eternity in the suffering of hell fire. Today, many persons want to believe God will save them from burning in hell no matter what they do or how they behave. These persons have no reason to grip or hold tightly to the word of God, grip or hold tightly to Christ, or grip or hold tightly to the teachings of Christ. You can believe anything you want about God and about life after death. You can choose from many theologies, religions, and beliefs. There is a consequence to what you believe. No matter what you believe today, at the hour before you die, you will most surely want to believe in life after death. However, wanting to believe is not enough. To achieve the promise of your life now, you need to believe now. This moment, you need to believe. This moment, you can believe even to the point of knowing. This moment, you can move beyond believing to the point of knowing, because you have the Holy Spirit within you. You can know this moment there is, for you, no burning hell or outer darkness, but a wonderful eternity with Christ waiting.

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Sub-topic: Hell Is A Real Place

Article Content: For many people, hell is a place out of sight and put out of mind. For many people think, if they deny there is such a place as hell, they won't have to worry about going to hell. Hell is a place we would rather not think about and not talk about. Most people who have not accepted Christ tell themselves "God is good, I am good, and I don't have anything to worry about when I die." In most places today, talking about hell is too old fashioned. Hell, sheol, and hades all refer to the place of the dead. Hell is a place of punishment for people who are bad and who have not turned to Christ in repentance. To be in denial of hell or denial of the prospect of actually going there leads you there. You can tell yourself you are not a bad person and God would not send you to hell. However, just because you tell yourself something does not make something true. Hell is the place of evil spirits and a place of misery and torment. Matthew 5:22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his Brother, 'raca, ' (you brainless one) is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'you fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell (NIV). Hell is a hot place because there is fire. Hell is not a "hot topic" of conversation because people do not want to think about going there. However, if you stay in a state of denial about hell, and do not accept Christ as Savior, you run a good chance of getting burned.

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# Chapter 57: Heresy

Sub-topic: Heresy And Apostasy

Article Content: Any theology telling you directly or indirectly, by omission or commission, you are so important you come before others, then this theology is heresy. Any theology telling you directly or indirectly by commission or omission you can care about yourself first, before you care about Christ or others is contrary to the teachings of Christ. Any teaching telling you directly or indirectly by omission or commission you can put your own wants before the wants of others is anti-God. Any theology telling you directly or indirectly, by omission or commission the judgment of God is given to human beings to make or to mete out is apostasy.

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# Chapter 58: Holy Spirit

Sub-topic: Assessing The Holy Spirit

Article Content: Many power-seeking, ego-driven people (inside and outside of the faith) want to set up a criteria to measure how much of the Holy Spirit, indwelling or not indwelling, is working in a person's life. Many people want to take a yardstick or a measuring cup and say, "Hey Brother, you got forty-three units of the Holy Spirit!" The person doing the measuring places himself or herself above everyone else and acts as a judge. This idea or attempt at measuring how much of the Holy Spirit someone has is both ridiculous and ludicrous. The only objective of the person wanting to assess the Holy Spirit within someone else is a bolstering of the assessor's ego.

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Sub-topic: Fire Of The Spirit

Article Content: There comes a time when we need to let ourselves be consumed by love and touch of Christ called the fire of the Holy Spirit. Whether we are consumed by the love and touch of Christ is up to us. The love of God will only put up with so much apathy. How about us? How much apathy in our life are we willing to put up with? Aren't we tired of being apathetic about being sick? Aren't we tired of being apathetic about dealing with money problems? Aren't we tired of being apathetic about worry? Aren't we tired of being apathetic and seeing people not come to the Lord? Aren't we tired of being apathetic and using lame excuses for not serving the Lord? Now is the time to serve. Now is the time to call people. Now is the time to love people. Now is the time to tell people we are here and we love them. Now is the time. No one can walk on both sides of the street at the same time. You cannot truly love Christ, experience His fire, and do drugs at the same time. You cannot truly worship God, experience His fire, and drink alcohol at the same time. You cannot love God, experience His fire, and commit sins at the same time. When the fire of Christ's love burns within you, serve Him in as many ways as possible. The fire of the Holy Spirit burning in your heart and soul causes you to be His humble servant.

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Sub-topic: Holding God's Love

Article Content: Having or holding God's love in your heart is the result of a decision you can make. You can make a decision to hold Him in your heart and pray in your mind for Him to stay within you as you walk your daily Christian walk. When you want Him to live in your heart, you must open your heart to let Him in.

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Sub-topic: Holy Spirit Alive

Article Content: To have the Holy Spirit alive and living within you then you must be a willing participant. You must be willing to ask, seek, and knock on the Door to have the Holy Spirit come into your life. You can travel to the very edge of the universe but you can never go to a place where God does not exist. What you can do to try and run away from God is to keep the Door shut and hope God does not see you or hear you turning away from Him. In other words, you can run from Him but you cannot hide.

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Sub-topic: Holy Spirit Alive

Article Content: Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." The indwelling of the Holy Spirit matter connects to the verse cited. To have the Holy Spirit alive and living within your heart referred to as indwelling, you must be a willing participant in the indwelling process. You must be a willing participant by being willing to ask, seek, and knock on the door of Christ to have the Holy Spirit come into your life. At the same time, there is no place in Heaven or on Earth where you can go and not be in God's presence. What you can do, and what most people do, is try to keep Christ's door shut and hope God does not see you or hear you refusing to knock on the door. In other words, you can run from Him but you cannot hide. Most importantly, you must remember Christ continually and persistently invites you to ask, seek, and knock so the door will be opened and His Holy Spirit will dwell within you.

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Sub-topic: Holy Spirit Test

Article Content: Human beings often struggle with the idea or the reality of the Holy Spirit. In order to see how we struggle and wrestle with the Holy Spirit we will give a few test questions to demonstrate how we needlessly struggle with Him. 1. Are you afraid to let the Holy Spirit or Jesus control your life? Many people would say "Yes" to this question. For some people, if they gave up control in their life, everything in their life would come apart, so they think. Of course, it is not true everything would come apart in their life but this idea of losing control is one of Satan's most effective lies. Just how much of life do you control anyway? Do you really have control over death, sickness, disease, poverty, wealth, and the fate of the world? 2. Are you afraid to let Christ's love in the Holy Spirit cover you and surround you? Everyone wants just a little part of their life just for themselves. This kind of wanting part of our life to be touched by the Holy Spirit, for just for oneself, is a matter of selfishness. Think of the implications here. Unfortunately, people want part of their life to be reserved and kept from Jesus. Sometimes, people are afraid they will drown in love if they jump into the pool of Christ's love. You have heard people say, "Don't get too radical." or "Don't get too involved." or "Don't go overboard on this religion thing." You have heard people say, "She got saved and went off the deep end." We are supposed to be caught up in the spirit. Once we get caught up in the spirit we are to become more attentive, more kind, more thoughtful, and more loving of those around us. In religious and spiritual terms, if you can see what's going on in the world, who in their right mind, would not want to be caught up in the love of God? We are supposed to be on fire, enveloped, caught up, involved, excited, enthusiastic, alive, fervent, eager, passionate, and spirited for Christ. The alternative is spiritual death. 3. Are you afraid of Jesus? In honesty, many people live like they are afraid of Christ. People are afraid of Christ because they are afraid Christ will come into their life and tear their life apart and tear them apart. People are afraid Christ coming into their life upsets everything. People are afraid He will turn everything upside down. In one respect, Christ does turn everything upside down because without Christ in your life, everything is turned upside down to already. When Christ comes into your life, what is now upside down is turned right side up. If you are afraid of Jesus, everything in your life is a mess. If Jesus is not your savior and a part of your life, everything is upside down all the time and your life is a mess.

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Sub-topic: Job Of The Pastor Or Christian Worker

Article Content: Some people desperately need a powerful demonstration of the working of the Holy Spirit. Some of these people have a starving and craving they want the Holy Spirit to fill. Having a starving and craving they want the Holy Spirit to fill is bad enough, but many times these people want an in-filling of the Holy Spirit without doing any work. They want an "entertainment, rock concert, Superbowl-winning" emotional blast from a church service or from their personal faith. All believers are given a door on which to knock when they become believers. Some knock, some do not. All of us can receive. Some receive only a tiny amount and for them, the small amount received is enough. Some persons receive an overflowing measure of Christ's power. For them, an overflowing of Christ's power is not enough. The job of a pastor is not to hold up a yardstick or measuring cup to see who has the Holy Spirit, how much they have of the Spirit, or who does not have the Spirit. The job of a pastor is to make sure each sheep in the flock is fed the right food at the right time in the right amount. What makes this feeding process so difficult is our sheep are all different. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail at the feeding trough. However, if the pastor or Christian worker does the feeding and does the work in quiet humility and in love, with all activities done in Christ's name, God takes care of the rest.

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Sub-topic: Living In The Spirit

Article Content: Living in our spirit or living life in spiritual ways is for everyday living. Living life in spiritual ways is for every person. Living life in spiritual ways applies to persons in every walk of life. Real success, the kind of success bringing peace, love, and harmony, is found on the spiritual path, not any material or worldly path. We find our life by living in the spirit. When we live in the spirit we live, taste, breath, give, and receive unconditional love. Unconditional love is real. Unconditional love is eternal. Unconditional love cannot be imprisoned by any circumstance, imprisoned by any pain, imprisoned by any adversity, or imprisoned by any amount of time. Unconditional love changes the way we experience our life. The exterior of our life may stay the same, but the interior of our life where unconditional love is needed most, can change if we will give and receive love.

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Sub-topic: New Ways Of The Spirit

Article Content: The Holy Spirit, in the final battle with evil, is now creating ways of destroying evil. Sooner or later, every evil will fall under the hand of God. Soviet Communism, Hitler, Mussolini, Idi Amin, and every evil person has been and will be crushed. The Holy Spirit is just now creating new ways of reaching people and crushing evil. The Spirit is creating and using new methods of witnessing by using radio, television, and ministries using the latest technologies. In your own life, the Holy Spirit is continually pouring creative energy into your life. By opening the door to your heart and mind...God creates in you new ways to solve old problems and defeat evil in all its forms.

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Sub-topic: Receiving The Holy Spirit (1)

Article Content: How do I receive the Holy Spirit? The kingdom of God is within. The Holy Spirit lives in the kingdom of God. To receive the Holy Spirit is not so much a matter of opening your mouth and pouring in water from outside of you. Receiving the Holy Spirit is a matter of opening your heart to what is already within you. Opening your heart to the Holy Spirit, love of God, manifestation of Christ, and/or the power of God within you is no easy matter. This question about receiving the Holy Spirit is sometimes asked by persons who may not want to work too hard to receive the Spirit. Too many people want the easy road to receiving the Spirit. To really have the deep love, care, compassion, and energy of the Holy Spirit alive and living within you, requires work on your part. The question about receiving the Holy Spirit implies all we have to do is just believe the Holy Spirit exists and we do not have to do any asking, seeking, or knocking. The idea of not doing the hard work of asking, seeking, and knocking to receive the Holy Spirit is a passive approach to our faith. In addition, we cannot find the Holy Spirit if done in a kind of passive, lukewarm, hands off, "objective thought" perspective. What God wants are people pounding on His spiritual door seeking His truth. When you go to God with enough fervor, God is good and opens the door to His heart.

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Sub-topic: Receiving The Holy Spirit (2)

Article Content: Receiving the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with what the Holy Spirit does inside of you after you receive Him. The Holy Spirit is love. This love is the same love as God because the Holy Spirit is God. The love of the Holy Spirit is the same love Jesus was while Jesus was on the earth. The Holy Spirit is God's love sent to us in a form that can go anywhere, at any time, and touch anyone. The Holy Spirit is not limited by any kind of physical limitation. The Holy Spirit is unlimited both in potential and in capability of action. When we receive this love we call the Holy Spirit, most of us get or receive only particles of the Spirit rather than the big chunks. Being the discontented and thankless souls we sometimes are, we don't want particles, we want chunks. The Holy Spirit is always there, always moving, and always working. Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit are the same, but we do not fully understand this mystery. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are forever constant. In a world steeped in pain and suffering, the Holy Spirit came to touch lives and hearts. The Holy Spirit came to touch the many people who are struggling and fighting to keep their heads above water. The Holy Spirit came to help us do battle against the darkness of our world. The Holy Spirit came to support and give strength to those persons who are ready to collapse under the weight of life...to give strength to those persons fighting just to survive.

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Sub-topic: Spiritual Doorways

Article Content: When we speak of the Holy Spirit we often us the word "indwelling". With an indwelling Holy Spirit we must recognize there is no place to hide from God no matter how hard we try. No matter how fast we run or where we run, the indwelling spirit is still within us. We also cannot run away from the Kingdom of God always full of His love and grace within us. When Jesus tells us to knock on the door, His words indicate there are spiritual doorways or spiritual passages within us. Jesus expects us to open a door within ourselves so He can come into our hearts, minds, and souls. He tells us after we have opened the door, He can feast or live within us.

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Sub-topic: Still Creating

Article Content: God the Creator, through the Holy Spirit, is still creating. The Holy Spirit is working in the world, and in you, if you will let Him. If you will let Him, the Holy Spirit will create new parts of your life if you open the door to your heart and mind. The Holy Spirit creates, forms, and conceives within us if we are willing and open to His love. The Holy Spirit is working in the world by creating new ideas, new inventions, new medicines, and new advances in science and technology to give you a better life. The Holy Spirit is creating new forms of worship by giving you diversity in forms of worship. Some of us may be old fashioned, but new ways of doing things appeal to new people, so the Holy Spirit creates new ways to reach the heart. In your life, the Holy Spirit has already given you new and creative ways to deal with old difficulties appearing to have no solution.

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Sub-topic: The Connecting Link Of The Holy Spirit

Article Content: The Holy Spirit is the connecting link between you and God. For two people to talk on the telephone there has to be either a connecting link by a wire connection or some other form of transmission energy between your phone and the phone you dial. If you are in Dallas and you call someone in Los Angeles, the energy from your voice is changed into electromagnetic energy inside your phone. This electromagnetic energy is carried through the connecting link of the wires to the receiving phone where the electromagnetic energy is transformed back into sound energy (another form of electromagnetic energy). The Holy Spirit is not just the connecting link between what is in your heart and God. The Holy Spirit is also the Counselor and Comforter Himself, because in the mystery of mysteries, the Holy Spirit, the connecting link, is also God and Jesus.

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Sub-topic: The Filling Spirit

Article Content: The Holy Spirit fills up your life, and fills up your emptiness. To fill up means there has to be something to fill in. We are like a vessel. Your mind, heart, and soul is a vessel created by God to be filled with the love of God through the Holy Spirit. At this very moment, there is a war being waged over who fills the emptiness of your soul. Will Christ's love fill your soul or will the darkness of Satan fill your soul? Who will dominate in your life? The emptiness of the soul is a fact of life. You can look around you and see the emptiness of souls every day in every place where people live. Without Christ, the emptiness is always there and will always be there. There is a hunger in your soul. You know you cannot fill the emptiness or hunger in your soul on your own. With Christ, you have someone who will fill in the empty spots of your soul and life. Christ will never leave you, and will always be with you, if your heart is with Him. He will always be willing to fill the emptiness of your life if you are willing to open the door and invite Him in.

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Sub-topic: The Gifts Of The Spirit

Article Content: Not everyone has the same gifts of the spirit. If the apostle Paul meant "tongues" as in French, English, Spanish, etc. some people do have a definite gift in learning and speaking another language. If Paul meant "tongues" as charismatic believers mean it, Paul's words clearly say some people have the charismatic gift of tongues. Paul does not say everyone has the gift of tongues. Imagine what a mess a church would be if everyone had only one gift. Imagine what a mess a church would be if members of the flock thought one gift was more important, more divine, more blessed, or an example of a more devout life than any other gift. The idea one gift is superior to other gifts is why the idea one gift if more important than others is dangerous. This idea can lead to divisions and splits within the flock. Some people within the church also like to propose persons who speak in a special prayer language need interpretation and these persons who speak a special prayer language are spiritually superior to other persons. Superiority in any form is NOT an example of the Lord's call for us to be humble.

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Sub-topic: The Holy Spirit And Boldness

Article Content: Acts 4:31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (NIV) We are not to remain shy, closed-mouthed, and silent about Christ. Imagine the terrible effects of everyone coming to a saving knowledge of Christ and not having a boldness to tell others. If the Holy Spirit had never, throughout all of history, given people a boldness to speak, the spread of the knowledge of God would never have taken place in the world. The Holy Spirit makes us speak the word of God boldly for a reason. The reason God wants us to feel bold and to speak with boldness is to foster the spread about the news of Christ as our redeemer and Lord. Also, the purpose of the Spirit is to be an unction or motivator for men and women to witness about the love of God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

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Sub-topic: The Holy Spirit And Cleansing

Article Content: John 20:22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." (NIV) People feel better when they are clean after taking a bath or shower. People in Christ's time didn't take a bath every day like many of us do in our modern era. These people of Jesus' time really understood what clean meant. When we normally read or hear this verse we think of the receivers of the Holy Spirit as doing something. However, they could not do anything until the Holy Spirit was inside of them giving them some kind of unction or motivation to act. In some people, the cleaning of the Holy Spirit produces a "wow" experience, in other people the Holy Spirit produces a sigh, or a peace, or an upwelling of love, or a sudden rush of wisdom or insight. The Holy Spirit can and does produce in human beings an infinite variety of experiences and expressions. No man, no woman, no preacher, no evangelist, no teacher, and no person on earth should dictate what anyone else must experience when one experiences the cleansing of the Holy Spirit. In addition, no person should ever be placed in a position to tell you or anyone else what you are supposed to do, think, or feel upon an encounter with the Holy Spirit.

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Sub-topic: The Holy Spirit And Memory

Article Content: John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (NIV) Measured reason prevailed in the heart, mind, and soul of the many contributors to the Old and New Testament. The Holy Spirit gave the apostles and the writers of the Bible a super-power memory and special guidance through measured reason as they transcribed the books of the gospel. We see in this verse above the Holy Spirit was sent from God the Father. We also see the Spirit was sent separate from Jesus and sent in Jesus' name. The Spirit can still work on our mind and intellect just like the Holy Spirit worked in this verse. To let the Holy Spirit work within our thought processes we must invite the Holy Spirit into our life, into our thoughts, and into our ability to reason and think. The contributors of the Bible were guided, reasonable, careful, and lived in the power of God. The contributors were not given to making statements of excess. The contributors were not given to puff up the human ego for any kind of human gain.

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Sub-topic: The Holy Spirit And Tongues

Article Content: Acts 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. (NIV) What is the biggest miracle? A large number of people all speaking a foreign language for the first time without any prior knowledge of the language or a large number of people all speaking in a special prayer language needing someone else to interpret the prayer language? The biggest miracle would be speaking in different languages so different people from all parts of the world would hear about Christ and take the good news to all parts of the world. This statement is not to say speaking in tongues where someone else must interpret this prayer language is not a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2, we can see God's power at work to activate the Holy Spirit in such a way the people receiving the Holy Spirit spoke in other tongues or languages so people from other lands who were in Jerusalem at the time would hear the gospel. We see the Spirit was given so witnessing would be done. Remarkably, the Spirit can make us able to do many things we might think are impossible.

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Sub-topic: The Holy Spirit As A Personality

Article Content: Acts 15:28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: (NIV) This verse shows the Holy Spirit as a living entity. In your King James version (the older versions), the words "Holy Spirit" are written "Holy Ghost." What is a ghost? A ghost is the spirit of a person. We think of a ghost as a shadowy figure capable of scaring people. Yet, the word "ghost" means "spirit." Because the word "ghost" means "spirit," we can interchange the words Holy Ghost with the words Holy Spirit. We can see from this short verse the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost has a personality. The personality of the Holy Spirit is a personality of love, caring, compassion, and acceptance. We are blessed and we bless others when we invite the Holy Spirit into all of our relationships.

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Sub-topic: The Holy Spirit Can Anoint

Article Content: Acts 9:17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord--Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here--has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." (NIV) The Holy Spirit can anoint us by opening our eyes to the truth. Acts 9:31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord. (NIV) The Holy Spirit can anoint churches to help churches grow. Under the anointing of the Holy Spirit there is a mighty strengthening of the kingdom of God. On a personal level, the Holy Spirit can anoint us and we are encouraged to keep going and keep the faith. Acts 10:38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. (NIV) The word "anointed" means spread all over. God anointed or spread His power all over Jesus. In this verse, we note there are two separate gifts given. One gift was the Holy Spirit, and the second gift was the power. The power gift was used by Christ, not for self glorification, but for doing good and healing those who were under the power of Satan.

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Sub-topic: The Holy Spirit Can Appear

Article Content: Acts 10:44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. (NIV) The Holy Spirit can come upon all those who hear the Word. People must hear the message. Too often our minds are full of other thoughts and we do not really hear what is being said in regard to God and His love. If we "hear" with our ears, "hear" with our hearts, and "hear" with our minds, we too will have the Holy Spirit come upon us. Acts 10:45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. (NIV) The Holy Spirit appeared and was poured out. Many times, to really get something clean you have to pour water on something to get all the dirt off. In order for us to be cleansed and baptized with the Holy Spirit, the pouring process is used by God. What happens as a result of this pouring out of the Holy Spirit is a cleansing of our heart and soul.

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Sub-topic: The Holy Spirit Can Be Lied To

Article Content: Acts 5:3 (NIV) Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Like a person, the Holy Spirit is an entity. Like a person, the Holy Spirit can relate to you and you can relate to the Spirit. Like a person, the Holy Spirit can be lied to. Imagine the gall. Imagine the audacity. Imagine the affront to God when a person does not tell God or tell the Holy Spirit the truth. We must always tell God and/or the Holy Spirit the truth. We must always tell the truth to ourselves, to others, and especially to God. God blesses those who are a blessing to Him. God smiles upon those who are righteous, holy, godly, and devout. God blesses those who tell the truth. In addition, God will give His truth to those who tell Him the truth.

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Sub-topic: The Holy Spirit Can Be Made Real

Article Content: Acts 5:32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him." (NIV) If you don't want to follow the rules or to obey God, the Spirit will not follow you or be made real to you. We walk on Christ's path by faith not by sight. However, walking our path by faith is made a great deal easier when we are obedient to God. God is the great rule giver. God has given rules to help us survive and prosper in our spiritual life. In addition, following God's rules can often help us survive and prosper in our physical life. God's blessings pour out upon those who follow His rules. Following God's rules is such a simple idea one would think the idea would catch on. One would think every person on earth would want to follow God's rules. However, men and women have shown themselves to be rebellious against God. When we follow God's rules, the Holy Spirit and the presence of God become real to those who follow.

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Sub-topic: The Holy Spirit Can Be Resisted

Article Content: Acts 7:51 "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! (NIV) The Holy Spirit can be resisted. The Jews referred to in this verse were being accused of being the same as their forefathers who refused to walk in the way of the Lord. Their forefathers rebelled against God. Yet, the hand of God was always upon the Jewish nation. For us, the hand of God comes to us as the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the instrument through whom God and Christ speak to us, move us, and inspire us. However, we can often tragically resist the Holy Spirit. The hand of God can seek to lead us in a certain direction but we can tragically resist. Tragically, we want to go our own way rather than going God's way. To live fully and freely in God's love and grace, instead of resisting the Holy Spirit, we must move in the direction the Holy Spirit leads us.

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Sub-topic: The Holy Spirit Is With Us

Article Content: Acts 8:15-25 When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money and said, "Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." Peter answered: "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin." Then Simon answered, "Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me." When they had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages. (NIV) The infilling of the Holy Spirit can be brought about by prayer along with other conditions inside the person seeking the experience of the Holy Spirit. However, there is a basic problem with seeking the Holy Spirit only for you. You may have a difficulty in finding the Holy Spirit only for yourself because to seek the Holy Spirit only for yourself runs the risk of seeking the Spirit for a selfish reason or reasons. We can seek the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon others while leaving our personal wants and needs aside. We can seek the Holy Spirit for others because we love them and for this reason our request for others may be, in the sight of God, a valid reason for us to receive the Spirit. However, we must never ask to receive the Holy Spirit, if in our request, there is even a shred of selfish motive. God does not smile upon a selfish request. To receive the Holy Spirit one must be totally unselfish and be willing to experience the baptism or cleansing produced by the Holy Sprit as a result of believing in the name of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is an entity to be received or taken in. The Holy Spirit cannot be bought with money, acquired by works, gained by acting right, acquired by doing handstands, or possessed as a result of any kind of human performance. The Holy Spirit is a gift from God.

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Sub-topic: The Spirit's Connectivity

Article Content: One of the purposes God had in giving you the Holy Spirit is to connect you to God. The Holy Spirit is vital to us as individuals and as a church. Perhaps there would be no church without the appearance of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The connecting link of the Holy Spirit between you and God is vital because Satan is always trying to destroy you. Satan's desire is to destroy you and/or parts of your life. Satan hopes you will fall away from God. Sins against the Holy Spirit connection to God are not excusable or pardonable because the Holy Spirit is the lifeline between you and Christ. The Spirit is more than just a connection. The Spirit reveals truth. The Spirit gives words and brings gifts. The Holy Spirit also leads us and He brings joy in pain. Stress and the burdens of life weaken our spiritual or Holy Spirit connection to God. Our stress and burdens push the love of God out of us. Stress and burdens drive people to drink, use drugs, and cause them to desire to escape the world. Stress and the burdens of life put people in prison making God seem far away or non-existent. Where is God when we are being torn apart by life? Where is He when the cares, worries, fears, and anxieties of this life have hammered us down? God is in heaven and in our heart with a Holy Spirit tie that binds us to Him. The tie binding us to Christ is an action of the Holy Spirit.

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Sub-topic: We Are Sure

Article Content: We are sure the Holy Spirit is around us, over us, and under us. We are sure we can count upon the Lord. We are sure the Lord's hands are holding us. We are sure we can call upon the Lord at any time. We are sure our spirit will live forever in Heaven when we accept Christ as our Savior and Lord. We are sure we can invest our whole life in Christ. We are sure we can surrender our life to Christ. We are sure Christ answers our prayers. We are sure nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

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Sub-topic: What The Holy Spirit Makes Possible

Article Content: John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the father will give you whatever you ask in my name (NIV) The utmost and highest will of God is for you to discover and experience the love of God made possible only through the Holy Spirit. When you experience His love, His love will come out in your life like fruit on a tree. Many people love apples. Only a few people love apple trees. If it were not for a few people who love apple trees who are the ones who maintain orchards, most of the people who love apples would have to do without apples. Many people love to see the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, the sometimes shining and glittering part of God, visibly working in the life of people. There are a few people who have been chosen to bring the fruit of the Holy Spirit into the life of others. Although you may not think so, you are one of those persons. You are one of the people chosen to bear fruit that will last. In all the small ways you interact with people, in all the small talk and in all the small conversations you have, you can bring the love of God into the life of others. The people who love Jesus the most are the people who will produce the fruit. When you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, things happen in the life of others. What happens is fruit that will last is produced because you loved God so much. In the world, fruit does not last very long. In the kingdom of God, the place where you can live in your heart, fruit can last for eternity.

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Sub-topic: What You Need, What You Want

Article Content: Many people want the touch of the Holy Spirit. The question you must ask yourself is not if you can get, have, or hold the touch of the Holy Spirit, but who do you want to experience His touch? Do you want the in-filling love of God for you, or do you want His love for others? The people gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost wanted the touch and power of God to carry His power to others. The people in Jerusalem, who had the Holy Spirit fall upon them, could have cared less about themselves. So badly did those people in Jerusalem want the Holy Spirit for others and not for themselves, they were prepared to do anything, suffer anything, even die, to carry the message of Christ to the world. You can have the same in-filling of the Holy Spirit they had, if you are ready and if you are prepared like they were ready and like they were prepared to receive Him. The apostles received the power because they saw the needs of their world. The apostles received the power because they saw the burdens of the world, the tasks of the world, the dangers of the world, the opportunities of the world, and they saw the hardships of the world. So ready were the apostles before Pentecost they were on their way to be witnesses without the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Do you want the in-filling of the Holy Spirit to be a witness to others like they wanted to be a witness to others? Do you want the power to fill up the emptiness in your life? Most often, God gives the power to those who need His power for others. God gives the power to those who are dying to do His work. God gives the power to those who are willing to die to do His work. In your life, when what you have to do is not doable...when the mountain is too high...when the water is too deep...when you know and everyone else knows you can't do it...these times are when the Holy Spirit fills you and you do the impossible. If...the impossible is what God wants done through you.

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# Chapter 59: Honesty

Sub-topic: Be Honest With God

Article Content: With God, you need to be honest because God knows more about you and what you are going through than anyone, including yourself. If you believe God does bad things to people, then this belief will need to be undone because this belief is in error or is wrong. God is love. God is there to help you through the tough times, not hurt you as you struggle. The power of darkness inflicts pain upon you. The power of darkness tries to destroy parts of your life as well as the life of everyone on earth. God, or the power of love, exists to build you up and strengthen you. The more you pray the better off you will be because prayer puts you in contact with God. Remember when you do not feel like praying you should tell God you do not feel like praying. Sometimes you may not have prayer words in your mind or heart to say to God. When these times come, just go to a place and think about Christ being with you. Eventually, His touch will heal you enough you can begin to speak. If there is one important message God tries to get through to you at this time in your life, His message is you are not alone.

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Sub-topic: Honest To God

Article Content: When you talk to God, you need to tell Him everything...tell it all. Even the bad things you think you can't say to Him should be told. When you talk to God, tell Him the hard to speak about things first. Tell God all there is to tell because He loves you, He understands you, and He knows you. When you pray, instead of praying for big things, perhaps God is more interested in answering your need for small things first. We often ask for miles of progress from God when God may be more interested in your making progress in inches rather than miles. In addition, when you pray, believing is most important. It may sound trite, but believing God hears you and will answer according to His will is one of the most important ingredients in prayer. When we pray, we must pray God delivers to us what He wants for us, not what we want.

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# Chapter 60: Hope

Sub-topic: A Definition Of Hope, Part 1 Of 2, How Ideas Connect To Hope

Article Content: Ideas connect to hope. Part of a definition of hope is "having a picture of a person, thing, or situation we want..." This definition clearly shows us a part of hope is having an image or picture in our mind's eye. In hope, this image in our mind's eye looks forward into the future. Looking forward is the essence of hope. When we have a mental image or mental picture of a person, thing, or circumstance in our mind, this picture is the starting point of finding, having, and keeping hope. With no image or idea in our mind, then we do not see anything in our future or we do not have anything to look forward to. A mind and heart having nothing to look forward to is a mind and heart steeped in hopelessness. Hope is an experience in the present connecting us to a picture of the future. Hope can always come alive when we picture the future.

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Sub-topic: A Definition Of Hope, Part 2 Of 2, The Planting And Nurturing Of Good Seeds

Article Content: The second part of our definition of hope is "Having a heart, mind, and soul overflowing with the expectation of what we have pictured." Without ideas, pictures, or images in our mind connecting to the future, we do not expect anything because there is nothing to expect. Without expectations in the form of ideas, pictures or images, we need no map into the future because we see no place to go in the future. Without expectations in the form of ideas, pictures, or images of the future then we need no wisdom because we need no skills to move forward. What we are saying is this: our beginnings of hope are in the ideas and images we have in our mind, and these ideas and images are like seeds. Like any seeds, our ideas and images can be chosen. If you plant a garden, you can choose the seeds you plant. In the fertile soil of your mind you can choose ideas and images you want to hold within your mind. The kinds of seeds you choose are critical. Good seeds bring forth good plants. Bad seeds bring forth bad plants. Just as critical are the ideas and images you plant in your mind. Good ideas and good images produce an abundant life. Bad ideas and images produce a life of turmoil and discontent. In a real garden, once the seeds are planted you must water, weed, and fertilize the growing plants. In the garden of your mind, you must nourish ideas and images as well as remove the bad ideas and images (the weeds) so the good plants will grow and flourish. However, if you have the right kind of ideas or images in your mind and all you do is walk around with these ideas and images in your head, nothing will happen. The object of finding, keeping, and having hope is to make your hopes and dreams come alive. Our objective is to turn our mental ideas and images into real persons, things, or situations in life. The focus of your mind should not only be on continually planting good seeds, but also upon the care, nourishment, and protection of the sprouted plants. A good gardener spends very little time actually putting seeds in the ground compared to all the other activities of gardening. Planting seeds takes little time or effort. Generating new ideas and images takes little time or effort in the overall scope of finding, keeping, and having hope. The real work comes in the care, nourishment, and protection of the new sprouts so the new little plants can grow into maturity.

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Sub-topic: A Real Life Example Of Hope And Expectation

Article Content: We must forgive God. We must forgive God because we often hold God accountable for obstacles, illnesses, and pain. We can become angry with God for allowing things to happen. We may often think, "How could God do this to me? God is at fault. Life is not fair. God is not fair. God is to blame." If we think in this accusatory way, we must forgive God. We must release ourselves from the crippling resentment against Him. We may not approve of all God's methods or results, but we can learn to accept Him working in the world and trust Him. The result of forgiving God is to be closer to Him and to be immersed in His healing. Instead of blaming God and asking, "Why me?" we must ask, "To what end?" Illness, disability, and misfortune are not a result of God's punishment. Adversity is something God can use for your benefit and so can you. God is always present. God is with you to walk with you, to talk with you, to guide you, and to assure your victory. From you, God wants victory. God wants victory every time, all the time, God wants victory from every second of your life. When you forgive God, you have scored big points in achieving His victory for you.

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Sub-topic: Building Hope

Article Content: Hope does not have to be a mysterious and elusive fact of life. Anyone can possess hope and can increase the hope they have. Hope can be possessed and increased because hope can be constructed. Hope can be built in our heart, mind, and soul. To build hope requires we look at the possibilities in our life and see how probable these possibilities are. We build hope in the following steps:

●We consider an event possible...

●We consider we can make an event probable...

●We decide we want the event...

●We make our plans and chart our course of action to make the event happen...

●As a result of the above, we have built real hope.

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Sub-topic: Controlling Hope And Despair

Article Content: Every adversity or obstacle has both a down side and an up side. Every adversity has both a positive side and a negative side. Every adversity has both a hope side and a despair side. The side of adversity upon which you focus, believe in, think about, feel about, or let consume you, is by your choice. Defeat and fatalism in the face of adversity have adverse physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual outcomes. In every adversity there is a best possible outcome. The best possible outcome in every adversity is the result of hope filling your heart and life. There is never just one negative possible outcome in adversity because there are many possible negative outcomes. There are also many positive outcomes in adversity. In facing your adversity, you may not be fixed, cured, or find a resolution. In living with your adversity, you may not fully go back to the way things were before adversity fell upon you. However, you can have a better life no matter how things are in the present moment and in the future...if...if...if...you embrace hope. When you do not embrace hope you end up living in despair and disappointment. A life-view without hope is not realistic. A life-view without hope is a life lived in misery. A life-view without hope is a life-view grounded in pessimism. If you have no hope, you may never be disappointed, but the result of no hope is nearly always a negative outcome in nearly every circumstance. When you have no hope, you make negative things happen. When you have no hope, you insure negative things happen. With enough loss of hope, you die. The point of having hope in life is to always have a better life regardless of how long your life might be. A life-view with hope is realistic because all things are possible with God. A life-view with hope is a life lived in power and sometimes even bliss. A life-view with hope is a life-view with optimistic views of the future. When you have hope, you may be disappointed, but with hope you shape positive outcomes in nearly every circumstance. When you have hope, you make positive things happen. When you have hope, you insure positive things happen. With enough hope placed in Christ, you live forever in your spirit.

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Sub-topic: Controlling Our Life

Article Content: Your life does not have to be lived as if you are helpless, hopeless, and out of control. Your life can be lived in such a way as to be helpful, hopeful, and in control. Every day you have a choice to make. Every day you can choose to let life slide by or you can choose to control your life. You do not need to live life like you are a ship without a rudder, or a raft at the whim of the currents. Instead, you can take command of how you respond to every circumstance. No matter what happens in your life, you can govern how you respond to the adversities and catastrophes you face. You are the master of your life. You need not be a slave. What you do with your life is up to you. You need not be at the mercy of anything or anyone. You can regulate where you go, how you act, and what you do. All these words sound good. The question remains though, is "How"? You accomplish the controlling of your life by being a humble and devout child of God. You control your life by putting your life in Christ's hands and then exert every ounce of your being to live like He wants you to live.

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Sub-topic: Desire As A Part Of Hope

Article Content: When we say we desire a thing or we say we desire a circumstance but we do not truly want the thing or circumstance then our words do not match what is in our heart and soul. We might say we desire or say we want a thing or circumstance just to please another person. We might say we want a thing or say we want a circumstance because we think the circumstance would make us happy. However, deep down inside we know the truth. A false or wrong desire will not result in real hope. So often in life, wrong desires make people try to fill their inner emptiness with destructive elements. For example, a dark side of our nature causes us to try to satisfy our unmet need for love and companionship by drinking alcohol, smoking, and engaging in all kinds of sinful behavior. Wrong desire causes us to try to fill our genuine needs and wants through sinful behavior...sinful behavior destroying us rather than building us into more positive beings. The right kind of desire, a desire to do only good and virtuous things, brings hope and the Light.

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Sub-topic: Erasing Despair With Hope

Article Content: Every physical illness, every opponent in or from the darkness, and every adversity has both a down side and an up side. This means adversity has a positive side and a negative side. Adversity has both a hope side and a despair side. The side of adversity you focus your mind upon, believe in, think about, feel about, or let touch you, is your choice. Defeat and fatalism in adversity have adverse physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual outcomes. There is in every situation, even adversity, a best possible outcome. The best possible outcome in adversity is the result of hope filling up your soul. The best possible outcome in any adversity represents a true hope because there is always a best possible outcome. No matter how deep a darkness or adversity seems to be, "There is always a way out". No matter how insurmountable the odds seem to be, "There is always a way for the Light to illumine your way home."

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Sub-topic: Evaluating The Godliness Of A Hope Or Dream

Article Content: To evaluate the godliness of a hope or dream, ask yourself the following questions. If my hope for a person, thing, or situation comes true, will anyone be hurt in any way, either now or in the future? In present day terminology, does my hope or dream result in a win-win situation for others and for me? The advantage of tailoring your future into a win-win situation cannot be underestimated. When you are able to show other people how they win, you win. If you adopt a hope or dream bringing hurt or defeat to others, eventually the hurt and defeat you spread around comes back to haunt you, bite you, and defeat you too. There is a saying, "What goes around, comes around." What you set in motion, if pointed in the direction of God's will, can be unstoppable. You may never live to see all the effects of what you do or how you live. However, hopes and dreams placed in the direction of God's will certainly do come true in His eternal scheme of things if we play by His rules.

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Sub-topic: Exploring The Impossible

Article Content: You are not totally helpless and hopeless on your own, because you have some power. However, with the love of Jesus, with the Holy Spirit working on you and in you, all things become possible. With the Holy Spirit working on you and in you, the automatic nature of God working in you takes over. With God's power, what is unnatural and impossible becomes automatic. With God's power, the habitual becomes controllable, the instinctive becomes the passion to do His will, the unthinking becomes unthinking actions for Him, and the unconscious becomes unconscious thoughts and reflexes about Him. In many counseling circles, professionals will agree a person's behavior is nearly impossible to change. However, with God, all things are possible. With God, all things become possible in your life because...suddenly you come to the realization someone loves you and cares about you. Suddenly you come to the realization someone is, right now, at this very instant, reaching out to you to help you be more of who you could ever conceive of being. Suddenly you come to the realization someone has wiped away all your past mistakes, all your past failures, all your past sins and is now, this very instant giving you the chance to start over with a clean slate.

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Sub-topic: False Hopes

Article Content: The doubter, even at the last minute, just as the doubter is about to die, hopes God will have pity and save him or her. The doubter hopes God will cut us a little slack. The doubter knows we are not all bad. The doubter knows we have done some good while we have been alive. The doubter also knows he or she should not have done some things, mistakes were made, and sins have been committed. However, the doubter wants to believe God is a good guy and He wouldn't just let someone sit in Hell. The doubter believes or hopes God will save everyone. The doubter hopes as long as a person knows who Jesus is then everything necessary has been done. The doubter hopes, and hopes, and hopes some more. Unfortunately, the doubter's hopes are false hopes.

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Sub-topic: Fighting The Fires Of Life

Article Content: Psalm 62:5 "Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him." (NIV) Some people are able to praise God in the deepest darkness. Maybe you are one of those who can to praise God when you are in trouble. However, many people get too tired and too exhausted from dealing with the problems of their life to praise God. They get too worn out from trying to put out the fires popping up. After a while many people don't care any more. Living life in this way is not what God wants for anyone. God's will is not for us to live a life full of exhaustion and hopelessness. If we are honest, we can understand, to some extent, what it is like to run out of hope from putting out the fires life. We all need a break from the problems and pain. We all need a break from being in the hopeless darkness. Our faith in God gives us a rest from all these dark circumstances. Faith in God gives us a break from constant, unrelenting problems. We are able to find rest in God because His desire is to see us happy and full of joy rather than seeing us beset by problems at every turn. God can provide security and a break from having to fight the fires of life. We find in God a hope to sustain us and even a hope for an end of our problems.

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Sub-topic: Finding And Keeping Hope Alive

Article Content: Finding and keeping hope alive is not a passive mind game. Finding and keeping hope alive requires effort and work. The work required to find and keep hope alive deals with putting pieces of our heart, mind, and soul together. All the pieces of a gasoline engine have to be in place and in working order for the engine to operate. The pieces of hope we must put together are (1) vision, (2) expectation or desire, (3) a map or plan to achieve the vision, and (4) an illuminated soul from living in the Light. When these pieces are present and in working order, hope has been found and kept alive.

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Sub-topic: Finding Hope And Security Now

Article Content: In the adversity of life we can and do ask... "How can I be secure where I am? How can I feel like good things will happen when everything has always gone bad? How can I find hope and security when life has devastated me so?" In response to these kinds of questions we must remember things change and times change. As Christians, we can look over the horizon knowing the paradise of God waits to receive us. All human beings and all living creatures come to an end. In addition, with us coming to an end, so will our pain, hurt, disappointment, and sorrow as we sail upward to our new home in heaven. Moreover, when things are at their worst, we can always take charge enough to go to God. In God we find rest from the turmoil and strife we must endure. God is a shelter from the storms of life if we will only go to Him and trust in Him. Trusting in God may not change your circumstances on your outside. However, trusting and having a hope in God changes everything on your inside. There are many things on the outside we cannot change. However, the inside is God's territory or kingdom. He will rule the inside of our life if we give Him a chance and learn to keep out of His way as we go His way. Psalm 9:18 (NIV) "But the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish."

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Sub-topic: Finding Hope In God's Embrace

Article Content: To find hope and the Light when we are in adversity we must see our soul as being held in the arms of God. During our trials, we are held and protected by God in ways we do not always understand. In our trials, the reality of God can seem to vanish. In our trials, our life can seem like we are all alone and no one even knows we exist, let alone hold us. We must remember one of Satan's most effective strategies is to blind us. Very often, we can deal with the circumstances of our adversity. However, we may not be able to deal with the blindness put upon us by Satan. In our adversity, we must seek the truth so we will not be blind. In our adversity, we must seek the eternal truth there is always hope in God. In adversity, we must seek the eternal truth there is over us, around us, and beneath us a power and force of love we call God. The truth is we are embraced by God. We are embraced by God in the here and now as well as into the future. Just because we have trials does not mean God does not love us. We can find God's hope when we turn every trial and turn our heartaches into a reason to love Him more and praise Him more. In our praise and thanksgiving we find God's reality. In our praise and thanksgiving we find God's embrace of our souls. In our praise and thanksgiving we find hope in God.

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Sub-topic: Finding Hope Through Inner Strength

Article Content: Psalm 31:24 (NIV) "Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the lord." How can I be strong when I am weak? You can find hope though your inner strength. You can find hope through your inner strength by believing, having a hope in, and possessing a faith in God. You can find inner strength from God because you truly believe God is working within you. You can find hope in God because you fully trust Him to give you the necessary power to get the job done. Even when you are at your weakest, God can be at His strongest as you place your hope and faith in Him. When you trust or hope in God you get something extra...an extra amount of spiritual fuel to make the best out of the worst.

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Sub-topic: Finding Hope When Things Go Dark

Article Content: The fuel of hope propels us forward in life. When adversity falls upon us in the form of tragedy, trouble, and strife, we need a Light to see our way out of the darkness. When we are in the darkness we say things like "'There is no hope.' or 'I do not see any way out of this.'" Our language expresses how we see our reality in adversity. However, there is always hope and Light. In the middle of the day when the sun is brightly shining, we can get lost in a deep, dark cave with no Light to help us see our way out. In the darkest cave, just because we cannot see the sunlight, does not mean the sun is not shining. Just because we cannot see the Light, does not mean the Light does not exist. When we are immersed in the dark caves of our life we must remember there is still Light to help us on our way. We must remember we control the switch bringing the Light into our darkness. If we were in a cave and we had a working flashlight, we would be the ones who control whether we were in darkness or light. In the same way, the darkness in our life can be dispelled. We dispel the darkness in our life by calling upon the Light, by throwing the switch to the "On" position, and by listening to the source of all hope speak our name, Jesus our Lord, calls out to us now and forever.

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Sub-topic: Finding The Light And Love Of God

Article Content: The Light and Love of God in spiritual form, penetrates our heart, mind, soul, and body. The Light and Love of God is our only true source of hope in our world. To find the Light and Love of God we must fully understand how much we are loved by God. When we accept the fundamental truths of God's love for us then we begin to have hope and we are filled with the Light coming from Him and from Him alone.

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Sub-topic: Getting Old And Losing Promise

Article Content: An older man once remarked, "Time has passed me by." What the older man was really saying was he had lost the hope and promise of his younger days. What the older man was saying was he had a limited future and he had no way of grasping the vision he held as a young man. In our worldly reality, we all get older each day. In our worldly reality, we all know we will die someday. However, our worldly reality distorts our vision and makes us believe time has passed us by. The truth of our reality is time does pass us by but we can be in front of time if we are willing to be totally unselfish about all things. The truth of our reality is we can be in front of time as time moves forward. We can ride time out when we are unselfish. If you want to reach out and touch others you can do so at any age no matter what your physical condition might be. You may not be able to pursue your worldly hopes and dreams because of many circumstances. God gives all of us a way to pursue His hopes and His dreams in this life until we reach our last minute of life. Then, just after we have breathed our last breathe in this life, all our hopes and dreams are realized in exponential fashion in Heaven's eternity.

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Sub-topic: Giving Hope And The Impossible

Article Content: Giving hope is giving a picture of what is possible when all things look impossible. You can be and always should be the person who gives the message about how the impossible can be made possible. Giving hope is giving forgiveness when forgiveness is not earned nor deserved. Giving hope is giving compassion when compassion is needed. Giving hope is giving kindness when kindness is needed. You can be the human being, who, through your own act of forgiveness, shows another person forgiveness is possible. You can be the human being, who, through your own act of compassion, shows another person compassion is possible. You can be the human being, who, through your own act of kindness, shows another person kindness is possible.

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Sub-topic: Giving Hope Away

Article Content: Jesus Christ is the Hope and Light of this world and the universe. If Jesus, the Hope and Light of the world is within us, we are all called to His service to give away His Hope and Light. We cannot give away what we do not have ourselves. Even the most lowly and most forgotten among us needs hope and needs to give hope away. Something happens when we purposefully give hope away. Giving hope away is indeed more blessed than to receive. When we give away the fuel of life, blessings pile upon us. Our deeds are counted as acts for God. To give away hope we must portray all of Christ's love. We must portray his humility and compassion.

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Sub-topic: Giving Hope Is Giving Christ

Article Content: When you give hope to others, what are you are giving away? When you give hope away you are giving the essence of Christ. When you give hope, you are giving life to those people who are alive in body but whose spirits have gone into the darkness of the tomb. The substance of the rebirth through Christ is hope because when you accept Christ you go from utter hopelessness to hope everlasting. In the rebirth process, you go from a vision of an end to your life to a vision of life as life eternal. When you give others hope, you are giving the love of Christ. When you others hope you are giving the vision Christ gave the world. Through Christ others in the world can see into the heavenly realms. In your daily walk, whether it be as a solitary prayer warrior in recluse or as a servant interacting with hundreds of people, when you give hope you are giving the essence of Christ, the essence of Christ's redeeming grace, and Christ Himself.

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Sub-topic: Giving Hope Is Giving Life

Article Content: When you give hope, you are the person who can show others there is hope all sins can be washed away in Christ's blood. When you give hope, you inspire another person to set a goal and plan for the future when it seems there can be no future. When you give hope, you show another person a task done with the will of God can be achieved. When you give hope, you remind others no task is so large God cannot move mountains out of the way. When you give hope, you are giving the message of Christ's salvation even when there is pain in life. When you give hope, you may be the person who in pain but who remains positive, hopeful, and in good humor. Even in pain, you can show others no pain in life whether physical, mental, or emotional can separate you from Christ your Savior.

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Sub-topic: Giving Hope Is Giving Love

Article Content: Through you and your gift of hope others can be prepared to hear the message of Christ. Through your life and your gift of hope, others receive a fuller understanding of who Christ is and the person He wants all of us to be. When you give hope, you give joy to the joyless. When you give hope, you give the laughter destroying the grip of hopelessness. When you give hope, you show the beauty of giving without the "show" reflecting back upon yourself. When you give hope, you show the godly inner glow of humility. When you give hope, you show others another person cares for them and cares about them. When you give hope, others see another person caring about them. When you give hope, others see how there is not so distant a leap to see how Christ also loves them and cares about them. When you give hope, you show others there is no end in sight within the heavenly realms.

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Sub-topic: Giving Hope Is Showing The Power Of God

Article Content: You may be the person who points up into the twinkling star lit sky and helps another person try to see the infinite found only in God. Giving hope is showing honesty when honesty hurts you the giver. You may be the person, who through an act of painful honesty shows another person the power and dynamic force of being honest within themselves, with others, and with God. Giving hope is showing the power of self-control and self-denial. You may be the person who lets others know of your temptations and trials but through the help of Christ, you are able to maintain your self-control and are able to deny yourself. Giving hope is showing growth is possible in spite of the momentum of stagnation. You may be the person who shows another person starting over at any age brings glory to God. Giving hope is showing how always doing the right thing is beneficial. You may be the person who shows a person or a family how powerful righteousness can be and how destructive unrighteousness can be. Giving hope is showing humility can come from placing our burdens, cares, and worries in the hands of the Savior.

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Sub-topic: Giving Hope...Always Needed

Article Content: When you give a gift to someone, you always want the receiver to love what you give or at the very least you want the gift to fill a great in the receiver's heart or life. When God sent Christ into the world on that first Christmas, God's gift of His Son was sent to us because we needed Him. We needed Christ who was then and still is the hope of the world. When you give the gift of hope, you are giving a gift that is always needed. Hope is always needed because every person on earth needs to be filled with the fuel of life, the fuel called hope. Even for people who seem to have all they need, even these people need the fuel of life called hope. There is never a time in any person's life when the fuel of life called hope is not in demand. More often than not, most of us are left to scrounge around in our life trying to find hope on our own. So when you run out of ideas or want to give someone a little extra special gift, give the most needed gift of all...hope.

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Sub-topic: Giving Hope...As A Form Of Giving Love

Article Content: Each of us is called to love others. One of the best ways of showing others we love them is to give them hope for the future. When you give hope as a form of love to others you help others prepare themselves for the future. When you give hope away you help others feel more confident and secure in a world where many people have little confidence and little security. When you give the gift of hope, others can begin to understand how much God loves them and how much He cares for them. It was noted elsewhere, "When you give hope, you give joy to the joyless. When you give hope, you give the laughter to destroy the grip of hopelessness. When you give hope, you show the beauty of giving without the "show" reflecting back upon yourself. When you give hope, you show the godly inner glow of humility. When you give hope, you show others another person cares for them and cares about them. When you give hope, others see hope is not so distant a leap to see Christ also loves them and cares about them. When you give hope, you show others there is no end in sight within the heavenly realms of love."

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Sub-topic: God Needs Hope In You

Article Content: No matter who you are or where you are on this earth, God needs you to be a person of hope. He needs you to be a person of hope until you take your last breath. Through you and your witness hope can be triggered, spawned, started, begun, initiated, or inspired within others. When you lose hope, those people who need you and who look to you for hope cannot find hope. When you lose hope, others lose it too.

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Sub-topic: God The Creator

Article Content: We call God the "creator" because He created all things. What we sometimes forget is how God did not create all things and then quit creating. God is still creating. God creates in us the substance of hope, inspiration, spiritual power, and love. In your life, God creates the desire to live another day, do new things, see new people, meet old friends, forgive old hurts, and overcome challenges and obstacles. God creates in you all those good and wonderful parts of yourself treasuring His presence, His joy, His peace, and His love. God creates the life we see in every human being at conception. God creates a special home in heaven for each of us who accept His son as Savior and Lord.

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Sub-topic: God's Desire For You

Article Content: God desires you pursue His goals for your life. God desires to be connected to your life. God desires to inspire you, to instruct you, and to give you hope. God desires to get you to look upward with selflessness, rather than downward with selfishness. God desires to keep you focused upward toward Him. Ultimately, God's desire and goal for you is to heal you, to have you triumph over adversities and afflictions, and to triumph over darkness. Although we cannot live forever in the physical body, we can live now. Although we cannot instantly crawl out of our physical circumstances, we can still demand a life full of His promise and hope. We can still assert our inner life. We can all make inner changes. God's goal and desire is for you to never let go of the hope we know is Christ Jesus.

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Sub-topic: Going To Plan B

Article Content: Plans do not always work out the way we hope. When plans don't work the way we want, we have choices to make about what to do next. When plans don't work, we are challenged as a person. For a person who is full of themselves and who is driven by ego and selfishness, a plan not working is a major problem because when a plan does not work, humility is required to deal with a non-working plan. To be flexible in dealing with circumstances is an enormously important trait. To be flexible requires a person be humble enough to admit a plan did not work. To be flexible and to achieve success requires we build a backup plan to deal with unforeseen events or the failure of our initial plan. When you react with disgust and disdain over a failed plan, you are killing off your ability to function and be flexible in achieving success. The inner qualities of a person so often determine success or failure. Two people, let's call them person A and person B, can make the same initial plan and build the same kind of backup plan. However, if person A has to always have their own way and refuses to deal with adversity with humility, it makes no difference whether a backup plan exists or not. If person B encounters the same obstacle and sees defeat using the initial plan, but person B is humble, then the second person's humility will win out every time. When a person is humble, they are more than willing not to demand their own way, but to demand only the way that wins. In our Christian faith, Christ's way is always the winning way. His plan is always the winning plan.

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Sub-topic: Hope And A Caring God

Article Content: Psalm 43:5 "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my savior and my God." (NIV) Many Christian people have just as many problems as non-Christians. Some Christian believers have even more problems than unbelievers. These kinds of circumstances make some unbelievers ask why they should believe in God when there is no apparent worldly pay-off. The unbeliever will ask in a lack of faith, "What is the use of believing in God if God is not going to give me some benefit to believing?" On the surface, it may seem many Christians are not any better off than non-Christians. However, we have to look deep inside those people who truly believe in a caring, comforting, and compassionate God to see the benefit of believing. When you look inside of believers, you can see a shining Light penetrating the darkness. God's light, love, and peace may not always be visible on the outside of believers, but inside of them you can find a peace passing all understanding. The internal life of Christians is one aspect of the Christian faith many non-Christians do not see and do not understand. As Christians, we are able to praise God for His greatness, kindness, and compassion even when we are hurting. In addition, when we praise God in our pain, our hope is increased because God loves us so much He will not leave us to suffer without coming to our aid or assistance in our time of tribulation.

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Sub-topic: Hope And Adversity

Article Content: Much good can come out of adversity. When we are feeling the pain of adversity, the adversity makes us think nothing good can happen for us as we consequently lose hope. However, when we are standing in the Light, there is a way to make good things happen. Willfully making good things happen when we are going through adversity is called growth. A man came back from a weekend retreat experience and when a friend asked him how it was, he said, "I died!" The friend asked him what he meant. "You see," the man answered, "I went to this thing not knowing what to expect. But in the process of that long weekend, I discovered I had spent my whole life hiding behind a lot of masks. I realized I had never even let my wife see me as I really was. I'd been playing games with her, and playing games with my children, and playing games with others \-- never letting anybody know who I really am. The worst of it was to discover even I didn't know myself. I was not in touch with my own honest feelings about myself. And, as all of this was being exposed over the weekend, I died over and over again." It is a painful thing for a middle-aged man to discover he is not even in touch with his own feelings about himself. "I am convinced," he said, "that I had to go through this death experience in order to become the new person I hope to be now." Out of every hopeless experience can come new hope and new life if we are determined to make it so. The key point is we must want to make good things happen when we are suffering. Our will, exercised in the direction of God, produces good results. The results produced are not always immediate, but they are life-changing and long-lasting.

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Sub-topic: Hope And Age

Article Content: How do we instill hope in our young people? Too often, we leave young people with diminished hope for their future. Consider the importance of hope in academic performance. The good student typically says, "I hope I get an 'A'. If I do not get an 'A', I will really be disappointed." You can readily see the hope in this statement by the good student. The hope of a young person needs to be tied to the goal of working toward getting a good grade. However, hope is not an end or goal in itself. Hope is the fuel to get us going toward the goal. Consider the statement of a poor student. "There is no use. I have no hope of getting an 'A' or 'B' grade. I doubt I will even get a grade of 'C'. What's the use? There is no hope so why should I even try?" This hopeless attitude is prevalent in our schools and society today. Indeed, hope generates an attitude. Hope generates a winning attitude. The sports team that loses hope is a loser before the team plays the game. A sports team with hope is always a winner regardless of the score. How do we instill hope in our senior citizens? Too often, we leave senior citizens to fend for themselves. We automatically agree with senior citizens there is no hope for their future. Consider the life of a senior citizen in a nursing home. If aware of their surroundings, a senior citizen will say (and we will agree), "I have no hope for the future. My life is over. I cannot get out. I cannot help myself. I need people to help me do the most mundane of things." The hope of every person, especially an older person, needs to be tied to the goal or hope of going to Heaven in the distant future. In addition, the goal or hope of every person must also be tied to living each minute in the present as much as possible. For persons nearing the end of their life, just as for young people, hope is not an end or goal in itself. Hope is the fuel getting us going toward the goal of living one more day as we look forward to eternity. For all persons, hope generates an attitude. Hope generates a winning attitude no matter what our age or station in life.

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Sub-topic: Hope And Death

Article Content: As long as the quest of a person's life has not been achieved, the flame of hope can brightly burn. However, when the pinnacle of our life is reached our hope is gone, even as we celebrate our success. For the Christian, our pinnacle rests on the other side in Paradise. Nothing in this life begins to compare to Heaven. Heaven is a pinnacle we reach after this life is over. We believe Heaven contains eternal hope realized forever. When we find out we are going to die, where is the hope? For the Christian, our hope is in the Light of the world, Jesus Christ.

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Sub-topic: Hope And Despair

Article Content: It is a scientific fact depression caused by despair impairs our body's ability to function properly. When we are depressed or in despair, our body cannot fight off disease, germs, viruses, and other elements attacking our immune system. When we are depressed or in despair, our immune system becomes compromised. Experts tell us our emotions affect our body on a physical, cellular level. Hope in life, the hope we hold within us, is an emotional and spiritual choice. Active, positive hope can touch every area of our life including our physical bodies. Likewise, fear and despair have a negative physical influence upon us. We have often heard where there is life there is hope. However, the opposite is also true. Where there is no hope there is death. A life devoid of hope for the future is a life being lived in darkness, dread, and emptiness. A life without hope is a life being lived as if death has become a reality.

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Sub-topic: Hope And Emotion

Article Content: Hope is directly related to emotion and spirit. Going into a life circumstance or dealing with the adversity and darkness of life, with no emotion and no spirit, puts us at a loss before we even begin. We do not overpower the darkness in our life by becoming a non-feeling robot. We do not overpower the pain and suffering of our life by turning off the emotions and feelings giving life substance. Hope is recognized in us by the powerful feeling hope generates in us. We say we feel hopeful as we describe what life is like in our moments of looking forward with positive expectations. To find and keep hope we need to keep our heart in tact and alive. When we shut off what our heart tells us, we shut off the messages of hope we store within our heart.

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Sub-topic: Hope And Expectation

Article Content: Some people say if we expect nothing we get nothing. However, what is more accurate to say is if we expect nothing we hope for nothing. Hope is desire accompanied by expectation. The element of desire coupled with expectation is an important idea to remember. Hope is not composed of desire alone. We can expect something to happen but not desire it will happen. For example, we can expect a severe thunderstorm to bring hail and damaging winds, but we do not desire such a thing. We can desire to have a new car very much. However, we may possess little hope of ever getting a new car. In fact, the more we desire a thing or event without an expectation of getting the thing or seeing the event come to pass, the more desperate or hopeless we can feel. Likewise, the more we expect something to happen with no desire, the more dread we are likely to feel. Hope is both the desire for and expectation of a coming event. Hope comes from our wanting something and our expecting to get it.

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Sub-topic: Hope And Faith

Article Content: Without hope, there is no faith. Without hope, there are no ideas, no mental images, no spiritual concepts, and certainly no spirit. Hope is a container holding or giving shape to our ideas, concepts, and thoughts about God. Without hope for our future, we are in darkness or are sliding down to the abyss where darkness rules.

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Sub-topic: Hope And Finding Strength

Article Content: Psalms 31:24 "Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the lord." (NIV) An incredibly important question we can ask about finding strength is, "How can I be strong when I am weak?" The answer to find strength when you are weak, is not to find strength from yourself, but from God. You find strength when you are weak because you truly believe God is working within you, and because you trust Him to give you the necessary power to get the job done...even when you are at your weakest. Our strength when we are weak comes from what we call hope in God. When you trust or hope in God, you get something extra, like an extra amount of spiritual fuel, out of every circumstance. Too often people look for strength, hope, and help from outside themselves. Too often people consider a strength, hope, and help from outside themselves to be the hope and help saving them from trouble. However, we find God and find His strength, hope, and help within us rather than from outside of us.

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Sub-topic: Hope And God's Unfailing Love

Article Content: Psalm 33:22 (NIV) "May your unfailing love rest upon us, O lord, even as we put our hope in you." (NIV) For many people who have run out of hope because of their suffering, the idea of God's unfailing love can be mumbo jumbo. For many people with no hope, God's unfailing love may not make sense. Perhaps God's unfailing love doesn't make sense on the surface, but look at God's unfailing love in the following way. If you were in a totally dark room for the first time and had no idea about the room's contents, you wouldn't know what was in the room. If you had been in the room with the light turned on and could see the contents of the room, you would know what the room contained even if the room then went dark. The same principle holds true about our faith in God. Although we can go through real disasters of darkness in our life, we have seen the Light and we know God because God is the Light. In the darkness of suffering, we have God's Light burning within us. In the darkness of suffering, we have a spiritual power to see in the darkness. In the darkness of our suffering, with Christ, we know what is in our life and we can see our way through the darkness because of Him. Although every corner of our life might seem to be dark because of our suffering, the Light of Christ penetrates every darkness no matter how deep.

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Sub-topic: Hope And Human Progress

Article Content: Hope and the Light are the fuel of individual human progress. Hope and the Light give persons the motivation to move past poverty programs of human origin. Programs of human origin can never match the power of hope in God. Poverty programs work, as do other kinds of helping programs, only if these programs foster the development of hopes, dreams, and aspirations within the participants. Hopes and dreams reside in the human heart. When there is no hope there are no dreams. Hopelessness produces no conviction to a principle. Hope produces a conviction to a principle helping us overcome incredible odds. Hopelessness robs us of the ability to see the world around us, smell the flowers, or watch the birds. Hope raises our awareness into the heavens. When we are full of hope or "hope full", we see reality and can appreciate what God has created. There is hope for every person on earth and the greatest hope is in Christ, the only Son of God. Practically all people, no matter how primitive, have had a belief in a Supreme Being. God, as our greatest hope, comes from a supernatural place and He plants Himself in our souls. Sin occurs when we go against God's implanted will within us. Sin occurs when we diminish hope, the flame and fuel of life. Consider the horrible consequences of robbing hope from humanity and placing the human race or groups of us in desperate situations and circumstances. As a consequence of taking hope away, we see desperate people, who have no hope, consequently do desperate things.

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Sub-topic: Hope And Security

Article Content: Job 11:18 "You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety." (NIV) Hope brings us a sense of security and security brings us a sense of hope. Hope and security interlock and intertwine with each other. How can we be secure where we are? How can we feel secure, how can we feel like good things will happen when everything has always gone bad? How can we feel hope or have hope when we have no rest, when we have no safety, or when we have no security? Hope and security are the result of what we do and who we are. Hope and security come to us when we productively stake out our claim on life. Then we till the soil of our plot of ground. If we stand helplessly by and wait for our plot of ground to produce when we do not plant, when we do not cultivate, when we do not fertilize, or when we do not weed, then we will have nothing springing up in our life and we will get only weeds. Hope and security are a matter of actions we take to build our world. If we want a lush garden with the safety and security of eating in the future then we must plant, cultivate, fertilize, and weed.

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Sub-topic: Hope And Success

Article Content: There are times when success or reaching the pinnacle can diminish our hope. When we have reached success or reached the pinnacle then our hope can vanish because we have met our expectations or we have reached our goal. We refer to losing our hope after we have achieved success as a "letdown". In addition, when a pinnacle is reached, people have been known to destroy themselves because they find their hope is suddenly gone. Maintaining hope after success has been reached is a critical issue if we want to continue success. At the beginning of a quest, hope abounds. As long as the quest has not been achieved the flame of hope can brightly burn. However, when the pinnacle is reached our hope can evaporate even as we celebrate our achievement. For the Christian, our real pinnacle rests on the other side in Paradise. Nothing in this life begins to compare to our quest for Heaven. We know in our spiritual certainty there will be no letdown when we reach Heaven because in Heaven hope is eternally realized, eternally actualized, and eternally burning. In more practical terms for our present life here on earth, we must always place all of our hopes in the proper perspective. In our present life, there can always be a new quest, a new goal, a new ambition, a new desire, a new project, or a new circumstance filling us with earthly hope and earthly promise.

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Sub-topic: Hope And The Destiny Of The World

Article Content: No person is small. No person is insignificant. No person is put on earth without a purpose. No person is put on earth without a mission. No person is put on earth without a destination to reach in life. We may never see our life in terms of the overall picture of the world. Most of us are not famous or well known. Most of us lead quiet lives and we are known to only a few people. However, whether we are well known or influential according to the standards of the world is not an issue in the discussion of hope. One person with a life full of hope can inspire and influence hundreds, maybe hundreds of thousands of others. The flame and fuel of life is easily ignited or extinguished. The way each of us leads our life ripples out across the world in ways we do not see nor understand. A life of hope where doing the will of God is most important is like a living, breathing prayer to God. We live in a world grown dark with crime, violence, immorality, pain, heartache, war, death, destruction, disease, and loss of freedoms. The little Light of hope each of us carries is like a torch for all those living today and those yet to be born. Even if you consider yourself small and insignificant, a relative nobody, your Light of hope shines out across space and time in supernatural ways. Your light of hope can change the destiny of other people, perhaps even change the destiny of the world.

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Sub-topic: Hope And The Element Of Time

Article Content: Hope is always tied to the future. Hope in the present is based upon or connected to the future. Hope comes into our life as if the soul has eyes peering out at the landscape of what we think and believe about our future. The eyes of the soul see into the future and from a picture, from the picture the thought or emotion we call hope springs. Using our picture in our mind, each of us has our own crystal ball. We can peer into our crystal ball to see what lies ahead of us. In our crystal ball we most often see replays of our past and consider these replays to be our future. Look at the example of a successful businessperson who has always had what some believe to be the "Midas touch." If every venture this person has tried in business has been successful then the future is never in doubt for him or her. The opposite can also be true. If a person has always experienced failure, what is likely seen in the crystal ball is more of what has gone before. In truth, can determine what goes into the crystal ball. We can determine what we see in our future by taking totally honest looks at our past and assessing our past in truth and wisdom. The person who considers their past to be nothing but failure may be looking at their past in the wrong way. There may be some plausible reason why their ventures have not turned out as planned. The truth is this: our future may indeed not be a replay of our past. We do not say "We hope things will turn out yesterday." We always say "We hope things turn out tomorrow." We always place our hopes and dreams in some future time. Hope is tied to our tomorrows.

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Sub-topic: Hope And Virtue

Article Content: Without virtue, there is little chance hope can remain alive within you. Virtuous living is the container preserving your hope. When virtue comes first, hope can then follow. Living a virtuous life does not create hope. However, a virtuous life gives hope more of a chance to flower and blossom out into greatness before God. More often than not, living a virtuous life is made more probable by being hopeful. However, virtue does not cause hope to become more real. Virtue must come before hope. Virtue guarantees a place for hope to live. When a person lacks virtue and commits a crime, many of the opportunities for hope within the person's life are diminished. When a person who commits a crime reforms their behavior and becomes virtuous, the opportunity for hope within the person's life is restored.

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Sub-topic: Hope And Youth

Article Content: How do we instill hope in our young people? Are we leaving them with diminished hope for their future? The more hopeful we are the more hopeful our children and their children will be in the coming generations. When we look at our future and we see a landscape littered with pollution, crime, debt, uncertainty, and social problems lasting generations, what hope do we leave with our children? Most importantly, what can we do today to insure our children can and will live in hope for tomorrow and in all the days to come?

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Sub-topic: Hope As The Fuel Of Life

Article Content: Hope is the fuel of life. Under ideal conditions, we hold a hope to be better. We hold a hope for the future. We hope things will get better. We hope for a change of position or circumstances. We hope for a better world, better job, better family life, better relationship with Christ, better health, better emotional life, better spiritual life, the list could go on for a long time. Every second of our life is connected to the idea there is a hope for the next second, next minute, next hour, next day, and next year. Our hope for the coming days fuels us for our service and work today. Our hope for the ages is Christ Jesus.

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Sub-topic: Hope At The End Of The Line

Article Content: Psalm 119:81 "My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I have put my hope in your word." (NIV) "Let me tell you. Things have gotten so bad for me I have thought of ending it all. Sometimes I just cannot go on. The burdens are too big and there is no hope for me." All of us have times in our life when we hit the wall and cannot see our way out. However, the hope we have as Christians in an unfailing God are the words He has given us in the Bible. "You are not going to hit me with the Bible are you? I mean, people have come up to me and rammed their Bible down my throat whether I was interested or not. I really do not want to be hit over the head with anything. Please spare me." No, I am not going to hit you over the head with the Bible. Not every verse in the Bible applies to every circumstance. What we all need to do is listen with our heart to the words of the Bible rather than listening with our ears. The words of Jesus show us how much God loves us. The words of Jesus give us hope and Light. When Jesus said He would never leave us or forsake us, He meant it. There need never be a time when we are alone in adversity and without any hope. To have the hope of Christ you have to trust, follow the rules, and believe. Believing is the way we go from darkness and hopelessness to Light and hope. Believing God is not with you is the darkest dark we experience. Believing God is with you is the way we have light in the darkness. Believing God is with you is how you find hope at the end of the line.

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Sub-topic: Hope Beyond Hope

Article Content: Even though we all must die, most of us live in hope. Even when we live in hope, the cold reality of death lurks in our life. However, when Jesus came back from being dead three days, He did not just leave us a few sayings on how to live our life. Jesus left us with a hope beyond hope. Christ's resurrection left us with an expectation, a vision, even knowledge of how death is not the end of our existence. Because Jesus was resurrected from death, we can live with a certainty death is not the end of our life. For some of us, who have accepted Christ as Savior and Lord, death represents a new and glorious beginning.

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Sub-topic: Hope Beyond Religious Practice

Article Content: Finding hope and the Light go beyond traditional practices of religion. Finding hope and the Light are the changes Christianity aspires to and seeks to embrace. Finding hope and the Light are played out in the symbolism of Moses leading the Jews to the Promised Land. Finding hope and the Light are possible for the Christian when we embrace the risen Christ who sailed up to Heaven after coming back from the tomb.

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Sub-topic: Hope Beyond The Storms

Article Content: A man once said he could still recall a geography lesson from elementary school in which he learned the southernmost point of Africa is a point known for centuries to have experienced tremendous storms. For many years, no one even knew what lay beyond the point, for no ship attempting to round that point had ever returned to tell the tale. Among the ancients, it was known as the "Cape of Storms," and for good reason. However, a Portuguese explorer in the sixteenth century, Vasco De Gama, successfully sailed around the very point of so much dread and found beyond the wild raging storms, a great calm sea, and beyond that, the shores of India. The name of the cape was changed from the Cape of Storms to the Cape of Good Hope.

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Sub-topic: Hope For An Unwed Mother, Part 1 Of 2

Article Content: The real hope for an unwed mother is not in some kind of assistance program. Her real hope in life is found deep within herself, not outside of herself. The kingdom of God is within her innermost person and cannot be found in a government program. She must come to a place in her life where she can look into the future and see a Promised Land. The ultimate Promised Land for an unwed mother is being able to support her family without help from others. She must see into the future and be able to expect to further herself in education and employability. She must come to really see her future as a time of opportunity regardless of whether there are programs designed to help her or not. All the government programs in the world will not make any difference in her life if her core circumstances do not hold a positive vision of her future. She can complete her high school education if she is a dropout and then go on to college. She can finish college and find a good paying position with a good company. However, she must find hope and the Light in her life from within herself if getting a better education and getting a better job are to become her reality. She must have hope and the Light in order to fuel her progress. Without hope and the Light, she may well be able to complete program after program but she will still be without hope. She may have temporary success without hope. However, eventually hopelessness will catch up to her and she will fall into a cycle of spiritual or financial poverty. The day an unwed mother finds the real Light and hope is the day she becomes free to walk into a Promised Land. After she finds real Light and hope, outward changes in her life may not become apparent. The potential of a positive future in her life can begin to grow. In addition, after she finds real Light and hope, we may never see the outward changes in her life. However, we can definitely hope for, and she can hope for, a life in the Promised Land for her child or children.

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Sub-topic: Hope For An Unwed Mother, Part 2 Of 2

Article Content: The presence of Light and hope may not become apparent in big lifestyle changes in the life of an unwed mother. However, the changes may certainly be passed along to the children of an unwed mother. Parents break the cycle of hopelessness by giving their children hope and the Light. Her victory over hopelessness would be shallow if she found hope and the Light only to see her children be swallowed up in hopelessness. The greatest victory for an unwed mother would be to pass her hope and her Light on to her offspring. Persons we recognize as having overcome great obstacles and darkness most often attribute their abilities to a parent or parents. When a parent passes on hope and the Light to the next generation, the endless cycles of poverty and darkness are broken. Much like the stone dropped into the quiet lake, the effects of finding hope and the Light ripple out over the generations to come. Not only are the sins of the fathers and mothers visited upon the children of succeeding generations, but the rebirth of the fathers and mothers who find the Light are also visited upon future generations. In assessing her life, the unwed mother may unfortunately use our standards of dollars, houses, cars, and clothes as a gauge of her success. In determining the value of our programs to help others, we unfortunately measure success in material forms. However, dollars, houses, cars, and clothes are not measures of how much hope and the Light transforms us. We are transformed in spiritual dimensions not comparable to our physical world.

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Sub-topic: Hope For The Unemployed And Under-educated

Article Content: Where is the hope for an under-educated person trapped in a dead end job making low wages? Where is the hope for this person? This problem is being faced by millions of people all over the world. In much the same way, where is the hope for a person who is unemployed or underemployed with no apparent hope for moving up or for advancement on the person's job. What about the person who comes home so tired he or she cannot begin to study to upgrade their skills? What about family obligations of a person when those obligations take precedence over a person's self-development? Finding hope, finding the Light, keeping hope, and keeping the Light burning within us is no easy task. Finding hope and the Light, and keeping the hope and the Light burning within our heart is hard work. We must remember hope is the fuel of life. The problem an under-educated person faces may well be a fuel problem. He or she may not have enough fuel left at the end of the day to go to night school or take other classes. We all need hope to fuel our mission to grow and advance. Without this fuel of hope, overcoming the fatigue put upon us by our adversities seems impossible. Millions of people find advancement or achievement impossible in worldly terms because trying to achieve worldly results takes more fuel than most of us can generate without hope. When we live for ourselves in the darkness of hopelessness, we face seemingly impossible odds. The reason so many people feel helpless in the face of adversity is because they run out of hope. The under-educated person needs to find hope. When hope is found, then miraculous power comes into the person. This miraculous power from hope helps us climb the physical mountains of our physical world because our eyes are not dimmed by the shadows of our physical mountain. When we have hope, we are not in darkness because hope gives us the fuel to illumine our path.

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Sub-topic: Hope From Within Or Hope From Without

Article Content: Whether your hope comes from within you or outside of you, hope makes all the difference in the essence of your life. The hope you make visible now in your heart, mind, and soul can determine your health, wealth, and peace of mind. You can envision in your mind a hope for numerous persons, places, things, and situations. You can hold vast hopes within you. You can make specific plans to possess what you envision. However, all the hoping for external things and the planning activity to acquire these external things can take place in a spirit of selfish darkness. Without the Light providing internal hope, you may become financially wealthy but you can still be poor in spirit and in hope. Without the Light, you may have a healthy body but still have a sick spiritual heart and mind. Without the Light, you may have all the material trappings of life but you will not have real peace or joy. The Light, God, the spirit of the living God, brings us real peace and real joy regardless of the circumstances in life. Dreaming hoping for things external or material is not wrong. What is wrong is when you try to possess a material thing God does not want you to have. What is also wrong is the priority we give to material or external hopes and dreams. Life is smoother, more productive, more joyful, and happier if our first priority in life is to have internal hopes and dreams illuminated by the Light. When the external world outside of us takes priority over our God-inspired hearts, minds, and souls, then we are engaged in a spiritual war we cannot win at any cost.

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Sub-topic: Hope In Loneliness, Part 1 Of 5

Article Content: What does a person do who is caught up in the isolation and pain of loneliness? Where does a person suffering loneliness, a person who is so often afraid to reach out and make contact with others, find hope and the Light and love of God? How does this person overcome fear and shyness? There may be no other problem in the world causing so much pain as the problem of loneliness. All people feel the pain of loneliness at times. However, masses of people are plagued by the pain of loneliness on a daily basis. Ironically, if you experience loneliness you are not alone. You are among millions of others who feel the same way. Even in a crowd, the pain of loneliness never leaves. Loneliness is a darkness of the soul. Loneliness is an insidious form of self-preservation. Although loneliness is an out-growth of our self-preservation instincts, instead of preserving our life, loneliness destroys our body, mind, and spirit. Loneliness is like a slow growing cancer of the soul. Loneliness is a form of spiritual darkness blinding us to those around us. Lonely people do desperate things to ease the pain. Many of our social problems like substance abuse, gang violence, and skyrocketing birth rates among unmarried girls and women, are the symptoms of the loneliness problem.

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Sub-topic: Hope In Loneliness, Part 2 of 5

Article Content: To overcome loneliness, we need to find hope, the Light of Christ, and the love of God. In the heart of the lonely person there is little if any hope, there is no Light, and there is no love from God. Overcoming the pain of loneliness requires hard work. There are two major tasks ahead of you if you experience loneliness. Both of these tasks require you to reach out. First, you need to reach out to the love God has for you. Second, you need to reach out to other people. To tell people God loves them and then for us to walk away feeling smug and self-righteous is easy. We can pat ourselves on the back because we delivered a message about God. However, to banish loneliness all of us must accept the love of God in our heart and life. To let the Light shine into our heart requires we be totally honest about our life. To overcome the cancerous nature of our self-preservation instinct we must see ourselves as selfish. To rid ourselves of loneliness, we must come to grips with the darkness within us making us want to pull back and not reach out. To overcome loneliness we must first be honest be honest with ourselves and then tell ourselves as we tell God we are afraid to reach out. We must tell God we are afraid we will be hurt by others. When we are honest with God then He will reward us by being with us and helping us banish our loneliness with His presence.

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Sub-topic: Hope In Loneliness, Part 3 Of 5

Article Content: To overcome loneliness we must be willing to see and be touched by the needs of others. We must be willing to see and be touched by others in ways making us forget about our own needs and fears. To overcome our loneliness requires us to stop looking into our life and start looking into the life of others to see their pain. After we start looking into the lives of others, and after we see how much they hurt and need someone to help them through their own darkness, we must have the courage to respond to them. When you look into the life of others you will see other people need you in most desperate ways. People need you to reach out to them this instant. For example, in every city and town of even modest size, there is a nursing home. Tragically, these nursing homes are filled with people who never have a visitor. There are nursing home residents who have no visitors even on their birthday. No visitors on Christmas or Easter. No visitors at any other time. Most nursing home residents are not only incredibly lonely, they are also ill or incapacitated. Nursing home residents need people who care about them. You don't need a fancy introduction to get acquainted. You don't even need a reason to stop in and see someone. These people hurt so bad from being lonely they don't care about the reason you are there. All most of these people need is someone to stop by and say hello.

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Sub-topic: Hope In Loneliness, Part 4 Of 5

Article Content: In most major cities there are organizations called Big Brothers and Big Sisters. These organizations try to find an older adult to be a friend to young children or teenagers. These young folks need a friend to ward off the loneliness of living in a family where one of the parents is not living at home. These young people need you to let a little of the Light and love of God shine in the darkness of being a kid in a dark and lonely world. Not very far from where you live is a church with people who need other people with whom they can talk. This church is full of people who need other people to be with them, to share their problems, and to love them. These people need you to give them hope and show them a glimmer of the Light and love of God. The first few Sunday's you go to church you may not see the needs, but the needs are there. In most churches today, older members vastly outnumber the younger members. Many of these older church members are widows or widowers. They know loneliness first hand. They need you to show them caring and compassion. You don't have to have some kind of special skill to reach out to people. You don't have to be good at conversation (although it helps and can be learned). You don't have to be smart, or educated. All you have to do to rid your own loneliness is show people you care about them. It may not require anything more than taking someone some candy, cookies, flowers, a card, or a trinket. In truth, no "thing" is required, because you don't have to take anything but yourself.

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Sub-topic: Hope In Loneliness, Part 5 Of 5

Article Content: To ward off your own loneliness if you are single, you will find in many larger cities a number of Christian singles groups or ministries. Many larger churches provide singles programs. Even if your present church does not have such a program, you can start calling churches in your area to find such a ministry. Better yet, bite the bullet and start a group in your own church. In your phone book yellow pages you will find a long list of non-profit corporations and social agencies. These agencies need volunteers. In addition, in the yellow pages you will also find numerous lists of health care providers like hospitals, clinics, and retreats. These institutions need volunteers. In addition, you will find all kinds of organizations dedicated to religious, political, and social causes. In many of these organizations there is a paid employee called a volunteer coordinator. The job of the volunteer coordinator is to find people like you who will come in to volunteer their time and effort to help the organization. You have nearly unlimited opportunities to reach out to others. Although there are unlimited opportunities for you to reach out to others, you can get involved in these opportunities on a full time basis and still be lonely. The one thing each lonely person has to do first is quit looking at their own life and then start looking at the hurt, pain, and loneliness in the life of others. If you battle loneliness you should understand more than anyone else what others are facing in their loneliness. The key issue anyone who battles loneliness must confront is being honest enough to see the realities of life. When we suffer from loneliness, we must see all the realities, both the positive and negative. We all have needs for contact with other persons. We all need to bond emotionally to others. God made us this way. Finally, when we are lonely we are feeling our own pain, our own fear, and our own darkness, but we can overcome. When we feel lonely we are not feeling the pain, fear, and darkness of someone else, we are consumed by our own pain, but we can overcome. Loneliness is insidious but we can overcome. Loneliness consumes us and turns us inward when what we need the most is to turn ourselves outward to others. To overcome and defeat loneliness we must get into the "turning" business. To overcome and defeat loneliness, we must turn our attention to the needs of others. To overcome and defeat loneliness, we must turn our attention away from our own pain. We must turn our spirit and soul toward God and toward others. When we truly seek God's love and peace in our loneliness, He will answer. The best way to find hope and the Light is to give hope and Light away. When you find another lonely person, the best thing you can do for them is to give them hope and the Light by being there for them...so they will not be lonely. When you try to take away the loneliness of others by giving them hope and the Light of the love of God. Remember above all else...what you give away comes back to you. The catch is this: if you try to give away hope and the Light for a selfish reason, nothing comes back. However, if you unselfishly give hope and the Light away because you see the pain of others, you receive back what you give away many times over.

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Sub-topic: Hope In The Darkness

Article Content: Hope is Light in the darkness. Hope changes our ability to see. Hope changes our perceptions of our world and our reality. Hope changes obstacles into challenges. Without hope, obstacles become threats or barriers over which we have no control. Hope finds answers...lack of hope finds only questions. Hope knows love...lack of hope knows only loneliness. Hope is the medicine of the soul...lack of hope is the poison of the soul. Hope is the power giving us the will to live...lack of hope brings death. Hope is the doctor's strongest medicine...lack of hope brings disease and illness. Hope fills the mind and heart with a power propelling us forward...lack of hope stagnates us and keeps us from pushing ahead. Most importantly, hope is acquired by making a choice.

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Sub-topic: Hope In The Imprisoned Life

Article Content: When you are going to be forever sick, lame, blind, or disabled, then where is the hope? In our adversities and in our hours of darkness we need hope. When we have lost hope and cannot find hope, we must remember our hope must always be in Christ the Son, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. No matter what our circumstances might be, we must always strive to let our Light shine before men. The hope of letting our light shine before men is the hope of turning our adversity into a blessing for others and for Christ. When the odds and chances are great against your ever realizing your hopes and dreams, then you must change the odds or fix the game. You need to load the dice so to speak. We are not advising dishonesty or gambling. What we mean is when the odds are against you then you have to work harder to arrange your life so things fall your way. Arranging your life is like cutting down a tree. The tree can fall in any direction you want depending on how you make the cuts. You just have to know how to make those cuts.

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Sub-topic: Hope In The Light

Article Content: You can find, have, and keep hope in the Light. Everyone, regardless of who they are, where they are, or their circumstances in life, can find hope in the Light. This is not to say we cannot find hope without the Light because we can. External persons, places, things, and circumstances normally fill our thoughts, minds, and souls. The problem with things external is when our inner core is filled with things external, there is, in a manner of speaking, no room left for inner peace, inner joy, and inner contentment. If we would all be honest, external persons, places, things, and circumstances are most often diversions away from our lack of inner peace, joy, and contentment. In addition, if we would all be honest, some of our worst times in life have been those times dominated by problems brought into our life by external persons, places, things, and circumstances we mistakenly treasure.

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Sub-topic: Hope In The Light Of God

Article Content: In the darkness of our life, in our darkest moments, when there seems to be no Light at the end of our journey and no hope in our present moment, we must all remember we can be part of God's plan for us. As alone as we sometimes feel, we are not alone because God is with us. As little and insignificant as we sometimes think we are, we are not little nor insignificant to God. As invisible as we often think we are, as unnoticed as we consider ourselves to be, we are not invisible and unnoticed to God. We too often measure our life by the physical attributes of the world. We too often measure our life by dollars made, location and size of houses lived in, year and model of cars driven, and the stylish nature of clothes worn. However, these measures are not the measures God uses to measure our life. Dollars, houses, cars, and clothes are meaningless in the higher realms where God lives. To God, dollars, houses, cars, and clothes are folly; they are like jokes and things of laughter if we could see them as God sees them. Instead of opening the way to Light and hope, our material things, and our desire for human position and recognition, keep us away from finding Light and hope in Christ's love. To find Light and hope in Christ we must realize hope and the Light come from another plain of life, from another existence unlike our own. To find hope and the Light in Christ we must let our spirit soar far above the material things of earth so we can see the hope of eternal life and the hope of eternal joy in Christ our Savior.

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Sub-topic: Hope Is

Article Content: Hope has been described as something to look forward to. Indeed, hope is our connection to the future. Hope is the fuel of life. Hope gives us the will to live. When all else fails, hope keeps us going. Hope is a burning Light within us. Hope is the breath of God. Hope is the very spark of life He has breathed into every person. Hope is the energy of life. When hope is lost, people commonly start to die. People can physically, emotionally, or spiritually die when hope is gone. Healthy persons can to begin to experience great physical devastation when these healthy persons receive a devastating medical report...a devastation brought on by the loss of hope.

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Sub-topic: Hope Sustained By Giving Thanks And Counting Blessings

Article Content: Under normal circumstances we walk through life and take most things for granted. Darkness falls and hope is often lost when the things we take for granted are taken away. Persons of hope not only have the ability to see past the present darkness and look forward with expectation, persons of hope are also able to look past their present darkness as they count their blessings. Persons of hope deal with adversity by piecing together the shattered nature of their life as they count their blessings. Persons of hope have or call upon the Light of Christ, and the Light shines within them. The Light illuminates the parts of their life and consequently persons of hope have profound gratitude. Instead of letting the darkness prevail when darkness falls, persons of hope find a flower growing amidst the manure. Persons of hope may not see a shiny silver dollar in a mud hole but they still find it, wash it off, and count it as one of their blessings. Persons of hope focus on what they can do when darkness falls instead of what they cannot do. The focus of our heart determines how alive hope remains in us. When we experience real gratitude within us for the blessings of our life, even if those blessings are small, then hope has a chance to flourish. When we direct our heart, mind, and spirit outward instead of inward, we are more likely to be thankful persons. Losing hope is easy when we lose sight because our spiritual vision does not work in the darkness. However, when we call upon the Light of Christ to shine within us we are able to see small things mean a lot.

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Sub-topic: Hope Through The Years

Article Content: At the beginning of a quest, hope abounds. The hope of youth overflows with their belief they are invincible and will never die. However, as we get older we see hopes and dreams fade away as we struggle through the years. In our middle to older years, we are more content to live out our days with smaller hopes and dreams we can believe are more realistic. Even in our senior years we need to always be able to look forward in life with a positive hope. When we no longer look forward in life but instead look backward to "The good old days" we have put our life on hold. A life on hold with no hopes and no dreams is a life lived on the edge. We can easily slip into a state of constant depression and darkness without hope for tomorrow. When we enter a state of depression and darkness our health can begin to falter because our body's immune system begins to break down. A human body without the psychological energy provided by hope is a body at risk.

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Sub-topic: Hopelessness And Christ

Article Content: So many people from all lifestyles look upon their future as if their future is nothing but a barren desert. In addition, people full of hopelessness are the ones so often drawn to drug and alcohol abuse. People full of hopelessness try desperately to fill the hollowness of their life with all manner of sinful and immoral acts. If people full of hopelessness would only look in another direction these persons would find a life full of joy and hope unending. There is not only hope in this life there is hope for eternity. Jesus Christ came to us to not only tell us there was hope but demonstrated His hope for our future by giving himself up to be cruelly tortured and crucified. Christ's sacrifice was His loving way of actually showing and demonstrating to us even the hopelessness of death could be and would be overcome for eternity. In our modern age of technology and our near-worship of science, we find millions of people who consider their life to be ineffective and trivial. How terrible a thing this is! Even people who consider themselves religious often feel useless and without an overall purpose in their life. This futility of living is a symptom of hopelessness. However, there is no hopelessness with a tangible faith in Christ giving us an eternal hope for eternity.

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Sub-topic: Hopelessness Is...

Article Content: Hopelessness or being hopeless is defined as a feeling of futility. Hopelessness is the passive abandonment of oneself to fate. Notice the words we use...feeling, futility, passive abandonment, and fate. Hopelessness is a feeling. Hopelessness kills the spirit and robs the soul of life. Hopelessness brings futility. When we are in hopelessness, seemingly nothing we say, think, do, or pray will make any difference in our current or future life. Millions of people today are caught up in a life or lifestyle of emptiness brought on by hopelessness. We often see people who, from outward appearances, are successful and/or even famous, but who lead lives of not only quiet desperation but also lead lives of barrenness because in the center of their soul there is hopelessness.

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Sub-topic: Hopes And Dreams

Article Content: The desire Christ had for all of humanity to come to Him was never fulfilled in His earthly life. We all have hopes and dreams. People have hopes and dreams about things like a home, family, success for children, prestige, and personal triumph. However, life seldom works out the way we want, the way we hope, or the way we dream. Christ did not want to go to the Cross. In life, what we want, our hopes, and our dreams can get crushed. An elderly gentleman who dreams of a retirement of ease and luxury, now resides in a nursing home with no one to visit him. A childless couple who hope and dream of having a perfect baby, have a child with downs syndrome. A star athlete with dreams of playing professional sports spends his life sitting in a wheelchair because of an accident. Our quality of life should not be about whether our wants, hopes, and dreams come true. The quality of our life should be about how we live when our wants, hopes, and dreams are crushed. The quality of our life is determined by how we find new hope after old hopes have been dashed. In Christ, we have an eternal hope never to be taken away. Christ went to the Cross and was crushed in our place. Christ came back to life after death to show us how we have hope forever.

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Sub-topic: How Hope And God Work In Adversity, Part 1 Of 2

Article Content: One of the ways God has of sending hope and the Light into the world is through people who seem to have less than others. This was certainly the case with Lucy (not her real name). Lucy was born with Down's Syndrome. Her mental age never reached more than two years. Of course, Lucy was a constant worry and burden for her parents, wondering what would happen to her when they were both gone. Lucy died in her late twenties from complications originating at birth. On the surface, it would seem Lucy took more away from the world than she gave. The truth is Lucy gave more to people and gave more to the world than a hundred people. Lucy changed people's lives. Lucy touched people and made them tender when no one else could touch them. Lucy reminded people how blessed they were to be more normal, and made them thankful for the life they had. Lucy made people thankful for small unseen blessings they would have ignored if Lucy had not been born with a disability. Lucy pulled people into the service of others. Many of these people were not the service-to-humanity types. Because Of Lucy, other people found meaning and purpose in their life. Lucy penetrated the hard outer shell of people and softened them up. Lucy touched so many people when Lucy died, there were hundreds of people who came to pay their respects and give comfort to her parents. Lucy did all these things without even being able to speak a complete sentence. We cannot possibly see how Lucy's life rippled out over the land through the people she touched. Your life is like a pebble thrown into a lake. The ripples go on and on, even when we do not see them. The ultimate answer to the questions of why, or why me, or why does God let bad things happen the way He does is, at least in Lucy's case, answered by realizing we are all born to be Light bearers and givers of hope to others.

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Sub-topic: How Hope And God Work In Adversity, Part 2 Of 2

Article Content: There is a woman who lives in the Midwestern U.S. who is disabled. We will call this woman, Sally (not her real name). Sally is a pretty, outgoing, positive, upbeat woman. When she was a college student, tragedy struck. In a freak accident on a college outing, she became paralyzed from the neck down. Many months of rehab followed extensive stays in the hospital. Confined to a wheel chair, Sally could have given up. After all, any hope she had for a normal life had been torn away. Confined to a wheel chair, Sally could have spent her life in emotional darkness and hopelessness. Everyone would have understood. However, Sally did not quit living. She went back to college, finished her undergraduate work, then went on to graduate from law school. Even if her body was not working like it should have been, Sally was still alive as a person. Instead of locking onto a hopeless and helpless lifestyle, she has become an advocate for the disabled. She exposed herself and her disability publicly to advocate for the rights of the disabled. She exposed her disability in ways producing an embarrassment and humiliation only others who are disabled truly understand. She has humbled herself before people so others can benefit. She has inspired others by her life and sacrifices. She has sensitized others who do not have disabilities to the difficulties of those people who do have them. As inspiring as Sally has been, there is more to this story than meets the eye. The darkness invading Sally's life did not go unnoticed. There were fundraisers held to help with her hospital expenses just after the accident. Other people made gestures of kindness when in normal circumstances these gestures would not have been made had it not been for Sally's adversity. Good, kind, ordinary people were given a chance to give away hope and the Light because of her. In giving away hope and the Light, these people got the Light back, although getting the Light back was not their intent. People who would normally lead quiet lives were mobilized to help Sally. Like the stone dropped into the quiet pond, the rippling effect of Sally's life has touched thousands, and those persons so touched have touched thousands more. When Sally's life is done and she is freed by God so she can inherit a new body, she will be shown how her pain, sacrifice, and darkness touched thousands of other lives. She will also be shown how those lives touched others. In Heaven, she will see how her life rippled out into the unseen realms of heaven, across other realities, and into the heart of God. From Heaven, Sally will see there is more going on in life than we can understand with our limited human minds. Sally is one of us who God has called upon not just to seek out hope and the Light for herself, but to be a light and hope to others. Not everyone is called to be a light and hope in the way Sally was called. However, we are all called in some way. When we respond to the call to give away hope and the Light, we gain hope, love, knowledge, wisdom, and power over our adversity or inner opponent. Often out of the darkness we find the brightest Light and strongest hope. Here is a hard-to-bear truth for any person in any adversity or for any person who supports a person in adversity. The truth is this...the world can become a better place because of the adversity or darkness in any person's life. Other people have fought back against their own darkness because Sally fought her battle. People, who under other circumstances would have languished in despair, now persevere against their darkness because Sally persevered against her darkness

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Sub-topic: How Hope Connects To Adversity

Article Content: Believe in the power of hope. Believe in the power of hope when you are overwhelmed with obstacles. Believe in the power of hope when your life, your existence, and your substance is under siege. Believe in the power of hope because you are in the palm of God's hand. You are loved by God in truly awesome ways. You have a purpose in life. Your life has an overwhelming mission. You have a place in the universe carved out by God from the beginning of time. You can defeat every adversity and be a victor. What you do, both good and bad, is seen and cared about by God. What you think about, both good and bad, is seen and cared about by God. You have time, infinite time called eternity, on your side. You have an eternity called heaven waiting for you. You have an eternal unbreakable connection to the infinite love of God.

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Sub-topic: How The Light Illumines Our Life In Suffering

Article Content: When we suffer we lose hope. When we are suffering, the darkness comes in and surrounds us so we cannot see the Light. When we suffer, we lose our vision, we lose our expectations of the future, we are no longer making plans for the future, and we lose our communion with God. In opposition to suffering there is hope. Hope is the result of our letting the Light into our life and then directing the power of the Light so we can envision our future. The more of the Light we have illuminating our vision of the future, the more hope we possess. When we try to look ahead and we see only darkness, we lose hope. The Light illumines our life so we can see ahead with hope and confidence. To have the Light, we must want the Light and we must want to live in a life full of the Light. There is hope and promise in every person's life regardless of their suffering or darkness. There is hope in adversity. When you are in adversity, remember God has a job for you to do, a place for you to be, and a person you are to be for the others around you. Suffering can be no excuse for doing the job God has for you to do. Our time of suffering, like our life, is brief. Our time of reward for doing the job God has for us to do is eternal. God has a place called Paradise waiting for you, a place where there is no suffering or darkness. From God's place called Paradise we find His Light of love shining down into our heart, giving us the promise and giving us the hope we need to conquer every foe.

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Sub-topic: Internal And External Hope

Article Content: When we tie ourselves to internal hope, the Light can illuminate every moment of our darkness. This does not mean the experience of adversity, pain, and suffering is easy. However, having internal hope means we can win out over our suffering. We can live a full and productive life in spite of the darkness in our life. Internal or external hope is the essence of what moves a person forward in life. Hope is a driving force in us, a force propelling us into the next minute, hour, day, and week. Have you ever been stuck and unable to move forward in life? Have you ever been in a position of not having anyone to turn to, or not knowing what to do or what to think? These are times when hope is in short supply. On the surface, we seem to either have hope or we do not. Some people are seem to be just lucky to always be hopeful. However, having hope is something you can find, keep, and manage. Hope can be found, kept, and managed regardless of your circumstances. Hope can be found in the most utter darkness. In the simplest of religious terms, as we lose God, we lose hope. In the simplest of religious terms, when we find God, we find hope.

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Sub-topic: Intuition And Belief In Adversity

Article Content: Intuition can be a powerful ally in sustaining positive belief. Most people intuitively know what is righteous. Most people intuitively know a positive and hopeful belief is the right belief. However, we find acknowledging the negative and believing the worst to be easier than acknowledging the positive and believing in the best. When facing every adversity, when facing every obstacle, you have a choice. You can choose hope and believe in the best or you can choose hopelessness and believe in the worst. Any belief fostering hopelessness has to be eliminated or you face the consequences of making the adversity far worse than the adversity might be at the present time. Negative beliefs can be more dangerous and devastating than the adversity or obstacle faced. Because positive belief is such a powerful and overwhelming force, positive belief certainly can and sometimes does become biology within your body and life. If you steep our heart, mind, and soul in negative belief, your negative belief can become a part of your body. If you steep your heart, mind, and soul in positive belief, your positive belief can become a part of your body. Here is an example of belief in action. Experts or doctors play God when they tell you that (a) you only have a certain number of years to live, or (b) you will always have a condition, or (c) there is nothing you can do, or (d) all you can do is live with it. In total truth and in total reality, all the expert or the doctor is able to do is give you a mere opinion about how long you have to live, only a mere opinion about whether you will always have a condition, and only a mere opinion about whether there is anything you can do about a condition. If you believe the negative expert or negative doctor as if the negative expert or doctor is God, your negative belief directly impacts your life, your body, and your health in a negative and sometimes disastrous way.

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Sub-topic: Keep Promise And Hope Alive

Article Content: In the grind we call daily life, the snarls of worries, cares, concerns, and anxieties we all experience can smother out our hope and promise for the future. We can get so bogged down with declining hope, in just trying to get from one minute to the next, we can end up not caring much about next week or next year. However, we all need to consider our future as a time of promise and a time of hope. The older we get, the less of a future we have in terms of years. As the years roll by and we get older, our ability to find hope and promise for the future becomes more and more difficult because we realize we are running out of time. When we age, we often run out of energy. After we get beaten down and beaten back by life, we too often give up hope and surrender our promise as we look forward to a time of rest and retirement. As we get older, we often look forward to a time when we can take our ease and coast into our last days without the daily turmoil of living. However, no matter how old or no matter how young we are, we must work hard to keep hope and promise alive in every stage of life. We can keep hope and promise alive by realizing all things are possible at any age. No matter what our present circumstances might be, we can either change those circumstances or we can change our response to those circumstances. We must remember the darkness of the night is followed by the light of dawn. Even on dismal and cloudy days, the light of the sun still shines above the clouds.

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Sub-topic: Key Points In Crisis Management

Article Content:

●Do everything possible to let hope infuse every second of the crisis.

●Do everything possible to let hope dominate the crisis rather than letting the crisis dominate you.

●Take charge of every moment in the crisis.

●Show extreme leadership skills over the crisis.

●Rule over and manage every moment.

●Confront the fact there are real life issues to be addressed.

●Address the real life issues with hope and positive expectations.

●Look for positive indicators.

●Be realistically positive in assessing potential outcomes.

●Move past emotional darkness to emotional light.

●Rest in the arms of God fully realizing God's peace is possible every second.

●Give God the glory and give Him thanks for the blessings of your life even in times of crisis.

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Sub-topic: Living Life With Direction And Purpose

Article Content: A so-called "realistic" view of life is too often a dim view full of despair. Do you believe the best or the worst? Do you want to act on your fears or your hopes? The attitude of hope is an attitude standing in direct contrast to an attitude of despair. If you think your life is over, it probably is. If you think your life is not over, thinking you have many years, even eternity left, then you do have many years, or eternity left. "You may not be given long to live, but live as long as you're given." Live life up, do not live life down. Look up, not down. Every day live each day for all it is worth. In every minute, live each minute for all it is worth. You may not be given many good minutes but live the few good minutes you have. While living every moment as much as possible, make living in gratitude and thanksgiving your aim in every minute. What do you have to lose?

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Sub-topic: Looking For Hope

Article Content: The most important choice people make in their life is the choice of where they look for hope. People either look for hope outside of themselves or inside of themselves. Where you look for hope determines the image and the outcome of your hope. Make no mistake, vast fortunes, incredible fame, and untold power have been accumulated by people who apply certain principles related to making external hopes and dreams come true. However, there are consequences to all actions. Indeed, you may come to possess every external hope or every material thing. However, you may later come to regret what you possess. Quite often, the realization of external hope brings inner death...the inner death from realizing we are empty inside when all we possess are external fortunes, external fame, and external power.

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Sub-topic: Losing Hurts But There Is Always Hope

Article Content: If you have lost, you know losing hurts. The type of loss your experience makes no difference. Losing hurts because what you had or what you hoped for in the past is somehow gone or diminished. To tell yourself you do not hurt from a loss when the truth is otherwise makes no difference. When we lose, we must remember we can always deal with the loss. When we lose, we may never fully recover from the loss but we can recover enough to move on and move forward. Many of the great contributions to the world come at times when others have hurt the most from a loss because the contributors found hope. We must also remember even when we hurt from the loss we still have the capability to live today and tomorrow as a result of our hope. After a loss, we still have the capability to live again despite the searing pain we feel. Over time, with prayer and with a humble heart, the pain of our losing begins to heal as hope begins to restore us. Although we may hurt deeply in a loss, we can learn to live and be productive again. After a loss, as a result of finding new hope, we can learn to live in new ways and live in new times, even when the new times are quite different than the old times.

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Sub-topic: Our Source Of Ultimate Help

Article Content: Psalms 33:17 "A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save." (NIV) We all need help at some point in our life. There are many times the outside of our life overwhelms us and our inside resources seem small to non-existent. However, our ultimate source of ultimate help resides inside of us. The kingdom of God lives inside of you, not up in the sky or in some faraway galaxy. The place where God works best is inside of you this minute. In addition, although we need help on the outside of our life much of the time, no one can truly live without God doing His work within our life and heart. God often works in ways we do not understand. God works in invisible ways. He is not visible to our physical eyes. God does not often speak in a voice we can hear with our physical ears. God may not heal us in the way we want to be healed. God may not answer our prayers in ways we want them answered. The whole idea of believing in God can seem to be crazy at times. However, our faith in God comes about because we know God loves us. Somehow, we are all touched by God. Some people do not believe in God because they refuse to admit to being touched by Him. To find hope in life when things come unglued, we all need to remember God is love. The unfailing love of God gives us the fuel to keep going day after day. God's fuel of hope in love keeps us going in spite of enormous difficulties and adversities. When we permit ourselves to take the risk of letting ourselves be touched by God, we come to know the substance of His love turns out to be a very real thing. We find our hope for the future because we have His love within us. God's love and His hope becomes our ultimate help.

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Sub-topic: Persons Without Hope

Article Content: For persons without hope there is no overriding presence of God. With no hope there is no goal in life associated with God. In addition, there is no theme in life connected to God, no view of oneself as God sees us, and no knowledge about what God wants us to do or to be in life. Persons without hope do not see God as caretaker over them, they do not see God as a caretaker who will help them turn adversity into advantage, and they do not see God as a manager who will help arrange circumstances to their greatest advantage. Persons without hope do not see God as a universal force empowering circumstances to benefit them. Without hope, persons do not see a managerial or supervisory God carving out an eternal heavenly destiny for them. To find the Light and Love of God we need to find an active and alive God supplying us with continual hope until we see all our hopes and dreams realized when we see Him face to face. Our God who is alive is Christ who rose from the dead and who now lives inside our heart.

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Sub-topic: Picking Up The Pieces

Article Content: We all have hopes and dreams. Sometimes our hopes and dreams are crushed due to factors over which we have no control. When our hopes and dreams are crushed, we talk about having to pick up the pieces. When our hopes and dreams are crushed God always gives us a way to pick up the pieces. God always gives us a way to piece our life back together again. Piecing our life back together is not easy. Many people are often afraid to try to pick up the pieces after hopes and dreams have been crushed. However, God gave you a mind, a heart, and a soul to hold, possess, and pursue hopes and dreams. You can pursue your own dreams, but God wants you to pursue only His dreams for your life. When you pursue His dream there is never any disappointment. When you pursue God's dream for your life, the love of God flowing down over you can heal you from the tragedy and loss of your worldly hopes and dreams crushed under Satan's heel.

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Sub-topic: Receiving His Treasure

Article Content: If we do not receive and treasure the love of God, there is in each of us an innate recognition telling us life is hopeless. Many people have a sense of hopelessness about themselves and about their life. Most of these people confront their hopelessness in life by running away from the hopelessness. People run away from their hopelessness by trying to drink it away, drug it away, play it away, watch TV it away, or try to escape their hopelessness by any means possible. Tragically, there is no escape. Wonderfully, there is a fix to this problem. For in Christ Jesus we find the hope of the world, for all people, all the time, for all the generations, for all the multitudes or the past and all the multitudes of the future. In Christ we find hope for life beyond death and hope in this life in the here and now. In Christ Jesus, there is hope until the very end, and at the very end, we find there is no end but an eternal new beginning.

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Sub-topic: Religious Symbols

Article Content: The religious symbols we use in our Christian faith are efforts at trying to express what we cannot express. Our faith has many symbols associated with it. We use these symbols to express our love, joy, and hope. We use our symbols to remind us of essential truths. We use our symbols to help us keep on the narrow road. We use our symbols to remind us of Christ and His sacrifice for us. Our symbols are not to be maligned or put down. No human being must ever be prevented from expressing love, especially love for Christ and the Christ child. The Holy Spirit works on and in people to make them love each other and love Christ. The Holy Spirit makes people adopt ways of worship. The Holy Spirit and the love of God come into the heart of men and women. When a person's heart is full of God's love, then this love demands people express His love because He is love. We cannot keep Christ's love inside of us. Our Christian art, Christian music, Christian literature, and Christian symbols reflect our inability to keep in the wonderful love of God.

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Sub-topic: Responding To Adversity With Hope

Article Content: Responding to any adversity with stoic acceptance and/or a stiff upper lip can be the same as responding with absolute despair. Responding to any adversity with panic is giving in to fear. Responding to any adversity with a sense of victory in our heart and soul is a sign we embrace eternal hope. Responding with hope is the only way to help oneself in any adversity. A physical illness, a physical condition, a physical obstacle, or any adversity can be dealt with and overcome with hope. Hope is the fuel of life, hope gives us life, hope is the substance of our spirit, and hope is the power of our heart. Depression caused by despair or the absence of hope impairs the body's disease-fighting cells and also dramatically affects our ability to think and reason with effectiveness. Hope is an emotional and spiritual choice. Active, big, and positive hope can influence all areas of your life including our physical body.

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Sub-topic: Responding With Hope When Darkness Comes

Article Content: How do we respond to the darkness lurking about us? Responding with passive acceptance and an unwillingness to fight back against the darkness in our life can be the same as responding with absolute despair. In contrast, responding with panic to the darkness in our life produces the same result as giving in to fear. Regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, responding triumphantly to the darkness is only possible with hope. When life puts you in darkness then responding with hope is the ultimate victory. Responding with hope in the darkness is the only way to help yourself and the only way you have of letting God help you. Any darkness in any form, whether the darkness is a physical illness, physical condition, or physical obstacle can be dealt with and can be overcome with hope. Without hope, life circumstances can get us down or even destroy us. However, with hope, we have energy in our soul giving us the persistence and insistence to deal with the obstacles we face each day. We may not be able to eliminate a physical obstacle, disability, or situation. However, we can live in spite of physical obstacles, disabilities, and situations. We can live in spite of the darkness without letting the darkness take away our humanity...only if we respond to the darkness with hope. We can live a full and productive life regardless of our weaknesses, disabilities, or failings when we fuel up our life with the fuel of life...the fuel of life we call hope.

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Sub-topic: Rules Need To Be Enforced

Article Content: You may not be the "law enforcement" type of person. However, in any life, in any company, in any family, in any circumstance where we hope to avoid chaos, rules have to be enforced. In every circumstance, we need to provide or build mechanisms to enforce rules because people break rules. Some people break rules because they have limited self-control and limited self-discipline. Other people break rules by accident. Still, other people break rules out of spite, anger, or carelessness. Plain and simple, someone always needs to be assigned the task of enforcing rules. If there is no one to enforce the rules, rules will be broken without any thought for the consequences. By having a person in charge of rule enforcement, people will think twice about breaking the rules.

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Sub-topic: Running On Hope

Article Content: God constructed the soul of men and women to run on hope. However much we might disagree with the religious practices of other faiths, God placed in the soul of every person a need for hope leading to a need to believe in Him. When the human soul is in darkness, there is madness and nothing to lose. In the absence of hope, a singular human being and the world will self-destruct. Hopeless children look out upon the world with vacant eyes. Hopeless elderly look out upon the world with eyes full of tears when they see no heaven awaiting them. In the absence of hope, there is terror, fear, anxiety, and a foreboding sense of doom. In the absence of hope, there is no humor, laughter, or lifting of the spirit. Yet, in Christ we have a hope. In Christ, we have a life full of promise and a life without end. In Christ, we have eternity in heaven where joy, peace, and happiness abound.

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Sub-topic: See Past The End Of The Game

Article Content: You may not be the "law enforcement" type of person. However, in any life, in any company, in any family, in any circumstance where we hope to avoid chaos, rules have to be enforced. In every circumstance, we need to provide or build mechanisms to enforce rules because people break rules. Some people break rules because they have limited self-control and limited self-discipline. Other people break rules by accident. Still, other people break rules out of spite, anger, or carelessness. Plain and simple, someone always needs to be assigned the task of enforcing rules. If there is no one to enforce the rules, rules will be broken without any thought for the consequences. By having a person in charge of rule enforcement, people will think twice about breaking the rules.

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Sub-topic: Seeing What Is Possible Creates Hope

Article Content: One of the first steps in finding and having hope is to look at what is possible. People of hope have a way of looking at the world and really believing all things are possible. In our technological world where wondrous machines and technologies abound, we find it hard to believe human beings cannot do the impossible. In every situation, there exists the possibility of a certain circumstance occurring. If you believe there has to be a way to solve a problem, eliminate an obstacle, change a situation, or overcome a difficulty then you are already on the road to finding hope. As we learn more about the human mind and make our scientific advances, there are very few things we conclude are impossible. The more possibilities we see in a circumstance, the more hope we create.

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Sub-topic: Taking Charge Of Your Life

Article Content: When we face hopeless circumstances and we give up taking charge of our life, then our circumstances take charge of us. Consequently, when our circumstances of life take charge of us, our hope vanishes, thus setting up an endless cycle of hopelessness and lack of self-control. The unemployment circumstance, the divorce circumstance, the disability circumstance, the grief and loss circumstance, the depression circumstance, the you-name-it circumstance, can determine who we are, how we live, and whether we have hope for the future...only if we allow these circumstances to rule over us. If we allow our life circumstances to take charge of our life and rule over us, life WILL rule over us. If we do not try to rise above our circumstances and take charge of the darkness, then in a spiritual, emotional, and intellectual sense the circumstances rule our life. When our circumstances rule over us, we have given over control of our life. When our circumstances rule, we are caught up in hopelessness no matter how good of an act we put on for others. We must all remember there is always, always, always a spiritual, emotional, and intellectual action we can take and a choice we can make about every circumstance in our life. We must also remember there is always, always, always a spiritual, emotional, and intellectual plan we can build and follow into our future...one day at a time...when we take charge of our life one day at a time.

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Sub-topic: The Focus Of Our Desire

Article Content: The tangible ingredients of our life include objects, persons, places, and situations. A major step in finding hope is to focus our desire, expectation, and faith on a tangible ingredient of life consisting of an object, person, place, or situation. However, there is a danger here. The danger of focusing our desire lies in focusing our desire on tangible ingredients of life outside of us. If the darkness has its way with us, the focus of our desire will be on how the tangible ingredients in our life benefit us. The darkness wants us to selfishly put everything in life in front of us and measure our tangible life ingredients according to how we will benefit from these ingredients. When our primary focus in life is on how our tangible ingredients in life can benefit us, we are asking the darkness to come into our life and we are inviting our destruction. When our focus in life is on the personal benefit of tangible objects, persons, places, and situations of our life, we lose hope when we lose these ingredients. When our hope comes from the benefits offered to us from these tangible ingredients, we have invested our hopes and dreams on entities outside ourselves sure to fail. A perfect ploy of the darkness is to get people to hope in tangible worldly things and worldly ideas. The darkness knows no tangible ingredient (no object, person, place, or situation) lasts forever. In finding and sustaining hope, we must see beyond the world we live in as we place our hope in God and in Christ eternal. We must place our hope in God and in Christ who will last forever.

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Sub-topic: The Gift Of Hope

Article Content: One of the heavenly gifts God pours into our heart is the gift of hope. Circumstances might look hopeless here on earth. However, there is hope in heaven. When we think about the hope of heaven, we store hope away for ourselves. What we put on the shelf in heaven appears in our heart here on earth. Notice what we store up in heaven is where our heart is here on earth. When we think about our future, we do not always see the best and brightest aspects of what will happen. When we are young, we can seemingly almost see forever. When we grow older, there is, realistically, more of our earthly life behind us than ahead of us. However, no matter what age we are, what condition we are in, where we are, or how we are, there is for us a hope in heaven. There is for each of us a hope for an eternal blissful life in heaven lasting for eternity.

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Sub-topic: The Importance Of Lifestyle

Article Content: Finding hope and the Light by living a certain lifestyle. A "theme" is the subject, topic, general idea, or the focus of a thought or written expression. Every person's life has, in a manner of speaking, a theme. We choose a theme for our life, although we are not always aware of making this choice. Most often, the theme of our life is made (too often not by our choice) to include or exclude people, places, and situations in our life. The new word today we use to describe the theme of a person's life is "lifestyle." Every person fits into a lifestyle of some kind. Today we see very diverse lifestyles. We see men and women living together who are not married. We see homosexual or gay couples living together. We see leather jacketed bikers who hang out in biker bars. We see executives who do lunches and hit the cocktail party circuit. We see the devout church-going Christian who attends and works in a church. We see the devout Jew who goes to synagogue. In addition, we see hundreds of other lifestyles in our world. All these lifestyles carry a theme or idea about the people, places, and things of the world. To find the Light of Christ and the hope the Light brings to us within our life, we must live a lifestyle reflecting our desire to live in the Christ's Light. We must live a lifestyle leading us to hope, promise, and victory. Unfortunately, there are many defeating lifestyles today. These defeating lifestyles carry with them a built-in hopelessness. To find hope and the Light, the focus of our life should be on doing what God has called us to do without any regard for where we are or the circumstances in which we must live. When a life theme or a lifestyle leaves out God, then suffering ensues. When a life theme or a lifestyle leaves out God, we are not able to do or not able to be what God wants us to do or to be. When our lifestyle leaves out God, we can lead an unholy and ungodly life. When we leave God out of our life, we miss the Light and then we feel the loss of hope the darkness always brings into our heart. A life theme or a lifestyle focusing on doing and being holy means we constantly try to take charge of suffering by using our suffering for the glory of God. By leading a holy and Godly lifestyle, God gives us a foundation on which to stand and a yardstick to measure the godliness or ungodliness of what we see coming toward us. A lifestyle including God provides us with a way to gauge the Light or darkness in people, places, and things. Without a life theme or lifestyle including the Light, including God, and including His love, we get caught up in adversity. With a lifestyle excluding God, we lose control of our life, lose all Light and hope, then find ourselves devastated without knowing why. Living life with a theme of holiness and Godliness focuses on what the Light gives us. By living a godly lifestyle, we receive from God a minute by minute reason and purpose for our being here on earth. When our theme of life or our lifestyle is connected to the Christ's Light and God, the resulting lifestyle is a lifestyle treasuring the Light and a lifestyle letting His Light shine before others.

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Sub-topic: The Inner-directed Life

Article Content: Our age of hopelessness was discussed in David Riesman's book written a generation ago called "The Lonely Crowd." In this book, Reisman describes the American of pre-World War I days as "Inner-directed." The inner-directed person knew what he or she believed in. The inner directed person had a moral code or values. They tried to live by this code and this code was used to assess the life of others. This inner-directed person was motivated to achieve and was ambitious. The inner-directed person of over 100 years ago had a life lived in a direction. The direction of the life lived points to a hope for place or destination.

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Sub-topic: The Pain Of Letting Go Of Hopes And Drams, Part 1 of 2

Article Content: Sometimes you have to let some hopes and dreams die in order to have the hope and have the Light our God wants you to have. The most painful moments of life are those moments when we let go of some of our hopes and dreams. Please note the word "some" in the last statement. The word "some" is not the same as the word "all". For most of us, the truth is hard to accept, especially when accepting the truth means we are going to have to let go of a hope or dream. Sometimes you have to let go of hopes and dreams or let hopes and dreams die. The reasons for going through this painful process of letting hopes and dreams die are many. There can be no more painful moment in life than the moment when we let go of our hopes and dreams to find, build, create, or make a hope or dream come true. However, having real hope requires we be realistic. Realistically, there are times when we see the truth and sometimes seeing the truth hurts. There are some points in life, no matter how we work toward a vision, when we have to admit our vision is out of reach. When assessing the hopes and dreams we hold and our subsequent vision, we must continually assess the "reachability" of our vision of the future. A young boy can dream of playing basketball in the NBA. He can practice every day, and may then play on his high school and college team. However, to play in the NBA requires more than just hard work and pursuing a vision fueled by hope. Playing in the NBA takes size, speed, and athletic talents much greater than those traits we possess as normal, ordinary folk. There are times in our life when one vision needs to be given up and a new vision adopted. However, even when we give up one dream, there are two dreams to take its place if we are still willing to hope and dream.

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Sub-topic: The Pain Of Letting Go Of Hopes And Dreams, Part 2 Of 2

Article Content: Giving up hopes and dreams is painful. Giving up hopes and dreams results in our grieving over the loss of what we gave up. When we live and breathe our vision for the future, our life is fueled by our hope. Conversely, the loss of our vision is caused by our loss of hope. When we lose hope then our loss of hope can often be like suffering the death of a loved one. When we give up our hope we need to begin searching for a new hope to fuel our life. If we have a vision illuminated by the Light of Christ, we are able to change our vision without a great deal of grief or sense of loss. When the Light illuminates our life, we live to do the will of God rather than living to pursue our own hopes, dreams, and visions. When the Light shines in us we are always willing to walk on the path the Light shows us rather than our own selfish path shrouded in darkness. When a young man who wants to play basketball in the NBA finally must confront the fact he can not play in the NBA, he can find other visions and other pathways to walk. Hard work will need to be produced to find these visions and paths. However, with the Light in him, he will not be caught up in the grief of his loss. When any of us confront the fact our hope is false or misplaced, we can look to the Light to give us new direction and new hope to fuel us.

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Sub-topic: The Value Of Hope

Article Content: When we have a day in our life where hope slips away we experience a day of devastation and trauma. When we have a day where God calls a loved one home we can have a day of grief, loss, and trauma because the hope we hold for sharing our life with the departed person is gone. When we have a day where a business venture collapses with no opportunity for rebuilding then we call that day a great loss because we lose the hope of the future of the business. Hope may indeed may more vital than love, for with no hope to fill our hearts we may not care about whether we have love within us.

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Sub-topic: Theological Differences

Article Content: When differences disappear: if, as a church, we had to meet in secret, in a cave, so we could survive persecution, how important is theology? If Baptists, Catholics, Churches of Christ, Church of God, Episcopalians, Southern Baptists, and Seventh Day Adventists all were huddled together in a cave fearing for our lives then how important is theology to any of us? Answer: It would not be important. In this circumstance of any importance would be our bond in Christian love. What a revolution that would be! What a revolution we may see as the end times approach!

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Sub-topic: There Is Always Hope

Article Content: There are going to be circumstances in your life when you feel hopeless. However, no situation is hopeless because Jesus can work in any kind of circumstance. A circumstance is hopeless only if we give up hope. In truth, we keep hope alive. We are to always look to Jesus for strength. We are to trust Him to work in the most grim of circumstances. The psalmist wrote about where we find our hope. The psalmist said in Psalms 25:5 "Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." (NIV)

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Sub-topic: True Hope And Mapmaking Into The Future

Article Content: Sitting in our easy chair and wishing away the hours and days of our life is not an example of true hope. Wishing is not true hope because true hope is a spiritual energy getting our heart, mind, soul, and often our body out of our easy chair and out of our circumstances. True hope propels us forward. To make what we hope for come alive within us, we need to make maps leading us into our future. During this mapmaking activity many people begin to deal with reality. In charting our course into the future, we must take into account the real probabilities of events. We must not have a wish or a fictional idea as a place on our map. We must not have a vague dream as a place on our map. Our map into the future must consist of real points of achievement rather than imaginary places we hope will make us feel good. In practical terms, outside circumstances may come against us. However, we can rule over the circumstances when we have the Light and love inside of us.

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Sub-topic: Turn Dreams Into Reality By Making A Map

Article Content: Mapmaking into our future is the key activity required to turn our hopes and dreams into reality. Mapmaking gets us out of our fuzzy feel-good state and into proactive achievement. To have and preserve hope we must make plans. Our map into the future should be broken up into major and minor steps. Each major step on our map can be considered a major item on a to-do list. Each of our major steps on our to-do list should then be broken down into a smaller-item to do list. The more we work to make the items on our map real points of achievement and the more we actually achieve these points, the more likely victory will come.

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Sub-topic: Unlimited Hope

Article Content: Jesus victory over death gives us unlimited hope. With all the darkness in the world, there are many reasons to be pessimistic about this life and this earth. Human beings are bent upon self-destruction. We now have the nuclear firepower to destroy the life of every person on earth. Other countries also have nuclear firepower, biological weapons, beam weapons, and other kinds of weapons to erase humankind from the earth. In some countries with have nuclear weapons there is now an active desire to use them. However, because of Christ's death on the cross and His victory over death, we can be optimistic about our future. We can face death with optimism every minute, every hour, every day. Christians can look forward to eternity in heaven. No matter how bad things are right now, or no matter how bad things get in the future, for those of us who have accepted Christ as our Savior, we have a great tomorrow lasting forever and ever. We have before us a glorious tomorrow beyond words to describe.

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Sub-topic: What Choices Do We Have In Life?

Article Content: We can all choose how to react to life. We can choose hope or we can choose despair. When we choose hope we must remember hope comes from a heavenly plain. The acquisition and possession of hope calls for choices reflecting a heavenly plain or a heavenly level of response. When we choose hope and life we honor the Holy Spirit within us and we honor all everything in us flowing from God. When we make choices...we can choose hope over despair. We can choose to see obstacles as challenges rather than seeing obstacles as stumbling blocks. We can choose to impose conditions of security in the face of a threat. We can choose to find answers in the face of questions. We can choose to feed our mind medicines for the soul rather than feed our mind diseases of the soul. We can choose to embrace wellness rather than accept the inevitability of disease. We can choose to embrace the quest for a full mind and heart in the face of an empty mind and heart.

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Sub-topic: What Do We Do When All Seems Lost?

Article Content: When things seem utterly and totally hopeless, when we are in total darkness, we can turn to God. When we turn to God when all seems lost, we are immediately answered, but we are not always answered in a way we want or understand. When we turn to God, physical suffering may continue. When we turn to God, emotional suffering may continue. However, whether our prayers get answered should not be a condition of our faith. Too many people make their faith conditional. They say, at least inwardly, I will believe and keep my faith in God if God delivers me from my suffering. But this kind of conditional faith is not what God wants from us. We need to keep our faith whether we are suffering or not. When all seems lost, we must keep on hoping in God. We must keep on trusting in God. We must keep on doing the work God has for us to do. Then, over time, with our willingness to trust Him and love Him, we will find all is not lost. We will find, we are indeed not lost but found!

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Sub-topic: What Hope Does For Us

Article Content: Hope permits us to look within, to take responsibility, and to own up. Hope empowers us to stand up for ourselves. Hope gives us the power to bring the pieces of our life together, to be integrated, to be whole, and to be true children of God. Hope enables us to establish values and work toward our goals. Hope gives us the ability to live in an overriding presence of God, with goals in life including God. Hope gives us the ability to live our life with a theme connected to God. Hope gives us a view of ourselves as God sees us. Hope gives us the capacity to know what God wants us to do or be in this life. Hope gives us the ability and substance to see God as a caretaker over us who will help us turn adversity into advantage. Hope gives us the ability to see God as a manager who will help arrange circumstances to our advantage.

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Sub-topic: What Hope Is Not

Article Content: In our life we can have false hope. Believing a thing is possible and never act upon this belief is easy. Believing a thing is possible because we want the outcome of the belief is easy. However, real hope is more than a "Dying to have it" feeling. Real hope is not artificially manufactured in us. Real hope is the result of what we really, truly believe is possible and what we expect to have in the future with a plan to get to the future.

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Sub-topic: What Hopelessness Does

Article Content: Hopelessness conjures up deep feelings of desperation. When we are in hopelessness, no matter what we do or think, nothing will alter our life. Hopelessness diminishes our power and control over our life. Desperation caused by hopelessness causes people to do desperate things. Hopelessness alters our perception of what will happen in the future in a way making the future look dark, bleak, and vacant of what we want or need. When we lose or give up power in our life, we tend toward hopelessness because we have perceived ourselves as having no control over circumstances. When we feel hopeless we become passive and often give up trying or believing our future holds promise.

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Sub-topic: What Is The Source Of Hope?

Article Content: Hope is experienced within us. Hope can be triggered by the faintest thought or remotest of ideas. The trigger, source, or spark generating hope can come from either internal or external sources. External hope is the hope you generate by envisioning persons, places, things, or situations external to your inner person. For example, you can develop an idea for a new product or invention then decide to pursue a dream associated with your idea. You can have hope for a new job, a new relationship, or a new career. External hope is experienced inside of you but external hope comes from looking outside of yourself to new circumstances you want and expect to happen. Hope is underpinned or supported by a road map you draw and follow to make the hope a reality. Because external hope is tied to persons, places, things, or situations outside of your being, external hope can vanish in an instant when adversity and darkness strike. However, there is another kind of hope. This other kind of hope is internal hope. Internal hope is also experienced within our inner persons but the spark generating internal hope comes from the Light, the love, and the very essence of God shining within us. Internal hope is the ultimate hope. Internal ultimate hope has caused nearly all men and women to believe in a Creator. Internal ultimate hope comes from the Light. Internal ultimate hope is a power resulting in our being persons who are giving, kind, long-suffering, and with the willingness to bear up under every circumstance. Darkness and adversity can wipe out all of our external hope, but darkness cannot prevail against the ultimate internal hope we receive from the Light of Christ who is the Light of the world.

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Sub-topic: What Others Need Most

Article Content: The problem of individual hopelessness is a problem eroding our society. Hopelessness is tearing away at the fabric of what has always made America and the free world a place where each person can look forward to better days ahead. The problem of hopelessness touches every one of us in some way. Americans and others in the free world have always believed in the ideal of individual achievement. We have always held up the belief anyone can overcome anything. The truth is we continually foster lifestyles of hopelessness. There is not one American today who is not touched by the idea of there being no Light or hope for people in desperate circumstances. We have become so convinced other people should be responsible for us, care for us, provide for us, arrange opportunity for us, and open doors for us, or entitle us, we are condemning ourselves to darkness and hopelessness without Light. On a personal, everyday level, what others need most is to see Christ's Light of hope burning in you. The people you work with, go to school with, pass by on the street, ride on the subway with, go to church or synagogue with, and especially the grumpy store clerk at the big box store...all need to see the Light of hope within you. Many of these people are dying of hopelessness and you can be their source of life-giving hope.

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Sub-topic: What To Do With Bad News

Article Content: How people respond to hopeless news or respond to a hopeless situation determines the outcome of every crisis. Some people face a hopeless circumstance or face bad news by saying "fine" as they force a grin. But these people who force a grin and say "fine" are not fine. Other people face a hopeless circumstance or bad news by responding with fear, panic, and emotional hysteria because their world seems to come crashing down. This second kind of response of fear, panic, and hysteria is not uncommon. However, there is a third response or choice. The third response or choice is the choice of victory. When we make a choice of victory in the face of bad news we refuse to become the victims of any circumstance. When we make a choice of victory we look for an opportunity in every happening no matter how difficult or no matter how hopeless.

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Sub-topic: When Hope Is Gone (Part 1 Of 2)

Article Content: The lack of hope, light, and vision drives men and women, groups, and nations to destruction, often taking others down with them. People of no hope are in darkness and torture. Satan has his way with them and Satan controls them. Without hope for the future, we do not strive for a better tomorrow. Without hope burning within us, we will not work to better our life or the life of others. Without hope we care not whether we live or die, remain free or a slave, grow wiser or remain ignorant, remain faithful to our Lord or slide backward into the outer darkness. Without hope, we do not care. Hope is the underpinning of all that is in the consciousness of humankind. When the human race immerses itself in the darkness vacant of hope, the human race has no future vision and no reason to move forward. Without hope, without the Light who is Christ, and without a vision for the future, the human spirit collapses into the abyss of hell.

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Sub-topic: When Hope Is Gone (Part 2 Of 2)

Article Content: Lack of hope generates runaway desires and hungers. Runaway desires and hungers in persons most often cannot be filled and these desires and hungers cause abuse of alcohol, drugs, sex, or partners in relationships. The decline of marriage and the rise of live-in partners are both caused by a loss of hope in marriage as a fulfilling part of life.

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Sub-topic: When Hope Runs Out

Article Content: Psalm 62:5 "Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him." (NIV) Some people are able to praise God in the deepest darkness. However, many people perceive they are too tired and too exhausted from dealing with problems to praise God. People often are too worn out from trying to put out the fires popping up in their life. After a while, people often do not care any more about living or care about their visions and their goals. Living life and not caring any more is not what God wants for anyone. God's will is not for us to live a life full of exhaustion, depression, and hopelessness. If we are honest, we can understand, to some extent, what life is like when we run out of hope. When we run out of hope, we all need a break from the problems and pain of life. We all need a break from the hopeless darkness following us every moment. Our faith in God gives us a rest from all the dark circumstances in our life. Our faith in God gives us a break from constant, unrelenting problems. We are able to find hope and rest in God because His desire is to see us happy and full of joy rather than beset by hopelessness and problems at every turn. If there is anyone who can provide security and a break from having to fight the fires of life, the security and break come from God. We find in God a hope to end the problems besetting us. We find in God a hope so great the hope extends into eternity.

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Sub-topic: Why Jesus Came To Earth

Article Content: JESUS CAME TO EARTH...

●TO ENABLE US TO DO THINGS WE HAD NEVER BEEN ABLE TO DO BEFORE.

●TO ENABLE US TO DREAM OF A FUTURE FULL OF PROMISE AND HOPE.

●TO ENABLE US TO SEE THROUGH THE DARKNESS OF LIFE TO A TIME WHEN THERE WOULD BE ONLY THE LIGHT OF HIS LOVE.

●TO ENABLE US TO ACHIEVE WHAT HAD NEVER BEEN ACHIEVED BEFORE.

●TO ENABLE US TO FEEL WHAT HAD NEVER BEEN FELT BEFORE.

●TO ENABLE US TO CLAIM THE POWER OF LOVE WHICH HAD NEVER BEEN CLAIMED BEFORE.

●TO ENABLE US TO DIG DOWN DEEP WITHIN OURSELVES AND FORGIVE EACH OTHER.

●TO ENABLE US TO LOVE OTHERS.

●TO ENABLE US TO GIVE TO EACH OTHER AS GOD HAD GIVEN TO US.

●TO ENABLE US TO ACCEPT HIM FULLY AND TOTALLY INTO OUR HEART SO WE CAN INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE.

●JESUS CAME TO GIVE TO US SO WE WOULD GIVE IN RETURN.

●JESUS CAME TO GIVE TO US SO THAT WE WOULD BE GIVING IN OUR LIFE INSTEAD OF TAKING.

●JESUS CAME TO GIVE TO US SO WE WOULD GIVE A LIGHT SHINING OUT OF OUR LIFE.

●JESUS CAME TO GIVE LOVE TO US SO WE WOULD GIVE LOVE TO OTHERS.

●JESUS CAME TO GIVE TO US SO WE WOULD GIVE OUR TIME, OUR TALENTS, AND OUR ALL FOR HIM.

●JESUS CAME TO ISSUE PROCLAMATIONS FROM GOD, TO ISSUE THE WISDOM OF LIFE, TO ISSUE THE LAWS OF GOD, TO ISSUE THE LAWS NOT JUST GOING BEYOND HOLDING SOCIETY TOGETHER, BUT LAWS TO HELP MEN AND WOMEN LEAD FRUITFUL LIVES FULL OF SPIRITUAL BOUNTY WITH HAPPINESS, JOY, AND PEACE.

●JESUS CAME TO REACH OUT TO US. TO SHOW US THE HAND OF GOD IS ALWAYS REACHING OUT TO US.

●JESUS CAME TO SHOW US THE HAND OF GOD HEALING, RESTORING, BUILDING UP, AND IS STILL REACHING OUT IN COMPASSION AND LOVE THIS VERY MOMENT.

●JESUS CAME TO SET FORTH A NEW LAW. A LAW BASED UPON LOVE RATHER THAN UPON FORCE AND POWER. JESUS GAVE US A LIVING EXAMPLE OF HOW MUCH GOD LOVES US AND HOW FAR GOD WILL GO IN TRYING TO BRING US HOME TO BE WITH HIM IN HEAVEN. GOD CHOSE TO MAKE HIS SON A HUMAN BEING, AND THEN HAVE HIS SON SUFFER AND DIE ON THE CROSS...AS A SACRIFICE IN OUR PLACE. RATHER THAN HAVE US BE A SACRIFICE, JESUS WENT IN OUR PLACE. WE SEE HOW MUCH GOD LOVES US. JESUS WAS BORN AS A PERSON, NOT JUST TO COME AND PREACH AND TEACH, BUT TO ACTUALLY SHOW US WHAT FORGIVENESS, LOVE, AND REDEMPTION MEAN. IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ENOUGH TO HAVE JUST BEEN A PREACHER OR TEACHER. NO. JESUS CAME TO ACTUALLY DEMONSTRATE THE POWER OF GOD'S LOVE. YOU HAVE HEARD WORDS ARE CHEAP. YOU HAVE HEARD ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS. JESUS GAVE US BOTH WORDS AND ACTIONS. HE CAME AS LIVING PROOF YOU ARE PRECIOUS AND REDEEMABLE.

●JESUS CAME TO OFFER YOU ETERNITY.

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Sub-topic: You Have A Hope

Article Content: Look at the life of those who have not accepted Christ. When trials and tribulations come in their life, they are devastated. The life of someone who has not accepted Christ is a burning fire of pain and hopelessness. You do not have to be a genius to see this kind of life. This burning fire in the soul of the lost person causes people to drink alcohol and take drugs to ease the pain. When a non-Christian loses someone in death or death threatens the person, he or she has no hope. Without Christ, there is only darkness and uncertainty ahead. Who would want to face only darkness and uncertainty? When you have Christ, you have His grace and His protection. Even when disease and sickness attack your body, the grace of God sustains your soul. When you have Christ in your heart, you have a hope permitting you to see Christ in this life. With Christ, you also have a vision permitting you to see Him waiting for you when He calls you home to be with Him in Paradise. With Christ, your future is certain. With Christ, your future is full of Light rather than darkness.

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Sub-topic: Your Goal In Life

Article Content: God did not make you to wander aimlessly about the face of the earth. God gave you a goal-seeking mentality so you would find a goal and strive to achieve it. God hopes one of the goals you chose in life is the goal to be His child. To be His child means you chose to glorify Him in all you say, think, and do.

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# Chapter 61: Humility

Sub-topic: Humility

Article Content: 1 Cor. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (NIV) Grace cannot produce anything within you without humility. The idea of grace, in some ways, turns our ideas about God upside down. Grace must be received into our inner beings. Each of us has a choice about whether the grace of God is going to produce some kind of result within us. Our choice is to receive the grace or reject it, ignore it or embrace it, run away from it or continuously seek it, attack it or welcome it into our heart.

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Sub-topic: Humility

Article Content: In his prime, Muhammad Ali would shout, "I am the greatest." In private, he might have been a very different person. Ali once said, "At home I am a nice guy: but I don't want the world to know. Humble people, I've found, don't get very far." Muhammad Ali (b. 1942), U.S. boxer. Sunday Express (London, 13 Jan. 1963). His loud mouth is now but a whisper. His strong body is now weak. He is learning about humility and true greatness the hard way.

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Sub-topic: Humility And Christ

Article Content: Humility requires we recognize we have fallen short of God's call upon our life to change who we are. Humility requires we recognize our sin. Humility requires we have fallen on our knees before Christ on the Cross. The idea related to humility is the idea of contrition. The world does not like humble people. Humble people are called names. A humble person is referred to as "a mouse," "a geek," "a shrinking violet," "a worm," or "a wimp." However, Christ also has a name for a humble person. Christ calls a humble person, "Mine!"

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Sub-topic: Humility and Humiliation

Article Content: Humility imposed upon someone is called humiliation. Humility must never be imposed on someone. Humility is something we must find or come to in our spiritual life of our own free will. Not only will our pride, ego, and selfishness keep us out of heaven, our pride, ego, and selfishness will destroy other people by humiliating them in the here and now. Humiliation is a horrible feeling. It can be devastating and hurt so deeply the humiliation can nearly rip out a person's soul. Humiliation can leave people scarred for life. People of humility never do anything to humiliate another person. Instead, we are called to build up others, not tear them down. Jesus calls us to go the extra mile with people, to love them, to care about them, and to never be critical of them.

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Sub-topic: Humility Transforms

Article Content: When we are humble before God, when we are kneeling at the Cross we are transformed. By kneeling at the Cross, we go from being an ego-driven person, a selfish person, a person who is always "wanting" to a person who is always looking to give rather than receive. When we kneel at the foot of the Cross, we are transformed. We gain a peace and love coming to us because of our humility before Christ and His suffering. When we pray or when we serve others, we should be anonymous about our praying because we are called to be humble. When we serve others and then want the recognition, our pride and ego is driving us.

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Sub-topic: Why We Need To Be Spiritually Humble

Article Content: We condemn ourselves when we criticize, judge, label, or condemn others. When we criticize, judge, label, or condemn others we put a stain upon our heart. When we criticize, judge, label, or condemn others we put a wall within our heart keeping others out of our life. Criticizing, judging, labeling, and condemning others is a form of arrogance. As we live our life, we must include others by being humble and contrite before others and before God. To have great relationships with others we must be humble people. To know God's peace, to know His serenity, we must know who God is by being a humble person. God does not resist the person who makes mistakes and does wrong. God resists the person who is too arrogant to admit his or her mistakes. God resists the person who does not admit his or her wrongdoing. God resists the arrogant or proud. God resists the person who condemns others. God resists the person who overlooks his or her own faults. God resists the proud and honors the humble. God honors the spiritually humble. The humble person does not despise his or her circumstances in life but rejoices in them. The humble person does not criticize, judge, label, or condemn others.

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# Chapter 62: Hypocrisy

Sub-topic: Hypocrisy Revealed

Article Content: The wolf can hide in the skin only so long. Eventually the wolf will howl. The wolf, by its nature, is a wolf. Eventually the wolf will reveal itself by the howling or the fruit the wolf produces. When you deal with human beings, you must be discerning so you can identify the wolf. If you will watch, you will see the wolf does not eat what the sheep eat. A wolf is a meat eater. Sheep eat or graze on grass or vegetable matter. A sheep is a slow moving creature while the wolf can run with speed and agility. Although you can compare the physical attributes of wolves and sheep, looking at the physical differences between them does not really help you discern between the wolves and sheep in our faith. In our faith, you can discern the wolves from the sheep by the fruit they produce.

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# Chapter 63: Ideas

Sub-topic: Sources Of Ideas And Images

Article Content: God is the source of all goodness. God is the Light and is the source of good ideas and good images. Satan is the source of all darkness and the source of bad ideas and bad images. Our mind can be open to both of these sources. Our mind can be open to both God and Satan. Because we have a free will, we can choose to turn to one source or the other. Using our free will, we can choose to turn to God or turn to Satan. Unfortunately, few people realize the creator is still in the business of supplying us with new ideas and new images. God is still in the business of creating. Because we have no absolute way of knowing from where our ideas and images come, we are always to take our ideas and images to God as a test of authenticity. By taking our ideas and images to God and letting His love and Light shine on us, we are making sure we plant only good seeds for our future growth. Our ideas and images make up our dreams. More often than not, we pursue our dreams with vigor before we ever let our dreams and hopes rest in God's care. When we pray, we must pray for our hopes and dreams to come true by letting God have a chance at creating His ideas and His images within us. God's most efficient way of getting His work done through us is by us doing His work of acting on the ideas and images He gives us. By letting God do His work in us, we can let Him plant His ideas and images within us and we can assure ourselves of a more efficient and effective life. How many times have we gone our own way, with our own ideas, our own images, our own plans, and our own programs, only to see everything fail? If we would always take our ideas, our images, our plans, and our programs to God, we would find His success being made real in our life.

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# Chapter 64: Inner World

Sub-topic: Our Inside And Outside World

Article Content: Why do we let the outside world dictate to us what our inside world is like? Why do we let the outside world invade our inside world? The kingdom of God is within. The kingdom of Satan is without. There is an inner person living inside your body. The inner person can either take charge or not take charge of your inside world. If you don't take charge of your inside life, your inside life will take charge of you. So who is in charge here? You may not be able to control some factors or even a few factors on the outside of your life but your inside world is God's domain and your domain.

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# Chapter 65: Integrity

Sub-topic: Living The Right Way

Article Content: Most people today don't want to hear someone else tell them how to live. Most people will say "I already know I don't live right and I don't need the preacher or the church to tell me about living right." The problem with this rebellious attitude is recognizing you are not doing what you are supposed to do. This rebellious attitude is not good enough. You have to desire to live a fully righteous life and then follow up your desire to change with effort. 2 Peter 2:20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. (NIV) We are called to live a holy and righteous life. Salvation carries a continual price tag. Salvation requires daily vigilance. Salvation requires constant attention to your life and how you live. Peter says if you are saved and fall away or get caught up in the world after you are saved you are worse off than if you had never been saved at all.

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Sub-topic: Living With Integrity

Article Content: Psalms 25:21 "May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you." (NIV) Living with integrity and living in a moral and ethical manner has advantages. When things go bad in life, we tend to forget about living with integrity. In adversity, we can get desperate. In adversity, we can start to do immoral things we would not normally do. However, having integrity means we stay the same person no matter what happens. When we have integrity, no matter how bad things get we do not come unglued. To have integrity requires an inner strength found only in God. When everything has come apart in your life, there can be a time when you have no inner strength. At times when things go bad you need the strength of God. The reason integrity is so important is because integrity keeps you more "together" or integrated. Integrity keeps you from coming apart. We get our integrity and our inner strength when we have no strength by trusting God to work everything out. We must always trust God to work His will in a way glorifying Him in all we do in every circumstance. We get integrity when we trust God to work everything out to our heavenly benefit. When things go bad in life, it may seem God is either against us or at the very least is not for us. Many times it seems God does not deliver what we want, when we want it. However, let us tell the truth. God is not an angry or vengeful person. God only wants the best for us. In His time, in His wisdom, and in His plan we can find enormous hope every day of our life. In God, you can always trust, and in this trust you can become a person of integrity.

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# Chapter 66: Joy

Sub-topic: Joyful Laughter

Article Content: In your life you have a speaker of darkness. You hear this speaker of dark things tell you how terrible and awful things will be. The speaker of darkness kills all joy in life. The speaker of darkness is not cast out of us or kept away from us just by inspiration alone. This killer of joy wants us to selfishly focus on our pain. Just think about it. If you want to kill someone's joy in life, do you want him or her to forget their pain or do you want them to keep thinking about their pain? By focusing continually on what makes us suffer, we keep on suffering. We all need inspiration every day. In addition to inspiration people also need joy, goofiness, and craziness in equal quantities, if not more. Laughter can be the enemy of the bringer of bad news. Laughter shared with others just for laughter's sake delivers to the speaker of darkness what the darkness delivers to us...death. In heaven, there is joy and joyful laughter. What kind of place would heaven be, if no one ever joyfully laughed?

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# Chapter 67: Leaning

Sub-topic: Can We Lean On God?

Article Content: God lets you lean on Him only to do His will in your life. God does not let you lean on Him to escape your responsibilities or escape from doing His will. Leaning and depending upon God is acceptable but only during timeouts. When the game is on, you have to stand up, stand tall, and play the game with maximum effort and maximum fortitude. When the game is on and you are on the playing field there shall be no excuses, no complaining, no whining, no slacking off, and no protesting no matter how much pain and suffering you experience. When you are on the playing field playing for God's team, there need be no leaning, for God empowers you.

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# Chapter 68: Light

Sub-topic: Carrying The Light

Article Content: There are some people who carry the light of God to the world. The world is a dark place. All Christians ought to carry His light. For reasons we do not understand, many non-Christians seem to carry the light of God with greater effectiveness. Christians do not understand or like this mystery for if the world was up to most Christians, only Christians would be the ones to carry the Light of God. An example of this mystery is Magic Johnson. Magic Johnson carries the light in a world full of greed, avarice, lust, and selfishness. Magic Johnson is not what you would expect a person who does not publicly profess faith in Christ to be. Magic Johnson, inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame, is a giving person. His player statistics show him to be a person who cares more about others than he does about himself. Magic Johnson is a man of courage and compassion. Certainly, in his case and in the case of other people, carrying the light of life or light of God is more a matter of the kind of person you are. When you are a person with the light of God within your inner core, carrying the light is a matter of how you act, and actions are nearly always determined by who you are on the inside.

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Sub-topic: Finding The Light Of God

Article Content: Our outside world is our physical world we so often find full of darkness. Our inside world is our spiritual world, we ca fill with God's living water and living Light by the spiritual decisions we make. Finding the light of God in our inner or spiritual world is a process of looking for something small like a mustard seed. Finding the Light within you requires you to act and live in faith, trust, and love. When you find God's mustard seed of Light by using your faith, your spiritual journey is not over, but just beginning. To get your mustard seed of God's Light to grow, you have to water the seed by pouring love over the seed. The activities of the organized church are geared to helping you and others feed and water the inner seeds of His light and love.

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Sub-topic: How We Experience The Light Of God

Article Content: The words "the light of God" are often used in speaking or writing about God. We use these words because God is light and God is the Light. God as a person is to be experienced from the inside out. We can read about God and know about God but to experience Him is an activity requiring us to be aware of Him within our spirit or soul. We can look for clues about God on the outside of our being. We can look for evidence of God's reality in nature, in literature, in the life of others, and in our communications with others. However, the reality of God can be experienced not by looking outside of ourselves, but by looking inside of ourselves. You can experience His healing love, His forgiving embrace, and the flow of His power by experiencing Him within your innermost being. You can experience part of His suffering and humiliation upon the cross for you, within your heart. You can experience the Light of God for He is not far off. God is love. He is within.

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# Chapter 69: Listening

Sub-topic: Listening Skills, Part 1 Of 5

Article Content: PREPARE TO LISTEN. IN ADVANCE Whenever possible, prepare remarks and questions in advance before you listen. Free your mind for listening by clearing out all of your ideas so you can fully listen and fully understand the ideas others express. THINK LIKE THE OTHER PERSON. The other person's problems and needs are important...and you will understand and retain the other person's problems and needs better if you keep the other person's point of view in mind. Try to think like the other person. Try to see the world as he or she sees the world. Try to walk in their shoes. LIMIT YOUR OWN TALKING. You can't talk and listen at the same time. To listen effectively, we must all be humble and push aside our own egos. Only one person can talk at a time. When you need to listen, let the other person do the talking.

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Sub-topic: Listening Skills, Part 2 Of 5

Article Content: LISTEN FOR IDEAS...NOT JUST WORDS. When listening, if you really want to listen, you want to get the whole picture from the other person, not just isolated bits and pieces of the other person's thoughts. Listen for ideas. Listen for the gems of insight and wisdom from the other person's point of view. Listen to find the direction from which the person is coming and where the other person is in his or her life. CONCENTRATE. Focus your mind on what he or she is saying rather than the form or style they are using to express their ideas. Practice shutting out distractions. DON'T INTERRUPT. A pause by the other person who is speaking, even a long pause, doesn't mean the other person has finished saying everything he or she wishes. Resist the temptation to jump in when the other person pauses speaking. Give the other person a chance to think and collect their thoughts.

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Sub-topic: Listening Skills, Part 3 Of 5

Article Content: TAKE NOTES. If possible, taking notes will help you remember important points. However, be selective in what you write down. Trying to note down everything he or she says can result in being left behind. Trying to write down everything the person says can make you miss important points. ASK QUESTIONS. If you are not sure you understand everything the other person says, or you feel you may have missed a point, ask the other person to repeat what was said. If you don't clear up a matter now, later may be too late. When you ask questions the other person receives the message from you that you are interested. USE REFLECTIVE PHRASES. When you want a person to elaborate on a point, pursue the thought by using a "reflective phrase" whereby you repeat what the other person said. Use phrases such as "you said," "you mentioned," "you cited before," "it sounds like," or "you described." After repeating the statement the other person said, follow through with a question beginning with the words "who, what, when, where, why, or how."

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Sub-topic: Listening Skills, Part 4 Of 5

Article Content: REACT TO IDEAS...NOT THE PERSON...DON'T ARGUE MENTALLY. Don't allow irritation at things other people say, or their personal mannerisms, to distract you. Stay focused on what the other person is trying to say by ignoring your own thoughts and their distractions. Try to be in an agreeable frame of mind. DON'T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS. Avoid making unwarranted assumptions about what the other person is going to say. Do not try to mentally complete his or her sentences. Try to let the other person fill in the blanks instead of your filling in the blanks for the person. USE LISTENING RESPONSES. An occasional "yes," "I see," "uh-huh,", "OK", or "right", shows the other person you are still listening and still with him or her. These kinds of listening responses compel the other person to continue speaking.

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Sub-topic: Listening Skills, Part 5 Of 5

Article Content: LISTEN FOR OVERTONES. You can learn a great deal about the other person from the way he or she says a thing, and the way he or she reacts to the things you say. When someone is speaking, listen to what they say and listen to the overtones, the emotions, and the motives behind what they say. PRACTICE LISTENING. Make your conversations with your friends, your family, and the people who serve you in the places you frequent a tool for improving your listening skill...for "sharpening your inner ear." Practice listening to others to see if you can gain more from what they say than you have gained in the past. Practice listening to others to see if you can gain more of the meaning of what they say than even they might realize.

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# Chapter 70: Living

Sub-topic: A Deed A Day

Article Content: Sitting in the pew each week is not enough. Every day this week do a good deed. Every day this week do a wonderful Christian deed. Whether the deed is large or small doesn't make any difference. Do a Christian deed each day because, as Christians, we are building a kingdom on earth. We are building a witnessing kingdom of believers. We are building a healing kingdom, a kingdom showing love, caring, and compassion.

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Sub-topic: A Handle On Life

Article Content: Life for many people is like riding a raft down a river without any poles or oars. For many people, life runs to extremes. The circumstances of life can be like riding on raging rapids or like being stuck in a stagnant pool with no movement. The idea either you control life or life will control you is essential truth of life. There is, for many people, no choice over their circumstances. They have no voice to express their pain. An eighty-five year old person in a nursing home, it would seem, has few choices about life. However, there are a few choices a person confined to a nursing home can make. A nursing home resident can love God, love others, and pray. There is always a choice about how you will be. You may not have a choice about what you do in a circumstance, but you do have a choice about the kind of person you are. You may be caught on a raft on a raging river with no control over where you are but you can control how you respond to that circumstance. The great tests of life are the tests requiring humility, courage, love, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness. You control the result of your test. You pass or fail based upon what you desire. You have a choice about being a child of God. You have a choice about loving God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might. You have a choice about accepting Christ into your heart and life.

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Sub-topic: A Tough Will

Article Content: A strong will can help you fight through the toughest of times. People who have a tough, fighting, blazing determination do markedly better in achieving goals than those who do not. A tough will is a will you develop. A tough will does not relent or give up. A tough will slogs through every darkness and constantly seeks the Light. A tough will does not give in or give up key values and important goals. A tough will refuses to bend to the shape of the darkness or to the shape of the opponent.

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Sub-topic: A Warm Heart

Article Content: A computer neither cares nor feels. A computer cannot be touched except only as a machine is touched. The human heart can be cold or warm. The human heart can be touched deeply or can openly reject being touched at all. The human heart can be accepting or rejecting. A human heart has a temperature of its own. A computer pretty much takes on the temperature of its environment or gets its heat only from the electronics of the computer system. If we have a warm heart then we warm up our surroundings instead of letting the surroundings warm us. If we have a warm heart we have a forgiving heart. With a warm heart we are in a good and giving mood. If we have a cold heart we have a begrudging heart and we are in a bad mood. We seek only to give ill feelings to those around us. A forgiving heart carries no burdens. A begrudging heart carries burdens killing both the carrier and others. A warm heart carries the burdens of God. A begrudging heart carries the burdens of man. A warm heart carries clean burdens. A begrudging hearts carries unclean burdens. An unclean heart is something we acquire from being a sinner. A clean heart is possible only through Christ.

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Sub-topic: An Example Of Not Taking Charge

Article Content: A number of years ago, a survey of medical patients showed 60 - 70% of these patients, to some degree, acted out the part of being ill to satisfy their doctors. People are unfortunately ready, willing, and able to let others take charge of their life. Most certainly, life is tough. Life can be or can seem to be out of our control. However, when we let life get out of our control, we are then whipsawed by events instead of being in charge of events. To not take charge of our circumstances makes us into helpless victims. To not take charge of our circumstances makes the worst come true. Although we may not control some events in our life, we are doomed when we give up trying to take charge of any the events in our life.

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Sub-topic: Another View

Article Content: Here is another view of life not always shared others. "So a few people are having a few problems but that is not any of our business. The best business is to mind your own business. See, today you do not have to be a good neighbor or help anybody out like you used to. The reason is because we have all these agencies. If somebody needs help today, they do not need a good neighbor, and they do not need God. All people need today is a good government program. As much as we pay in taxes, let the government help people out and don't bother the rest of us."

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Sub-topic: Apply Lessons Learned

Article Content: Every hour can teach us something new if we are willing to learn. Once we learn a lesson we must be willing to apply the lesson. Having great capabilities in your mind from what you have learned is not enough. What we must always do is apply what we have learned. When we repeatedly make an effort to apply what we have learned, we put to best use what we have gained in our intellect. The greatest ball player, scientist, doctor, waitress, or delivery person achieves nothing if the lessons he or she learn are never applied. Learning is essential and application is what makes learning useful and beneficial.

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Sub-topic: Be Able To Change Strategy In An Instant

Article Content: Persistence is an asset unless you persistently use the wrong strategy. In many life circumstances, we must remain flexible in the approach we use to achieve our objectives. If we use the wrong strategy to deal with an issue we must be able to change the strategy in an instant. We make no progress when we use wrong strategies. No matter how hard we try, using the wrong strategy still results in wrong output. Our flexibility in changing strategies when necessary can be as important as the strategy used. When we know we need to take a different approach we must not hesitate, procrastinate, or hold back. When we need to take a different approach, we need to be aggressive and quickly change strategies.

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Sub-topic: Being In The "Zone"

Article Content: In athletic pursuits, athletes often speak about being in a "zone." The "zone" in athletic pursuits is described as an experience where an athlete is a second or two beyond time and space. When the athlete is a second or two beyond time and space, athletic performance is enhanced, sometimes to phenomenal levels. Each of us can be in or enter into the "zone." We can move beyond our time and space into a place where we want to be, expect to be, or see ourselves being. We can each identify ourselves as being on a path with no uncertainty about the path's direction. We can maintain our position on the path a second or two beyond our present time and space. The "zone" is a reality where we find strength and power beyond ourselves because our vision of what is on the other side of our present moment is so strong we overcome our present obstacles. We overcome human frailty by going into the "zone" and by integrating our goal, our path, and our vision into our present time and space. When we are in the "zone" then our present obstacles become meaningless, and in our present reality, our present obstacles cease to exist.

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Sub-topic: Being Lost Or Being Found

Article Content: When you are spiritually lost you can have spiritual or emotional baggage given to you by your parents or the people who helped raise you. When are found you become a child of God, and carry upon your shoulders the yoke of Jesus. When you are lost your life is like you are in a boat without a paddle or oars. When you are found your is like you are in a boat with a motor. When you are lost your life is like you have no preference, likes, or dislikes, except wanting to not be lost. When you are found you have a passion. When you are lost you look outside yourself to satisfy your wants and needs. When you are found you look inside yourself where God lives in the form of the Holy Spirit. When you are lost you want to be served. When you are found you want to be a servant. When you are lost you want others to sacrifice for you. When you are found you want to sacrifice for others.

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Sub-topic: Being More Responsible

Article Content: What happens to us when we lose hope? When we lose hope we can lose our faith in God. When we lose hope we can lose our faith in others. When we lose hope we can lose our faith in ourselves. Giving up, losing your faith, and not believing is easier than holding on to hope against all odds. Striving for faith requires us to be more responsible. No one is glorified when we make excuses, when we live in denial, or when we run away. Only the darkness is glorified when we are irresponsible and run away. In Christ, there is hope today, tomorrow, and forever. In Christ, if we knew what He has in store for us then our spirit would soar out into infinity from the joy of possessing all hope in Him. Because we have Him, because we live in Him, and because He lives in us, we can always be more responsible.

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Sub-topic: Being The Salt Of The Earth

Article Content: Romans 11:5 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace. (NIV) God sees you and knows you. God chose you to be His child because He loves you. We say God chooses you by grace. Grace is the love, care, compassion, and/or mercy of God. When God chooses you, we are not to celebrate in worldly terms, for His choosing you could result in your dying for Him. Instead of celebrating being chosen by grace, we should regard this event in a spirit of humility. If you follow God's will or His leading, His leading could lead you to give up your life for His work and His cause here on earth. Being part of His remnant is like being salt or seasoning. When you put salt on your food the salt disappears. The salt becomes invisible. Likewise, when we are added into the world as Christ's seasoning we too should become invisible. Through humility, we must add to the flavor of life in our part of the world He has given to us.

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Sub-topic: Beyond Weakness

Article Content: As a race of intelligent beings, we have become weak and helpless because of our crushing load of sin. We have led lives of quiet desperation and we have missed out on the fullness of life because of our sin. Our sin is a cancer slowly eating away at our soul. However, our load of sin is a needless burden. No one has to carry a burden of sin because Christ came into the world to take our burden of sin from us. Christ came into the world to set us free from the shackles of our sin. Rom. 6:23 "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus." (NIV) Although we betrayed Him and nailed Him to the cross, almost beyond comprehension, Jesus still loves us. Jesus loves you in spite of your sin. Because of Christ's enduring total love for you and everything you can be, you can give Him your sin burden today. In giving Christ your sin burden today you go beyond weakness to living with divine strength.

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Sub-topic: Break The Rules For A Larger Purpose

Article Content: There may come a time when breaking the law or breaking a rule may have some moral justification. Breaking the rules can have a larger purpose when breaking the rules can bring about a more moral and just world. The key question in breaking a rule for a larger purpose is the nature of the purpose. Breaking the rules for a larger purpose is often termed "civil disobedience." Great changes in the world order have been recorded when people were willing to break the law or violate a rule to effect a positive change in the laws in place at the time. Social injustice is often brought to an end when people are willing to break the law on purpose, with the purpose being a change in the social fabric fostering the injustice. However, some people break the law, not for a larger purpose, but for a smaller purpose...for the smaller purpose of getting a selfish want or need met. However, it makes no difference whether the purpose of breaking the rules or the law is for social change, there is still a penalty for breaking the rules or the law until the society in which the social injustice takes place decides to rid itself of the injustice. Civil disobedience can be a curse on a society and lead to social chaos accomplishing nothing. Civil disobedience can lead to the death of human beings, tragically in great numbers.

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Sub-topic: Breaking The Chains Of Dependence

Article Content: Many persons face incredible obstacles in their emotional and spiritual life because of dependency issues. In dealing with these issues we can make choices. We can choose to turn dependence into a challenge as we challenge the emotional chains within us. We can choose to score a victory for Christ by asserting our freedom and our wellness of mind and spirit. We can choose to turn our dependence into an opportunity to warn others. We can choose to turn the chains of our dependence into a war for independence.

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Sub-topic: Breaking The Rules Has A Cost Or Penalty

Article Content: Every time a rule is broken there is or should be a penalty. If there is no penalty for breaking the rules, the rules have no force behind them. People being people, if there is no penalty associated with a violation of the rules, then in the minds of potential rule-breakers, the rule means nothing. As simple as all this sounds, meting out penalties is a cumbersome and often delicate task. Our court systems and the various legal or law enforcement systems we have in our businesses and institutions are all geared toward setting an appropriate penalty for breaking a rule or breaking a law. For most people, just having a rule in place with the expectation the rule will be obeyed will be enough. However, for a minority of people, penalties must be set. Even when penalties are set for breaking a rule, people will still break the rule or break the law. In some instances, especially where a mass of the populace considers a rule unjust or unfair, a mass of the populace has no hesitancy in breaking a rule. People get in their cars and drive over the speed limit, many people use illegal drugs, and during Prohibition, people drank alcohol even though there were rules against such acts. For people who drive over the speed limit there are speeding tickets waiting if they are caught and accidents, perhaps death and injury waiting, if they are not caught. For those people using illegal drugs, there is a fine, imprisonment, and ill health, possibly death waiting. For those people who violated Prohibition, the penalty is still with us and costing us, for it was during the Prohibition era our current crime syndicate was born.

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Sub-topic: How To Live

Article Content: Matthew 5:45 He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (NIV) Why would God have created a system like this? Wouldn't it be more fair for the bad people to always "get theirs?" When we look at how Christ instructs us to live, then we see His teachings have a "love only" foundation. God has created conditions for our relationship to Him based solely upon our loving Him. We must love the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for who He is, what He is, and we must be willing to throw off our sinfulness in loving Him. Many people believe God created a system of barter. In this imagined barter system, when someone is good or does good they get a reward from God. The problem with this barter idea is the heart of a person can remain covered in sin and the person can hate God just so long as they do a lot of good and act good. God wants more than actors on the stage. God wants the real deal of love coming from us reaching out to others and up to Him.

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Sub-topic: How We Are To Get The Most Out Of Life

Article Content: We get the most out of life by packing as much as possible into every day. We get the most out of life by striving to take as much away from every day as much as possible. The quality of our life is not defined by the number of years we live. The quality of our life is defined by how we used the years we were given. Give life to years, not necessarily years to life. The quality of our life gives life substance, not necessarily the quantity of life giving our life substance.

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Sub-topic: Keep Executing The Same Successful Efforts

Article Content: When you are successful, keep repeating your successful efforts. As extraordinary as it seems, many people behave as if they cannot stand success. Many people do not repeat successful efforts. Instead of repeating successful efforts, many people want to continually try out new approaches rather than repeating successful efforts. There is a problem with trying out new approaches when a successful approach is already in place. Common sense should dictate we should always keep doing what is already successful. However, common sense does not always rule.

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Sub-topic: Know Your Opponent

Article Content: Know this about your opponent in life. This is your scouting report so make your decisions each day based upon what is coming up.

●You will be tested, make no mistake about being tested. Satan will come after you. If you let him, Satan will kill you. He'll take everything you've got worth having. Your home, family, car, possessions, love, peace, ability to see beauty, health, everything.

●The opponent does not play fair or by any rules we call fair. In your life, you will get what you think is a raw deal. You will get bad calls.

●You will see no good reason why bad things should be happening to you.

●Satan will appear to get ahead in your life and Satan will appear to win but this is only an illusion or a lie.

●With Satan, there is no middle ground, no gray area where you can avoid making a decision. You must make decisions about whose side of the game you are going to play for every day.

●Real winners sometimes look like losers to the world

●Real winners may not collect until after they die.

●Losers lie and the world will back them up.

●There are no overtime games. Every game is sudden death, and quite often, the end of the game is totally unexpected because you seldom see the time running down on the game clock.

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Sub-topic: Leadership For Christ

Article Content: Without a surrendered life in Christ, you likely have no plan for the future, and no method of getting there. A person can be the most goal oriented person in the world with a clearly defined a strategy for reaching his or her goal. However, this person has little in life if the person is spiritually lost. We are all lost or have been lost in our life. When you are found in Christ's heart and you have invited Him into your heart, you are no longer lost. As a found person, you do not live life in a haphazard manner because you have a purpose and a direction in your life. As a found person, your new purpose and direction is ordained by God. When you have accepted Christ into your life you are found. You are no longer lost. When you have Christ in your life, there is a purpose related to everything you do. When you are found, you can take specific aim at a target, and you can have a clear vision of the target unclouded by Satan's wiles and temptations. When you have a specific target, and you have a clear vision of your target, you appear as a focused and convincing person to others. In this instance, everyone will look at you as a leader because your effort at remaining focused gives you the aura of a leader. As a leader for Christ, you have a purpose in life and you have guidance for all that you do. As a leader for Christ, you are no longer at the mercy of Satan because Satan is at your mercy. As a leader for Christ, you no longer live life as life comes at you because you live your life on purpose with a purpose. As a leader for Christ, you live life with a goal, specifically God's goal, and you have a method of achieving His goal.

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Sub-topic: Life Is

Article Content: Life is both glorious and grievous. Life has the sweet aroma of incense floating up to God and the stench of death. Life is both victory and defeat. Life in our body has both a beginning and an end. Life in our spirit continues on after we die. Life gives us choices to make and choices are made for us. Life becomes what you make from what you have at the time. Life is viewed differently by different people in different ways. What people see in life is determined by their perspective. What makes a person successful in their own eyes is what they hold as a measure of success. Some people hold God's measure of success as their yardstick. Other people hold a yardstick of success made by the world or by Satan. You can choose whose yardstick you use.

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Sub-topic: Lifestyle Changes

Article Content: Making large lifestyle changes is easier than small lifestyle changes. For some people, large steps are easier to take small steps. However, any steps, large or small, need to be taken with purpose, intent, and a burning desire to change. Larger changes in life are often easier because making small changes can make us more susceptible to backsliding and going back on the changes we have made. No matter whether you make large or small lifestyle changes, commitment is necessary for success. In addition, the reason you want to make a change is paramount. Who you live for, who you are willing to make lifestyle changes for, and why you are changing can determine your success or failure. In making lifestyle changes, you can either be God-centered or self-centered. When you are God-centered you can have God's power at your disposal. However, when you are self-centered you have only your own power at your disposal.

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Sub-topic: Living From The Inside Out

Article Content: You can run away from everything and everyone except yourself and God. Because you cannot run away from yourself and God, living from the inside out is so much better than living from the outside in. Living from the inside out means you do not take in the world around you and then react to the world you have taken in. If you live with everything on the outside controlling you, the only way to get away from everything is to run away from everything or lie and live in denial. However, you cannot really run away from or lie about what is outside of you because you always have an outside world as long as you are alive. When you live from the outside in, then wherever you go your outside circumstances will try to control you and go with you. In addition, living the weak way of letting outside circumstances control you has no escape no matter where you run or where you try to hide. Conversely, living from the inside out means you react to the world within you before you ever react to the world outside of you. Living from the inside out means you do not run away but you stay within yourself because your strength and power are within you. Living from the inside out means you remain strong because your center of gravity is within you instead of being outside of you.

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Sub-topic: Living In Christ Means

Article Content:

●Joking with him

●Fellowshipping with Him

●Getting angry with Him

●Putting your hand in His hand

●Listening to Him

●Laughing with Him

●Talking to Him

●Crying with Him

●Trusting in Him

●Putting everything on the line for Him

●Giving your life for Him

●Confiding in Him

●Expressing your sorrow when you have gone against His will or hurt His feelings

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Sub-topic: Living With Integrity

Article Content: Psalms 25:21 "May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you." (NIV) Living with integrity and living in a moral and ethical manner has advantages. When things go bad in life, we tend to forget about living with integrity. In adversity, we can get desperate. In adversity, we start to do things we would not normally do. However, having integrity means we stay the same person no matter what happens. When we have integrity, no matter how bad things get we do not come unglued. To have integrity requires an inner strength found only in God. When everything has come apart on you, there can be a time when you have no inner strength. In severe adversity you need integrity. The reason integrity is so important is because integrity keeps you more "together" or integrated. Integrity keeps you from easily coming apart. We get our integrity and inner strength when we have no strength by trusting God is working everything out so He will be glorified in all we do. We get integrity when we trust God to work everything out to our heavenly benefit. In real life, many times it seems God is either against us or at the very least is not for us. Many times it seems God does not deliver what we want, when we want it. However, let us tell the truth. God is not an angry or vengeful person. God only wants the best for you and in His time, in His wisdom, and in His plan you can find enormous hope every day of your life. In God, you can always trust, and in your trust, you can become a person of integrity.

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Sub-topic: Make Measurable Progress Every Day

Article Content: Daily progress is sometimes a difficult thing to measure and a difficult thing to do. Regardless of the difficulty in measuring and making measurable progress every day, daily measurable progress must still be one of our objectives. If we commit to making measurable progress every day, we have an opportunity every day to put meaning and purpose into our life.

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Sub-topic: Mankind Relating To God

Article Content: Snakes slither, man stands and walks. The Lord cannot speak with us until we stand. To be selfish and self-centered is to slither along with the power of Satan who wants us to be selfish and self-centered. Communion with God is possible only if we stand. Communion with God is not possible if we slither on the ground by thinking we are superior to others. To reach out to God we must stand before Him and not slither. To reach out to others we must reach out to them in love and not slither. Even in our trials and even in our darkness, God enables us to stand before Him and reach out in boldness.

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Sub-topic: Mental And Spiritual Weapons You Can Use

Article Content: We are all engaged in a spiritual war. Using your will power, there are two weapons you can use to win the battle against the darkness. In your arsenal of weapons you have mental weapons and spiritual weapons. Your mental weapons are how you think, what you think, how you use your mind, what fills your mind, how much you control your thinking, how much you want to control your thinking, and how much time you spend thinking about God and His power. Your spiritual weapons are prayer, meditation, worship, wisdom from the Bible, and a dedication to do only God's will in all matters. Whenever we are attacked by the darkness, we have choices we can make related to our thinking processes. Under attack, we can come to know our mind, know how we think, know our mental strengths, and know our mental weaknesses. We can come to understand how to use our mental strengths and compensate for our mental weaknesses. Under attack, we can use the power of God as a shield against the dark powers. Under attack, we can pray for strength for ourselves and pray for strength for others. Under attack, we can take just a moment to meditate and reflect upon the goodness and power of God. The goodness and power of God is at our disposal in an instant if we will just open our mind, heart, and soul up to Him. When we need advice, we can open the scripture and find the world's most powerful set of truths. When we feel like we are faltering in our pursuits because the dark power is against us, we can call upon God to bolster us and give us power to re-dedicate our life to achieving His goals for us.

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Sub-topic: Mental Blockers

Article Content: Anger, fear, and resentment are mental blockers to your well-being. These mental blockers can be eliminated by prayer and meditation. Most often, anger, fear, and resentment have to do with another person or persons. Remember the actions or inactions of others must not determine your well-being. Your well-being is your business and is totally under your control. Your well-being and happiness must not depend upon someone else. Your well-being and happiness depend only upon you. The purpose of meditation is awareness of thoughts and feelings like anger, fear, and resentment. Once you are aware of these thoughts and feelings, then control of those thoughts and feelings can be achieved through prayer.

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Sub-topic: Mental Emancipation

Article Content: The spiritual, emotional, and intellectual environment you create in your life produces within you an attitude yielding a fruit in your spirit, heart, and mind. Mental emancipation or mental freedom is your ability to create a free mental life of your very own. We achieve mental emancipation or mental freedom by:

●Developing opportunities within our life leading to personal success

●Answering these questions about the facts of our life and our opinions and beliefs: 1. Do my beliefs square up with the observed facts? 2. Am I operating on successful beliefs or principles? 3. Where have my beliefs taken me on the road to success? 4. What do I believe about work, religion, politics, education, physical life, social life, and economic life?

●To be free you must never, never, let anyone ...nor any organization ever become the criteria of your personal worth! You must be the only person who is to decide your personal worth as a child of your Creator, fully loved and fully embraced by Him.

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Sub-topic: New Life

Article Content: As people grow older, they begin to fully see the end of their life as coming nearer and nearer. However, we are often wrong about things in this world. We are often wrong about what works and what does not work. One of the areas in which we are wrong about this life is the matter of death. The life and resurrection of Christ reminds us we have a new life waiting for us. As we hold the love of Christ in our heart, we know we have a new life waiting for us tomorrow and for all the days to follow. As we hold the love of Christ in our heart, we know we have a new life waiting for us in Heaven where we will never suffer or be tempted. The idea of our having a chance at a new life, especially a chance at a new life when we have grown old and hopeless, is more extraordinary and more extravagant than anything we could ever celebrate here on earth. No matter how much we celebrate Christ's life, no celebration can match the soaring of our spirit when we finally and fully realize we truly do have a new life waiting for us in Heaven...a heavenly life where every hope and dream comes true.

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Sub-topic: Not The Easy Road

Article Content: The road of Christ is not the easy road with fame and fortune. The road of Christ is narrow, hard, difficult, and will likely be without payoff until after you die. Unfortunately, within the kingdom of God on earth, the popular talk of our current age is "You can get and have anything you want with God." However, the truth is you may never get and you may never have on earth anything you want with God. Within the kingdom of God on earth, the popular talk of our current age is "You deserve a break today." However, in total truth, no, you don't deserve a break today. If you really deserved a break today from God, there would be no need for grace. Grace is what you get when you don't deserve a break today. Grace is what you receive in place of a break today. Grace is the forgiveness you receive from God when you don't deserve forgiveness. From God, because of His grace, you can receive everlasting life when you don't deserve everlasting life. When the United States was being built, when the country was new, just about all people did was sacrifice. The frontier families in the U.S. made an enormous sacrifice to build the nation. Nearly all of the people in the early stages of the nation's history died young. Many of the frontier families lost children in death. Many of these families knew starvation and hunger. Today, most of the family problems, job problems, social problems, business problems, and the other problems in the kingdom of God are the result of people not wanting to sacrifice to make things better.

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Sub-topic: One Solitary Life

Article Content: There was a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things usually accompanying greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His divine manhood. While still a young man, the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while He was dying-and that was his coat. When he was dead He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Twenty wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies ever assembled, and all the navies ever built, and all the parliaments ever called to order, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life. Source: This essay was adapted from a sermon by Dr James Allan Francis in "The Real Jesus and Other Sermons" © 1926 by the Judson Press of Philadelphia (pp 123-124 titled "Arise Sir Knight!")

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Sub-topic: Outward Appearances

Article Content: Outward appearances mean nothing in spiritual terms. This is why Jesus said the first here on earth will be the last in the kingdom and the last here on earth will be first in the kingdom. If you face overwhelming adversities you will find hope and the Light not in things of this world but in the spiritual kingdom of God within you. You will find the Light deep within you, not on the outside where darkness is a dominant power. If you are a parent, regardless of your circumstances, resolve to find hope and the Light of Christ and pass the hope and the Light on to your children. Unless the parent finds hope and the Light then the cycles of poverty and darkness go from one generation to the next. In America and in many parts of the world, we have tried to interrupt the cycles of poverty for generations and have not been successful. Not only have we not been successful in breaking the cycle of poverty caused by hopelessness, we have made the cycle of poverty worse by taking away the hopes and dreams of individuals who can escape poverty's grasp. In the place of hopes and dreams, we have given seekers of the Light a program to look toward instead of helping others look within themselves to find hope and the power of God.

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Sub-topic: Picking Splinters

Article Content: Before you find fault with someone or before you pick a splinter out of their eye, the first prerequisite would have to be there must be an actual splinter in the eye. In your life, there are people who are splinter pickers. These people find splinters in the eyes of others even when these other folks don't know there is a splinter in the eye. Splinter pickers are always looking for the fault, the defect, the mishap, the misstep, the minor mistake, and the slipup. When something like a mistake occurs, the splinter picker is the first person to charge up and tell the person with the splinter. Then, with a pair of big water pump pliers, the poor person gets his or her eye gouged out in an effort to get at the splinter. Splinter pickers somehow put themselves above others and feel appointed by someone, normally God, to do the gouge work. They are what others call "Holier than thou" since these splinter pickers have appointed themselves, or feel appointed, to be above the rest of us. More often than not, these splinter pickers find splinters that are not really there. Splinter pickers can gouge out the eye, they can split the church, and they can make new Christians fall away. Splinter pickers can destroy the home, make unnecessary waves at the workplace, and cause trouble and dissension when there was no trouble and dissension before the splinter picker goes to work gouging and hurting. Whatever you do, never find fault with anyone, especially a family member.

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Sub-topic: Recognize Progress May Be Slow

Article Content: We live in an instant world. We get our news, our food, and many of our answers to questions in an instant. However, progress may not be instantaneous. We may need to work for weeks, months, or even years on a project before we see results. When progress is slow we need to keep our original vision in mind. We must learn to be patient. We must learn to use our time wisely and determine if our slow progress is due to an action on our part or if some things just take more time than we might have thought. Mighty works, in many cases, take time. Even when progress may be slow, we must work to make some progress, no matter how slow things appear to be at the moment. We must be open enough to admit our slow progress may be due to factors we can control. Then we must keep going until the project is completed.

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Sub-topic: Record Your Results

Article Content: In most of the tasks of our life, we do not record results. We can do well at a job, do well at a hobby, or do well in any kind of task, but if we do not record our results, we will have no idea whether we are succeeding or failing. Every action we take produces some kind of result. We need to care enough about results to record results. Results tell us how far we have come and how far we have to go. Results tell us whether we are on the right track or whether we need to change tracks. You may not record your results on paper but you should make every effort to make at least a mental record of your results. If you ignore the results of what you do you can end up making the same mistake over and over, never being able to fix the mistake. Keeping a daily diary or daily record of what you do, along with a record of the results, will be of enormous benefit to you in the future because your results will be fully known to you.

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Sub-topic: Responsibility In Every Circumstance

Article Content: Employers, whether they are non-profit agencies or for profit companies face a common difficulty with employees in today's workplace. The problem is not in finding people who know how to do their job. The biggest problem today is with people who do not know how to handle themselves or how to handle their life. On our jobs, or in our vocations, we are supposed to be responsible. In some professions, like medical, people are not only responsible for their own life they are also responsible for the life of others. God calls all of us to the highest levels of responsibility and expects us to show His love by how we act, live, and move through the circumstances of life.

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Sub-topic: Review Strategies

Article Content: When we use strategies to win at life rather than just hoping for the best and letting fate decide whether we win or lose, we need to review our strategies every time we use a strategy. We need to review our strategies to determine how effective the strategy was after we used the strategy in the past. We review our strategies to determine if the strategy was timely, used in the proper place, and used in the right circumstance. If we never review our strategies to determine their effectiveness, we can end up using the same faulty strategy over and over. In the same way, if we never review our strategies, we can use an extremely effective strategy and never reuse the strategy because we never know how effective the strategy is or was. Conversely, we can use a totally ineffective strategy without any review, continue to use the ineffective strategy, wondering all the time why things are not working well.

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Sub-topic: Review What You Have Learned

Article Content: Our wisdom and learning is a great resource but we too often do not treat our present knowledge base as the treasure our knowledge base really is. Our present knowledge base or what we know, along with our skills, abilities, and wisdom, is our most vital resource. In acquiring more information and knowledge each day, we need to do a review of our knowledge base in order to cement or reinforce what we have acquired. What we must not forget we do forget. We can forget incredibly valuable knowledge and wisdom. By doing a review of what we have learned, we tend not to forget as much. In doing a review of what we have learned, we offset what we might forget and effectively increase our knowledge base, sometimes in exponential fashion because we overcome the issue of our forgetfulness.

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Sub-topic: Review Why A Strategy Succeeds Or Fails

Article Content: When a strategy to win works, knowing why a strategy works is critical to future success. When you know why a strategy works you can gain an incredible advantage in knowing when, how, and where to use the strategy again. Knowing all there is to know about applying a strategy can mean the difference between victory and defeat. In determining why a strategy works you must look at all the contributing factors that lead to success or lead to failure. Knowing why a strategy works gives us a reason to use the strategy again. Plus, knowing why as strategy does not work gives us a reason avoid the strategy in a given circumstance. We must learn to not only be experts at using a strategy but also experts at knowing when to apply a strategy. Picking apart all the nuances of a strategy as well as picking apart all the factors inherent in the success or failure of a strategy mean we intend to repeat our successes and avoid our failures. For example, if a church decides to increase participation in a program and a chosen strategy used is successful, the church needs to know why the strategy worked so the strategy can be repeated. If a strategy does not work, knowing why the strategy does not work so so the strategy can be revised or discarded.

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Sub-topic: Review Your Progress Minute By Minute

Article Content: If we review our progress by using a specific measure of progress, we have an opportunity to know where we are, how we arrived, and how far we have to go. The more often we measure our progress, the more often we know what we must do to move forward. If we only measure our progress every few days instead of every few minutes, we can go for days without ever knowing the results of our actions. If we only measure our progress every few days, we can go for days in a mistaken direction without ever knowing we are headed in the wrong direction. Assess your circumstances often. The more often you assess or measure your circumstances, the quicker you will be able to respond when changes are necessary.

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Sub-topic: Rules Help Avoid Chaos

Article Content: In our modern society we spend billions on making, revising, and enforcing rules. Law makers in governments around the world spend their time making rules. We spend billions on enforcing rules in an activity called law enforcement. When chaos strikes for any reason, rules need to be enforced. In our personal lives, we can often get by without enforcing any personal rules. In chaos or at other times, we can let our own self-imposed rules slip by because we make no effort to enforce the personal rules we set for ourselves. However, in times of chaos, it is critical you develop and enforce rules upon yourself. If necessary, in times of chaos, rules must be enforced upon the circumstances relating to the chaos. Rules help keep everything in order. Rules keep chaos from happening or rules restore order when chaos appears.

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Sub-topic: Running On E

Article Content: All persons have a sense of either the emptiness or fullness of life. Each of us knows, instinctively, where the fuel gauge is pointing in our life. For many people, the gauge points toward the "E" side. For these people, who do not have a deep, tangible faith in Christ, the emptiness within them is like a consuming fire. The emptiness comes out in their life as a hunger refusing to be filled. The emptiness drives people to drink alcohol, take drugs, and seek the pleasure of sin. Eventually, the emptiness leads to their spiritual death causing physical deterioration. For those people whose souls have nearly died, not only do these people face the normal pains and problems of life, these people also face the added pains and problems caused by the terrible cancerous emptiness. Their emptiness cannot be filled by things of this earth, or by the self-generated thoughts of man. Their emptiness produces a hunger which cannot be filled except by the love and in-filling Holy Spirit.

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Sub-topic: Self-control As The Way To Victory

Article Content: The ultimate objective in life is not to avoid a battle with the darkness. The ultimate objective in life is to win. The ultimate strategy in life is to be smart enough to beat the adversary who wants you dead. The ultimate strategy of life is to win regardless of the odds. In order to play this game of life, in order to win this game, you need to understand the importance of self-control and self-discipline. For without self-control and self-discipline, no strategy to win, no matter how well designed, will work. Self-control and self-discipline are mandatory to carry out any plan of attack against the adversary or carry out any kind of defensive measure. You can have all the hope in the world, you can have all the resources you will ever need, you can have all the intelligence and talent anyone could ever hope to have...but without the ability to control yourself in every circumstance, you are defeated before you start. To win over sin and temptation requires controlling who you are. To fully love others and fully love God requires controlling who you are. The greatest tragedies of life are not the unforeseen events striking us without warning. The greatest tragedies of life are those times when the promise of life is not realized because persons did not have enough self-control and self-discipline to pursue the promise.

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Sub-topic: Settle For Nothing Less Than Perfection

Article Content: Some people are not perfectionists. Some people are so "unperfectionist" they live like total slobs. We do not have to be a perfectionist in everything we do. However, in some areas of life, being a perfectionist is a requirement for success. If you were a professional golfer, you would lose your career if you suddenly stopped being a perfectionist about how you play the game of golf. If you are a sapper (a bomb squad technician who defuses bombs), perfection is mandatory. If you are a nuclear scientist, a data entry person, or a person doing thousands of other kinds of jobs, then your margin for error is next to nothing. We may not have the personality make-up of someone who is a perfectionist, but we must all make strides to be as much of a perfectionist as possible in those areas of our life requiring a low margin of error. We live in a technical world where perfection is required in even mundane tasks. If we hit the wrong key on our keyboard or we click the wrong link with our mouse, things won't work as planned. To be successful in nearly any endeavor, we must pull together the necessary self-control and self-discipline to strive for perfection. When we settle for less than a perfect result in what we do, we shortchange ourselves and degrade the time we spend in achieving our goals and objectives. When we settle for less than a perfect result, we settle for less than total success.

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Sub-topic: Shouldering Responsibility

Article Content: Being a responsible person means we are prudent in the way we live, act, and think. As a Christian, we must be responsible in living our life. We must try to live out our life in such a way to always glorify God. We must live and act in such a way people will see the love of God in us. We must live and act in such a way people will look at us and say, "That person is really a Christian."

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Sub-topic: Six Ways To Take Charge Of Your Life

Article Content: 1. Refuse to play the victim no matter how bad things seem to get. Refuse to play the victim by seeing yourself as having power over the most difficult of circumstances. 2. Educate yourself about yourself. Educate yourself about life, about your circumstances, about growing up, about growing out, and about getting out of the circumstances you are in. 3. Acquire knowledge. Become a specialist in your own circumstance, your own adversity. Know everything about your adversity. 4. Challenge the experts no matter who they are. Challenge counselors, doctors, or any other kind of expert who might know something about your difficulty. 5. Become a participant in the solution to the problem or problems you face. Do not, under any circumstance, become a passive victim. Do not, under any circumstance, be willing to sit back and let others run your life. Even if the world or life puts you in the circumstance you are in, you must not let the adversity run your life. 6. Demand dignity from yourself in every circumstance and demand others not violate your dignity.

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Sub-topic: Speed Of Progress May Not Be That Important

Article Content: Our speed of progress may not be important or may not be as important as we think. We erroneously think we must have what we want right now. Reaching our objective IS the objective and our speed in reaching the objective may not be as important as we think. Many times, reaching our objective in an instant or in a flash may not be important to our ultimate mission. What is most important of all is that progress is made.

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Sub-topic: Start Somewhere When You Have To Start Over

Article Content: Many of the processes in our life require we continually build and rebuild. It would be nice if we only had to build one house and never had to remodel, repair, or maintain. It would be nice if we could only buy one car never needing maintenance. However, reality dictates we come to grips with the fact things in life break down, wear out, or become obsolete. In the same way material things become obsolete, our ways of thinking, our approaches to solving problems, and our heart, mind, and soul need building and rebuilding on a regular basis. When your heart, mind, and soul are in a continual state of building and rebuilding you are continually ready to move forward, advance, and achieve. The heart, mind, and soul mired down in one place and unwilling to build or rebuild will suffer. Our problems and pains of life demand our attention. When we have a heart, mind, and soul under maintenance, modernization, remodeling, and rebuilding, we can live successfully and we can dominate every adversity.

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Sub-topic: Starting Over By Getting Out

Article Content: When the dark times come in your life and you need to start over, if you are physically able, you need to get up and get out. No matter how difficult a circumstance may be for you, you need to avoid being a recluse. In the face of adversity, even if you are working and you are around others at work, you can still draw back into a shell. Pulling back or withdrawing for a time of healing is normal and natural. There are times when you need to be alone. However, being alone all the time by choice is not good. When your starting over times come into your life you need to avoid the temptation of shutting yourself off from people. You need to get up and get out with others. Taking these first steps of starting over can be extremely difficult. Many people feel embarrassed to ask to be part of a group of some kind so they do not ask. This is very unfortunate because if we do not have contact with others when we are starting over. In severe adversity, whatever happened to us can begin to eat away at us. There are support groups of every kind just about everywhere. Joining a group, whether the group is a support group, a dance group, a hobby group, a party group, a condo group, or any other kind of group is one of the healthiest things you can do. You do not have to go through the tough times in life by yourself unless you want to be by yourself. If you are not much of a joiner or much of a social person then you can do volunteer work if your time is not caught up in other activities. If you do not attend church on a regular basis, find a church now. A church family can surround you with love and caring now and in the future. A church family can be of enormous support when you have to start over.

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Sub-topic: Starting Over From Where You Are

Article Content: When you have to start over, you need to start from where you are...not from where you have been and not from where you want to be. Starting over implies tremendous change has taken place and what was once in motion has stopped. When we have encountered some kind of tremendous adversity and we need to start over, our tendency is to try and remake things in the same shape they were in yesterday. As difficult starting over can be, we cannot go back in time. As much as we want to go back in time and make things like they might have been yesterday, we cannot remake things as they were. When we start over, we must know exactly and precisely where we are at the moment. We should strive to know exactly and precisely where we want to go in the next moment. When we do not know where we want to be in the next moment, we will never get to where we want to go. When we know we are someplace at the moment but do not know precisely where we are, we will wander around in an aimless fashion, all the while wondering what is wrong. Our present moment is the only place where we can really live. Our present moment is the only moment from which we can start anew. We can treasure or trash our past, but we can only live and start over in the present. The present moment offers us a chance at real victory. The present moment offers us a chance for peace, for friendship, and for all the great blessings of life. When we do not live in the present or start over in the present, the future slips away as our past becomes eternally unreachable.

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Sub-topic: Starting Over Now

Article Content: We all sit on a train bound for the future. Whether the train is bound for glory or hell is up to us to decide. The realities of our life make it much easier not to get off the train then to get off. Sitting on the train and go along for the ride is easier than getting off. However, sometimes the events of our life demand we start over. We usually have to start over when we experience some kind of loss or we experience some kind of dramatic change in our life or circumstances. The older we get the more difficult starting over becomes. Nevertheless, there comes a time when we must start anew. When we start over we must remember to act with vigor, wisdom, and with purpose. Starting over because the worst of times has hit you can lead to your enjoying the best of new times later on. When starting over, we must not keep looking back over our shoulder at the past. We must keep our eyes focused on what is ahead and remain keenly focused on our objectives. When starting over, we must come to realize we can come to live in a time where what is normal now is not what used to be normal in our past. When we start over we must come to realize we may live in a "new normal." Sometimes the longer we wait to make decisions about starting over, the more difficult making those decisions becomes. When we need to start over and we remain immobilized in the present, we sometimes try to avoid making decisions about starting over again. The more immobilized in the present we become, the more difficult we can make things for ourselves. Many times we may be reluctant to start out again because of previous hurts or failures. If we carry previous hurts or failures, we need to remember we can gain incredible wisdom from our past if we just mine the treasure past hurts and failures can offer us.

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Sub-topic: Starting Over With Speed

Article Content: The circumstances of our having to start over in life are often not good times. When we have to start over, we commonly start over because we have to do so and not because we want to start over. When the moment of starting over arrives, we must not hesitate. Often we hesitate, and rightly so, to assuage our shock, to heal our hurt, or to soothe our pain because changes have taken place. Taking time to rest and heal is critically important. However, when the time comes to set our hand to the plow and begin anew, we must not hesitate once we have determined starting over is required. Once we have started over, we must push forward with speed, force, and power. We must abandon all the psychological, spiritual, and emotional hindrances within us. These hindrances quickly make us want to hold off starting over and keep us from gaining any momentum against the obstacles we all face. Getting a fast start when starting over is a matter of momentum and inertia. Starting over implies, by its reality, we have lost momentum and inertia. To get the proverbial ball rolling again, we must get off a great first push with speed and power. Once the ball is rolling it is always easier to keep the ball rolling getting off the first push.

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Sub-topic: Starting Over, Part 1

Article Content: If you are like most people then you will probably have a traumatic (starting over) event occur in your life. You may lose a job, lose a business, lose your life's savings, lose a partner, lose a close friend, lose a child, lose your home, lose your health, or lose the health of someone upon whom you depend. This list of starting over events could go on for pages. Remarkably, there are some people who get through life without any significant losses, but these people are few in number. Under normal circumstances, you will probably have a starting over event or a loss, perhaps a tragic loss changing everything in your world. Although the world still spins on its axis, causing the sun to rise in the east and set in the west...although everything in the world might seem normal to everyone else...your world may be radically changed when a starting over event or a loss occurs. When a loss occurs in your life, remember Jesus is always with you. He surrounds you with His love night and day. He immerses you in His love and He will never let you fall from His care.

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Sub-topic: Starting Over, Part 2

Article Content: The darkness in our past defines our present. The darkness of our past can make us act in ways we know are wrong. The darkness in our past can make us react in nonsensical ways. The darkness in our past can make us turn away from people, be shy with people, and hurt others. With Christ's love in our heart, we can break free of the past. Luke 3:10 - 12 On a sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, And a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman , you are set free from your infirmity." (NIV) We can be imprisoned, enchained, and shackled by our past but Jesus said John 8:32 - 36 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." ..."I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (NIV) Hebrews 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (NIV) Your identity is from your past but you can have a new identity. 1 peter 1:23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. (NIV) When you truly start over with Christ you have a new father, a new father in heaven. When you start over with Christ you have a new reason for living because Christ died for you and called you to be one of his own. When you start over with Christ you start out as His child, born of his spirit, and washed clean from your past. Through Christ, you can be a new person. Your past and its pain fade away if you will love Him, if you will let Him touch you, and if you will call Him into your heart.

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Sub-topic: Starting Over, Part 3

Article Content: No one likes to start over. However, starting over in life is normal for most of us at various times. When you are faced with a loss in your life, it means you must start over. When you are faced with a loss, when something has happened turning your world upside down and turning you inside out, you can come back. You can start over and win. For most of us the losses most difficult to take are the unseen losses. Your visible house or home destroyed by a tornado or hurricane can be rebuilt. When your life has been devastated by a personal loss, your life can also be rebuilt, but not as easily as you can rebuild a house. When it comes time to rebuild your house, be sure to call upon a master carpenter. When it comes time to rebuild a part of your life, be sure to call upon the Master Carpenter for help, advice, encouragement, and inspiration as you set about doing His work.

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Sub-topic: Staying Small

Article Content: In many churches, there is a desire to keep things as they are. There is a desire to keep the church just as it is and the idea of growth in the church is pushed aside. This idea of staying small, regardless of the size of the church, hurts the church and hurts the work of God. If we are to reach the world for Christ we must learn to think big. If we are to reach the world for Christ we must learn to be aggressive in our love for others. Here are some questions to ponder: Do you suppose there is a connection between whole families not worshiping in church and the desire to stay small within the church? Do you suppose the desire to stay small comes out to others who are not worshipping in a particular church? Do you suppose the desire to stay small comes out to the children in the church or comes out to the children in the church's region of influence? Is there any way for a church to stay small without keeping people out of the church? How are we to reach out and help the Lord save His lost sheep and still keep the church small? In every church, in every believer, there has to be a passion to serve, build, and witness. In every church, in every believer, there has to be a fire to serve, build, and witness.

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Sub-topic: Take Measurements About Why There Is No Progress

Article Content: We can easily lose track of where we are when things grind to a halt. When we do not make progress we can easily become disillusioned and begin to think the game is lost. When there is no progress, if we dig deep enough and dig hard enough, we can make assessments and take measurements about why there is no progress. If you have a mindset to always use every minute to learn and gain wisdom, even times of no progress can be times of learning and growing. Losing track of where we are and where we want to go is common in a crisis. We tend to forget about using strategic thinking when disaster strikes or adversity falls. If we think strategically, we want to use a time of no progress to take as many measurements and do as many assessments as possible. When we face adversity, trying to objectify every experience when no progress is being made is critical in importance because we can easily let our emotions rule over us. Our emotions during times of adversity, like the emotions of frustration, anger, and sometimes a sense of hopelessness, can prevent us from being logical.

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Sub-topic: Taking Action When We Are Lonely

Article Content: When we are lonely and cut off, we must do the opposite of what loneliness wants us to do. When we are lonely and sitting in our lonely isolation, the loneliness wants us to remain where we are in our pain. The loneliness wants us to remain selfish and self-centered, thereby keeping our loneliness going without relief. To stage a counterstrike against our loneliness, we must unite with another person or persons. We must seek out another person or persons and pick each other up in our times of darkness. If we do not seek out another person or persons, we compound our loneliness. In our loneliness, we must remember others are likely to be just as lonely as we are. In our loneliness, we must remember others are likely to need us more than we need them.

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Sub-topic: Taking Charge And Well-being

Article Content: * There are no limitations on our emotional, intellectual, and spiritual life. Our emotional, intellectual, and spiritual aspects can co-create. Where our mind, heart, and spirit go, our life can follow. The mind, heart, and spirit are under our control. By controlling our mind, heart, and spirit, we can also impact our well-being in many respects.

●Taking charge is about how we respond to life.

●Solutions to our problems are nearly always up to us, no matter how much we might want to push our problems on to someone else.

●We can help our life. We can help our ability to lessen pain and deal with the pain.

●Your mind (your thoughts), your heart (your emotions), and your spirit (your soul), can either work for you or against you. You can choose whether your mental, emotional, or spiritual work goes for you or against you.

●You can keep your hope alive.

●Believe you can take charge of how you respond to life's circumstances and its adversity because you can take charge of yourself.

●You can take charge over how you respond to how your handle emotional conflicts.

●You can take charge over how you respond to God's call and voice in your life. You can make a difference in your response to trials and tribulations in your life

●We make a difference in our life when we come to grips with and take upon us the invincible nature of our spirit. The immortal, everlasting, invincible part of ourselves turns us from victims to victors.

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Sub-topic: The Disconnected Life

Article Content: We can either be a connected Christian or a disconnected Christian. Being disconnected results in our living our life in random fashion. People living disconnected lives have lives full of problems. A person who is disconnected from the love and power of Christ is living a random haphazard life. When you live disconnected from the love and power of Christ you are living with no direction, no aim, and no purpose in life. When you have not humbly placed your heart in the hands of Christ you have no spiritual guidance from Him, and you have no governing hand from God. Living a life disconnected from God means you are essentially at the mercy of Satan. When you are disconnected from the love and power of Christ, you tend to live life casually, jumping from on thing to another, trying to find happiness. When you have not humbly come to Christ and given your whole life to Him you end up trying to fill the starving center of your life with anything, especially things of sin.

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Sub-topic: The Downtrodden Cry Out

Article Content: Do you hear the cry of the unwed mother, the person caught up in addiction, the abuse victim, the uneducated, the unemployed, the underemployed, the poor, the weak, the lonely, and the broken? Do you hear the cry of the sick, the lame, and the blind? Do you hear the cry of the fearful and anxious? If you hear the cry, what will you do?

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Sub-topic: The Frustration Of Not Being Able To Take Charge

Article Content: There can be enormous frustration when we want to take charge and we are not able to do so. In your moments of frustration, remember you can be in charge of some things but not necessarily all things. Being in charge of small things is something we have to demand from ourselves. Being in charge of small things is the way we achieve control over large things. Really decide when you eat, how you eat, what you eat, what you wear, when you bathe, what you watch, what you read, what you think about, who you speak to, and how you problem solve. Avoid at all costs the hopeless and helpless ride of grief, pain, and anxiety most of us tend to ride when we are in adversity. Above all look upward and outward to find peace and power in God. If others are a part of your adversity picture, remember you cannot take charge of others. You must let others take charge of their own problems. Then you are to focus on your own Light.

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Sub-topic: The Human Heart

Article Content: The human heart is where we experience the greatest joy and the greatest pain. The human heart is both our problem and a way to a solution to our problem. Goodness and evil resound in the heart. The greatest purifier of the heart is love from faith in Christ. God knows and reads your heart. The book of life is written on your heart. Christ's work and law are not written on stone as were the Ten Commandments. Christ's work and law are written upon the human heart. God speaks to us through our heart. What makes us uniquely human is our soul sustained by our heart. Today we have robots. Today we have computers with the ability to think quicker thinking than we do. A computer can have a super memory able to calculate faster than a human being. However, a computer is only a piece of hardware. A computer does not have a heart. A computer does not feel joy or sadness, exhilaration or grief, peace or loneliness. In all the range of human experiences, the heart gives our life dimension and meaning. Christ lives within our heart. Within our heart we can find the kingdom of God.

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Sub-topic: The Importance Of Tears

Article Content: Tears are natural. Tears are a way of releasing emotions. Tears are God's method of cleansing your soul. Tears are a way of releasing your sadness and grief so you need not carry the sadness and grief any more.

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Sub-topic: The Influence Of Life Issues

Article Content: Hundreds of major life issues can directly impact a person's life. There are over a hundred categories of life issues and within each category we find tens to hundreds of other sub issues. Each and every person has issues. We used to call issues "problems" but today we don't call problems "problems" because today we call problems "issues". One of the essential questions of our life is not whether we have an issue but how we will deal with the issue. An important question of our life is not only how much of an impact an issue has upon us, and but also whether we choose to try and do anything about the issue. When we face any issue, at any time, at any point in our life, we need to remember we are not alone. You are never by yourself in life unless you have turned away from God. The tough issues of our life dig into our heart, mind, and soul. Without a strong relationship with God, a personal issue can eat away at us and rob us of our faith, take away our ability to believe, take away our ability to trust, and temporarily destroy our ability to heal. In regard to life issues, remarkably, God always gives you the ability to heal. With God's healing touch, where once there was a wound, a scar can appear. Eventually, with God's healing hand, even the scar can be erased. How God does what He does in healing us of issues and helping us on our way is often a mystery. However, just because the working of God is a mystery does not mean God does not work. Life issues may try to destroy you. However, God loves you and wants to help heal you. No one is immune from living with issues. The darkness wants your destruction. The list of over one hundred life issues is a list of how the darkness can have you down and defeated. However, with God there is victory. With God there is always a way to find self-control and self-discipline so the issues of life cannot destroy you. When you face any issue, be assured you are God's child and He will not abandon you.

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Sub-topic: The Influence Of Television

Article Content: Most people of faith today were raised in the TV age. Having grown up in the TV age, a quiet moving of the Holy Spirit is not always what people want today, at least until they hit a life crisis of some kind. The church, to be modern and contemporary, in many places must have a live rock band with the volume turned up. To be modern in our church services we should be honest and recognize the reasons we are conducting church in the manner we choose. When we lose track of our reasons for serving the Lord in the ways we choose, we end up losing our contact with the Holy Spirit. When we are not honest about why we run our church services like we do then we start to be a religious entertainment center and a religious activity complex instead of being a church.

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Sub-topic: The Internal Kingdom

Article Content: You carry God with you everywhere you go. Not only do you carry God, but you also carry His kingdom within you. A mystery we will never completely understand as humans is how we carry God and His kingdom within us. The kingdom of God is a spiritual realm and not a physical place. Having the kingdom of God within you means any place you go, no matter who you are with, any time day or night, the kingdom of God and God in His three persons is always with you. The implications of this truth are more profound than we can easily grasp. We are not separated from God except by our own will and lack of wisdom. God is with you now and will remain so if you open your life and heart to His love, caring, kindness, and compassion.

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Sub-topic: The Joy-killer Speaketh

Article Content: Let us suppose you have someone in the hospital, and you truly care about this person. After visiting the hospital the joy-killer comes and whispers into your ear you should feel bad, feel awful, feel worried, and maybe even feel sick yourself. So you will not experience any joy or have fun for awhile after your visit. After all, according to the joy-killer, anyone who really cares about someone in the hospital should not be having fun after a visit. There is no logic in the joy-killer's argument but he doesn't need much of a logical argument because we soak up his deceptions so easily. You may be worried about someone in the hospital but should you not have life, and hope, and joy because of them? What good does it do for you to let the joy-killer kill a part of your hope and your life when others are struggling? What good are you to others when you have lost your hope and your life when they are suffering? How does losing your joy help others? (Answer: It doesn't. In fact, when you lose your joy, you can be assured you are not going to pass on any joy to another. Then you can be sick together. Sick thinking too, isn't it?)

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Sub-topic: The Law

Article Content: There is a law of the street. There is a law of the gang. The law of the street or gang is found in Exodus 21:23. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. (NIV) Gang law or the law of the street is based upon the Old Testament law for keeping society from coming apart. However, a new law appeared in the New Testament. The new law said... Matthew 5:39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to Him the other also. (NIV) This new law was heresy then, and it is still heresy for most of the world now. The old law was about revenge and getting even. The new law is about self-control over what happens to you at the hands of an evil person. Evil people want conflict to keep the violence going. What Jesus expressed in Matthew 5:39 applies to you and you alone. If someone attacks your child, your family, or others you hold dear, you then have a responsibility to protect them against further attacks.

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Sub-topic: The Nature Of A Human Being

Article Content: Your human nature can be described in the following way: You are a spiritual being with a temporary physical body. Your temporary physical body temporarily houses and holds an everlasting and permanent mind, heart, and soul. At some point in the life of your physical body, your physical body will quit working and your physical body will become empty and lifeless. All human beings are spiritual beings. Telling we are spiritual beings can be difficult by the way we act. When we do not act according to the dictates of God who created us, we act in destructive ways. In our destructive ways, we destroy ourselves, others, or both. In truth and in reality, we are spiritual beings gone astray. However, we are spiritual beings with a hope and a way of getting back on the right path to God before we die. The way is Christ. The path is the path leading to His cross.

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Sub-topic: The Nature Of Physical Cures

Article Content: According to some molecular biologists, between the molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles of our body exists an inner space. Within the molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles and the inner space there are bundles of energy constantly being changed and exchanged. When we need a cure or we seek a cure for a physical ailment, our cure on a molecular level must take place not only in the molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles of our muscles and tissues, but also within the energy bundles and the empty space associated with our body's atomic structure. Healing must take place not only on a physical level within our body but also on a spiritual and energy level as well. Prayer and meditation directly impacts the energy and inner space of our atomic structure. Our energy structure within our body is directly tied to our thoughts and emotions. Our thoughts and emotions can be controlled through prayer and meditation. Lastly, if God had to choose between curing your body or healing your soul, He would always choose to heal your soul because your soul will last forever. Unfortunately for each of us, our body wears out. If you are a Christian, when your body wears out and you cannot live in your body any longer, your soul stays alive and will last forever while you live with God and Jesus in Heaven.

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Sub-topic: The Problems Of Our Age

Article Content: * Unhappiness

●Loneliness

●Job Insecurity

●Lack Of Jobs

●Financial Insecurity

●Meaninglessness

●Lack Of Contact With A Knowing And Loving God

●Divorce And Marital Estrangement

●Crime

●Inferiority

●Guilt

●Inadequacy

●Abuse

●Violence

●Breakdown Of The Family

●Competition Instead Of Cooperation

●Inner Emptiness

●Not Knowing What We Want Or Feel

●Lack Of Autonomy

●Inability To Make Decisions

●Powerlessness In light of these problems of our age, we can easily ask ourselves, "Is there any hope?" as if the object of our hope comes from outside ourselves. Many of the previously held norms of our society have crumbled and so have the objects of our hope. As many of the norms of our society have crumbled, so have our hopeful expectations of others and ourselves. As our expectations have crumbled, so has our hope. Living with crumbled norms, crumbled expectations, and diminished hope is not right, not moral, and not ethical. Living with crumbled norms, crumbled expectations, and diminished hope is not godly or God's will. Political conservatives place their hope in the individual rather than in government or organizations larger than the individual. Political liberals believe in and place their hope in government or organizations larger than the individual. Belief and faith in the individual means holding a belief the individual has the power to overcome and achieve. Belief and faith in a government or an organization means an individual does not have or should not have the power to overcome and achieve without the help of governmental or organizational power. You decide.

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Sub-topic: The Real Objective

Article Content: In life, each of us has a job to do. Each of us has a real objective in life even when we are confused about what our objective might be. Standing in the way of reaching our real objective is our sin, our feeling of inferiority, our feeling of unworthiness, our guilt, our feelings of being wronged, our anxiety, our doubt, and our depression. We lose sight of our real objective in life because of our pain from the wounds we suffer. From our wounds we carry scars. The scars interfere with our reaching our real objective. If you experienced pain as a child then the pain is still with you. Your pain stands in the way of your reaching your objective. Healing is important not because we want healing. Healing becomes important because healing will help us reach God's real objective for us. Our society is an abundant society. Yet our society is falling apart because of the pain and sin we carry. We must remember in this spiritual war our real objective as children of God is to serve God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our might.

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Sub-topic: The Relationship Between Emotion And Illness

Article Content: There are "Killer" cells in our immune system producing a toxic substance. Feeling very happy or very sad decreases or increases the number of killer cells. For example, the HIV virus reacts the opposite way a normal virus would react to the immune system. Strong negative emotion makes the HIV virus more active, increasing the chance of AIDS.

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Sub-topic: Thirteen Goals For Life

Article Content: In a person's life, there are peaks and valleys. In frequent correspondence, a person has a signature line speaking volumes about the place of God in our life. The signature line reads, "The mountaintop is glorious but it is in the valley that I grow." Life is not fair. However, we are still responsible even when life is not fair. How do we prepare our children, ourselves, and others for whom we are responsible for tough times? Some of the underlying goals of life should be (in no particular order):

●1. To be strong.

●2. To put on God's armor of light.

●3. To always do what is right.

●4. To stand tall when bad things happen.

●5. To do everything possible to live a fruitful life.

●6. To tell the truth.

●7. To be at peace within yourself.

●8. To have faith and believe in the love of God through the Holy Spirit.

●9. To trust the words God sent to us because His words are infallible.

●10. To love one another.

●11. To love God.

●12. To recognize Christ for whom He really is and find a new life through Him.

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Sub-topic: Troubles In The Defensive Life

Article Content: Trouble in relationships is like fever in the body. Trouble in relationships is an indicator something is wrong and needs changing, treatment, attention, diagnosis, and some kind of action on your part. Someone who lives a defensive, dependent life crumbles when threatened. A threat casts the defensive person into despair. Living a defensive and dependent life creates faulty relationships one after another. Defensive people defeat themselves with their own defenses, always trying to justify themselves. This is how the darkness threatens and keeps the defensive person captive. However, when we are ultimately threatened we often let the defense rest or let the defense down. Then we can let the Light of God's redeeming love work within our heart and life. People grow to be defensive because they have been hurt or deprived. Even when people are hurt by accident, the way people handle the accident, as well as how they use, build, grow, and heal from the accident is determined by whether a person chooses to live in the darkness or live in the Light after the accident happens.

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Sub-topic: Trying To Earn Favor With God

Article Content: We cannot earn favor with God, even if we feel we must. We cannot do good works and score points in Heaven. We cannot go through certain motions to get God to like us better. We cannot sit, stand, talk, or walk in certain ways to make God love us more than He loves others or more than He already loves us now. The Christian faith is grounded not just upon our behavior but also upon what happens in our heart. To the Christian, who we are determines what we do. When we feel we can earn favor with God, we are only one step away from trying to use and manipulate God. The more we try to earn favor with God, the more the darkness overwhelms us, the farther away from God we become, and the lonelier we become. To be closer to God, stop trying to earn favors from God and accept His love and presence within your heart.

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Sub-topic: Two Views Of Life

Article Content: There are two views of life's difficulty, pain, and darkness. There is a negative view and there is a positive view. The negative view of life's difficulty is a view where every bad occurrence in life is a circumstance you perceive as totally out of your control. The negative view of life is grounded in the physical nature of life and a full discounting of the spiritual nature of life. By essentially negating the use or even the existence of your spirit, your heart, and your mind, you give up control over your circumstances. The negative view affirms negative outcomes of life. The negative view affirms the hopelessness of life because in the physical plane in which you live, there is no hope in your physical world for your physical survival into eternity. The negative view always embraces the idea there is either no way to fix or constructively deal with life's difficulties. The negative view of life is a view where the path of life has a definite end. The negative view of life provides no meaning and no purpose in day to day living. The negative view of life looks at life as if defeat is certain. The positive view of life's adversities is a view where every bad occurrence in your life is considered as an opportunity to take charge of as much of your life as possible. This positive view of your life is grounded in life's spiritual, emotional, and intellectual nature. Through the use of your spirit, your heart, and your mind you can exert some control over every circumstance. The positive view embraces the positive possibilities of life. The positive view affirms the hope of life...the hope burning within your heart. The positive view of your life always embraces the idea there is a way to fix or constructively deal with every difficulty. The positive view of life is a view where the path of one's life has not only no definite end, but also a new eternal beginning in the near future. The positive view provides both meaning and purpose regardless of the day's circumstances. The positive view of life looks at life as if victory is not only certain but guaranteed regardless of the dark surroundings in any given moment.

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Sub-topic: Unknowns In Life

Article Content: Unknowns in life are everywhere. We live with unknowns every day. Anything can happen to us. Anything can happen from accidents, good fortune, or mistakes we make. The worst thing to happen to us is death...whether the death is our death or the death of others. Before Jesus came to earth, mankind could not see past death. In many ways, we still cannot see past death. We get reports about death. We hear people recount their near-death experiences or NDE's. However, we still know very little about what we will experience beyond our last breath. We do know Jesus is waiting for us in a place called Heaven. We do know all pain and suffering will be replaced by joy and celebration. In the magnitude of our life in eternity, this very instant, our known data outweighs our unknowns.

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Sub-topic: Upgrade Or Replace

Article Content: Your home could need parts of the electrical wiring replaced. In the early part of the last century, homes wired for electricity were wired with what is called a knob and tube system. Porcelain tubes and porcelain "knobs" were used in the home to separate the two electrical conductors used to bring electrical service into a residence. Over the years, this two-wire system was replaced with a safer three-wire system containing a third bare copper ground wire to prevent shocks and electrocution. When old homes are rewired, the new and safer three-wire system is being installed. To leave parts of your life in disrepair when parts of your life need upgrading or replacing is foolish. To not upgrade your skills when you need to do so is foolish. To not replace parts of your knowledge base with new knowledge is foolish. To not stretch yourself and grow beyond your present limits because you refuse to replace your present thinking, knowledge, and wisdom, holds you back in countless ways. Unfortunately, we live in a throw-a-way world. Too many people are willing to throw away treasured parts of their life and parts of themselves. Although we may think we need never upgrade anything in our life, we must remember to upgrade everything becoming obsolete. Changing what is old and comfortable may be difficult, but we must swap out the old for the new if we are to grow beyond our present limits. Some potted plants continually grow until the root system of the potted plant is too big for the pot. The potted plant will either need to be put in a larger pot or the plant root system and part of the plant will need to be trimmed back. "Painful" as it might be for the plant, uprooting and repotting helps the plant in the long term. Likewise, we may all need to uproot parts of our life to give ourselves a chance to grow.

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Sub-topic: Use A Different Strategy For Different Circumstances

Article Content: You would not use a sledge hammer to pound a tack on the wall unless you had no choice. If you used a sledge hammer to pound a tack on the wall, the resulting hole in the wall from the use of the sledge would give you a new task to accomplish. In all the circumstances of life, we need to use different strategies for different circumstances. We need to use different tools for different tasks. We use different tools for different tasks because each tool represents a different strategy to accomplish a different objective. There are different strategies to be used in every circumstance. In our life, we must continually educate ourselves in all the different strategies available to us. We must continually educate ourselves on the different strategic tools at our disposal. Strategies are like tools. You would not use a hammer to tighten a nut on a bolt. Instead of a hammer, you would use a wrench or a pair of pliers to tighten the nut onto the bolt. In all of life's circumstances, there are different tools or strategies we can use to achieve an end result. In too many circumstances we do not know which tools will work and which tools will not work. We must try very hard to see the differences in circumstances and determine what strategy will work in each circumstance. Using the right tools and strategies gives us a distinct advantage in accomplishing every task.

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Sub-topic: Use A Measure Of Progress

Article Content: When we are able to measure our progress, we can tell if we are off course, whether we need to change or revise our way of doing things, and whether we need to speed up or slow down. When we use a measure of progress we can determine a strategy to use in the next few moments, hours, weeks, and months ahead. When we do not use a measure of progress, our efforts seem to mean nothing, What we accumulate is only the frustration of seeming to be going around in circles. Every activity can be measured. Every moment can produce some kind of result. Our feeling of accomplishment or failure needs to be backed up or solidified by actual hard data on what we have accomplished or failed to accomplish. When we use a measure of progress we can know when progress is made. When we use a measure of progress we can know all the results of our actions and then make appropriate responses to our progress or lack of progress.

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Sub-topic: Use Down Times To Review Progress

Article Content: When we have times when no progress is being made, these times can be used to our advantage. These down times of no progress can be used for planning and development. Quite often, our times of great progress are so focused on the actual events of moving forward, we can neglect administrative and planning functions. We may seem to not make any progress. If we are determined to use every minute to its fullest advantage, even down times can be used to our advantage.

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Sub-topic: Use Only The Best Parts

Article Content: If your car breaks down and needs repairs, you or your mechanic can use second-rate or third-rate parts to make the repair. To not use the best parts when we need a replacement is ridiculous. However, too often we do not use the best parts when we have the opportunity or need to do so. In everything we do, we must strive to use only the best parts. We must read only the best books, use only the best professional persons, and access the best advice when advice is needed. We sometimes are not able to afford the best, but we must be wary of making compromises based only upon cost. If you need some critical part of your life addressed, cost should not be an object standing in the way of your addressing a needed issue or matter. Within your life, you have the best parts of your life and some parts of your life are not the best. Each day, you have options to use the best parts of your life. When you use only the best, good things are more assured.

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Sub-topic: Using The Pain

Article Content: Pain is something you can with which you can work and from which you can grow. You can work around the edges of your pain. Your pain can be "used" if you mindfully listen to the pain. Use your pain by riding the pain. Use your pain by attending to it as it comes and goes. You can befriend your pain, work with it, listen to it, honor it, and quite often exerting this control over the pain can make the pain go away or at least make the pain bearable enough so you can live. Try to penetrate your pain with your attention and awareness. Now uncouple your thoughts from the attending. Build an alliance with your pain rather than considering the pain to be an enemy. Talk to your pain. In the presence of God, speak to your pain and let your pain know where you stand in God's love and grace.

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Sub-topic: We Are Responsible For The Result

Article Content: We are responsible for the result of our life. We are responsible for what we produce, for what we do right, and for what we do wrong. We make excuses. We can give reasons why things turn out as they do. However, the truth of truths is we are responsible for the result of our days on earth. Bad, terrible, and traumatic things can and do happen. Bad, terrible, and traumatic things can and do happen to people we know including us. However, just because bad, terrible, and traumatic things happen does not mean we are excused from our responsibilities. We do not get a pass in life unless we give ourselves a pass. Then we find out, perhaps too late, life and opportunities have passed us by. Some of our misfortune in life is our fault. Some of our misfortune in our life is not our fault. Regardless of the source of our misfortune, even with our mistakes, we are still responsible for making an outcome worthy of God's love and within God's will. When we do not make an outcome worthy of God's love and within God's will then we have committed what theologians call a sin. When we commit sinful acts we must own up to our responsibility and realize our sinful acts may lead to bad things happening to us or to others. We must own up to our responsibility and realize our sinful acts can lead to an end result we do not want. In addition, our sinful acts will most definitely lead to the end result of emotional, spiritual, and physical adversity...an adversity of our own making.

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Sub-topic: We Can Help Ourselves

Article Content: You have heard others say, "I can't help myself!" We have all heard people make this statement. We may have even said these words or thought these words ourselves. Now, you might not want to read this, but these words are a lie. The statement we cannot help ourselves is a lie. We CAN help ourselves because God gave us the power to control our life and help ourselves in every respect. Yes, there may be times in your life when you seem to not be able to control what goes on around you. There may be uncontrollable events in your life going on outside of you. But when you need help, you can provide at least some of the help you need to yourself for yourself. God never meant for any of us to be controlled by others or out of control within our life. God never meant for any of us to be totally helpless. God gave you the ability to find Him, talk with Him, and use His power so you can help others and help yourself when you have problems, difficulties, worries, adversities, and trials. Innately, down deep in your soul, you know you can help yourself and help others when the need arises. God put in the soul of every person the idea we can rise above the obstacles in our life. If God had not given each of us the ability to help ourselves, we would not have survived as a human race. If you do not resolve to help yourself in every circumstance, you are not being all God made you to be. If you do not resolve to help yourself you are not the person God wants you to be.

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Sub-topic: What God Wants From Us

Article Content: God does not condemn people who do wrong, He condemns their behavior. For people who do wrong, God wants these people to stop doing wrong and start doing right. Remarkably, God wants the people who do wrong to change their behavior so they can live with Him in Paradise. God wants wrong behavior stopped because God is not a mean old judge. Instead of being a mean old judge, God is a loving and kindly being who seeks to bring us to a place where we will be willing to stop our wrong behaviors because He loves us and we love Him. *God wants to heal your physical infirmities and illnesses. If He doesn't heal you, what will you do? How will you feel? Who will you become? *God wants to restore your sight when you are blind. If He doesn't restore you, what will you do? How will you feel? Who will you become? *God wants to make you walk again when you are lame. If He doesn't make you walk again, what will you do? How will you feel? Who will you become? *God wants to heal the heartaches of your life. If He doesn't heal you, what will you do? How will you feel? Who will you become? *God wants to give you peace of mind and to take away your worries. If He doesn't give you peace of mind and take away your worries, what will you do? How will you feel? Who will you become? *God wants to empty out the hospitals and nursing homes. If He doesn't empty out the hospitals and nursing homes, what will you do? How will you feel? Who will you become? *God wants to put doctors and nurses out of business. If He doesn't put doctors and nurses out of business, what will you do? How will you feel? Who will you become? *God wants to heal all the emotional wounds you have received in your life. If He doesn't heal you, what will you do? How will you feel? Who will you become? *God wants to take every burden from you and carry it for you. If He doesn't lift your burdens, what will you do? How will you feel? Who will you become? What does God want? God wants to know how much you love Him. God wants to know if you love Him enough to never walk away from Him, even if He never gives you the miracle you so badly need.

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Sub-topic: What Is Your Answer?

Article Content: Is God crying today? Is Jesus weeping for His children? Is the Holy Spirit grieving? Does God care about us? Does God care about what is going on in the world? Does God care whether there is war on earth? Does God care whether man is on the brink of self-imposed massive death and destruction? Does God care so many people no longer care about Him or try to walk in His ways? Does God care whether people destroy their minds and bodies with drugs, alcohol, and destructive lifestyles? Does God care nearly one in four babies conceived in the U.S. is murdered through abortion before the baby is born? Does God care so few people pray to Him? Does God care mankind is trying to become more powerful than He? Does God care whether the forces of darkness have swept over the earth and are destroying millions of lives and souls? Does God care at all, about anything or about anyone? What is your answer to these questions? What is in the innermost parts of your heart and soul as an answer to these questions?

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Sub-topic: What It Means To Take Charge

Article Content: In a medical survey, the researchers found 15 to 20% of patients were exceptional and made an effort to take charge every day. Unfortunately, 75 to 80% did not make any effort to take charge every day. In most adversities we are plunged into a darkness stripping away our dignity. We lose contact with who we are, what we are, what we believe, and the ways we relate to the world in more normal times. In adversity, we must not go along and let ourselves be led, pushed, pulled, or jerked by the circumstances.

●1. Refuse to play the victim and be beaten. See yourself as having some power and some choice.

●2. Educate yourself about yourself, about your condition or your circumstances, about growing up in emotional maturity, and about growing out in emotional maturity.

●3. Become a specialist in your own adversity, know everything about your adversity.

●4. Challenge the wisdom and expertise of the experts, doctors, and counselors.

●5. Become a participant rather than a passive victim, and do not be willing to sit back and let others and/or circumstances run your life.

●6. Demand dignity from yourself, refuse to quit, and refuse to let the adversity touch you or determine how you deal with the adversity.

●7. Demand personhood from yourself

●8. In the darkness you get very, very lost. You cannot see your way out. In the darkness, there is no light at the end of your tunnel. In the darkness, you must demand things from yourself.

●9. You must demand the best heart from yourself. Then you will be better because of your adversity rather than being bitter.

●10. You must demand from yourself a response of forgiveness instead of wanting revenge or wanting to get even.

●11. You must demand your response to darkness be a soft kindness instead of hard and bitter anger or rage.

●12. You must demand control over your life regardless of the adversity. Demand control from within yourself.

●13. You can be in charge of some things but not necessarily all things. Being in charge is something we have to demand from ourselves. Being in charge of small things is the way we achieve control of large things. Really decide when you eat, how you eat, what you eat, what you wear, when you bathe, what you watch, and what you read. Avoid at all costs the hopeless and helpless ride of grief, pain, and anxiety we ride when we are in the darkness. Above all, look upward, outward, and onward.

●14. Do not try to take charge of others or their life. Let them live with their own problems.

●15. Focus on God's light within you.

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Sub-topic: What We Are Supposed To Do And Be

Article Content: The essence of living a productive life depends both upon what you do and who you are. In every person, who they are as a person, determines what they do. A person with a criminal mind who thinks like a criminal, will most generally do criminal acts. A person who seeks revenge because revenge lives in their heart will likely act out their revenge. To conquer the heights of our humanity, to climb to the mountaintop in our life, we must first reach the mountaintop by becoming a mountain climber in our heart, mind, and soul. We can all fake being a certain kind of person. However, the truth eventually comes out. We must all strive to let our best heart, our best mind, and our best soul be the starting point for what we do minute by minute. To change our life takes a much effort and work. To change our life requires we change our heart, mind, and soul. To change our life requires we change who we are. Simply put, where the heart, mind, and soul lead, behavior follows. To change your life or change your heart, your heart has to be in the change.

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Sub-topic: What Would We Do?

Article Content: After the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, we find Jesus and his disciples on a collision course with the ruling authorities in Jerusalem. At this point in Christ's ministry, His popularity is still high. Children sang his praises as if to thank him for his love for them. Matthew 21:14-16 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things He did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the son of David," they were indignant. 16. "Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him. "Yes ," replied Jesus, "Have you never read, "'From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise'?" (NIV) Then Jesus throws the merchants and money changers out of the temple - an effort at purification. In our present day and age, what would be our response to someone who garnered this kind of praise and attention if the "someone" came from outside our faith community? If someone outside of our church or faith community suddenly appeared and overwhelmed masses of people with miracles, gifts, great works, and then threw out the church finance committee, what would we do?

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Sub-topic: What You Do With Life

Article Content: The outcome of your life is not as important as what you do with life. What you do with life counts the most. Magic Johnson did something with the fact of his being HIV positive. Magic Johnson is not an innocent victim. Magic Johnson is a sinner like all the rest of us. Jesus was innocent. No one compares to Jesus, but Jesus compares to us. Jesus could have walked away from the terror and suffering of the cross. Magic Johnson could have hidden his being HIV positive status at least for awhile. But Magic Johnson did something with the burden he was given. Magic Johnson is now doing something with the burden he has. Magic's status is being changed from victim to victor by reaching out to others. You can do the same. Everyone has problems. Some people have big problems. Some people have seemingly insurmountable problems. If you have problems, you must not just sit and feel sorry for yourself. Each person must strive to move beyond whatever problems they have. No one compares to Jesus but through Him, there is no real problem in life when we embrace Christ's promise of immortality. It is not what life does to you, it is what you do with it. "Because He lives, because of Him, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone." Each of us has a reason to live. Each of us has a reason to set our problems aside and push on with life. We are not talking about pretending there are no problems. We are not talking about running away. We are talking about pushing on despite the problems we have by doing something with what we are given. Lemons or lemonade? Which will it be for you?

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Sub-topic: What You Know

Article Content: Have you ever tried to write down all you know? Have you ever tried to write down all you know how to do? The amount of what we know and what we know how to do is truly unbelievable. What may often escape us is how much we know. What may often escape us is our ability to access what we know. One of the great exercises of life is to survey our mental resources, do an inventory of our spiritual resources, and assess our physical resources. We need to do this massive inventory of all we have and all we know. We need to do a continual assessment because if we do not know what we know or know what we can do, we will lose what we know. For example, not using a method to solve a problem is understandable if we know nothing about the method. However, we lose out if we know how to solve a problem but ignore our knowledge of the solution.

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Sub-topic: When We All Need Help

Article Content: The American way is not to say we need help. However, there are times and circumstances where we do need help both on the outside of our life and on the inside of our life. There are many circumstances we cannot control in our life. Sometimes we need help because we can no longer control what was at one time under our control. If your car breaks down and you are not a mechanic, you may need help in getting the car repaired. If one of your major appliances breaks down and you cannot repair the appliance, you may need help. Then you call an appliance repair person. What do we do and who do we call when something breaks down in our inner life? Many people call a counselor or therapist, which may be justified. What many people do not do often enough is call upon God for help. God is your major resource in life. God is your friend and comforter. Christ is with you night and day until your life on earth is over. We all need help in our life. We all need to realize there are many limitations in our life. What we need to realize most of all is God is always there, day and night, forever. What we all need to realize is when we need Him, God is there to help us.

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Sub-topic: When We Are Confined And Imprisoned Within Our Life

Article Content: We may be confined and imprisoned by the physical limitations and circumstances of our life. However, when we are confined we can always choose the circumstances of our heart, mind, and soul. A man's or a woman's ultimate quest in life should be to rise above their physical limitations and circumstances. Our ultimate quest in our life should be to live as fully as possible in spite of our circumstances. Each person's ultimate victory in life is to live a full and fruitful life in heart, mind, and soul regardless of physical limitations or circumstances. Some of us may never be able to make the physical limitations and circumstances of our life go away. We may always have to live with these limitations and circumstances. However, when we choose to control and command the circumstances of our heart, mind, and soul, then hope has a chance to flourish. When hope flourishes then our life can flourish regardless of our circumstances in life.

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Sub-topic: When You Take Charge

Article Content: When you choose to take control of your heart, mind, and soul, you take control or take charge of your life. There are dark forces in the world and dark forces in you not wanting you to take charge of your life. These dark forces want the world to take charge of you instead of you taking charge of the world. Obviously, you cannot really take charge of the whole world. You cannot take charge of all the evil in the world. You cannot take charge of all the poverty, you cannot take charge of the world's financial mess, but you can take charge of you. You CAN take charge of your life. In your life, you can take charge of those dark forces within you wanting to see you terrorized, poor in spirit, and poor in money. Not only can you take charge of what is in you, you can, in a small way, take charge of the world around you by helping others take charge in their life. You can help others take charge of what terrorizes them, take charge of the dark forces wanting to make others poor in spirit, and take charge of the dark forces around others causing them to be in financial poverty. We can all choose to respond to life in a certain way. We do not need to let life tell us how to respond. We can all tell life we are going to respond how God wills us to respond rather than responding how Satan, evil, and the powers of darkness want us to respond. We can all take charge for God.

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Sub-topic: Where The Line Is Drawn

Article Content: When do we know where and how the line is drawn between being the victims of our own sin, and being victims of Satan's power? The reality is, there is no real difference because Satan is working to make us the victim of our own sin AND make us one of his victims. We can say we refuse to be a victim but saying is one thing and actually freeing ourselves from Satan's grip is another. To free yourself and erase the line, here are the priorities:

●1. Christ must be your savior

●2. You must receive Him as your savior.

●3. Everything you are and everything you own must belong to Christ and to Him alone.

●4. You must live for Him and not for yourself. Instead of a new house, a new boat, or a new car, some of your money ought to go toward building the kingdom of God. Some of your money should go toward some kind of church or Christian ministry.

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Sub-topic: Where We Are

Article Content: To get a sense of where we are in the world, look at the amount of corruption in all levels of government. However, the amount of corruption is not the real problem. The real problem is the apathy, the unconcern, and the lack of caring on the part of the general populace worldwide. This apathy that prevails worldwide is a major victory for the force of darkness. As long as the general population of the world could care less then the force of darkness can do anything the force of darkness wants. In apathy, no one will care much. No one will ask questions. Everyone will just shrug their shoulders and look the other way because of their apathy.

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Sub-topic: Where We Experience God

Article Content: God must be experienced within us or "inside." The Chinese believe there is a ball of internal life energy below your navel called "chi". In the same way, the kingdom of God is within you. Although the world and stimuli outside of us can trigger an experience with God, the presence of God is experienced inside of us. We too often think about God as being only in Heaven without remembering His kingdom is within our body or within our heart, soul, and spirit. Although having the kingdom of God within us may be a great mystery, the mystery is still full of truth. When we feel alone and apart from God, we must remember He is within us. When we worship, our true worship takes place within out heart. When we pray, our true prayer is a conversation with God who lives within our heart, mind, and soul. Most of all, when we need His presence, all we need to do is look within. Because He is within, God is never far away.

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Sub-topic: Where You Travel

Article Content: Where you travel in your heart, mind, and soul can change your life. If you take your heart, mind, and soul to the right places, your body can follow. A person who is heartsick long enough can soon find out they have heart trouble. A person whose mind is left to wander in mental illness will soon have a body revealing its own sickness along with the mind. A soul celebrating evil and worshiping sinful things will eventually turn the body into a temple of darkness. The body will become physically infected with that darkness. Where you travel in your heart, mind, and soul can first change the world inside of you and second, your heart, mind, and soul can even change the world outside of you. When you are full of peace, joy, and happiness, your whole world, including your physical body, feels better. When you do what makes you happy, when you do what gives you peace and joy, your physical body feels better. The will of God is for you to live in peace, joy, and happiness. The will of God is for your body to reflect the peace, joy, and happiness you feel when you travel in His direction and in His love.

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Sub-topic: Who Needs God

Article Content: Although people profess a belief in God, many people do not feel they need God. Church people profess they need God but persons outside the church, in many cases, could care less about Him. In our world of technological power, oil power, nuclear power, governmental power, money power, economic power, electrical power, and all the other kinds of power, many people have now seen the enormous power they possess. We have so much power today we can think God is not needed. When we survey where we are in our technology and science, the idea of God is, to many people, a laughable belief. Many people perceive a belief in Christ does not produce any immediate life benefits. In a recent survey of top scientists, only 5% expressed a belief in God. Since many scientists now worship their science and the power the science begets, who needs God? Answer: The scientists and all the other people of the earth. When all the "powers" have been rendered helpless and all the "powers" are no more, the unbelievers will come to see there is only one real power in the universe and this one real power is God.

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Sub-topic: Who You Are

Article Content: You are a person with a body. Your body has physical needs and drives. You are also a being with conscious emotions, a being with subconscious motives, an ego, and a mental being with a mind capable of rational thoughts and potential. You are a spiritual being housed in a physical body. You are an intelligent being reaching out for the ultimate of all you can be. As beings capable of rational thought and spiritual dimensions, we spend too much time functioning on the lower level of our life caring for our bodies as we consume ourselves with fulfilling and defending our emotions. When we are ill or disabled we become obsessed with the physical and we let ourselves be controlled by negative emotions when our physical body is not who we really are.

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Sub-topic: Why Doesn't God Deliver?

Article Content: If we believe what Jesus says is true, then why doesn't He deliver when we make a request? The issue is not whether God delivers or not. The issue is we do not ask the right question in the right way. We do not ask the right question in the right way because our doubt in the Lord's power stops us from putting our life and all our outcomes in the Lord's hands. Typically, we want what we want when we want it. Less often we do not want what the Lord wants when the Lord wants it. When we want to know why God does not deliver for us or why God does not deliver what we want, we must remember when we put all of who we are in His hands and in His care, sooner or later, maybe even after we are gone, what God wants for us is delivered. What we ask for compared to what God wants for us is nothing more than thin air. When God does not deliver what we want when we want it, God is delivering more than we can ever dream of asking.

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Sub-topic: Why Your Home Life And Lifestyle Are So Important

Article Content: A person's home life and lifestyle have tremendous influence upon their life and well-being. Lifestyles can be a source for building you up or tearing you down. The lifestyle you choose can bring you poverty or plenty. How you live at home connects to how you live outside your home. What you think about at home, what you do at home, what interests you at home, and how you spend your time at home can produce a life of power or a life of weakness.

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Sub-topic: Without Limitations

Article Content: We all have physical limitations. However, there are no limitations on your emotional, intellectual, and spiritual life. In your heart, no matter what your physical body may be like, you can soar with the eagles. In your mind, no matter what your physical condition may be, you can travel to the outer reaches of the universe or to the highest level of Heaven. In your spirit, when your body is taking out its revenge against you for no apparent reason, you can sit next to Jesus and talk for hours. You can do all these things with your heart, mind, and spirit because God gave you these parts of your life. God made these parts of your life untouchable by evil if you will it that way. Your creator made you like Himself. Like God, you can create without limitations.

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Sub-topic: Work With Strategies

Article Content: If you decide to live with plans, goals, and strategies to achieve, you need to work with strategies. You need to test strategies in various situations, review the strategies you have used, and make strategic living a part of your lifestyle. We can dramatically increase our effectiveness in life if we choose to live using strategies to make us better. However, just making the decision to use our minds to plan, set goals, and use strategies is not enough. We must learn how to put our plans, goals, and strategies into action. Working with strategies to determine what works and what does not work, turns haphazard living into purposeful living.

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Sub-topic: Why Living From The Inside Out Is More Important

Article Content: The less you focus on yourself, the more you profit. When you live from the inside out you appear to be selfish. However, the reverse works out to be true. By living from the inside out you share more, care more, love more, help more, forgive more, and empower others more because you are stronger within yourself. When you live from the outside in, others can unduly influence you, weaken you, pile guilt upon you, and try to make you responsible for their life instead of taking responsibility themselves. Taking charge of the circumstances of your life means you are taking charge of yourself. Taking charge of yourself means you are living from the inside out. Living from the inside out means you are living from where God lives inside of you.

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# Chapter 71: Loneliness

Sub-topic: Isolation No More

Article Content: When people suffer, people commonly feel they are the only ones who feel the way they do. When people suffer, people commonly feel they are the only ones who are going through their particular circumstance. Misery loves company because we too often feel we are alone in our suffering. When we think we are alone in our suffering we think no one knows or understands anything about us or about what we are going through. In suffering, we must reach out to others to help them. Reaching out to others when we hurt not only helps others but reaching out to others also helps our own healing process. Isolation in suffering must be eliminated. Isolation in suffering must be seen for what isolation really is....just an image. In our suffering, we remain isolated and remain where we are by choice. We may feel we are isolated in suffering, but with a resounding and alive faith in God, we are never alone.

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# Chapter 72: Love

Sub-topic: A Miracle

Article Content: Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (NIV)

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Sub-topic: Beams Of Love

Article Content: Jesus is like beams of love. He is like light shining through to us. Within the beam of love we call Jesus shines down upon our heart, this is the moment we find that Christ Jesus is patient with us in our rebellion. In our rebellion, in our mistakes, in our sin, Jesus is kind, gentle, and tender. In our trouble, in our worries, in our doubts, in our selfish ways, Jesus lives within us and does not boast to us about Himself because in Jesus and in His beams of love within us there is no arrogance. Within us, we live in Christ's silence for He never tells us how good He is and Jesus does not come across to us as a man full of pride and ego. Christ comes into our heart at our level. He is not puffed up and was lifted up only on a Cross for our sins to bear. Jesus is not rude for He is always quietly knocking on the door of our heart hoping we will open the door and invite Him in. Jesus does not invade our life against our will. Jesus is not rough or harsh. He is always calming, always, soothing, and not self-seeking in selfish ways. He asks us to follow Him in gentle ways like a good shepherd asks the sheep to follow the shepherd's leading.

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Sub-topic: Caring For Each Other

Article Content: We will always have persons in our life who need us to care about them. Certainly there are those people in our life who pretend they do not want anyone to care about them. However, the truth is all people want others to care about them. All persons need the care, compassion, and understanding of others. One of the primary jobs in our life is to care for others. One of the primary rewards of our life is our satisfaction in knowing we gave our best to care for others. One of the primary keys to success in life is genuinely caring so much about others we are willing to put others first. So elementary is the idea of putting others first, many people do not pay enough attention to actively caring. So important is this idea every person should burn the importance of caring about others into their consciousness. If every person on earth began to care deeply for others regardless of their race, color, creed, origin, political belief, or any of the other kinds of barriers we use as an excuse for not caring, we would all live in a dramatically different world. Caring for others is not just the job of professional care givers because all of us should be care givers to everyone we know.

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Sub-topic: Christ's Love Is Greater Than Our Theology

Article Content: Ideas are fine when our bellies are full. However, when our bellies are empty and we are hungry then we could care less about ideas. Do any of us really believe our different ideas about God, our theologies, our customs, our practices, or our systems of belief are as important to God as just simply being close to Him and being His humble child? For God, the first objective in your spiritual life is for you be close to Him and be His humble child. God wants you to experience Him and His love within your heart. God wants you to fully and truly accept Christ. As Christians, we are not making a major impact upon the world as a faith because we have put our ideas out in front of our spirituality. As different denominations, movements, and groups of Christians, we have essentially put ourselves, through our ideas, before God. This is wrong. This is arrogance. This is rebellion against the idea of humble service for our Savior.

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Sub-topic: Contacting The Love Of God By Asking

Article Content: In suffering we often feel we are under attack. In suffering we might think about God, we might even want to contact God, but our consciousness in suffering is so pre-occupied with the pain, we often find contact with the love of God is nearly impossible when we hurt. John 14:13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. (NIV) The key words "in my name" have a deep and profound meaning when we are in suffering. These words, "in my name", do not mean just uttering the sounds of Christ's name with our vocal chords. These words mean "in my love," or "in the love that I and the Father and the Holy Spirit are." The word "ask" means "opening your heart, mind, spirit, soul, and body to the love we call God. The word "ask" means opening all of our being to this love. When we understand "in my name" means "in God's power of love" we can easily see how using His name can cast out demons. In fact, anything we ask "in His love or in His name", Christ will do. Although we are told "whatever you ask", these words do not mean we can get anything because when we are in Christ's love, we have His Light and wisdom, so we ask what He would have us ask, not what we want to ask. We are perfectly tuned to His will. We are then profoundly humbled. Asking is then put aside in favor of our adoration and worship of His love and majesty.

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Sub-topic: Decisions, Decisions

Article Content: In life, regardless of the circumstances, you can make decisions. You can decide:

●To seek spiritual abundance in physical poverty

●To seek the spiritual abundance of Christ and His love

●To be active for Christ rather than passive

●To take good advice and put the advice to use rather than ignoring the advice

●To comfort those in affliction

●To rise up in controlled anger at injustice rather than looking the other way

●To seek answers instead of avoiding them

●To take action when you face anxiety rather than shrink back

●To apologize to the ones you've hurt rather than letting old hurts linger on

●To put on the spiritual armor of Christ.

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Sub-topic: Does God See Me Or Know I Exist?

Article Content: Our God is a forgiving God and He wants to forgive each of us. God does not want to hand out a punishment to us in the form of suffering. Our God is a God who loves us. When we pray, we can feel and experience His love and forgiveness inside ourselves. God is inside of you, and has been in your life from the very beginning, no matter how bad the suffering might be in your life at the present time. In suffering, we have a great battle in being responsive to God because our suffering separates us from God. God is a personal God who wants to be alive inside of you all of your life. However, suffering comes between us and God. In suffering, God is not impersonal or far away, even if our suffering makes us think He is far away. God is not impersonal because He knows your name. God knows every nuance of suffering you endure. God loves you even if in your suffering you doubt Him and turn away from Him. How can this be? Is this not the greatest wonder of all time? This wonder of how God could love us in spite of us, that He would love us even when we turn away from Him or turn against Him? God does not condemn us with darkness and suffering. He wants us out of the darkness. He does not punish us with the darkness. He wants us out of the darkness and into the Light. The darkness is a fact, but darkness in life is not an act of God. If you will let Him, God can use your darkness in powerful ways to help you. God can, if you let Him, use your darkness to inspire you to turn to the Him and to His Light. If you will let Him, God can use your darkness to change your life and to give you a place in eternity.

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Sub-topic: Embracing Life

Article Content: You can choose to embrace life rather than death. However, there are consequences. To embrace life rather than death means you love life even at life's worst. To embrace life means you can count your blessings even in your poverty. To choose life over death means you do not want to die because life has so much promise, regardless of your age, condition, or circumstance. To choose life over death means you embrace Christ who offers you life everlasting...life with no end, and life with no death except for the shedding of your physical earthly frame.

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Sub-topic: Emitting Or Bubbling Up Love

Article Content: Deep thought and deep stirrings of the heart emit love. Love must "bubble up" out of the heart in a natural way. We cannot force ourselves to love. Love cannot be forced out. We cannot make ourselves love. We must open the door of our heart and let love "bubble up" to the top of our head and then out to the world. Never think about where love is from because you can spoil the bubbling up effect. Think only of the need for love. The more you think of the need for love in all places and at all times, the more love you can emit or bubble up from within you. Jesus said, "Love one another as I have loved you."

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Sub-topic: Experiencing The Love Of God

Article Content: How can we experience the love of God? To experience the love of God we must believe God knows us and loves us even when we are very imperfect. To experience the love of God we must recognize there are no strings attached to His love. There are no conditions attached to His love. God's love being unconditional means we do not have to do or be anything in any way to experience His love. This truth about His love being unconditional devastates the darkness. This truth about God's unconditional love heals the body, restores sight to the blind, and makes the lame walk. God's unconditional love is a transforming love. His love transforms you and transforms your world. We cannot will ourselves to experience God's unconditional love. We cannot will His unconditional love into our life. We cannot make it, generate it, mold it, or shape His love. We cannot earn His love. All we can do to experience His love is turn away from the sinfulness of our humanity and then open ourselves to His presence. To experience God's unconditional love we cannot want to get His love, or want to get something out of His love. To experience God's unconditional love we cannot want His love to cure us or fix us. To experience God's unconditional love we must nurture His love within our heart without any strings attached whatsoever. If you do not choose to nurture God's unconditional love, your life will not be much of a life. To experience God's unconditional love, you have to trust Him and remember God is for you, not against you.

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Sub-topic: Fostering Love

Article Content: Pressure put upon a person to conform to the beliefs, customs, and lifestyle of others diminishes their experience with fellowship. The more we foster individualism, the more fellowship can grow and blossom. To foster love we must help others be who they really are in God's image, not who we want them to be or not how we would like them to be. Even when others exhibit immoral and destructive behavior, we must first accept them as persons in spite of their behavior. In addition, we cannot hope to bring change to a person's lifestyle or morality if we reject them. When we accept someone we show them we care about them...a rarity in the life of many persons, especially in the life of those persons who often engage in sinful and immoral behavior.

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Sub-topic: Four Steps For Growth

Article Content: 1. Learn to trust and love God, trust and love others, and trust and love yourself in that order 2. Learn to communicate to God, to others, and to yourself in that order, using all of your awareness and spontaneity. 3. Build and use a self-determined goal system put into creative action 4. Seek emergent freedom by engaging in creative activities in all areas of life Adapted from Gibb---From Ways Of Growth, Edited By Otto And Mann, Grossman Publishers, 1968

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Sub-topic: Gaining And Storing Spiritual Power

Article Content: The spirit is light and love. The spirit of light and love is like water. The spirit of God is referred to in the Bible as living water. We lose spiritual power by not storing up the spirit when the spirit or the power of the spirit is available. We lose spiritual power by not trying to access and store up the spiritual power when the spiritual power is available. Spiritual power is like a stream of water flowing through our life. When we do not construct a damn to hold back or store up the water or spiritual power, we will not have a resource from which to draw when we need the power. Much of our spiritual power goes unused. Our spiritual power goes unused because of our faulty beliefs, our doubts, our ignorance about the spirit, and the attack of satanic evil against us. Spiritual power may not appear according to the way we want the power to appear. Spiritual power may not appear at the times and places we want the power to appear. Spiritual power is the province of God, not the province of human beings. The spiritual power of light and love comes from God and is not created, generated, manufactured, fashioned, molded, or shaped by any human. The stream of God's living water flows through our heart. We can open our heart and let the living water flow in or we can close our heart and the living water will seem not to exist. We can open our heart and the living water of God's healing love pours into us. We can open our heart and we can store up the power of the living water by being humble, giving, compassionate, forgiving, and by counting our blessings.

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Sub-topic: Getting Nothing From God

Article Content:

●It isn't what you can get out of your relationship with Jesus that counts...it is what your relationship with Jesus gets out of you that counts.

●Jesus can be your friend because He loves you in countless ways.

●Your relationship with Jesus can produce miracles but miracles from Jesus shouldn't make any difference in whether you are friends with Him.

●You should never be frustrated with God or angry with Him because He hasn't given you what you want.

●Your relationship with God should be based upon the fact you find your time with Him to be filled with pure joy. In your relationship with God, your relationship should be based upon faith and trust. In your relationship with God, His response to your faith in Him may be... (1) Never showing or displaying Himself (2) Never communicating to you in an audible voice (3) Never giving you an instant healing touch (4) Never giving you anything you want (5) Never letting you fully know all there is to know about Himself (6) Never giving you an answer you want. God's response to your faith and prayers depends upon whether a direct answer achieves His purpose and plan rather than a direct answer to achieve your purpose and plan. Besides, of all the acts God could ever do for you, God sent his Son into the world to die for you, a lowly sinner. Isn't this enough or do you want more from God?

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Sub-topic: Give Or Take

Article Content: Matthew 5:44 But I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your father in heaven. (NIV) The word "forgive" is composed of two words, the word "for" and the word "give." In our daily life, we can be for "giving" or we can be for "taking." When we are for "giving" and we actually give, then we always receive back the multitude of blessings those persons who always give always receive back. If we are always looking to take from others or take advantage of others, we receive back the result of a taking heart. Run rampant, the person with a taking heart ends up in prison or on the run from the law. Run rampant, the person with a giving heart eventually comes to the arms of Christ. What you send out surely does come back. When you send out with a giving heart, you receive back multiples of what you have given. When you send out with a taking heart, what you have is taken from you and you live in loneliness, pain, and suffering.

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Sub-topic: Giving All You Have

Article Content: Jesus looked at a rich man and loved him. However, did the rich man look back? Did the rich man really see Jesus? Was the rich man only interested in getting extra life? Maybe the rich man wanted to buy extra life. The rich man was not only rich, he was also righteous. The rich man wanted to do right, to be right, and to live a right kind of life. The rich man also wanted to keep what he had and be more. However, Jesus wanted the rich man to give up the rich man's wealth, The rich man could not give up his wealth. The rich man could not give up all he owned because he did not look into Jesus' eyes. If the rich man had looked into Jesus' eyes....there would have been a new ending to this encounter...the new ending would have been that the rich man would have given away all he had and followed Jesus.

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Sub-topic: God Is Help Because God Is Love

Article Content: We can connect to God in our suffering. This connection to God may not happen at first when we suffer. In our suffering, we may feel God has abandoned us. In our suffering, we may feel God has forsaken us. On the surface, this idea of connecting to God in our suffering may seem a little crazy considering we are trying to connect ourselves to an invisible God. However, our faith in God comes about because we can make connections to Him, even in suffering. Somehow, we are all touched by God deep within our life. When we see or hear about Christ's suffering on the cross, we are all touched by Him. You can live with His touch every minute of your life, even in your suffering. Living with His touch while in your suffering is not easy. Living with His touch in your suffering takes work to defeat the darkness. However, if you are willing to be the kind of person Christ wants you to be, and if you are willing to do the things Christ wants you to do, you will have the power to prosper even in the bad times. Because we can all somehow be touched by God, we find in His touch our hope for tomorrow. Some people do not believe in God because they refuse to admit God touched them. To find hope in life when things come unglued or when we suffer, we all need to remember what God is like. God is love inside of us. His unfailing love gives us the fuel to keep going day after day. His unfailing love is fuel keeping us going in spite of enormous difficulties and adversities. Because we have permitted ourselves to take the risk of letting ourselves be touched by God, we know the love He is becomes reality. We get our hope for the future because we feel His love inside of us today. Because we have His love in us today we can see tomorrow. Because we have His love in us today we have expectations about good things happening tomorrow. Because we have His love in us today we can draw a map into our future. Because we have His love in us today we live in His Light every minute, even in our suffering.

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Sub-topic: God Understands

Article Content: Every minute of every day Jesus wants us to look to Him because we can, not because we have to. Love is not something He can force from us. Loving God is something we must do on our own because we are free. In other words, if we learn to live and act in Christ's name, even when He is silent, we are able to live our lives for Him because we choose to, not because we have to. Jesus wants us to choose Him in freedom. The most mature kind of love is the love we have for Him based upon our freedom to choose. In our pain, as we choose Christ, we become stronger. Just as He freely chose to die for us, we can freely choose to experience Him in our daily life. In our pain, Jesus is hurting and agonizing with us. If He could, He would take our pain onto himself so we would not have to go through our suffering. Sometimes He does do miracles. There are other times, for reasons we understand and for other reasons known only to God, when He does not bring a miracle. God has a path for you. There is so much more He wants you to do before you are done in this life. When disaster strikes, He is not far off. He is near you. When you lose a loved one He is next to you, hurting with you, grieving with you, supporting and caring for you. When we are staring at death's door, He is on the other side with open arms to welcome us. When people we love are hurt for no reason, He understands our pain, our anger, and He feels what we feel. When we are alone and are sinking into our private pain He is hurting with us and reaches out to us to pick us up to see His wonderful Light. When we are besieged on every side by every spiritual enemy, God is at war for us, fighting the good fight along side us. Jesus said, "I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." John 14:18 (NIV)

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Sub-topic: Godly Fear And Human Fear

Article Content: Psalms 103:11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him;(NIV) Godly fear is an awe, a profound reverence, a silent, overwhelming, presence in your heart. Godly fear is a respect, wonder, and solemn admiration for all you know God to be. Godly fear or fear of God is an amazement, marvel, and stunned shock at the love we testify is God. Human fear is a painful emotion marked by dread, alarm, disquiet, and anxiety. Human fear is our response to danger. Panic is human fear piled on top of human fear. 1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love (NIV). Godly fear or perfect love drives out human fear, because human fear has to do with punishment. The person who feels human fear is not made perfect in love.

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Sub-topic: God's Indescribable Love

Article Content: When we speak of spiritual matters, we are speaking of the invisible. When we speak of the invisible, we must use similes, figures of speech, parables, parallels, and analogies. When we use these constructions of grammar, we are trying to express what truly cannot be expressed. When we try to express the workings of God, the love of God, or the actions of Christ within a person's life, we will always fall short of the mark. We will fall short of the mark because words can never truly express His love, let alone the workings of His love in the heart of a sinner or in the heart the redeemed.

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Sub-topic: God's Love

Article Content: The world rejecting God can arrogantly turn around and ask "Does God love us?" However, this question is not asked if you love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might. If you love God with all your heart you can ask this question in a rhetorical or a satirical sense. We ask this question because we want to see the power of God revealed in a dramatic way to convert the world to Christ. However, only those persons who do not have Christ living and alive in their heart would legitimately ask this question about whether God loves us. In a world caught up in the chaos of sin and darkness, a thinking person who has a sense of the desperation running rampant in the world may wonder if God loves human beings. However, this wonder about whether God loves us comes from knowing how grieved God is at our sinful life.

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Sub-topic: His Eyes

Article Content: Seeing Jesus helps us because when we see His eyes, everything else in the world loses its significance. Sacrifice is natural with His love in our heart. Sacrifice is unnatural if His love is not within us. When you look into His eyes, your impossible sacrifice becomes possible. Your impossible sacrifice becomes automatic, like a reflex, when you see His eyes. The essence of our Christian faith is giving, not taking. Giving away, if you are self-reliant and like to control things, is hard to do from your heart, but giving away is instinctive, involuntary, and uncontrolled when you see His eyes. When see His eyes, you get the Christmas spirit regardless of month on the calendar. You get the giving spirit. You get the Holy Spirit. You can't truly forgive on your own because on your own, grudges remain. When you see His eyes, the grudges, anger, and hurt all disappear. When you see His eyes and feel the love He has for you, He starts to control your life and you begin to forgive and truly live, automatically.

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Sub-topic: How Do We Have The Light?

Article Content: You must become the Light, to have the Light. You must become love, to have love. Of course, none of us can become God, but there is a part of us He empowers to become like Him. In this respect, we can "become" God because there is a part of us like the love God has and is. Unless we are willing to let ourselves "become" God or become love, we cannot reach the Light. Certainly, we cannot reach the Light like we reach a physical destination in life. We can only reach God by renouncing our darkness or sin. Unless we renounce our darkness or sin, we carry the darkness or sin with us. The darkness or sin prevents us from reaching the Light. For this reason, we cannot have God or have the Light like we have money, or have physical possessions. We can reach the Light only by being willing to throw away the part of ourselves hooked by the claw of the darkness. We can reach the Light only by being willing to throw away the part of ourselves the darkness has convinced us we cannot throw away. When we throw away the darkness part of ourselves we can then open our heart and "become" the Light as He has always wanted us and desired for us to become.

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Sub-topic: How Do We Keep The Light In And The Darkness Out?

Article Content: To keep the Light in and the darkness out we must be willing to do what seems impossible in our physical world. To keep the darkness out and the Light in we must walk both sides of the street at the same time. We must do what is clearly impossible in human physical terms. However, with God and in His spiritual realms, we can do the impossible. With God we can walk both sides of the spiritual street at the same time. In our spirit, on one side of the spiritual street we walk in the area of darkness and on the other side of the street we walk in the area of the Light. On one side of the street, using our human will, we must keep out the darkness and keep in the Light. Using our human will, we must have an iron grip, an iron wall, and an iron barrier to keep out the darkness. On the other side of the spiritual street we must use our human will to have what seems to be the opposite of maintaining an iron grip or iron barrier, because on this side of the spiritual street we must release all we are and let the love and Light in by becoming the love and Light. Paradoxically, we need to be hard as nails and soft as cotton. The Light has to be kept on while the darkness is kept off. In more practical terms, outside circumstances may come against us, but we can rule over them when we have the Light or God's love inside of us. Our job is two-fold. Our job is to keep the Light and love in, and keep the darkness out. The barrier we place in our heart using our human will can serve two purposes. Like the roof and walls of a house keep the cold out, the roof and walls can also serve to keep the heat in. Likewise, the barrier we place in our heart can keep out the darkness while keeping in the Light.

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Sub-topic: How Do You Get To The Light?

Article Content: A religion or religious doctrine should never exclude a person from any of the Light or claim a person must only come to the Light through a particular doctrine. Religious persons sometimes tell people they cannot or must not gain any of the Light through any means except through a particular doctrine. Some persons of religious faith are afraid people find God, the Light, or spiritual enlightenment in a doctrine other than their own doctrine. We must realize it is better for a person to find some enlightenment about God than no enlightenment at all. We get to the Light by being willing to become the Light. We get to love by being willing to become love. In the doctrine of the Christian faith, we get to God by being willing to see Him dying for us on the Cross. In addition, we get to God by being willing to repent of our natural state of sin. We cannot fully and totally see God unless we see Him crucified for each of us individually and personally.

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Sub-topic: How Much Does Jesus Love You

Article Content: The human heart is where we experience the greatest joy and the greatest pain. The human heart is both our problem and a way to a solution to our problem. Goodness and evil resound in the heart. The greatest purifier of the heart is love from faith in Christ. God knows and reads your heart. The book of life is written on your heart. Christ's work and law are not written on stone as were the Ten Commandments. Christ's work and law are written upon the human heart. God speaks to us through our heart. What makes us uniquely human is our soul sustained by our heart. Today we have robots. Today we have computers quicker thinking than we are. A computer can have a super memory able to calculate faster than a human being. However, a computer is only a piece of hardware. A computer does not have a heart. A computer does not feel joy or sadness, exhilaration or grief, peace or loneliness. In all the range of human experiences, the heart gives our life dimension and meaning. Within our heart we find the living Christ. Within our heart we find the kingdom of God.

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Sub-topic: How The Healing Process Works

Article Content: God is love. Love heals. The healing process is the way we reach out and touch the authority, power, and love we consider God to be. The healing process is the way we build and increase our faith. The love of God heals, sets men and women free, leads them out of the domination of the darkness, and into the Light of His love. Our capacity for faith is so small we might consider we have no capacity for faith whatsoever. However, when we realize we need only a little faith then our small capacity for faith becomes enormous in size. We must realize the size of our faith is of no importance because faith cannot be measured in terms of size. Faith is measured only in terms of whether faith exists or not. Faith is either ON or OFF. The healing process begins when our faith switch is turned to ON. When our faith switch is in the ON position, we get a little glimpse of God, a tiny spark of His love, and a tiny microscopic inkling of His healing in action. Once we have opened our heart and soul up to the glimpse of God, the tiny spark of God's love ignites a fire of love to bring His Light, truth, and warmth to drive out the fever of sickness and disease.

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Sub-topic: How The Spiritual Connects To The Physical

Article Content: The spiritual is always greater than the physical when the spiritual becomes real. The ultimate creative spiritual power created and maintains all life. This creative spiritual power is love. This creative spiritual power of love permits free choice and free will. We can live in a spiritual reality in the here and now, even as we live in our physical reality. Although the creative spiritual power of love is full of mystery and unknowns, we still have known contents of the spiritual. The unknowns and the mystery of the spiritual do not invalidate the spiritual reality or lessen the creative spiritual power of love we call God. Spiritual dominance and power can yield physical dominance and power. You are the master of your own body. You are the master of your life. Through Christ you can strengthen your body, renew your mind and heart, and even control your pain. John 14:13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. (NIV) In the real world in which we live, there is spiritual darkness, spiritual disease, spiritual isolation, spiritual illness, and spiritual silence. When we are spiritually healed, our spiritual healing can lead to our physical healing or the finding of physical cures for our ailments and our maladies. Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (NIV) These words, although extreme, are true. Healing is the result of the creative spiritual power we call God filtering down into our physical life. Most importantly, when you are healed in heart, mind, and spirit, the healing of the body can follow.

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Sub-topic: How We Can Have Happiness

Article Content: Happiness has nothing to do with the physical state of someone's life, health, finances, or any of the circumstances in which a person lives. Having happiness does have everything to do with the love in a person's life. Learning to accept a person or a condition without having to approve of the person or the condition brings happiness. When you learn to accept without having to approve then you will have unconditional love. Unconditional love brings happiness and unconditional love changes lives. To have love, you do not have to approve, but you do have to accept. When you accept, know the greatest acceptance anyone can experience from another is when God accepts the totality of all you have been, accepts all you are, and accepts all you can ever be. Although we are fallen and covered over in a sinful darkness, God looks through the darkness and He accepts us, loves us, and treasures us as His very own.

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Sub-topic: How We Can Receive God's Love In Suffering

Article Content: Let us think of God's love as a warm beam of Light and love coming into our life from within us. We do not create the Light, but we can open the door to let the Light into our heart. Conversely, we can close the door and keep the Light away from us. When we are in suffering, the suffering tries to put a wall between the Light of God's love and us. If we let the darkness do so, the darkness can separate us from the Light when we suffer. To live in the Light of God's love when we suffer, we need to receive the Light as His light flows into our heart in spite of our pain and trials. The sacrifice of Christ upon the cross shows us God loves us and does not want any barriers like suffering between Him and us. The Light is God's love made available to us through His son Jesus Christ. He gave himself so we could be well in spirit, even if we are not well in body.

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Sub-topic: How We Give Away Love

Article Content: A false heart and a false mind cannot give away love. We give away love and the energy within love by being in a state of harmony, resonance, and wavelength with the source of love...God Almighty. When we place the vibrating energy within us called life into the palm of God's hand, we reach the full state of harmony, resonance, and wavelength.

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Sub-topic: How You Love

Article Content: People can love selfishly or unselfishly. When people love selfishly, they love others and they love the things of life based upon personal benefits they can get from others and things. However, when people love unselfishly, they love others and the things of life because they count others and things as blessings. Let us look at real life examples. Someone who selfishly loves a car because of what the car can do for them and not what they can do for the car in terms of maintenance, care, and upkeep can be in for big repair bills. However, someone who loves their car because they like to work on it, like to keep it serviced, maintained, and protected is going to get more out of the car and can usually avoid big repair bills. When we love a person for what we can get out of him or her, we usually end up disappointed and hurt because eventually the other person leaves us when they get tired of being used by us. When we love others unselfishly, we always help them, always love them, always serve them, and always protect them for unselfish reasons. When we love others unselfishly, we never expect others to help, love, serve, and protect us in return. Being unselfish, when we always return what is given to us by others, our relationship is never one-sided. One-sided relationships are troubled relationships. Usually, one-sided selfish relationships easily come apart physically, emotionally, or both.

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Sub-topic: In His Arms

Article Content: Jesus and His love surrounds us. So when the arrows of life pierce our heart or flesh, the ultimate victory is still ours in Christ. This does not mean Satan doesn't win battles against us. However, the final outcome of the total war has already been determined. Do you think God almighty, the creator and ruler of the universe would let Himself be dethroned and defeated because of the arrows flying at us? In Jesus arms we can find heaven. Of course, this statement may sound radical. But do you remember hearing the chirp of the birds at a dark time in your life? Do you remember seeing the twinkle of the stars through your tears late at night? Do you remember the calm of a stream or lake when everything else was in such turmoil? Do you remember His comforting touch in your time of grief? Do you remember His peace when everything was falling apart?

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Sub-topic: Keeping Our Balance (Bike Riding)

Article Content: The food of the heart is love. We thrive upon love. However, where is God's love when disaster strikes, or when we lose a loved one? Where is God's love when we are staring at death's door? Where is God's love when we and those we care about become innocent victims? Where is God and His love when we are alone in our private pain? Where is God and His love when we are besieged on every side by every spiritual enemy? We have all been at places in our life when these questions occur. The reality for most of us is we ask these questions because there are times when His love seems absent. There are times when God is silent when we talk with Him. There are times when it seems God has forgotten us. Many of us have wrestled with these questions for years. The Bible is full of answers for us and most of us know what the answers are. We know in our mind God is with us all the time. However, there are times when we need another way of looking at the way God works. Think of God's presence in your life like training wheels on a bicycle. Sometimes you lean to one side while you are learning to ride the bike and the training wheels keep you from falling over. At other times, when you have your balance the training wheels never touch the ground. In either case, if you are so busy just trying to keep your balance, you are never aware of the training wheels. Many times in our life, we are too busy trying to keep our balance to know or notice how Christ is still there supporting us.

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Sub-topic: Keeping The Light In And The Darkness Out

Article Content: The way of God and Christ is a narrow way or narrow road. To walk this narrow road you must be able to run toward the Light of God's love while you also battle or fight off the attacks of the darkness. You must do both of these activities, often at the same time. You must pay attention to both of these activities at the same time. You must have a plan and a strategy to keep the Light of God's love active and alive within you while at the same time attacking the darkness. You must attack the darkness because if you do not attack the darkness the darkness will come and attack you. You attack the darkness through prayer, mediation, study of God's word, serving and helping others in love, and putting others and Christ first in your life. You keep the Light burning and alive within you by daily worship in humble adoration.

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Sub-topic: Liking The Unlikable

Article Content: Have you ever tried to like the unlikable? Have you ever tried to love someone you didn't like? Have you ever tried to walk in someone else's shoes, especially the shoes of someone you did not like? Have you ever tried to feel what they feel? To impact and have an effect upon your world, you need to be able to walk in other's shoes. To be a person of influence, you need to know how other people think, what their life is like, and how they feel. If you do not know anything about another person, they will know you do not know them and they will ignore you and discount you, thereby negating any influence you may have over them.

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Sub-topic: Living In The Spirit (2)

Article Content: Living in the spirit is possible in our everyday life. Living in the spirit is possible for every person in every walk of life. Happiness, peace, contentment, and love are found only on the spiritual path or "living in the spirit". Happiness, peace, contentment, and love cannot be found on any other path. To find the spiritual path and then walk the spiritual path you must find unconditional love. Unconditional love is real and it is eternal. Unconditional love is the essence of God. Unconditional love cannot be imprisoned or diminished by any circumstance, by any adversity, or by any darkness in life. Unconditional love, the love that is the essence of God, is infinite and knows no time or boundaries. Unconditional love changes the way we experience our life. Living in the spirit changes our life because when we live in the spirit we live in unconditional love. When we live in unconditional love we live in the spirit. Living in the spirit of unconditional love may not change one iota of your outer life or your outer circumstances. However, living in the spirit of unconditional love can totally change your inner life or your inner reality. Although you may not be able to change the outer or external parts of your life, you can always change the inner or internal parts of your life. You change the inner parts of your life by opening your heart to God, opening your heart to His Light, and opening your heart to His unconditional love flowing down from Heaven above.

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Sub-topic: Love

Article Content: The baby came giving love. The little baby Jesus came giving the love of God to the world. Not just in cities, or in the country, or just in Israel, or in Jordan, or in the United States, but to every country on Earth. The love has gone out to every person...to blacks, to whites, to reds, to yellows, to browns, to everyone. The love has gone out to men, to women, to fat people, to thin people, to sick people, to well people, to rich, to poor, to tall, to short, to children, to old folks, to everyone. But most of all, the love Jesus brought has been given...to you. All this love was given to the world from a child born where animals were kept. From a cave where there was darkness came the Light. The Light of the world!

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Sub-topic: Love For God

Article Content: We are called to love God with all our heart, soul, and might. People who do drugs do not love God even though they could. The people who do alcohol do not love God even though they could. People who knowingly do crimes who hurt others or who take advantage of others do not love God even though they could love Him. When you truly love God with all you heart, soul, and might loving God makes a perceptible difference in everything you do, say, feel, think. Everything in your life is permeated by your love for God. When you have the love for God, others can see it. Others know you have it. On some level, everyone wants love for God. What is so wonderful about God is that He makes the love for God available to every man, woman, and child in the world.

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Sub-topic: Love For One Another

Article Content: Our love for one another ought to be so deep we grieve when we do not have another person in our life. Our love for any person should be so deep we grieve when we cannot see them, hear them, or be around them. Our love for any person, even the persons we do not personally know should be so deep and full of respect we should be willing to lay down our life for their life.

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Sub-topic: Love Your Neighbor As Yourself (1)

Article Content: Love your neighbor as yourself because people can see the love in you. Love your neighbor as yourself because people need you to care about them. Love your neighbor as yourself because when you love others you stay out of trouble and when you stay out of trouble you make a difference in the world. Love your neighbor as yourself because when you love your neighbor you fight for God in the spiritual war in which we are all engaged. Even if you haven't found Him yet, fight to find Him, and eventually you will find Him as you love your neighbor as yourself.

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Sub-topic: Love Your Neighbor As Yourself (2)

Article Content: The word touch means many things and the meanings of touch are all the ways Jesus can change you. To touch means to come to: Jesus comes to us as we ask Him. Since God knows no time or is timeless, what we ask, when we ask, can be delivered as we ask or at any time in the future...even after we are with God. In faith, all our prayers are answered...in God's way and in His time. In faith, when we ask Jesus to come to us He will come and be with us, perhaps in ways we do not know about or fully understand. To touch means to reach or reach out to: In the life of Christ, we can see Him always reaching out and touching others. For us, He is always reaching out to us to touch us, to help us, to heal us, and to save us. To touch means to compare with: No one compares to Christ, and nothing in your life will ever compare to the love you receive from Him. To touch means to make or draw a line with: When Christ is part of your life and you are willing to let Him be part of you, Christ draws a line over which Satan cannot pass to hurt you or devastate you.

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Sub-topic: Not A Failure

Article Content: In Christ's life there was tremendous frustration and failure. He did not do all He wanted to do in His heart. Only a few people had responded to Him with love. In the end, most people responded to Him with hate seeking His death. Instead of exalting his Father in Heaven, the people in Christ's earthly life killed the very Son of God. Instead of good winning out over evil, from appearances the evil of the world and the sin of the world had beaten back the Light that had come into the world to save humanity. Instead of apostles who were fully understanding about who Christ was and what God required of Him to do, we have dullards who did not understand until after Christ's death and resurrection the true significance of Christ's earthly life. From all outward appearances, it appeared upon Christ's crucifixion Jesus was human and had failed on earth just like us. Jesus knows and understands when you fail. Jesus also knows you are never able to do all that you want to do. However, what appears to be a failure to us may not be a failure to God. What appears to us as success may not be a success to God. What appeared to be the failed life of a prophet two thousand years ago who some people said was the Messiah was not a failure. In the spiritual realms of God, what appears to be a failure can often be the pinnacle of success.

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Sub-topic: Our Need For Christ

Article Content: Just the mere realization of our need for Christ and our turning towards Him culminates in His love filling our life. When we turn toward Christ and turn our life over to Him, He touches us, He forgives us, and He lives within us. In so many instances, Christ has an answer for us before we have a question for Him. The Great Shepherd knows His sheep and guides and leads them. Christ is already working to restore your broken heart before your heart breaks.

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Sub-topic: Owning Up

Article Content: Each of us needs to owns up. In owning up and telling the truth, we must first confront the truth God does care about us. We must confront the truth God does love us beyond measure. We must confront the truth God holds each of us close to Him as well as holding each of us accountable for what we do and the decisions we make. Because God loves us so much we must own up and not lie to Him or lie to ourselves. Because God loves us so much we must own up and turn away from our old life of sin and darkness. Because God loves us we must own up and surrender our life and all that we are to Christ at the foot of His Cross. The problem with owning up is when we start to own up, things start happening. Things start changing in our life. When we start owning up and being honest about all things, especially those things in our life connected to sin, then parts of our life come crumbling down. However, out of the dust and ashes of our life can come great works for God if we let God have a hand in reforming and reshaping our dust and ashes.

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Sub-topic: Pain Of Rejection

Article Content: Young people feel the pain of rejection...they commit suicide...they do drugs...they drink alcohol...they destroy themselves and their life because they want to be loved and accepted. Middle aged people feel the pain of rejection too. For them, life can collapse...their dreams can die...all the old ghosts they had put behind them can come back. Elderly people can feel the pain of rejection as well. The elderly can be abandoned by their children, left alone, and ignored by all the people around them. Just about everyone experiences the horrible pain of rejection. Everyone feels different because everyone is different. No one is ever really included. No one is ever really accepted in life. Where is Jesus in all of this? Where is He when we discover we are different, left out, not normal, not welcome, or not at home? Jesus is watching over us. Jesus is always with us, accepting us, caring for us, and caring about us.

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Sub-topic: Positive Power...

Article Content: The love of God is a positive power. The darkness and sin of the world, the darkness and sin in you now, is a negative power. The negative power of darkness and sin will drag you down, make you sick, and eventually take your life. However, Jesus came to take you home to be with Him when you die. After your death, the pain and suffering from all your worldly wants and needs will be gone. After you die, all your pain and suffering of this life and everything you went through on earth won't make any difference. In our suffering and in our sin, we cry out for relief. We cry out for relief from the pain and suffering in our life by using drugs, drinking alcohol, and immersion in sinful acts of all kinds. In a world where we want everything in an instant, the bad news is that Jesus does not have a drive up window in the sky. He does not have a warehouse in the sky full of anything you want. Jesus is not running a retail store. Jesus is not running a matchmaking service. Jesus does not run a pharmacy to dispense pills to take away your pain. Jesus does not run a free money store where you can go get free money to take care of your finances. Jesus is running a love dispensary. Love is the only thing Jesus provides. Even when you want and need all your worldly wants and needs met, Jesus is not going to meet them. Get used to it. Grow up. Get over it. What Jesus has for you this minute is love. His love is sufficient. His love will not make every problem go away. When you come face to face with this reality...the reality His love will fill your life but many of your problems will remain, you may cry because you want and need things of this world you will never have. However, in the end, at the very end, when you live with your wants and needs unmet with an open heart always seeking His love, what you will have in the end is Heaven for all eternity and what you went through here in this life will be totally erased.

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Sub-topic: Problems

Article Content: Jesus has positive love for us, but not positive things. The positive love of Christ is the answer and the solution to every problem on earth. Years ago I heard evangelist R. W. Schambach say "You don't have any problems, all you need is faith in God." When I first heard him I thought "Wait a minute, let's be realistic here. We all have problems until we die." However, what is realistic about R. W. Schambach's statement is from a purely faith perspective, from a faith perspective showing us we are bound for Heaven and in Heaven there are no problems with only riches beyond our imagination, we indeed, do not have any problems. Compared to Heaven, we have no problems. The glory and grandeur of Heaven are so immense when we put our problems up against the glory and grandeur of Heaven, our problems disappear. When you surrender all you have to Christ, including your problems, all your problems disappear. Yes, you may still have cancer, heart problems, job problems, relationship problems, car problems, and money problems. But compared to what you have in Christ, all these problems become so small they disappear in His glory and grace.

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Sub-topic: Problems Vs. Personality

Article Content: Common problems in life: Loss of a loved one...divorce...estrangement... cancer...illness...job loss...accidents... disappointment...being cheated...loss of money Questions To Make You Think

●Would a sarcastic person handle these problems differently?

●Would an aggressive person handle these problems differently?

●Would a passive person handle these problems differently?

●Would a courageous person handle these problems differently?

●Would a fearful person handle these problems differently?

●Would an ill person handle these problems differently?

●Would a well and healthy person handle these problems differently?

●Would an ignorant person handle these problems differently?

●Would a wise person handle these problems differently? How would you handle these problems?

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Sub-topic: Questions And Answers About Jesus, Pain, And Suffering, Part 2 of 3 Q. Does God desert us if we do wrong because we are in so much pain? A. No, God does not desert us even when we do wrong things. When we do wrong things, we have turned away from Christ. He never deserts us, no matter what. No matter what we do, God is loving and kind and is always present in our life. Q. If we turn away from God, is He still there with us? A. Yes, He is always with us whether we think He is with us or not. He is with us, even when we do not want Him to be with us. Q. When the pain gets so bad we cannot bear the pain, does God understand and does He care? A. Yes, God understands and God does care regardless of how much pain we are in. God suffers with us and sometimes for reasons we cannot fathom or for reasons we cannot accept, He does not intervene to stop the pain.

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Sub-topic: Questions And Answers About Jesus, Pain, And Suffering, Part 3 of 3 Q. If God can stop the pain, then why doesn't He? A. God cannot always stop the pain like we want it stopped when we want it stopped. The reasons for God's lack of intervention are known only to God. The reasons God does not act upon our behalf every time we want Him to act may be because we would soon take Him for granted. Being as selfish as we are, we could easily turn God into a machine giving us anything we want any time we want it. In the end, we would never love Him. In suffering, humility is to be learned. Humility is required in all aspects of life. Perhaps God does not intervene in our suffering because He wants us to grow above the suffering.

Article Content: Q. What is the will of God when we are in the pain? A. The will of God is for us to love Him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our might in every circumstance no matter how much pain we are in.

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Sub-topic: Reaching Out

Article Content: Reaching out to others requires we not be too comfortable. Today, too many Christians are too often in a spiritual place of not wanting to grow. Too often, we are content with where we are. We are content to put our own wants and needs before anyone else. Today, in our faith, perhaps we do not have the passion to grow. Unfortunately, today, in the bone and marrow of our service to Christ, we are content. Unfortunately, today, in our faith, perhaps we feel we are big enough and we don't care to be bigger. Unfortunately, today, we are satisfied. We are happy. We are fat. We are lazy. We are rich. Everything is OK. Nothing is really wrong. Unfortunately, today, everything is peachy keen and we have little passion. In the faith, we are too often consumed with ourselves, and with our own little problems. For many of us who are capable of reaching out, reaching out is OK. However, reaching out is just too risky, so we don't reach out. In the faith, we want to be kept. We want to be secure. In the faith, we want to be tended to. We do not want to be uncomfortable, uneasy, or nervous. We do not want to take risks. We are like fish in an aquarium, where all of our needs, wants, and desires are met. Paul Harvey noted, "Too many Christians are no longer fishers of men but keepers of the aquarium."

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Sub-topic: Reaching Out To God

Article Content: Reaching out to God is not a grabbing for things activity. Instead, reaching out to God is...

●An offering of adoration for Him

●An offering of love for Him

●Making a confession of all we have ever done against His will

●Coming to God in supplication, humbly asking for oneness with Him

●Being close to Him

●Being in total thankfulness for the love we receive from Him

●Being in total thankfulness for His in-filling spirit banishing our emptiness forever without Him

●Sending up to Him our thanksgiving for the blessings He has bestowed upon us

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Sub-topic: So Much Love

Article Content: Jesus loves you so much He will be with you forever if you want Him. If you want Him, He will always support you. He will always accept you just as you are. He will always be there to encourage you. Jesus loves you so much He carries you in his hands. He brings heavenly light into your darkest hour. He is your crutch upon which you can lean until you get stronger and can walk on your own. He is dependable. Jesus is a rock or a firm foundation. When you are tired, exhausted, sad, depressed, and alone, He is there to lift you up. When you don't have anyone to turn to, Jesus is there. When the whole world has collapsed around you, and you are crushed beneath the weight, He is there to rescue you. When the worries, cares, and burdens of life have put you in prison and your hands and feet are bound up with chains, Jesus comes in and gives you freedom. When your heart is broken, He comes in and mends it up. When you are on the outside looking in, and you are the only one out there, Jesus comes along and includes you in His celestial gathering. When all hope is gone and there is no way out, Jesus comes in and gives you a promise to light up your life. With Jesus, if you want Him, there is no dark place, no valley, no shadow of death, If you want Him.

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Sub-topic: Spiritual Protection

Article Content: Psalm 6:11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. 12 For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield. (NIV)

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Sub-topic: The Love Of God In Loneliness

Article Content: The more of the love of God we experience, the more united we are with Him. The more united we are with Him, the more of the presence of God we experience. The more united we are with Him, the less lonely we are. Loneliness is the experience of being the only one. Loneliness is the experience of being cut off. However, we can do something about being cut off or lonely. We can do something about being apart. There is a loneliness we experience in relation to people. However, there is a deeper, a more painful, and a more terrible loneliness we experience when we are apart from God. The loneliness we experience in relation to people may not be a loneliness we can easily fix. However, our loneliness with God can always be fixed, changed, and made to go away. We can fix our loneliness with God because the love of God is a filling love. The love of God is a love filling the emptiness in our heart and soul. The love of God is a love that forms a bond between Him and us. The love of God can be fixed by opening our heart to God and pouring every ounce, every morsel, and every tiny bit of our loneliness out to Him. When God sees our honesty and He sees our loneliness, He will come to us and He will fill our heart with His presence, His joy, and His love.

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Sub-topic: The Love Of Jesus, Part 1 Of 4

Article Content: * The love of Jesus fills the emptiness inside of us.

●The love of Jesus gives us direction when our life may be going nowhere. With the love of Jesus in us, filling our hearts, we are no longer on a treadmill going nowhere.

●With the love of Jesus, there is purpose, direction, and urgency in our life about getting going with urgency about doing His work.

●The love of Jesus makes the worst things in the world bearable. There are bad times in every life and there are some adversities we just have to go through. Sometimes we need to just bear up. However, we have a power from Jesus so we can bear up. From Jesus we get strength and power to deal with any darkness.

●The love of Jesus turns your darkest hour into a time of light-filled hope. Sometimes it takes a while for us to see His Light of love, but His love is still in us. If we seek Him we will find Him.

●The love of Jesus brings hope-driven power to overcome the world. Obvious to many of us, because of the sin and darkness of the world, the world needs to be overcome. The dark powers of the world scream at us to sin and to forget about Christ. However, the dark powers of the world can be overcome with the love of Jesus.

●The love of Jesus heals the broken spirit and makes human beings turn to God.

●The love of Jesus dries the tears in the eye of those saddened by grief. Although God's ways are often mysterious, He does see your pain and He is with you.

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Sub-topic: The Love Of Jesus, Part 2 Of 4

Article Content: * The power of Jesus is the power of love. The love of Jesus is the power of God. The love of God and the love of Jesus is the same power manifesting in the Holy Spirit.

●Against the power of love in Christ, against the power of God we call love, comes the dark power of the world. When we see these two powers, the dark power and the power of God, collide and remain in conflict, much of the world and the events of the world make more sense.

●The love of Jesus heals the wounds left by unforgiving parents. Sometimes parents fail, even when they try. However, Christ's love helps us be forgiving.

●The love of Jesus heals the wounds left by children who leave their parents without cause, without reason, or without saying goodbye. Children leave the nest and many children never come back. Parents are grieved by wayward children, but the love of Jesus can heal this hurt.

●The love of Jesus brings new life to people who have lost hope.

●The love of Jesus brings light. There is darkness in every life. However, the love of Jesus can and does go into places where there is no light, places where there is no way to do anything, places where people are helpless and hopeless. When the love of Jesus goes into these places where only helplessness and hopelessness abound, there comes from Jesus ultimate help and ultimate hope.

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Sub-topic: The Love Of Jesus, Part 3 Of 4

Article Content: * The love of Jesus heals the wounds left when we have been abused and mistreated. Nothing hurts as bad as seeing or experiencing abuse at the hands of others. For many people, nothing makes people angrier than seeing abuse. For many people, nothing makes people want to forget they are a Christian more than seeing abuse. However, striking out at abusers does not heal anyone. In circumstances of abuse, healing is needed, not more violence in the face of abuse. The love of Jesus can even heal the wounds left by abuse.

●The love of Jesus heals the wounds and pain we feel when we make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes we make big mistakes. Sometimes others get hurt by our mistakes. Sometimes we have to live with our mistakes our entire life. However, the love of Jesus minimizes the pain from our mistakes

●The love of Jesus turns our heart to His way while turning our heart away from going our way. The love of Jesus calls us to surrender and open ourselves to Him. The love of Jesus helps us get through the day without fighting.

●The frustrations of life can make us angry. However, the love of Jesus heals us and keeps us from lashing out at others.

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Sub-topic: The Love Of Jesus, Part 4 Of 4

Article Content: * The love of Jesus gives us a chance to live forever through Christ.

●The love of Jesus is with us because Jesus was love come down from heaven above.

●The love of Jesus is inside of you this minute. However, to let the love of Jesus do all things within your life, you have to do something about your wounds as well as your pain. To treat your wounds, not just your pain, you have to admit your wounds exist. To treat your wounds there must be no running away, no pretending, no putting off till tomorrow, no holding your hands over your eyes, no changing the subject, no excuses, and no using God as a crutch. When you hurt, you have to want the wound to be healed by the love of Jesus. Some people get so content in their misery, they would rather die than see healing take place. To have healing take place, expect the love of Jesus to begin the healing process.

●Truly see the vision of Jesus, truly feel His presence in your life, and do things to renew His presence in your life. Renew His presence with music, scripture reading, reading Christian books, and spending more time in prayer.

●Spend time in your life seeing Christ in your mind. Look forward to the day when the healing is done. Stand in total confidence what you desire with all your heart is already done according to God's will.

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Sub-topic: The Power In Christ's Eyes

Article Content: When you look to Jesus and see His eyes, His power of love and light comes over you. When you see the pain in His eyes as He suffers for you on the cross, the power of His love overcomes your barriers, minimizes your hardships, and makes your problems seem to disappear. For some people, seeing His eyes makes them immediate witnesses while others become immediate workers in His kingdom. For other people, seeing His eyes has no consequence in their life whatsoever. When you see His eyes, you can't help but respond to Him. Responding to Him happens. Responding to His love is automatic. Witnessing or working for Him is an instinctive, involuntary, uncontrolled, unthinking, unconscious reflex in your heart and soul.

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Sub-topic: The Search For Unconditional Love

Article Content: The search for a natural world cure, for a natural world physical cure to our ailments, for a natural world fix for our problems, and for a natural world ultimate solution to our issues is the wrong search. Unfortunately for us, a natural world cure or fix to our issues seldom has any kind of supernatural component. Conversely, a supernatural cure or supernatural fix to problems and issues carries with it a byproduct of unconditional love and forgiveness. In your life, you are called to be a conduit for God's unconditional love, regardless of your circumstances. We must all be on a journey to find and give away unconditional love because unconditional love is the ultimate cure or fix for ailments, problems, or issues. Our journey or search is ongoing. We never fully "arrive" but we must always be on the path toward unconditional love. In searching and grasping for unconditional love, we must acquire a new way of living called godliness. As long as our bodies are alive, we are called to extend the unconditional love to others. Unconditional love is found only in God. In unconditional love from God, everything changes. Your life, your illness, your problems, your issues, even the way you see all the people in your life changes in the glow of His unconditional love.

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Sub-topic: The Substance Of Spirit

Article Content: There is a spirit in life. There is a spirit within you. Within you, there is a spirit of man, a spirit of life, a Holy Spirit, a spirit of love, a spirit of Light, a spirit within your soul, a spirit of personality, a spirit pulling you upward toward God, a spirit covering the face of the earth, a spirit causing you to love and understand others, a spirit causing you to come back against defeat, a spirit refusing to be kept down, a spirit seeking to go higher, a spirit seeking out answers, and so much more. Every day you are to live, walk, talk, and breathe within this spirit.

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Sub-topic: There Is Always Hope

Article Content: There is always hope in your life, no matter what the present circumstances are like. There is always hope in your life because hope can never be snuffed out. The idea hope does not exist in some circumstances is one of life's greatest delusions. No matter how dark the storm clouds are in your life, the Lord is present in all things, in all events, at all times. If you bend your will to His will, everything will work out according to His plan. As desperate as we get sometimes, the Light of the Lord shins into your heart. The very hope of God shines into your heart and the heart of every person on earth. The door of some hearts is open while the door of other hearts is not. Sometimes, it takes awhile for people to open the door of their heart and see the Light. Sometimes, we need to get out of the Lord's way so He can beam His eternal hope into our life. We need to let the Lord lead us instead of trying to get the Lord to do what we want. There will always be healing no matter how bad the pain might be. When it comes to pain, we do not always know how the Lord works. God does the impossible in impossible situations. We need to accept His doing the impossible in the impossible as a way He works. When we accept God can do the impossible in impossible situations we affirm hope exists in every circumstance. When we embrace His hope, we affirm healing always happens even when we are unaware. Perhaps healing for which we pray happens only when we see Christ in heaven. Perhaps healing for which we pray happens in the next generation or two after we have ascended to His kingdom in the sky. Healing always happens because there is always hope.

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Sub-topic: To Love God

Article Content: Love God with all your heart, soul, and might. The people who do drugs do not love God with all their heart, soul, and might. The people who do alcohol do not. The people who do crimes who hurt others, and who do crimes taking advantage of others do not love God. When you love God your love for Him makes a difference, a perceptible difference in everything you do, say, feel, and think. Your life is permeated by your love for God or lack thereof. Others can see the love. When you love your neighbor as yourself, people can see it in you. People need you to care about them and they can see the real caring in you. When you love God with all your heart, soul, and might, you stay out of trouble and you make a difference. When you love God with all your heart, soul, and might, you do something besides take up space. Even if you have not found Him yet, keep trying to find Him, and eventually He will find you.

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Sub-topic: Treasuring

Article Content: What we treasure or value can either help us or hurt us. Jesus tells us we can help our life now by what we choose to think. We can think about God's love. We can think about God's forgiveness. We can think about God's healing touch. Or, we can think about how difficult things are. We can think about how bad things are in our life. We can think about how we are owed something. We can spend our lifetime treasuring the gift of God's love surrounding and uplifting us. We can spend our lifetime treasuring the gift God's forgiveness as His forgiveness erases our ungodly words, thoughts, and actions.

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Sub-topic: Troublemakers

Article Content: There are always persons in every society who are troublemakers. There are always persons who want to stir up trouble. Satan loves to twist troublemakers into knots and then throw them to the wind. In some cases, the twisting of troublemakers into knots is a matter of the darkness giving them freedom to do whatever they want whenever they want to do it. Troublemakers become enslaved to sin by letting themselves be sent to places where they have the freedom to decide how prosperous, wealthy, and powerful they want to become. Few people who let themselves be enslaved to the satanic darkness ever come back to a state of humility. In our present world, where we can have just about anything we want whenever we want it, few people see the need for humility. Humility in our present world is dead because in many respects we can essentially have it all and more. The evil power like to say to troublemakers anyone can become wealthy, become a person of power, or both. Troublemakers eat this message like candy and push anyone out of the way who tries to stop them. However, there is one person who can be ignored but who cannot be pushed aside. People tried doing away with Him a long time ago. People tortured and murdered Him. However, He came back. And for the troublemakers, He has been making trouble ever since.

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Sub-topic: True Worship

Article Content: True worship ought to be characterized by a family of believers bonded together in love. True worship should be a time when everything is done in a spirit of love. In the church, we greet each other, shake hands, sit together, sing together, and pray together. Things are not necessarily bonding in love because all these things can be nothing more than just a show, as in show business. In true worship, there should never be a need to put on a show or give pretenses. True worship should be a time of reaching down deep into the soul. True worship should never be a time of escape or entertainment. Rather, true worship should be a time of running toward the reality of the love of God. When people come together in true worship, they should come together under the aura of the Holy Spirit. Under the Holy Spirit, those who truly worship together should love each other with no regard for anything except we all need Jesus every hour. When we are honest with each other and with God, we can then all reach out to each other during true worship in His love and grace. When we accept each other just as we are, we begin to accept each other just as Christ accepts us...just as we are...fallen but restored, sinners but forgiven, without hope but redeemed.

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Sub-topic: True/False -- Life Is A Test

Article Content: God does not pour out bad things on you or on others to test you. However, God's wrath appears when we no longer want Him, seek Him, or love Him. God's wrath and wrath's appearance or absence is tied directly to us and our behavior. If Satan entices us to step off a hundred story building, the wrath of God will appear as we hit the ground. If Satan entices us to step off a hundred story spiritual building, we will meet the wrath of God. Satan is out to destroy us and he does so when our body gives up our body's ability to sustain life. We speak of life as being a test in literary terms to help us understand life. Satan wants to test you to see you fail. God wants to see you succeed or win. God does not administer a test in your life as if you were in school. God does not need to test you because He already knows you. God knows in advance whether you would succeed or fail a test through traumatic circumstances. God knows your mettle. He knows your strengths and weaknesses. He most certainly does not want to see you fall or fail. Using your common sense, you can come to understand God is a being of love. Using your common sense, you know deep within your heart God wants only the very best for you. God wants to see you defeat every enemy, conquer every foe, and deal constructively with every adversity of life put upon you by Satan. God is not sitting in Heaven sending out True-False or Multiple Choice exams to the children down below. He knows life is difficult enough for us without His making things even more difficult.

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Sub-topic: Trust God

Article Content: * The definition of trust is: reliance upon, confident expectation in, confidence in, responsibility imposed upon one.

●Trust is an outcome or a result of love.

●Trust is believing these words: Heb. 13:5 "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." (NIV)

●Trust is believing God is too wise to make a mistake and too loving to be unkind.

●Trust is controllable by us. When we trust God we trust Him to... 1. Give us everlasting life 2. Love us 3. Care for us 4. Expect results from us 5. Not count the score at halftime 6. Not desert us if we are under the pressure of being behind 7. Not getting up and leaving us if all looks bleak

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Sub-topic: Tying Ourselves To Another Person

Article Content: Tying ourselves to one another in love requires maturity. Maturity in relationships requires selflessness, patience, strength, and independence. Maturity in relationships requires giving with no expectation of receiving anything in return. Patience in relationships requires being able to stand by someone when they need you, when they make foolish mistakes, when they fall down, when they turn against you, or when they take forever to mature themselves. Strength in a relationship requires you be unmoving when things go bad. Strength in a relationship requires you maintain your present path with someone without the other person ever feeding you or maintaining you. Independence in a relationship means you can stand on your own without depending upon another person to feed you, maintain you, keep you whole, define who you are, and determine for you how you think or feel.

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Sub-topic: Unconditional Love

Article Content: Happiness has nothing to do with the state of someone's health or the circumstances of their life. Happiness has everything to do with the unconditional love in their life. Learn to accept without having to approve, and you will have unconditional love. Unconditional love changes lives and improves health. You don't have to approve of the actions of others, but to have unconditional love in your life you do have to accept others. The unconditional love you have in your life is the result of who you truly are. We can easily become confused about who we are, especially if we have battles with physical or emotional illness, physical or emotional disability, or physical and emotional infirmity. When we have battles of a physical or emotional nature, we become preoccupied with the physical or emotional and we forget about unconditional love. When we have these battles, unconditional love is our potion, unconditional love is our soothing ointment, unconditional love is our release, unconditional love is our cure, unconditional love is our treatment, and unconditional love is our ultimate therapy.

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Sub-topic: We Can Try To Ignore God, However

Article Content: We can try to ignore God is within us. We can try to ignore God's touch of love within us by occupying our minds with other thoughts. We can try to run away from God, knowing He is alive within us as we run. We can try to live as if God does not exist. We can try to tell ourselves He does not exist. We can tell ourselves we will take care of this God thing later. We can try to put off recognizing He is alive within us. We can even go so far as to plead a case with others God does not exist. However, He remains within us every moment we are alive.

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Sub-topic: What Are Some Of The Main Responsibilities Of Life

Article Content:

●To be strong within our inner life.

●To put on armor of light to show others God loves them.

●To always do what is right.

●To be self-controlled and self-disciplined.

●To stand against bad things happening even when they happen.

●To do everything possible to live a fruitful life.

●To tell the truth.

●To be at peace within ourselves.

●To have faith and believe in God.

●To trust the words God sent to us.

●To love one another.

●To love God.

●To recognize Christ for who He really is, our personal savior and Lord.

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Sub-topic: What Are You Giving?

Article Content: What are you giving others? 1. Love or Hate? 2. Patience or Impatience? 3. Compassion or Indifference? 4. Peace or Turmoil? 5. Kindness or Bitterness? 6. Goodness or Evil? 7. Faithfulness or Unreliability? What you give away comes back to you multiplied many times over.

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Sub-topic: What God Does For Us And Why

Article Content: God will always deliver to us a peace and understanding even in the worst suffering. God will do these things for us no matter how bad things get because He loves us. Your circumstances may not seem like there is a God watching over you. However, do not be deceived. Open your heart and you will see God working. Open your heart and you will see God bringing His Light of Lights into every moment of your darkness. Open your heart and you will see Christ walking beside you every hour.

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Sub-topic: What God Sees In Us

Article Content: God sees your every fault and He loves you still. God sees your every weakness and He loves you still. God sees your every fear and He loves you still. God sees your every doubt and He loves you still. God sees your every deficiency and He loves you still. God sees your every hurt and He loves you still. God sees your every battle and He loves you still. God sees your every temptation and He loves you still. God sees your every mistake and He loves you still. God sees your every thought and He loves you still. God sees your every feeling and He loves you still. God sees your every action and He loves you still. God sees your every defeat and He loves you still. God sees your every victory and He loves you still. God sees your shining light diminished by sin and He loves you still. In suffering and adversity, we begin to lose a sense of our goodness in God's eyes. We begin to lose sight of how much God truly loves us. We can lose contact with God because suffering carries an element of separation within the suffering. Our separation from God when we suffer is why we need to have wisdom in suffering. We also need to seek wisdom in times when we have no suffering because the satanic power uses our times of no suffering against us.

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Sub-topic: What Humility Means.

Article Content: Humility means being of humble spirit, and/or being a person of modesty. When we lower ourselves down, intentionally, on purpose, with our own self-control we are humble. Being humble or being a person of humility means we do not pretend anything. It means we have in us a quietness and peace about us. Being humble means we are harmless and defenseless. Humility means we do not take the offensive. Humility brings with it the idea of our being harmless and submissive.

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Sub-topic: What Integrity Means

Article Content: Love heals. Christ's love can heal every broken dream. We all have broken dreams or dreams we had to put on hold. However, Jesus can heal us and give us the inspiration to keep dreaming. In life, there are many rough roads, many dead ends, many mountains to climb, and many insurmountable obstacles. Christ's love heals us from the broken parts of the past. His love heals every hurt caused by another person. Sometimes people do mean to hurt others. Sometimes people get hurt by accident. Sometimes we just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. No mater what causes a dream to crumble, Christ's love heals the body, mind, and spirit. Love changes the physical nature of our body. Love takes away the burdens of our mind and heart. When we are overcome with doubt and indecision, all the doubt and indecision fades away when we reach up to take Christ's hand. His love heals a hurting heart. When you have been disappointed, love fills up the place in you full of hurt. Love takes the pain away. Christ's love heals the troubled mind. In Christ's love, there is no more confusion, and no more feeling insecure. Christ's love makes worry go away. His love removes dark tomorrows. His love removes the dark imaginations of our soul. In their place, He gives us bright tomorrows and bright and wonderful imaginations.

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Sub-topic: What Is It Like To Have The Light?

Article Content: Having the Light requires we all become new through a process called the new birth. Having the new birth means the darkness is wiped out of our souls and we are continually renewed minute by minute. God's love produces in us an ever-flowing healing stream welling up within us minute by minute. In His ever-flowing healing stream we are continually refreshed. Having the Light or God's love means God's love has dispelled the darkness because the Light has come in and made the darkness go away. The darkness is made to go away by the force the Light. In practical terms, outside circumstances may come against us, but we can rule over the outside circumstances when we have the Light and love inside of us.

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Sub-topic: What Is The Nature Of The Light?

Article Content: God is Light and love. Intimacy, community, and connection to God are from God or from the Light. We often live in such darkness, pain, and suffering we can have a difficult time understanding or comprehending the nature of God or the nature of the Light. In some ways, we can understand the darkness for we are so familiar with it. The Light is not just the opposite of the darkness. The Light is all the darkness could never be. The Light is the infinite fullness the darkness could never be. The Light is the ultimate connection to all that is. The Light is all of God. The darkness is the ultimate disconnection to God.

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Sub-topic: What Is The Secret Of Meditation?

Article Content: The secret of meditation is to quiet down and experience the peace you already have. The secret of meditation is to quiet down and experience the love and care of God.

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Sub-topic: What Jesus Can Do

Article Content: If you pray for something outside of yourself like more money, or a new job, or a material thing, Jesus is not going to float it down to you. What Jesus can do is put His love in your heart and give you the power and energy to do His will in your life. What Jesus can do is burn holes in your conscience so your wants and needs for money, career, and material things become less important. Jesus can fill you with His love and grace so you can pass on His love and grace to others in your life. Given enough passing on of His power by you to others, other people may be able to help you achieve what you want to achieve but only if He wills other people help you. Jesus supplies the power. You supply the sweat. Jesus answers prayer according to His will, not according to our will or according to our wants and needs. Jesus answers prayer according to what He wants in our life not according to what we want. You may work to get what you want in life but what you want in life and what you finally get may not be what God wants for you. Most of us go to God wanting Him to fix things in our life. God supplies the love we supply the muscle and action helping us fix things the hard way by working on our issues day by day and week by week. Over time, with patience and faith in His divine will and mercy, our issues, our wants, and our needs all get resolved. Eventually, when we live with Christ in our heart, all our earthly wants, needs, issues, and problems get washed away as we sail home to see Him face to face.

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Sub-topic: What You Can Change In Your Life

Article Content: You can change the condition of your heart through Christ who loves you. You can change the condition of your soul by accepting Christ into your life...remembering Christ is the Son of love and there is more to Him than just a doctrinal fact of His life and ministry. You can change the condition of your mind. When you change your heart, mind, and soul you can have faith God will change your body. However, if He does not change your body, that is OK, because you are going to get a new body sooner or later anyway.

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Sub-topic: What You Want

Article Content: The love of Christ does not support a gospel promising you can have anything you want from God when you want it in this life. A loving God wouldn't give a sinner anything the sinner wants. Grace is sufficient in the face of our wants and needs because grace can help us temper, control, and even eliminate our selfish wants and needs. As a result of experiencing the love of Christ or grace, do you deserve to get anything you want? No! No matter how much you surrender up to Christ, you do not deserve to get anything you want from Christ because of your sin. Let's express this truth another way. If the redeeming, restoring, empowering, beautiful gift of grace from God is not enough...getting "things" from God will never make you happy or give you peace. If the redeeming, restoring, empowering, beautiful gift of grace from God is not enough...getting all of your wants and needs filled with "things" will never make you happy or give you peace.

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Sub-topic: When God's Love Became Real

Article Content: We can speak about God and do so in quite eloquent ways. However, none of us can manufacture or produce God's love. None of us is powerful enough to make God's love become real at our command because only God places His love in our heart. In the world, God's love became real on the first Christmas morning. On the first Christmas morning, God's love became real in flesh and blood. God's love on the first Christmas morning was no longer just an idea, a thought, or an exercise in imaginative thinking. When God's love became real on earth in human form at the birth of Jesus, all of us could know with utmost certainty there was a God who loved us. When God's love became real, we did not have to just believe God loved us, we could know God loved us. When God's love became real, our faith in God and our ideas about Him were positively changed forever.

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Sub-topic: When Love Comes In

Article Content: Love makes every life better no matter what the length of the life. You will touch lives more deeply if you experience love in your life. You will know peace and serenity beyond imagination if you let yourself be immersed in love. To be immersed in love is the pinnacle of every life and the ultimate achievement in every circumstance. To possess a life full of love, let go of the anguish of your circumstances and let love come in. Not everything happening in your life is a tragedy, not even the bad things have to be bad if you let love come in. Let go of the pain, let go of the angst put within you by Satan. Let unconditional love flow into your life no matter whom you are, where you are, or the nature of your circumstances. When love flows into your life, blessings will also flow into you. Moreover, when love flows into your life, your blessings will flow out to others. When you let love come in, what you get is a more abundant life. If you think of what you are going to get out of life, you get nothing because there is no prosperity in selfishness. All the selfish "getting" in the world will never fill the void within you. The void within you caused by any adversity can only be filled by love. To let go of your pain, open the door of your heart and you will see yourself differently. To let go of your pain, open the door of your heart, and you will see yourself as loved, you will see yourself as loving yourself, you will see yourself as one who is ready for greatness. You will see yourself as one who is strong. When you let love fill the void within you, you will know God. You will live in His peace.

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Sub-topic: When We Worship

Article Content: When we worship, regardless of the form, place, or circumstance of the worship, we are to be in a spirit of adoring love of Christ. When we worship, we are to be in a total spirit of honoring Him. When we worship, we are to be in a spirit honoring God's presence in our heart and life. When we worship, we are to be in a spirit of reverence or a spirit of awe at God's powerful love and majesty. When we worship, we are to be in a spirit wanting to praise Him and lift up our hearts to Him. Experiencing the love of God in worship is not possible if we come to the sanctuary and expect to "get something out of it." When we come to worship expecting to "get something out of it" we are being selfish. True worship is a time when we are in a spirit of offering up to God rather than sitting and waiting on God to offer something up for us. If we come to worship expecting God to do something for us rather than our offering something for Him, a selfish attitude diminishes His love in us. A selfish attitude of expecting God to deliver for us in worship makes Him remote. We find His love through worship, as a gathering of his people who love Him, who love each other as a family, who share His love with each other. We find His love in worship when we go to worship in a spirit of giving to God rather than expecting God to give to us.

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Sub-topic: When You See Jesus

Article Content: Without the love of Christ or the influence of His power you cannot forgive on your own. Without the love of Christ or the influence of His power you cannot truly love others, truly give to them in a selfless way, or be His child. Grudges remain without the melting influence of His love. When you see Jesus then all the grudges and bad feelings disappear. When you see Jesus you feel the love He has for you filling up your soul. When you see Jesus He starts to control your life and you begin to forgive others...automatically.

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Sub-topic: Why Doesn't God Act?

Article Content: In suffering we cry out to God and plead with Him to act. We so often think, "Why doesn't God deliver? If He has the power to do away with suffering and if He loves us, then why doesn't He make the suffering go away?" In truth, we do not know all the reasons for God doing and not doing what he does. We honor, glorify, and show God we love Him in many ways. We can show God we love Him more by what we do in the adversity of life than we can ever show Him if we are only passive recipients of His blessings. God is more honored when those who have pain, hurt, and trouble try to lift these same burdens of those around them. God is not honored much when we wait in line at God's drive-up window to get what we think we want or what we think He wants us to have.

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Sub-topic: Why The Name Of Jesus Is So Important

Article Content: When we say the name "Jesus" we are saying the "Power of Light and love become real." When we say the name "Jesus", we call upon the power of Light and love to fill our inner and outer reality. When we say the name "Jesus", we call upon the power of Light and love to come against the darkness and defeat the darkness in total victory. Such is the power of His name above all names.

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Sub-topic: Why We Are In Church

Article Content: Why are we in church? What is our purpose? We are in church because we love the Lord and we are to show His love to other people. If we could not sing hymns but gave away His love that would be enough. If we could not pray but gave away His love that would be enough. If we could not teach but gave away His love that would be enough. If we could not take up an offering but gave away His love that would be enough. If we could not preach but gave away His love that would be enough. If we could not work to fix up the church building but gave away His love that would be enough. If we could not clean the church but gave away His love that would be enough. If we could not print church bulletins but gave away His love that would be enough. If we could not say the Lord's prayer but gave away His love that would be enough. If we could not spend time in praise but gave away His love that would be enough. If we could not have a church picnic but gave away His love that would be enough. If we could not have a time of fellowship but gave away His love that would be enough. The only reason we should be in church should be to give away the love Jesus gave us. Giving away His love is the whole point of church. Anything else ought to be minor, or secondary, or not nearly as important as giving away His love.

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Sub-topic: Why We Need To Forgive

Article Content: When you forgive others you release the poison of hate and pain within you. To forgive, learn to see the offenders as the needy persons they are. Learn to see them as needing God's love. Look at how different they would be if they had been loved. If possible, show them love, understanding, and kindness. However, do not excuse hurtful behavior. Do not become spineless. Forgive others so they will feel their own guilt and learn from their guilt.

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Sub-topic: Wisdom

Article Content: The baby came giving wisdom. Before Jesus came to earth, we did not know much about God nor how much He loved us. We lived in ignorance. We sinned and did not care. We wanted power and force. So God gave us His Son. His Son Jesus gave us peace on earth and love. Then we crucified him. In our gravest of mistakes, some of us have gained wisdom

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Sub-topic: Worship And The Holy Spirit

Article Content: When we worship, the Holy Spirit touches our inner spirit. Our inner spirit and the Holy Spirit are linked together or intertwined when we truly worship God. In worship, we express our love for God. In worship, when we express our love for God, the Holy Spirit touches us. When we worship, we push up or surrender up our love to God. During this kind of worship, our heart is opened and we experience the pouring down of His love. We experience the pouring down of the Holy Spirit into our heart. To find the love of God, through the touch of the Holy Spirit, requires we express our love for God in our heart. When we express our love for Christ in our worship...the Holy Spirit returns our love and gives us strength to live life. When we express our love for Christ in worship the Holy Spirit returns our love and humbles us to find his greatness. When we express our love for Christ in worship the Holy Spirit returns our love and we find hope in hopeless situations. In sending up of our love for Him, through the Holy Spirit, we find courage in the face of fear. Through the Holy Spirit we find vision to see both the beauty of life as well as life's pain. Through the Holy Spirit we discover His truth to set us free.

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# Chapter 73: Man's Will

Sub-topic: Difficulties With Man's Will

Article Content: What are the difficulties of going our own way? Going our own way means there is no upward direction except in the eyes of others. Going our way means there is no eternal hope for our life. In addition, any hope we carry within us is something we have to generate on our own. Going our way means we will experience suffering and pain without purpose. If, by chance, we discover a purpose to our pain and suffering, the purpose is a purpose we must assign rather than a purpose assigned by God. In addition, going our own way means we will carry within us an emptiness and darkness. Persons who are self-consumed and self-absorbed drink alcohol and use drugs to ease the pain of the emptiness and darkness. When we go our way instead of God's way there is an inner gnawing making us feel the need to run and run and run to get away from being eaten up by our darkness.

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# Chapter 74: Meditation

Sub-topic: How Meditation Helps Us

Article Content: When the energy of our mind is focused, there is an enhanced effect upon the body. When our mental energy or the energy of our mind slowly dissipates like rainwater evaporating from a puddle, there is no power flowing from our mind into our body. Meditation helps us focus the energy and power of our mind. When the energy of our mind is focused, this focused energy flows back into all the cells of our body. Even when we use meditation and we think meditation is not effective, the mere fact we tried to focus our mind through meditation helps channel our mental energy.

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Sub-topic: Meditate To Soak In The Presence Of God

Article Content: When you meditate, use a focus verse of a few words. "The lord is my shepherd." is an example. Maybe you want to use one or two words. As you meditate, repeat the words as you breathe out and you voluntarily reduce your breathing rate. As you practice your meditation, you will notice mental chatter, thought bombardment, and thought distractions. You will notice your thoughts going in different directions. However, do not evaluate your thought patterns, just observe them and let them go. During meditation, your thought patterns do not matter. Do not try to force thoughts or thought patterns out of your mind. Instead, dismiss your thoughts and thought patterns by focusing on your focus word. By using this technique, you will quickly learn to control your mind through meditation. You will experience a peace you may never have experienced before. When your mind starts raging with negative thoughts, you can meditate the negative thoughts away. You can focus your mind for healing, rest, and living in the presence of God. After 10 or 20 minutes of meditation, picture yourself sitting next to Jesus. Also, picture whatever problem, issue, or obstacle you have in your life as a symbol of some kind. Next, imagine your life and your body is being infused with the miraculous healing power of Jesus. In addition, picture Jesus sitting or standing next to you. Picture Him pouring His power over you. Picture Him erasing your symbol of your problem, issue, or obstacle. As a result of Christ's presence, picture all the positive people in your life working in a miraculous way. As a result of Christ's presence, picture all of the positive influences in your life working in a powerful way for your betterment. End your meditation session by picturing yourself, your body, and your life being full of His radiant love. Picture yourself smiling and happy to be alive. Some persons of a skeptical mind call meditation exercise foolishness. However, these people are also the sick ones, unproductive ones, and the ones who lose the battle in the spiritual war in which we are all engaged.

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Sub-topic: Meditation As A Way To Change

Article Content: There may be aspects of our outer life we cannot change. However, we can change our inner life in dramatic ways. We can change our inner life when we calm our minds in meditation. Meditation as a way to change is done in private, and not done for show. Meditation is a way to achieve peace of mind. To meditate you will need a quiet place where you can physically relax. You will need time alone without interruptions, no exceptions. To meditate, you will want to physically relax. Relax all your muscles from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. To meditate, pay attention to the tension triangle between your shoulders and the top of your neck. As you continually try to pay attention, remember your main task in meditation is nothing more than paying attention. By focusing on all that is going on within you and all that is going on around you, you then have an opportunity to control what happens within you. When you are not aware of your inner processes, you cannot control them. However, as you raise your awareness in meditation, control can then follow.

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Sub-topic: Meditative Ascension Prayer

Article Content: Meditative ascension prayer is a way we relate to God. Meditative ascension prayer is often thought of as a process of ascending up to God or as a process of opening our heart, mind, and soul up to His love. In thinking of prayer, think of ascension prayer as a series of steps. Ascension prayer is first adoration (a pouring out of our love for Him), then thanksgiving (which helps us become like Him), then fellowship (which joins us together with Him in oneness), and then transformation (which changes us from living in the darkness of our world into living in His light and love). An ascension prayer is a meditation prayer rather than taking a petition or list to God. Through a meditative open heart ascension prayer, we become free, secure, patient, confident, serene, peaceful, wise, and used by Him. Meditative ascension prayer is a prayer going up to God as we open our heart in an upward direction. In meditative ascension prayer, we pray up. In meditative ascension prayer, we pray with a soul reaching up. Instead of asking God to come down and be with you to fix an issue, problem, or circumstance, in meditative ascension prayer, you ascend up to Him.

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Sub-topic: Tasting The Presence Of God In Meditation

Article Content: The purpose of meditation is awareness of thoughts and feelings. In meditation, we can and should build a communion between our heart and the presence of God. In the communion or Eucharist ceremony of the church, we take in the bread and wine. When we meditate deeply upon all Christ is, we can begin to "taste" His presence within us like we taste the bread and wine of His body and His blood in our observance of communion. Our purpose in meditating upon the presence of God is to bring God into our life as the real live person He is. When we meditate we can begin to close the gap of separation between Him and us. As we raise our level of awareness about His presence, His power begins to flow within us. As we raise our level of awareness about His presence, any isolation from Him fades away. Truly, in our deep meditation, we can be one with Him and one with His love.

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Sub-topic: What Deep Meditation And Self-hypnosis Is Like

Article Content: Deep meditation or self-hypnosis is like reading a book...a book so gripping and so engrossing you forget you're reading a book. Deep meditation or self-hypnosis takes you out of your present environment and transfers you somewhere else. Practiced on a regular basis, deep meditation or self-hypnosis produces the mental and physiological changes one would expect if one were to actually be transported into another place and time. The key to achieve success in deep meditation or self-hypnosis is to let oneself be engrossed. You cannot easily force your mind to be engrossed but you can LET your mind travel or float to a time and place where you mind is totally captivated. You can LET your mind relax and travel to wherever you want your mind to go.

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Sub-topic: What Do We Try To Do With Meditation?

Article Content: You should expect to be able to watch your thought processes as your thoughts flow in and out of your mind. Learn to step back from the flow of your thought process. Stay in your body and watch your mind. Let your thoughts be, and then let your thoughts go. This form of observing your thought flow is a way of being and seeing your heart, mind, soul, body, and surroundings. The mental chatter of your mind is to be observed and eventually calmed down in a process called "clearing." In meditation, a person strives to observe what is happening within.

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Sub-topic: What Is Meditation?

Article Content: A dictionary definition of the word "meditate" indicates the generally accepted idea to meditate means to reflect on or to contemplate. In a religious sense, meditation can also be called open heart prayer. The practice of meditation has some mystique or mystery surrounding the practice. However, there is no special skill required in doing meditation. Meditation is accomplished by learning to pay attention to your heart, mind, soul, body, and surroundings. Meditation is not difficult to learn. Meditation is not a spiritual matter unless you want to use meditation in the context of your prayer life. Meditation has been described as aerobics for the mind. Meditation helps you become more aware of your heart, mind, soul, body, and surroundings. The practice of meditation can help you improve your performance in nearly every area of life. Meditation does not cost anything except the time and attention you give to learn and practice.

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Sub-topic: Who Can Do Meditation?

Article Content: Many experts feel meditation and self-hypnosis are basically the same, while other experts differentiate between the two practices. In surveys of who can do meditation, ten percent of the persons surveyed cannot do meditation for various reasons, ten percent can do profound things with it, and eighty percent can do some things with meditation. If you wish to learn and use meditation, your chances of success are excellent. Although meditation is often associated with religious practice, meditation can be thought of as a technique of mind and heart control.

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# Chapter 75: Mind

Sub-topic: Being Mindful About How Your Mind Works

Article Content: Your mind can have a life of its own. When you become aware of what your mind does and how your mind works, you become "mindful" of your mind's methods and processes. When you find the ability to concentrate hard to do, step back and look at what triggers your thoughts. Review how your thoughts go from one place to another. This "mind-ful-ness" can help you begin to control your mind, rather than letting your mind control you or letting your mind run in whatever direction your mind wants.

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Sub-topic: How The Body And Mind Relate To Each Other

Article Content: The mind and body are different sides of the same coin. The philosopher Descarte reportedly made am arrangement with the Catholic Church to separate the mind and the body in his theories and writings. Many of our concepts about how the mind and body are separate have been carried over into our present thinking from Descarte. However, our mind and body are not separate entities. Our mind and body are linked together and work together. Our mind and body are no more separate from each other than are the sides of a coin. When our mind is in distress, our body is in distress. When our body is in distress, our mind is in distress. When we learn to control our mind, our body will follow. When we learn to live with happiness filling our mind, our body will respond as if the body has been immersed in happiness. When love fills our mind, love in turn fills our body. In other words, where the mind goes, the body will follow.

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Sub-topic: How The Mind Relates To The Body

Article Content: Body and mind are separate but connect to each other. The mind is like a guide. The body is like a follower. Sometimes the follower or body goes its own direction without permission from the guide or mind. By using your conscious thought processes you can bring your mind into a closer relationship with your body. To align your mind and body you must tune into each one. If you have no awareness about your mind you cannot control your mind. If you have no awareness about your body you cannot control your body. To get your mind and body to work together you must be aware of what each of them is doing at any time. When you become aware, then you can control. Sub-topic: The Mind, Body, Soul Connection

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Sub-topic: Using Your Mind To Feel Better

Article Content: Quite often, your thoughts determine your emotions or how you feel. More importantly, you determine how you feel by how you think or what you think about. You often feel the way you think as you process the events of your life. Your thoughts and emotions are the result of this processing of events. Conversely, how you think and how you feel can determine how you process the events of your life. How you think about something can easily determine how you feel. "It's raining" can make you feel good or bad depending upon whether you see the rain as a positive or negative event. Thought is the ancestor of every life experience. The positive or negative aspect of any experience is grounded in what we think about the experience. A wonderful experience for one person could easily be a terrible experience for someone else based upon what each person thinks about the event. The thought we have toward an event will determine our experience. What is most important in this matter is we can control what and how we think. We can choose our thinking processes. We can mold and shape our viewpoints, opinions, and beliefs. In many ways, the healthiness of our mental life is dependent upon the healthiness of our viewpoints, opinions, and beliefs.

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Sub-topic: Using Your Will Against The Darkness

Article Content: In using your will against the darkness, there are two weapons you can use to win the spiritual battle in which we are all engaged. You have physical weapons and emotional weapons you can use against the darkness. Each weapon carries some power and some control over the darkness. The purpose of the darkness, being your opponent in this war, is to keep you blind and ignorant about these weapons as well as blind and ignorant about this spiritual war. Your physical weapon is your physical body and your physical reality. Although your physical body and physical reality may not be the best, perhaps even poor, you still have some physical power as long as you are alive. Your will to stay alive and defeat the darkness on spiritual terms has an effect upon your body. Using your will to maximize your physical power increases your chances of victory. In addition, your emotional weapon of desire and determination is a powerful weapon you can use to persevere in spite of all things coming against you. Most importantly, the emotion of love is the most powerful, most hopeful, most healing, and most victorious emotional weapon to win this spiritual war for Christ.

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Sub-topic: What The Mind Does

Article Content: The mind provides a kind of enlivening energy within the whole body. This enlivening energy enables the cells of the body to talk to one another. Although the mind does not keep us alive, the mind is part of the body and spirit. The mind, body, and spirit are interwoven or connected in ways we still find mysterious. We can think of the mind as part computer and part movie producer. We can think of the mind in this way because the mind, in part, assembles thoughts, ideas, and images from both the world outside of us as well as thoughts, ideas, and images from the world inside of us.

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Sub-topic: What You Think, How You Think, When You Think

Article Content: What you think about, how you think, and when you think determines your fellowship with God. What you think about, how you think, and when you think determines your faith. If we want, faith is an active and alive component of our life. Faith is not just something you have. Faith is something you do and something you are. Because faith is something you do and something you are, faith connects you to God when you are sick. Faith enables you to pray when you think you cannot pray. Faith enables you to find healing when you think there is no hope. When you think about what gives you hope, how you think about what gives you hope, and when you think about what gives you hope, by thinking these thoughts then you have direct link to God...and in God you find the hope you need.

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Sub-topic: Where Our Intelligence Lives

Article Content: Intelligence lives in the whole body, not just inside the brain. Our cells and our larger bodily systems have their own innate intelligence. Your heart and circulatory system have a built-in intelligence. All the systems of our body are interdependent and work with our other interdependent systems. We can have a direct impact on our bodily systems, including our immune system, by the thoughts we think and the beliefs we hold. Knowing our whole body possesses intelligence is important because the intelligence or thinking part of our mind can impact the wellness or sickness of our body by influencing how the various systems of our body function. When your mind is full of joy and happiness, this mental state gets transferred into the other parts of your body. When your mind is full of fear, anxiety, and worry, these negative mental states get transferred into the other parts of your body. Happiness and joy bring wellness. Fear, anxiety, and worry bring sickness.

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Sub-topic: Your Creative Mind

Article Content: The creative mind of man, the part of us closely mirroring God's image, creates solutions to problems day after day. In our modern world, for every new problem, we can and often do, create a new solution. There is a burgeoning body of new knowledge about how to solve both old and new problems because we have the ability to create and invent. Out of the creative mind of man we have produced amazing new ways of looking at our selves, at God, and at others. Your creative mind can create new wisdom about yourself and about God's dramatic solutions to problems both old and new. By letting your creative mind flow freely in the kingdom of God within you, you can find new hope, new promise, new meaning, new purpose, and new ways to solve what seem to be insurmountable problems. By opening the door to your heart and mind to the power of God, His creative energy can flow into you and what appeared to be a problem is no longer a problem but an opportunity.

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# Chapter 76: Miracles

Sub-topic: Forced Miracles

Article Content: It may or may not be the Lord's will to see the kind of miracles today talked about in the book of Acts. It may not be the Lord's will because people would perhaps get so caught up in the miracles people would forget about all the other truly important things of spiritual and physical importance. Some people who want a display of dramatic miracles are starving for excitement and these people want excitement from their faith. Too many times and in too many ways some people want their faith to be a source of show biz excitement. We cannot force God to do miracles any more than we can force God to do any other thing we want done. The miracles of God are done according to His appointed time, place, circumstance, and will. The greatest miracles of God are not forced from Him. However, miracles are given by Him only as an act of His love and grace. What causes His love and grace to flow most often is our willingness to break our backs in humility and service before Him. We need never be demanding a show biz kind of performance from Him.

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# Chapter 77: Mistakes

Sub-topic: How We All Make Mistakes.

Article Content: We all make mistakes. We all make mistakes because we are all human. Mistakes seem to be a common occurrence with us as a race of so-called intelligent beings. Humans have made incredible progress in the areas of invention, technology, medicine, engineering, and many of the other "hard" science areas. Yet we are still left wanting. We are left wanting as a race of intelligent beings because there are still those among us who what to kill us. Whole nations are bent upon the utter destruction of other nations. Whole families, groups, and organizations live to do others in rather than lift them up. Truly, not everything happening in the world happens as a result of an act of God or as a result of the will of God. Our problems in the world and in our individual lives are not just a result of our making mistakes. Our problems in the world and in our individual lives are also the result of our unwillingness to fix the mistakes we make.

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Sub-topic: Invisible Mistakes

Article Content: Everyone is guilty of making mistakes because no one is perfect. Not being perfect is part of being human. Mistakes, especially the invisible mistakes, may not be a sin, but they may lead you to sin. Our visible mistakes are usually the ones we must to fix with often no choice in doing so. Our invisible mistakes, the ones only we know about are often the ones requiring the most work from us. Our unseen and invisible mistakes can weigh upon us for years, torment us, and destroy our life. In your life, you may never have to publicly confess or own up to your unseen mistakes to others. However, when you do not own up to these mistakes within yourself, Satan delights in destroying you because of them. When you come to know you make mistakes, you can own up to them, admit them, repair them, and fix them. At these moments Christ can erase your mistakes from your heart.

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Sub-topic: Mistakes And Sin

Article Content: Making mistakes is a human response to being alive. A mistake is the result of not understanding, not conceiving, and unwillingly making an error in estimating. A mistake can occur when we do not know what to do but we go ahead and take action anyway. However, sin is not an innocent mistake. Sin is an example of knowing what we should not do, yet we go ahead and do what we know is wrong with a full disregard for the consequences. Everyone is guilty of sin. No human being has ever been perfect except Christ. Mistakes in life may be made in innocence. Innocent mistakes may not lead you to sin. However, too often people make mistakes they know are sin, and they know in advance these mistakes are sin. However, people refuse to admit their mistakes are sin. A law breaker who runs from the police shows by his or her actions a knowledge of right from wrong. The law breaker who runs from the law does not just make an innocent mistake. The law breaker who breaks the law and who knows breaking the law is wrong is committing a sinful act. Christ's message to the world is everyone is responsible for his or her actions. Each of us must own up or take ownership over our sin or our sin will own us. When we take full ownership of our sinful actions we can fully turn away from our sin. Once we have turned away from our sin we can fully turn to Christ who will cleanse us from our unrighteousness. When we take ownership of our sin, we then gain control over our life. Perhaps for the first time in our life we do become the masters of our fate. When we surrender our life to Christ, we have taken control of our life and aligned our will with the will of the Master.

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Sub-topic: Mistakes As A Message From God

Article Content: Most people live out their life in the same way they have always lived. Learning from our mistakes or identifying what God is telling us is not easy to do. We might readily see the pattern of our life on a life map if we drew the map. However, to do something about the pattern of our life, to really change our direction in life even when we see where God wants us to go, is a great deal more difficult than just identifying a route on a map of where we have been. Although we do not always know the exact details of God's will, the fact we crash into the same wall repeatedly in trying to move forward in our life may mean something important. Crashing into the same wall repeatedly might make some people give up on their hopes and dreams while other people keep trying and never give up. Most importantly, we must come to see we really are crashing into the same wall over and over again. When we encounter adversity, denial is one of our great mechanisms for protecting our inner core. However, when we stay in or use our denial mechanism as a result of hitting the same wall over and over, we end up compounding our problems. In drawing a life map, identify the ways God has spoken to you in keeping you from doing certain things. Identify the mistakes you make over and over again. Mistakes in life can tell us something if we are willing to listen. We are often not able to tell whether we made a mistake of our own free will or if outside circumstances put upon us caused us to make the mistake. In trying to decipher God's messages to us, we must keep in mind God's will or His message to us is often shrouded in mystery. God's messages are often shrouded in mystery to keep us from being so dependent upon Him we lose our ability to be free thinking persons.

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Sub-topic: Mistakes From Our Blind Egos

Article Content: Some of the mistakes we make are the result of our blind egos. Our egos make us blind. When we truly see we made a mistake either our ego melts away and we admit our mistake, or our ego remains in tact because we refuse to admit we made a mistake. When we refuse to admit we make mistakes and refuse to own up personally to what we do and don't do, our egos keep us blind. When we walk around with ego blinders over our eyes, we will walk into walls, walk off of cliffs, fall down, and generally make a mess out of our life. We can end up being a burden to others. If we study the great athletes who endured for years in their game, we see people who learned to fix their mistakes. Once fixed, these athletes made extreme efforts not to repeat the mistake. When our egos make us blind, we not only refuse to admit we made a mistake, we double the mistake by not being humble enough to fix the mistake.

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Sub-topic: Mistakes From Our Ignorance

Article Content: We sometimes make mistakes because of our ignorance. We are born ignorant of just about all things. During our growth and maturation, we lose part of our ignorance when we gain essential skills and wisdom. Some people learn and gain wisdom from the mistakes they make while others learn nothing at all. Perhaps the greatest trait we possess as humans in regard to mistakes is the ability to learn what to do and learn what not to do. We must commit ourselves to learning and growing in wisdom when we make mistakes. We must commit ourselves, at every age and at every stage of our life, to grow wiser each day. We must commit ourselves to learning as much as we can not only from our mistakes, but also from our successes. We must NOT assume we will automatically learn from our mistakes. We must assume we will not learn from our mistakes automatically and we must review each day, at the end of the day, and ask ourselves, "What did I learn today?"

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Sub-topic: Mistakes That Are Accidental

Article Content: Some mistakes are made purely by accident. Unforeseen things happen in every aspect of life. Our knowledge of all things is limited. Our limited knowledge or our inability to see what will happen in the future can cause a mistake to occur. When we make a mistake by accident, we must be honest and admit to our inability to see into the future. Most of us, if given the chance, would avoid mistakes if we knew we were going to make them. Most of us would go to great extremes to avoid accidental mistakes. Taking chances we know we should not take is a mistake. Although we cannot foresee what will happen in the future, if we use our common sense, we can make a pretty good guess as to what will happen. If you fly down an interstate highway at 100 mph in any kind of vehicle, common sense will tell you something bad is more likely to happen than if you drive 65 mph. Although we cannot see into the future to avoid truly accidental mistakes, we can see into the future to minimize the likelihood of accidental mistakes occurring.

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Sub-topic: Mistakes, Sicknesses, And God's Image

Article Content: When you are sick or you have to live with sickness, you are living a diminished life. Sickness of any kind can rob you of your life. Being sick is a thing Satan puts on you as persecution. Don't you dare let Satan win! When you get sick, look to Jesus, because He is your strength and your main power source. Some people get sick over mistakes they have made. We have all made mistakes. Our biggest mistake is not to learn from the mistakes we make. Our next biggest mistake is to not learn from our sicknesses. God can help you use your mistakes and sicknesses to grow and become more of His child. If you will learn not to worry about your mistakes and sicknesses and you will work to fix your life through God's help, then God's blessings will flow over you. God blesses you if you are determined. God blesses you if you take steps not make the same mistakes again. When you put your life, your sicknesses, and your mistakes into God's hands, He can mold you and shape you into His image.

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Sub-topic: Never Give Up

Article Content: When we have to live with an obstacle, burden, or circumstance we cannot change, never give up. The point is not to give in to an obstacle or circumstance, but to live, and live, and live until you have the same meaning, purpose, and happiness you would have without the obstacle. When you must live with an obstacle, burden, or circumstance you cannot change, you are supposed to move forward in your life. You are supposed to move forward in your life with the same meaning, purpose, and happiness you would have without the obstacle, burden, or circumstance. When you move forward in your life in spite of hardships, you have achieved total and complete victory. When you move forward and you live as if the obstacle, burden, or circumstance does not exist, you have moved the obstacle, smashed it, nuked it, and torn it to shreds. When you live as if the obstacle, burden, or circumstance is not there, then the obstacle, burden, or circumstance no longer has any power over you or power over your life.

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Sub-topic: Our Downfall

Article Content: Our downfall as Christians in the eyes of God comes not so much when we come up short in serving others. Our downfall comes when we forget others because we are focusing only on what we want and need for ourselves. Being responsible means, in part, we are to forget about ourselves and put others first in our life. This idea of being responsible by putting others first is just as mandatory as being responsible on our job, in our family life, or anywhere else our journey through life takes us. In fact, those people who do not put anyone first but always put themselves first fail miserably on their job, in their family life, and in all the other places their journey through life takes them. As God has arranged things, when someone puts you first in his or her life, they become first in your life. When you put someone else first in your life then you become first in their life.

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Sub-topic: Questions About Our Mistakes

Article Content: What did I learn from this mistake? What can I do to stop this mistake from reoccurring? What can I do to see this mistake coming in the future? Is there anything I did in making this mistake as a result of being selfish or full of ego? Is my ego or selfishness keeping me from fixing this mistake? Is this circumstance a mistake caused by me? If I think this circumstance is a mistake caused by others, am I truly being honest in my appraisal? In other words, did I have something to do with this mistake and am I willing to own up to the mistake I made? Where do I go from here? How fast can I fix this mistake? Do I need help to fix this mistake? Do I need help to not repeat this mistake? What is my attitude about this mistake? Did I see the situation accurately? Am I now able to keep moving forward and fix the mistake at the same time or do I need to pause and fix the mistake before moving ahead? Have I forgiven myself for being human? Have I received God's forgiveness in being human? A reminder: the only people who do not make mistakes are the people who do not do anything.

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# Chapter 78: Need

Sub-topic: The Need For God

Article Content: Many of the people in world like to believe they don't need God. Many of the people in the world believe they don't need to think about Him, talk to Him, and least of all worship Him. Many people openly ask or inwardly ask, "After all, who needs God when we have ourselves?" Most of the world is consumed by spiritual hunger but the world refuses to eat at the Lord's table. Some people come to the Lord's table only when there is a crisis in their life, others come to the Lord's table to get only for themselves. However, there is a remnant. Among all the people of earth, there is only a tiny remnant who truly belong to Christ.

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Sub-topic: Your Need For God

Article Content: How important is theology when your mother, or father, or sister, or brother, or uncle, or cousin has just been taken away and thrown to the lions in front of thousands of people? How important is theology when thousands of people will laugh and have a good time while watching your loved one be attacked and torn apart by wild animals? These early Christians needed God in ways we do not understand today. What is so amazing is these early Christians hung onto our faith and the promises of Christ during this traumatic time in their life. Look at the attitude of the mass of people in the world today toward Christ and their attitude toward the church. There is no way to compare where people are today in their need for God and where the early church members were in their need for Him. You need God, but do you know it? If you do know you need Him do you tell Him and live like you need Him?

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# Chapter 79: Openness

Sub-topic: Keeping No Secrets

Article Content: Keeping dark, evil, or bad secret things bottled up inside of you is of no value to you. Keeping secret what has been done to you when you know these same things have been or are now being done to others implicates you in the doing of these bad things. In cases of abuse or violence, the victims often become the perpetrators. This is why it is so important for you to vent out the abuse being done to you. Nowhere in the kingdom of God are you required, in any of His wisdom, to carry knowledge of secret evils or keep secret any terrible events of which you are a victim. On the contrary, the Christian faith rejoices in the telling and the expressing of truth.

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Sub-topic: Opening Up To God

Article Content: If God is outside your door knocking, will you let Him in? If you think you have found God, have you opened up your heart enough to know for certain God has found you? If you think you have seen God, have you opened up your life enough so you know for certain God sees you? If you think you have heard the voice of God, have you opened up your soul enough so you know for certain God has heard you?

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Sub-topic: Opening Your Heart

Article Content: You can think or say the words "Lord Jesus, please come into my heart." However, just because you say these words does not mean you really mean these words. Too often, people want Christ in their heart solely for an emotional benefit for themselves. To have His love in you and to sense His presence in your heart and life you must open the door of your heart. Your reason for opening the door of your heart must not be connected to you and what you need. Your reason for opening the door of your heart must be because you have seen the Savior, because you love Him, and because you are willing to surrender all you have and are to Him.

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# Chapter 80: Others

Sub-topic: A Winning Relationship

Article Content: To have a winning relationship with others you must accept others. Even if you disagree with others, to have a winning relationship, you must accept them. We must remember we are all different. One of the primary traits of a winning relationship is acceptance of others. Acceptance of others means: A. You wrap your arms around them B. You do not reject them for any reason C. You love them unconditionally D. Even if you hate their sin, you still love the persons who commit the sin. If you accept others in this way, you achieve victory in your relationships with others. Only by the love of God are you able to love others in spite of their sin. Only by the love of God are you able to have winning relationships.

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Sub-topic: Bearing One Another's Burdens

Article Content: One of the best ways of being sure we bear one another's burdens is to always be unselfish enough and concerned enough about others to carry their burdens. A selfish person does not carry the burdens of others unless made to do so. An unselfish person always looks out for others. An unselfish person always seeks out the burdens others are carrying. An unselfish person can put others first. The act of unselfish giving and receiving assures mutual burden bearing. To bear another person's burden we must be willing to unselfishly give and receive love, caring, kindness, and compassion. To bear another person's burden we must be willing to unselfishly help others carry their load in life as well as be willing to let others help us carry our load. To bear another person's burden we must be willing to listen to the problems, cares, and worries of others. To bear another person's burden we must be willing to ask others if there is anything we can do after we have listened. To bear another person's burden we must be willing to give 110% of our efforts in helping others. When we bear another person's burden we must be aware others become stronger when we help them become stronger. When we bear another's burden we must remember others become weaker when we prevent them from shouldering the burdens and responsibilities we all must carry. Helping another person carry their burden is a great deal different than carrying another person's burden for them. In helping another person carry their burdens we must recognize there are some burdens each of us must carry on our own. Persons of every age learn maturity and responsibility when they carry their burdens, not when others carry burdens for them. Persons of every age become strong enough to bear the burdens of others by first learning to be unselfish.

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Sub-topic: Beware

Article Content: Beware of persons who are who are weak willed, and/or who will easily compromise their positions on issues. Beware of persons who whine, complain, and who make excuses. Beware of persons who ask you to do ungodly or questionable things. Beware of persons who believe they have been ordained by God to give others a message. These people can easily be false prophets. Beware of persons who believe God has worked in them to interact with others. Beware of persons who especially like to tell others and remind others they have been anointed by God. If a person has really been anointed by God, then the person will not feel the need to tell others. The anointing by our Savior produces in every heart an overwhelming feeling of humility.

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Sub-topic: Bringing People Together

Article Content: Although the world is in great anguish over conflicting theologies and systems of religious belief, God decided to bring some of His people together by sending Christ into the world. What is truly amazing is the way God has brought people together. God has brought people together by sending a baby, His only Son, into the world. God had unlimited options about how to bring His Son into the world as well as unlimited options about how He could bring people together. Although we take it for granted, amazingly, God chose to have His Son appear to us in the form of a newborn child. Over the last two thousand years, millions upon millions of people have been brought together to worship, rejoice, and celebrate the birth of Christ because God chose to bring people together in this amazing way.

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Sub-topic: Find Out What Others Have Done

Article Content: Everyone realizes it would be foolish to repeat the same mistake twice. Yet if we were honest and look at what we do, we repeat mistakes. To learn from mistakes, especially the mistakes of others, we need to study the strategies, techniques, and methods others have used to be successful. To study what others have done pay's off because you become wiser and more learned. The study of history demonstrates although science and technology have advanced, our thinking and our abilities to live in the world with each other have not progressed. Every generation unfortunately must re-learn what the generations before had already learned. The idea of acquiring wisdom by studying what others have done is not new. What may be new to you and new to your life is actually applying this wisdom. If you study life, every circumstance minus scientific and technological developments has occurred before. Finding out what others have done is important because others are an incredible resource from which you can draw incredible life lessons. Every person has a remarkable story to tell about their life and their experiences. To find out what others have done, one way to find out is to encourage others to tell the story of their life and experiences.

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Sub-topic: Find Out What Others Want And Help Them Get It

Article Content: Within the bounds of morality and common sense, the key to success when you work with people is helping them get what they want. Find out what others want and show others how working or cooperating with you benefits them. To help others get what they want, you have to think like they do, ask them questions, and see the world the way they see the world. To be successful with others or to lead others you have to put yourself in their shoes. When you are selfish and filled with your ego, you think only of yourself instead of others. Truly, being unselfish is the key to success in every area of life, especially when working with others. When others find out you really do want to help them get what they want, they will regard you with esteem and they will value you. Admittedly, others will be selfish. However, by finding out what others want and helping them get it you have great potential in leading them. Most often, leadership failures occur because of selfishness. Good leaders are typically unselfish people.

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Sub-topic: How Others Are Important

Article Content: Your world revolves around other people. Even if you are a recluse or a hermit and you see no one, you are not likely self-sufficient. If you live in the modern world with all of our modern conveniences consider the following facts. Your electricity is generated by someone else. Your clothing is made by someone else. Your food is grown by someone else. Your car is built by someone else. And, this list could go on for a long time. In our modern world, where most of us live in cities, suburbs, and towns, we all depend upon others for our survival. Other people should be important to you because other people keep you alive. In a world where you depend upon other people, let other people know they are important to you. Not only are others important to you, you are just as important to others. We all want to be treated as if we are important. The truth is we are important. Perhaps if we saw the truth about how important we were to others we would live our life in a more humble fashion. In the same way, if we saw the truth about how important others are to us, we would be a great deal more appreciative and more respectful of others and their place in our life. To be more successful in all you do, let others know how important they are to you.

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Sub-topic: How We Reach People

Article Content: We reach people first by being where they are, rather than telling them they have to be conformed to be where we are. We reach people by walking with them on their path rather than stopping them and trying to get them to turn around and walk another direction on our path. We reach people by listening to them rather than lecturing them. We reach people by guiding them rather than forcing them. We reach people by loving them first before we expect them to love us. We reach people by forgiving them rather than holding grudges against them.

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Sub-topic: Others Are Important

Article Content: Other people are important because we all need each other to survive. In order to survive, we have to be honest with each other. If we lie to each other, no trust will exist in our world and a world living on lies will self-destruct. In trust and faith with each other, we must bring out or expose our discouragement, pain, and the attacks by the darkness upon us because in exposing these experiences we have a chance to find support. In exposing our experience with suffering, we have a chance to find someone who can help us bear our burden. In addition, we must learn to look to others and to God for hope and inspiration.

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Sub-topic: Reaching Out To God

Article Content: All civilized cultures reach out to God. We see the evidence of man's reaching out to God even back to the days of early civilization. Anthropologist's study how early man tried to relate to God. As modern humans, how do we relate to God? In truth, we have difficulty relating to God. We have difficulty relating to God because God is invisible. God is not physically touchable. In many ways, God is silent. Since God is generally unseen, unheard, and untouchable, there are difficulties relating to Him in regular human ways. In truth, how we relate to God depends upon where we put Him. God has a place in our life, determined by us. In relating to God, we must remember God is not limited by our limitations. Because of our limitations, we assume He is like us and we want to relate to Him like He is like us. How and whether we reach out to Him determines whether we relate to Him or not. Everything in your life is affected by whether or not you reach out to God.

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Sub-topic: Thanking Others

Article Content: People often feel ignored and unappreciated. We live in such a fast-paced environment with our fast food delivered to us out of a drive up window we can forget the two most important words people want to hear. The two most important words people want to hear are "Thank You" said with real meaning and real appreciation. Many of us do jobs or lead lives where others take what we do for granted. In the same way, you live in a world where most people do not feel anyone appreciates them or cares about them. Saying "Thank You" with real meaning and real appreciation is a wonderful gift you can give each day to many people who need to be thanked and appreciated. A small note or an email sent thanking someone for their efforts helps keep the world in tact for the person receiving the appreciation. Although you may not be thanked or appreciated, you can make up for your own lack of recognition by giving to others what they so desperately need...appreciation. When you thank others, you are well remembered. When you thank others in the sometimes uncivilized world we live in, you help make the world a little more bearable for others. You lighten the burdens of those who you personally thank.

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Sub-topic: The Essential Ingredients Of Healing

Article Content: * Healing is not possible without forgiveness.

●To find true healing we need to participate in the giving and receiving of love.

●Body and spirit are equal components in the healing process.

●We activate our spirit when we care.

●Caring is healing. Caring for ourselves and about ourselves as well as caring for others is the deepest respect.

●The real healer helps others people heal themselves.

●Accepting and loving yourself is an essential ingredient of healing.

●To heal ourselves and heal others we must accept responsibility for our weaknesses knowing ultimate spiritual strength heals completely.

●When people want the healing presence of the love of God in all circumstances, healing will flow

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Sub-topic: The Gift Of Understanding One Another

Article Content: Our understanding of each other as veterans in the spiritual war of life is a gift of God. We must never take for granted our gift of understanding each other. To understand another person we must forget about our own wants and needs. To understand other persons we must be willing to accept they hold views, opinions, thoughts, and beliefs important to them...even when we abhor their views, opinions, thoughts, and beliefs. Even when we abhor the views, opinions, thoughts, and beliefs of other persons, we must accept other persons think they are right in what they believe. Each person has the godly gift of understanding another person. Each person has a godly gift of opening his or her own heart and mind to others who are radically different, even when those who are radically different are opposed to all we believe, treasure, and hold dear. Just because we understand another person does not mean we agree. Just because we understand another person does not mean we endorse or believe in their views or opinions.

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Sub-topic: The Key To Putting Others First

Article Content: To put others first, listen first and talk second...always, always, always listen first and talk second. You may have the most fascinating life on earth, but other people would rather talk about themselves. When you listen first and talk second then you give others the rare chance to express who they are, where they are, and what they are about. When you talk first and listen second or never really listen at all, you condemn other people in your life to a loneliness not of their making. To truly listen first and talk second, forget about yourself and forget about what is important to you. To truly express love for another person and show another person you put them first, be able to listen to them without ever saying a word about yourself. You may be tempted to talk about yourself because we all have the need to have others notice us, recognize us, and give us attention. However, when we demand others notice us, recognize us, and give us attention by dominating a conversation, we end up ignoring others. We turn others off by letting them know they come second in our life instead of coming first.

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Sub-topic: To Understand Others

Article Content: A. To understand others and have others really understand you understand them, you must walk in their shoes. Walking in someone else's shoes is no easy task because the shoes of others rarely ever fit your feet. To walk in someone else's shoes you must forget about yourself. You must forget about how you see the world. You must make extreme efforts to see the world the way others see it even when you disagree with the way they see it. B. To understand others you must see things as others see things, not the way you want others to see things. We all have our own ideas of how the world should fit together. We have our ideas about how the world should fit together because of our background and our experiences. In some instances, we see things very differently than do others but just because we see things differently does not mean they are wrong and we are right. C. To understand others you must truly and fully care about others. The same spark of life keeping you alive is the same spark keeping others alive. As human beings, we have more in common with each other than we have differences, but the differences are often so glaring the differences get all the attention. To understand others, tell others you care about them. Telling others you care about them is not easy, especially when you disagree with them. When you disagree with the way someone lives their life, with the way they carry their attitude, or with the way they act in any particular way, you do not need to tell them you disagree with him or her. When you disagree with someone, you do not need to show or tell him or her you disagree. D. To understand others, when speaking and listening to another person, reflect back to them what you hear them saying, not what you want them to say

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Sub-topic: What We Need To Know From Others

Article Content: One of our greatest mistakes in building and maintaining our relationships with others can come from our ignorance about them. In order to build and maintain healthy relationships we need to know what others want and expect. We not only need to know what others want and expect from us, we need to know what others want and expect from the other people in their life. As simple as this truth might seem to be, the truth is vital in building and maintaining our relationships at home, work, school, and especially within our family. The opposite of knowing what others want and expect is ignorance. Ignorance in relationships is not bliss. Ignorance in relationships is chaos and disaster. A business ignorant about what the customer wants and expects will fail. A marriage partner ignorant about what the other partner wants and expects will succeed in the relationship only by chance. A child who does not know what the parent wants or expects will likely follow a path other than what the parent wants or expects.

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Sub-topic: When Others See You Fall

Article Content: Falling down because of your mistakes and sinful ways bad. What is worse is the humiliation going with the fall. In the world, others may see you fall. They may gasp. They may grope for words. Some people may just shake their head in pity and tell you to just give up trying to live out a righteous and holy life. Other people, when they see you fall, will laugh at you. Other people will pretend to buddy up to you and befriend you only to keep you down. However, even the awful and painful humiliation we experience in life can make us humble before our God. Even the awful and painful humiliation we experience in life when we make mistakes can open doors to the Love and Light of the Holy Spirit.

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Sub-topic: Why We Are Not To Judge

Article Content: Ask yourself to suspend judgment of others long enough so they and you can pay attention to what is within your heart. We must suspend judgment of others because when we are judging others we have no way of contacting or knowing what is within our heart. When our heart is busy in judgment and condemnation we have no place in our heart for understanding, compassion, love, and peace. When our heart is busy in judgment and condemnation, we have blocked off a large part of our capacity and capability as a human being. We degrade ourselves when we degrade others by judging and condemning them. When we see others do wrong, we must try to help them by being understanding, compassionate, loving, and peaceful. When we see others do wrong, we are not called to excuse the wrong, but to see the wrong only as a mistake we can forgive rather than condemn.

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Sub-topic: Wrong Ties In Relationships

Article Content: Relationships can be thought of as strings connecting us to others. Relationships are meant to liberate us and set us free to become all God made us to be. In our relationships, our ties to others are wrong when those ties mean people have power over us and we let the wrong connection exist. People have power over you only to the extent you need something from them. People have power over you when you are weak or when you decide to forego your strength while being subservient to them. A dependent person is generally dependent as a result of some form of weakness. When you grow to be strong enough to live independently rather than dependently, you are then capable of establishing strong and healthy ties or relationships with others in freedom.

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Sub-topic: You Need Others And Others Need You

Article Content: People are social beings. As a part of humanity you need others and others need you. From appearances, others may seem to need you or want you. However, generally speaking, we all need each other. No matter whom you are or where you are, you are needed. For most people, your mental, physical, and emotional health require for you to be a part of a group of people who care about you. Statistically, people who feel isolated have 3 to 5 times the mortality rate, regardless of physical condition, over those who are not isolated. So find people who need you and join them. Find people who want to be around you and who you want to be around. You may need to search for awhile, but your search will pay off. Volunteer opportunities abound in every church, synagogue, and social agency. In being a part of a group, you have the opportunity to express and give away the love of God. Your benefit or return will be immeasurable.

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# Chapter 81: Pain

Sub-topic: Abundance And Pain

Article Content: Some people appear to live a charmed life. They were born under the best circumstances, raised in homes where trouble never visited, and went on to adulthood without facing any kind of major problem. However, most of us do not fit into this category. Most of us need to feel the presence of the arms of Jesus wrapped around us. Have you noticed how life can be like a piece of rope? The rope and life can both get frayed out on both ends, then the rope and life start burning in the middle. During these kinds of crisis times we need to feel the arms of Christ wrapped around us. In the arms of Jesus, we find warmth in a cold and cruel world. In our world Satan is taking advantage of our every weakness and hitting us from every angle. In the arms of Jesus we find warmth we cannot find anywhere else. In His arms, we find caring. We find caring and compassion in Christ because he knows our every thought and hurt. He cares deeply about how we are, where we are, who we are with, and how we deal with the arrows being shot at us from every side. In the arms of Jesus, we find protection. His arms protect us from every kind of ultimate defeat.

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Sub-topic: Attitude And Pain

Article Content: Changing your attitude about your pain can change your response to the pain. Pain is an opportunity to be a victor rather than a victim. However, you become a victor only when you become aware of the opportunity to enhance your attitude. With the right awareness and the right attitude, you can take charge over your pain rather than be a helpless victim of the pain. With the right awareness and the right attitude, you can seek power rather than be powerless. With the right awareness and the right attitude, you can seek God rather than seek sin. To take charge over our pain, our goal is to change our attitudinal response to the pain. To take charge over our pain, our goal is to get out of the physical and into the spiritual or supernatural world. When we take on the attitude of supernatural invincibility, we can plan, work, and live as a victor rather than let ourselves be a victim. When we take on the attitude of supernatural invincibility, we can take charge and win even in pain.

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Sub-topic: Hurts Erased

Article Content: When you were young, if the people who raised you took advantage of you, Jesus was with you, He was hurting with you, and He was deeply grieved. Today, He understands. In Christ's eyes today, He is ready to wipe away all those hurts. In His eyes today and in your heart, mind, and soul today, those days never happened.

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Sub-topic: Pain And Angels

Article Content: There are weapons against the pain. We have protective angels and a protective God watching out for us if we will only recognize their existence and place ourselves within their protection. However, before we come to ask for the Lord's protection we must go to His Cross. At the foot of His Cross, all our suffering begins to melt away as we see His suffering for us. As we begin to see Him in such terrible pain, our own pain becomes less. As He looks down upon us, our pain is overcome with the pain of our godly sorrow. At the point of accepting godly sorrow upon ourselves for our sins, God's angels begin to do mighty works in us and through us. In addition, our willingness to turn away from our sins and our willingness to accept Christ and His suffering for us, God's angels continue to do mighty works in us and through us.

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Sub-topic: Pain And God

Article Content: I would like to have a supernatural touch to make personal pain go away. I would like to anonymously dispel grief and sorrow, anonymously eradicate physical pain, and unbeknownst to addicted persons, turn off the torment of physical and emotional dependence. However, I cannot do any of these things. For most of us, we are left on our own in times of pain. We are left to wander and struggle. We are left to always be searching for answers to questions. We are left with no soothing answers while still having to take the pain. However, we have a God of power, a God who is love, a God who is a resource who pours strength into us. We have a God who calls us home to a place where we will wander no more.

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Sub-topic: Pain And Honesty

Article Content: When we come to grips with reality we find the truth pain in life goes along with life. We are left with the brutal reality in this life there is pain. For the most part we have to live with pain, if not permanently, at least for a while. However, when we are able to admit pain is a reality in our life we then begin to grow stronger. We find strength in being honest, even when our honesty is a matter of pain and suffering. Honesty is liberating. Honesty frees us from the chains enslaving us in pain.

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Sub-topic: Pain And Intelligence

Article Content: When we are in pain we must remember we have a brain and intelligence. We have the ability to understand and reason. In times of great emotional or physical pain and suffering, we can temporarily lose our ability to reason. In pain, what we can do is realize we have the obstacle of pain in our path. If necessary, postpone decision-making during our times of pain-filled darkness. In times of great stress and pain we generally have to make decisions. Just knowing our times of pain and suffering impairs our thinking and reasoning abilities is a great asset. If circumstances blind us, at least we can know we are blind. The worst thing to happen to us is to be blind, not know it, and then try to function as if we can see. When we know our pain disables us, we can compensate.

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Sub-topic: Pain And Resources

Article Content: When we are in pain, there are resources available to us. We are not helpless even if we perceive our situation as being helpless. We have other people, agencies, churches, support groups, books, tapes, prayer and meditation, and God's Holy Word as resources. When we are in pain there is something we can do. Just the acceptance of the fact there is something we can do about whatever situation we are in is of critical importance.

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Sub-topic: Pain And Selfishness

Article Content: We control the amount of pain we are in by how much we focus on ourselves. We also control our pain by how much we focus on others and on our God. The objective of those forces causing your pain is to get your focus to be only upon yourself. When you accede to the demands of the dark forces by turning your attention inward, toward yourself, your pain level can increase. If you focus your attention away from yourself, your pain level can decrease.

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Sub-topic: Pain And Wisdom

Article Content: When we are in pain, there is wisdom available to us. However, we have to use this wisdom. Wisdom from the Bible is of tremendous value when we are in a state of need. Wisdom is much like food. Wisdom has to be taken in, chewed on, swallowed, and digested. Wisdom, if the wisdom is real and genuine, does not particularly give us a quick fix to our pain and suffering. However, over time, when wisdom is taken in and digested, wisdom nourishes us and blesses us.

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Sub-topic: Pain Erased (Bike Riding)

Article Content: My son has forgotten about the pain of learning to ride his bike. His scrapes and bruises incurred from falling down are healed. Because Jesus loves us so much, the old scrapes and bruises of our journey through life can be healed if we more fully put our life into His hands. When we place our will in the direction of God's will, our present pain will someday be gone from our memory. Jesus has a way of blotting out the pain for us. Continually healing us and keeping us focused on the future is one of His ways of keeping us pedaling along on His path. As I have reflected back on seeing my son learn to ride his bike, I've asked myself, "Why would a father who loves his child let the child get hurt?" "Why would a father who knew in advance his son would experience pain, maybe even experience a severe injury, let his child do something dangerous?" The answer is simple yet complicated. Without letting go of my son when it came time to learn to ride his bike he would never have learned. Without pain, there is no gain, no sense of accomplishment, no exhilaration, no maturity, no confidence, no courage, no ability to face the future, no boldness, no willingness to take risks, and no strength. Without letting go of my son, he would remain forever immature. God does not run our life for us for the same reason. God lets us fall down and sometimes we get injured so we will learn.

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Sub-topic: See Beyond The Pain

Article Content: Human beings can have every kind of pain imaginable. As a species, we have physical, emotional, and spiritual pain. Pain is the great weapon of the darkness to stop us in our tracks. Pain also puts blinders on us. Long-term emotional or physical pain grinds us down and kills our hope and promise for the future. When our hope and promise are gone, the effects of our pain increase, We are then caught up in a never-ending cycle of assuaging the pain and grasping at the straws of hope we seem to have lost. What we must try to remember when we suffer is to try and see beyond the pain. When we see beyond our present pain, our vision of a better day and a better future help us manage the moment. What pain does to us is take away our future because the pain makes us focus intently upon the present. Thus, when we are in pain we have no future, and for most of us, when we have no future, we have no life. However, in all the tough times of life, God does give us the ability to look up, to see, and to envision a better day as we embrace His hope and His promise.

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Sub-topic: The Positive Result Of Pain

Article Content:

●Transformation: Any time you are in pain, there is an opportunity for transformation.

●Resolution: Any time you are in pain, resolve never to let the pain do what the pain wants. Resolve to do and to be in spite of the pain.

●Faith: Any time you are in pain, believe God loves you and will always be with you no matter how bad the pain may get.

●Perseverance: Any time you are in pain, never give up.

●Courage: Any time you are in pain, face down your fear of pain.

●Victory: Any time you are in pain, count each minute you live in spite of the pain as a victorious moment.

●Decision: Any time you are in pain, learn to make a decision to deal with the pain.

●Control: Any time you are in pain, control what the pain does to you.

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Sub-topic: When You Cannot Ignore The Pain

Article Content: When you are in pain, you are not supposed to ignore your pain. You are not supposed to run away from your pain either. You are supposed to run toward your pain and find peace and stillness within it. These words are easy to speak but difficult to do because the pain is so dominant and so distracting. This advice is grounded in the belief you can get outside of what the pain does to you. In other words, you can control your mind so your mind is not dominated and distracted by your pain. Similar to what you try and do with meditation, you are to face your pain. You are to try and remove yourself as much as possible from what the pain tries to do to you.

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# Chapter 82: Past

Sub-topic: Going Back To The Way Things Were

Article Content: You may want to go back. You may want to go back to an earlier time when things were better, easier, or grander than the way things are now. However, you are changed every day. You get better or worse every day. You are not who you were before. You are different. If you could go back, if you could go back and stand where you stood before, things would not be like they were then because you have changed. Our walk through life is determined not by how much we look back, but how much we look forward. Indeed, we can learn from the past by looking back, but we can learn from looking back only if we look back to learn. Yearning to return to where we were can use up too much of our soul. Yearning to go back to another time takes too much of the time God gives us to glorify Him in the here and now. We tend to forget the darkness of the past. We tend to remember only the best and forget the worst. You do not want to really go back because if you went back, you would have to live through the dark times a second time which God does not want you to have to do.

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# Chapter 83: Patience

Sub-topic: Patience

Article Content: Do you hate to wait? Many people do. Many of us have little patience or at least not enough patience. Having patience can be a golden gift we develop. We are not born with patience. In truth, we are born with impatience. When we are first born we want to be fed and changed on demand. As we grow and mature, we learn or need to learn patience as a part of our maturation process. To achieve our hopes, dreams, goals, and ambitions, we must learn to wait patiently for opportunities. We must learn to be patient during our days and years of study, preparation, and training. In short, the future comes to those who prepare patiently for the future. Being able to patiently wait while we are in constant preparation enables us to focus on what is important at the moment and focus on what our next actions will be. When adversity strikes, patience is again golden because we can respond to adversity with calmness and assurance. Impatience is a huge hindrance. Impatience is borne out of immaturity. To learn patience, we must continually remind ourselves whatever we work for can come to fruition in time and time is on our side. Time is not necessarily the enemy. The enemy is often our own impatience at having to forestall our wants and needs being met.

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Sub-topic: The Impossible From Being Done

Article Content: There is often a certain impatience in the heart and mind of persons who want the future to be now. However, we must put our impatience or expectation in the direction of God by serving Him and doing His will. When we do His will, if our heart and soul are pure, nothing is impossible for us. Matthew 17:20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. (KJV) What a radical statement! Even today, with the medical miracles we can produce, this statement about the mustard seed is still a radical statement. Even today, this statement about the mustard seed is almost heresy. Just imagine what evil could be done if the heart of man was put in the wrong place and the power to move mountains was put into the hands of evil men! This mustard seed statement is a statement of power. To tell someone nothing will be impossible for you, the statement is dangerous if the secret of nothing being impossible is put into the wrong hands. However, sin is what keeps the impossible from being done by evil men and women. Jesus did the impossible because He was free of sin. Matthew 17:20 is a demonstration of the power of faith without the taint of sin.

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# Chapter 84: Peace

Sub-topic: General Pickett's Baby

Article Content: Harry Emerson Fosdick told the story of General Pickett's baby. It was during the last slaughterous days of the Civil War when the Confederates locked horns with the Union soldiers outside of Richmond. It was the cruelest time of the whole war. Then one night the Confederate lines were lighted with bonfires, and the Union guards discovered that the Southern troops were celebrating General Pickett's newborn baby, word of whose arrival had just reached the army. General Grant was so moved by the event that he ordered the Union lines to help the Confederates celebrate the birth of Pickett's baby by lighting up the scene with additional bonfires. The next day Grant's officers sent a graceful letter through the lines under a flag of truce, communicating to General Pickett the congratulations of his enemies! Isn't that incredible? For a moment, at least, the insanity and slaughter of war stopped, and good will and peace prevailed - and it was all because of a baby! We cannot hear that story and not think of the baby who was born in Bethlehem. "His name will be called Jesus," announced the angel, "for he will save his people from their sins." We cannot draw closer to the Christ-child without also drawing closer to God, his Father, and as we draw closer to God, our sinfulness decreases and the spirit of peace and goodwill toward others and God increases. John Thomas Randolph, The Best Gift, CSS, 1983, pp. 26. Article Reference: Title: The Saving Power Of A Baby Typist Or Article Provider: Roddy Chestnut

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Sub-topic: Peace Of Mind

Article Content: Peace of mind is the result of always knowing where you are. Peace of mind is the result of always knowing where you are going. Peace of mind is the result of always knowing how you are going to get to your future destination. Peace of mind is the result of always knowing who you are going to see when you arrive, and always keeping your eyes upon Jesus. The minute you lose any of these factors giving peace of mind, you lose peace of mind. You may not like your present circumstances in life but if you know your goal in life, you have peace. You may not like the path you must walk in life, but if you know where the path leads you have peace. You may not know how you will get from your present moment in life to the next moment. However, if you have faith and hope, the how's and how-to's of life can be figured out. If you have faith and hope, the anticipation of getting where you are going is fuel to keep you moving until you arrive. When you take your eyes off Jesus who stands at the end of the road, you lose track, lose vision, and soon you run off the road into trouble. Jesus is the hope, the vision, and the future. He is the one who brings peace.

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# Chapter 85: Pentecost

Sub-topic: A Perspective On Pentecost

Article Content: Our world was a dark place before Jesus came. Our world would still have been a dark place if the Holy Spirit had not come upon us at Pentecost. Without the Spirit descending at Pentecost, our Lord's life and sacrifice would have only been a momentary flash of God's love. Instead of just a flash of light, we have, in our present time, His continual beam of Light coming down upon us from heaven. The Holy Spirit in our life is like a wonderful memory. Without the Spirit, we would have forgotten about Christ. For example, let us say you are good friends with someone who suddenly goes away and never contacts you again. As the years pass by, you remember your friend, but not very often. Eventually, you don't think much about your friend at all. If it had not been for the Spirit descending on the day of Pentecost, the fishermen would probably have gone back to fishing, the tax collector would probably have gone back to collecting taxes, and everyone else would probably have gone back to their daily life, just like you and I would have. Without the Holy Spirit descending, Jesus' followers would have remembered, and maybe grieved, but nothing else would have happened like what happened as a result of the Holy Spirit descending. Back To Table Of Contents

# Chapter 86: Persistence

Sub-topic: Knocking On The Door

Article Content: Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." (NIV) You can believe Christ was the Son of God, believe He died on the Cross for you personally, and believe He rose again on the third day. You can believe these truths in an objective way just as you can believe it is now 65 degrees outside because you can read an outdoor thermometer. You can believe these truths, but will you take other steps on your faith journey? Will you begin to dig deep into the love and truth of your Christian faith? Will you seek, ask, and knock for the rest of your life? According to the words of Jesus, there is a spiritual door within you. You have the power and the decision-making ability to open this spiritual door or you have the power to leave the door closed. Clearly, Jesus is putting the responsibility for action upon you by telling you to ask, seek, and knock on your spiritual door. Like a physical door, people can give a few tiny taps on this spiritual door and quickly walk away. People can pound for a long time on this door. People can knock on this door and not really want to be there. When this door is finally opened some people may get frightened and back off and run away. However, if you remain, the door will be opened and He will welcome you, talk with you, and be with you.

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Sub-topic: Never, Ever, Ever, Give Up

Article Content: To reach any goal you must try again, and again, and again, and you must never give up. To never ever give up you need power. You can choose an infinite power or you can choose a finite or limited power. In any pursuit in life, you have a choice about which kind of power you use to keep going so you never ever give up. The limited evil power does not want you to win. The limited evil power wants you to give up. The limited evil power wants you to live in defeat and darkness. The limited evil power wants you to fail and fail miserably. God is the infinite power of the universe. To keep going so you never ever give up, you need an infinite power. God is an infinite power. God wants you to never ever give up so you can claim a resounding victory with Him against the limited evil power.

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Sub-topic: The Hard Road

Article Content: There is a story to the effect a certain society in South Africa once wrote to David Livingstone, "Have you found a good road to where you are? If so, we want to send other men to join you." Livingstone replied, "If you have men who will come ONLY if they know there is a good road, I don't want them."

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Sub-topic: Be Persistent And Keep Doing What You Are Doing

Article Content: There are many efforts in life requiring endless effort and endless attempts. We must be persistent in what we do to achieve success. The way of the world is to try one time and give up. We live in a throw-away world where persistence is not highly prized. To achieve great results over time, we must constantly and persistently keep after our objective. Giving up is not productive when setbacks occur. Giving up is not productive after the first few attempts. A persistent mindset keeps you going long after others have given up and gone home. There are few notable accomplishments requiring no effort and no persistence. Few efforts requiring persistent effort ever come off without things going wrong or without obstacles being placed in front of us. How well we keep at a task most often determines how well we accomplish the task. Persistence pay's off but only if we are persistent and keep at the task at hand.

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# Chapter 87: Planning

Sub-topic: Plan With Others In Mind

Article Content: We live in a short-sighted world. We live in a selfish world. The plans we make are too often "our" plans and not necessarily the plans others would make or would carry out. When you make plans, taking into account the wants and needs of others is critically important. Small gestures of consideration on your part can make even the most difficult plans work well. What causes so many mistakes and plans to go wrong are not adversities falling out of the sky, but human beings whose wants and needs were not considered or accounted for in advance. The human factor, the human feelings getting hurt or ignored, the human ideas pushed aside, and the mistakes made in not accounting for our human ability to be selfish and mistake ridden causes many problems. When you make any kind of plans involving other persons make sure their needs are recognized and their positive contributions rewarded. When you make plans, take into account the need of others to be accepted and take into account the need of others to feel competent and worthy. When you make these kinds of plans with this much consideration for others, their behavior will likely reflect their appreciation for your thoughtfulness.

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Sub-topic: Planning Your Future

Article Content: You can choose your future. In fact, you do choose your future whether you realize it or not. You choose your future because every second you make conscious and unconscious decisions. Success in life comes when we make decisions and choices with an intent or purpose to achieve success. In addition, to making godly decisions and planning out your future with purpose and intent you need a map. To wind your way through and around the darkness of life into a place of hope and Light you need to draw a map. The more detailed your map is, the better your chances are of getting to your pre-designed future. To draw our map of life we need a set of basic instructions and a guide...instructions and a guide called...The Bible.

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Sub-topic: Putting Plans On Hold

Article Content: We may be confined and imprisoned by the physical limitations and circumstances of our life. However, when we are confined we can always choose the circumstances of our heart, mind, and soul. A man's or a woman's ultimate quest in life should be to rise above their physical limitations and circumstances. Our ultimate quest in our life should be to live as fully as possible in spite of our circumstances. Each person's ultimate victory in life is to live a full and fruitful life in heart, mind, and soul regardless of physical limitations or circumstances. Some of us may never be able to make the physical limitations and circumstances of our life go away. We may always have to live with these limitations and circumstances. However, when we choose to control and command the circumstances of our heart, mind, and soul, then hope has a chance to flourish. When hope flourishes then our life can flourish...no matter where we are or what the circumstances of our life might be like.

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Sub-topic: The Effect Of Planning Ahead

Article Content: As soon as you start planning ahead in your life, looking and planning ahead makes something happen to your spirit. When the Light of God pours into the darkness of your heart, mind, and soul, reality takes on the warm glow of hope. To look ahead and plan ahead means we have the hope and Light of God shining within us. However, what if I see no possibility of change in the future? What do I do if there are medical or physical reasons why my future is going to be the same as my past? What do I do if my future looks dark because of medical or physical reasons I cannot control? What if I do not want the physical circumstances I am in but I am still stuck with these physical circumstances and I cannot change them? Where is the hope for me? The answer to these questions is at the heart of whether we want to take charge of our life. The essential question is, do we want the physical circumstances we are in to determine our life, or do we want to make our own choices and take charge of our circumstances? If we choose to take charge of our circumstances rather than letting our circumstances take charge of us, then we can plan ahead. However, if we let our circumstances take charge of our life, planning is of little value. For no matter how much we plan, if we chose not to take charge of our life, then the outcome of our life is not determined by us...but by the circumstances over which we have chosen not to take charge. The Light has to be kept on while the darkness is kept off. In more practical terms, outside circumstances may come against us, but we can rule over the outside circumstances when we have the Light or God's love inside of us. Our job is two-fold. Our job is to keep the Light and love in, and keep the darkness out. The barrier we place in our heart using our human will can serve two purposes. Like the roof and walls of a house keep the cold out, the roof and walls can also serve to keep the heat in. Likewise, the barrier we place in our heart can keep out the darkness while keeping in the Light.

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Sub-topic: The Wisdom Of Planning

Article Content: Too often, Christians and non-Christians ignore wisdom, prudence, forethought, and human planning because they believe God will rescue them if they make mistakes. Too often, Christians and non-Christians plow ahead without looking ahead. Too often, we do not use enough common sense. We do not use all the knowledge and wisdom available to us. Unfortunately, for many people, the idea of using wisdom, prudence, forethought, and common sense collides head-on with faith in God. This head-on collision occurs if we believe faith produces or will produce an earthly result. Jesus said He was preparing a heavenly home for us, not an earthly home.

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# Chapter 88: Possibilities

Sub-topic: From Possibilities To Events

Article Content: When we see possibilities in the tough times of life we can act upon these possibilities. Possibilities can become probabilities when we act on the possibilities. Then, when we act on the probabilities these probabilities can become certainties. We can make things happen when we see this chain of events going from possibilities, to probabilities, to certainties, and then we act upon the possibilities. When we see the chain of events and the connections, our level of expectation can reach its highest point. Possibilities can become certainties in our life because we have an intangible substance within our heart and soul called faith. Real faith in the Light of God and the Light's tender care for us is a positive expectation grounded in the certainty of our human experience. Real faith in the Light of God's tender care results in a positive expectation so strong even impossible circumstances become actual events.

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# Chapter 89: Power

Sub-topic: Directing Your Spiritual Power

Article Content: Your spiritual power has both a mental and physical component. You must realize your spiritual power is a power you can direct and control. You can direct and control the spiritual power available to you when you are in a spirit of prayer. You can direct and control the spiritual power available to you when you are in a spirit of worshipful adoration of Christ. In addition, you can direct and control the spiritual life force or life energy in your body. Daily meditation and daily effort at becoming aware of your spiritual power and your life energy will give you the ability to control or direct your spiritual power.

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Sub-topic: New Power

Article Content: We have power over the air via human flight. We have built our country (the USA) into the most advanced country on earth but hatred against our country runs deep in many places. We have unbelievable technology but we are using the technology in unbelievably sinful ways. We have incredible inventions but we have abortions by the millions. We have life saving medicine but a world full of vacant and empty souls. We have extended human life but the life being lived is often miserable. We are trying to control the weather but the weather is reacting in violent ways. We have reversed the aging process in experimental animals but we have lost the meaning and purpose of life in humans. We have discovered the kill switch in living cells telling the cells to die but millions of people live on the edge of starvation. Not only do we have power but we are getting more and more power from new power sources. What will happen now that we have new power?

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Sub-topic: Personal Power Or God's Power

Article Content: As people increase their power, they see less of a need for God. Because of their sin, they even aspire to be like God and do what only God can do. As people increase their power, they begin to take credit for their accomplishments and fail to see God working in their life. Teachings supporting a person's sense of power and teachings helping a person move away from God are popular because being near God makes a sinner uncomfortable. Only when we are humble in spirit, redeemed by His blood, and rest fully in His love do we find Him alive within us.

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Sub-topic: Power And Greatness

Article Content: There are many secular books on secular power and greatness. Some of you may have read these books. I have read books by Napoleon Hill dealing with how to be successful. In many respects, the success books of the early part of the last century, and many of the books of today, try to help people find a way to achieve greatness in the eyes of men. However, Christ does not care about secular greatness. Christ cares only about godly greatness achieved through kindness, caring, compassion, love, contrition, and humility.

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Sub-topic: Power To Control

Article Content: We all want power. We all want to be able to control the events in our life. Realistically, there are some parts of our life we cannot control. Our power over the events in our life is determined not so much when we control the events in our life but when we control ourselves. We cannot exchange our life for another person. To change all of who we are we need to be able to do the impossible. We need to be able to make an exchange of who we are now with a new person. However, with God, all things are possible. In a most personal way, in a way applicable to you, the new person you can become is the person God has always wanted you to be. To make this exchange, or to completely change yourself, you have to see Jesus and see the love in His eyes for you. Everyone needs love. No person on earth can escape the need for love. Even the most evil of persons need love. The most evil persons are the persons who need love the most. In His eyes, as you repent of your sins, you become a new person because of Him and through Him.

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Sub-topic: Real Power

Article Content: We do not have much worldly power. We have no worldly power over physical death. We have limited worldly power over sickness or illness. We have no worldly power over the weather, earthquakes, or business cycles, except to react to what happens. We want to think we have worldly power. We delude ourselves into thinking we can do just about anything we want anytime we want to do it. The truth is otherwise. When we often need worldly power we do not have it. However, we do have spiritual power. We have access to unlimited spiritual power. The focus of our life must not be upon getting more worldly power, but upon getting more spiritual power based upon the forgiving love and mercy of Christ. Only in the forgiving power of Christ can we have the kind of power we need every day. Our spiritual power truly determines whether we are winning or losing in life.

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Sub-topic: What Caring Does

Article Content: Caring empowers people. Caring lifts others up from their present station in life to a higher plane. Caring gives others the chance to care back. Caring affirms your purpose in life. Caring brings all of us to the source of peace. Caring brings out God's love during times of pain. Caring brings out God's love in times of sadness. Caring brings out God's love in times of temptation. Caring brings out God's love in times of uncertainty. Caring brings out God's love in times of worry. Caring brings out the power of God in every circumstance. Caring brings us to a place where God lives. Caring diminishes the foolishness of greed. Caring diminishes the love of money. Caring eases another person's pain. Caring eases the pain of defeat. Caring eases the pain of grief. Caring eases the pain when we backslide. Caring eases the pain when we fail. Caring eases the pain when we falter. Caring eases the pain when we lose sight. Caring eases the pain when we sin. Caring eases your pain as well as the pain of another. Caring eliminates our lack of faith. Caring eliminates the poverty and enhances the wealth of the spirit. Caring enables everyone to have a mighty mission. Caring enables everyone to have more life. Caring enables everyone to see the light of hope in Christ. Caring enables the lost to be found. Caring enables us to hear God's small voice. Caring enables us to hear God's voice of gentleness. Caring enables us to hear God's voice of kindness. Caring enables us to hear God's voice of understanding. Caring enables us to hear the tenderness of God's voice. Caring enables us to make a sacrifice. Caring enables you to become what God wants you to become. Caring enables you to pray when evil strikes. Caring enables you to turn to God when evil strikes. Caring enhances our capacity for faith in God. Caring establishes within you a faith for life. Caring fulfills part of our purpose in Christ. Caring gives others freedom. Caring gives us a glimpse of God's vision for our life. Caring helps diminish worry. Caring helps others deal with aloneness. Caring helps others deal with pain. Caring helps others embrace the promise of a better life. Caring helps others touch the infinite. Caring helps us resist temptation. Caring helps us build the right kind of alliances with others. Caring helps us find peace in chaos. Caring helps us grasp our hope in what was promised by God. Caring helps us accept ourselves. Caring helps you affirm Jesus when evil strikes. Caring helps you and others find your life. Caring helps you and others find heart. Caring helps you find Christ when you think you have lost him. Caring helps you fulfill what God wants you to do or be. Caring helps you hold fast when evil strikes. Caring helps you keep your head when evil strikes. Caring helps you regain relationships with others. Caring illumines your destiny. Caring is a form of letting God be within you. Caring is a form of looking up to God. Caring is a time of victory when we are struggling to have God within. Caring is a time when God reveals his love. Caring is a time when God reveals his presence. Caring is a time when God reveals his reality. Caring is a time when God reveals his understanding and compassion. Caring is a way to find how God enables you to have faith. Caring is a way to find how God gives you his peace. Caring is a way to find how God trusts you. Caring is a way to provide the best evidence Christ is alive. Caring is an example of putting God before all things of life. Caring is an example of taking the right path. Caring is an opportunity for God to reveal his will. Caring is how we are to live, move, and have our being. Caring is the essence of giving away inner peace. Caring is the essence of reaching out to God. Caring is the secret to freedom. Caring is the work of real heroes. Caring is what Jesus did. Caring lets us touch what lasts forever. Caring magnifies the incredible works of God. Caring makes you young again. Caring mends the broken heart. Caring opens the door to let Christ in. Caring opens the heart of God to the cry of the multitudes for a new life. Caring opens the heart of God to the cry of the multitudes for hope. Caring permits all of us to be God's servant and witness. Caring permits all of us to have spiritual vision. Caring permits all of us to love others more than self. Caring permits others to lead a spiritual life. Caring permits the flow of God's healing force within you and within others. Caring permits us to do a better job of serving God. Caring permits us to receive from Christ. Caring permits you to find God when you think you have lost Him. Caring permits you to speak to people you don't know. Caring produces inner peace. Caring pushes you forward when you think you cannot go on. Caring puts an end to our war with God. Caring puts in place God's cause and effect. Caring puts the foolishness of worldly success into perspective. Caring results in a time of God pouring his healing love over you. Caring reveals in us the immediate and innate wisdom of God. Caring reveals to you and to others how God believes in you. Caring shields us as we are being sent into the fire. Caring should be our daily quest. Caring shows everyone Christ is a being of peace in life. Caring shows others God is bigger than hopelessness. Caring shows others God is bigger than pain. Caring shows others God is bigger than problems. Caring shows others God is bigger than you. Caring shows others God is bigger than your life. Caring shows how money and a spiritual life do not mix. Caring shows none of us is really better than another person. Caring shows the folly of our wrong ideas about others. Caring stops hatred. Caring stops illness. Caring stops revenge. Caring stores up treasures kept in heaven. Caring will help you find God today.

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Sub-topic: When Power Is Gone

Article Content: When the electrical power goes out, just about everything comes to a standstill. If you have ever had to do without electricity for more than a few minutes at a time, you understand the implications of not having any electrical power coming into your home. In our personal life, sometimes the power seems to go out and everything comes to a standstill. Energy seems to cease and we are at a point where we cannot move. When the power in our life seems to be gone then this time of power outage is time to turn to God. God is the Creator and the possessor of all power in the universe. God is the original power source and from Him all other power flows. We are never without God's power. When our own power seems to have run out, we can turn to God. When we have opened our heart, mind, and soul to Him, we receive an abundance of new power. God's will is not for any of us to be powerless. God's will is for us to use the power He gives us for His glory and grace. When we use what God gives us for His glory, there is within our life a multiplication effect. When we share God's power then the power we share is multiplied while His power comes back to us many times over.

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# Chapter 90: Prayer

Sub-topic: Battling In Prayer

Article Content: Battling our ego in prayer is a reality we must not gloss over. We all have egos. We all have our inner voice in us screaming out, "I", "me", and "mine". When we pray, we must pray for a diminished ego before God. When you are consumed by your own life, consumed by your own worries, and consumed by your own problems, then prayer becomes all about you instead of all about others, all about Christ, and doing what God wants you to do. In these times when you are consumed with your own life, your mission is to pray in an unselfish way. You are to pray even when you cannot pray in abandonment of your ego. At any time, when you cannot pray, you are to pray anyway. When you are not in the mood to pray, when you are too sick to pray, when you have lost touch with God, pray anyway. God knows what you are going through and He also hears you whether you think He hears you or not. One of the difficult things to do when you don't want to pray is to pray. No matter what the circumstances might be, you are to pray. Even if it seems like you are just going through the motions, go through the motions anyway. The Lord hears you and He is near to you even when you are not near to Him. Hard to believe, but God is more glorified by those who struggle for Him than those who find it easy to always do godly things and find it easy to be godly people.

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Sub-topic: Being "In Prayer"

Article Content: Matthew 21:22 "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." (NIV) God may not give us unlimited power when we pray. There may be a reason for God's action of not giving what we want. The reason God may not give us unlimited power when we pray is probably because He knows such power will be abused when sin enters in. We never fully believe because sin enters in. When we receive what we pray for, we receive because we believe. We believe and receive because we lift up our voice calling upon God. We believe He hears us and we receive without sin entering into our plea and petition. When we believe and "in prayer" God will make us whole. He will give us everything we need if we are really "in prayer" as Jesus says we are to be. To be "in prayer" does not mean we take a list of stuff we want for ourselves to Him. What "in prayer" does mean is we can take a list of our heartaches, burdens, and pain to Him and He will listen and answer us. Being "in prayer" is not saying words. Being "in prayer" means we are talking directly with God in a state of our mind and heart where we submit our will to him...where we place our whole life in His hands. Being "in prayer" is a state in our heart, mind, and life where we bow down before Him, in reverence, in awe, in wonder, and most of all, in love for Him because He sent his Son to die for us.

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Sub-topic: Deep Prayer And Meditation

Article Content: Newer research shows a link (a big one) between the nervous system and the immune system. When you deeply pray and meditate on the things of God, your prayer and meditation can produce profound changes in your nervous system and in your total body chemistry. Deep prayer and meditation can make you calmer and more at peace, thus giving your immune system a chance to more fully work against the dark power wanting to make you sick or ill. Deep prayer and meditation can give you power when you feel weak, replace the doubt and worry in your mind with calm assurance and confidence, and turn your thinking from negative thoughts into positive thoughts of a better future.

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Sub-topic: How We Should Pray

Article Content: We should pray up rather than calling God down. We do not need to call God down because God knows our needs before we ask. When we pray, our spirit is to be directed upward rather than downward. When we pray upward, whatever problems, needs, and issues we face in the here and now can be left in the here and now. When we pray upward, we do not need to ask God to work on what we face each day. Instead, when we pray upward, we let our spirit soar upward to God rather than asking or seeking for God to come down to us. Praying is a matter of taking our spirit and going home to be with our Father in Heaven while we are alive upon the earth. Once we go home to be with Christ in prayer, then we can sit and talk with Him about what we face each day. What is most important we be willing to go to where God is rather than asking God to come to be where we are. When we pray up for others we cast the needs of others up to God. We take their needs and send their needs upward in prayer so God can work on the needs of others and do miraculous work in their life.

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Sub-topic: Prayer And Getting An Answer

Article Content: Why doesn't a prayer to God bring me a cure to my ills and troubles? Here are some likely answers you can receive:

●You did not pray for the right thing.

●God does not want you to have a cure, or it is not God's will you get a cure.

●Your faith is weak.

●You have the wrong kind of faith.

●You did not go to church enough.

●You are not praying enough.

●Everyone has to suffer.

●You have to grin and bear it. These are standard answers. These are stock answers. Although most people are not cruel enough or blunt enough to voice these answers, the answers are generally implied by many people if you press people for an answer. What is worse, many people are indeed cruel enough to voice these answers. Notice in these answers you and your faith are to blame for not getting the answer you want or need. In one way or another, these answers blame you and your faith or lack thereof for the darkness and adversity in which you might find yourself. However, in God's eyes, most of these answers are utterly detestable. In God's eyes, these answers are utterly detestable because God can see every person is under attack just as His son was under attack when Jesus walked the earth. The truth about why we do not get what we pray for often eludes us. The true answer about why we do not get what we pray for is quite often we do not really know. Rather than say we do not really know why we do not get what we pray for, we invent answers and some of the answers we invent are the detestable answers listed above. In our faith, we know and believe the rain of adversity falls on the just and the unjust. What we do know in our faith is how God loves us beyond our ability to comprehend. What we do know in our faith is God has prepared a place for us in Heaven where we will not suffer or experience any kind of pain. In heaven, there are no more unanswered questions.

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Sub-topic: Prayer As A Way To Worship In Fullness

Article Content: God is Light and must be worshipped in the fullness of our spirit. God is love and must be worshipped in the fullness of our being. God cannot be worshipped in the emptiness of our selfishness. When we try to worship God and we are empty inside because we are selfish, we are not worshipping. When we are empty inside, we must come to God seeking His love surely filling us up by erasing our selfishness. In His in-filling love we are then able to worship Him in truth. In prayer we are to express our utmost love for God. In the core of our innermost life, we are to see ourselves as worthy of His love...so worthy of His love Christ died for us. When we can see ourselves as worthy of Christ's love we can then begin to worship Him in the fullness of our spirit.

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Sub-topic: Prayer From The Heart

Article Content: Love is the most powerful force on earth. However, we the power of love often seems absent in life. Prayer is an expression of our love for God and for others. Effective prayer is not necessarily saying words. Effective prayer is expressing what is in your heart when you are sitting in the presence of Christ. What God wants most from you in your time of prayer is your presence with Him. When you pray, being with God is more important than using the right words. When we love God, truly love Him, we do not always have the right words because our words fail us. When you love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might, what comes from your heart is a big gushing or pouring out of love going up to heaven. When we have this big gushing or pouring out of love from our heart, there are no words, no thoughts, and no actions to express our thanksgiving. What we hold in our heart during our sending up time is beyond words. When we talk to God in this way, He responds to us in supernatural ways. When we pray to God in this way, what we send up comes back to fill us and overflow within us. This does not mean we should not use words when we pray. Our words, even when feeble, are a treasure to God. Our words to God, even when feeble, even when we struggle with what we want to say, mean we love Him enough to talk with Him.

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Sub-topic: Praying And Doing

Article Content: If the truth were told, many people will stand before the Lord and tragically have to say... "I prayed but I never stopped to listen." "I prayed but I never gave my time." "I prayed but I never gave my money." "I prayed but I always left the doing to someone else." "I prayed but I never forgave." "I prayed but I never reached out in love." However, other people will need to say a word because these people, instead of speaking will hear the Lord say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." These faithful servants will hear these words because many faithful servants have spent their whole life in silent service to the Lord. Many faithful servants never expect anything back from Him, never expect any reward from Him, never expect any prize from Him, and never expect any glory from Him. Many faithful servants gave their blood, sweat, and tears for Him. Many faithful servants gave their life for Him. As Christians, we have been too complacent. We have given responsibilities to the Lord when we could have easily shouldered the responsibilities ourselves. We have trusted the Lord to do what we could do ourselves because we have been too lazy to deal with what we could have done ourselves. We have not been faithful servants because we have not backed up our praying with our doing. In our Christian life we must both pray AND do. When we pray we must also listen to God speaking to us. When we pray we must also give our time. When we pray we must also give our money. When we pray we must not leave the doing to someone else but pick up the doing and do the doing ourselves. When we pray we must also forgive. As we forgive, we must also reach out in love.

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Sub-topic: Praying During The Down Times

Article Content: In all the adversities and circumstances of life, we need to talk to God. When you talk to God in prayer, He will answer. The answer God gives you is designed to help you and be of benefit. The answer He gives will help you be strong instead of weak. When adversity strikes, you need all the strength and power you can get, so talk to God. There are times when you may not feel like praying or talking to God. In fact, you may be angry with God because you may hold God accountable for the adversities in your life. You may feel God could have prevented pain, suffering, or a loss. You may feel God turned His back on you when you needed Him most. These are normal feelings and expectations about God. Not only do we have down times in parts of our life, sometimes we have down times in our faith in God. However, no matter what your attitude is toward God, you still need to talk to Him. When you talk to Him, He will listen, understand, and be with you through all the days of your life.

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Sub-topic: Praying In Our World

Article Content: We have our wants for our life when we pray. Jesus has His wants for our life when we pray. We want results from God when we pray. Jesus wants us in a relationship with Him when we pray. We might demand results when we pray. Jesus wants us to just make a humble request. We are driven in our life. Jesus wants us to be quietly waiting to be led by Him in our life. We can be hard charging in our life and even hard charging in our prayer time. Jesus wants us to be quiet and to softly call His name. We want a specific technique when we pray, like wanting His phone number. Jesus wants us quietly waiting for His voice and touch when we pray. We want to know how to get what we want when we pray. Jesus wants us to want to know Him when we pray. We want power when we pray. Jesus wants us to only seek Him when we pray. We want to speak words of power when we pray. Jesus wants us to speak only words of love when we pray. We want to get things done when we pray. Jesus wants us to just be with Him. We want to make the right jaw, tongue, voice movements when we pray. Jesus wants us to be His child, to be humble, to be led by Him, and to be all of who He made us to be when we pray.

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Sub-topic: The Presence Of God In Prayer

Article Content: To have the presence of God in prayer, you must be where God is instead of asking Him to be where you are. By being where He is, His amazing grace can be experienced, not just sung about. Prayer needs to be a relationship, just as a friendship is a relationship. If you knew someone who was always coming around wanting something (like people always want something in their prayer time) you wouldn't have much of a friendship. A friendship is a relationship where two people just enjoy being together. A friendship is a time when two people spend time together and they have something in common. Friends have memories they share, they have mutual interests, they are loose and free with each other, they share happiness and joy, they share sadness and pain, and they share everything without restraint. We cannot be friends with someone if all we want them to do is provide us with things, fill orders for us, answer our requests, bring us our requests as we provide our request on a shopping list, or solve our problems. Does any of this sound familiar? Hmmm! We have a friend in Jesus. Jesus, like any friend, should not be someone we feel we can use to get what we want.

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Sub-topic: The Reality Of Prayer...

Article Content: God is a spiritual source of power. Our difficulty in relating to God is not that we have no power through Him. Our problem in prayer is the limitation put upon us by satanic darkness. As in all aspects of our life, we must wage war against satanic darkness when we are in prayer. Satan does not want us to humbly pray. Satan wants us to discount prayer as a meaningless exercise. Satan wants us to think of prayer as nothing more than mumbling incoherent words to the wall. Satan wants us to think prayer is of no effect. The testimony of millions of persons who have prayed says otherwise. When we pray we talk to God. When we pray we connect to the unlimited and infinite power of the universe we know is God. When we pray we connect to love, peace, forgiveness, serenity, and the power to be everything God made us to be.

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Sub-topic: Unanswered Prayer

Article Content: Jesus encountered a rich man and told the rich man to inherit eternal life the rich man needed to give up all he owned. What we must realize is we cannot give up our selves or our possessions on our own. Giving up to God, giving up all we own and all we are requires help. We need the help of Jesus through the Holy Spirit to surrender our life up to Him. We need the Holy Spirit to help us see Jesus' eyes, because seeing Jesus' eyes makes all other things and ideas in the world unimportant by comparison. When we look into Jesus' eyes the things of earth grow dim and giving up our things is no longer difficult because giving up our things is something we want to do for Him.

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Sub-topic: When You Pray

Article Content: Why do you pray? Do you pray to get results or to be near God? Do you pray to get results AND to be near God? God wants you to stay spiritually alive. Prayer is the only way you can relate to God and stay spiritually alive as He intends. Prayer, in all its forms, is the only way you can get close to Him. If we would tell the truth, we desperately need God. If we could face the truth, we would realize each of us is dying of spiritual thirst. Prayer is one of our ways of letting God quench our spiritual thirst. God loves you in infinite ways and prayer is a way you can touch the infinite part of God. God is love and prayer is a way of letting God filter down into your heart and life. Prayer is often a feeble effort at standing in the Light of God's love. However, God loves any effort in His name whether the effort is feeble or strong. When you pray, you are standing in the Light. When you pray, you are standing in the wonderful Light and love of God with His wonderful beams of love shining down upon you.

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Sub-topic: When You Talk To God

Article Content: When you talk to God, you ought to tell Him everything all. Even the bad things you think you can't say to Him should be told to Him. When you talk to Him, tell Him you love Him, and then tell Him the hard-to-speak-about-things first. Recall how He understands and He knows about difficult life is for you. When you pray, instead of praying for big things, perhaps God is more interested in giving you small things first. When we pray, we often ask for miles of progress when God may be more interested in our making progress in inches rather than miles. When you pray, remember believing must come before praying. One of the most important ingredients in prayer is believing God hears you and He will answer according to His will rather than your own. Believing you will get what you want is not what we call believing in prayer. We must remember, when we pray we must pray God delivers to us what is first in His will and not what is first in our will.

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# Chapter 91: Pride

Sub-topic: Pride And Ego

Article Content: Our pride, ego, and selfishness keep us from being persons of humility. When we put what we want out in front of us, we are not being humble. Of all the things keeping people out of the kingdom of heaven, putting what we want in front of us is one of the main contributors. We can all have our top ten list of what we want. When we are humble we are supposed to burn our list to ashes.

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# Chapter 92: Promise

Sub-topic: A Promise Of Well-being

Article Content: When you face an adversity, ask God to: A.) Eliminate any adversity on any level He feels you need erased--body, mind, and spirit. B.) Make real in your life His highest potential for your well-being in body, mind, and spirit. As a new way of living, commit your heart, mind, and soul to this promise of well-being: Make these promises to yourself...

●I will choose hope over despair in all areas of my life.

●I will practice sincere gratitude for all the blessings I now have.

●I will spend an hour each day in prayer, meditation, study, and preparing my mind and spirit to receive God's direction.

●I will practice forgiveness in all my relationships.

●I will be a connecting link for God's unconditional love.

●I will pursue God's will for my life as best i understand it.

●I will commit to sharing this message with others.

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Sub-topic: Getting Young And Gaining Promise

Article Content: Christ set in motion what cannot be done in the physical realms. Christ set in motion the reversing of a person's age. Christ enables every human being to be young again and enabled all of us to gain the hope and promise of our youth. We cannot make a human being younger in body, but through Christ we can become younger in spirit. By accepting Christ we can become younger in our spirit and find the promise of youth. Christ not only helps us become young again in our spirit, the acceptance of Christ as our Savior gives us a chance to be forever young forever in Heaven.

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# Chapter 93: Protection

Sub-topic: Protect Your Heart

Article Content: Our ability to be motivated and enthusiastic keeps us moving into the future. When we lose our motivation and enthusiasm we begin to resemble robots only go through mechanical motions. In daily life, we must remember to protect our heart. We must remember to protect our heart because our heart is the container of our motivation and enthusiasm. We protect our heart by making sure the darkness of despair, worry, doubt, fear, greed, and ego are dealt with and banished from us. Your heart is the seat of your soul. When your heart becomes corrupted through selfishness, your motivation and enthusiasm will eventually follow in corruption or else your selfishness will spell your doom by becoming a cancer upon your soul. Darkness attacks in the form of doubt, depression, lack of vision, and fear. We kill our doubt and we keep our hope alive by understanding nothing in life is guaranteed. We keep our hope alive by understanding all things are possible, all the time, to every person. We kill our depression by continually counting our blessings minute by minute, hour by hour. We kill our lack of vision by defining our future in minute detail. We kill our fear by doing what we fear.

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Sub-topic: Protect Your Thinking

Article Content: Your computer is protected in a number of ways from outside elements. The case of your computer protects the motherboard, hard drive, power supply, and other inner parts from bumps and bangs from outside objects. In addition, you should be using a firewall and a virus protection program to protect your software. In the same way, your mind needs to be protected. You protect your mind from harmful influences by keeping mentally active, purposefully using your mind, and keeping your sense of humor about the way things work in life. You protect your thinking by reviewing what you have done and resolving to improve every day regardless of your age or your condition. You protect your mind by challenging your thinking through the use of challenging books, challenging games, and learning new skills and abilities. You protect your mind by staying involved in life and avoiding the temptation to let life slide by without any participation on your part.

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Sub-topic: Protect Yourself Because The Game Is Tough

Article Content: The game of life is a tough game. Every day there are casualties and fatalities. Every part of our life is subject to downturns, disasters, trouble, setbacks, and destructive events. Although we have hope for the future, we must also be realistic and build into every part of our life those protective measures keeping parts of our life from harm. We may not think much about building in protective measures for what we do each day. However, we need to think about what could happen to us. We need to build in a form of insurance against likely trouble. Being optimistic about tomorrow is important. However, being cockeyed in our optimism is not advisable. We must build protection into what we do because if we do not build in protection, we can easily become a victim of circumstances set tp attack us and destroy us. We must protect ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, occupationally, and in all the other ways we live, work, and play.

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# Chapter 94: Purpose

Sub-topic: A Spiritual Map

Article Content: To get from where you are in the darkness of your life to a place of hope and the Light of God, you need a spiritual map. The more detailed your spiritual map is in terms of how you have drawn the map, the better chance you have of getting to your future. In our spiritual life, some maps have already been drawn. For Christians and Jews, our great spiritual map within our spiritual life is called the Bible. From this word from God we can chart our course in life and always find hope. The Bible is the book of hope. From this word given to us directly from God we find hope going beyond this life as we see our life extending into eternity.

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Sub-topic: God Has Given You Direction

Article Content: What talents and traits has God given you? Most people have some idea of their talents and traits. The talents and traits God has given you can be an indicator of His will for your life. Your talents and traits are pointers you can use to measure your hopes and dreams against God's will. If you are great in math and accounting, God may need you to use your math ability to fulfill His will for your life. If you are mechanically inclined then work or service in a mechanical field may be God's will for you. God's will is like the wind. You can either go with the wind or go against the wind. Walking is easier with the wind at your back. Likewise pursuing hopes and dreams using your native talents and traits is easier than pursuing hopes and dreams requiring you to use talents and traits you do not have.

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Sub-topic: Lost Vs. Found

Article Content: Without a definite aim in life, without direction, without rules of conduct, and without methods to make progress, life is lived by accident. When we live life by accident, there is little or no guidance by a governing eye, a governing hand, or a governing mind. When we live life by accident, accidents and other events in our life take place outside of our planning or control. When we live life by accident, there is a jumping or skipping from one thing to another without any organization, without any planning, without any method, or without any system. A person who is lost lives life at random. A person who is lost lives a haphazard life. A person who is lost has no direction, no aim, and no purpose. The lost person has no guidance and no governing hand from God. A person who is lost is at the mercy of Satan. A person who is lost lives life casually, jumping from on thing to another trying to find happiness, trying to find God, or trying to fill the starving center of their life. When you are lost you have no plan for the future, and no method of getting there. When you are found, you are no longer lost. When you are found you do not live life in a haphazard manner because there is direction and purpose in everything you do. When you are found there is an aim to everything you do. When you are found you take aim at a target, and you have a clear vision of your target. When you are found you will be clear and convincing. When you are found, everyone will look at you as a leader. When you are found you have a purpose for the things you do. When you are found you have a governing and guiding hand upon you. When you are found, you are no longer at the mercy of Satan. Instead, Satan is at your mercy. When you are found, you do not live life as it comes, you live life on purpose. When you are found, you live life with a plan for the future and you have a method for getting there. When you are found, you are found because you have decided to be God's child through Christ Jesus our Savior and Lord.

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# Chapter 95: Rebirth

Sub-topic: Rebirth

Article Content: In Christ, there can really and truly be a brand new you, born of His blood. For when you accept Christ, you are reborn. You essentially start over in life because the old person you used to be has died or has passed away. When you accept Christ, a new you, or a new person has been born. The old self, the past self, the sinful self dies or melts away as we accept Christ into our life. For some persons, this process of being born again is no instantaneous event. To die, your old sinful self has to be cut off from its life source. Upon your rebirth in Christ, Satan begins to play cruel tricks upon you. Satan will make you think, during your rebirth process, you can't live without something in your life and Christ is not needed or wanted. To keep you from being fully reborn, Satan will make you believe the only way you can live is the way you lived in the flesh. Satan tries to make you hang on to your old self. Satan tries to make you addicted to your old self and old way of life. However, Satan is the great deceiver. Satan is the great liar. The truth is when you accept Christ into your life and heart you can turn away from your old self and old life. In Christ, you can cut off the old self, let it go, let loose of it, become separated from it, and let it die. When you let the old self die in Christ, there is, indeed a brand new you who is born in Christ. Your are, indeed, born again.

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# Chapter 96: Redemption

Sub-topic: Attaining Physical Redemption

Article Content: Christ was more than just a man. He was more than a human body nailed to the cross. Christ was the healing love force bringing God (who is love) and man together in oneness. This oneness between each of us and God establishes wholeness in us. Through Christ, we begin to receive the life and nature of God, the nature of God called love. When we receive the love or nature of God into our heart, the love we call God creates a new person in us. When we become a new creation in every part of our being, we can also become a new creation in our body or in our physiology. We call the process of becoming a new creation the process of redemption. The love taking us from being dead in our spirit to alive in our spirit can also take our physiology from being dead to being alive. We can become alive in our spirit because Christ lives within our heart. We can also become alive in Christ within our body. When we accept Christ in our heart, we bring the love He is into our heart. When we confess Him as our Lord and Savior, we let the love He is out to others and to the world. Given time, our physical body will wear out and eventually our physical body will quit working. However, in God's grace and love, God has enabled us to redeem our corruptible physical body for a new heavenly body immune to wearing out, wearing down, or growing old.

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# Chapter 97: Repentance

Sub-topic: To Repent Or Not To Repent

Article Content: When we deal with questions about God, we must always look in the mirror at ourselves. Honestly looking at our individual life and at our own behavior is something most people do not want to do. Most people do not want to confront their frail and sinful natures. God could do many more things in our life if we would repent. Overall, we, as a human race are not inclined to repent. We do not really want to repent. We do not want to think about repenting. We want to remain in our own power structure rather than fitting into God's power structure. There is something quite divine about God having given us the ability to repent or not repent. God has preserved our free will decision-making option of going His way or our way. We are, in this regard, free to make our own decisions about God. We are free to make decisions about our life. We are free to make decisions to repent or not to repent. If each of us does not choose to repent then our life will unravel and we will be left lost and alone, perhaps for eternity. If we choose to repent, our life will be gathered together under the watchful eye and protective rod and staff of our Great Shepherd. Sub-topic: Repentance And Sacrifice

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# Chapter 98: Responsibility

Sub-topic: Being Responsible

Article Content: Our world faces many a crisis. One of the major crises we face is the crisis of irresponsibility. In increasing numbers, persons in every profession are becoming more and more irresponsible. Men and women who are not responsible will drink on the job because they are thirsty for a drink of alcohol. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg. As the "me generation" matures and as their children enter into the workforce, an age of selfishness will erode job performance, business profitability, and eventually our economy. In spiritual terms, more and more people want God to do for them, without their doing for God. God invested His only Son in the hope each person would see how much God loves each person of the world. As we become more selfish, we ignore God's gift of His Son to us.

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Sub-topic: Being Responsible In Christ

Article Content: Ephes. 6:13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. (NIV)

●Life is not fair. However, even in the unfairness of life, we must still be responsible.

●To be responsible, we are to repent of our sins.

●To be responsible, we are to accept Christ as our Savior and Lord.

●In Christ, to be responsible, we are to be strong.

●In Christ, to be responsible, we are to put on an armor of light.

●In Christ, to be responsible, we are to always do what is right.

●In Christ, to be responsible, we are to stand against bad things happening.

●In Christ, to be responsible, we are to do everything possible to live a fruitful life.

●In Christ, to be responsible, we are to tell the truth.

●In Christ, to be responsible, we are to be at peace within ourselves.

●In Christ, to be responsible, we are to have faith and believe in the love of God.

●In Christ, to be responsible, we are to trust the words God sent to us because they are infallible.

●In Christ, to be responsible, we are to love God.

●In Christ, to be responsible, we are to love one another.

●In Christ, to be responsible, we are to recognize Christ for whom He really is as we find a new life through Him.

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# Chapter 99: Rules

Sub-topic: Games And Life Depend Upon Rules

Article Content: Can you imagine a game of any kind without rules? Can you imagine any kind of company without any rules? Can you imagine any kind of state or country without any rules? Can you imagine a family without rules? Of course, every kind of game and every kind of life depends upon rules to give structure, direction, meaning, and purpose. When there are no rules or the rules are ignored, the structure, direction, meaning, and purpose of a game, a company, a nation, or a family break down and chaos reigns. The importance of rules cannot be overstressed. In many circumstances, failure is often the result of no rules or rules being ignored.

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Sub-topic: Penalties Given Out When Rules Are Broken

Article Content: Our life is immersed in rules, regulations, statutes, ordinances, and laws of every kind, shape, and form. There are so many laws we must observe we probably break any number of them in our daily routine without knowing we are doing so. Under most circumstances, when laws and rules are passed, penalties are set. Although breaking the rules is never wise, if we choose to break the rules, we must not gripe or complain about the penalty when we are caught as a rule breaker. There are times when we may stand for certain values and we may break the rules of social conventions or we may break the rules set in place by groups or organizations. When we choose to break the rules, we must understand fully there will most likely be a price to pay for not following the rules or conventions set in place. Civil disobedience has been an effective device for social change and making statements about the perception of social wrongs. When engaged in civil disobedience, regardless of our motivation or the justifiability of our actions, we must be prepared to pay the price for our actions. Each of us can be an agent for social change in our world. We must be prepared, when we undertake the task of changing our world, to assume the risk of going against the conventions of the world. In many instances, the risk of going against the conventions of the world is paying the price for standing up against what the world thinks is acceptable or true. Quite often, others perceive us as strong or weak depending upon how much we gripe, whine, and complain. When we remain silent in the face of paying the price for our stand on issues, then our actions of not griping, not whining, and not complaining will often be a greater testament to the righteousness of our position than our act of civil disobedience.

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# Chapter 100: Sacrifice

Sub-topic: Cleaning Up Your Past

Article Content: Our past is littered with the debris of our mistakes, failings, and missed opportunities. If the debris of our past is piled high upon our shoulders, we can throw off this pile of garbage. Unfortunately for us we cannot turn back the clock and walk back into yesterday and remake the history of what we have done or not done in the past. Although we cannot remake our past, we can learn from our past if we are excruciatingly honest. We cannot make our past go away. To clean up our past we must learn to forgive ourselves. If we have guilt today over what we did yesterday, our guilt today means we have grown up enough to see our mistakes. Our guilt today over what we did yesterday is a positive attribute because our guilt today means we have the insight to grow and never repeat the behavior of yesterday. In much of life we learn by doing. In much of life we learn the hard way by making mistakes and falling down. What we did in our past is not nearly as important today as what we are going to do today and tomorrow. Although we cannot clean up our past like we can clean up the litter on a lawn, we can build a future free of what we did in the past. Our past can haunt us, but we can use our haunting to understand what we were like before we changed. We can use our haunting to commit our life to be better today than we were yesterday. Where we have been in the past is of no consequence if we know where we are now and where we want to go tomorrow. Continuing to look back over our shoulder because of our mistakes, failings, and missed opportunities hurts us because looking back over our shoulder takes our focus off our present and future. Indeed, our past is not salvageable and made clean as if circumstances never were. What we can always do today is make sure our future is not a repeat of yesterday in terms of the mistakes we made yesterday. What we can always do today is make sure our future IS a repeat of yesterday in terms of our successes of yesterday.

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Sub-topic: Sacrifice

Article Content: If we started a church and we told everyone in the new church they were going to have to do church work they didn't want to do, would anyone attend? If we asked the church members to walk a rough and rocky road, would anyone sit in the pews? If we asked people to do things making them uncomfortable, would anyone attend? If we asked people to give their blood, sweat, and tears for the work of the Lord, would they be in church? If we asked people to do things they were not necessarily good at doing, would they show up for worship? To ask people to truly sacrifice for God does not play well on TV or play well to two generations of TV watchers. When we speak of sacrifice in this context, we are not speaking about giving money or making a financial sacrifice. When we speak of sacrifice in the context of building a church we are speaking about people doing what they do not want to do, doing what makes them uncomfortable, being willing to walk a rough and rocky road, and giving their blood, sweat, and tears for Christ. If we asked people to sacrifice like this, how many would show up to build the church?

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Sub-topic: Sacrifice And Letting Go

Article Content: In our daily walk with God and for God, God requires we make sacrifices. When Satan attacks us and we are in pain or when Satan attacks us and we lose people, we must let go and sacrifice our hurt to Him in order to heal. Letting go and sacrifice are in the same category of yielding up our life to God's love, to His will, and to His mercy. Even the most traumatic of circumstances in our life must be surrendered up or be given to God so we may heal from those circumstances. Sacrifice is the main requirement of our Christian faith. If you are willing to sacrifice your life for Christ's life in you, you will be totally overwhelmed with his love. Luke 18:29 - 30 "I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "No one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life." (NIV) In the Christian life, there is no way to get more without becoming less. In the Christian life, there is no way to heal from the traumas of life without surrendering, letting go, and sacrificing our traumas up to Christ. When you are in pain, surrender everything you are. When you are in pain, surrender everything you have. Give everything to God and you will be blessed. The worst hurt in the world is not letting go of what has been taken from you.

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Sub-topic: Sacrifice In Love

Article Content: Sacrifice is an unnatural act for carnal man, but sacrifice is natural with Jesus' love in our hearts. Sacrifice is unnatural if there is no love. When we look into Jesus' eyes, suddenly the impossible becomes possible. The impossible becomes automatic like a reflex. The impossible becomes possible when you see His eyes.

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# Chapter 101: Salvation

Sub-topic: How Relationships Help Us

Article Content: We take relationships with others for granted. What we also do is take the value of relationships for granted. Each of us is born as a social being. We are made by God to build and sustain relationships with others. People need people. You need others and others need you. People need people to such an extent most of our inner life depends upon our social skills and our relationships with others. Our ability to keep loneliness from eating away at our soul depends upon our ability to build and keep healthy relationships with others. Relationships help us by keeping us alive. For example, people with cancer who have more social ties live longer than people who do not have healthy relationships. In sum, healthy social contact is a healing force in our life.

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Sub-topic: How Salvation Relates To Present Circumstances

Article Content: The idea of salvation is, for many people, a frightening concept because the idea of salvation brings to them the idea of death and dying. So frightening is salvation, people avoid talking about and avoid thinking about salvation. Salvation is not just about the moment of death, but relates to every moment of our present life. Salvation is scary for many people because those people who find salvation a frightening prospect do not see the absolute end result of salvation. Those people frightened of salvation do not see the saving part of salvation. Salvation in our life and salvation in our present circumstances can be thought of in the following way: Any moment in our life can be our last moment. Any moment in our life can be like standing on the deck of the Titanic. Any moment in our life can be like we are all on the Titanic, the lifeboats are gone, and we know our end is near. Standing on the deck of the Titanic, the joy, worry, pain, and suffering of our past, even the joys, worries, pain, and suffering just before the unsinkable ship hit the iceberg are now irrelevant. Standing on the deck, as the great ship begins to list as she takes on water from the gash in her underbelly, we know for certain our time on earth is indeed short. Our earthly hope is gone. From all appearances, it would certainly appear we are eternally doomed. As the minutes tick by and as the violins play "Nearer My God To Thee", we hear the engines loosen from their moorings in the engine room and crash their way into the hull. The ship tips upward until we cannot hang onto the railing any more...just as we let go of the railing and slide down into the freezing water, a Great Hand, a Great Saving Hand reaches down into the water and saves us from certain death. By the action of this Great Hand, this Great Hand with the scars from the nails, we have been saved from certain death. We are instantly transported into the paradise of Heaven. 1. Nearer, my God, to thee, Nearer to thee! E'en though it be a cross That raiseth me; Still all my song shall be, Nearer, my God, to thee, Nearer to thee. 2. Though like a wanderer, The sun gone down, Darkness be over me, My rest a stone, Yet in my dreams I'd be Nearer, my God, to thee, Nearer to thee. 3. There let my way appear Steps unto Heaven; All that thou sendest me In mercy given; Angels to beckon me Nearer, my God. to thee, Nearer to thee. 4. Then with my waking thoughts Bright with thy praise, Out of my stony griefs Bethel I'll raise; So by my woes to be Nearer, my God, to thee, Nearer to thee. 5. Or if on joyful wing, Cleaving the sky, Sun, moon and stars forgot, Upward I fly, Still all my song shall be, Nearer, my God, to thee, Nearer to thee. Author: Sarah Fuller Adams (1805-48)

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# Chapter 102: Satan

Sub-topic: Beware The Wolf

Article Content: The wolf in sheep's clothing represents himself or herself as standing for one thing but ends up standing for another. In your daily walk, you need to beware of persons who gossip. Beware of persons who, (A) either want to know everything about everyone else's business, or (B) who actually do know everything about everyone else's business. Beware of those persons whose spirits are not meek and mild, and beware of persons who easily reject advice. Beware of persons who rebel against leadership of any kind, and persons who come into a group overly eager to help.

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Sub-topic: Satanic Desperation

Article Content: Psalm 30:11 You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, 12 that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever. (NIV) If things get bad enough in our life, many times and in many ways the darkness of life also ushers in utter desperation. Desperation appears in tragedy and loss. Desperation appears when we are worried and heavy burdened. Desperation appears out of nowhere and for no reason other than to make us miserable or to keep us miserable. Satan, in the form of desperation is incredibly good and effective at draining the life and spirit from us. Satan, in the form of desperation, tries to begin in us an incredible depression both physical and psychological.

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Sub-topic: Satan's Wiles

Article Content: The aim of the Satan is to get you to focus entirely upon yourself. Satan's message or speech is often interlaced with things about you and what you want or need, not upon Christ and being Christ-like. If Satan, in his "sweetest" form, pay's attention to you, this attention is given only to manipulate, control, and maneuver you to benefit Satan's ends. So good is Satan in all his enticing forms at hiding who he is, Christ gives advice on how to tell whether you are being targeted by Satan and Satan's wiles. Christ tells us to watch the fruit produced. Satan will say one thing to you and sweet-talk to you while he is plotting your downfall.

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Sub-topic: The Antichrist

Article Content: The world will be turned upside down by the antichrist. The antichrist will marshal forces within the world like no other person in history. Hunger will diminish. Hatred will evaporate. War will stop. Power to do anything anywhere will be available from the antichrist. His ideas will spread to every nation. Billions will follow his teachings. The antichrist will proclaim God is not dead, we just don't need Him anymore. Few will argue. Antichrist will produce results no person on earth has ever produced. The Pope will proclaim antichrist to be the most important world figure since Christ. Antichrist's brilliant inventions and phenomenal technological expertise will revolutionize the way life is lived in every country. His contributions to world peace will make him the most respected person in modern times. His genius in all areas of thought and life will make him the focal point of nearly everyone on earth. Only a small remnant for Christ will remain.

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Sub-topic: The Deceptions Of Satan

Article Content: Satan is the greatest deceiver of all time. Satan is the maker of dark thoughts. Satan whispers dark thoughts in the mind and heart of people who most often face great trials, telling them to give up, to not try, and to forget about praying. Satan whispers a thought into the mind of a person hoping the thought kills all hope and optimism. Satan whispers thoughts into the mind of a person hoping the person becomes overwhelmed with guilt over past sins and mistakes. Satan's most effective weapon when we are already down and depressed is the whispering of pessimistic thoughts of failure, defeat, and hopelessness. All of which are deceptions

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Sub-topic: When You Are Helpless Against The Opponent

Article Content: There are circumstances in life when our circumstance seems helpless against our opponent. When defeat in our circumstance seems certain, we must remember to draw from our defeat as many lessons as possible. We must also look at our defeat as a time of learning both what to do and what not to do. Every advancement in life, even the advancement of learning to walk, talk, read, and write, comes with what appears to be insurmountable obstacles. For example, imagine someone gave you ten thousand graphic symbols and told you each symbol alone or each symbol combined with other symbols, could mean something. Deciphering these symbols might seem to be a helpless task with certain defeat. However, each of us has been there and done that. You have been there and done that because you can read these words and perhaps read words in other languages. The letters of the words, the combination of the words, and the sentences built from the words are all symbols presented in graphic form. Last of all, in many areas of life, appearances can be deceiving. What might appear to be certain defeat, certain loss, and certain doom, may be a circumstance offering you the greatest opportunity of your life...like the first day you ever saw a letter, a series of letters, or a word in print.

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Sub-topic: Your Great Destroyer

Article Content: Satan is out to destroy you. Satan does not want to test you to see how strong you are. Satan does not want to test you to make you stronger. Satan wants you dead. Satan wants you dead in the spirit and dead in the body. Yes, suffering and pain are a test, but not a test from God. We can assign many things to God. We can say God is testing us, but when we say God is testing us, we are referring to the testing developing endurance and strength. An athlete works out to strengthen the body by continually exercising muscles by applying resistance or force against those muscles. Muscles in the arms grow stronger by using bar bells. Wind sprints build up the muscles in the legs, arms, and lungs by the body's pushing against gravity. God does not concoct some kind of scheme to make you weak and see you fail. What God does do is coach you from the sidelines, so to speak, encouraging you to work hard to win the race. What God most wants from you during your times of suffering and trauma is for you to work against your painful circumstances. God wants you to work against the weakening of your faith. God wants you to work against your obstacles of pain put in your path by Satan. In this way, when Satan tries to destroy you, you can turn Satan's attack against Satan. When Satan attacks you, you must wage a counter attack. When you wage a counter attack against the pain, suffering, and adversity put upon you, you then glorify God by becoming stronger in your faith.

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# Chapter 103: Security

Sub-topic: Inner Security Vs. Insecurity

Article Content: A person with inner security could have the following characteristics:

●Thinks and knows potential

●Is more daring with ideas

●Takes more risks

●Willing to work oneself out of a job

●Activities in life oriented to self-growth

●Is more aggressive

●Is more dynamic

●Multiplies talent, effort, and knowledge

●Progress oriented

●Is a driver of self

●People oriented

●People are more important than production. A person with insecurity could have the following characteristics:

●Thinks and knows history of his or her life, and the history of his or her surroundings

●Does not "dare" others with his or her ideas

●Does not like risks

●Is not willing to work oneself out of a job

●Activities oriented to securing oneself in a position or in a place

●Aggressive only when he or she has to be

●Tends to act only when instructed to do so

●Uses talent, effort, and knowledge but does not multiply

●Problem oriented

●Feels driven

●Self-oriented

●Production is more important than people

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# Chapter 104: Seeking

Sub-topic: Look For Small Positives

Article Content: Looking for small positives is not a matter of thinking positively in negative circumstances. Looking for small positives is an attitude helping us seek out the best opportunities and the best resources in every setting. If all we ever see is the negatives, we end up reacting only to the negatives. If we look for small positives, we have an opportunity use the small positives to our advantage and use the small positives as a resource upon which we can build. Our life is filled with small positives but when we are in a negative frame of mind, we too often do not look for the small positives, let alone see them. You cannot build upon a negative circumstance as easily as you can a positive circumstance. Most often, a negative circumstance requires time and resources to turn the negative into a positive. Negative circumstances like mistakes, require fixing, if fixing is possible. Positive circumstances not only require no fixing, but positive circumstances can be used to overcome negative matters, issues, and events. In your life, you can do great things with your positive attributes, your positive talents, your positive traits, and your positive abilities. Your positives are your assets. Your negatives are your liabilities.

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Sub-topic: The Endurance And Will To Find God

Article Content: Those persons who believe Christ is the savior and who have accepted Him with all their heart, will have eternal life. With the prospect of eternal life, we are then ready to discover the kingdom of God here on earth within ourselves while we are still alive. To reach the kingdom of God within us is not easy. In life, there are distractions, and there hardships, trials, and persecutions. Acts 14:21 They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22 strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said. (NIV) Searching and finding God must come with endurance and a strong will. To discover and experience the love of Christ, through the Holy Spirit, we cannot discover Him in doing worldly things. We find Him only in wanting to live a moral, upstanding life. We find Him by always wanting to do the right thing. We find God by resting in the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit. To find God and have Him in your heart you must have the endurance to plant the good seeds of peace and joy. When you have the endurance to be faithful in seeking God then He is faithful in being present in your life. Seek His tenderness, His kindness, His compassion, and His love and you will find Him.

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Sub-topic: The Meaning Of Seeking

Article Content: God created us to seek Him. This is a profound idea. Our seeking ability is a profound gift. God put in each of us a heart to seek Him out. God did this so when we want to find Him we can and will find Him. Although we are separated from God because of our sin and because of the separation between our reality and God's Heaven, God still wants us to be with Him in spirit and in truth. God placed us upon the earth to seek Him out and do His will. Part of God's will for us is to seek Him and find Him. God did not make us to sit idly by and wait for God to appear in front of us like we sit and watch television. God wants us to be active and proactive. One of our basic purposes of life is to seek God. Acts 17:26 - 27 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should Inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. (NIV) To search for God, to seek Him out, means we are to seek His love and pursue His peace. To seek out God means we request His real presence, solicit His warmth and caring, and ask for Him to come into our heart and life. Praise God He put in us a seeking heart.

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Sub-topic: To Find God

Article Content: To find God use your heart. Use all your heart. No half-hearted effort is permissible if you really want to find Him. In your search you must us all of your heart. You cannot have half a heart and find God. Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your Heart.(NIV) In your search, do not make things harder or more difficult than they already are. Keep things simple. Finding the love of God is not a complex thing. Be child like. Use your simple faith. Use your heart and trust Christ loves you for you willingness to seek Him out. Believe Christ cares so much about you He died for you. Then you will not be far from Him. Luke 18:16-17 But Jesus called the children to Him and said, "let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like A little child will never enter it." (NIV)

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Sub-topic: To Find The Kingdom Of God

Article Content: Where is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is inside of you. Yes, it is truly a mystery. To find peace, contentment, joy, an end to turmoil, an end to fighting, an end to frustration, an end to the pain, all these are inside of you. You cannot see this place called the kingdom of God because the kingdom is invisible to physical eyes. To look within you and to find the kingdom of God, you have to use your spiritual eyes. Luke 17:20 Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." (NIV) Jesus is telling us you carry the kingdom of God with you all the time. Any place you go, no matter who you are with, any time, day or night, the Kingdom is always there with you. In trying to find God and the kingdom of heaven, don't make things harder or more difficult than they already are. Keep things simple. Finding the love of God is not a complex thing. We know where to find Him because He is within us in His kingdom. In your quest, be child-like. Use your simple faith. Use your heart. Trust Christ loves you because He does. Believe He cares so much about you He would die for you because He did. Luke 18:16 - 17 But Jesus called the children to him and said, "let the Little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (NIV) Sub-topic: When God Searches For Us

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Sub-topic: When We Have Not Found God

Article Content: When we have not found God or we think we have lost Him, we are to keep on keeping on. We are to keep on keeping on and we are never to stop asking, seeking, and knocking. A man said he was chasing the Lord. At first blush, it might seem the man's faith was weak, but He was doing what we all need to do at many points in our life. No matter what happens in your life, you are supposed to seek Him. If you let Him touch you, you can see Him working everywhere, but the first place to look for Christ is inside yourself. Inside yourself you will find Him. If you are waiting for Christ to swoop down out of the sky without your doing any work, recall He will not appear in the sky until the last day. To truly find God you have to put forth the effort even in times when He seems absent. With God, there is a rule. The rule is "no effort, no reward". Maybe the rule is too simple for some people. Luke 11:9 "so I say to you: ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (NIV)

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# Chapter 105: Self-esteem

Sub-topic: Self-esteem Definitions

Article Content: Self-esteem has many definitions.

●The value we set upon ourselves -- Comment: Too often and too much of the time, we do not value ourselves. We put ourselves down for no true reason. We think less of ourselves than we should. The value we put upon ourselves is our choice even when we think our value is the result of conditions beyond our control. We can change the value we put upon ourselves.

●How we regard our selves \-- Comment: Too often we do not hold ourselves in high regard, even going so far as holding ourselves in low regard and putting ourselves down for false reasons. We can change how we feel toward ourselves.

●The worth we feel toward ourselves -- Comment: Too often we feel worthless. We never fully understand our real worth is in how God sees us...a creature fallen but so redeemable God sent His only Son to redeem us and restore us. We can change how we feel toward ourselves.

●The opinion we hold about ourselves -- Comment: Too often we hold an extremely low opinion about ourselves...an extremely low opinion based not upon real, true facts, but an opinion we form from false perceptions or perceptions not fully known. We can change our opinion about ourselves.

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# Chapter 106: Self-image

Sub-topic: The Issue Of A Weak Self-image

Article Content: A person with a weak self-image always has to be right to make up for the weakness. A weak self-image causes a person to want to sit on a stool and hand out advice to others even when the person sitting on the stool has no business doing so. When persons with a weak self-image say they are frank and straightforward, they are actually criticizing others. Persons with a weak self-image are revolting within themselves. They may often explode with abuse around those they love, and use cutting remarks around others. Not being able to explode emotionally is internally and externally wrenching. They burn with resentment toward others because of how they feel about themselves. They want to remember the hurts, all of them, each of them. Attractive people become ugly when the attractive people have a weak self-image. Any person can become beautiful when they hold the healthy self-image of Christ loving them in spite of their sins and mistakes. If you have a weak self-image, you need to discover how to forgive. You need to forgive everyone. Forgive every person on earth. Forgive every person regardless of the infraction. When you forgive you begin to heal. When you forgive, your weak self-image begins to disappear and is replaced with a strong and vibrant self-image as you see you really are strong and you really are vibrant and alive.

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# Chapter 107: Self-interest

Sub-topic: Self-interest

Article Content: We can never realize our own value with others because we have not communicated ourselves fully to others. Unfortunately, we are never judged on our potential but upon our results. The mission of our daily life should be to produce the right results for God because God is our ultimate judge. In our self-interest, we must strive daily to invest all of what God has given us, even taking the risk of loss if need be, to do only what God would have us do, rather than doing what we might want to selfishly do. Looking at this another way, would you give something to someone who would not do anything with what was given? God gave you blessings, power, and potential. God expects you to use what He has given. Using your blessings are in God's interest and in your interest to use what He has given.

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# Chapter 108: Selfishness

Sub-topic: If I Do For God, Won't God Do For Me?

Article Content: We are called to give all we have to the poor, and surrender our body to the flames. However, in doing for God, there is a peril in only going through the motions. There is a peril when we only go through the motions of doing for God because when all we do is pretend we are doing for God, we are not really being truthful. There is a peril when we get caught up only in "works" or achieving for God and we expect a reward from God in return. The peril is being disappointed in finding out God does not reward us for what we do but for who we are. The way to healing and to God must not be centered on what we do for God or what we do for anyone else. The way to healing and to God must first be centered upon who we are. What we do must always follow or reflect who we are. We see this matter of "works" versus "being" in the professions or in professional life. Professional responsibilities can take the place of faith or religion, both in time and in behavior. When professional responsibilities reach the point of taking the place of a religion, then destruction of the body, mind, and soul can take place. Often we can be "eaten up" or "burned out" by a lifestyle including even our work in our church or in our religious practice. Ulcers, heart attack, stroke, cancer, and other maladies are the result of only "doing" rather than also "being." When we do for God while expecting God to do for us, inner emptiness and stress begin to kill and separate us from God. We must never stop doing for God and for others, but we must always remember who we "are" is always first and foremost above what we "do".

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Sub-topic: Not Getting What We Want

Article Content: Every person is born with a sinful nature. In addition, Satan has power to make you want or even crave material things. We too often confuse the power of evil or the ways of Satan with our not getting what we want in material things. If you are suffering because you did not get a new material thing, Satan is helping make you suffer by using your greed, avarice, and love for things. If you are suffering because you did not get a new material thing, you are suffering because of your sinful nature. Your sinful nature causing your suffering can be eliminated when you surrender all you are to Christ. Satan does not always have to work to get you down by not giving you material things. You can get yourself down when you do not get what you want. In addition, you cannot come against Satan and use God to get your material thing. However, you can break the deadly grip of wanting material things by giving up all you are and giving up all you have to Christ Jesus. When you live totally for Christ, the deadly grip of wanting material things is gone. You are then free. You are then living a life of victory and dominance.

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Sub-topic: Problems And Selfishness

Article Content: Shocking news to some people but God may not eliminate your problems. For people who believe God is in Heaven to give them what they want the shocking truth is God will not eliminate or solve their problems for them. For selfish people who believe God is their servant, Christ is not good enough having died a horrible death on the cross for them. Selfish people want more. Selfish people want things, money, and power. Selfish people believe Christ died for them and He is waiting in Heaven to give them health and wealth right now. The problem we have with a health and wealth theology is we don't deserve health and wealth just because we are still breathing. If we live surrendered Christian lives we may deserve health and wealth. However, when we truly lead a surrendered Christian life, health and wealth may be our preference but health and wealth must not be our demand from God. When you truly lead a devout and surrendered life in Christ, you do not demand health and wealth to be delivered to you. When you truly lead a devout and surrendered life in Christ, you make no demands of any kind upon God. When you truly lead a devout and surrendered life in Christ, you even take poverty and illness and do all you can to turn these into an opportunity to glorify God.

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Sub-topic: The Lord's Fear

Article Content: Selfishness or putting yourself first causes you to experience fear, anxiety, frustration, weakness, and/or dependence. Taking care of number one is a survival instinct. Fear is natural, normal, and God put fear in us to serve as a survival mechanism. As a Christian, we are supposed to act in spite of our fear. Acting in spite of our fear is possible only when we have courage. After the Last Supper, we find Jesus alone in the garden. His fear and anxiety are so great the fear and anxiety caused Him to perspire blood. Christ's words represent our own battles. Jesus said, "Not my will, but thine be done". All of us are torn (or should be torn) between doing our will and doing the will of our Father in heaven. Our natural fear tears us away from God. The natural fear of what was ahead of Christ is why Jesus was praying in the garden. Jesus wanted to be near His father in Heaven. In His humanity, Jesus did not want to go to the Cross. This is what is meant by Jesus statement "Not my will, but thine be done". An angel did not come to take away the Lord's fear, but to strengthen Him.

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# Chapter 109: Self-pity

Sub-topic: Stop Self-pity

Article Content: When bad things happen to us, especially bad things impacting our personal ability to function in our world, we can be overwhelmed with self-pity. Self-pity is our attempt at feeling sorry for ourselves. When we look at the common sense logic of self-pity and when we put ourselves into self-pity these are the very times when we need to avoid self-pity. When we are wounded and hurt we do not need to wound and hurt ourselves even more by stewing ourselves in self-pity. When things go bad, when we are hurt by others and by circumstances, when things go wrong, when we make mistakes, or when things are not working out as we hope, the last thing we need to do is inflict more damage upon ourselves. However, this is exactly what self-pity does. Self-pity inflicts self-inflicted damage upon us at the very time we need to avoid more injury. Instead of putting the sorrow of self-pity upon yourself, put new hope, new vision, and new perspective into your soul. When things go bad, when things go wrong, and when mistakes are made, put into your soul the hope of things going better, things being made right, and the permanent fixing of mistakes.

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# Chapter 110: Sex

Sub-topic: No Sex Before Marriage

Article Content: This little message is a message you may not want to hear. This message may hurt you. However, like a flu shot, sometimes you must take a little sting to help you avoid hurtful times in the future. Here is the message: There must be no sex before marriage. If I were your pastor, I would tell you that I will be there for you whether you have a baby in or out of wedlock. I am not your judge, for only God can judge fairly and His commandment for me as a pastor is to accept you and love you no matter what you do. As a pastor, I am just a caretaker of souls. There is enormous pressure today to have sex before marriage. Society says sex before marriage is OK, and society says this behavior is not wrong. Society is wrong. Premarital sex is a sin. Premarital sex is wrong. If the man or boy truly cares for and respects the woman or girl, the man or boy can be self-controlled, be self-disciplined, and control his passion. The greatest compliment a man can pay a woman is to ask her to marry him. This compliment is tainted if the man has used the woman for his own pleasure or if the woman has used the man for her own pleasure. If the girl or woman truly cares for and respects the man or boy, then the girl or woman will not put herself in a position of tempting the man or boy and will help him understand the consequences of pregnancy. If neither the man or woman, boy or girl cannot commit to abstain from sex until after marriage, then neither of them will be able to abstain from other behaviors with the power to destroy the marriage. Research has shown couples who abstain from sex before marriage have a lower divorce rate. In addition, contraceptives do not always work, but even if contraceptives did work all the time, the harm is done to the relationship in committing the sin. If the girl or woman gets pregnant, there is no pain in the back, no foot swelling, and no pain in childbirth for the boy or man. If the girl or woman gets pregnant, then boy or man who does not marry the girl or woman must live with the fact he is a father and has failed as a father the rest of his life.

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# Chapter 111: Sin

Sub-topic: A Drug For Every Problem

Article Content: The world, the darkness, and Satan's scummy minions will try to convince you we now have a nearly fool-proof way, on our own, by ourselves, of finding a way to have a feeling of love in us all the time. If we do not achieve this state of being then Satan and his scummy minions will offer a new program or teaching to help us. Now we have at our disposal special substances, when we take them, to give us peace of mind, happiness, and unmatched mental power. There are pushers, both legal and illegal, pushing these substances on us to keep us dependent not upon God but upon the dark powers of the world.

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Sub-topic: A Word From Joe Sixpack And A Response

Article Content: A word from Joe Sixpack: "A lot of families end up in divorce but people adjust to it. No problem. No big deal. Marriage vows were never really meant to be taken that seriously anyway. If a couple isn't really serious about staying together they can get divorced. God wants all of us to be happy doesn't He? God is a good time guy isn't He? God said, "Let the good times roll," didn't He? It is in the Bible somewhere isn't it?" No, Joe, it is NOT in the Bible. And divorce IS a big deal, no, people do NOT get over it, no, children do NOT "adjust", and no, the good times are NOT rolling.

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Sub-topic: A World Gone Astray

Article Content: We have gone astray. As a society once considered to be built on an ethic grounded in the Old and New Testament, we no longer consider dramatizations of violence and death repulsive. What might be most disturbing of all is what we would consider repulsive, horrible, immoral, perverted, and turning away from God is now considered normal and/or acceptable. Let us hope, pray, and wait eagerly for the world to repent from its immorality. Let each of set an example by our own repentance and acceptance of Christ as Savior.

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Sub-topic: An Age Of Instant Gratification

Article Content: We live in an age of instant gratification. None of us is immune. We want instant answers to prayers. We want instant works by God. We want instant tangible physical power from God. We definitely don't want to wait on God to do things in His time. We definitely don't want to perspire to get what we want. We live and want excess. We live and want to be pampered. We want a parent to look out for our every need. Now is the time to grow up. Being grown up means we hold off on what we want. Being grown up means we don't get what we want and we then go on and do the job anyway. Being grown up means we sacrifice. Teaching a child to sacrifice is one of the greatest lessons any parent can teach because there is no progress in a person's life without sacrifice. No person, society, church, organization, or social entity can endure without sacrifice.

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Sub-topic: Sin Confrontation

Article Content: What some people on earth want to know is how can we come to know God in a deeper way? How can we personally walk and talk with Him? How can we get to know Him better? As much as we talk about our problems and issues, we always seem to avoid talking about the sin burden we carry. The idea of being free from sin and guilt can often be forgotten. The fact is you can be free today. Your burden caused by sin can be lifted from you just like the stone was rolled away from Christ's tomb. Because we do not confront our sin and we do not place our sin at the foot of the cross, we miss out on the most beautiful love in the world. Because we do not really confront our sin and we are not honest with Christ about ourselves, we remain a long way from Christ. Our interpersonal relationships in life supply some meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. However, our relationship with Christ remains unfulfilled until we give Him our burden of sin. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. However, when we see the truth, and we give our sin burden to Christ, He makes us into a new person. Make no mistake about this...sin separates us from God. If you want to know more about God, if you want to walk with Him and talk with Him, you have to do something about the sin problem by confronting your sin, confessing your sin, turning to Christ, and accepting Him into your heart and life as Savior and Lord.

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Sub-topic: The Emptiness Factor

Article Content: When we are separated from God our life becomes empty. Emptiness is the result of our being cut off from God. The emptiness of our soul is so painful the emptiness will drive us to drink, do drugs, and addict us to other things. The emptiness of our soul will cause us to lie, cheat, steal, commit adultery, and commit every other sin. The emptiness of our soul will devastate our life, and the life of others. The emptiness of our soul will put us in pain and misery for life and even make us want to kill ourselves. The emptiness of our soul is a hunger unfilled, a thirst unquenched, and a living blindness. The emptiness of our soul is a life lived in pain, in torment, in loneliness, with no one to turn to. Fortunately, the emptiness can be filled. The emptiness can be filled by accepting Christ into our heart and life. The love of God brought into our heart and life by Christ living in us fills up our emptiness and gives us a cup in which our blessings overflow.

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Sub-topic: The Wall Of Sin

Article Content: God grieves with us when we are grieved at our mistakes. God feels our pangs of guilt when we realize we have done wrong. He calls us to turn away from doing wrong and reach up to Him. Our spiritual water glass may seem empty to some, but God envisions our glass overflowing with love, kindness, generosity, and humility. For each of us to see the value our soul possesses in the eyes of God, we must pull ourselves up by our soul bootstraps and be honest. When we are honest we will see only by God's grace, or Christ' suffering on the Cross, can the wall between God come down. If we could envision the wall and the occurrence of its being removed from our life, what we would see is a meltdown or disintegration of the steel. When grace or the Light and Love of God through Christ come into the heart, the cold, steel wall of sin melts like steel under a laser beam.

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Sub-topic: When A Government Lives Off Sin

Article Content: A government living off society's moral decay is another sign of the end of a civilization. The Roman civilization crumbled under the weight of an immoral and corrupt government. Over the years, our government has devised the creation of whole agencies existing for no other reason than to manage some of the most immoral aspects of our culture. The National Endowment for the Arts and the Legal Services Corporation are examples of agencies fostering society's decline. Within the judicial branch of government, judges accountable to no one have helped undermine the religious freedoms once the centerpiece of our society. Our freedoms are being undermined because not enough people care enough. When the governed do not care about their government, then immorality, corruption, and a slacker mentality will prevail in government. We have a population who are more interested in the immoral than the moral. Should we be surprised to see no concern over the inaction and inattention paid to the immorality of government officials?

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Sub-topic: When Conscience Is Gone

Article Content: In the Christian person there must be a conscience, a voice screaming loudly when a wrong is done or a wrong is seen. In some persons who are not Christian there is often a lack of conscience. There is often a lack of conscience in non-Christians because there is no moral yardstick of right and wrong. Even a Christian sometimes has difficulty discerning good from evil, for evil likes to cloak itself in an outer covering of good. Evil likes to cloak itself with good intentions hoping no one will see past the sugary outer layer of what appears to be good intentions. However, a person of good conscience who tunes into their conscience can be wise enough to see past the sugary outer layer. Tragically, in most parts of the world today, conscience has died. There is no more outrage about immorality. There is no more outrage about sin. There is no more collective conscience prodding the conscience of nations. Instead of a collective conscience, the populace makes excuses for crudeness, lewdness, and unacceptable behavior.

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Sub-topic: When We Fall Down (Bike Riding) Keeping Our Balance

Article Content: When a child learns to ride a bicycle, sometimes it helps to put training wheels on the bike. Training wheels are the little wheels you put on a bicycle to help a child learn how to balance without falling over. We used them on my son's first bicycle. However, the day of reckoning came when the training wheels came off. My son never learned to ride his first bike using the training wheels and a new, bigger bike was about to be purchased. So I got out the wrench and removed the nuts that held on the training wheels. The training wheels and their brackets slipped off easily into my hands. Almost too easily for my son. I could see the fear in his eyes. I gave fatherly words of encouragement about...how easy it is to learn how to ride without the training wheels...once you learn you never forget...you only have to ride a few feet to learn to keep your balance...I'll hold you up to get you started (but we both knew the big truth). The big truth was learning to ride without training wheels was something he was going to have to do by himself. We both knew he might fall down and get hurt in the process. We both knew if he was ever to learn how to ride a bike there wasn't anything either of us could do about avoiding falling down and maybe getting hurt. After I removed the training wheels I turned the bike upright on the sidewalk. My son crawled on. I asked him if he was ready and he belatedly said "Yeah", but we both knew he really meant "No way." I started pushing and holding him upright on the bike for a few feet but eventually I had to let go. Amidst my yelling and clapping encouragement, my son managed to pedal a few feet and then he fell. I grimaced in pain. He picked himself up and walked back to me and we tried it again. This time he pedaled farther but fell again. I grimaced in pain again. For me it was torture seeing my son having to endure this pain just to learn how to ride a stupid bicycle. I kept encouraging, he kept falling, but eventually he learned. God works the same way. When you fall down, He is there to help you up and encourage you. You can always go back to Him with your pain. He also hurts with you when you hurt. Even when you do not know it, He is hurting when you hurt. You are never alone.

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Sub-topic: Will You Give Up Your Sin

Article Content: A wealthy man will sacrifice everything to save the life of his child, but will he give up the sinful darkness in his own life? A poor, single mother will deny herself everything for the benefit of her child, but will she give up her sin to Christ? A teenager will suffer indignities and sacrifice his or her integrity just to be accepted into a group, but will the teenager give up the dark side of his or her nature so Christ can touch his or her soul? We cannot be touched by God until we give our sin to Christ. You cannot do anything about your sin, except take your sin to Christ because only He can take your sin away and lift your sin burden from your soul. A closer walk with God is possible only when you lay your sin at the foot of His cross. All of us are guilty. All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory and grace. Remember God will never give up on you. The Old Testament shows God's patience and power. God sent Christ into the world to take away your sin, to bridge the gap, to communicate with you, and to show you how much He loves you. God sent you His love in the form of Christ so you will be restored, redeemed, and reborn to a personal relationship with God by grace...if you lay your sin at the foot of His cross.

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# Chapter 112: Society

Sub-topic: A Day Of Awakening

Article Content: Before our present age of arrogance and palpable rebellion against God there was a time when faith in God was revered. There was a time when even the heathen respected those who truly believed in Christ. Today, many people believe God can be ignored until some kind of emergency or some kind of crisis appears. Today, the only time many people got terribly religious is when their life or the life of someone else is threatened. Today, we are in a power-driven techno age where just about any kind of power is available to just about anyone. We are trying to clone or have cloned human beings. We are trying to modify the weather. For many people they firmly believe they no longer need God. Previously, in the times before our industrialized and technology driven era began, most people would have agreed there were some things we could not do on our own or even with help from others. However, today, we live under the delusion we have just about any kind of power we need for just about any kind of purpose. A day of awakening awaits those caught up in this kind of arrogance.

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Sub-topic: Social System Breakdowns

Article Content: The broken lives in our society are breaking our school systems. Our prison systems are overcrowded due to crime and the breakdown of upright behavior in our society. Our welfare systems are burgeoning and overburdened by cases of abuse and lack of moral behavior. Our health care systems are overburdened due to AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases, and other health conditions brought about by unhealthy lifestyles. Our commerce and business systems are at a critical breakpoint due to theft, shoplifting, scandals, stock fraud, embezzlement, and white collar crime. Jesus came to make us a whole and moral people. He came to help us integrate our emotional, spiritual, and intellectual life. To have a full and integrated life, we must be a moral people. He came to integrate our earthly life with His heavenly will. Jesus came to integrate our life with God's moral will for our life. When people lack morality in life, society breaks down.

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Sub-topic: The Messages Of Our Age

Article Content: Take care of yourself. Don't put out unless you get something back. Take it easy. Take care of No. 1. What's in it for you? What's in it for me? If you don't get what you want go somewhere else? If you don't get along, split up. If you don't want the baby, get an abortion. If it feels good, do it. It's what I want! I want it, I need it. Therefore I deserve it. Your needs are the only needs. If you are not having a good time, it is no time. Let the good times roll. Live it up. And what is Christ's message to you in our grievous age?

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Sub-topic: What The USA Needs (In Jest)

Article Content: What this country needs is a bigger government to help keep more religious people in line and let more people do more of what they really want to do. What we also need is a government to keep an eye on religious people because you can't trust religious people anymore. A little big brother from Uncle Sam wouldn't hurt, especially for those people who want to run everybody's life for them like some of these religious folks or political conservative types.

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Sub-topic: When A Government Goes Insolvent

Article Content: A sign of cultural demise is an insolvent government. The French Revolution occurred against the backdrop of a bankrupt government. Today, our government has not managed a balanced budget in nearly thirty years. Beneath the annual budget lies a debt of unmanageable proportions. History warns a government rendered insolvent cannot quell its disenchanted masses. We are faced with an insolvent government and an insolvent nation of consumers. The generation who persevered through the Great Depression and retained the painful memories of those dark days has died off. Today we have a nation of consumers putting whatever it wants on a credit card until the credit card is maxed out. The ideas of frugality, conservative spending, and only buying what is needed are foreign to the electorate who elect our government leaders. For nearly two generations young people have not been taught they are responsible and taught not to be responsible. This cavalier attitude about personal responsibility is reflected in what we expect from our government and how our government treats us in return.

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Sub-topic: When The Middle Class Declines

Article Content: An indicator a culture is declining is a declining middle class. Politicians have discovered one of the keys to reelection is to advocate more spending and government programs for the poor. The traditional middle class is now defined as rich. The work of the federal government has become the business of redistributing wealth through taxation and new government programs. After years of bureaucratic growth over the last fifty years, the United States has witnessed shrinking numbers of middle class wage earners, many of whom have become the working poor. The family structure has disintegrated over the last twenty-five years in part because of the economic pressure for women to join the workforce. This has lead to the increased polarization of the working class and the wealthy. Earlier this century, Russia witnessed just such a polarization before a revolution ushered in the communist era. The burgeoning lower class, trapped by low levels of literacy, lack of techno-skills, and low-income jobs, is being pushed into a state of anger, desperation, and lack of self-control. If we should have a down-turn in our economy putting low income persons out of work combined with the growing distrust and even disdain for government among middle to upper class citizens, then fuel would be added to an already explosive fire.

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Sub-topic: When The Populace Fails To Act

Article Content: An indicator of the demise of a civilization is the failure of its people to see what is happening. In nearly every case, citizens of past civilizations which ended witnessed all of the signs of demise but failed to act. Today, the popular culture has helped society forget the lessons of history. One of the reasons we do not connect history to our current culture is because history is now taught in light of the socialist agenda of the textbook publishing houses, the socialist nature of the national education system, and the lack of insight and concern of teachers or professors. Those persons who make educational decisions control the life of others and are quite smug and comfortable with where we are as a nation. Those persons in the lower class have been put in chains by expecting a constant safety net from the government. Welfare reform is working to try and wean people off the dole but the resources needed for upward mobility are not always readily available. In addition, the mentality to scratch and claw one's way out of poverty is lacking.

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Sub-topic: When The Ruling Class Loses Morality

Article Content: One obvious indicator a culture is in decline is when the ruling class loses its will. In the United States and in other nations around the world the nation's leaders no longer see the world according to right and wrong. Instead, the objective of today's leaders in many quarters is to maintain the status quo. In like manner, elected leaders have lost their moral authority. Elected officials no longer seek office for the good of the nation but instead seek reelection to further lucrative careers within the world elite. There is an enormous and alarming arms build-up in China, Russia, India, and other parts of the world. Missile technology is being acquired by nations who have avowed the destruction of other nations and the United States. Does anyone care? Does anyone know? Is anyone listening? The United States has lost top secret data stored in computers more than once in the recent past. Does anyone care? If you lived through the nuclear scare days of the 1950's, the cold war and the Cuban Missile crisis you might care, However, you are in a very small minority. The top priority for our country today is be sure they get to see the latest TV sit-com.

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Sub-topic: Worldly Influences

Article Content: Worldly influences in your life try to focus your attention away from the requirements and sweat required by your Father in heaven. These influences try to focus your attention away from the lives and struggles of others. These influences try to focus your attention in areas that do not deal with the time, investment, and sacrifice of Christ. These worldly influences try to focus your attention upon yourself at the expense of the other persons in your world. When you let the world win in your life, you lose. When you put out the effort and sweat required by God, you win.

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# Chapter 113: Song

Sub-topic: Degrees Of Song

Article Content: The "song of degrees" or song of steps, is a title given to fifteen psalms, 120-134 inclusive. The probable origin of this name is the circumstance that these psalms came to be sung by the people on the ascents or goings up to Jerusalem to attend the three great festivals (Deut. 16:16). They were well fitted for being sung by the way from their peculiar form, and from the sentiments they express. "They are characterized by brevity, by a key-word, by epanaphora [i.e, repetition], and by their epigrammatic style...More than half of them are cheerful, and all of them hopeful." They are sometimes called "Pilgrim Songs." Four of them were written by David, one (127) by Solomon, and the rest are anonymous. Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries Fair Use. Presented for educational purposes only.

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# Chapter 114: Spirituality

Sub-topic: Religion And Spirituality

Article Content: The "real you" is your spirit. The "real you" or the spirit part of you is the part of you God created to live forever. Your spirit and your body are not the same. With these thoughts in mind, there is a big difference between religion and spirituality. Generally, religion has to do with doctrines and creeds relating to human behavior. Religion has to do with a human being's behavior which is why we use the words "religious practice." Being spiritual generally deals with unconditional love, forgiveness, and doing God's will. The darkness in your life or the darkest moment of your life can be a turning point leading to your highest good when you live in the spiritual or live in the spirit. Because religion generally deals with human behavior, religion can be judgmental instead of forgiving. Religion is easier to preach about than to do because religion is generally a matter of human behavior. In spite of the difficulties religion can sometimes present, religion or religious practice in the Judeo-Christian tradition comes about as a result of our inexpressible spiritual experience with God's love as well as our desire to have these inexpressible experiences with God's love every day. Because we seek and need these inexpressible experiences with God's love every day, we need religious practice or religion grounded in God's love.

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Sub-topic: Spiritual Doorways And Passages

Article Content: Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." (NIV) There is no place to hide from God, and the Kingdom of God is always within. Clearly, the words of Jesus do indicate there are spiritual doorways or spiritual passages within us. He expects us to open a door within ourselves so He can come into our hearts, minds, and consciousness. He tells us, after we have opened the door, He can feast or live within us.

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# Chapter 115: Strategies

Sub-topic: Create And Invent New Strategies

Article Content: If you decide to deal with an old problem in a new way, your new way of dealing with the old problem may fall flat. However, if you never create or invent new strategies for dealing with old problems, you never know whether your current strategy is the best strategy available. Old problems can hang around and never go away. Old problems may require you to create and invent new ways of dealing with the old problems. In addition, new problems may not be solved with the strategies you used with old problems. In every part of our life, we must be willing and able to create and invent new ways of doing things including the strategies we use to solve old and new problems.

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Sub-topic: Create Strategies You May Never Need

Article Content: Some people never prepare for the future. When the future greets them with even minor adversities, the people who did not make any preparations are at a loss. In preparing for the future, you may create strategies you may never need. Most importantly, you need to have a storehouse of strategies to deal with what may happen in the future because the future is essentially unpredictable. If we never think about the future or develop ways of dealing with what may happen, the future can come and wreak havoc in our life. By thinking ahead in terms of strategies to use, you can prepare your mind and prepare your life for any eventuality.

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# Chapter 116: Success

Sub-topic: Define Success

Article Content: We seldom define success. We think we know what we are talking about when we talk about "success." We think we know what success when we see it, but when we reach success we often do not know we have arrived. If you sit down and concretely define success, what you end up with may be something quite different than what you might be thinking of as success right now. Many people think of success as money, wealth, fame, or power. If you sit down and concretely and honestly define your version of success, you may begin to see how money, wealth, fame, and power have strings attached. Some of these strings attached to money, wealth, fame, and power can take away your freedom. The strings attached to success can put you in a kind of prison. When you define success, you not only know you have achieved success when you reach your defined target, you also begin to define how to reach the target called success.

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# Chapter 117: Suffering

Sub-topic: Confronting Suffering

Article Content: Because suffering hurts, we try to avoid suffering. Because pain hurts, we try to avoid pain. As simple as these statements sound and are, we must fully understand their impact and their meaning upon our life when we suffer. When we suffer, in the back of our mind we ask questions like, "Do I have to go through this, do I have to deal with this, and can't I just avoid this?" When we suffer, we must learn to confront our suffering head-on rather than trying to avoid the suffering. As long as we run away from the suffering, the suffering has us on the run, living on the run, and out of control. When we confront our suffering, at the very least we learn and grow from the act of confrontation. We also learn from our mistakes in dealing with suffering. This confrontation process with suffering is an example of hitting the problem of suffering head-on. We must deal directly with the pain, rather than trying to run away from the pain by using our mind. When we make up our mind to confront suffering, we put ourselves in control rather than letting the suffering control us.

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Sub-topic: Dealing With The Sources Of Suffering

Article Content: There are physical sources of suffering and there are spiritual or supernatural sources of suffering. For every pain, there is a source or cause. For every mistake, there is a source or cause. For every failing, there is a source or cause. For every accident, there is a source or cause. For every direct attack by the darkness, there is a source or cause. For every second of mental anguish, there is a source or cause. For every physical malady, there is a source or cause. Some of our problems in life are our fault and we must take responsibility for those problems. In addition, we must take responsibility for implementing solutions to correct or address those problems. Some of our problems are our fault and some of our problems are not our fault. In either case, we must not be consumed with playing the blame game.

●In spite of the source of our suffering, we must take responsibility. We must take charge of as much as we can, and we must push ahead.

●In spite of the source of our suffering, we must live now, see the future, and work to live.

●In spite of the source of our suffering, we must make corrections when necessary.

●In spite of the source of our suffering, we must address every cause of suffering.

●In spite of the source of our suffering, we must commit ourselves to never repeating a mistake.

●In spite of the source of our suffering, we must learn and grow from every circumstance.

●In spite of the source of our suffering, we must continually strive to get smarter.

●In spite of the source of our suffering, we must dig for causes and dig for "reasons why."

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Sub-topic: God Cares For You And About You

Article Content: God cares for you and about you. God cares more and is in contact with your suffering more than you could know or imagine. The very nature of God causes God to care. God cannot do anything other than pour out His love for us, on us, and into our hearts. God never turns His back on anyone. God sent His only Son into the world because God cares about each of us. God's love and caring are infinite. Because God's love and caring are infinite, He was willing to let His Son die upon the Cross. God's very closeness to our heart causes Him so much grief when we turn away from Him. God's very presence in our life causes Him to grow angry with us when we profane Him and profane His calling upon each of our life.

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Sub-topic: God Knows Your Suffering

Article Content: God knows your suffering. Along with you, your pain, isolation, and loneliness are a burden God carries. You are not alone in this life. A person is walking with you and beside you every moment you breathe the breath of life. The person walking with you is our most wonderful Savior and Friend, Jesus Christ. You will never walk this path of life by yourself. You will never be by yourself. You are not ignored as you gasp for air in life's darkness and pain. Your muscles and joints may cry out in pain yet your God is always pushing you to live up life as much as possible. Your heart may break at the suffering you endure, but God holds your heart in His hands. God treasures your heart. No life on earth is ever lived without God knowing all things about a person's life. No microbe lives without the knowledge of God. We cannot understand all of this mystery. We cannot fathom all God is and does in our life and in the lives of others. What we can fathom and what we can understand is the presence of God in our heart. We can understand most clearly each of us has the power to accept or reject the love we know to be God. Each of us, every second we are alive, does make the decision to accept or reject the love we know to be God.

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Sub-topic: God's View Of Our Suffering

Article Content: How difficult was it for God to see Christ tortured, suffer, and then die on the cross? How tormented would you be if you had to see your child be tortured, suffer, and then die on the cross? Is God's compassion and understanding not greater than our own? How difficult is it for God to see you suffer? Do you not know God feels your pain as no other person can feel it? Do you not know God knows your fear? Do you not know God is within you every second experiencing everything you experience? Do you not know God is grieved and burdened by your trials? How difficult is it for God to see you suffer? How difficult is it for God to see you suffer and hold off taking you home to be with Him, for just a while longer so His magnificent will can be fulfilled in you and through your suffering?

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Sub-topic: How Jesus Relates To Suffering

Article Content: Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. (NIV) Although you may not deserve to have an adversity put upon you, Jesus took adversity upon himself to bring you wholeness and healing. Because He loves you, without ever knowing whether you would love Him back, Christ was smitten and took on suffering upon the Cross so you could be victorious against suffering. Through His stripes injuries, we are given the power to be absolutely healed. Our struggle against suffering and our search for healing is by faith. Our struggle against suffering consists of using our faith power against the dark power seeking to destroy us. The dark power brings us all kinds of pain, problems, suffering, and adversity. The Light power of Jesus brings us healing and wholeness. Jesus felt the same pain and isolation in His heart we feel in our times of darkness. He was wounded because of the darkness in our life, wounded even for the adversity put upon us without our consent. When we accept the full magnitude of Christ's act of accepting suffering, we will someday be free of suffering when we ascend to Heaven. When we finally ascend to Heaven, we will be fully and completely healed by His stripes. In love, Jesus took suffering upon himself so you would be healed for eternity. Jesus took up your adversity so there would come a time when you would have suffering no more. He took on your darkness and He carried your sorrows and grief to the Cross so you would someday be able to cast off this life full of sorrows and grief. Christ did not take your suffering upon Himself because God ordered Him to do so. Jesus took on your suffering because He loves you. Because of what Jesus did, you do not have to bear your burdens alone. The inevitable question must then be asked, "If He bore my sorrows then why do I still have them?" The answer is in this life, there is tribulation but we can overcome the tribulation. This life is constructed in such a way we have pain, problems, suffering, and adversity. However, even in the middle of the pain, we can still overcome. Matthew 8: 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases." (NIV) Matthew 8:17 is a quote of Isaiah 53:4. The Hebrew rendering shows Christ to actually be taking away the pain and grief we carry. However, there was no free lunch in this life for Christ and there is no free lunch in this life for any of us. In this life, there is no easy out. There is suffering in this life. However, Christ came to help us, to comfort us, and to give us the power to overcome our obstacles in His eternal plan for each of us. Our obstacles may never go away in this life, but in the next life our obstacles will all be gone. Instead of our obstacles there will be love, joy, peace, and glory beyond anyone's imagination.

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Sub-topic: How Loneliness Is Also Suffering

Article Content: Loneliness is the aching heart of suffering. Loneliness is the killing part of suffering. Loneliness turns us away from God within us. Loneliness separates us from God if we have found Him. Loneliness makes relationships more difficult yet more necessary. Loneliness is the ultimate suffering of the soul. Loneliness taken to its extreme is an outer darkness, an anomie, a cutting off of the soul from the light, love, and hope of God. However, the pain of loneliness can be assuaged. The pain of loneliness can be lessened. The pain of loneliness can be totally erased when we run into the presence of God's love and grace. Ultimately, the very last moment of our life is the very last moment we will ever be lonely, for in heaven there is no loneliness. In heaven there is only the sweet and total togetherness of our soul with God.

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Sub-topic: How Suffering Can Soften Us

Article Content: There can be a benefit to suffering. Suffering can benefit us because with the right heart for God, suffering can soften us in beautiful ways. However, we must not let suffering soften us in negative ways or weaken us. We must not let suffering make us vulnerable to the darkness. The more we suffer in God's love, the more we come to know about the power of God and His love in suffering. What we come to know in suffering is this...when the darkness is exposed, the darkness disappears when we invite the Light into our heart and life.

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Sub-topic: How The Bible Relates To Suffering

Article Content: In athletic pursuits, athletes often speak about being in a "zone." The "zone" in athletic pursuits is described as an experience where an athlete is a second or two beyond time and space. When the athlete is a second or two beyond time and space, athletic performance is enhanced, sometimes to phenomenal levels. Each of us can be in or enter into the "zone." We can move beyond our time and space into a place where we want to be, expect to be, or see ourselves being. We can each identify ourselves as being on a path with no uncertainty about the path's direction and maintain our position on the path a second or two beyond our present time and space. The "zone" is a reality where we find strength and power beyond ourselves because our vision of what is on the other side of our present moment is so strong we overcome our present obstacles. We overcome human frailty by going into the "zone" and by integrating our goal, our path, and our vision into our present time and space. When we are in the "zone" our present obstacles become meaningless, and in our present reality, our present obstacles cease to exist.

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Sub-topic: How We Relate To God When We Are In Suffering

Article Content: In suffering, we can either go toward God or move away from God. The source of suffering, the dark power we call Satan, wants us to turn away from God and curse God as a result of our suffering. Most importantly, God is not the cause or source of suffering. God is the cause of wellness, happiness, joy, and peace. We relate to God in our suffering when we use every ounce of our energy to live in happiness, joy, and peace when we suffer. To live in happiness, joy, and peace when we suffer is a great victory for us and for God. To live in happiness, joy, and peace when we suffer we must separate the experience of our body from the experience of our heart, mind, and soul. To have and keep this separation, we can call out to God for help and strength to keep us going even in the darkest of times.

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Sub-topic: Humility And Suffering

Article Content: God remains hidden from us as long as we cling to the physical part of our life using our ego power. However, when suffering comes, our ego power is not enough. When suffering comes, we need power in the spirit or power in the spiritual. To find power over the physical by attaining power in the spiritual we have to shake off the physical. In suffering, we can eventually discover power from the spiritual comes about by humility. Power over suffering comes about when we learn to be humble before God. When we are humble before God, this humility brings us into a place of greater spirituality or greater spiritual power. When we have greater spiritual power, we have greater power over the physical or greater power over the physical suffering in our life. Dependence is not the same as being humble. Dependence may arise when we think we have few choices or few perceived choices in a circumstance. Humility results when we have recognized we have ego power and choose not to use our ego power by shaking off the physical while embracing the spiritual.

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Sub-topic: In Times Of Pain And Suffering

Article Content: In times of emotional pain and suffering, we are at our weakest when we feel we have no options. When we perceive we have no choice in a matter, we feel helpless. When we find we have no control over our circumstances, when the pain becomes unbearable all we can do at is sit and bear the pain and pray as much as we are able. However, no matter how helpless we think we are, God does not agree. God gave us the ability to deal with every circumstance and He gave us a heart to receive His help.

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Sub-topic: Making Suffering Work For You

Article Content: Everyone will experience pain and suffering at some point during their lifetime. Both Christians and non-Christians experience pain and suffering. No one escapes suffering. At one time or another you will suffer. Suffering can come early in life, in the middle of your life, or at the end. Some people suffer all their life. Some suffer a little, some a lot. There are all kinds of suffering: physical pain, emotional pain, spiritual pain, worry, stress, doubt, and loneliness. Job is the oldest book in the Bible, and deals with the oldest question..."Why do good people suffer?" My favorite passage from the Bible is not from Job but from Romans 8:28, "and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose." (NIV) Why we suffer is not as important as what we do about suffering when it happens. How we handle suffering is the acid test of our Christian faith. All things and all circumstances in life can be turned around if you pursue and do the job in life God gave you to do. We need not take suffering as if we have no power. In Christ, because of our Christian faith, we have a power to deal with suffering. We have the power of God working within us. The power of God helps us deal a more powerful blow to suffering than suffering can deal to us. The power of God are to use against suffering is love. The love of God came from Christ and healed a leper and made a blind man see. The love of God will be your greatest weapon against the dark power we call suffering. You make suffering work for you when you love in spite of the pain.

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Sub-topic: Miracles Then And Now

Article Content: Matthew 15:22 -29 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." "Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour. Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. (NIV) These examples of faith and healing are put into the scripture for a reason. These examples of faith and healing are placed in our holy Word so we will believe and have the same kind of faith of the woman who kept crying out. The faith this woman used two thousand years ago is the same faith we can use today. The love of God we experience is real and is the same love people experienced two thousand years ago. The healing power Christ used in healing this woman's daughter is real and this healing power is the same today as it was then. The power of God to act is the same today as then. Miracles happen today just like they happened then because the same miracle power is at work today as it was then.

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Sub-topic: Our Choices In Suffering

Article Content: Men and women are always given freedom and options in suffering. 1. We can let the suffering do bad things to us and turn us toward sin and darkness (making us bitter), or we can choose to live righteously and live in a holy way by turning toward the Light of God (making us better). 2. We can choose to let the suffering rob us of our humanity (making us bitter) or we can become more like Christ in spite of our suffering (making us better). Bitter or better. Your choice.

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Sub-topic: Our Major Weapon Against Suffering

Article Content: Thanksgiving is a major weapon against the darkness of suffering. Our major weapon against suffering is giving thanks and gratitude. The purpose of the darkness is to push down, to crush, and to destroy us in body, mind, soul, and spirit. When we give thanks, truly and honestly give thanks within our heart, we directly push back against the force seeking to destroy us. When we survey all we have and we survey all God has given to us, when we become overwhelmed with our blessings, we let loose a power and a force within us to overcome the darkness. Our spirit of thanksgiving welling up within us is a spirit of love overcoming the darkness. When we face suffering, we can overcome the suffering by counting our blessings.

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Sub-topic: Questions And Answers About Jesus, Pain, and Suffering, Part 1 of 3

Article Content: Q. Where is Jesus in the pain of my life? A. Jesus is still there. You have just lost contact with God because of the pain. The purpose of satanic pain is to separate you from God. When you think God is gone, the satanic pain has won out until you fight back by affirming your love and belief in the presence of God. Q. When we are in pain, does Jesus hold us even when we think He does not hold us? A. Yes, God holds us whether we think He holds us or not. Yes, God holds us whether we feel His presence or not. Q. If we do not know He is there is He there anyway? A. Yes, God is always there even when you do not know He is there. You do not have to know God loves you for Him to love you. You do not have to know God is standing beside you for Him to be there. However, knowing God deep in your heart certainly helps when the time of pain attacks you.

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Sub-topic: Questions And Answers About Jesus, Pain, And Suffering, Part 1 of 5 Q. When we hurt so bad, are we hurting because God does not love us? A. God always loves us. Sometimes we hurt because of satanic darkness in the world and because of the satanic darkness in our life. Satan is the source of pain and hurt. We sometimes hurt because we have gone Satan's way rather than God's way. When we go Satan's way, there is a price to be paid. The pain we feel when we go Satan's way of sin is the price we pay for leaving God. At other times, Satan inflicts pain upon us whether we deserve it or not. Satan inflicts pain on us whether we like it or not in order to make us suffer and turn away from God. Q. When we hurt so bad, does hurting mean God is punishing us? A. Sometimes, when we go Satan's way rather than God's way, we end up punishing ourselves because we violated God's laws or violated God's will for our life. We inflict Satan's hurt and pain on our life by ourselves by using our own free will. This does not mean God is punishing us because we effectively punish ourselves. Many times we are our own worst enemy and align ourselves with Satan's desire to see us suffer, hurt, and grieve. There are other times when Satan makes us hurt when we did nothing to deserve the hurt. We must remember, Satan who is the great adversary. Q. Does God like to see us suffer? A. No, God does not like to see us suffer because He loves us and cares for us.

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Sub-topic: Questions And Answers About Jesus, Pain, And Suffering, Part 2 of 5 Q. Where is the love of God when we hurt and cannot feel His presence? A. God is still within your heart and life whether you feel His presence or not. When you cannot feel Christ's presence in your life, this is the time faith is required. When you feel His presence not much faith is required. When you feel His absence you must hold on and hold Him in your heart no matter how bad the hurt may be. Satan wants to separate you from God and Satan inflicts hurt upon you so you will abandon God. When you have faith in God, regardless of your pain, God loves you more than you can ever know and He will be with you whether you sense His presence or not. When you keep your faith, He will come to you and will surely give you blessings in number greater than you expect. Q. When we are grief stricken, why doesn't God fix the grief? When we need healing, why doesn't God heal us? A. We do not always know the answers to these questions but we do know God will heal us and fix the grief in the His time. As we enter Heaven, all our grief, and all our pain is wiped away forever. When we enter Heaven, all hurt will be gone and we will live in eternal joy, happiness, and peace beyond our ability to understand.

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Sub-topic: Reasons To Celebrate

Article Content: We celebrate today and every day. Even in the middle of death and suffering, we celebrate because there is a heaven...where there is no death and no suffering. We celebrate because God created the beauty of the heavens and the earth. We celebrate because He created the fish of the sea. We celebrate because He created the trees of the forest. We celebrate because God created the birds of the air. We celebrate nature in its splendor and glory. We celebrate because God created human beings in his own image. We celebrate because God created wisdom so man can find cures for diseases and unravel the mystery of sickness. We celebrate children and their vision of the future. We celebrate senior citizens for their wisdom and guidance. We celebrate Jesus who loves us so much. We celebrate the blessings poured out upon us. We celebrate our eternal life...an incredibly good, rich, full, meaningful life, full of happiness and joy. We celebrate a new life in heaven full of glory unknown on earth.

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Sub-topic: Suffering As A Message From God

Article Content: Some people never give in to suffering. Some people never give in when hitting roadblocks while other people are always looking for reasons to give up. In fact, some people are looking for any reason to give up when suffering comes. Hitting a roadblock or encountering suffering is no reason to quit or give up hope. A roadblock or suffering may or may not be a message from God. A roadblock or suffering may be a test to see if you have the fortitude and mettle to persevere through the tough times. Succeeding by listening to God takes a lot of wisdom to know whether the mountain or obstacle you face is there because God wants you to go in another direction. A mountain could be blocking your path because of your own mistakes, because of your lack of knowledge, or as a test to see whether your personal hope and dream can stay alive under any circumstance.

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Sub-topic: Suffering's Glorious Result

Article Content: Suffering can produce a glorious result if we let suffering push our way, out of the way. After our way is out of the way, then we can follow God's way. By choice, we can let suffering humble us. When we let suffering humble us, our way can become His way. When we want our way, suffering has no meaning and we ask, "Why?" or "Why Me." or "Why do I have to go through this?" If you let God have His way, suffering will destroy your ego, and your destroyed ego leads to the highest point in the Kingdom of God.

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Sub-topic: The Benefits Of Suffering

Article Content: Suffering can mature you. Suffering can make you a better person. Suffering can separate out what is important from what is unimportant in your life. Suffering can make you see what is real and what is unreal. Suffering can draw you closer to God each day. However, all these good things growing out of suffering only happen when you take charge of your suffering. The darkness in your life or the darkness of suffering can do good things for you only if you take charge of the suffering and take charge of your life. However, the darkness in your life does not want you to take charge anything. The darkness wants you to give up, to live without hope, to let life unravel before your eyes, and to let the suffering of your life bring chaos and unending discontent. We have enormous difficulty trying to make sense of the darkness. We have difficulty finding meaning in the darkness because the darkness is just that...darkness. In the darkness there is no illumination and no enlightenment. Without illumination and enlightenment, there is no way to become more mature or better. Without illumination or enlightenment, we will not be able to separate the important from the unimportant. Without illumination or enlightenment, we will not be able to differentiate between what is real and what is unreal.

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Sub-topic: The Presence Of God In A Time Of Trouble

Article Content: When you are suffering and you are not tended to by a Good Samaritan... When you are suffering and you see no helpers coming to your aid... When you are suffering and you believe God is not ready or does not want to help you... Please read on. In suffering, we cannot see God, but in our suffering God is like an internal Samaritan helping people of the world. God is deep within you. In our suffering, God is our ultimate helper. When no one else knows or cares, God knows or cares. Your suffering is internal. Your suffering is inside of you. However, in the same place you find your suffering you also find God. God is internal. God is right there in the middle of your suffering. When you hurt the worst, when you doubt the most, when you have no one to turn to for help, God is at the very center of the burden you carry. Suffering not only cuts us off from God, suffering also cuts us off from other people. Because suffering cuts us off from God and others, we must all reach out to each other in good times and bad. We must reach out to those people who are suffering. We must reach out because for many people we represent God, we represent Christ, and we are the Samaritans.

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Sub-topic: The Satanic Source Of Suffering

Article Content: Suffering, no matter what we might want to believe to be its source or cause, is caused by Satan. Satan wants to see you fall. Satan wants to see the drug addict use, the alcoholic drink, and the weak fall down. Satan delights in the death of young and old, the crippling of the weak and strong. Satan delights in the destruction of the good as well as the bad. God's will is that no one should suffer. Christ came to us and sent His Holy Spirit to us so we could launch a counter attack against suffering, pain, adversity, trauma, and misfortune put upon us by Satan. When we grow strong enough to understand the nature of Satan's devices and schemes, we get wisdom. With this wisdom about Satan's devices and schemes, we can see every pain, every hurt, and every heartache is the result of an arrow sent into the heart of human beings by Satan. These arrows sent into our heart try to draw us away from Christ. When we are under the enormous pressure of tragedy, we can count on God to be with us, not standing over us or pushing us down so we will fail. God stands beside us to pick us up so we will triumph and be victors.

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Sub-topic: Victory Over Circumstances

Article Content: When we learn to live from the inside out rather than from the outside in, we can live with and conquer any kind of life circumstance. The outside circumstances are the sources of darkness, suffering, and pain in our life. We can deal with these outside forces by living inside ourselves. We can deal with the forces of darkness, suffering, and pain by recognizing the inside part of us is the only place from which the Light can come, because inside of us is the kingdom of Heaven.

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Sub-topic: We Have Power

Article Content: We have power. We have control. We can do just about anything we want to do. We can end suffering. We can end pain. We can end heartache. We can end misery. We can end hatred. We can end child abuse. We can end criminal behavior. We can end drug abuse. However, there is only one problem. We can do all of these things only temporarily. We can do some of these things only sporadically. We can do some of these things only some of the time. We can do some of these things only for short periods of time. So before we puff ourselves up in arrogance and ego because we have power, we must remember, as human beings, we have little power on our own. We must remember our power to heal and restore comes from God and not from ourselves.

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Sub-topic: What God Wants From Us In Our Suffering

Article Content:

●To hang tough and to not give in

●To maintain our faith even if by only the thinnest of margins

●To take charge of our suffering instead of letting our suffering take charge of us

●Worship, worship, and worship with others but if not with others then worship alone

●Pray every hour, especially pray for others

●Live in a continual spirit of contact with God

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Sub-topic: What Suffering Does To Us

Article Content: Suffering tries to tear us apart. However, you have the power to come back against suffering. You have the power to either let suffering do what suffering wants to do or you have the power stand firm and use your time of suffering to pray and to praise God. Satan's purpose in making you suffer is to try and separate you from God and from His love. The sending of His son, Jesus Christ, to die for you, takes on a life changing meaning, especially in your times of suffering. Faith in Christ brings you closer to God in your suffering. The closer you are to God, the less suffering can separate you from Him. All things are bearable with Christ living within you. All things are bearable because in Christ you have a hope to fuel you and keep you going when suffering wants you to stop and quit living.

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Sub-topic: When Suffering Becomes Nothing

Article Content: When we face the hardships of life, we must try to keep our life in perspective. When we face the hardships of life, we must keep a perspective on both our present and our future. If we live in this life on earth for fifty years and those fifty years are full of suffering, we must remember to compare those fifty years to our future time in Heaven. If we compare our fifty years of suffering on earth to fifty million years of fun in heaven, we find our fifty years on earth is only .0001 per cent of fifty million years of fun. However, we do not live fifty million years in heaven. In heaven, we live in fun and happiness forever. So, what is fifty years of suffering compared to fun forever? Mathematically, fifty years compared to forever cannot exist, which means the fifty years fades off into nothingness. Logically and spiritually, our suffering time on earth becomes nothing when we reach heaven's gate.

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Sub-topic: When You Let Jesus Come Into Your Life

Article Content: When you are overridden with the pain of guilt over something you did, Jesus comes into your life and takes away your pain, your guilt, and your suffering. Then He tells you He forgives you. When things in your life have gone from bad to worse and there is nothing funny about anything, Jesus comes in and makes you laugh. When you have tried and tried to be successful or to make something work and you are about to give up, Jesus comes in and tells you to keep trying. When you know you have failed miserably and everyone knows it, Jesus comes in and turns failure into success. When your dreams have been dashed and there seems to be no hope, Jesus comes in and fixes your broken dreams. When you realize you are not worthy in His sight and your head is bowed low in contrition, Jesus comes in and pulls your chin up to tell you He died for you because you are worth more than all the treasures of the universe.

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Sub-topic: Why God Seems Far Away

Article Content: When God seems far away in our suffering, He seems far away because we are small and He is infinite. God seems far away in our suffering because our suffering eats away at our ability to believe and trust in our loving God. In addition, our smallness compared to God is a lesson we need to learn. The lesson to be learned is we are dependent upon God. However, when we place our heart and soul in the hands of God, we come to find we are not weak in our dependence upon God. We find empowerment in God because our faith makes us a part of the infinite. Our faith helps us bring God (who may seem far away) into our inner being so we can have direct contact with Him. When we have contact with Him we can experience God within us. Our smallness and His infinity is not a curse but a blessing for we can hide in His infinite power and infinite love. In God, we can find infinite peace, infinite comfort, infinite reassurance, and infinite love...all of which bring Him into the center of our life so He is no longer far away.

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Sub-topic: Why Others Don't Need To See Your Suffering

Article Content: Suffering isolates us and cuts us off from others. For this reason, when we are in suffering we want contact with others. In suffering, because we want contact with others, especially so when we are in pain, we want to tell others how much we hurt. We want to tell others how much we are suffering. In short, we want to complain. One of the reasons we want to complain is because we often feel helpless in suffering or in trauma. This feeling of helplessness in suffering and trauma makes us want to pull others into our life to help us, comfort us, and to be with us in our need. However, other people have their own life and their own issues. Other people need encouragement and help. Some people even need more help than we do. Complaining about our lot in life may make us feel better but complaining generally takes others down. For this reason, we must try very hard to keep from putting our burdens upon others. Instead of putting our burdens upon others, let us try to help others even when we need help ourselves.

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Sub-topic: Why We Should Not Suffer Alone

Article Content: Allowing others into our suffering is critical. However, when we whine and complain we are not necessarily allowing people to come into our life. Too often, whining and complaining is a way to get attention in a most selfish way. When we suffer, we must try to find others with whom we can share the suffering without seeking their attention to our suffering. We must try to share our suffering in a healing way to bring healing to others. Demanding attention because of our suffering weakens us, weakens others, and deeply hurts our relationships.

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Sub-topic: Your Ultimate Win

Article Content: God is the author of life. God is the source of all good in life. Satan is the source of all evil, suffering, and death. There is a war going on for your life and soul. The war is deadly, personal, and your soul is the objective. The war for your soul is between God and Satan. The two sides in this war are at it and there is a clock ticking down to the last tenth of a second. The casualties in this war are worse than any war, in any nation, in history. Suffering and pain are the weapons Satan does use to turn you against God. Does God permit suffering and if God does permit suffering, why? Why won't God stop the suffering? Why won't God stop the war? Remember, the clock hasn't run out yet. The product of your life has not been decided because each minute you decide to either produce for God or produce for Satan. The end time of your life will come at a point we call your death. At the present moment, the time on your clock is running out. At the end of the game, if you have chosen Christ, you win. The moment of your death can be for God. For you, your death will be your ultimate victory. In the end, God wants an ultimate victory for you and from you. You serve a mighty God. Your mighty God wants you to be an ultimate winner in this ultimate game. God wants you to score an ultimate victory over Satan. With your willingness to follow God, you can be His ultimate winner.

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# Chapter 118: Surrender

Sub-topic: Taking Charge To Surrender

Article Content: How do you take charge to surrender? Most adversities cannot be conquered like we conquer a mountain. You cannot climb up to a peak of some kind and attain healing or attain victory. To attain victory over most of our obstacles, we must open up to or surrender to the victory and the means for achieving victory. Opening up or surrendering to healing, and opening up or surrendering to our adversities means forgiving, loving, caring, and taking charge to surrender. Our mission in life is about the power of love and the authority we have over our adversities. In the face of every adversity we must remember we have love burning and alive within us. The love burning and alive within us becomes available only by unselfishly surrendering to the love. The world does not know about power and authority from love. When we unselfishly surrender to receive the love within us rather than selfishly grabbing to get what we want, we receive more and more each time we surrender. We cannot use the power of God for selfish desires and needs. We can only use the power of God for unselfish surrendering. We become empowered, healed, and victorious only as we become selfless in our surrendering. To regain our spiritual depth, we must learn to surrender to take charge.

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Sub-topic: Kneel Down Before Him

Article Content: Jesus will touch you and He will become real to you when you direct your whole person and your whole will toward Him. When you give your heart to Him, there may certainly be pain in the decision you make. However, like the pain of childbirth, after you have been touched by Jesus, you will know without any doubt you are loved by Him, you are forgiven of all your sins by Him, you are accepted into a whole new world by Him, and you are a new you because of Him. After He has touched you then you are compelled to love your neighbor as yourself by always being soft, kind, caring, and compassionate. After He has touched you then you let His love in you show to others even if you don't want His love in you to show to others.

●If Jesus is touching you as you read these words

●If you are experiencing Him this instant

●If you want Him in your life right now

●If you want Him as your Lord and savior right now, I invite you to turn away from the old you

●Turn away from your old sinful life

●Kneel down before Christ hanging on the cross just for you

●Give all you have and all you are over to Him

●Then let Him fill your life with His love and grace.

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Sub-topic: Surrender

Article Content: Jesus spent time talking about losing our life to find our life. When we walk into our space dedicated to joy, goofiness, and joyful laughter, even in the middle of our own darkness, we are losing our life in order to find it. Do not believe the power of God is found only in a church service. The power of God, the Love, the Light, the Laughter, the Joy, the Uplifting and Up-building power is as prevalent in places outside the church as it is inside the church. If you do not see His love or find His love outside the church, bring the inside of the church outside by your witness.

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Sub-topic: Surrendering Vs. Giving Up

Article Content: The more willing you are to surrender up your spirit to God the closer you get to eternal life. The more you try to control the physical without the spiritual, the less control you have over the physical. To fully take charge of the physical, intellectual, and emotional, the more you need to surrender up your spirit to God.

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Sub-topic: The Benefits Of Spiritual Surrender

Article Content:

●Healing of body, mind, and spirit

●Fighting to survive disappears

●Life turns from old to new

●Struggles turn into challenges

●Work addiction disappears

●Illness turns to wellness

●Stagnation turns into dynamism

●Despair turns into hope

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Sub-topic: The Power Of Surrender

Article Content: We all want power. We want power because we know, inherently and intuitively, we are powerless. We are powerless over our certain death and powerless over the certain death of others. We are powerless over the earth and the earth's mighty oceans. We are powerless over vast weather systems, earthquakes, and volcanoes. We want personal power to bolster our sense of pride and ego. We want Holy Spirit power to make a show for God so others will notice us or to solve our own selfish problems. We want healing power to heal ourselves of physical infirmities. We want power over pain so the pain does not impact our life and we can go on and do our own selfish thing in life. We want power over opponents so they will not bother us or so we can profit from their powerlessness. We all want power. However, power is not the way of God. The way of God is surrender, unselfish sacrifice, humility, and absolute contrition.

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Sub-topic: When We Surrender

Article Content:

●Surrendering puts us at God's mercy

●Surrendering puts us in the arms of God

●Surrendering puts us before God for His redeeming grace to cleanse us

●Surrendering puts us at the beginning of God's salvation

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# Chapter 119: Tenderness

Sub-topic: Tenderness

Article Content: We live in a cold and brutal world. There is murder, rape, robbery, and violent crime every day in every city. Families are torn apart because there is no tenderness in the family life. Tenderness in a man is not viewed as a manly thing. However, there is always a place for tenderness. There is always a place for tenderness in your family, a place for tenderness in your heart, a place for tenderness in your church, and a place for tenderness in your society. Without tenderness, we are nothing more than animals fighting for survival. Without tenderness, there are gang wars, family wars, political wars, and wars between nations. At the root of nearly every relational problem, there is a lack of tenderness. Each of us is obligated to exhibit this most precious trait. If you call Jesus your savior, Christ calls upon you to show tenderness to everyone.

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# Chapter 120: Thankfulness

Sub-topic: A Pastor Gives Thanks For His Flock And For His Family

Article Content: As your pastor I have a lot to be thankful for: No pastor could ask for any church body to be more faithful or more devout. No pastor could ask for any church to be as free of conflict as we have here. No pastor could ask for a church to care for his family or love his family as much you have loved and cared for my family and me. No pastor could ask for such a wonderful opportunity to minister to people and to show people how much God loves them. I am thankful for my wife who supports me in my ministry. I am thankful for my son in whom I am well pleased. I am thankful you called me to be your pastor. I am thankful there are so many areas of service I can provide to you. I am thankful you serve the Lord with humility, and you truly love the Lord. There are so many things we don't have, but it doesn't matter. We don't have stained glass windows, or a kitchen, or Sunday school rooms, but it doesn't matter. We don't have a choir, fancy furniture, or running hot water but it doesn't matter. These things don't matter because of what we do have. What we do have is each other. We have other people who care about us and for us. We have the love of God with us in this place. We have the hand of God upon us. We have the protection and watchfulness of God standing guard over us. We have the Holy Spirit within us. We have Jesus Christ, who took our sins to the cross so each of us could have everlasting life.

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Sub-topic: Questions About Treasures

Article Content: When you have no treasure stored up in heaven and you are put to the test with trials and tribulations, what happens to you? When you are put in deep water against your will, whose way will you go? Won't you be angry, resentful, and bitter? When you are angry, resentful, and bitter perhaps because of what you think God did to you, which way will you go...toward God or away from God? When you have no treasures stored up in Heaven and you tumble and fall backward won't you be angry with God because you blame God or because you think God did not protect you? Will you experience godly sorrow or worldly sorrow when you stumble and fall?

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Sub-topic: Thankfulness

Article Content: If we do not receive Christ's gift of love we are painfully alone. When we don receive Christ's treasure of love and we do not treasure His gift in return, we feel lonely. When we do not hold the love of God in our heart we experience the darkness of being pressed down. Where God's love is not recognized, there is loneliness and pain. Where God's love is not treasured, there is darkness. Without God, there is aloneness. Without God, there is just you and no one else in your life.

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Sub-topic: The Thankful Person

Article Content: The thankful person sees the advantages God has provided instead of seeing all the missed opportunities in life. The thankful person sees the hand of God working in every situation no matter how bad or bleak the situation might be. The thankful person sees the good in life and praises God even in the midst of pain and suffering. The thankful person calls any small gift a good fortune and counts each day of life as a favor from God, no matter how much trouble the day might bring. The thankful person sees each day as a gift from God and as an opportunity to serve Him. The thankful person rejoices in the opportunity to do the Lord's will. The thankful person counts as gain even the slightest improvement of his or her lot in life. The thankful person counts even things like the warmth of the sun, the dampness of rain, the cold of the snow, and the fierceness of the wind, as blessings from God.

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Sub-topic: When We Give Thanks

Article Content: When we give thanks to God something happens to us. When we give thanks to God we are changed. When we give thanks to God we grow humble in the face of good fortune. When we give thanks to God we submit our will to His will. When we give thanks to God we look up to God instead of looking around at our world as we start complaining. When we give thanks to God we look up to God and we begin to appreciate His power and how much He cares about us. When we give thanks to God, the more we appreciate how much He has done for us the more He does. Romans 14:6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. (NIV)

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# Chapter 121: Thanksgiving

Sub-topic: The More We Give Thanks

Article Content: The more we give thanks, the more rewarding our life becomes. The more we give thanks, the more our life bears fruit for God as our life becomes more fruitful. The more we give thanks, the more desirable a person we are to other people and to God. The more we give thanks, our personality changes from bitter and hostile to being sweet and warm. The more we give thanks, the more useful we are to God and the more useful we are to others. The more we give thanks, the more welcome we are in God's sight and the more inviting we become to others. The more we give thanks, the more pleasant and wonderful the world becomes regardless of our present circumstances. The more we give thanks, the less proud we are and the less vain we become. The more we give thanks the more pleasant a person we are. The more we give thanks, the more we truly become God's child.

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# Chapter 122: Thinking

Sub-topic: Cancerous Thinking

Article Content: In our world, at the behest of Satan, a great deal of cancerous thinking is prevalent. This thinking does not tell you to ignore others. This cancerous thinking just does not tell you to put others first. This cancerous thinking does not tell you to ignore God's requirements of sacrifice and perseverance (that God demands of His servants), the cancerous thinking just does not tell you how you have to sweat and sacrifice as a servant. This cancerous thinking does not tell you to ignore others; this cancerous thinking just does not tell you to put the life and the struggles of others before your own. This cancerous thinking does not tell you to meditate and pray about the investment and sacrifice of Christ, it just does not remind you to put these things first in your heart. This cancerous thinking does not tell you to ignore others around you. Instead, you are encouraged to focus only upon yourself. Slowly, over time, ignoring the hard work and hard walk of the faith leads to a death of the soul.

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Sub-topic: Consequences Of Thought

Article Content: Unfortunately, too often, we worship the things of earth. Things of earth disappear at some point through deterioration, demolition, being sent to the dump, thrown out in the trash, burned, or destroyed in some fashion. Like the wrapping paper collected after the unwrapping ceremony of Christmas, all the things of this life eventually disappear. There are consequences to our thinking. There are both immediate and future consequences to the kind of thoughts we have each moment. There are heavenly consequences and earthly consequences to the thoughts you hold in your mind this moment. When you hold thoughts about Christ and His love and grace, love and grace are the consequence.

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Sub-topic: Crazy Thoughts

Article Content:

●The world is never going to end.

●The stock market never will crash.

●There will never be a nuclear war.

●There will never be a bio-terror attack.

●Immorality will never undermine society.

●The practice of abortion makes no difference to anyone.

●How you raise a child makes no difference because they go their own way when they get older anyway.

●How you treat people makes no difference.

●All you need is a cold beer in the refrigerator.

●You don't need to repent because you will always have a last chance.

●All these crazy thoughts are believed by millions of people.

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Sub-topic: Defining The Problem

Article Content: What Is The Problem? Not in cultural terms, but in spiritual terms.

●Child gets failing grades in school...

●Man or woman looses a job...

●A church comes apart... The Holy Bible speaks and solves our problems only if we define the problem in spiritual terms.

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Sub-topic: Definition Of A Crisis And A Disaster

Article Content: If we live in a crisis and do not recognize the crisis, we have lost control. If we recognize the crisis as a crisis, we have an opportunity to take action or take control to stop or mitigate the crisis. A crisis is a turning point, a critical point, a point where hostile elements oppose you. A crisis is a time when you are falling but you have not yet hit bottom. A disaster or trauma is a time where you have hit bottom and are wounded and bleeding. A disaster or trauma is a sudden and great misfortune, a calamity, a catastrophe, or a time of great grief or sorrow.

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Sub-topic: Develop A Strategy To Achieve Small Goals

Article Content: Keep the big picture of what you want to achieve in mind at all times. However, when all you do is keep the big picture of what you want to achieve in mind and you do nothing else, you achieve nothing else. Once you have your big picture in front of you, your next step is to develop and use a strategy to achieve the small goals leading up to the attainment of your ultimate goal or ultimate objective. In most instances, we too often ignore the importance of developing and using a strategy to achieve small goals because we may think we need no strategy to do small and simple tasks. For example, it would appear it takes no strategy to call persons on the phone or no strategy to hold a reception for someone. However, these small tasks, if linked to a larger objective or goal, can be critical in importance. Like a chain, small goals are often linked together where each small goal must be achieved to realize the eventual big picture. By developing a strategy to achieve small goals, you learn to think in strategic terms. By developing a strategy to achieve small goals, your strategic use of small goals is vastly more effective than living life on the fly with no plan, no strategy, no goal, and no method of getting from where you start to where you want to go. When you use a strategy to achieve small goals, you also learn the secret to achieving big results is by achieving small results.

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Sub-topic: Develop A Strategy To Test, Review, And Revise Your Strategy

Article Content: As laughable as it may seem, a strategy to test a strategy is serious business. If you take a prescription medication being tested in trials on persons similar to yourself, what may not be apparent is the strategic planning during the testing phase of the development of the medication. Over a period of years, certain methods, called protocols, have been developed to test the effects of medications. In normal protocols, tests using the medication are first run on animals, then on humans. These protocols or testing strategies are continually scrutinized for effectiveness. You would not want to take a medication if the testing procedure used was faulty or flawed. If the testing procedure used was faulty or flawed, then the medication may not be effective at all. In a worse case scenario, the medication could even be dangerous if taken. To test your strategies, you must have a strategy to make sure your strategies work. One risky way to see if your strategies work is to test the strategy in a "live" setting without ever doing trials or trial runs. In our medication example, we could avoid testing the medication on animals and take the risk of giving the medication to humans to see what happens. The problem with this strategy could be some people might needlessly die in the process of testing. When you test your strategies, you can have a reasonable degree of confidence when you get to a "live" setting, your strategy can work because you have tested the strategy for effectiveness.

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Sub-topic: Develop Your Own Rules If Rules Do Not Exist

Article Content: We need rules to keep order. We even have a book used to keep order in meetings called "Robert's Rules Of Order." If you manage or develop a plan, project, program, or system, rules must be devised to govern and manage various circumstances. When you develop or encounter new circumstances, new rules must be developed and implemented. Rules must be put in place to keep all aspects in place and functioning. In developing rules, you must think of every eventuality. You must think of every kind of influence in every eventuality so you can then develop rules to apply to a particular circumstance. Alternatively, you can wait and develop rules as you go. However, when you develop rules as you go by waiting until something happens to develop rules after the fact, you are always managing from behind and you are never ahead. Thinking ahead is better when implementing rules so you avoid the chaos of rules misapplied or misunderstood.

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Sub-topic: Developing A Success List

Article Content: Overview Of The Exercise: This exercise requires you to go back into your childhood to your earliest memories. List all the activities you have done in your life you have done well or activities in which you were most successful. At first glance, many people would say they have not done anything well. For those of you who feel this way, this exercise may be difficult. However, the exercise will be eye opening and possibly life changing. You may not be able to accomplish this exercise overnight. You may require several days, weeks, or months to complete this "Success List" depending upon your motivation. The best way to do this exercise is to take given periods of your life and list all the things you have done, whether you did them well or not. As you make your list, you will begin to remember successes, even if you cannot recall them at this moment. Try to remember as many details of each period of your life as possible. As your success list grows, definite patterns will emerge. God has blessed and continues to bless those activities fitting into His plans for our life. Those activities He blesses are the ones which give us the greatest inner rewards, as well as those activities in which we are the most successful. Those activities He blesses are the ones we need to identify if we seek to fit into His plans. Questions to ask to determine God's will as a pointer to your success in life. 1. What activities in my life have I done in all the years of my life? 2. What activities in my life have I enjoyed doing? 3. In which activities of my life have I been successful? 4. What have I done in the past that most reflected Jesus, reflected His love, and reflected His will for me? 5. What did I do in the past that benefited and healed others? 6. What did I do in the past that fit into God's big picture instructions from the Bible? 7. What have I done in the past that turned out to be a message from God, either directly or indirectly? 8. Using the talents and traits God has given me, what circumstances in my life have pointed me in a direction in which I believe God wanted me to go? 9. What circumstances did not require me to use talents or traits I do not have?

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Sub-topic: Directed Thinking

Article Content: We can think about awful things happening. We can live in a continual state of doom and gloom. We can predict the absolute worst will happen to us in the next few days, weeks, months, or years. Predicting our own doom is a kind of thinking we can call "Awfulizing." Predicting or thinking the worst about our future has an impact upon us in body, mind, and spirit. We contribute to our spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical life or we take away from our life by how we think and what we think about. Instead of predicting our doom we can choose to think or consider our future in the positive light of hope. Any thought delivering hope to our spirit and to our intellect in turn moves us toward a sense of well-being. What do we do when we are consumed by doom and gloom regardless of the cause or regardless of the source? We must calm our minds by using prayer and meditation. By calming our minds in prayer and meditation we can enter into a state of calm. Meditation upon the soaring possibilities of life in the here and now or meditation upon life in the hereafter is to be done in private and not done for show. Meditation upon the ultimate beauty, power, love, trust, and serenity of life is a way to achieve peace of mind. To do uplifting meditation you will need a quiet place where you can physically relax. You will need time alone without interruptions, with no exceptions. When you meditate, relax physically. Relax all your muscles from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Pay attention to the tension triangle between your shoulders and up your neck. Pay attention to this spot and relax the tension from this spot. Use a focus verse of a few words. "The Lord is my shepherd" is an example. Maybe you want to use one or two words as a focus verse. Repeat the focus verse or word as you breath out, reducing your breathing rate voluntarily from the beginning of the session. As you meditate you will notice mental chatter, thought bombardment, and thought distractions. Observe these distractions but let them go. The distractions don't matter. Do not try to force the distractions out of your mind. Dismiss the distractions by focusing on your focus word or verse. When you use this technique, you will quickly learn to control your mind through meditation. As you progress in your use of meditation you will experience a peace you may never have experienced before. When your mind starts raging with negative thoughts and doom and gloom you can meditate all the negatives away. You can focus your mind for healing. You can focus your mind for love. You can focus your mind to live to life's fullest in your body, mind, and spirit. After 10 to 20 minutes of meditation, picture your illness, adversity, or obstacle and give the adversity, illness, or obstacle a symbol. Then imagine your own body in the form of the symbol in the hand of God. Imagine your own body being infused with the wondrous healing powers of God as well as being infused with your body's innate healing powers. By using this technique, you can control the healing powers and spiritual powers of your body. Picture your medication, your solution to problems, or your choice of a way to end your issues as working in a powerful way. End your mediation session by picturing yourself full of radiant life and health, smiling, and happy to be alive. If you choose to be skeptical about the power of your own mind and spirit in using meditation then you may have made the choice to remain sick, unproductive and a loser in the battle for your life.

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Sub-topic: Do Not Do Battle On The Enemy's Turf

Article Content: You have an inner opponent or adversary. Your opponent wants you to do battle or to engage you in battle. One of the strategies of your inner opponent is to manipulate you to get you to fight on the inner opponent's home turf. The reason your opponent wants to manipulate you to fight on your opponent's home turf is because you are at a disadvantage fighting on someone else's ground. Fighting on a foreign territory is more difficult because the territory is unknown to you. When you do battle on the opponent's turf, you are not only on unknown ground, you must also carry your resources with you to do battle. To achieve victory, do not engage the opponent on any turf other than your own. When you are tempted to go in a direction you know is not advantageous, do not go in a disadvantageous direction. For example, if you have a destructive habit, do not go into a territory where you will be tempted to engage in the habitual behavior. When you move in a direction, only move in a chosen direction because you have made a decision to do so based upon scoring a victory. When you are tempted or enticed to move in a direction in which you should not go, make the decision to establish a defense and refuse to move to the opponent's turf.

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Sub-topic: Do Not Go Into The Game Without Protective Gear

Article Content: Before you run the race, wear the right kind of shoes. Before the opening kickoff, wear the right kind of pads and the right kind of helmet. Before the start of your next business day, make sure you have the right kind of insurance, the right kind of attitude, and the right kind of resources. Before your next meeting, review your objectives and your talking points. Make sure your residence and belongings are insured against fire, theft, and disaster. Make sure your loved ones are protected from harmful influences from all directions. Make sure your ability to earn an income is protected by developing an alternative career. Make sure your education and experiential knowledge are protected against new developments by keeping up to date. Make sure your home is protected against adverse weather, rodents, pests, rot, and decay. God gave us the ability to think ahead. If we do not think ahead enough to protect ourselves, we have not appropriately used what God gave us.

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Sub-topic: Do Not Stir Up Your Opponent

Article Content: The power of darkness seeking your downfall has direct access to your inner life. There are exterior or external influences of the darkness in your life, but the battle of all battles takes place within you. Your great adversary is often so close to you the adversary remains hidden. To defeat this opponent, do not stir up the opponent when the opponent is quiet. Instead, attack the opponent when the opponent is quiet. Think of your inner opponent or adversary as a hornet's nest. To score a victory against the hornet's nest, you need to attack the beehive while the hornets are dormant. When you live with or face adversity, attack the adversity when the adversity is quiet and dormant. For example, if you are in grief or loss, attack the grief and loss when the grief and loss is not causing you as much pain and distress.

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Sub-topic: Establish A Measure Of Progress

Article Content: How far you walk down the street is a measure of progress if you know how far you have walked. Using a measure of progress, like keeping track of the time you have been walking, can tell you how far you have come and how far you have to go to reach your destination. If you have no way of measuring how far you have walked, you also have no way of telling how far you have to go. In so many of our daily tasks, we do these tasks but do not establish a clear measure of our progress. When we have no measure of our progress we end up thinking we are doing a meaningless task. Even if we know where we want to go, we still need to know how far away we are from our destination. To reach our maximum potential and make maximum progress every day, we must establish a measure of progress in everything we do. For example, we would use a yardstick to measure feet, yards, or miles if we wanted to measure distance. However, much of our daily life is constructed in such a way as to seem immeasurable. We do many things each day seeming to defy measurements. We can easily get caught up in not having any measure of progress. However, one of our most productive activities is to establish a measure of progress in all we do and then set about measuring how far we have come and how far we have to go.

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Sub-topic: Expanding Thoughts In The Wrong Direction

Article Content: Your thoughts can expand in the wrong direction and your mind can get out of control. When your thoughts are created by your fear, anger, pain, or lust, your thoughts can expand in the wrong direction. Here are some examples of what we think about when our thoughts go in the wrong direction:

●I get sore...

●It hurts...

●I can no longer...

●It's bad...

●It's all such a burden...

●My insurance might be canceled...

●I might be in an accident...

●I'm in so much pain...

●I don't know what's ahead...

●I'm afraid of...

●I'm confined most of the time...

●I don't know what to do...

●It's all so painful...

●I'm so afraid...

●My problem is getting worse...

●I've had to work so hard...

●I'm a driven person...

●My life has been very difficult...

●I've never had someone who was really for me...

●I've never had anyone who really loved me...

●My spouse is self-centered...

●My self-esteem is low...

●I have no self-confidence...

●I cry all the time...

●Every time I think about _____, I cry...

●I'm so helpless...

●I hate myself...

●I hate others because..." Given free reign, these dark thoughts can become a larger problem than the problem was in the beginning. We must all understand we can choose what we think about and how we think. We must all understand there really is an opposite to every thought. For every dark thought, there is a thought full of God's light and love. For every thought about defeat, there is a thought about victory. For every thought of sadness, there is a thought of joy. For every thought about weakness there is a thought about being strong. For every thought about hate there is a thought about love. For every thought about pain there is a thought about comfort. For every thought about hopelessness there is a thought about hope.

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Sub-topic: How Thoughts Expand

Article Content: First, what you think about gets larger or expands. What you think about expands out into your heart, mind, soul, and body. What you think about expands out into all you say, think, and do. What you think about expands out until your thoughts or thought energy actually becomes your life or life experience. Second, thoughts expand out and become expectations. Expectations determine your actions and your responses. Third, you come to experience what you believe you will experience, what you plan to experience, and what you prepare yourself to experience. If you expect trouble from others, you often bring on trouble. If you look for faults in others, you usually find faults. If you look for good in others, you usually find good. Fourth, most important of all, you can choose your responses with your expectations of hope and well-being, or you can choose despair and sickness. We move in the direction of our expectations.

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Sub-topic: How You Think

Article Content: We spend our whole life thinking. Even when we just sit and stare out into space, we are still thinking. Most people let their thoughts go wherever their thoughts want to go. However, you can direct and control your thoughts. How you spend your mental time builds up over time and this accumulation produces either a blessing or a curse upon your life. You can direct and control what you think about and how you think. How you think makes a difference in how you are and who you are. What you think about makes a difference in every aspect of your life. When your thoughts are blessings, blessings come to you. When your thoughts are curses, curses come to you. How you use your mind today determines your tomorrow. Whether you use your mind to think on purpose or you let your mind go wherever it wants, your thinking today determines where you go tomorrow. Your thinking today determines how you get from where you are now to where you will be tomorrow.

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Sub-topic: Thinking Logically And Strategically In Adversity

Article Content: 1. In adversity, positive thinking is essential when we focus on thinking positively about finding and executing a strategy to solve problems and resolve issues. However, positive thinking about problems and needs can be misapplied. When misapplied, positive thinking can cause us to overlook problems and needs rather than exposing problems and needs to actions we need to take to find and apply solutions. For example, you can think positively about getting a job in the medical field, but if you have no medical training or medical education, then your chances of getting a job without the training and education are slim. In this instance, your positive thinking needs to be about getting your necessary training and education leading to getting a job. 2. In adversity, happiness does not come to you by forcing yourself to do something or forcing yourself to think a certain way. Happiness comes to you from your ability to treasure what you have and be thankful. 3. In adversity, you cannot force yourself to grow physically, spiritually, or emotionally. Personal growth must come from our need or desire to expand who we are in all aspects of our life. 4. In adversity, your will power must be used to help you achieve goals you really want and can attain. Your will power must be used to attain goals determined by your power to think along with the interaction of your heart and mind. 5. In adversity, believing you can do anything you have set your mind to do is unrealistic because every person has limitations. However, what is realistic is holding the belief you can attain greatness by conquering the obstacles in your life. What is realistic is holding the belief you can deal with circumstances so well victory is assured, no matter what you face. 6. In adversity, a goal we achieve to please others, to gain us praise, to gain us recognition, or to fulfill a fantasy about who we are becomes a monster. We are then trapped by this monster. 7. When adversity ends, some people still hold themselves together by will power. When people hold themselves together by will power, they are driven and have no peace or time for love. 8. In adversity, to achieve all there is to achieve, we need to use our feelings, our intuition, our intelligence, and our will power. When we use all of these together we can fulfill our true destiny given to us by God. The spiritual payoff is enormous.

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Sub-topic: Thinking The Worst

Article Content: You always have a choice about thinking the worst or thinking the best. As an example of thinking the worst, a woman once lived a life where bad times seemed to come to her as if she was a magnet for the worst in life. She continually thought about bad things happening. She continually thought about the worst that could happen and in many instances, the worst did happen. Her mind was working, but her mind was working in the wrong direction. Her mind continually contemplated awful things that could happen in the future. Her kind of thinking about the future in "awful" terms has been termed "awfulizing." This "awfulizing" kind of thinking can and does affect us in body, mind, and spirit. Every day of our life, we contribute to our success and well-being by how we think. In the same way, we can take away from our success or well-being by how we think. When we pray and meditate, as we become more aware of what we think and how we think, we can choose our mental responses. We can choose whether we think the worst or think the best. As we pray and meditate, we can become aware of what is going on within us. Then we can make a response to what is going on within us. In prayer and meditation, we must also become aware of what gives us hope because anything giving us hope gives us life.

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# Chapter 123: Treasures

Sub-topic: Your Treasures

Article Content: We all treasure things. Some of us collect things. We collect coins, antiques, cars, tools, ribbons, dolls, teddy bears, sports trading cards, and just "things." Just because we collect does not mean anything. What we treasure counts. What do you hold dear? What takes up space in your thinking? What takes up space in your heart? Do you treasure the things of God or do you treasure the things of earth? Matthew 6:19 19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (NIV)

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# Chapter 124: Trials

Sub-topic: Leftovers

Article Content: Many of our present troubles are not often really present because many of our present troubles are the ones we too often carry around in our head and in our heart. Many of our present troubles are a result of our dark imaginations. Remember: Live in the moment you have rather than the moment you want. Worry is the price you pay for imagining the worst instead of imagining the best. Forgiveness makes a bad past vanish into thin air. Forgiveness erases events from our memory. Forgiveness focuses us on the here and now instead of the yesterdays. Change is something everyone resists. The older we get the less we like change. The older we get the more we should know how important change can be. The older we get the more we should learn to keep up with change.

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Sub-topic: Personal Trials

Article Content: Jesus had personal trials none of us can begin to imagine. Jesus was tempted beyond anything we could ever know. Jesus was so distraught in his final hours He sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was flogged to nearly the point of death. He was publicly crucified. All of this hell on earth is public knowledge. Think for a moment about the implications of having kept all this tragedy a secret. What would the world be like today if these horrible times in Jesus' life had been kept from the world? These moments in Jesus' life are the darkest moments in the history of the human race but these moments have not been kept a secret. Most of the human race does know about these events, although many persons do not accept these events as fact. What is life-changing about Jesus' trials is He suffered all His trials for you.

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Sub-topic: The Cause Of Nearly Every Human Problem

Article Content: Every problem in life is connected to it, caused by it, and related to it. Every problem in the world is connected to it, caused by it, or related to it. What can you do about it? 1. Recognize you have it 2. Be honest with Christ about it. 3. Lift it up to Christ 4. Find forgiveness in Christ. What is "it"? "It" is sin. The essential message God wants you to hear, know, and understand about sin is you can give up your sin today. Christ is calling you to Himself in spite of what you may have said, thought, or done. Do not let your sin or anything stand in your way. Christ is calling you to come to Him in humility and give up your sin. Christ is with you this instant and He speaks with love. Won't you open your heart and hear Him speak?

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Sub-topic: The Cause Of Sickness

Article Content: Sometimes we do things making us sick because we bring the darkness causing sickness to come into our life. Sometimes we do not do anything causing us to become sick or ill. Sometimes the darkness brings the sickness and illness upon us for no reason other than to attack us and hurt us. In short, the darkness is the cause of sickness. In contrast, God does not bring adversity into any life. God does not bring adversity into our life because we are all born into adversity. However, God has provided an eternal way out of adversity in the form of our Lord Christ Jesus.

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# Chapter 125: Trust

Sub-topic: God Is Personal

Article Content: By seeing Christ come back from death, we can trust God. Because God delivered His Son from death we know He will deliver for us. Many people do not trust God. They don't think God is really there for them in a personal way. They believe in God, but they believe in a God who is not a personal God. However, God is a person of personal love and personal caring. To trust God requires we invest our whole person in Him and take a personal risk with Him. When Jesus came back from death, He demonstrated we can take a personal risk with God. Christ's resurrection shows us we can put our personal life in God's hands and God will not fail us. Instead, instead God will bring us to be with Him in Heaven.

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# Chapter 126: Truth

Sub-topic: Admissions

Article Content: Painful admissions are hard to make. However, to be able to move from where you are to where you want to go, you must always expect to have to make painful admissions. Progress and achievement in life are dependent upon our ability to make painful admissions, especially the painful admissions killing our ego. Many people fail in life because their ego stands in the way of their success. Many people succeed in life because they made admissions giving them freedom from the restraints of ignorance imposed by their ego. We need to be able to make painful admissions in life because we encounter so many obstacles. Dealing with obstacles in life very often requires we admit what we cannot do, admit what we need to overcome, admit our past mistakes and shortcomings, and admit our inadequacies. Obviously, if we have a working ego, we do not want to make painful admissions about what we cannot do. Our working ego stands in the way of our progress by trying to keep us from admitting we have needs in various areas. However, the beauty of making painful admissions is once the painful admission is made, we are then able to do something about the thing to which we made admittance. We must realize there is power in making painful admissions. We must also realize there is powerlessness and failure in not making these admissions. We are rendered powerless and blind by our egos. However, we find great power when we admit we need help or admit we have a shortcoming.

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Sub-topic: Finding Freedom With The Truth

Article Content: Jesus tells us the truth will set us free. There is no greater example of how truth brings freedom than the truth about our Savior's death and His coming back from death after three days in the tomb. The truth about Jesus' death and resurrection has not been kept secret. These factual truths have been made known. Exposing these facts has liberated millions of souls who are then able to fly into heaven to eternal life. To keep these facts about Christ's death and resurrection hidden, would have not liberated anyone. When we read, "the truth will set you free", what we read is the fact the horrid truth about Jesus' flogging and crucifixion then His resurrection has indeed set millions free.

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Sub-topic: If You Were God

Article Content: There are some things about God and His ways we cannot know. This is a plain and simple truth. We often do not like this truth. We want to desperately change this truth. If there is an explanation about God's remoteness, His mystery, and His ways of doing things we must look at ourselves. We are not angels. We are human and we are sinners. We are easily drawn away from God. We are not subservient to God. We want to go our direction not God's direction. We are not pre-programmed by God to do His will. God gave us our own will capable of freedom to go in whatever direction we choose to point our will. In some respects, we are a lot like God. He created us in His image. Believing in God is worth our time, our effort, and our life. Our God is relatively unseen, mostly unheard, and who acts or does not act in ways unexplainable because of the trust God has put in us. God has given us some power and some control over our life and our existence. To date, we have not shown God He can trust us to do the right things in every circumstance. If you were God, and humankind had murdered your Son, would you trust humankind? God gave us the power to create. What we have created with our creative abilities? Have we built a civilization praising God? Have we built a civilization giving God the credit for our creative talent? With our creative genius we have developed and continue to develop new ways of killing each other off. We are striving to find ways of wiping ourselves off the planet. We too often use our creativity not to glorify God but to glorify sin and violence. If you were God, would you trust us to always do the godly thing in every circumstance?

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Sub-topic: Lies

Article Content: When we are in the darkness, we are too often our own worst enemy. In the darkness, we become our own worst enemy because we buy into everything Satan whispers into our ear. Look at the lies Satan whispers into your ear when you are in the darkness? "You cannot go on.

●You can never live again.

●There is no way out.

●All the joy is gone.

●There is no hope now.

●Life is over.

●You'll never get over it.

●The end has come.

●Your time is over.

●There is just no way.

●The music has died.

●You'll never love again." You must remember. All these dark whisperings are LIES!!!!!

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Sub-topic: Living A Lie

Article Content: If we recognize the existence of God within us, we are then under a compulsion to make some kind of response. This compulsion to make a response to God does not necessarily mean each person accepts Him because many people do not accept Him. God has permitted men and women the freedom to accept Him or reject Him. Each day, every human being has the choice of acceptance or rejection of God. What many people try to do is ignore the decision to accept or reject Him. In the minds of many people, if they can ignore the choice then the choice does not exist. However, denial of the truth does not make the truth go away. We can deny we need air to breathe but we cannot live a lie and do without the air. We can deny we need God and tell ourselves we can do without Him for a time. However, there comes a time when time is up, and then we cannot live a lie any more.

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Sub-topic: Our Assumptions And The Truth

Article Content: A slender, fragile thread is the only thing supporting our life. Our life is precious and incredibly fragile. At any moment, our life could end. No one should ever assume they have more than a thread of life support. What do we assume? We assume our life support is so strong our life support is an unbreakable chain. We assume we will never fall. We assume we are invincible. We assume we have more power than we really have. We assume we will never really die. We therefore have no need to repent or make things right with God. We assume we are immune to the consequences of sin. We assume we do not hang by a slender thread licked by the flames of hell. We assume and assume and assume and we are very, very, wrong. The reality of our life is we are never immune from sin. An unbreakable chain of life support does not hold us up. We are all subject to temptation and Satan's snares. We are all subject to death in the body and death in the spirit. Repentance is supposed to be an event in a person's life. However, repentance should be something we go through every day. Satan knows your weak spots. Do you? Do you know yourself as well as Satan knows you? Do you know your failings, your shortcomings, and your faults? We cannot win the spiritual battle for ourselves and our families if we bury our head in the sand and pretend everything will be fine. The reality is we all, do indeed, hang by a slender thread. We all do hang above Satan's fire. We all do live with the prospect at any moment the fire of Satan will burn the slender thread. However, there is something we can do about our precarious position above the licking flames. We are not helpless. We have the power to live holy and devout lives. We have the power of God who calls us to turn away from sin and temptation. We have he power to surrender our life to Christ and receive His grace saving us and redeeming us.

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Sub-topic: Our Greatest Weapon Against Evil

Article Content: The most important job a communicator of the gospel is to help the receiver of the communication connect gospel truth to everyday life. In our reality, Satan attacks every person's life. When a person is disconnected from others and disconnected from God, Satan takes advantage of this lack of connection. When people lead disconnected lives, everyday life easily turns into chaos. Connected lives are fruitful lives. Connected persons live life on purpose, for a purpose. Disconnected lives are full of problems. If our heart is totally connected to Christ, our faith is unshakable. When our connection to Christ via the Holy Spirit is unbreakable, we would forever walk in the glory and grace of his presence. However, our faith is not strong and our connection to Christ is too often weak. When our faith is weak, our connection to Christ becomes weaker, and we can end up in this downward spiral of losing what little faith we possess. For persons who are Christians, Satan tries to attack our connection to God by using adversity, pain, and suffering to weaken our connection to Christ. As Satan attacks, connections begin to fade, then there is backsliding. We must counter-attack Satan with prayer, meditation, humility, and an open heart to Christ's redeeming love. A melted heart kneeling before the Cross is our greatest defense against the evil one.

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Sub-topic: The Power Of Facing Reality

Article Content: When we acknowledge the physical nature of our life then we are not fooling ourselves into thinking we have no problems. When we acknowledge the physical nature of our life then we are also not letting our physical problems overwhelm us. Acknowledgement of your circumstances is not denial. When you acknowledge your circumstances you then cause yourself to recognize the circumstances exist. When you acknowledge an obstacle you face then you take from the obstacle the power of the obstacle to control your life. Great obstacles in our life can generate fear within us. The fear generated by obstacles keeps us from believing, hoping, trusting, and seeing a path into our future. Too often, fear generated by an obstacle keeps us imprisoned in denial because we do not want to face the fear or face the obstacle. However, the fear generated by an obstacle loses its power if you acknowledge the obstacle. When you acknowledge the existence of an obstacle, great power comes to you because you have faced reality. When you face reality and there is an obstacle, you can also find in reality a being much larger and much more powerful than any obstacle. The being much larger than any obstacle in reality is the being of love and power we call God.

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Sub-topic: The Whole Truth

Article Content: We lie to ourselves. However, we do not always totally lie to ourselves. What we do most of the time is tell ourselves only a part of the truth. We leave out big chunks of the truth making us responsible causing us to sacrifice. We can tell ourselves we "messed up" but telling ourselves we "messed up" does not tell ourselves enough about what we did to "mess up." Telling ourselves we "messed up" avoids confronting the full truth about why we "messed up." If we are going to ever progress in our life what we must do is fully explain the causes and cures of our failures or lack of progress. If we are willing to fully come to grips with all the causes of our failure or lack of progress than we have a chance at making progress. If we tell ourselves only a partial truth about our lack of progress or we dismiss our lack of progress by merely saying we "messed up," then we cannot come to grips with the whole truth and we will not make progress into the future. When we tell ourselves a half-truth by only saying we "messed up" this tell of a half-truth produces the same result as lying. When we tell the truth, we must tell the whole truth and not just a part of it. For example, if we look at our personal finances, we must not look just at how much money we have in the bank or how much money we bring in each week. We must tell the whole truth about our finances by also looking at how much indebtedness we have and how much we must pay out each week for living expenses and other purchases.

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# Chapter 127: Understanding

Sub-topic: Understanding

Article Content: A Pharisee, trying to trap Jesus, questions Jesus about the greatest commandment. Christ's answer goes to the heart of His ministry and life. Mark 12:28-34 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "of all the commandments, which is the most important?" 29. "the most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31. The second is this: 'love your neighbor as yourself.' there is no commandment greater than these." (NIV) Jesus then sharply criticizes both sects for having failed to grasp the true meaning of worship and service before God. We think we understand our Bible. We think we understand the meanings, purposes, and designs of our scriptural truths. The Pharisees of Jesus day would have railed in indignation had anyone suggested they did not understand their religious texts. Are we any different? If we are different, we must be open to learning more about our scriptural truths. If we think we "get it" or if we think we have already "gotten it", we probably haven't gotten anything, just like the Pharisees had not "gotten it."

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# Chapter 128: Victory

Sub-topic: A Structure For Winning

Article Content:

●Draw lines. The lines represent what you believe.

●Lay a foundation. Lay a foundation according to the lines you draw. Build the foundation with the foundation stones of the big truths of life.

●Build walls. Build the walls with your daily affirmations about how you will deal with the adversity you are now facing and will face in the future.

●Integrate. Select what you bring into your life and select what you produce in your life.

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Sub-topic: Attempts Required

Article Content: No matter what we do in life, we must quickly learn we will need to make many attempts to be successful. When you first learn to type, your fingers hit the wrong keys on a continual basis until you learn where the keys are located on the keyboard. When you learn to walk as a baby, you fall down a lot. No matter what we do in life, we must prepare ourselves emotionally and intellectually to make many attempts. There are a few people who seem to have a golden touch when it comes to achieving. However, even for them, long-lasting success is gained only by repeatedly trying, failing, and trying again. For nearly every person, to achieve and be successful requires repeated attempts. When someone expects to succeed on the first try at any task, they will soon be disappointed. Professional persons spend long hours honing and practicing their craft. In the long hours of practice, there are repeated mistakes or failures. There are repeated attempts at success. We must remember success in any area of life does not come easy. Most often the difficulties we face in achieving more in life can be dealt with successfully if we learn to keep going and keep repeating our attempts.

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Sub-topic: Becoming A Winning Person

Article Content: Living a winning life or becoming a winning person is not a one-time or overnight exercise. Living a winning life is a daily walk or a daily effort. Sometimes we even need to measure our daily progress in inches or in fractions of an inch rather than in feet, yards, or miles because our progress is excruciatingly slow. As a result of pursuing a winning life and measuring your progress, you can change in an incredibly positive way. The life you live can change. Even you can change if you determine to live a winning life.

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Sub-topic: Bouncing Back

Article Content: For the person who has a deep and living faith in God there is buoyancy in life. When you have a deep and living faith in God, what may be a crushing blow to someone else will not keep you down. With faith, you cannot be kept down because the love, mercy, compassion, and spirit of Christ pushes you upward. With faith in Christ and with Christ as your friend and Shepherd, you can live on a higher plain. When difficulties come, you can rise above them and stay afloat above the difficulties. Your spiritual connection to God gives you buoyancy, like a boat, for Christ gives you wholeness, not the holes letting the water in causing you to sink.

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Sub-topic: Fitting Into A Winning Plan

Article Content: 1. The things occurring in life are not necessarily good or bad in and of themselves. 2. We determine the outcomes or the veritable goodness or badness of events by making the result or outcome of the event good or bad. Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (NIV) Fitting into plans, being a winner, or living a victorious life has five requirements. To win you must... a) Get into condition b) Get ready to play without an immediate assignment, this means not requiring someone to tell you what to do c) Pick up our cross or your burdens and carry your cross or your burdens without complaint d) Deny yourself what you want or what you think you need e) Loose yourself in the pursuit of godly excellence James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (NIV)

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Sub-topic: Losing To Gain

Article Content: When you walk the path of Christ, you have to step down to move up. You have to lose yourself in order to gain yourself. You have to give away your soul and your life to Christ in order to win your soul and life back. With Christ, you must lose your life to find it. With Christ, you must lose your ego to find your true self.

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Sub-topic: Our Optimism

Article Content: The victory of Jesus over death gives us optimism. There are many reasons to be pessimistic about this life and this earth. Mankind has been bent on self-destruction for a long time. We now have the nuclear firepower to destroy the life of every person on earth. In some countries with nuclear weapons there is now an active desire to use them. However, now because of Christ's death on the cross and His victory over death, we can be optimistic about our future. We can face death with optimism every minute, every hour, every day. Christians have eternity in heaven to look forward to. No matter how bad things are right now, or no matter how bad things get in the future, there is for us who have accepted Christ as our Savior, a great tomorrow going on forever and ever. We have before us a glorious tomorrow beyond words to describe.

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Sub-topic: Our Ultimate Success

Article Content: Everything is spiritually reversible in this life, including failure. Failure is never final if we resolve failure will not be final. Failure is only our perception of where we think things should be or how we think things should be. Jesus never gave up when He walked this earth. Jesus never gave up when He came back from the tomb. Jesus has never given up on us. We must never give up on Him. When we experience failure, we have the opportunity to try again, to keep going, and to push ahead. Christ died on the cross so, in our failure, we can have another chance. Jesus died on the cross so we can try again to be perfect in God's eyes. Jesus died on the cross so we can spend eternity in the beautiful garden with Him even when we fail here on earth. The ultimate success of our earthly life comes not while we are on earth, but when we see Christ face to face. The ultimate success of our earthly life comes when what seemed a failure in man's eyes turns out to be eternal life, eternal happiness, eternal joy, and the end of pain, suffering, and sorrow. Our ultimate success is no more sickness, no more death, no more disease, no more crime, and no more violence. Our ultimate success is living in a many roomed mansion never needing fixing, without any cost to us, located somewhere in paradise. Our ultimate success is never getting sick, never getting tired, never getting discouraged or depressed, and never being worried about anything because we live in Heaven with God and with Jesus.

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Sub-topic: Surrendering To Win

Article Content: When we surrender all to God we are to open all of ourselves up to God's redeeming love. When we surrender, we are to listen, we are to learn, we are to grow, we are to not fight back, and we are to accept life. We are to surrender our hopes and dreams up to God so our hopes and dreams are no longer ours but His. We are to surrender up our worries to God so our worries are no longer our worries but His worries. We are to surrender up our passions to excel and to be great so our passions are no longer our passions but His passions in us to excel and be great for Him and Him only. We are to surrender up our disappointments so our disappointments are no longer our disappointments but His disappointments. When we surrender, we must hold nothing back. What we have left after we surrender is confidence, serenity, and God's power to win. If we do not surrender, trying to keep everything in life all to ourselves makes us a loser in life. What we achieve when we surrender is victory for Christ.

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Sub-topic: The Real Meaning Of Winning

Article Content:

●Winning means showing people you really care about them with warmth and understanding under any circumstance.

●Winning means you become and remain the best person God could ever have you be in the face of darkness and in the face of what the darkness tries to do to you.

●Winning out over the darkness isn't everything, it's the only thing.

●Winning out requires you understand what the great adversary wants for you is total defeat.

●Winning means defeating the darkness put upon you by the great adversary.

●Winning means defeating the darkness minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day.

●Being comfortable with yourself when you are alone means you are winning.

●Being alone is not the same thing as being lonely.

●Being comfortable when you are alone means you like yourself.

●Winning is having a peace and serenity within you.

●You don't have to be a perfect person to know love or to give love.

●You can't undo the mistakes and sins of the past, but to win out over the mistakes and sins of the past you can make amends by apologizing.

●You can make amends with God by repenting and expressing your godly sorrow.

●You can win in your life by impacting the lives of others in positive ways no matter what your own life is like.

●You can impact the life of others by giving love and compassion, understanding, and joy.

●Your life can be a winning life when you can be joyful no matter how long you live, and no matter what your circumstances in life might be like.

●You take on a winning attitude when you realize you have, at any age and under any circumstance, great potential.

●You win when you choose to win out over any adversity.

●You win when you choose to win out over any adversity in spite of the unknowns you face.

●Being a winner in life does not happen by accident because we chose to be a winner.

●You may never be able to be fixed, cured, repaired, redone, or made new in your body. However, you can choose to be well even if you are never fixed, cured, repaired, redone, or made new in your body.

●You can choose a winning life in spite of present circumstances. If you choose to be well and choose a winning life, in your spirit, then in your mind and in your soul you are fixed, cured, repaired, redone, and made new.

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Sub-topic: The Ultimate Victory

Article Content: I know two people who are fulfilling what one could call "The Ultimate Victory." These two people were disabled in separate accidents when they were in the prime of their youth. One of these persons is paralyzed from the waist down, while the other is paralyzed from the neck down with only limited use of her hands. These people are achieving the "The Ultimate Victory" and doing the ultimate good our God calls each of us to do. These people have survived the fall of darkness in their life. Because of their accidents, they have worked for the betterment of others and lobby for the interests of those less fortunate. "The ultimate good" is the action we take when darkness falls. When we take an action adding to the hope and Light of God burning within others, we have not just overcome the darkness ourselves, we have defeated the darkness and achieved the ultimate victory in the life of others. This is not to say persons who have been afflicted by the darkness do not have bad moments, because they do. Sometimes there are many bad moments. However, the sum total of these bad moments in the life of persons who are afflicted need not drive out the Light of God burning within them. We keep the Light of God burning within our heart, mind, and soul by continual invitation of the Light to stay within us. For the more we hope, the more the Light has a chance to burn and fuel us onward. In practical terms, our outside circumstances may come against us, but we can rule over these circumstances when we have the Light and love of Christ inside of us.

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Sub-topic: To Win At Life

Article Content: To win at life by doing God's will, we have to give up to receive back. To be a true example of Christ we have to surrender. Surrendering our life and our selves gives us a way to empower our spiritual nature. Surrendering to the will and love of God through Christ unlocks a vault holding secrets about life...secrets remaining hidden from the most learned. Surrendering to God and doing His will produces in us a will power to endure all things...a will power to protect the vulnerable among us. Surrendering gives us an armament against the deadly arrows of temptation. When you surrender your life to Christ you do so because you love Him. When you love the Lord with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might, you love others as yourself. When you love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul and all your might you automatically honor your father and mother, you never lie, you never commit adultery, you never steal, you never commit murder. You live by the Ten Commandments because of love. And, you win.

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Sub-topic: Ultimate Victory

Article Content: The world is a discouraging place. The world tells you how you will never get to the top, no matter how hard you try. The world tells you how you will never get to the top, no matter how long you work at achieve. No one will ever see you climb. However, people will see you fall. You will experience pain and suffering whether you deserve it or not. You will lose more ground than you gain. Some days, or weeks, or months, or even years can be times of loss. In this life and in this reality, there is often no observable victory. However, in this life and in this reality there is a man who brings ultimate victory over every obstacle. His name is Jesus.

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Sub-topic: Victim Or Victor

Article Content: We are a victim of the past or a victor in spite of the past. We are a victim or a victor in life because we have a connection to Christ. We always have the choice of turning defeat into victory. Problems in the world seem to mount daily. In the world, there are dysfunctional families rendered dysfunctional due to alcoholism, drug abuse, molestation, physical abuse, verbal abuse, rape, violence from the street, medical problems, handicaps and disabilities, divorce, educational failure, unplanned pregnancy, unemployment, financial failure, and more. The list of social sicknesses in our life seems endless. These sicknesses did not start yesterday, or last week, or even 20 or 30 years ago. These problems started when man fell in the Garden of Eden. The tragedy of family life and the problems people have are problems handed down from one generation to the next. Our past is often a ball and chain around our neck. Our past is often like a ghost haunting us. Each of us carries burdens from the past. Our human response to burdens, to problems, and to a broken past, is to resolve not to be like someone else. However, our response ought to be let Christ touch us. Our past never leaves us. However, Christ's touch can heal our broken life caused by the past. Without the touch of Christ, we are victims of our past. No matter what we do, no matter where we go, no matter who we are with, our past goes with us. No human effort can work the miracles of Christ's love. Only through His touch can we be really healed. Christ's love can mend the broken heart, fix broken dreams, repair broken lives, heal broken bodies, and give us a new perspective on our past experiences. The love of Christ, through His blood, washes away our sin and with it the sicknesses and burdens from our past.

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Sub-topic: What We Surrender To Achieve Victory

Article Content: There is a difference between giving up in helplessness and surrendering to gain control. When we surrender to gain control, we surrender the grip of the darkness upon us on purpose for a positive reason. When we surrender to gain control, we give up any grip the darkness has upon us as we achieve a freedom from the prison of our adversities. When we surrender to achieve victory, we surrender up our defenses and destructive motives. When we surrender to achieve victory, we surrender all of our darkness up to God. In Christ there is victory, in Satan only certain defeat.

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Sub-topic: Winning Is Not Assured

Article Content: We all want victory. We all want a guarantee what we do will pay off in the future. We all want to know, at the very least, things will be all right in the future. The reality of our life shows us winning is not assured. In our life on earth, we can and do taste defeat. The causes of our defeats are many just as the causes of our victories are many. Although winning is not assured in every circumstance, we can still win out over whatever adversity or circumstances we face in life. You may lose everything and everyone. However, even in this instance, you can win out by not giving in and not giving up. Our greed, our lust, and our selfishness corrupt our ideas of what it means to win. If we think of winning as winning a prize without much of an effort on our part, we end up being losers because we have not put forth much effort. Winning in life, even if we have lost everything and everyone, requires effort on our part. Just because you may be in grief over a loss in any area of life, being in grief does not mean your grief will guarantee you a win in the future. You may feel bad about losing. However, feeling bad about losing does not mean you will win in the future or deserve to win in the future. To win out over circumstances requires we continually work toward our goals and objectives. If our goals and objectives have been taken from us, we must find new goals and objectives. True victory in life is not about conquering another person. If we think of victory as conquering another person, we end up losing in the end because we are all supposed to empower others and make them better. Even in special circumstances like stopping criminal behavior we are trying to make the life better for a potential victim as well as the criminal. If we think of winning as being way ahead of everyone else or outscoring them, we eventually end up losing, because the factors of our achieving victory change or we change. No one can win in this life forever if we measure our wins and losses like we are scoring points in a game. The greatest contributor to a winning life, or at least to winning streaks in life, is how we handle the winning and how we handle the losing. If winning and losing make us better, we win even if we lose. If winning and losing make us bitter or destructive, we lose whether we have won or lost. One of the greatest challenges of our life is not to defeat others. One of the greatest challenges in our life is to defeat the darkness or inner opponent within us. When we defeat the inner opponent within ourselves, we are assured of winning out over every circumstance.

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# Chapter 129: Vision

Sub-topic: A Positive View And A Negative View Of Humankind

Article Content: The Negative View Of Human Beings

●The average human being has an inherent dislike of work or responsibility and will avoid work or responsibility if he or she can.

●Because of this human characteristic of dislike for work or responsibility, most people must be coerced, controlled, directed, and threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort toward the achievement of personal or organizational objectives.

●The average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid responsibility, has relatively little ambition, and wants security above all. The Positive View Of Human Beings

●The expenditure of physical and mental effort to work or to assume responsibility is as natural as play or rest.

●External control over persons and the threat of punishment are not the only means of bringing about effort toward personal or organizational objectives.

●Human beings will exercise self-direction and self-control in the service of objectives to which he or she is committed.

●Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement.

●The average human being learns under proper conditions not only to accept but also to seek responsibility.

●The capacity to exercise a high degree of imagination, ingenuity and creativity in the solution of organizational or personal problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population.

●Under the conditions of modern life the intellectual potentialities of the average human being are only partially utilized.

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Sub-topic: A Visible Future

Article Content: The future is not visible, or is it? Psychics, seers, and prophets sometimes have the ability to see into the future. However, what about us normal folk? What about the rest of us who do not have such gifts? The truth for each of us is we can design our own future. We can determine our future by knowing what we want, expecting to receive what we want, and building our own road map to get to the persons, places, times, and situations we want. To accept this truth, to accept this idea we can determine our future can be earthshaking. To accept we can determine our future is earthshaking because to accept this truth means we are taking full responsibility and fully taking charge of our life. Truthfully, not to take charge of our life is easier than taking charge. Not to take responsibility for our life is easier than taking charge. Making excuses, finding reasons, or setting the blame for our life on something or someone else is easier than taking responsibility. However, if we do anything other than take full responsibility and fully take charge of our life, our future is determined not by ourselves, but by something or someone else. In addition, we are made unwilling servants to the something or someone else when we do not responsibility.

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Sub-topic: Age And Vision

Article Content: May it be you always have eyes looking ahead rather than eyes continually looking behind you. The older you get, the more you tend to look behind you because the older you get, the more there is to look behind you. The older you get, the less of a future, in this world, there is to look forward to. Youth sees nothing but the future. Old age sees mostly the past. Immaturity sees nothing at all regardless of age. Without spiritual vision, there is spiritual blindness no matter which direction one looks.

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Sub-topic: From God's Perspective

Article Content: When you are unsure of what you should do, try to see things from God's perspective. Try to see things like God sees them. Try to see how God could take a situation you are in and make the situation better or make the circumstance come out to His glory. Try to see how you could open doors in a circumstance so God can do his work. In other respects, God needs you to pave some highways on this earth. He needs you to make straight the way, so others can follow. Even in very bad, desperate circumstances, God can do great works. However, He still needs you to open doors, pave roads, and move mountains for Him.

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Sub-topic: Looking Ahead

Article Content: People hold hopes and expectations about their life. Many people only look ahead the next few hours. Other people look ahead to tomorrow. Still others look ahead to next week, or next year. However, few people can honestly say they look forward to eternity. A Christian can see forever when he or she looks ahead. A Christian can look at the setting sun and see beyond the ending of one day and see into an infinite number of sun rises. In fact, in the infinite nature of Heaven, there are no sunsets or sunrises, for in Heaven, there is Light all the time.

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Sub-topic: Looking Ahead Instead Of Looking Around

Article Content: There are two ways of looking at the future. We can look at the future as a time of unparalleled opportunity or we can look at the future as a time of unparalleled darkness. Two people can look at the future and see vastly different pictures. However, what we must all keep in mind is the fact our reality is now, not tomorrow. We must look ahead but we must also be able to live in the here and now. If all we think about is the future, either good or bad, we miss out on the present. If all we think about is what will happen in the future, either good or bad, we miss out on how we can build the present moment into a moment much greater than we could ever imagine for tomorrow. To be productive beyond reason, we cannot spend our time trying to do or not do things in the future because we can only do or not do things in the present. We can worry about the future but we make the future different only by acting in the present moment. We can play terrible head games by asking ourselves questions related to the future. We can ask... What if disaster strikes? What if things turn grim? What if things do not work out? What if none of this stuff works? When we are caught up in asking ourselves these questions and never getting busy to find the answers, we can easily be consumed with a fear of our future. Productivity, achievement, success, and well-being are determined by what we do with our time right now, not yesterday and not tomorrow. We can, if we choose, extend our productivity, achievement, success, and well-being into the future, moment by moment, by living every second to maximize our productivity, achievement, success, and well-being.

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Sub-topic: Looking Back Too Often

Article Content: When we look back at the past too often we end up not living today. God means for us to live in the here and now not live with our eyes cast back into previous times. We praise God more fully when we relish the moments of the present. We praise God more fully when we gaze off into the future and dream of new ways we can make things today so things will be better tomorrow. When we constantly look back and yearn to return to yesteryear, we are cheating ourselves and cheating God out of the best time of our life...the best time of our life being this moment. This moment can be the best moment for you if we determine to make this moment the best moment for God and for His glory. We do not have to make this day the best day of our life. We cannot, in fact, make this day the best day of our life. We can however, in the next few seconds, make the next few seconds the best few seconds we have ever lived. Even at the very end of our journey, when nearly all of what we have said, thought, done, believed, hoped for, dreamed about, and prayed about is behind us, our most glorious moment is just ahead as we step over into eternity. When we realize we can all be headed toward God's eternity of unbounded love, we do not want the past...we want, at our last moment, only eternal new moments full of glory and full of grace.

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Sub-topic: Looking For Victims

Article Content: Satan, the joy-killer, is looking for victims. Primary victims are widows, widowers, and persons who have had broken relationships. No other force keeps persons who are grieving more in grief than the joy-killer because the joy-killer convinces the grieving person there can be no more joy. Satan, the joy-killer, establishes the fact if one is to have fun during a time of grief then a price is to be paid. Worse still, the joy-killer comes and delivers horrible guilt on the person grieving for even thinking about having fun. The major obstacle in starting over in life after we have been hurt or during our time of grief is guilt. And what does this guilt do? Guilt keeps the darkness going in our life. The guilt keeps us down on the floor without any hope, without any Light, without any love coming to us or going out from us. In addition, there will definitely be no laughter when Satan, the joy-killer visits.

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Sub-topic: Looking To God And Seeing The Impossible

Article Content: When you look to God, when you look to Jesus and actually see Him, the impossible becomes possible. When you look to God, when you look to Jesus and actually see Him, you are then able to love the unlovable, care for those who reject you or despise you, and totally accept others who want nothing to do with you. If you will look at His eyes and see how much He loves you, you receive His love from Him, and then His love flows back out from you to others. This outpouring of His love is an automatic activity. His outpouring of love from within you out to others makes others exclaim, "My, oh, my, how he or she has changed!" What might have been impossible in terms of changing a person becomes not only possible but a reality in Christ's love and grace.

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Sub-topic: Mission And Vision

Article Content: A mission requires we have a vision, a vision to formulate a goal so clearly we can see in our minds eye what is ahead of us. Every day, every week, every month, every year, and every decade should be a time of mission with a vision. Resolve in your life, every day should be a day of mission with a vision and every vision should inspire you to have a mission driving you to reach your goals. The word mission, in the Christian faith context, means "a sending forth or a going forth of men and women to teach and preach the sacraments. The sacraments are religious rites and ceremonies given by Christ including baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist or the Lord's supper, penance, extreme unction, holy orders, and matrimony." The question is who will go forth? Will you be the man or woman to go forth to teach and preach? A mission is also that with which a person is charged and means "an errand, a commission, or a purpose." How many people go to church for a purpose other than taking care of their own spiritual needs? Giants in the faith should have a consuming mission, a mission with a clear vision overtaking them and sending them forth into their world.

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Sub-topic: Seeing Christ As Very Real

Article Content: People today too often do not see Christ as the real Light of the world. People too often see Christ only as an interesting historical figure. They may even see Him as a person who died and who came back to life. However, people too often do not see Him as God. People often do not connect Him to their life in the here and now. They often do not connect Him with the wisdom and truth He gave to help them through the daily grind of life. People who see Him as only an historical figure do not come to experience any of His person available to them through His Spirit. A supernatural fact is --Christ is really real today! Christ is a reality within you today! Christ is a reality within you to ease your hurt, encourage you, bless you, and walk with you through every dark moment of your life.

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Sub-topic: Visions And Dreams

Article Content: According to the dictionary, a dream is either 1. a group of ideas or images in our mind during sleep, or 2. a wild or vain fancy. This kind of thinking and definition gives dreams a bad image, no pun intended. Dreams are also thought of in negative terms when speak of daydreaming. Daydreamers are talked about and considered odd or unproductive. Granted, there is no place or reason for people not doing their job when the job needs done. However, dreaming can and should be a constructive and beneficial activity when we dream in God's spirit. We can define constructive dreaming as seeing in your mind's eye a picture of the future. What you put into your picture of the future is a choice you can make before you start the dreaming process. Great works for God do not grow on trees. Great works for God usually begin with a dream or vision in someone's heart, mind, and soul.

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# Chapter 130: Wisdom

Sub-topic: Coming To America

Article Content: The pilgrims were English separatists, a group of protestant dissenters who were persecuted because they did not want to worship according to the dictates of the Church of England. The group moved to Holland but were unhappy there. They then decided to voyage to the New World. A group of 40 pilgrims attempted to leave Holland two different times on a ship called the Speedwell. Both times the ship proved not to be seaworthy for a voyage across the Atlantic. On a third attempt, the Speedwell turned back and landed at Plymouth, England. There the 40 separatists, along with 60 others, boarded the Mayflower and left for the New World on Aug. 5, 1620. Sixty-five days later they arrived at the New England coast near what is now Massachusetts. One hundred people left England and 102 arrived since two babies were born on the way. For the next two months exploration parties began looking for a place to build the new colony. Finally, on Nov. 21, 1620 the Mayflower put down her anchor near what is now Provincetown, Mass. They arrived too late to plant anything the first year and the weather was horrible. They had poor food and eventually ran out of rations. Due to the poor conditions, fifty people died before the first year's harvest could be brought in. In Hebrews 11:1 we find a biblical definition of faith. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (NIV)

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Sub-topic: Of What Are You Made?

Article Content: Knowledge is power, especially if the knowledge is about yourself. To achieving success, knowing all about who you are is critical, about what you do, about how you act, and about why you act the way you do. When you know all about yourself, you can then begin to exercise control over who you are. When it comes to knowing yourself, ignorance is not bliss...ignorance is disaster. So who or what are you? Of what are you made? You are a body with physical needs and drives, but you are more. You are more than just a physical body with needs and drives because you are also emotions, subconscious motives, and a being with an ego. You are also your mind. You are a mental being with rational thoughts and incredible potential. You are also a being with a spirit. You are a spiritual being who can, if you want, reach out for the ultimate you can be and reach out to the ultimate of all beings we call God.

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# Chapter 131: Witness

Sub-topic: Christian Witness And Sacrifice

Article Content: Any society, church, organization, or social entity will come apart when everyone in the social unit starts whimpering and demanding their needs must be met. There is no real Christian witness without sacrifice. You can say "sacrifice" with your mouth, but what people see most is the amount of sacrifice you actually make without the words. We may think people don't notice our sacrifice. However, people do see our sacrifice because we are very transparent. Everyone has a reason why they either don't want to sacrifice or can't sacrifice. However, no reason is good enough for God. The easy way of not sacrificing is not Christ's way. If you take the easy way and avoid sacrificing for Christ, you have missed His mark. The gospel of our Lord demands you pay a price. You must lay all of who you are at the foot of the cross regardless of the cost to you.

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# Chapter 132: Witnessing

Sub-topic: Listening...The First Commandment For Witnessing

Article Content: First commandment for witnessing: Thou shalt listen to others even if you don't want to hear what they mean, not what they say. Hear what the Lord is trying to say to them while they talk. Listen to His message of love and compassion to them while you help them feel His affirmation for their life. While you are listening to them, tell them you care about them and show it by listening. Let them know you are there by listening to them. Let them know they are not alone by listening to them. Let them have a chance to air out what bothers them by listening to them.

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Sub-topic: Witnessing As Automatic

Article Content: The invitation for Christ to come into your life may not always take the form of active words of invitation. Your invitation may take the form of offering your life and your heart to Christ as you fall prostrate at the foot of the Cross in godly sorrow. Most often, we expect every sinner will use words to communicate to Christ. However, the invitation to Christ to come into ones heart must go beyond words. Like all communication with God, we must have the desire in our heart and soul for Christ to come in and live within us. We must have this holy unction underpinning anything we say to Him. What happens, quite often beyond our understanding, is we have the vision of our life and our guilt for crucifying Christ before us. Upon seeing this vision of our life and our guilt we then turn towards Christ standing at the door with His light and love of forgiveness. Then there is an opening of the door of our heart by us so He may come in.

Works

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Chapter 133: Works

Sub-topic: Achieving For Christ

Article Content: Just about every problem in the world occurs because someone, somewhere, won't sacrifice for Christ. To build the kingdom of God we must sacrifice our physical bodies, sacrifice our mind, sacrifice our heart, sacrifice our wants, sacrifice our needs, and sacrifice our all for Christ. To achieve for Christ we have to work in spite of our physical pain, in spite of our family problems, in spite of our job problems, in spite of our child problems, in spite of our emotional problems, and in spite of our spiritual problems. To achieve for Christ we are called to take care of others before taking care of ourselves. When you are hurting, to achieve for Christ means you take care of or tend to someone else before tending to or taking care of you. When your family is in trouble, to achieve for Christ you still reach out to someone else. When your job is in jeopardy, to achieve for Christ you help someone else try and find a job. When your heart is breaking, to achieve for Christ you help heal the hurt of someone else. When you are dying spiritually, to achieve for Christ you work to make someone else spiritually alive. What kind of talk is this? This kind of talk is not the talk of the world. This kind of talk is the talk we need to hear so we achieve for Christ.

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Sub-topic: Fruit Production

Article Content: Every person produces fruit. People produce a result or fruit in every aspect of their life. A parent produces a result or fruit in the child. The employee produces a result or fruit for the employer. The member produces a result or fruit in a group. The citizen produces a result or a fruit in the country in which the citizen lives. The consumer produces a result or a fruit in the marketplace. Every second you breath the breathe of life you produce a fruit of some kind. The hermit who lives alone in an isolated place, who spends hours every day praying, may produce a greater spiritual fruit than the most famous ministers on earth.

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# Chapter 134: Worry

Sub-topic: Worry

Article Content: We worry about what to say. Matthew 10:19 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20 for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. (NIV) We worry about life? Matthew 6:25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? (NIV) The worries of life choke out the goodness of life as thorns choke out the crops sown with good seed. Matthew 13:7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 He who has ears, let him hear." (NIV) Being fearfully occupied with the problems of this life is what most people would call worry. A heart weighed down with the anxieties of life is a worried heart. Worry takes us away from God. This is why worry is such a bad thing. When we worry, we are not thinking about God or what possibilities exist with God. Worry is a plague upon people. Worry is a satanic weapon squeezing the life out of you. Worry is a sin. Perhaps you want to exclaim, "Surely not, worry cannot be a sin because worry is so natural." However, worry is a deadly sin. Worry kills people. Look at the facts. One-half of all sick people are sick because of some kind of emotional problem, 95% of which is worry. When you worry, you get emotionally upset. When you worry, your body will begin to break down from the stress. Worrying is what you do when you are not putting your life and the life of others in the hands of Jesus. Jesus came to this earth and told you not to worry. He came and told you everything would be all right if you trust him. Are you listening? Worrying is what you do when your faith runs out. Having faith is the opposite of worrying.

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Sub-topic: Worry And Dissipation

Article Content: Dissipation is an idle, wasteful, or harmful diversion. Dissipation is taking your own natural resources and wasting them away all the while you know what you are doing. In dissipation, instead of loving people, you are idle. Instead of encouraging people, you ignore them, Instead of showing you care, you show nothing. Dissipation and drunkenness have the same result. Drunkenness takes your natural resources and wastes them away. Instead of being attentive, when you are drunk, your mind is fuzzy and you ignore people. When you are drunk, instead of showing love you are consumed by the alcohol. If you love alcohol, you are consumed by the craving for it. Instead of encouraging people, your craving for alcohol causes you to ignore others. In your drunkenness and in your craving, instead of showing people love and compassion, you show nothing because your mind is dulled. Worry is like dissipation and drunkenness. Worry also takes your natural resources and wastes them away. Worry also does the same thing to you as alcohol, drugs, and other forms of addiction. When you worry, you are caught up in self and not attentive, loving, caring, kind, and compassionate toward those around you.

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# Chapter 135: You

Sub-topic: A New You

Article Content: One of the great wonders and magnificent benefits of accepting Christ into your heart and life is you get a new you. However, there are problems in getting a new you. Many people do not want to get rid of the old self, the old self steeped in sin, the self causing them so much discontent and torment. Many people want to keep the old self alive by hanging onto it. Getting rid of the old self is, for some people who do not want to change, like getting a divorce or suffering the death of a loved one. In getting rid of the old self, or in letting the old self die, there can be a grieving process. Letting the old self die, then dramatically changing, and then having a new person come out within you, can be one of the scariest things about the Christian faith. We don't think of our faith as scary. However, people who are not Christians, or people who are Christians who are still carrying around the old bag of garbage from the old self, are afraid of changing. People are afraid of the unknown, and for many people, becoming a Christian means venturing into the unknown. People are afraid of things they don't know anything about. People are afraid of change. If people knew what their new life in Christ would be like in advance, they would fill our churches. A person's new life as a Christian is full of peace and blessings. However, people are afraid of the change to get the peace and blessings. Not changing makes no sense if you are a Christian but staying away from the changes makes perfect sense if you are not a Christian. With a new birth, just as in human childbirth, there may be some pain. But just like human childbirth, you forget the pain after the new you is born.

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Sub-topic: You And Church

Article Content: Everyone should have a church feeding them to such an extent they have deep personal reasons for attending worship services. Churches and pastors strive to offer a spiritually fulfilling atmosphere and great sermons. If you are not getting what you want out of the pastor or church you currently attend, stay there and use what God has given you rather than moving on. The spiritual journey we tread was never meant to be a super hi-way with 80 mile per hour speed lanes. Our walk of faith is slow, sometimes painful, and not supposed to be entertaining. Can you imagine Jesus wondering if He was entertaining enough? New churches (called church plants) meet in schools or public buildings. However, it does not make any difference where you meet to worship because churches are not buildings but people.

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Sub-topic: You Are Just Right

Article Content: When you thought you were too short, too tall, too fat, too thin, too pretty, too ugly, too rich, or too poor, in Jesus' eyes, you were just right.. And He still thinks of you as being just right. Despite what you think of yourself, in His eyes you belong. When you were thinking you were too short, tall, fat, thin, pretty, ugly, rich or poor, and you just knew everyone was staring at you, Jesus was with you all the time...even when you did not know. In His eyes everyone, if they want to be, is just right

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Sub-topic: You Are More Than Just You

Article Content: For hundreds of reasons, you might think you are alone in the world. For hundreds of reasons, you might think you are isolated. However, the truth is far different than what you might think. Because God holds every person, creature, and thing in the universe in the palm of His hand, we are all connected. We are connected on both a physical and spiritual level. You are more than just you because there is a oneness in all creation and you are part of the oneness in God's palm. As you elevate your awareness to higher levels of spirituality you can become more and more aware of your oneness in God's hands. In all, you are more than just a little person living a little life. You are a part of all of creation. If you feel isolated and alone, you are deceived because you are not isolated and you are not alone. You are connected. By scaling the heights of spiritual awareness you will come to know you are more than just you.

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Sub-topic: You Are Needed

Article Content:

●To touch people

●To pray for people

●To visit people in the hospital

●To help people who are down

●To hold and care for crack babies

●To do volunteer work

●To tutor youngsters in school

●To adopt children

●To counsel people who are divorced

●To be a foster parent

●To work with substance abuse addicts

●To work with and counsel people who are in trouble

●To visit the sick at home

●To provide transportation to people who want to be in church

●To give God's love away

●To let people know Jesus loves them

●To build churches in other lands

●To give money so we can help others

●To help the poor, the needy, and the sick

●To help people find jobs

●To help people straighten out their lives

●To baby sit for single mom's who are burdened down

●To look after older people

●To telephone people to tell them you care about them

●To write letters to people who need uplifted

●To teach at Bible School

●To work with youth

●To sing

●To play music...and so much more.

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Sub-topic: You Are Not Helpless

Article Content: One of the essential truths of life is that you need God. You need God every hour but you need God especially when you need guidance and answers. We are not left alone in life without spiritual resources unless we do not want God to "bother" us. There are going to be times in your life when everything comes apart. There are going to be times in your life when bad circumstances immerse you and surround you. Difficult times in life can happen at any age whether you are young or old, makes no difference. Some circumstances in life will make you feel helpless. There may be times in your life when you cannot handle things on your own. There may be times in your life when you think you cannot survive. However, the record of human history shows us people indeed do have the ability to survive the most horrible of circumstances. If you resolve to put your life in Christ's hands, and you fight to survive the situation you are in, you can get through any circumstance. No one ever said life was going to be easy. Life was not easy for Jesus, or the apostles, or anyone in the early church. Life is still not easy two thousand years later. Faith in God does not give us some kind of guarantee of earthly bliss. When we are in a situation where we think we are helpless to do anything, we have to realize we are being deceived. We are never helpless for we have God who knows we need Him. Too many times you only think you are helpless. You are not helpless. Satan will lie to you and make you think there is no resource to help you and God is dead. However, God, and the will of God is accessible. The psalmist wrote about how the will of God teaches us. Psalms 143:10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good spirit lead me on level ground. (NIV)

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Sub-topic: You Are Not That Different

Article Content: In our times of darkness, pain, and trouble, it is common for us to think, we are the only one who has ever felt the way we do. When you feel like you are the only one who has ever felt as you do, the truth is what you are feeling is common to all people in similar circumstances. Darkness, pain, and trouble make us feel isolated. In our isolation we think we are the only one. However, thinking we are the only one is a great deception. We must strive to understand this issue about isolation because we are, in fact, not isolated. When we understand we are isolated only in our personal thinking and we understand we are not the only one, then we have the power to reach out to others and help others facing the same issues we face. In reaching out we not only affirm we are not the only one, we make sure others are also thinking they are not the only one. By reaching out to others, we help destroy the darkness, pain, and trouble in them and in ourselves. We help destroy the isolation which helping us see we are not the only one.

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Sub-topic: You Are Rich

Article Content: If you ever think you are poor, or if you indeed lose all your earthly wealth, possessions, and the "things" of earth then you must turn to Jesus. For when you think you have lost everything, Jesus sees you and in Christ's heart, He sees all the wealth of the universe within you. Your possessions of clothing, diamonds, money, and earthly treasures do not make you rich. In Christ, you are a treasure just by yourself. In Christ, you have a treasure and a power to overcome all loss. In Christ, you have peace, joy, redemption, salvation, happiness, and more.

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Sub-topic: You Are The One

Article Content: In Jesus' eyes, when you are on the outside looking in, and you are the only one out there, suddenly you find someone else is out there with you, and it is Jesus. When all the mean things were said to you leaving an emptiness in your life you think remain unfilled, suddenly you find someone saying kind words to you. Suddenly every kind word never said comes at you, and then you realize Jesus is speaking. Then the emptiness you thought could never be filled is over-flowing with His love. When you were always picked last, or not picked at all, in Jesus' eyes you are picked first, and still are first, and will always be first with Him.

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Sub-topic: You As A New Person

Article Content: We are all products of our past. We all carry burdens from our past. We are partly the result of inherited genes, and partly the result of the environment in which we were raised. The pain we feel today, the problems we face today, and the burdens we carry today are the result of something that happened yesterday. Anxieties about the future are a result of the past. What can Jesus do about yesterday? Can He go back in time and erase it or change it? Can He take it and use it to our advantage? Can we use yesterday to our advantage? We are all living history books. Each of us has a history. Sometimes people have a past they would like to change. In truth, with Christ we can be free of our past. In Christ, we have a way to start over again. We can start over and be brand new. In Christ, we can be sparkling clean. In Christ, we can feel and be clean, renewed, and healed instantly because we are new creatures in Christ. Therefore, He does not need to go back in time and erase events or change them. He can and does use our past to our advantage in helping us.

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Sub-topic: You Belong To Him

Article Content: hen you are alive in your body, the Lord welcomes you into His house, into His flock, and into His heart of hearts. And when you die, you can move into a beautiful, custom-built mansion in Heaven. You belong to Him. If you are willing, in Jesus' eyes, you are the most beautiful person in the world. The whole ministry and meaning of Jesus' life means no matter who or what you are, you can measure up in His eyes. For God so loved the world He gave...

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Sub-topic: Your Heart

Article Content: Your heart can take many forms. You can have an icy heart freezing out others and freezing out God. You can have a melted heart always willing to fit into God's plan for your life. You can have a responsive heart seeing the pain and hurt of others while desiring to respond to them. You can have a hard heart caring little for the hurt, plight, or condition of others. You can have a fearful heart trembling in fear and anxiety for what the next moment may bring. You can have a brave heart feeling fear, but with a brave heart, your heart will overcome the fear and forge ahead regardless of any threat or danger. You can have a believing and trusting heart resting in the hand of God. You can have a heart full of doubt and distrust standing far off from our Savior and demanding proof of things unseen. You can have a lonely heart not touched by others and not touching others. You can have a golden heart living in the presence of God. Most important of all, the heart you have is the heart you ask Christ to give you.

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Sub-topic: Your Value To God

Article Content: We must be clear and emphatic about the following point. We are fallen but we are not worthless. We are fallen creatures but we are still redeemable. We are not garbage to be thrown out, but creatures who God wants to restore, redeem, and make new again. We are each like an old table covered with several layers of paint, varnish, dirt, dents, and scratches. For some people, this old table appears worthless and would be classified as junk. However, to the eye of a trained antique collector this old table has value and worth. To someone who collects antiques and who refinishes them, the varnish, paint, dirt, dents, and scratches are ignored. The collector uses a kind of x-ray vision to see through the surface layers into the wood. The wood and its shape is what ultimately give the table its value. Likewise, God can see all of you. To God, you are more precious than all the riches of the universe. Because God sees your value and worth, He sent His Son to die for you.

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Sub-topic: Your Wanted Status

Article Content: There is a silent and insidious manhunt for your soul. Satan and his sewer dwellers are hunting you down wanting to kill your soul. They want to tempt you to fall away and tempt you to reject God. When you are too tired and too burned out to care, the powers of darkness are ready to devour your spiritual carcass. When you think you are strong in your faith and stronger than the darkness wanting you, then your ego flaw has just put you in a position to be devoured. Who will win this manhunt for your soul? You decide. You decide the outcome of this universal game to take you down. You decide by being humble, contrite, and a seeker of God's love and wisdom. You decide the outcome of this manhunt by being willing to surrender all you have and are to Christ.

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Sub-topic: Your Worth

Article Content: In a discussion of grace, we must look at Christ on the Cross. We must ask, "Did Christ go to the Cross because we are worthless scum? Did He go to the Cross because we are garbage? Many people who do not go to church and many people who do attend church will answer "Yes" to these questions. Maybe you think you are worthless scum in some way. However, when God is looking at you, he does see worthless scum and garbage. When God is looking at you He sees His precious child whose life force or soul is worth more than all the treasures of the universe.

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Contact Information

Email: The author and editor may be reached through the ministry web site email link. The ministry site is located at http://www.findthepower.com

Regular Mail: Shepherd's Care Publishing, 4992 N. Blacktail Road, Marana, AZ 85653

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