IT'S NOT JUST A RELIGIOUS BELIEF, IT'S WHAT GOD SAYS

    This very week, the US Supreme Court is start to hear arguments 2 cases regarding one central question; Same Sex Marriage: 

1.  Proposition 8 in California was passed by the citizens of that State to uphold traditional marriage between a man and a woman; and
2. DOMA  the Defense of Marriage Act, was passed by the US Congress, which of course, upholds the idea that marriage is between a man and a woman.  The idea proposed by homosexual activists is that DOMA is unconstitutional

One of the arguments that we, who believe in traditional marriage have to face, is that our position depends solely upon 'religious belief'.  

Of this, the purveyors of the homosexual stance are mistaken:

Yeit is not just religious belief that is framing the argument; but this principle is based upon the belief that God established Marriage between a man and a woman, and that this indeed is what God said.

  "Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife.  They shall be one flesh"   Genesis 2:24--The Holy Bible (King James Version)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
 

BE IN REALITY, KNOW YOURSELF

   William Wallace said, "Every man dies, Not every man really lives."   Death is common to all men.  Once we were born, we were already on track to die.  Consider a flower cut from the vine.  It is already on course to die.
    However, men, by and large,  don't really live.  They live like zombies-The Living Dead, because they don't know themselves

SHALL WE FEAR DEATH?

    The Bible tells us that Humankind has a fear of death.  This would seem to be a natural thing because it is a journey into the unknown.  I believe that I hear it said that Voltaire, on his deathbed, "I am taking a fearful leap into the dark".
     Recently, in a University level Literature Course, I came across a poem which expresses my feelings on the fear of death. It thrilled me when I first read it.


The Poem is called :   

'Prospice' by Robert Browning

Fear Death?--To feel the fog in my Throat,

The mist in my face,

When the snows begin, and the blasts denote,

I am nearing the place,

The power of the night, the press of the storm,

The post of the foe;

Where he stands, the Arch-Foe in a visible form,

Yet the strong man must go:

For the journey is done, and the summit attained,

And the barriers fall,

Though a battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained,

The reward of it all.

I was once a fighter, so--one fight more,

The best and the last!

I would hate that death bandaged my eyes and forbore,

And bade me creep past.

No!, Let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers

The heroes of old,

Bear the brunt, in a moment pay glad life's arrears

Of pain, darkness, and cold.

For soon the worst turns the best to the brave,

The black minute's at end,

And the element's rage, the fiend-voices that rave

Shall dwindle, shall blend,

Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain,

Then a light, then my breast,

O soul of my soul, I shall clasp thee again,

And with God, be the rest!

     My title asks the question, Shall We Fear Death.  The answer is, If we are prepared for it.  We can prepare for it, because of what Jesus Christ, The Son of God has done for us.  This is 'Holy Week'-the week that the Lord Jesus Christ bore all of Humanity's sins on the Cross. And three days later, He defeated death, by raising from the dead-thus completing and putting a seal on God's plan of Salvation

  

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED PT 2

 The Following has been taken from Part Two of Chapt 1. of Michael Dlouhy's book, "Success in Ten Steps"


People ask me:

• "Your e-book is great.  Why on earth, do you give it away for free?"
• "Your telephone training is great!  Why is it free?"
• "Your 'Colors CD' is great!  Why is it so cheap?"
• "Why do you help me for free, when I am not in your Company?"
• ...and a dozen other variations

  In the early 1990's, I joined over 100 MLM Companies.  I tracked, cataloged, analyzed & evaluated EVERYTHING they did:  products, compensation plans, marketing, distributor support, profitability, etc.

THE UGLY RESULTS

     I'm a fun-loving, an easy going guy.  But my teeth clenched, and my fingers curled into fists of rage.  I was stunned by how many Companies and 'Heavy Hitters' make HUGE  profits NOT on product sales, but instead by selling a ton of worthless marketing materials to the distributors who trust and believe in them!

   I get mad just thinking about it.  This is why you find widespread cynicism and skepticism amongst network marketers.

I can't blame them.

But you should hear the calls I get from people trying to figure out  how I'm going to bamboozle them.

First, they figure I'm trying to steal their people.

Fact is, they don't HAVE any people.  None who trust them, anyway.  Many uplines' idea of support is to tell them the lies we'll cover in Chapter 1

True support is to take you by the hand, and lead you through every step of this business, so you can actually experience it in real time, and get good at it.  THAT is what we do on our phone calls.

No company is ever mentioned on those calls.  No product is ever mentioned.  No one is ever recruited. 

MONDAY, MARCH 18 2013

    This being Monday, I slept in past 0900a.  I made some coffee.  I walked downtown as I had some personal business to attend to.  I needed to get a haircut, I stopped at the CVS pharmacy to pick up a prescription, and I also stopped at FedEx Kinko's to print the MI-8453 electronic filing declaration document which I need to send in for my State income tax return which I electronically filed last week. 

   I walked back home.  I was watching some Agatha Christie Video's.  I spent some time trying to assist a friend who needed his car battery jumped.

  I worked on my home business, calling some lead, talked to several people, inviting one prospect to a video chat that I am tentatively setting up for friday, March 22.
  
  I watched several more Agatha Christie Poirot video's.  I talked to a team member who lives near Sacramento California

I retired for the evening shortly after midnight eastern time.

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS-I HATE IT!

   In our day and age, the 21st century, the idea or concept of being politically correct, or 'Political Correctness' is much in style.  The idea that one can't say things a certain way, or can't have certain opinions, or risk being considered a politically incorrect pariah, apparently has taken over much of our society.  I don't know about you...but I hate it!!!.  I am not a politically correct person, and I glad of that fact!

   I remember the first time that I was exposed to what I consider to be a 'PC' attitude.  It was in 1984, when I was serving with the US ARMY, and stationed in what was then, West Germany.  A Staff Sergeant named Jim Hardy who was one of my superiors, used the expression to me on several occasions 'right answer'.  In fact I heard him use that expression quite a bit  

   I retired from a career with IRS.  Years ago we had an expression that we called people what actually fought against paying taxes.  We called them Tax Protestors which was a good and very descriptive expression.  All of a sudden, one day we couldn't use that expression anymore.  They told us that it would hurt peoples feelings.  We had to call this particular group of non compliant tax fighters, 'Constitutionally Challenged'.  What balderdash!

SPEND YOUR TIME DOING WHAT YOU LOVE!

     That wonderful comedian, George Burns, who lived to hit the century mark, once said:  "I honestly think it's better to be a failure at something you love, than to be a success at something you hate.  

I do believe that he was right!

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

   
     Nearly 45 years ago, when I was going to high school, I came across a poem in an American Literature class that I was taking that has stayed with me through the years.  Robert Frost's, 'The Road Not Taken' caught my attention; especially the last three lines of the entire Poem:

       " Two roads diverged in a wood; and I

I took the road less traveled by, 

and that has made all the difference  "

  This puts me in mind  of something that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, said in the Sermon on the Mount.  In Matthew 7: 13,14 He said:  

"Enter ye in at the straight gate; For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because straight is the gate, and narrow the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." 

  So, you can see that according to the Lord Jesus, it is a matter of critical importance what road we take in life.  If we are going the way of the crowd, we are going done the wrong road..no question about it.  In each life, another path will appear...The road less traveled.  God has a special purpose for each life, and it will take seeking and searching in order to find it.  The path that the world presents will speak to us in a voice so loud that we might miss the less traveled path.  God tells us in ISAIAH 30:21, 

"And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, this is the Way, walk ye in it;  when ye turn to the right hand; and when ye turn to the left"

   So God speaks to us in a 'still small voice' which we can hear if we will listen for it.  However, there is a danger of being distracted by the loud clamorous voice that the world speaks to us in.

   Just recently, I was captivated by another piece of poetry that speaks about the 'untrodden way'.  William Wordsworth wrote about Lucy, who "dwelt among the untrodden ways" Wordsworth goes on to say that Lucy was a solitary person who shone as the only star in the sky.  She was the type of person, that when she 'ceased to be' hardly anybody knew.  But her life made a difference to at least one person.

"She dwelt among the untrodden ways

Beside the springs of Dove,

A Maid whom there were few to praise

And very few to love;

A violet by a mossy stone

Half hidden from the eye!

Fair as a star, when only one

Is shining in the Sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know

When Lucy ceased to be;

But she is in her grave, and, oh, 

The Difference to me!"

     God has a purpose for our lives, and if we will seek out the Road Less Traveled, and seek to go down the untrodden way, our lives can have purpose, meaning.   We may not have the celebrity of others but our lives can touch and make a difference to some.

  

THERE ARE MORAL ABSOLUTES

      I believe that there are moral absolutes that are universal; both right and wrong.  Because I am a Christian, I look at all questions in life from a Christian perspective, through a Biblical paradigm.  And the Bible says: "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."  Romans 5:12.  Not only are we are born with a sinful nature, once a child reaches the age of accountability where that child understands the difference between right and wrong, that child chooses the wrong way.  Again the Bible tells us, "All we like sheep have gone astray.  We have turned everyone to his own way...Isaiah 53:6.  Although, theological systems, as a whole teach us that we are accountable to our creator, mankind, as a whole, in it's sinful state of darkness, refuses to believe that there is a day of judgement.  They want to believe that there are no absolutes that we should follows.  They want to believe as the socialists, and the communists teach that 'the end justifies the means

      One of the issues that is driving thought and political opinion in our day is the push for homosexual marriage.  I believe that homosexuality, and same-sex marriage is a MORAL EVIL.  Our Creator tells us in the first book of the Bible, "Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh." Genesis 2:24.   Homosexuality is evil because it is clearly in rebellion and opposition to the divine plan for the family.  Homosexuals scoff and thumb their noses at God's 1st command to us in the Garden of Eden, when he said to Adam and Eve, "Be Fruitful and Multiply" Genesis 1:28  Two men cannot be fruitful and multiply; neither can two women.  That is an obvious conclusion.

    The Bible tells us that every man and women comes into the world with the Light of God in their conscience; thus they are equipped with the knowledge of right and wrong.  "This is the true light that lighted every man that cometh into the world"  John 1:9  

There are Moral Absolutes which are Universal.

IMPROVIING YOUR COMMUNICATION SKILLS

    In a Communications course I took recently at the University level,the woman who wrote the text mentioned, that the Five Essential Steps of Interpersonal communication are:  listening skills; people skills; emotional intelligence; appropriate skill selection; and communicating ethically. 

   In the 1990's, I started noticing, my Annual evaluations at work, started to show that my communication skills was the area in which I needed to improve the most.  So I've been concerned about this for nearly 20 years .  Of all the elements listed, I was most excited about improving my listening skills.  I have been guilty in the past, of listening to people with one ear, and looking for the opportunity of putting my '2 cents' in.  So I've changed my behavior and have been really striving to listen to people when they talk to me   

    This begins with looking at them straight in the eye, giving them all my attention, forgetting about what I want to say, and transmitting to them the idea that I really care about what they are saying.  I've been working on this for  quite a while, but I still need n mor improvement.  Learning to listen is a skill that is necessary in order to building the 'know', 'like' and  'trust that is critical in building relationships 

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED!

                                                                          PART 1

        Listen carefully!

I'm well aware that your intentions were gallant:  to provide for your family all the things YOU never had, to spend quality time with them, and to help others like yourself grow & prosper.

And remember what happened next?

You were lied to; you were "leveraged"  The heavy hitters used you for batting practice.  You got thrown in the muck, untrained, unprepared.  Your checking account was drained.  Your credit cards were maxed out.  Friends & relative screened your phone calls.

Then you looked in the mirror, and called yourself "loser"

I know, I know.

It all started because you want the same things I wanted.

You want to be your own boss, answer to no one...and earn a good living doing it.  You want to go where you want, when you want.  You want to spend $200.00 for dinner without batting an eye.

You want precious time NOW with those you love.  You want the money and freedom to take a day off - or 2 weeks off- and maybe fly to some faraway island on a whim!.

You want to work and socialize with people you like & admire; who share your outlook on life, and your goals.   You want the self-satisfaction of achieving your goals; and the self-fulfillment of helping others reach theirs.  You want financial independence.

You don't want more rejection.  You don't want to have to sell anything to anyone.   And you SURE don't want another MLM

The above was take from CHAPTER 1 in Michael Dlouhy's book "SUCCESS IN 10 STEPS"

TO ERR IS HUMAN; TO FORGIVE DIVINE

    Of the four main types of human personality, one of them harbours the fault of being of a perfectionist mentality.  They get frustated as they can't seem to reach their  perfectionist strivings  The more they reach out for perfection, the more frustrated they become, as they come to realize more and more their imperfections.  "We find ourselves surprised at the ability that we have in failing in so many avenues and ways"  Samuel McChord Caruthers.  
   However, when we take into account our human frailty, weakness, and general ignorance, we came face to face with our need for utter dependence upon the God of the Bible who promises, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee; and shew thee Great and Mighty things that thou knowest not"  Jeremiah 33:3  KJV.

   So when we remember that making mistakes is Human:  But to forgive-this is God like.

BE CAREFUL HOW YOU BUILD!

    The Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Son of God, gave us some instruction on how we should build our lives.  I will quote from Jesus' words as recorded in Matthew 7: 24-27, King James Version:

    "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock.  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not;  for it was founded upon a rock.  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which  built his house upon the sand;  and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house;  and it fell; and great was the fall of it."

Note Three things about what the Lord Jesus Christ was saying

1. Storms will come to all regardless of whether: we are wise or foolish; and whether we are prepared or not
2. How the Storm affects us will depend upon what sort of foundation we've built upon.  The character of our lives is not what people see, or what our reputation is, but what we our in reality when no body else is present;  what God knows us to be in our heart of hearts.  This is the foundation that we are building upon.
3. Christ here does not speak in terms of good and evil.  He speaks in terms of being wise, or being foolish, sensible or insensible; sane or insane;  and this hinges on whether or not we give heed, and obey his sayings.  This is what determines our destiny.  

WELCOME TO THE IDES OF MARCH

    Today is March 1st.  When I was growing up, we were taught a saying about the month of March.  It goes something like this:  If March comes in like a lamb, it will go out like a lion.  If March, on the other hand, comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb.  This is speaking about the weather.  However there are very tumultious things happening right now, which could be construed as March coming in like a lion: 

    What happens today will determine whether the Automatic Spending Cuts (Sequestration).  President Obama, and other people from his administration, have been trying to make it appear that if the Republicans don't cave and give in to new tax cuts that the Sequester cuts will take over and drive our society into oblivion.

    As I write this to you, the papal enclave has been gathering in Rome, as they make preparations to elect successor to Pope Benedict XVI