It has been said about attitude: Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what other people think or say or do. Attitude is more important than appearance, fitness or skill. Attitude will make or break a company, a church or a home.

The remarkable thing, and I believe you’ll agree, is this: we each have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will assume for that day. I think you will agree we cannot change our past. We cannot control nor change the fact that people will act in certain ways of their own choosing. In addition, we cannot change the inevitable. The only thing you and I can do on a daily or minute-by-minute basis is to change or control our attitude.

If our attitude toward God is one of service, stewardship and complete dependence, then we will never have any financial problems because our attitude is one of complete obedience to the Lord. As we are obedient we will, as good stewards, discover that it is easy to manage our financial affairs as God instructs us over and over again in the Bible. Remember, there are over 800 verses about money management in the Bible.

God wants us to be debt-free, to owe no man anything but love. He wants us to be successful and prosperous. But how, we ask? Here’s how:

You can owe no man anything at all by changing our attitude toward money and then – simply spending less than you make!

If you will do this one thing, that is spending less than you make, month-after-month, an amazing thing will happen to you and your attitude! For one thing, you will then have money in the bank!
Wouldn’t that be great? Just think, you could soon have your money working for you instead of the other way around.

To say it another way: If you spend all of the money you get, you are a financial failure and your attitude about many things could be one of discouragement, to say the least.

More importantly, when you spend more than you make you are not being obedient to the Lord. But, if – as a Christian you habitually are obedient to the Lord by always spending less than you make, your life will change. Why?

Because, when you have money in the bank it has a direct relationship on the way you live and – obviously – you’ll have a whole new, very optimistic – attitude.

Terry L. Weber

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Terry Weber is a retired advertising/direct mail sales letter copywriter and inventor of several useful items. Terry and his wife Doris are Habitat For Humanity, RV Care-A- Vanners who, for the past eight years have volunteered to help build more than 39 houses all over the USA. They travel to and from the 2- week long builds in their RV. The money they make on their Crafty-Ones website helps them pay their expenses to and from those volunteer Habitat builds. P.S. Due to the high cost of gasoline we can no longer afford to drive the RV to Habitat builds. The RV is parked until gasoline prices come down. (4/28/06)

Why, as some reason, do we presume to know the time of the Lord’s return? While this charge is inaccurate, we are often unfairly accused of teaching a precise date for the Lord’s return.

There are some who seek to pinpoint the date with accuracy by the feast days. While such study is quite impressive, it does not affect the outcome of our present premise.

We are not proposing a specific time, –that is, a day, hour and minute for the time of Christ’s return. However, that does not mean that we cannot know with accuracy, the generation in which Jesus returned.

The text states that Christ would return within one generation of his going away. “Assuredly, I say unto you, this generation will by no means pass away until all these things take place, (Matthew 23:34).

It has never been questioned that Jesus promised to return within this generation. The question is, which generation he meant by “this?”

Some interpret the text as though Jesus spoke remotely of “that generation, …” to mean in the far distant future from his era. However, this, points to something near.

Elsewhere, generation most commonly refers to a contemporary group of people all living at the same time within about a 40 year span. Compare Matthew 11:16, “this generation” with Hebrews 3:10, “that generation.”

In the first text, Jesus speaks of the generation contemporary with him. In the latter, David, quoted in Hebrews, speaks about 500 years after the generation which died in the wilderness, thus an example of a remote generation.

Copyright (c) 2006 by William Bell

The $2.4 million Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer, or STEP, is the sixth and most expensive study to find that intercessory prayer has no real effect on the wellbeing of patients. The nine-year research project was partly supported by the John Templeton Foundation, which also funds Science & Theology News.

Another important yet unexpected and even disturbing finding of STEP is that the group of heart patients who knew they were receiving prayers from strangers did not do as well as those who didn’t know.

The study used a sample of 1,802 bypass patients from six hospitals who were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Group 1 received intercessory prayer after being told they may or may not receive it, Group 2 did not receive intercessory prayers after being told they may or may not receive it, and Group 3 were told they would be receiving intercessory prayer and did receive it. STEP findings are scheduled to appear in the April issue of American Heart Journal.

“Those receiving blinded prayer fared the same as those who were not prayed for,” said Dr. Charles F. Bethea, principal investigator at the Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, Okla. “Paradoxically, those who were indeed aware that prayer was being provided to them actually fared worse,” he said.

Methodology may be the issue behind the unusual Group 3 result. The STEP researchers speculated that perhaps the introduction of the prayer protocol itself confiding in some that they were selected for prayer, for instance might have induced a form of performance anxiety or made the patients feel doubtful about their outcome.

“One line we considered in this study was did the patient think ‘am I so sick that they had to call in the prayer team?’,” said Bethea.

Another question is the subjects themselves. “I wonder how free enrollees were in our study to say no to being prayed for, especially when asked by a caregiver at such a crucial time,” said the Rev. Dean Marek, director of chaplain services at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

With these types of unresolved issues, investigators said that it is possible that intercessory prayer may not be amenable to randomized control methodology and that a large-scale study like this may not be replicated.

Marek also pointed to the problem with conducting studies on prayer that reduce it to a replicable commodity because the effect of prayer can’t be replicated. But a study such as STEP can yield other benefits. “I hope this leads to some further discussion as to the nature and relevance and power of this thing we call prayer,” he said.

Christine Casatelli is senior editor at Science & Theology News.

God is nothing. It is the simple thrust of human mind into an ideology that brought about the creation of God and all his shapes, forms and sizes. To disprove Gods existence is impossible, he is so deeply rooted into cultures and minds that he is part of the cultures and minds of humans. He is the culture, he is the human. The brainwashing that several TV shows do or the government is nothing compared to the brainwashing that “God” has done. God has been doing it for thousands of years. His influence on our world is greater than our government, but it is simple to see that disapproval of God if you look far back to the day of his creation. Every new religion that bloomed and spurred up from one single prophet or individual is preposterous. Imagine yourself standing there while another human tells you to follow him because he has the “word” of “our” superior (i.e. God). Why are there no prophets in modern day society?

Because in our contemporary world this would be viewed as nonsense, or in simple American words, “bullshit.” It is easy to believe in a thousand year old religion because you automatically think that it is true due to its long history of followers. Every religion has its “perks” whether it be reincarnation, heaven, or 40 virgins, this is just a sales pitch that unfortunately many people fall under hopelessly. It is Gods existence that shows the ignorance and stupidity of people. If I claim to be a prophet from a certain God and show you several magic tricks that the famous magician David Blaine taught me, would you follow me and my religion? What’s the difference between cults and religions? Cults ask you to do preposterous things, while religions ask you to devote your life to a preposterous deity.

I, the modern day human being, cannot prove the nonexistence of an idea that lasted and will last for thousands of years. There is a problem in the argument, as I’ve said before, I cannot disprove God because he is supernatural, and it is his supernaturality that gives him limitless ideological defenses. On the other hand I can only defend myself and attack God with factual scientific evidence. But we all know believers and atheists alike, there are some stories about God and his prophets that are totally absurd, so how hard is it to say that let the whole story of God to be absurd? It is hard to say that because how can you, a single human say no to something so powerful, so old, and so strong in existence? So no matter what argument I bring, it is the argument that a believer brings that will always disprove my argument due to the limitless stories and “miracles” that the believer may come up with. And what better way to prove Gods existence but to ask me, “how could this happen?, God did this and God did that.”

An argument was brought to me, simply stating that God could be the air we breathe. But I said that the air we breathe is physical, it is part of the natural world. But you can’t touch it right? Well, it can be measured and used, such uses would be: diving equipment, airplane emergency masks, and even when you fill a balloon up with your own breath. My point here is, is that these simple little arguments are brought to atheists around the world everyday, but if looked at from a bigger perspective, God can be disproved easily if not concerning your or mine everyday life.

God being the permanent marker that he is, let’s imagine for a second that he is a pencil, and erase him from our history permanently. Don’t just erase him from today, yesterday or tomorrow, erase him from the beginning, from the one alleged “prophet” that started it all. By the way all these prophets did was a simple trick that the prehistoric man could not understand like the all famous Jesus who turned water into wine, let’s see him do it today, today we have magicians who can teleport from one side of the room to the other, we have magicians who can make elephants disappear, let’s see Jesus top that. Well if you consider Jesus’ story of the wine conversion, look at it from a different perspective. So this is the picture I’m seeing, you got a bunch of alcoholics and a painter who’s painting some guy with long hair holding two sticks perpendicular to each other, so he decides to take advantage of the situation and brings power to himself by stating he has word of God, and his two sticks symbolizing the “cross.” in contemporary America today, if this were to happen no one would even turn an eye, forget paying attention.

So as I was saying, let us imagine that there was no prophet, there was no Jesus, there was no Mohammed, no nothing, nobody. So would that society have no order because there are no morals to follow? No, of course not, what about before the prophet? There were codes, rules and morals, you didn’t need carved stone and a guy with long hair to tell you how to live your life. Back then, God was the ultimate government, he was the ruler and destroyer of worlds. Today his power is greatly diminished. Why? Because today the American public or any other public isn’t stupid enough to believe that if you call God a name he’ll damn you for life or call Zeus a name, he certainly won’t come down and strike you with a lightning bolt. So today we resort to simpler beliefs and simpler things like church instead of sacrificing fifteen goats and two sheep, we believe in one God and one prophet instead of fifteen Gods and God knows how many prophets, we believe in simple things like placing a candle or making a hand gesture on yourself to “pray” instead of having a mass carnival for several days and building huge statues to honor your God.

It is almost stupid and ignorant of me to keep trying to disprove God’s existence, I cannot force my opinion on so many people. But this has been done before, and done quite well. The Soviet Union banned religion and with such high propaganda of it’s leaders and red colors is that they went as far as painting themselves as Gods, Gods of the people that is. Because they understood that if they take away God and religion, the peoples allegiance and belief must still exist but only to transfer somewhere else. The heads of the Soviet government successfully painted themselves as Gods and their communist or socialist belief was the religion and so in a such preposterous economy and low standard of living, the people followed because their allegiance and belief was transferred to the government. As I once heard a man say, “no matter what religion you believe in, a person must believe in something.”

Why is it that a man has the urge to believe in a higher power, whether it would be seen to physical touch or unseen and be just an idea out of the natural world? From this example you can see how it is just the need for people to believe in something which brings about their downfall and death. On this I can prove myself as I have proven earlier the deaths religion has caused during Catholic crusades against Muslims and other religious battles. If God is inevitable and life and death exist, so is life and death inevitable. But the only reason we die, is because we accept death as an inevitability. This is the exact same reason why we feel the need to have heaven, hell, and for some, purgatory.

In conclusion this is the last part of my disapproval of Gods existence, and it’s not that I have finally destroyed thousands of years of history, it is that I hope you have a new light, other than the one a person sees before they die. I hope you can look at the world with an open mind. If you are a believer in some form of deity, think about your life without that deity, would it change so much? Would you go to hell if you stop believing? What are you afraid of? No one has proved that hell even exists! Hell is just an idea, an imaginary belief to encourage your ultimate belief in God and in religion, do you really think God wants you to fear him? Well you do, don’t you? Doesn’t he want you to love him?

Take a look at God from a bigger perspective instead of your Synagogue, Church or Mosque. Take a look at all the Church’s out there and their history, think about why is it there are three or more different names for a holy house for prayer, isn’t there only one God? And as for atheists, spread the word of knowledge not argument. Don’t try to fight people by little arguments, I have tried already and it is impossible to win. You will always lose, but try to point out in the huge perspective of religion as a whole, and God as a whole. Don’t separate religion, bring it together and say to yourself, “What’s the difference between all these religions? What do they have in common? Why are they here? What brought them here and how?” And maybe then you can bring out your own point, and that will be enough proof that an individual doesn’t have to believe in something in order to live. Please leave a comment, I would greatly appreciate it.

Born in Belarus, Minsk 1988, came to America with huge aspirations, and fullfilling them by participating in a Microsoft competition, and soon attending Polytechnic University for Business & Technology in New York City. I spend my time with my friends and research technology constantly. I always question things before i believe them blindly and make sure that in whatever it is i do, there is truth in it, or at least money!

a)We exist now and will continue to exist infinitely.
b)Our existence is before God.

Nothing can ever change the fact that we exist. Human existence never ends, it just changes shape. Life and death are just different forms of existence. Its odd to me that people have their whole lives to come to terms with the fact that, eventually, life transitions into death, but few people ever truly come to grips with it. Most never really escape the fear of death. When I was younger, I had a fear of the dark and a fear that there may be sharks in my swimming pool. I can now, having matured to the level I am, look back and see those fears were stupid. I know now that there is nothing in the dark that doesn’t exist in the light and that, while I guess it is possible that there has been a shark in a swimming pool at some point for some reason or another, the odds are not favorable that there is a shark in my swimming pool. Our perception of the validity of our fears is based on the maturity of our understanding. We all have fears, but I can’t escape the thought that all of our fears are as petty as the fears of our childhood. All that needs changed is our maturity, our perspective. Death or sharks in a swimming pool, equally petty fears in the eyes of one who understands greater things.

If we understand, then, that death is just a change in the shape of our existence, we should no longer fear death itself. For a child of God, its not such a bad change. The fear of the unknown certainly becomes a factor, but then again, its just as petty as any other fear. Nonetheless, you exist and nothing can change that.

Also, nothing can be done with the fact that our existence is before God. David spoke about it in the Psalms. He basically said, “Where ever I go, God is there.” You can chose to not acknowledge the God exists, you can chose to hate God, you can chose to believe that you are God. Your opinion on the subject, you can change. However, nothing changes the fact that you and your opinions are still before God.

Existence is such a gift. I’ve always known that life is a gift, even when it’s conditions were unfavorable, but life is ultimately a tiny, tiny phase in our existence. Yes, the fact that God gave us physical life here on Earth is incredible, but how much greater is it that He gave us the gift of existence. And even greater than that, the opportunity of eternal life, to exist infinitely in abundant life. If there is a valid fear, it is the fear of missing out on this gift. Beyond that, everything else is petty.

Richie Fortenberry is the founder of RF Media Design, a website design company. http://www.rfmediadesign.com

I’ll go ahead and state the main parts of these verses, highlight the key principles to grab a hold of and then give you my opinion on what these principles are and how they apply to your life.

The Scripture Verse

“And He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’

Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’

“So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty.’

Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe? So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’
And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’”So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are shrewder in their generation than the sons of the light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteousness mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

“And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Interpretation of the Unjust Steward

Jesus gives a very interesting parable about the relationship between the rich master and his steward. Apparently the steward is not properly handling his master’s goods so the rich master is threatening to take away all that he is a “steward” over.

The steward then apparently cooks up a scheme to get what he can out of some people who owe his master some goods. The rich master then commends the steward for what he has just done because he acted “shrewdly.”

Jesus then apparently labels this “transaction” as “unrighteous mammon.” Mammon means “riches.” So apparently this rich master and “unjust steward” were in agreement in the way they conducted their “business.” Jesus then makes the comment that the sons of the “world” are shrewder than the sons of the “light.”

This statement would line up with the “business world” as we know it. Good businessmen are known for their “shrewdness” in being able to make money and “good” business deals. Corporate America is known for their ruthlessness in making money even if it means hurting others in the process. We all know how that works.

Jesus compares them with His children of the “light” which would mean Christians. Christians are bound by “higher principles” and they better be acting on better morals than their “heathen” business partners or they will have to answer to God when they face judgment after they die.

Good Christian businessmen can still make a nice profit and not run over and unjustly hurt people in the process. It’s all how you “play” the game.

Now here are the 2 key principles that Jesus brings to light off of this parable.

1. Stewardship

Jesus is using a parable involving “unrighteousness” between the rich master and his steward. The fact that He calls their transaction “unrighteous mammon” and the steward “unjust” proves that point. However, even in this unjust transaction that just took place, there is still a few lessons to be learned.

God gives all of us chances to be “stewards.” We are stewards over every blessing God has given us. Parents are “stewards” over their children. Your house, your car, your jobs, your earthly possessions are all things that you are stewards over. What God is doing with all of this is watching how you manage your “goods” just like the rich master did with his unjust steward. And just as the rich master threatened to take away from his steward all of the goods he was watching over, God can arrange to take away some of our “goods” if we do not “max out” with what has been given to us.

In order to get promoted in God’s realm to the next “level,” you have to “max out” with what He has already given you. If God has you in a certain job for a certain time, He expects you to do the best you can while doing that job. If you don’t, you risk losing God promoting you to the next level when it is time for your promotion. I believe a lot of Christians miss out on God’s best for their lives because they don’t max out on what God has already given them.

If God has given you a nice house, a nice car and some nice possessions, I feel He expects you to take good care of these possessions. Keep your house in halfway decent order. If you don’t, God will have no desire to give you any additional blessings because you have not properly taken care of the blessings that He already has given to you.

Jesus makes a very interesting comment about stewardship in general. He says that “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.” In other words, God has found out that he who does well and “maxes out” with what little he has at the beginning will also do well and continue to “max out” if he is given a lot more!

And just the opposite is also true. He who is “unjust” in small matters, is also going to be “unjust” in bigger matters. That person thus cannot be trusted to be allowed to have anything else and not even “heathen business men,” much less God Himself, is going to trust this type of individual with any additional goods or possessions.

After studying the lives of a lot of great men and women in God over the last 10 years, I found something very interesting that would illustrate the above points. God has started most of these people at the “bottom of the ladder.” He’ll start them out with just enough money to get by, just enough provisions to live on and then sit back and watch how they do with what He starts them out with.

All the people who have become “successful” in their walk with God all “maxed out” with what God started them out with. These are called “small beginnings.” Because they maxed out on level one with God, God then saw fit to promote then to the next “level.” And then the same scenario repeats itself. God once more sits back and watches how they do with what is given to them on level two. And if they pass that “test,” they are promoted to level three.

That is how you keep moving up God’s “promotion ladder” – by maxing out on what God has given you at that level. And this is where a lot of Christians blow it big time with God. They do not realize they are being “tested” by God on the level that they are at. God will watch how you handle what He has given you at the level that you are at. And if you do not properly handle and max out with what He has given you, there will be no promotion and you will stay “stuck” where you are at until you get what God is trying to tell you to do. God will “play you” to see what you are made of!!!

This principle not only works in God’s realm, but it also works in the “natural business” realm as pointed out by the above parable. Not only will God keep you being from promoted due to “bad stewardship,” but so will the “world” in general. Thus you have multitudes of people who never seem to get this principle. They think the world owes them a living and they cannot figure out why no one wants to hire them or trust them with any possessions or goods. They spend the rest of their lives in poverty thinking that it’s the rest of the world and not them.

Bottom for all Christians – if you want promotions from God to higher levels of service, bigger and better blessings, etc. – then max out on the level that you are currently at with God right now. Do the best you can at the job you are currently working at. Keep your house and material possessions clean and in order. These material possessions are really blessings from God and He expects you to appreciate and take care of what has been “given” to you. If you do, you will create an incredible desire in God to want to promote you to the next level and bless you with more blessings.

There are enough verses in the Bible that show that God does have an “abundant” side to Him and that He can release abundant type blessings your way – but He will not do it unless you have already proven yourself to Him on the lower levels. He will not go into the abundant blessing mode with you unless He knows that you can handle abundant type blessings – just like the above parable is illustrating.

He will test you and prove you first to see if you can handle it before releasing any type of “abundance” to you. That is why most Christians are not really blessed with any real serious “abundance.” They are either not maxing out at the level that they are at with God, or they simply do not have what it takes to handle abundance – especially abundant amounts of money.

2. Who Will You Serve?

“No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

The above parable is illustrating an “unrighteous transaction” between two businessmen – the rich master and his steward. The last sentence in the above verse speaks volumes! Each Christian must decide who they will serve – God or mammon (which means riches).

Do you decide what you are going to be when you “grow up” or do you let God decide? Do you decide whom you should marry, or do you let God decide? Do you let God lead and control your life or do you decide how you will lead your life?

There is only one way for each Christian to properly live this life and that is under a “full surrender to God the Father” Everything goes on His altar. He wants total control of your life so He can “max you out” with whatever His desire and will is for your life.

He knows best who you should marry – you don’t. He knows what you would be best at when you “grow up”, you don’t. His knowledge is perfect – yours is not. He knows how to perfectly get you from point a to point b – you do not. He can pave the way ahead of you to prepare for your next steps, you cannot. He can protect you and prolong your life if He wants to, you cannot.

That is why Jesus says in the Bible “without Me, you can do nothing.” He is the vine – the tree trunk, we are the branches. We have to totally depend and lean on Him, not on our own understanding and what we think is right. The Bible says that those who are led by the Holy Spirit are the true sons of God. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to lead us – but He will not lead us unless we give God the Father a complete and unconditional full surrender of our bodies, souls, spirits and our entire lives into His hands.

The Bible says that with the measure we use, will be the measure that will be measured back to us. In other words, if we give God 50%, He will only give us 50%. But if we give him 100%, then God will come back and give us His 100%. And to get God’s 100% in our lives, we have to fully surrender every aspect of our life over to Him so we can “free” Him up to work with His 100%.

But here is the hardest part – especially for “American Christians.” We live in the most blessed country in the entire world. We are the richest and most abundantly blessed country in the world. Very intelligent Christians know that all the “wealth” is there for the “taking.” All they have to do is figure out what their strengths are, figure out the appropriate strategies to get the wealth and then go for it. Some do it legitimately and others do it illegitimately breaking all the rules of society to get their wealth.

But the Christian is faced with a dilemma. Do I turn my life over to God and let Him decide what He wants to do with my life or do I make my own decisions and pursue and go after what I want and what I think is best for me?

A lot of Christians are really “afraid” to let God make these choices. They are afraid of letting go of the “American dream” because they feel they will have a “better life” if they make their own choices as versus letting God make the choices Himself. They know that abundant wealth may not be in God’s plan for them.

God may call them to be a missionary over in China working for “pennies.” God obviously does not bless everyone with abundant material wealth. These people know they have the “smarts” to get that abundant wealth because our society is setup for the more intelligent people to get this wealth.

That is why Jesus is saying in the above parable that you cannot serve both God and mammon, both God and riches. You have to make a choice. Do I surrender my life to God and go with His “call” on my life or do I make my “own call,” go after what I want and try to become stinking rich. The natural businessman is obviously going to go for calling all of his own shots. And he may just succeed in acquiring vast amounts of wealth before he dies.

However, when he dies, not one ounce, not one penny, not one amount of material possession will go with him into the next life. He takes nothing with him. He will then face God for judgment and God will “reward” him for what he “accomplished in God” while down here on earth.
So who do you think is going to get the greatest rewards in heaven – the Christian businessman who became wealthy calling his own shots and doing his own thing, or the Christian who fully surrendered his life to God and completed God’s mission and purpose for his life?

The answer is obvious. I will be doing another article on the rewards that are available for believers when they cross over into heaven. There are some Scripture verses that a lot of Christians are not aware of regarding how God is going to specifically reward you by what you accomplish for Him while down here on earth.

The time we spend down here is not even the “blink of an eye” compared to the “time” we will spend in heaven. Our time in heaven is for eternity. Our time spent down here is just for a “moment” compared to the eternal time that is operating up in heaven.

The Bible tells us to lay up treasures in heaven where the moths cannot eat them. These treasures are the good works that you do for God while down here on earth. If you fully surrender your life to God and go with His “call” on your life, then everything you do and accomplish down here will be good treasure that will be “stored” up in heaven and God will reward you accordingly once you enter into heaven. Good treasures stored up in heaven are also the good and loving relationships you establish with people down here who will be joining you up in heaven.

Remember, you take none of your material possessions with you when you cross over – but all of your Christian friends that you have developed good friendships with will be crossing over with you – and the friendships you have established down here will last for eternity up in heaven. Your material possessions, your titles and your trophies will not.

To the intelligent American Christian businessman, I ask you – whom will you serve? God and the call that He wants to put on your life to do His will or your own call doing what you think is in your own best interests?

The Bible tells you where the real reward will lie. Jesus says in the Bible what good does it do a man to gain the whole world but lose his own soul in the process. Jesus plainly says at the end of the above parable that you cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and your own call and your own goals for your life. If you try and do both, you will end up as Jesus is saying, loving the one but hating the other. You cannot have it both ways. It will tear you apart trying to live in both “realms.”

You may have to sacrifice “fame and riches” by going with God’s call on your life but you will much happier in the long run, more fulfilled and more highly “rewarded” once you enter into heaven. And those rewards will be for eternity. The wealth and riches you would gain down here are but just for a moment and will be gone forever once you die.

Conclusion

He “wholeheartedly followed God” and was the first leader to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land and defeat and conquer the enemies that were on the land that they were to possess. His story is one of the most powerful stories in the Bible about someone who “did it right” in God’s call on his life.

He made a classic statement that each Christian should grab and get a hold of. He said:

“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve … but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)

He was so “successful in God,” that one of the books in the Bible was named after him – “The Book of Joshua.”

God and Jesus have made it as clear as they possibly could in Their Word that there is only one way to live the rest of your allotted time down here on earth – and that is under a full surrender to God the Father. Let God place the call or calls that He wants on your life and I guarantee you that you will never ever regret the most important decision that you will ever make in this life.

Article written by Michael Bradley of Bible Knowledge Ministries. Their website is a resource of Bible Knowledge, articles, commentary and teaching. They currently have over 100
Bible
articles.

Rashi explains that there is no odor more offensive than that of
washed goat skins? But this teaches us that the fragrance of the
Garden of Eden entered with him which is like a field of apples
as our Sages explained it in Ta’anith 29b.

Eliyahu the Prophet, it is told, passed by the carcass of a dog,
which gave forth a dreadful odor. His disciple placed his hand
over his nose and said to him, “How dreadfully does this carcass
smell!” He said to them, “How white are its teeth!” After they
passed by a sinful person and Eliyahu the Prophet placed his
hand over his nose because of the dreadful odor that emanated
from the sinner.

Rav Yerucham Levovitz, the great pre-WWII Mirrer mashgiach says
that from here we can see that spiritual world is an actual
reality. All of our actions in fact give off a smell that can be
smelled by someone who is spiritually sensitive. In the next
world, there are all types of wonderful fragrances and perfumes
such as the fragrance of kindness, charity, faith and truth etc.
The fragrance of the Garden of Eden entered in with the
righteous Jacob.

It is the nature of man to want to bring pleasant smelling
things into his home in order to enhance his surroundings.
Therefore, if you really want your home to have a fragrant smell
try bringing in some kindness, truth and good deeds. On the
other hand, if you do not have these things in your house the
aroma may not be so enjoyable.

While I was in college, I took a class in Lapidary. That is the skill of shaping and polishing rocks. It was always exciting to cut into a rock for the first time and see what it looked like inside.

As part of the class, we took several field trips to gather rocks. They came in an amazing array of different colors, textures and other characteristics. At first, I would come home with large piles of rocks that looked nice, but had problems. They would either break when you tried to cut and polish them, or they could not be polished!

It took a while to learn the characteristics of a rock that would produce a beautiful polished specimen. It took longer to be able to recognize those characteristics in the field. And, sometimes it was still a disappointment to cut into a rock that should have had something beautiful inside, but was not attractive at all.

A good example of a rock with a shock is the thunderegg. Thundereggs are rocks that are produced where there has been volcanic activity of some type. No one knows for sure how they are produced, but they look like they started out as balls of mud that became hardened into rock.

For some reason, the centers of many of them are filled with agate. Sometimes the agate is brightly colored or has interesting patterns in it. When you cut that type of thunderegg in half, you have a very pleasant surprise. When polished, these become magnificent showpieces for the creativity of God.

There is a variation on this theme that is called a geode. Geodes are similar but in general, they are hollow. Many of them are filled with brilliant crystals of varying size and color.

These rocks are all ugly on the outside. They look like lumpy balls of mud. But on the inside, they often hide incredible beauty.

In our lives, we meet many different types of people. We come in all kinds of different sizes, shapes and colors. Some people are not really very pleasant to look at. Some people act funny. Some people don’t act very nice. But, people often have something down inside that is very beautiful.

The wonderful thing about God — He can look inside us and see what we are really like He can see into the future and see what we can become with His help AND He is more than willing to make you into that person.

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Everywhere I have visited in the United States seems to have a small rock shop somewhere nearby. I would suggest that you visit one and get to know the owners. They will be able to help you with many rocks and fossils that will be of help to you in illustrating appropriate lessons.

(cut and paste the links into your browser window)

Some books on rocks that you might be interested in are: DK Handbooks: Gemstones www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=backpainrelie-20&path=tg/ detail/-/1564584984/qid%3D1041969017/sr%3D1-3 Gemstones of the World, Revised Edition www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=backpainrelie-20&path=tg/ detail/-/0806994614 Eyewitness: Rocks & Minerals www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=backpainrelie-20&path=tg/ detail/-/0789458047/qid%3D1041969017/sr%3D1-9 National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=backpainrelie-20&path=tg/ detail/-/0394502698/qid%3D1041969719/sr%3D1-12 Eyewitness: Crystal & Gem www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=backpainrelie-20&path=tg/ detail/-/0789457644/qid%3D1041969719/sr%3D1-16 Smithsonian Handbooks: Rocks & Minerals www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=backpainrelie-20&path=tg/ detail/-/0789491060/qid%3D1041969719/sr%3D1-19

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copyright 2002 Ron McCluskey You may reproduce this newsletter in part or in whole providing that you include the website, contact information and resource links

Let the Muslims submit to the Word and Will of God concerning the Temple Mount. It’s sole purpose is to House the Temple of the God of Jacob-Israel: that all nations may come to know, love and obey the God of Abraham.

May they agree the Rock of Abraham has been preserved by the “Dome of the Rock,” and that it was created for the Jews to continue their worship upon the site of Israel’s Temple. It has served its purpose and now it’s past time to restore spiritual sovereignty to the Jews upon the Temple Mount that they may build the House of Prayer for all peoples to come and worship.

May the Jewish leaders repent of their woeful neglect of the Temple Mount and end Jerusalem’s abomination of desolation – a Temple Mount without a Temple!

May the pope encourage Judah to obey God and build His Royal House, His Heavenly Embassy, in the noble spirit of King Cyrus, and restore the Temple treasures to Jerusalem.

May the Vatican release the silver, release the gold, that Rome stole from Jerusalem!

May they immediately return the menorah to stand again where it belongs: upon the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, within the Temple! The Vatican chambers will have served their purpose of protecting and preserving such consecrated items for this time.

Let construction begin and may all nations and men seek and find the Great Creator God of the Bible, the God of Israel, and learn of His Word and ways and be blessed!