If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Is there such a thing as a tranquil life? Why do some people seem to live such a life? While Christians can hold on to faith and God, there never seems to be much rest anymore.

Turmoil is an inherent condition of being human. This is because we are made up of a body and a soul. The body is this-worldly and physical; the soul is other-worldly and divine. They are polar opposites. And our "self" is stuck in between.

The body and the soul both want to usurp our identities. The body claims that this world is all there is, so enjoy it. The soul has a vision of a higher, more spiritual truth, and pulls us to seek it out. These polar-opposite views are both our own, and each vies for our attention. This duality within our very identity is a sure recipe for inner turmoil. But that’s how we were created.

Some of us have been taught that we should seek inner peace and serenity. Some even claim to have reached it. You can experience a temporary serenity by ignoring the voice of either the body or the soul — either by indulging in materialism or escaping to a spiritual oasis. Perhaps that is why materialism and “keeping up with the Jones’s” is so common. But our other side will eventually assert itself. As long as we inhabit this earth our bodies and souls are bound to each other. We can become "spiritual," but our bodily cravings will not disappear; we can become materialistic, but our soul’s yearning will not be quieted.

The Kabbalists taught that the soul was sent down to this world not to avoid the body, but to teach it. The focus of Jewish spirituality is refining our worldly self — our bodily cravings, our character, our lifestyle. This is not achieved by escaping the body/soul tension, but rather by embracing that tension. Enjoy the pleasures of this world, but don’t become trapped in them. Seek spirituality, but don’t lose your personality.

The Bible doesn’t promise tranquility, and never claimed to be a path to inner peace and serenity. But it gives meaning to your turmoil, and sanctifies your struggle. This is not the easiest path. It means living on the edge of the material and the spiritual. And maybe never finding peace. But it is a real life — true to body and soul.

Give someone a compliment. Hold the door open for someone, don’t be so busy that you can’t take five minutes and help someone. It’s not always the big things. Don’t let the big things get in the way of the little things… those little things add up to be great things.

Take the high road and be kind and courteous. Keep walking in love and have a good attitude.

Three Skills That Improve Conversation

By Brian Tracy

One key to becoming a great conversationalist is to pause before replying. A short pause, of three to five seconds, is a very classy thing to do in a conversation. When you pause, you accomplish three goals simultaneously.

The Benefits of Pausing
First, you avoid running the risk of interrupting if the other person is just catching his or her breath before continuing. Second, you show the other person that you are giving careful consideration to his or her words by not jumping in with your own comments at the earliest opportunity. The third benefit of pausing is that you will actually hear the other person better. His or her words will soak into a deeper level of your mind and you will understand what he or she is saying with greater clarity. By pausing, you mark yourself as a brilliant conversationalist.

Ask Questions
Another way to become a great conversationalist is to question for clarification. Never assume that you understand what the person is saying or trying to say. Instead, ask, "How do you mean, exactly?"

This is the most powerful question I’ve ever learned for controlling a conversation. It is almost impossible not to answer. When you ask, "How do you mean?" the other person cannot stop himself or herself from answering more extensively. You can then follow up with other open-ended questions and keep the conversation rolling along.

Paraphrase the Speaker’s Words
The third way to become a great conversationalist is to paraphrase the speaker’s words in your own words. After you’ve nodded and smiled, you can then say, "Let me see if I’ve got this right. What you’re saying is . . ."

Demonstrate Attentiveness
By paraphrasing the speaker’s words, you demonstrate in no uncertain terms that you are genuinely paying attention and making every effort to understand his or her thoughts or feelings. And the wonderful thing is, when you practice effective listening, other people will begin to find you fascinating. They will want to be around you. They will feel relaxed and happy in your presence.

Listening Builds Trust
The reason why listening is such a powerful tool in developing the art and skill of conversation is because listening builds trust. The more you listen to another person, the more he or she trusts you and believes in you.

Listening also builds self-esteem. When you listen attentively to another person, his or her self-esteem will naturally increase.

Listening Develops Discipline
Finally, listening builds self-discipline in the listener. Because your mind can process words at 500-600 words per minute, and we can only talk at about 150 words per minute, it takes a real effort to keep your attention focused on another person?s words. If you do not practice self-discipline in conversation, your mind will wander in a hundred different directions. The more you work at paying close attention to what the other person is saying, the more self-disciplined you will become. In other words, by learning to listen well, you actually develop your own character and your own personality.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, make a habit of pausing before replying in any conversation or discussion. You will be amazed at how powerful this technique really is.

Second, continually ask, "How do you mean?" in response to anything that is not perfectly clear. This gives you even more time to listen well.

Brian Tracy is the most listened to audio author on personal and business success in the world today.  His fast-moving talks and seminars on leadership, sales, managerial effectiveness and business strategy are loaded with powerful, proven ideas and strategies that people can immediately apply to get better results in every area.  For more information, please go to www.briantracy.com

The best thing you have in this world is Today. Today is your savior; it is often crucified between two thieves, Yesterday and Tomorrow.

Today you can be happy, not yesterday and not tomorrow. There is no happiness except Today’s.

Most of our misery is left over from yesterday or borrowed from tomorrow. Keep Today clean. Make up your mind to enjoy your food, your work, your play. Today anyhow. You can do anything if you’ll only go at it a day at a time.

If you’re betrayed, heartbroken, why take a day off. One day will not matter. Today put away your festering thoughts. Today take some simple joys. Today be a little happy in the sunshine. You can do it. It’s the burden of the coming days, weeks, years, that crushes us. The present is always tolerable.

Whoever planned this life of ours did well in giving it to us one day at a time. We don’t have to live it all at once. We’ve only got to get through till bedtime. Every morning we are new again.

Why let life oppress you? You don’t have to live your life, only a day of it. Don’t let life mass against you. Attack it in detail and you can easily triumph.

The Past is what we make of it. It is the temper of the Present that qualifies it. It depends upon how you consider it, whether it brings you despair or encouragement.

The poet says we rise by stepping on our dead selves. And as for the Future, the best preparation for it is an unafraid Today. If you are to die tomorrow, the best way to be ready is to be faithful to today’s duties, and to enjoy heartily Today’s simple pleasures.

Today is yours. God has given it to you. All your Yesterdays He has taken back. All your Tomorrows are still in His hands.

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Psalm 51:1-7

Sin is a universal contamination that affects everyone, everywhere. It’s not something that is attacking us from the outside as if we are clean and pure and then something enters into us, but in fact sin is something that is already festering within us, even from birth. Sin is “an irrational, negative, and rebellious reaction to God” and none of us can escape it. We have a damaged or stained heart from birth; David realizes this and prays to God “Create in me a clean heart, O God” Psalm 51:10a. We are not sinners because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners, born with a heart that is inclined to do no good. Our moral and spiritual nature is utterly corrupt beyond repair and thus we are said to be totally depraved, unable to do any good at all. We are lost and unable to do anything about it.

“For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:7-8

Being utterly lost and totally depraved we are hostile to God and we CANNOT submit to His law. A lost soul CANNOT please God. This is absolutely clear, if you are a lost sinner (which we all are) then you CANNOT submit to God’s law and you CANNOT please God. That is the cost of being spiritually dead.

The Westminster Confession says: “Man by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.”

We cannot fix ourselves; we cannot do anything to merit mercy or grace from God. We deserve death and eternity apart from God and there is nothing within us that can change that. It is at this junction that I part ways with many of my brethren who hold so strongly to the irrationality of the freedom of the will in regards to Salvation. I do not think that you can believe in total depravity and still hold to the idea that man has the ability to choose God or reject Him. If man is left with the option of choosing God or not choosing God while he is still totally depraved, then the totally depraved man will always choose to reject God. Why? He CANNOT do good, he CANNOT please God, he CANNOT submit to God’s law (Romans 8:7-8). Even Jesus says “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” Believe it or not, there are some things that man and his ever troublesome free will cannot do. As a totally depraved, lost sinner you cannot do good, you cannot please God, you cannot submit to the law of God, and you cannot even come to Jesus on your own free will unless you are drawn by the Father. Let’s face it, God is in complete control and his sovereign will trumps even the strongest of human wills that exist or have ever existed.

Does that make us a bunch of walking robots, pre-programmed to do whatever God has decided? Umm, no. That is a silly argument. Of course we have our own God given ability to make choices. The problem is not that we don’t have the ability to make a choice, it is that we are so corrupt with sin that we will always make the wrong choice. We cannot choose good because of the chains of sin that bind us. Once we are freed from those chains of sin that bind us, then and only then are we able to do good. Thus, we do choose Jesus, but only when we are called by the Father, regenerated by the blood of the Son, and filled with the Spirit of God. It is the righteousness of Christ, not our own righteousness, that gives us the right to become Children of God and this righteousness is something that is given, not earned.

All this to say that in Jesus we are made whiter than snow. How beautiful it is to look upon the mercy and grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and know that our Salvation is in his hands, and to have the assurance that “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.” (John 6:37,39)

I write to you today with a open heart, wanting to help you see, some for the first time, others to remind, that we are, “To speak evil of no man.” Titus 3:2.

There are several reasons for which Christians should refrain from evil speaking. In deed all mankind should refrain from this great sin.

It is not only mean and shameful, but a pernicious fault. It produces harm in society, and is a cause why many live hateful lives and go through life hating one another. I say this to the shame of the church, but it is reported that an average of 53,000 leave the church every week because of hurt feeling associated with someone speaking evil of them. If it is this bad in the church, consider how much more so in the rest of society.

It is common and wide spread and very few are entirely free from it. Some are addicted to it, rarely reflect on it and always justify it. Evil speaking consists of spreading reports to the disadvantage of our neighbors. The worst kind of it is to spread lies of our own invention. The next kind is to report the truth that is ugly to them, especially with some kind of joy, or rejoicing in it. We judge that they deserve being exposed in it. God alone is the judge, let Him expose it. Remember what the Scriptures say about this;

“Whatsoever you would that men should do unto you, do you so unto them.”

Exposing our neighbor really tells on us. This betrayal is the worst kind. We often bring a punishment on others, too heavy for what they have done. Many lives have been restricted, and ruined by such gossip and slander. We may be guilty of misrepresenting them. We don’t know their heart. When the discourse is censorious and malicious, the mind that conceives it is no better. We deceive ourselves in thinking that words can do little or no harm and that the guilt of them is inconsiderably small.

One of the deepest causes is ill nature and cruelty of disposition. Sad to say, but true, there are some that are so sour on life, that they do not want any one else to be happy, so they will say or do anything to try and make the rest of the world as miserable as themselves. Only those so bad themselves can speak thus of others. Malice and revenge demand you speak evil of others. Envy will produce this sin. When someone has what you cannot have, the tempter would have you destroy it.

Curiosity can be another cause. The desire to find out something that is none of your business, leads you to stir up talk, as a diversion, with the intent to draw attention away from yourself. I know two ladies in one of my past churches that bragged about being the town gossipers. They admitted to wanting to know all they could about everybody’s business. They had no friends but each other, and even so, would gossip and lie about each other. Here is my suggested prevention:

Never say an evil of any man but what you know for certain, and then only to the will of God. Be sure the person of whom you speak, has never done a good deed for you. To repay good with evil represents Satan. Learn to pity the faults of others and be truly sorry for them, and take no pleasure in it. When someone says evil of one you know, answer with some good you know in that person. Refuse to hear evil of another. Keep it out of your diet. Mind your own store. You have enough to deal with. Set a watch upon the door of your lips. Speak not without consideration.

Now have a good week  and think about these things.

Take some time and watch this short video, then go out and practice this and see what happens.

A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.

When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.

About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.

He said, "Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art." The young man held out this package. "I know this isn’t much. I’m not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this."

The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. "Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift."

The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.

On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. "We will start the bidding with this picture of the son.. Who will bid for this picture?"

There was silence.

Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, "We want to see the famous paintings.. Skip this one."

But the auctioneer persisted. "Will somebody bid for this painting. Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?"

Another voice angrily. "We didn’t come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Goghs, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!"

But still the auctioneer continued. "The son! The son! Who’ll take the son?"

Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. "I’ll give $10 for the painting." Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.

"We have $10, who will bid $20?"

"Give it to him for $10. Let’s see the masters."

"$10 is the bid, won’t someone bid $20?"

The crowd was becoming angry. They didn’t want the picture of the son.

They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.

The auctioneer pounded the gavel. "Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!"

A man sitting on the second row shouted, "Now let’s get on with the collection!"

The auctioneer laid down his gavel. "I’m sorry, the auction is over."

"What about the paintings?"

"I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings.

The man who took the son gets everything!"

God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: "The son, the son, who’ll take the son?"

Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHO SO EVER BELIEVETH, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE…THAT’S LOVE

God Bless.