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.

“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.

“As long as you’re going to think anyway – you might as well think BIG!” – Donald Trump.

Instinctively, we think small thoughts. As children, our thoughts and actions have little effect beyond our immediate world. As we grow up, it’s easy to retain small expectations, or only to increase our expectations little-by-little. But what of the people who build skyscrapers, run economies, or write books that change the way the world thinks? They’re not thinking small!

Our thoughts drive the scale of our success. When you think big, your mind will follow – and help pave the way to achieving more of what you want in life. Napoleon Hill, pioneer of success thinking, said, “We are the Masters of our Fate, the Captains of our Souls, because we have the power to control our thoughts.”
If you think about it, everything you have, or have ever achieved, started out as a want or a dream. These things you have now, you wanted, and you probably want to achieve much more… The truth is, if you really, really want it, it’s much more likely you’ll achieve it.

This isn’t to say that you literally can “think” yourself to success. There is a lot of work that has to go into it too. But unless you actively think about what you want from life, and really desire it, you’ll wind up achieving a whole lot less than your full potential.

TIP: Think BIG and desire BIG. It isn’t hokey mental gymnastics. Rather it’s the stage setter for achieving what you really, really want from life.

Easy gift idea

Originally uploaded by MrClean11

We saw these while having dinner and made our own. Easy and fun.

Prayer expresses the single most comprehensive approach to God. It is fellowship, communion and enjoyment of God. Prayer is an immediate and confiding approach to God the Father. In John 5:13 we are told “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of him.”

“Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

The whole Bible is a statement to increase our faith  in the truth that prayer affects God, and secures favors from God, which can not be secured by any other way. The Bible teaches us that God hears and answers Prayer. Throughout the Bible the message woven into every book is about the great importance, the value and necessity of asking God for the things we need both for now and eternity.

So why then, does man ignore this sacred privilege. We struggle, wonder, look to every book, teacher, and still we miss the avenue through which God supplies man’s wants and needs.

When man comes to the end of himself, when he realizes that nothing is working, that for all the attempts to understand, to figure out, to make sense of this world we live in, then maybe he will realize that the answer has been waiting for him all along.

With most everyone feeling more stress these days it is very important that we all take better care of the most important thing we have… ourselves. Between home, family, work, uncertainty and all the bad news we hear please take time to eat good, whole foods and get as much exercise as you can.

I recently moved my gazelle into the house because it is too hot outside and I have not been using it for a couple months. I have also been trying to make better choices in what I eat and add more fruit and vegetables to my diet.

I also take a multivitamin and Omega 3 supplements each day. I’ve been doing that for a long time and it does help with today’s stressful life.

Vitamin World has a special shipping offer that can help save you a few dollars, and each dollar saved does help.

Check them out and take better care of yourself.

Les Brown: Look for an Open Door

Most of us spend so much time talking, grieving and being angry about the closed door in our lives, we don’t see the open door. Les Brown, legendary human-potential expert, says our trials and disappointments can take us all to a door of discovery and greatness. Brown shows you how to:

1. Be Thankful. It’s easy to think about what is missing and ignore what you have. When you develop an attitude of gratitude, you begin to view things from that positive light and start working toward making something happen. Giving up is not an option you can entertain.
2. Be Thoughtful. When things go wrong, don’t go with them. As you look at yourself, you have to harness your will, you have to be grounded, you have to pause and you have to go within. Begin to clear your head and give yourself permission to accept the reality that is happening. And then turn the page and start working toward where you will go from there.
3. Be Active. Matt Jones, one of my speakers, wrote a book with the message: If you’re going through hell, don’t stop. Keep moving. Start with small steps and build from there. When you are not active and you’re not engaging in life, you have a tendency to worry and regret and to engage in less-than-useful emotions. It’s very important that you start moving and working and doing things that can give you some headway. The more active you are, the less chance you have of becoming depressed, angry and immobilized with fear.
4. Be Connected. Many times, people fail because they can’t see the picture when they are in the frame. They think there is no way out. These are people who are disconnected and feel isolated and desperate. But interacting with others provides a number of benefits, including helping us find new paths and new ideas to explore.
5. Be Patient. Don’t expect instant results. Plug away carefully and consistently, and keep the mindset that things are going to get better even though you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are living in a microwave society where we want instant results. But it’s not that kind of party. Patience and a spirit of expectation and trust will help you work to reach your goals and dreams.

Les Brown is SUCCESS magazine’s “Legends” feature story this month. Full story at SUCCESS.com.

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