Major challenges and great things happpening in our life

Each day man is confronted with a new challenge.
Regularly we have to face matters that do not please us
or even frighten us.

In our life we often have to face a battle to reach an interesting goal in our life.

Before our feet we often find a big mountain to climb.

Great things happen
when God and you confront a mountain.
'Call to Me,
and I will answer you,
and show you great and mighty things,
which you do not know'
says the Lord

 Jeremiah 33:3


Dear God
Give that I may find you every day on my trip.

Help me to reach the goal I strive for.
Igive me in your Hands and Trust that you shall guide and bring me where you want me to go.

Major challenges and great things happening in our life

Each day man is confronted with a new challenge.
Regularly we have to face matters that do not please us
or even frighten us.

In our life we often have to face a battle to reach an interesting goal in our life.

Before our feet we often find a big mountain to climb.

Great things happen
when God and you confront a mountain.
'Call to Me,
and I will answer you,
and show you great and mighty things,
which you do not know'
says the Lord

 Jeremiah 33:3


Dear God
Give that I may find you every day on my trip.

Help me to reach the goal I strive for.
Igive me in your Hands and Trust that you shall guide and bring me where you want me to go.

Struggles of life

Roasted coffee beans Español: Granos de café tostado (natural). Bahasa Indonesia: Biji kopi alami yang telah disangrai. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kanze Dena wrote

STRUGGLES OF OUR LIFE

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn't know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot and ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter.

The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup.
Turning to her, he asked.

 “Daughter, what do you see?”

 “Potatoes, eggs and coffee,”

 she hastily replied.

“Look closer”,

 he said,

 “and touch the potatoes.”

 She did and noted that they were soft.
 
He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.
Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?”

she asked.
 
He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity - the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.
The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.
However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which one are you?”

 he asked his daughter.

 “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

MORAL:

 In life, things happen around us and things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is how you choose to react to it and what you make out of it. Life is all about learning, adopting and converting all the struggles that we experience into something positive.

Healthy life can be found in sacred books

Life is dependent on the air around us, and the quality of life is dependent on the quality of air. In an atmosphere of Torah and mitzvot there is healthy life. The first general step in healing is to purify the atmosphere, and is effected through the letters of Torah. When speaking words of Torah while in the store or walking in the street or riding the subway, one purifies the air...

- Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch

When you don't know what to do and hate yourself

Hefner Publications (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Life at certain moments can look not so pleasant.
Everyone has to undergo certain afflictions, be it growing up with lots of falling down, with or without much love and heart break, gain and loss.



It can well be at certain moments that you do not like yourself, that you do not like the other, that you do not like a certain situation. Know that it are moments which can come over you, creating doubt, creating questions, making you fearful, making you not sure, sometimes even causing pain.

Each day is different and can have us feeling different, looking at things in a different way. Often the way we look at things or the way we feel things depends on the way we are willing to place ourselves in the context and how we want to relate to what is happening.

The best thing to tackle life is first getting to know yourself and making yourself prepared and willing to see and cope with the good and bad elements in yourself. Loving yourself is 'primordial'.
From Scriptures you can learn that you too are created in the image of God and as such should have qualities which the Creator has Himself also and has been willing to share with you. He has given His Word and His knowledge to share with the whole world and you can make use of it. It can strengthen you and give lots of advice to make the best out of life.

The Bible is there to be used and to fill your life with certainties on which you can build.

when you are willing to come in humbleness to the Most High, He is willing to listen to your soft voice, to your wishes, to your hopes and see your dreams. As God's only begotten son told "Knock and the door shall be opened",  "Ask and it shall be given", but never forget to ask that it shall be God His will that shall come over you and fulfil your life according to His Wishes.

++

Find also to read:

Affliction and YOU: We have work to do

I Don't Know What To Do! Seek, you shall find.

+++

Related articles

• What Does the Bible Answer? (secretstolife.com)
  as absurd as it may sound, every answer to every question you have about life will come out of reading the Bible. Look closer at what I just wrote. Every question you have about life is not necessarily in the Bible but will come out of you reading the Bible.
• The State of the Bible (reflectionsintheword.org)
  This year’s research reveals that skepticism toward the Bible continues to rise. For the first time since tracking began, Bible skepticism is tied with Bible engagement. The number of those who are skeptical or agnostic toward the Bible—who believe that the Bible is “just another book of teachings written by men that contains stories and advice”—has nearly doubled from 10% to 19% in just three years. This is now equal to the number of people who are Bible engaged—who read the Bible at least four times a week and believe it is the actual or inspired Word of God.
• Hungry For God... Starving For Time by Lori Hatcher (create-with-joy.com)
  The Bible teaches – and Jesus affirmed – that man does not live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. In other words, we need daily spiritual nourishment from God’s Word in order to withstand the challenges and temptations that bombard us on a daily basis.
  But what happens when our lives become so busy – our schedules so overcrowded – that we don’t have time to feast on God’s Word? What happens when we want to meet with God but feel we just don’t have the time?
  
• The Pain of Life, the Supreme Goodness of God, and the Joy of the Psalmists (tonyreinke.com)
  The psalmists of the Bible found joy in the presence of God: an overwhelming sense that, wherever one found oneself, and whatever one’s circumstances, God is there — and God is good. The joy may be expressed, as the Psalms frequently enjoin, with music and dance and boisterous shouts. It may find voice in a quiet prayer of assurance: “When I awake, I am still with thee.” In any case, the psalmists repeatedly speak of discovering in the Eternal not only their provision and protection but also their heart’s delight:
• American Voices: Cake Shop Accused Of Religious Discrimination For Refusing To Write Anti-Gay Slur On Bible Cake (joronomo.com)
  A bakery in Arizona is facing a religious discrimination complaint after refusing to comply with a customer’s order to decorate a cake shaped like a Bible with the words “God hates gays” and an image of two men holding hands with an “X” over it.
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From Winterdarkness into light of Spring

Sometimes we can have the impression we are Living in the Wilderness of the chaotic jungle of the industrial world.

Skulls remaining on the field and trees destroyed at the Battle of the Wilderness, 1864. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The darkness of the Winter-months has been with us for a long time. Week after week we got grey skies, winds which brought the the kill feeling deep in us. Every year in the month of February the undertakers have the busiest period of year. This year it was not so bad. The funeral directors could look so deadly serious having less people than normal, because the weather was not so bad. Notwithstanding we can see many gloomy faces running around.


People have demanding jobs, and are taken by the need to get enough money in the till to have the family living reasonably well. It all seems to be great? We seem to be living in a world full of luxury.  Like we may have a shadow of democracy, a varnish civilization many may be king in their home only in name. The banks own most of what people have. Under the show of pretence many do think to have 'many friends'. Social media may be booming but more and more do we find lonely people. Lots of what people pretend is only on the surface.

Glamour, cosmetics, we can find it everywhere around us in this varnished world where so much is not what it seems to be. In that world many do not mind to be the blind one. When they do not know they do not have to worry. Why would they take notice of others or to be worried about things far away from their own house, when they have already enough on their own mind.

So many people are so concentrated earning their money working on whet they call success, they forget to see where the real treasures lie. They are not feeling happy. They do not know where to look for the real happiness. They go looking at the wrong places. So many try their luck by games and by trying out one person after the other. They think all can be said and measured by the amount and quality of sex they can have.

They are not so much interested in talking or in having real deep going conversations. Reading serious or long articles for them is mostly considered a waste of time. today so much have to be so short and so quick. Everything may be casual. This is the world of cursoriness. Hastiness rules this world.

In our transitory being many forget the deeper values of life. they are blinded by all the materialism and are not interested in the spiritual.

Now Spring has come we should Not hold back and should be getting out of darkness.
Many may have been looking for ways to keep the Darkness Out.
Many are also Afraid of the Dark.

We should not Be Afraid From “Life’s Darkness”.Those wanting to get out of the dark corners of this world, can find a new place on the web, where people are asked to come together and to share their ideas, to bring a positive note in this life. there they understand that there is to much Darkness’s Pain.
Some might think they are in a sinking world…. but I am convinced it should not all be so bad, and we can do a lot to keep all together our heads above water. I am convinced that if more people should join hands they could do so much better and rally could bring some change. But they have to be willing to join hands, to contribute, and to go forwards, with heads up, accepting the diversity in this world.

Sink or Swim (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is up to us all to chose if we want to Swim or Sink. Each individual has to make a choice: ~ Sink or Swim ~.

What is important is if we want to See the conquest and believe that we can gain the victory.

When you think you have nothing to say or to show the new website wants to show you differently. You may already be connected to many Social networking Web sites, but that new site From Guestwriters does not want to pretend to become an other social network. We do believe you may love to spend time on such social networks. You may love to have short words and do some chit-chat, Putting your feelings into words and sharing them.

Where-ever you may live, be it in Winter or Summer, living in a small village or in a big town or even Living in the Wilderness, you might like to find a place of rest, peacefulness or a place where you can meditate or think about nice things. there is already so much bad news in this world, so why not having a look at better things. But not many sites present those nice things, the little miracles which happen here and there.

As itseirene wrote in a comment:

“Blogs will always come in different shapes and sizes, and with each shape and size is a platform to inspire and touch lives. I hope I have inspired you and I hope you inspire others. Let’s continue to do this together!”

With Spring in sight I also want to bring some positive corner out of the dark. Pleas do find Welcome to “From guestwriters” and have a look if you would not like to become  part of those people who bring positive news in this world.

We need more positive thoughts in this world, to bring more light and colour in this grim places.
Do you not feel like you can help us to achieve some goal of bringing happiness and showing more beauty to many more people?

Please find to read about our aims and aspirations:

1. Welcome to “From guestwriters”
2. Guestwriters for you
3. About Guest-writers
4. We all have to have dreams
5. Spring in sight
6. When you think you have nothing to say or to show
7. Putting your feelings into words and sharing them
8. Helping words
9. Spark of Positivism

+++

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  An OriginalMama shares.
  She shares her ideas, wisdom and Love. When she shares, she helps. She inspires and creates awareness.
  +
  
  Write Your Story
  They got into their pens and wrote. As Ann Patchett stated it: “Writing is a job, a talent, but it’s also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon.” Give your stories more power by sharing them.
  
• test for guestwriter (daydaily.com)
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• Shadows (mysoulinspiration.wordpress.com)
  Shadows overcast my innocence, leaving me like a peasant; alone and hungry. Deserted.
  The darkeness begins to engulf me, the chaotic, sporadic visions consume me, yet water flows from my eyes freely leaving me blinded. Heart felt wails escape my lips, even though the mental bondage grips me intensely.
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  In darkness gentle words came to conspire
  To release my fears to your passion’s fire
  With my battle torn ego left behind
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• Spring in Central Park (edelsingh.com)
  Having weekends like actually feel like we’re getting a break from the grey NYC atmosphere. They are much needed in the most cloudy month of the year! Let’s bring those iced coffees to a cheers and celebrate that there is still hope for a warm summer after the polar vortex!
• around the house. spring cleaning edition. (mudandbone.com)
  With the Easter weekend upon us [I wish I could say Spring weather too, but I am afraid it just isn't like that around here yet], for those lucky enough to enjoy an extra long-weekend, this is the perfect time to do [get over with] Spring cleaning!  While it would be nice to think that the routine maintenance-cleaning that we do is good enough, there are some things that are nearly impossible to do on a regular basis, simply due to time-constraints.  Instead of forgetting about these things until they jump right out at you screaming to be cleaned [or someone else asks you to please clean], why not choose a seasonal schedule to do a few of those household chores that don’t require weekly, bi-weekly or monthly attention.
• Are You Afraid of the Dark? (writetolive7.wordpress.com)
  So many of us hide the things that most need to be shared. Regrets. Mistakes. Shame. I’ve kept many of my memories, experiences that I fear to relive, hidden beneath a blanket of shadows. Over the months and years, they’ve gathered dust. Like a dark basement, I’ve been terrified to venture back there, afraid that they’d jump out at me when I wasn’t ready to see them again. I’ve always been afraid of the dark, afraid of being blind to what’s coming my way.
  +
  the less scared I am of my own mind, of myself. The more I visit them, the less power those memories have over me. The more I wander through the darkness, the more I know about what waits there, the more light that is shed on those things that used to frighten me.
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• Spring (darkcargo.com)
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  Nearer at hand, birds and butterflies have come out to play in the sun, finally believing, perhaps, that the earlier daffodils were not such shameless teases after all, and that Spring has finally come.

What is life?

What is life?

 Our answer to this question will, to some extent, depend on what is on our mind when we are asked.
 Life has physical, emotional, relational and spiritual aspects and each of these will have an influence on our answer. Think about it for a moment. What does it mean to you, right now, to be alive?

 Is it enough to know that you are breathing, or must there be more, and if so, what more?

 What do people mean when they say,

 ‘I’m not living, I’m just existing’.

Still-Life with a Skull, vanitas painting. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As human beings, made in the image of God, our life is uniquely different from that of plants and other animals. How does this difference show in our daily lives? Surely the essence of our life is in the fact that we are made for eternity. Though eternity does not come straight unto us. When we die our life shall come to an end and everything of us shall decay or come to ashes in the incinerator.

At the moment of our death it will be to late to change anything. Than we will be to late to change direction or to take an other path. We shall be able to face death in peace when we do know we have lived according to the wishes of the Most High. Those who did not want to accept there is a God Creator of heaven and earth should in a way not be afraid either, but with many of them we notice they fear death. Why?

Those who believe in other things than described in the Bible may be taken by fear, because when they believe in false gods and in false beings like certain demons and devils and places of torture, the could have reason to be afraid.

Those who know the Bible do know that when we live it is important to treat all living organisms with respect, because they all are a creation of the Most High Elohim. And all creation of God, be it humans or animals shall come to the same end — humans die, animals die. also plants shall have there time of growing and flowering, but afterwards they will die and decay.
 We all breathe the same air. So there’s really no advantage in being human. None. Everything’s smoke. We all end up in the same place — we all came from dust, we all end up as dust. We as the living should at least know something, even if it’s only that we’re going to die. But the dead know nothing and get nothing. They’re a minus that no one remembers.

“19 after all, the same things that happen to people happen to animals, the very same thing—just as the one dies, so does the other. yes, their breath is the same; so that humans are no better than animals; since nothing matters, anyway. 20 they all go to the same place; they all come from dust, and they all return to dust.” (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 CJB)

 “for the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; there is no longer any reward for them, because all memory of them is lost.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5 CJB)

When we live it is the time to make the right choices. In life it is the time given us by the Creator to make something if our 'being' 'our soul'. The 'soul' is not something extra special in our material form, it is our total being that can breath and as soon as we stop breathing we shall be considered to be part of the dead.
Therefore we better take life as it comes our way and whatever turns up, we better grab it and do it. And heartily! This is your last and only chance at it, For there’s neither work to do nor thoughts to think In the company of the dead, where you’re most certainly headed. When more people would read the Bible they would know that we are just mere humans who don’t have what it takes when they die, their projects die with them.

 “whatever task comes your way to do, do it with all your strength; because in sh’ol, where you will go, there is neither working nor planning, neither knowledge nor wisdom.” (Ecclesiastes 9:10 CJB)

 “when they breathe their last, they return to dust; on that very day all their plans are gone.” (Psalms 146:4 CJB)

So, why are atheists afraid when they die or why should believers be afraid when they die? the non-believer knows when he dies it shall be finished 'and that is it'. why should he worry when he knows the outcome of death?

And why should a believer worry. When he dies and becomes dust like everybody, why should he worry? By death we have paid the penalty for our sins. 

But those who believe in Christ Jesus, the son of God, who died (whilst God can not die) and was resurrected from death and taken out of the dead, they know they can find an example in what God did with Christ Jesus and can do with us. Believers in Christ also do know he was lower than angels, but was made higher by his Father, Who is, was, and shall always be the Most High. Believers trust that God took Jesus, the son of man, with Him in heaven, to sit at His right hand to become a mediator between man and God.

“he gave him no inheritance in it, not even space for one foot; yet he promised to give it to him as a possession and to his descendants after him, even though at the time he was childless.” (Acts 7:5 CJB)

 “for god is one; and there is but one mediator between god and humanity, Yeshua the Messiah, himself human,” (1 Timothy 2:5 CJB)

Yes, today we have a human preceding by God. He can talk for us and be our advocate, so that when Jesus shall return to the earth to judge the living and the dead, we would have a chance to become rightly judged and either to be placed by the living or by the dead, either to be allowed to enter the gate of the KiIngdom of God or to fall into the category for the Second death.
Than there shall come an end to death.

“he will swallow up death forever. ADONAI ELOHIM will wipe away the tears from every face, and he will remove from all the earth the disgrace his people suffer. for ADONAI has spoken.” (Isaiah 25:8 CJB)

“for what one earns from sin is death; but eternal life is what one receives as a free gift from god, in union with the Messiah Yeshua, our lord.” (Romans 6:23 CJB)

 “21 for since death came through a man, also the resurrection of the dead has come through a man. 22 for just as in connection with adam all die, so in connection with the Messiah all will be made alive. 23 but each in his own order: the Messiah is the firstfruits; then those who belong to the Messiah, at the time of his coming; 24 then the culmination, when he hands over the kingdom to god the father, after having put an end to every rulership, yes, to every authority and power. 25 for he has to rule until he puts all his enemies under his feet. 26 the last enemy to be done away with will be death,” (1 Corinthians 15:21-26 CJB)

“he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. there will no longer be any death; and there will no longer be any mourning, crying or pain; because the old order has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4 CJB)

So those who have faith in Christ do not have to worry when they die, as long as they made their best of their life.

What we become is the reality of what it means to us to be alive today. So, after all this, the question remains, what is life?

 I like the answer I read recently which twists a well known saying.

 ‘Life is doing what comes supernaturally.’ Let’s live!

Cover of Yes

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Please do read also:

1. Cosmos creator and human destiny
2. Choices
3. Always a choice 
4. We have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace 
5. A person is limited only by the thoughts that he chooses
6. Science, belief, denial and visibility 1
7. Science, belief, denial and visibility 2
8. Choose you this day whom ye will serve 
9. It is a free will choice 
10. For those who make other choices
11. Dying or not
12. What happens when we die?
13. The Soul confronted with Death
14. Dead and after
15. Destination of righteous
16. Destination of the earth
17. Sheol or the grave
18. Soul
19. The Soul not a ghost
20. Is there an Immortal soul
21. Human Nature: What does the Bible teach?
22. Immortality, eternality – onsterfelijkheid, eeuwigheid
23. How are the dead?
24. The soul has no rainbow if the eyes have no tears
25. Let not sin reign in your mortal body
26. We will all be changed

 +++

Find also of interest:

Never Take Resources For Granted!

The Vital Social Status versus The Vital Social Necessities

Choose A Positive Influence In Life

Beautiful Life…

 

Related articles

• Golden Brass Heavens (euthetoschurch.wordpress.com)
  20 All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust. 21 Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast descends downward to the earth? 22 I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be happy in his activities, for that is his lot. For who will bring him to see what will occur after him? (Eccl 3:20-22 NASU)
  +
  The author is not, obviously, saying that we are no better than animals so let’s live like one: the derision taken to mean let man live by impulse and appetite where reflection and meditation are non-essential to the nature and exercise of acquisition: get, consume, profit, exploit, and exalt, to name a few. The question, when seriously contemplated, demands pause. For, it is not the precept of worldliness that the text in whole and in part recommends; which can be understood as living for self: self-pleasures, self-will, and self-status. The question remains for mankind to find an answer as to what becomes of us when we die? Who will tell us what comes hereafter? This is echoed from ancient times and is a recurrent theme in all humanity.
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• Lessons and Questions as of 16 January 2014 (solitaryreminiscence.wordpress.com)
  Everyone is created the same in the image of God, no one is better than another.
  +
  What goes around comes back around. Never go too far with your words, you cannot take them back, and you’re never always right.
  +
  What area in life, and in career can I give my heart and life to?
• Don't fool yourself (dailywordfromthelord.wordpress.com)
  Being deceived by others may be horrific, but what’s even worse is self deception. We then have to ask ourselves, “Was I deceived by the other person or did I choose to ignore the truth?” Also, deception is usually more about us than it is the other person, e.g., what’s inside us, what’s important to us, our desires/lusts vs. God’s best for us, etc. And concerning lusts, they are not always sexual, because people lust for many things such as fame, wealth, money, attention or prestige.
• Life & Light (livinginlibertyblog.wordpress.com) says rightly:"The animals were all created and instantly alive while man was made from the dust as an inanimate being. God then breathed into man the breath of life and man became a living soul." but continues wrongly with saying that "John is saying that this breath was given by Jesus. This breath is the eternal nature that all mankind has.". It was Jehovah God Who gave breath in the nostrils of man. Jesus was not born yet. The breath in man is also not eternal. Like Jesus we have no breath before we are born and when we die breath goes out of our body to be non-existent as breath but to be just any air which is also around every human and other being. Breath is created by the action of breathing. When we come onto this world we have to learn to breath and when we die we just stop breathing, and then there would be no breath any more for us. Life will be finished.
• FFOZ TV Review: Resurrection (mymorningmeditations.com)
  In Jewish thought the ultimate expression of God’s power is the resurrection of the dead, and the ultimate resurrection was that of Jesus himself.
  +Jesus himself taught that he had to die and be resurrected three days later, but the fact that at hearing this Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked him, shows us that even Peter didn’t understand the meaning of Messiah’s death and resurrection. It must not have been an obvious belief common among Jewish people of that day (and it’s also not a belief in Judaism in our age). Peter certainly knew Jesus was the Messiah (see Matthew 16:16) so it wasn’t a matter of lack of faith or lack of knowledge. Even in the days of Jesus on earth, the death and resurrection of the Messiah was a great mystery.
• Something To Think About 2 (candilynn1983.wordpress.com)
  We no longer live under the Old Testament; we live under the New Testament. We live after Jesus came to earth, was crucified, rose from the dead, and ascended to Heaven to go prepare a place for us, and He Will Come Again. The Old Testament is before Christ. The New Testament is from Christ’s birth and after. It has prophecies that are going to come to pass, when, who knows, but they will.
• Outreach With Yeshuwah by Frank Ketoret - Chapter Twelve (frankmaxketoret.wordpress.com)
    The Father wants us to know life in his Son Yeshua more than we do.  So he has given us instruction.
  +
  “The last step up we need to know, is ‘K’ for Kapparah (Atonement).  Have you heard about the atonement of Yeshua’s execution and sacrifice for us as the Lamb of God?”
  “Yes of course I have.  I think the whole world knows about him and what happened to him.  But not everyone can believe it, like we do.”  She said.
  
• Rewritten (unknowngodjournal.wordpress.com)
  The Bible is a book full of stories in which God writes a final scene and beauty arises from pain. And the scenes God writes are pretty unbelievable. Wicked sons are welcomed home with feasts, prostitutes become prophet’s wives, and Christ’s murderers inherit the kingdom of heaven. It all sounds pretty unbelievable and maybe even comical. It’s in these moments, though, that God’s character is made most evident. Because he saves us through our tragedy.
• Hope for the Dead - The Resurrection (byronfliwalker.wordpress.com)
  The apostles firmly believed in the resurrection of the dead. Why? For at least two reasons. First, their hope was primarily based on this fact: Jesus himself had been raised from the dead. The apostles—and “more than 500 brothers at one time”—saw the resurrected Jesus. (1 Corinthians 15:6) Additionally, Jesus’ resurrection was widely attested to and accepted, as the four Gospels show.—Matthew 27:62–28:20; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-53; John 20:1–21:25.

Being religious has benefits even in this life

Kenneth Gilmore 27 augustus 14:37 We've heard the claim 'religion poisons everything' ad nauseum. Turns out that being religious has benefits even in this life. Via David Bailey at Science Meets Religion: A 1999 study, which involved a nine-year follow-up analysis of 21,000 American adults, found that religious attendance of at least once per week resulted in seven additional years of life expectancy. What’s more, this effect mostly remained in place even after adjusting for various social factors and health behaviors [Hummer1999]. A 1997 study of 5286 weekly church attendees in Alameda County, California found that these persons were 25% less likely to die than infrequent church attendees. These results were attributed in part to better health practices, expanded social involvement, exercising more, and remaining married longer [Strawbridge1997]. In a 1998 study of 1931 elderly adults (55 years and older), weekly church attendees experienced the lowest rates of mortality in the study group, while non-attendees experienced the highest rates. This study also showed that volunteer work in addition to church attendance contributed to even longer life expectancy [Oman1998]. A 1999 study of 4000 seniors (64 years and older) found that the death hazard was 46% lower for frequent church attendees, compared with infrequent church attendees. As noted in other studies, frequent church attendees were physically healthier, had better social support, and displayed a set of healthier lifestyle behaviors [Koenig1999]. Ogden Utah Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Photo credit: Wikipedia) A 2004 study comparing Utah residents who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) with those who are not LDS confirmed, not surprisingly, that the LDS members had much lower rates of tobacco, alcohol and drug usage than the non-LDS group, since these substances are strongly discouraged by the Church. The study found that life expectancy was 77.3 years for LDS males versus 70.0 years for non-LDS males, and 82.2 years for LDS females versus 76.4 for non-LDS females. Interestingly, however, the study noted that differences in rates of tobacco use explains only about 1.5 years of the 7.3 year gap for males, and only 1.2 years of the 5.8 year gap for females. The author suggests that this additional gap may be due to better overall physical health, better social support and other lifestyle practices [Merrill2004]. In an April 2013 New York Times column, Stanford scholar Tanya M. Luhrmann summarized some of these results, and then added her own observations. In evangelical churches she has studied as an anthropologist, she found that people really do look out for one another, showing up with dinner when friends are sick, or simply talking with them when they are unhappy. They are relatively more generous, often in private contributions, when others are in need. She mentioned that when one member of an evangelical group cried at needing a $1500 dental procedure, yet had no money, her friends, many of whom were students with very limited funds, covered the cost by anonymous donations [Luhrmann2013]. Source: http://www.sciencemeetsreligion.org/blog/2013/04/are-there-benefits-to-religious-belief-and-participation/ +++

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Not he who prays most or fasts most is the greatest saint

"There is no state of mind so excellent as that of thankfulness to God.
 It is not he who prays most or fasts most who is the greatest saint in the world.
It is not he who gives most alms or is most eminent for temperance, chastity, or justice.
But it is he who is always thankful to God, who receives everything as an instance of God’s goodness,
and has a heart always ready to praise God for it."
~William Law In Everything Give ThanksTekst
+ Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard, page 141. 

 “Separate creaturely life, as opposed to life in union with God,
is only a life of various appetites, hungers, and wants, and cannot possibly be anything else.
God Himself cannot make a creature to be in itself,
or in its own nature, anything else but a state of emptiness.
The highest life that is natural and creaturely can go no higher than this:
it can only be a bare capacity for goodness
and cannot possibly be a good and happy life
but by the life of God dwelling in it and in union with it.
And this is the two-fold life that, of all necessity,
must be united in every good and happy and perfect creature. “
~William Law
"If you would be a good Christian, there is but one way
– you must live wholly unto God.
You must live according to the wisdom that comes from God.
You must act according to right judgments of the nature and value of things.
You must live in the exercise of holy and heavenly affections.
And you must use all the gifts of God to his praise and glory."

~William Law

English: Photo of William Law (1809—1892) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Leaving behind the lives we have touched.

At the end of life the only important thing we leave behind are the lives we have touched.
Only two interrelated questions matter. How has my life honoured Jesus? Whose life is better in some way, materially, emotionally or spiritually because I have lived? Generally the more we seriously ask ourselves these questions in life the better the answers after death. They are good questions to chat over with God.

Alan Hermann

Chinese depiction of Jesus and the rich man (Mark 10) - 1879, Beijing, China (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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