It's My Thirty-Something Birthday Again!

Wow! Where did the time go. It feels as if time has accelerated at lightning warp speed. Well it's that time again for me... yes, it's my birthday! It happens to be my favorite time of year, because it marks a new beginning for me. As a gift to myself, I have taken a week vacation from work. I deserve it and I've earned it. I thank God everyday that I am employed and that my company offers this benefit every six months. Therefore, I see it as I am getting paid to rest.

On a side note: Almost everyone in the United States takes this company benefit for granted. It seems that everyone feels a sense of entitlement. The truth is that your employer is not required to offer you time off with pay. It is not law. Therefore, you should be grateful that this benefit is available to you and thank God everyday!

Now back to my story. I have been tucking some money away every paycheck to get the hell out of dodge and really wanted to ski the slopes in Iceland. However, I decided to hang on to my dough, you know cash is king! Instead, I granted myself the gift of not having any concept of time and to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I'm using my vacation to cleanse my mind, spirit and home from my past self and replenishing with fresh seeds of inspiration!

It never fails, my mom always gives me the one card that breaks down this strong exterior and make me cry. The following is this years card from my mom. I love you Ma. My mom is awesome!

I Celebrate You

On your birthday, I celebrate you!

On your special day,

I’m thinking of all the wonderful things you are

that bring so much joy to others, including me!

I celebrate your unconquerable spirit,

that lets you meet every challenge

with confidence, enthusiasm and persistence.

I admire your sensitivity.

You see needs that cry out to be met

that no one else sees,

and you meet them,

out of your deep and caring heart,

out of your wisdom,

out of your strength.

I treasure your uniqueness;

There is no one else like you,

and I feel blessed to know

such an extraordinary person.

I appreciate you, respect you,

cherish you, look up to you.

Happy, happy birthday!

May each new birthday

be the best one ever for you;

You deserve it!

By Joanna Fuchs

10 Amazing Quotes by C.S. Lewis

10 Amazing Quotes by C.S. Lewis

1. Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.
   
   
2. Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.
   
   
3. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
   
   
4. Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.
   
   
5. Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
   
   
6. Let's pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere.
   
   
7. Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.
   
   
8. The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
   
   
9. You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.
   
   
10. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.

A Glimpse into the Other Realm

Hi everyone! I want to take a moment to share a beautiful experience I had this past Friday morning.

I spent a good hour snoozing my alarm. At which time, the alarm automatically turns itself off. I had an exhaustive week and told myself 10 more minutes after that fact. I'm pretty sure you too have had those moments you just want to lay there for just 10 more minutes.

This is when I fell into this middle realm. You know when you are not quite asleep, but also not quite awake. I felt something gently nudging me which caused me to wake up in this middle realm. I sat up, yawned and stretched my arms. It was a new day and Friday thankfully.

When I began to focus my eyes, I saw these little children standing in front of me. There were both little boys and little girls. Two little girls were standing directly in front of me with huge smiles on their faces. They were so happy I was awake. One of the little girls began to communicate by using sign language with her left hand. I amazingly understood what she was saying to me. I responded by using sign language too with a huge smile on my face and heart and said, "I love you too." The little girls began to giggle. I asked, "Did I sign correctly? How do you spell 'you'? I always get mixed up with the 'v' and the 'u'." [I should mention that I have never signed before.] One of the little girls grabbed my hand and started showing me the difference between those two letters by moving my fingers to form the symbols.

There was so much love and tranquility in this experience. We shared an amazing brief question and answer moment. It was mainly me curiously asking them questions. Most of it was a personal message for me. I ended by asking in sign language, "How old are you?" They looked back at me puzzled. I asked the question again. One of the little girls replied using sign language, "I don't understand." At first I thought I wasn't signing my question correctly. Then my mundane self treating them as if they were deaf began to mouth the question as if they could read my lips and asked the question again slowly, "How-old-are-you?" The same little girl replied using sign language, "I don't know what that means?"

I truly believe with every fiber of my being that these little children were my guardian angels. They appear as little children, but are actually eternal beings. I honestly believe that they represent the Holy Spirit. They are the ones who play with my hair while I sleep. They are the ones who make me smile when I wake up. They are the ones who push me out the door to get to work on time every morning. They are the ones who hug me when a tear begins to form in my eye. They are the ones who hold me together through the difficult times and don't let me fall apart. All the while, feeling an enormous amount of their (God's) love, peace and incredible joy! Thank you God for this amazing experience and revealing my little guardian angels to me.

God's Power by Joel Osteen part 3 of 3

God's Power by Joel Osteen part 2 of 3

God's Power by Joel Osteen part 1 of 3

This is an amazing message titled, "God's Power" given by Pastor Joel Osteen. There are 3 parts, each segment is approximately 10 minutes. Let it speak to your spirit and receive it. I have typed a transcript of the first 7 minutes of this message for all of my international readers who need to use Babel Fish to translate. Enjoy!

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I want to talk to you about the power that is available to us because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So many people go around feeling weak and defeated, always struggling, always under their circumstances. But God did not create us to become weaklings. He didn't create us to just barely get by and live a mediocre life. NO God created us to live in VICTORY! He created us to rise above every one of our challenges! There is a power that is available to us if we simply learn how to tap into it.

Paul said in Philippians 3:10, my determined purpose is to know Him and the power flowing out of His resurrection. Think about that. The great apostle Paul said, one of the main things I want to understand is the power flowing out of Christ resurrection. We need to realize, that ever since Jesus rose from the dead, there has been a power that is available to us. It's a power to live in victory. It's a power to overcome your challenges. It's a power to accomplish our dreams.

But how do we tap into this power? How do we activate it? Paul explained it a little further in Esphesians 19. He said I pray that you understand the immeasurable, limitless power that is available to those who BELIEVE. Notice that's the KEY. The power is only activated when we believe. In other words, Paul is saying, if we are really going to live in victory, we need to develope a power consciousness. That means, no matter what we go through in life, we know we are VICTORS and NOT victims. We know that we CAN DO all things through Christ.

Friends, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, is on the inside of everyone of you right now. But that power is not going to do you any good unless you start to tap into it. I want to encourage you today to make a decision that you are going to start living with more BOLDNESS, start expecting good things, start casting down all of those old negative thoughts of fear and worry. You were NOT created to be a weakling! You are a CAN DO person. God has filled you with His CAN DO power. That means that you CAN DO what you need to do. You can overcome your past. You can forgive the people that have hurt you. You can stand strong in difficult times. You are filled with resurrection power.

You say Joel I'm having so many problems and the devil is always after me, my children won't do right, my finances aren't good, I'm just so discouraged. No you've got to get out of that big defeated mentality and start tapping into the power! The first thing you have to do is BELIEVE that you have it. If you'll start having a VICTOR mentality, instead of a victim mentality, then when those negative things come against you, instead of getting all defeated, no you'll RISE UP and say, "greater is He who is in me then he who is in the world." When you do that, you are tapping into that power.

If you start tapping into this power, instead of the devil always having you on the run, you'll have him on the run. Like that old song says, you'll have the devil in the phone booth dialing 911. Friends, you are CAN DO people. You are filled with God's Supernatural power. Well you say, Joel I just don't feel powerful. No it doesn't matter how you feel. It matters what you believe. You say, well Joel, you just don't know who I am. I've made lot's of mistakes. No, it's not because of who you are, it's because of WHOSE you are. You're a child of the most High God. You are made in His image. You've got His blood flowing through your veins.

When you start tapping into this power and living with confidence, speaking words of faith over your life, do you know that ALL THE FORCES OF HEAVEN will come and back you up! The bible says, when you even whisper the name of Jesus ALL the demons tremble. When you walk in authority, you remind them of their eternal defeat. You remind them of what Jesus did a little over 2,000 years ago. Really in the spiritual world the forces of darkness don't see you, they see the blood that covers you. They know who is backing you up!

7 Powerful Quotes by Alexander Hamilton

7 Powerful Quotes by Alexander Hamilton

1. The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and, however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true to fact. The people are turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine right.
   
   
2. Real firmness is good for anything; strut is good for nothing.
   
   
3. Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal.
   
   
4. In the general course of human nature, A power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will.
   
   
5. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.
   
   
6. I never expect to see a perfect work from an imperfect man.
   
   
7. A promise must never be broken.
   
   

BONUS

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man WILL NOT conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

BONUS BONUS

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can NEVER be erased.